Our Approach

Why choose CreatED?

CreatED’s approach to learning starts with the unique students and teachers we serve. Based on their particular students’ needs, the teachers we work with set the goals they want to achieve and we provide the support they need to get there. This method differs from a top-down approach in which administrators or other leadership set the goals–we want teachers to buy into the work because they are excited about what they are working toward, just like the learning experiences we hope they create for their students.

We focus on skills before content, considering what students should be able to do as a result of a learning experience first and foremost. The content selected as a vehicle for those skills is important, but it’s what we want students to be able to do with it that guides the design of an activity, lesson, unit, and curriculum as a whole. In coaching, professional development, curriculum writing, and game development, skills are the end goal from which everything is built.

Though there are tests students must take, none of our work will center them. In our experience, students are apt to forget the skills or content that have been drilled not only in the long term, but by the time they sit down for the test they were prepping for in the first place. We know from experience that students who learn in joyful, engaging, skill-based ways will remember far more and will be more equipped to handle anything they don’t remember when taking a test. We can help you choose skills and content that will serve students well when it comes time to take an exam and, most importantly, when they leave school to take on the world.

Games are a key way CreatED creates joyful and memorable learning experiences focused on skill-building. Games elicit emotions and mimic real-world experiences, helping students encode their learning (both skill & content) in their long-term memories. They are used frequently at the elementary level, but tend to fall by the wayside as students enter middle and high school. CreatED seeks to bring games back to the forefront for older students; games do not lose their efficacy as students age. Instead, they offer even more opportunities for complex skill-building and learning challenging content.

We focus on fostering learning environments that welcome and support all students’ identities. All our work is informed by a culturally responsive and sustaining education (CRSE) lens, and we bring considerable experience with students with learning differences and ENL students to the table. CreatED was founded by a queer, trans non-binary person, and that personal experience shapes our work. We strive to support teachers in collaboration with their students to create learning environments that create space for students’ whole selves, and to design games and curriculum that equip students to create those spaces for and with others in the future.