teacher nerds, unite!
Teacher nerds design instruction so students connect to the content, their work, and each other.
We know school can be a source of meaning, vitality, and community in students’ lives.
We appreciate the elegance of a well-designed system and the artistry it takes to create one.
We work well alone but burst into bloom when we find each other.
We’re here for our students and clear on our values.
We’re teacher nerds.
nerdy workshops
design for engagement
Learn strategies that invite and enable students to connect authentically with the content, their work, and each other.
design for alignment
Create units that help students see each of their actions as a meaningful step toward a learning goal that matters.
design for belonging
Structure learning so students feel seen, heard, affirmed in their identities, appreciated for their strengths, and supported during their struggles.
Make any learning task an opportunity for students to discover who they are, choose how they want to live, and become the people they want to be.
sustaining the nerdery
You know that while a one-and-done workshop can be helpful, it often doesn’t lead to deep, widespread, or lasting learning. We can work with you to develop a customized long-term professional learning plan that aligns with your school’s mission, taps into in-house strengths, and equips teachers with the skills and support they need to implement new tools and strategies with their students. Let us help you create a sustainable and affirming professional learning culture.
book selection
Create an inclusive process and values-based criteria for choosing a book so everyone who reads it will find it stimulating, relevant, and resonant.
design labs
Create usable applications of the book’s strategies—perhaps a lesson, assignment, or handout—within a playful, low-stakes, supportive environment.
values activation
Clarify how the book itself, the work of using it, and the relationships built in the process of studying it connect to the things participants find important.
intervision
Colleagues observe one another using one of the book’s practices so everyone has a chance to both offer and receive responsive feedback.
inquiry groups
Discuss a book using questions that help teachers understand the book more fully, imagine ways to use its ideas, and connect it to school priorities.
assessment
Determine how to more fully, frequently, and sustainably achieve positive outcomes and align practices with individual and collective values.
simulations
Experience one of the book’s practices as a student in order to learn how it works, imagine classroom applications, and anticipate challenges.
caretaking
Amplify those who have excelled, support those who have struggled, maintain collaborative relationships, and incorporate key practices into evaluations.
nerdy books
These books aren’t for teachers who need to be told WHY school should be a source of meaning, vitality, and community in students’ lives. They’re for teachers who want to learn HOW to design instruction that invites and enables their students do fulfilling work, build fulfilling relationships, and live fulfilling lives—not only in the future, but right now.
meet the teacher nerd
I‘m Lauren Porosoff. I was a teacher for 18 years, most recently at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York. I‘ve taught the 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 7th grades, mostly in English and history, and I‘ve also served as a DEI coordinator, a grade dean, and a leader of curricular initiatives.
Now that I no longer have a classroom or a student roster, I don‘t know what to call my job. I usually say “educational consultant,” but that never sounds right for someone introverted and awkward who doesn‘t even own a hairdryer. But regardless of what I call my job, I see a difference between our jobs in education and our work—and my work in education has always been about making school a source of meaning and vitality and community in the lives of students and teachers.
Informed by my classroom experience and evidence-based psychological science, I develop tools and protocols that transform the psychological experience of school. I‘ve developed applications in instructional design, social-emotional learning, professional development, and anti-bias action. I‘ve chosen to focus on instructional design, because meaningful learning is an ideal context for students to figure out how they want to relate to themselves, each other, and the systems in which they participate.
This is starting to make me sound cooler than I am. I‘m not cool. I‘m a suburban Gen-X mom who likes gardening, cooking, hiking, bingeing high-concept sci-fi shows, and ordering the weirdest thing on the menu. Most of all, I like hanging out with my friend Laurie or my friend Tas or my husband Jonathan and talking about teaching. More specifically, talking about designing instruction so students connect with the content, their work, and each other. That makes me a teacher nerd.
contact me
Let‘s nerd out together.