Toddle - Your Teaching Partner

Designing Meaningful Growth through Learning and Engagement

I think roles in learning and engagement require the ability to constantly zoom in and zoom out.

I started in the classroom, which is the most zoomed-in experience. You are deeply focused on your students, your curriculum, and what will move learning forward tomorrow.

Stepping into school leadership required zooming out. I began thinking more about coherence across classrooms, aligning curriculum to strategic priorities and supporting teams rather than just individual learners.

In my current role, I’ve had the opportunity to zoom out even further. I’m no longer focused on a single school, but on patterns across schools. I look for national and international trends, identify emerging challenges, and design experiences that give educators and leaders a space to think, test idea and move their practice forward.

Across all of these levels, the constant is empathetic design. It’s about putting yourself in the shoes of your audience and asking: what is the next most useful step for them? Not what is most impressive or comprehensive, but what will actually move the needle.

That mindset has shaped how I design development experiences. I focus on creating spaces that are grounded in real challenges, immediately applicable and give educators a sense of momentum in their work.

How Workplace Learning and Engagement Are Evolving

I think the biggest shift is that people expect more from their work than they used to.

It’s no longer about gritting your teeth and getting through the day. People are looking for purpose, a sense of belonging, and alignment with their values. That has shifted the responsibility onto organizations to design from that starting point: Connection, meaning and shared purpose.

In education, this is especially true. Educators are deeply empathetic and mission-driven. They want to make a difference. But historically, there hasn’t always been a healthy boundary between that sense of purpose and the demands of the job. The work can easily become all-consuming, especially given the current pace of change and that’s where we see burnout.

“If you wait until everything is polished or perfect, you miss the opportunity to learn in public and to connect with others along the way.”

So I think the real shift is this tension leaders have to navigate. On one hand, there’s a need to honor the whole person, creating space for sustainability, balance and well-being. On the other, there’s still an urgency to move important work forward.

The organizations that are getting this right are being much more intentional. They’re prioritizing fewer, more meaningful initiatives, building genuine buy-in, and moving away from purely top-down approaches. Engagement today isn’t something you mandate, it’s something you design for.

Bridging Performance and Personal Growth

One idea that has really shaped my thinking comes from Trevor Mackenzie, who says, “model the model.”

In schools, we ask teachers to do this every day. They are balancing clear learning goals with deep personalization for students. I think organizations should be doing the same for their teams.

For me, it comes down to two things.

First, clarity of goals. You have to be incredibly clear about what matters most. You can’t do everything everywhere all at once. Strong organizations identify a small number of strategic priorities that are meaningful enough to sustain deep work over time, like improving student engagement or strengthening a culture of belonging.

Second, flexibility within those goals. That’s where individual growth comes in. Real change happens when people feel a sense of curiosity and ownership. Within a shared priority, there should be multiple entry points for exploration.

For example, if the focus is student engagement, one team might explore how to help students ask better questions, while another might focus on strengthening home–school connections. The goal is shared, but the pathways are personalized.

That balance, tight on the “what,” loose on the “how,” allows organizations to move forward strategically while still honoring the agency and growth of individuals.

Creating a Culture of Learning, Growth, and Collaboration

One of the most important leadership lessons I’ve learned is that people need their core needs met before they can truly grow.

If someone feels like their job is at risk when they make a mistake, if they’re constantly exhausted, or if they don’t have time to do their work, let alone reflect on it, it’s unrealistic to expect meaningful learning or collaboration. Psychological safety, time and trust aren’t nice-to-haves; they’re the foundation.

From there, culture has to be intentionally designed. It doesn’t happen by accident.

The most effective leaders I’ve worked with regularly ask: what kind of organization do we want to be for the adults in this building? We often have a clear vision for students, but less clarity about the experience we’re creating for teachers, leaders, and staff.

When that adult culture is aligned, when people feel safe, supported, and part of something meaningful, you start to see continuous learning and collaboration happen more naturally. It becomes part of how the organization operates, not something extra you’re asking people to do.

From Passion to Profession in Learning and Engagement

My biggest advice is simple: share your process.

There will always be someone five years ahead of you and someone six months behind you. If you wait until everything is polished or perfect, you miss the opportunity to learn in public and to connect with others along the way.

Share what you’re learning. Share the questions you’re asking. Share what’s working and what’s not.

When you do that consistently and authentically, a few things start to happen. You find your people. You refine your voice. And you begin to understand what you uniquely have to offer.

It can feel uncomfortable at first, but it’s one of the most powerful ways to grow in this field.

For me, it started with posting free resources for teachers and leaders, materials I was already creating to make team meetings more meaningful. I shared them on platforms like Twitter and in educator communities on Facebook.

That visibility is ultimately what led to my role at Toddle. They saw the work I was doing to support educators and gave me a platform to scale that impact.

Today, that’s evolved into hosting a podcast, designing global learning experiences, running a community for academic leaders and working on my first book.

So I always come back to the same idea: find your people, share generously and trust that the right doors will open.