Hello fellow learning experience designer,
Are you running on coffee, countdowns, and sheer willpower?
You’re not alone.
It’s that time of year when every teacher lounge conversation starts with “How many days left?” and ends with “I’m so tired I might laminate my face.” And after months of planning, prepping, and powering through, you might feel like the only thing holding your class together is your stubborn refusal to give up.
But here’s the twist: What if the best move you could make right now is stepping back?
Seriously. These last few weeks don’t have to be a slog of review packets and behavior management. They can actually be the spark that sets the tone for next year.
Luna Rey, a first-year teacher at a Title I school, was where you are now. Nothing she tried -worksheets, writing prompts, even creative activities could light a fire in her classroom. Until she flipped the script and asked her students what they wanted to learn. Within a week, lunch breaks turned into project labs. Students coded games, built websites, launched mini campaigns, and repaired broken tech. The classroom came alive because they owned the learning.
That’s the power of shifting from Teacher-Designed – – – -> to Co-Designed Learning.
You don’t need to revamp your entire curriculum. Just try one of these:
- Set a broad prompt: Instead of assigning a final unit, pose a challenge like: “What do you want others to understand about this topic?” A science teacher in Taiwan did this and got everything from climate PSAs to sketch-notes turned into classroom posters.
- Offer formats: Presentations, podcasts, zines, posters, short videos. Let students pick their medium. One group made a TikTok-style video about Ancient Greek democracy. Another created a board game to teach geometry basics.
- Co-plan with a simple chart: Use a whiteboard with three columns: Topics | Interests | Project Ideas. Fill the first with curriculum goals, the second with student passions, then brainstorm what could connect the two. “Ancient Civilizations” and “Fashion” became a student-designed slide deck of Mesopotamian-inspired outfits.
Let them pitch.
Give students a short form: What’s your idea? What will you create? How does it connect to what we’ve learned?
You’ll be shocked by how seriously they take it once they realize the learning is theirs.
You’ve led them from day one.
Why not let them lead the way out?
This isn’t about giving up control. It’s about giving students a chance to show what they’ve truly learned and surprising yourself in the process.
So as you wrap up this wild ride of a year, consider this:What if your final weeks weren’t about finishing strong…
but about letting your students take the mic?
Your [co] learning experience designer,
P.S. Want to get your ‘shift’ together this Summer?
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