Couch Scholar
Professional Learning Experience

Start Where You Are

Abbott Elementary: Leading Change From the Ground Up.

You'll learn to start with a small, visible change, bring experienced colleagues in rather than around, work with the resources you already have, anticipate side effects, and know when a problem needs more than a small win. You'll leave with a plan for one small win, or a clearer insight into how you approach change.

Abbott Elementary

How do you make real improvements when you have little money, no formal authority and colleagues who have seen plenty of good ideas fail?

You'll be able to:

  • Turn a big frustration into a small, concrete change that people can see and that teaches you what the bigger change needs.
  • Treat skeptical, experienced colleagues as sources of knowledge and allies rather than obstacles to work around.
  • Find the resources, partners and routes already available, and raise the idea with the right people in the right way.
  • Ask who a change might leave out or burden, and adjust before or after launching.
  • Plan ground-up change that doesn't depend on one person's unlimited energy.

You'll leave with: A plan for one small win, or a clearer insight into how you lead change.

No need to have seen it first.

Begin the experience

You don't need to have seen the show. Choose "I haven't watched" to work from the premise and two short stories.

Abbott Elementary

Choose whether to discuss the show or work from the premise and two short stories.

I haven't watched

The premise and two short stories.

You don't need to have seen the show. We'll work from the premise, two short stories from it, and hypotheticals clearly labeled as such.

Begin with I haven't watched

I've watched

All six approved moments are open.

We'll discuss approved moments from the show without quoting it.

Begin with I've watched

You can change stories while you are still in Observe. After that, your chosen story stays with you for the rest of the experience.

The question at the center

How do you make real improvements when you have little money, no formal authority and colleagues who have seen plenty of good ideas fail?

Why it matters

At Abbott Elementary, a public school in Philadelphia, the teachers rarely have the supplies, staff or support they need. Janine Teagues, an endlessly optimistic second-grade teacher, keeps trying to fix things, sometimes brilliantly and sometimes disastrously. Veteran teachers Barbara Howard and Melissa Schemmenti have seen it all and know how to get things done quietly. Their principal, Ava Coleman, is more interested in herself than in the school, at least at first. We treat the show as a case study in making change from the ground up, and you don't need to have seen it.

The Learning Everywhere Framework™

Observe → Connect → Analyze → Apply → Reflect

  1. 1

    Observe: How Things Get Done at Abbott

  2. 2

    Connect: Your Own Corner

  3. 3

    Analyze: Why Good Ideas Stall, and How They Spread

  4. 4

    Apply: My Small Win Plan or My Change Insight

  5. 5

    Reflect: Starting Where You Are

Potato, the Couch Scholar AI learning coach

Potato™, your learning coach

Potato is warm, funny and practical. It laughs with the characters, never at the school, never quotes the show, takes no position on education policy, and keeps your own words central in Apply and Reflect.

What you'll walk away with

  • Turn a big frustration into a small, concrete change that people can see and that teaches you what the bigger change needs.
  • Treat skeptical, experienced colleagues as sources of knowledge and allies rather than obstacles to work around.
  • Find the resources, partners and routes already available, and raise the idea with the right people in the right way.
  • Ask who a change might leave out or burden, and adjust before or after launching.
  • Plan ground-up change that doesn't depend on one person's unlimited energy.
Begin the experience