ABOUT
mission
Grounded Teaching
We are co-imagining a regenerative future through education, helping educators of all kinds un-learn toxic patterns, receive inspiration from living systems, and grow into their unique role as a human educator.
We are holding the need for educational experiences that help humans thrive as a living part of a living system, created by unique, creative, empowered educators.
our future
who
We work with all types of educators: public school teachers, private school teachers, administrators, micro-school teachers and organizers, homeschool parents, farm school teachers, outdoor educators, college professors, and more. If you have the responsibility of educating folks, we're talking about you.
how
We do this through our (free!) co-creative community for teachers called We Are Verbs, the Regenerative Ed podcast, our online workshops and courses, and personalized services like professional development sessions, keynote speeches, and consulting.
What do folks have to say?
real reviews
meaning-making
"This program was a wonderful introduction into sustainable, holistic, and human models of education.
Sarah and Jess were fantastic and encouraged all thoughts, ideas, and connections we made as learners. They fostered a supportive environment with various ways to access the material."
- S.A.
creative thinking
“This program provided unique benefits to me as an autistic adult interested in helping to make education more universally accessible for all learners.
It not only helped me clarify a direction for my future work in this area, but it gave me space to engage in much needed conversations that facilitated my ongoing social-cultural-linguistic development and helped me engage in more playful and creative ways of thinking overall.
- S. W.
it's simple
"Not only was it valuable for myself, but I am now able to share this information in an easy to understand and accessible ways to my students and colleagues"
- Stephanie
about the money $$
We Are Verbs, our educator community, is free to join. This includes blog resources, special podcasts by Sarah, Book Club Meetings, Community Skillshares, and more. We happily accept one-time or recurring donations.
Our Newsletter is free to join and contains helpful nuggets for your day-to-day teaching as well as uplifting words, resources, and strategies.
Our speaking and consulting services for organizations help support the free/donations services we offer for individual educators. To hear more about speaking or consulting, download this PDF.
We reasonably price our online workshops, online courses, and printable resources for individual educators. If any workshop feels inaccessible, we do offer a number of scholarships for each workshop. Please reach out.
As a small organization, we practice budgeting with our carefully considered "enough number". Once revenue hits our "enough number", the remainder goes to cleaner air, water, soil, and/or our local or online communities working towards healing, reparations, or scholarships. This transformational practice honestly keeps our heads on straight as a small business. It encourages a more immediate distribution of our surplus as a gift instead of hoarding it, and it allows us to practice trust. If we are truly building something useful, the resources will come again.
Grounded Teaching is committed to being an accessible entry point into a future based on regeneration, not extraction & scarcity.
Share Our Work
If you like what we do here and want to support us, please share our work. Send your colleagues a link to a resource, invite them to join We Are Verbs, share a specific Regenerative Ed Podcast episode, bring up our name in conversation about potential resources or speakers.
Pull up an email or text message right now and share our work with someone who might benefit, or write a review on the Regenerative Ed Podcasts wherever you get your pods. It's more helpful than you think. Thank you!
The podcast, WAV community, blog resources, newsletter are all offered for free / by donation. We deeply enjoy putting this work together. It's helpful for us, ourselves, to create, and we regularly hear that it's helpful for you.
Please help us create this work and keep it accessible by considering a one-time donation. It not only helps financially. This work goes against the grain and can be exhausting. You might be surprised at the boost of mental/emotional/social support seeing even the smallest donation coming in brings. Thank you!
how to support this work
like what we're about?
donate here
One Time Donation
A significant way of sustaining our work is through recurring donations we can count on. You can donate any amount monthly or quarterly here, and you can easily change your donation amount at any time.
Recurring Donation
donate here
Enrolling in paid online workshops or courses and/or hiring us to give a keynote, workshop, or consulting services for your organization helps us pay for the free content or scholarships available for individual educators. It's reciprocity at it's finest, and it's how we've based our business model. Reach out!
workshops
Work With Us
services
Grounded Teaching recognizes the interconnectedness of regenerative systems thinking. Established in 2019, we've been offering regenerative education learning experiences to hundreds of teachers. The fact of the matter is, though, it's really hard to put practices into practice when you're operating in an oppressive mechanical system.
We're re-thinking how time is spent and culture is cultivated in our schools. Real challenges are among us: our planet is on fire, our communities are divided, our mental health is suffering, and our lifespan (let alone healthspan) is decreasing for the first generation in history.
But, the reality is: we know if we have space for connection and imagination, if we are able to find the encouraging stories and learn to tell them, we all have the power to change our lives and our work.
our Story
co-founder
Sarah
Based in Cleveland, Sarah brings a deep experience of teaching, coaching, & training, having worked with over a thousand teachers and leaders in 50+ schools across the USA.
A National-Board Certified ELA teacher with a Master's degree in Education, Sarah has taught and coached thousands of students, teachers, and school leaders over the past 18 years in her career in education. She was an advisor on the Federal DOE working group for virtual instruction during the pandemic, was a Keynote speaker at Wharton School of Education, and has worked closely with over 40 districts and charter networks in the US to improve instruction, leadership, community engagement, and vertical alignment.
From that birds-eye view, it was easy for Sarah to see that we're missing the opportunity for education to be a force for a regenerative future.
Sarah's love for life comes through in all of her work, including her work in co-founding a local non-profit focused on regeneration, her training in permaculture design, health coaching, as well as her own practices of textile art, farming, and, most importantly: being a mom.
co-founder
Jess
Based in Cleveland, Jess is a National Board Certified high school English teacher, yoga teacher, community activist, and herbalist
Going into her 17th year in the classroom, Jess has transformed her English classroom into a regenerative ed workspace for her students and is pushing the limits to see what is possible in one classroom. She brings in her love and stewardship of all living beings, as well as her interest in permaculture, plants, yoga and breathwork, to coach her students toward leading lives full of meaning. Jess created the EdShed program for place-based, asset-informed education.
Jess has also co-founded a non-profit to create regenerative systems for local textiles and works closely with farmers, researchers, and students to emphasize local futures.
Jess has also co-founded a non-profit to create regenerative systems for local textiles and works closely with farmers, researchers, and students to emphasize local futures.
