Teach Different ^TM

We connect educators from around the world to master the powerful art and science of conversations. Our proprietary Teach Different Conversation Method and Teach Different Community of Educators allow teachers and school leaders to hone their approach to conversations in an effort to build stronger relationships, fight polarization, and experience the joy of making a difference in someone’s life.

Be a Difference Maker.

Great conversations are more than just entertaining moments with friends. They are sparks for critical thinking, connection, and compassion in classrooms. Harness the human-to-human impact of conversations to maximize the joy and fulfillment of teaching while becoming the educator your students will remember – because you taught differently.

Keep Students Engaged

Challenge young learners with impactful conversations. Give them a reason to look away from their phones and at each other while discussing ideas that matter.

Navigate Safe Discussions

Access pre-developed lesson content and easily manage responsive and equitable discussions about sensitive topics.

Master a Valuable Skill

Make great conversations routine inside and out of the classroom by following a simple method that works with any age or subject matter.

Save time

Stop over preparing lessons and arm yourself with a simple routine to maximize the value of discussions within the content you’re already teaching to improve lesson effectiveness and save you time.

Empower Your Class

Turn troublemakers and class clowns into your greatest allies by following a simple structure that assigns roles to students and inspires them to open up and share personal testaments.

Connect with a Global Community

Avoid the unhelpful distractions of social media and have fun engaging, challenging, and mastering great conversations with other teachers in our one-of-a-kind Community of Educators.

Make Learning Visble

Use pre-made Google Forms and a simple routine to capture formative and summative assessment data for student discussions effortlessly.

Broaden Your Influence and Impact

Learn from colleagues around the world within the Teach Different Community of Educators while extending your impact on student lives to a global scale by amplifying your own wisdom and insights with other teachers.

Discover the Craft and Community to Make Unforgettable Conversations Routine

The Teach Different Method is a simple-to-learn protocol for conversations. Supported by lively discussion and valuable input within our social Community of Educators, you will learn how to build compassionate learning environments where students more deeply engage with lesson content, instructors, and peers through the innovative use of quotes, claims, counterclaims and essential questions.

1
Claim

What i s the
Quote Saying?
2
Counter Claim

Disagree with it.
3
Essential Question

State and defend
your own opinion.

What is the Right Age to Engage Students in Thoughtful Conversations?

The best educators understand that thinking skills can be learned by any student at any age. All you need is a routine and a plan that easily adapts to any situation.

Elementary School Teachers

Middle School Teachers

High School Teachers

What is the Best Way to Start and Guide Discussions With Your Students?

It’s easy to say that great classroom discussions are important. The challenge lies in being intentional about making great conversations routine with your own students. No matter what your comfort level with conversations, our Teach Different Community of Educators (FREE during your first 30 days!) will provide you with the guidance, examples and practice to easily build your own great conversation plans and keep your students engaged.

How Do You Gain the Confidence to Engage Any Classroom in Conversations?

Confidence is the byproduct of the camaraderie, support, and knowledge-sharing you’ll experience within the Teach Different Community of Educators. Being connected to a community of professionals who care about the well-being and development of both you and your students may just change your life. Instead of sleepless nights worrying about how to connect with your students, you’ll feel confident knowing you have a deliberate, practiced conversation plan to keep your class fully engaged.

What is Included?

Conversation Plan Library

Access our ever-growing repository of conversation plans to make it easy to facilitate endless variations of any conversation. The plans include quotations from great thinkers to kick off the discussion, essential questions for students to address, claims and counterclaims for them to examine, premade student handouts and more to ensure lively classroom engagement.

Social Emotional Learning Resources

Teach Different’s social-emotional learning topic map gives you a bird’s eye view into your students’ abilities and progress towards learning to think critically, discuss and debate topics, engage their peers, criticize productively, and identify both opportunities and solutions.

Age-Specific Classroom Recommendations

As you begin to master the art and science of conversations, the next step is to think strategically about which conversations work best for your own individual classroom. Teach Different has you covered with recommendations specifically tailored for every age group: elementary, junior high, and high school.

Community of Collaboration

The Teach Different Community of Educators puts you in direct contact with other instructors looking to improve the quality of conversations with their students. Source feedback with interactive features such as polls, prompts, posts, and questions. Join the Conversation of the Month to help develop (and celebrate!) a new conversation plan every month. Connect with educators through direct messages, private groups, threaded conversations and more to hone your craft, meet like-minded teachers, and perfect your approach to impactful conversations.

App and Personalized Roadmap for Success

Access the Teach Different Community of Educators, conversation plans, social-emotional learning topic map, and more directly from a browser or our app, available on Apple or Android devices. Follow topics to organize your activity, search to find what you’re looking for, and save posts to quickly come back to your favorites.

Monthly Live Workshops, Podcasts and Events

See the Teach Different Method in action and join the discussion at our monthly community conversations. We produce a variety of engaging live and pre-recorded content each month including workshops, podcasts, interactive Conversations of the Month, and round-table events to help educators develop their ability to spark and manage great conversations.

Getting Started is Easy!

Sign Up and Dive In

Simply complete the Welcome Checklist and receive full access to the Community of Educators to review the resources, conversation plans, and lively discussions among teachers and faculty.

Enjoy it for a Full Month - FREE

Enjoy a full month of access to the Teach Different Community of Educators, content, events, and more to begin implementing in your classroom and see the difference thoughtful conversations can make.

Make a Difference Every Day

Make unforgettable conversations routine and positively impact the lives and learning of your students.

Our Reviews

Hear from our enrolled teachers

I used the Margaret Mead conversation and I thought it went extremely well. I used it as a lead into the Progressive Age. I really liked having the spreadsheet ahead of time. It gave me an idea of the themes in student responses and allowed me to recognize the ideas of students I might not normally hear from.

These conversations set up instruction that is so super friendly to English language learners…It makes complex ideas comprehensible.

These conversations incorporate not only Critical Thinking and Listening skills, but important SEL elements such as Empathy, Perspective-taking and Inquiry

I did the Michael Jordan quote and conversation with the 7th and 8th graders this week. It was a great and non-threatening way to think deeply and to consider when and how we work with others...

I find this conversation method really solves many issues for our teachers in having to encourage discussion, bring in social and emotional learning AND tie it to the curriculum. It’s like the Swiss Army Knife for lesson planning.

I have been sharing the website and the lessons with administrators & teachers here at my school because they seem easily implemented and… easy implementation is critical. But most importantly the conversation starters engage students conceptually with an inquiry approach and the quotes come from people the students want to hear from such as Malcolm X, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lord, so having a culturally relevant and social emotional component is critical to teaching.