Squeezing a life’s work into any given page on a website can be a real challenge. And it turns out that there’s a lot of serious science behind all of this playful pedagogy! With a thriving community of more than 6,000 teachers around the world, we are thrilled to share success stories from talented educators who are hard at work making use of EMC² Learning resources in classrooms from kindergarten through college.
Here at EMC² Learning, we are honored to celebrate the creative, dedicated efforts of these educators that we proudly welcome as members of our community of “Engagement Engineers.” Click on any of the feature articles below to hear how educators are changing the game of school through their commitment to student-centered, feedback-focused engagement strategies.
Carol McLaughlin | Kindergarten - 5th Grade
Carol McLaughlin has been teaching elementary school (yes, all of the grades!) for a staggering 32 years. Though she’s a powerhouse of creativity, she proudly attests that “EMC² Learning is my first stop when I am wanting to create a learning experience for my students.” Because for this busy teacher: customization is the name of the game.
Click here to see how Carol is changing the game in elementary education
David Friedman | 3rd and 4th Grade
David Friedman is a 12-year teaching vet who splits his time between teaching English Language Arts and math to his classroom of third and fourth grade students. He believes that he has found particular value in the EMC² Learning approach to instructional design when helping him create lessons and materials for the trauma-informed school where he now plies his trade.
Click here to learn how EMC² Learning is supports David’s trauma-informed classroom
Andrew Menard | 4th Grade
Andrew Menard is a 29-year veteran elementary school teacher from Denver, Colorado. When looking for new ways to elevate his teaching game, he found particular value in the self-paced video tutorial courses available on the EMC² platform. “By completing the Skill Builder courses, I was changing my mindset, not simply implementing new activities.”
Click here to follow more of Andrew’s journey into a new way to play
Jamie Halsey | 4th Grade
Jamie Halsey is a fourth grade teacher from Roseville, California with more than 21 years of teaching experience to her credit. A lifelong fan of the Star Wars franchise, it’s safe to say that “The Force is Strong” with this master teacher — who has channeled her love of all things Jedi into a sprawling yearlong adventure that has captivated the imaginations of her fourth grade students.
Click here to see how Jamie became a “Force” for student-centered instruction
Paolo Tolomeo | 4th Grade
Paolo Tolomeo is a fourth grade teacher from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But even with 17 years of teaching experience, he struggled to dream up the sort of memorable, student-centered lesson plans that had become something of a trademark of his classroom while still managing to have enough energy to thrive his roles outside of the classroom as a husband and a father.
Click here to see how EMC² Learning helped him strike that balance
Juan Pablo Monge | 5th Grade
Juan Pablo Monge is a teacher of English as a Foreign Language in his home city of Rafaela, Argentina. Even though he’s only been teaching for just three short years, his story shows how one little spark of inspiration and a dedicated teacher’s willingness to invest in himself and his classroom can lead to incredible dividends for all parties involved.
Click here to follow Juan Pablo’s journey from Tinker Teacher to Game Changer
Bradley Reece | 5th Grade
Bradley Reece is a fifth grade teacher from Cleveland, Tennessee with more than 24 years of classroom teaching experience. In this Classroom Creativity Case Study, he shares the story of how the EMC² Learning platform helped him start playing with purpose thanks to a massive collection of resources that were the perfect blend of high energy and high quality.
Click here to discover the Easter Eggs that helped Bradley change the game
Thomas Bussey | 5th Grade
Thomas Bussey is a fifth grade reading and English Language Arts teacher based out of Atlanta, Georgia. In recent years, Mr. Bussey become something of an internet sensation thanks to his mindbendingly clever classroom movie-making magic. And his teaching seamlessly fuses his love of pop culture with a passion for student-centered instruction.
Click here to peek inside Thomas’ pulse-pounding classroom adventure
Kellie Mallon | 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade
Kellie Mallon is a 26-year veteran teacher who teaches sixth, seventh, and eighth grade Cambridge English in New Port Richey, Florida. For Kellie, EMC² Learning has proven to be so effective that she is genuinely considering extending her teaching career even after she reaches the age of retirement because she’s simply having so much fun with the work that she now does in her classes every day.
Click here to follow Kellie’s journey from curious onlooker to creative powerhouse
Bryant Barker | 7th Grade
Bryant Barker is a seventh grade English Language Arts teacher with more than a decade of teaching experience. But once his students returned to in-person instruction after COVID, it was clear that the rules of the game had completely changed. To spark authentic engagement in these learners, he knew he’d have to take a different approach to his classroom: so he rolled the dice.
Click here to read how Bryant boosted engagement using bite-sized gamification strategies
Justin Owens | 7th Grade
Justin Owens is a seventh grade math teacher from Charlotte, North Carolina. For Justin, bringing gamification into his math classroom has been an exponential multiplier in productivity and engagement. The investment has paid serious dividends, and with a little help from EMC² Learning, his classroom has become a hive of student-centered curiosity.
Click here to see how Justin used EMC² Learning to exponentially increase student engagement
Candice Healing | 7th & 8th Grade
Candice Healing is a seventh and eighth grade teacher of English Language Arts and Math in her home town of Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Even though she’s learned plenty of tricks and strategies in her 24 years as a teacher, she simply refuses to settle for “good enough” when developing new ways to keep her students engaged.
Click here to learn how Candice discovered the perfect balance of low prep and high quality
Emily Morikawa | 8th Grade
Emily Morikawa is an eighth grade social studies teacher from Radnor, Pennsylvania. By her own admission, she’s still “relatively new to gaming” and wasn’t quite sure what to make of all this talk about bringing gamification into her classroom. Here’s the story of what caused her to rethink her approach to creating a more playful classroom experience with the help of EMC² Learning.
Click here to learn what made Emily discover a love of playful pedagogy
Ryan Stephans | 8th Grade
Ryan Stephans is an eighth grade US History teacher from Olathe, Kansas who’s been seeking the summit of top-tier teaching throughout his 18 year career as a classroom teacher. But in his quest for student-centered fortune and glory, there have been more than a few moments of frustration. Hear how EMC² Learning helped him trek a path to the peak of his game!
Click here to follow Ryan’s journey back from the brink of burnout
Susan Brock | High School
Susan Brock is a high school chemistry teacher from Bentonville, Arkansas. An avid fan of gaming outside of the classroom, she has been a teacher for 12 years, and a member of EMC² Learning for a little over a full year. In this revealing interview, hear what she had to say about how EMC² Learning has helped her change the game in her classroom.
Click here to read how Susan fused her love of gaming with her high school science classes
Stewart Parker | High School Advanced Placement
Stewart Parker is a ninth grade teacher of AP Human Geography in the magical city of Orlando, Florida. This 21-year teaching veteran was named the 2020-2021 Orange County Public Schools Teacher of the Year. And while they say a good magician never reveals their secrets — Stewart is happy to share that a sprinkle of EMC² Learning pixie dust has played at least a small role in his continued success.
Click here to discover just a few of the student engagement tricks up Stewart’s sleeve
Dr. Gwen Deger | College
Dr. Gwen Deger is an Associate Professor of Education in Westminster College in New Castle, Pennsylvania who first stumbled onto EMC² Learning’s gamified approach to student-centered instruction while observing one of her students teaching a lesson as a pre-service student teacher. What she saw left her at a total loss for words, and at the start of a brand new adventure of her own.
Click here to see what made Dr. Deger reimagine her approach to college-level education