As we ring in the start of 2026 and celebrate all the great things that last year had to offer, we’ve been doing what we always encourage teachers (and students!) to do: pause, reflect, and look forward with intention. It might sound cheesy, but we love looking back as we prepare to look forward. Reflection helps us celebrate what worked, learn from what didn’t, and sharpen what’s next.
Think of this post as our playful, pedagogy-powered version of a “Year Wrapped” (‘sup, Spotify?!). We see it as our chance to celebrate the work, the growth, and the community that made this year such a meaningful one… while also counting down to everything still to come. So grab your metaphorical party hat and let’s count this sucker down!
Here’s what 2025 looked like at EMC² Learning—by the numbers.
191 New Resources (Not Bad, Eh!?)
The game is always changing. And here at EMC² Learning, we’re constantly building new ways for teachers and students to level up their playful approach to our daily work in the classrooms right alongside it.
This year alone, we added nearly 200 brand-new classroom activities, ranging from quick, plug-and-play wins to deeper instructional upgrades grounded in UDL, playful pedagogy, and intentional use of AI. That brings our running total to just north of a whopping 1,100 resources (!!!) available to site members. And the best part? These aren’t just one-off review games or icebreakers.
Together, the EMC² Learning library of activities form a living, breathing, instructional toolkit, offering playful, flexible ways to enrich every stage of learning: warm-ups, skill building, practice, discussion, reflection, assessment, and everything in between. Each resource is designed to spark engagement and reduce prep, so teachers can spend less time reinventing the wheel and more time focusing on students.
If you haven’t checked in lately, the new year is the perfect time to explore what’s new and stock up for the months ahead!
53 Written-by-a-Human Blog Posts
A wise man once said, “Real artists ship.” And here at EMC² Learning, we take that to heart.
This year, we published 53 original blog posts—all written by two actual humans (yes, we actually typed out our very own em-dash in this paragraph. Eat your heart out, ChatGPT). No big fancy corporate sponsorships. No highfalutin’ AI robots churning out who-knows-what kind of SEO-optimized slop. Just two passionate educators who are out there (like you!) actually doing the work, and taking the time between classes, meetings, and PD events of our own to share research, reflections, classroom stories, and practical ideas centered on playful pedagogy, UDL, and purposeful use of AI.
While we genuinely believe a site membership at EMC² Learning is more than worth the annual investment (and we’re incredibly proud that a staggering 85% of paid members have renewed year over year for the last five years), we also make a deliberate effort to share as much content as possible in front of the paywall. That way, educators who aren’t yet in a position to take the plunge can still benefit from the same design principles that govern every resource that we create.
Because good ideas deserve to travel.
35 Onsite Presentations
From New York to Texas to Indiana (and plenty of stops in between), 2025 had us learning alongside educators in classrooms, districts, and conferences across the country.
But no matter where we go, one thing that remains a constant is how we are consistently inspired to see just how much passion teachers have for the amazing work that we all get to do in our classrooms. We work with conference and event planners to ensure that our sessions aren’t just about polished pie in the sky theory or one-size-fits-none frameworks. Like you, we’ve had to sit through far too many sit-and-get PDs that simply don’t translate to the actual classroom. So the sessions we developed are all about rolling up our sleeves. We’re talking modeling strategies in real time, pressure-testing ideas with real students in mind, and refining what actually works when the bell rings and the room fills up. We built, broke, rebuilt, and iterated together… always with an eye toward engagement that’s sustainable, inclusive, and genuinely doable from the moment you set foot back inside of your classroom.
Just as important, we really do listen to what the teachers that we connect with have to say. Every workshop, walkthrough, and conversation helps to sharpen our thinking and directly shape the resources, playlists, and tools that we make available to our community inside of the EMC² Learning platform. The work you see in EMC² Learning doesn’t come from a vacuum. It comes from classrooms like yours.
25 New Play-Inspired Self-Paced PD Offerings
What if professional learning felt less like a chore and more like hitting play on the perfect mixtape—or embarking on a classic RPG-style adventure?
In 2025, that question sat at the heart of how we rethought (or remixed!) a whole lot of self-paced learning opportunities for educators. EMC² Learning’s “Pedagogy Playlists” and “Teacher Quests” are built on the same belief: if we want teachers to design playful, engaging experiences for students, their own learning should model that same energy. So instead of long lectures or abstract theory, we put together curated collections of high-impact instructional moves and bite-sized challenges that mirror the kinds of activities teachers can use right away.
Each playlist or quest is packed with ready-to-use resources, playful twists on proven strategies, and editable “treasure” you can save, remix, and deploy immediately. Take a cue from your favorite old school video game (or cassette tape), and push play on your favorite collection to make meaningful change feel doable, motivating, and fun.
1 New Book is On Its Way
After years of building, testing, and refining ideas alongside game-changing teachers around the world (and a few last-minute touch-ups from our amazing publishing team!), Playing with Purpose is almost here.
Releasing in just a few weeks, this book brings together Universal Design for Learning, playful pedagogy, and intentional use of AI into one practical, classroom-ready guide—rooted not in trends, but in real classrooms and real constraints. Every framework, strategy, and example has been pressure-tested with educators who are doing the work day in and day out, making it a resource designed for what teaching actually looks like right now.
More than anything, Playing with Purpose is a reflection of what we’ve learned together—and an invitation to keep experimenting, iterating, and designing learning experiences that are inclusive, meaningful, and joyful. We can’t wait to put it in your hands and see where it takes your classroom next.
The activities featured in EMC² Learning presentations and workshops are just a handful of the 1,100+ resources available and on their way to arrive shortly in the EMC² Learning library. This entire library is available to all members with an active Engagement Engineer or Engagement Engineer PLUS account, and is included with your annual site membership. We hope you’ll consider joining us as an Engagement Engineer to unlock a full year of site access. For complete details including our exclusive limited time offer for annual site membership, click here.
