UVEI recently hosted a group of educators & future educators, alumni, and board members for a community night and open house on March 19, 2026. Throughout the evening we explored authentic, joyful learning in times of uncertainty, through several activities and conversations.

• • “Joy, A World Cafe” asked participants to move around the room and engage in three rounds of conversation about joyful learning: What does joyful learning look like in classrooms, in schools, and in the wider community. Stories were told, themes were shared, and hope was planted.
  • A breakout session on UVEI’s licensure programs allowed perspective candidates to hear directly from a teacher and principal alum.

• Another breakout session had participants engaging in a UVEI leadership framework, like we do in seminars, to dive into a local school’s work on restorative climates.
• A third breakout session had a current teacher candidate presenting the assessment choices she is planning for her deeper learning unit (that she’ll be teaching this spring). Participants used a tuning protocol to provide feedback on how the assessment design aligns with the goals of the unit, and how it could better align.

The evening closed with our familiar gratitude ritual, and we all left with appreciation for the work being done in education. In times of uncertainty, we hold many questions about the future but we know that good things are happening and that we are all driven to help classroom and school communities be places where all people belong and thrive.