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500 Terry Francine Street,
San Francisco, CA 94158
info@mysite.com
123-456-7890
Current Work
The Active Lab
The ideas, experiments, collaborations, and systems I'm actively building right now.
Books, tools, and ecosystems -- all connected and in service of creating the conditions for improving education.
01
The Bookshelf
Fundraising Was Not on My BINGO Card: A small school's guide to community-first fundraising
Most school founders and leaders never dreamed of becoming fundraisers, but meaningful work still needs sustainable support. This book is part story, part practical guide, and part encouragement for the people building something that matters. (Pre-Order Now)
A Living Curriculum: Learner-centered school design
A book about designing schools that are alive, where curiosity, connection, story, systems, and humanity are woven together into the everyday experience of learning. (Coming 2027)
02
CultivatED Colorado
I'm interested in creating the conditions where innovative learning that starts with the learner can survive and grow.
Through CultivatED Colorado, I work alongside founders, educators, and organizations to help build and sustain learner-centered ecosystems across Colorado. Our ambition is to make Colorado the best place in the nation to be a learner because we've been intentional about research and development, human-centered design, and created a connected ecosystem.
The CultivatED Ops Hub grew out of that work, a response to the reality that too many visionary school leaders are drowning in disconnected systems and operational overwhelm. It's where mission meets infrastructure and hopeful ideas meet practical tools.
I built Colorado Learning Stories because I've had enough of incredible, learner-centered schools being forced to demonstrate the power of their learning community through tiny data and metrics that can't possibly capture the breadth of what is actually happening. Colorado Learning Stories gives the agency back to the schools and learners themselves to share the real stories of learning, revealing the relationships, experiences, and environments where learning comes alive. Add your school's stories and community partners to our growing map!
03
Consulting & Design
I partner with schools, organizations, and leaders to rethink the architecture of learning.
Sometimes that looks like strategic design. Sometimes it looks like asking better questions through professional development. Sometimes it means helping people reconnect their systems, spaces, and practices to the values they say they hold.
At the heart of all of it is the same question: What if learning could be more human than the systems we inherited?
04
The Learning Genome Project
Every learner carries a unique combination of strengths, stories, curiosities, relationships, challenges, and ways of making meaning.
The Learning Genome Project is my ongoing exploration into what becomes possible when we design education around that uniqueness instead of forcing learners into standardized pathways.
Part technology platform, part physical resources, part philosophy of learning, it's an attempt to create tools to help us truly start with the learner by getting to know them first.
05
The Writing
I process best through words.
Through my Substack, blogs, and podcasts, I use writing to trace ideas, document learning, ask questions, and share stories from the edges of education innovation.
Writing is where my hunches collide.
The Archive
Innovation is cumulative.
Long before I was helping others design systems, ecosystems, and learner-centered experiences, I was testing ideas in the wild and learning through experimentation, iteration, failure, and community.
These projects shaped the way I think about learning, leadership, systems, and possibility. They are the roots beneath everything I'm building now.
01
Anastasis Academy
Anastasis began with a question: What would love look like expressed as a school? What if we designed schools around learners instead of systems?
What emerged was a living laboratory for inquiry-based, learner-centered education that was built on curiosity, belonging, storytelling, mixed ages, deep relationships, and the belief that every child deserves to be known.
It remains the clearest proof I have that another way is possible.
02
5Sigma Education Conference
5Sigma was not your typical education conference.
It was designed as a collision space for big ideas, deep conversations, creativity, and unexpected connections. A gathering for educators, thinkers, artists, technologists, and dreamers who sensed that education could become something more human, connected, and alive.
Some of the most important collaborations and ideas in my life began in those rooms.
03
iLearn Technology & iPad Curriculum
Long before "edtech" became the buzzword it is today, I was exploring how technology could amplify curiosity, creativity, and connection rather than replace them.
Through iLearn Technology and the iPad Curriculum, I helped educators around the world intentionally integrate technology, reaching millions of educators seeking meaningful ways to use digital tools in learning.
04
UpdatED Design
UpdatED Design grew out of an observation: retail stores throw away an astonishing amount of possibility.
What others saw as waste, we saw as invitations for creativity, storytelling, engineering, invention, and wonder. We partnered with retail stores to turn last season's visual displays into rich building materials in our maker space.
05
Project PLN and Reform Symposium Conference
Remember when Twitter was a place where educators gathered, had rich conversations, and built a personal learning network? Gosh, those were good days! Project PLN and the Reform Symposium Conference both grew out of those focused on the power of networks, connections, and collective intelligence among educators.
Hey Friend!
Welcome to KT's Place! I'm Kelly Tenkely, and my career has been built on a foundation of willful naivete- the stubborn belief that if a system is broken, we have the permission (and the tools) to build a better one.
KT's Place is my public common place book, and a living archive for the work, ideas, and projects I've been building over the years.
Here you'll find Anastasis Academy, The Learning Genome Project, updatED Design, the 5Sigma Education Conference, UpGrade, my writing, book launches, and ongoing experiments in learning.
It's also where I share the work of CultivatED Colorado, the CultivatED Ops Hub, and the consulting I do with schools and organizations.
Some of what you'll see here is polished, some of it still in process. All of it is part of a bigger vision for what learning and the world around it can become.
I'm glad you're here!
Hunches Waiting to Collide
