Toward Intentional Teaching: The Need For Educator Agency
When Squirrels Lead the Way
Weaving Intention into Teachable Moments
Jason Surian
Editors’ Note
As outlined in“ The Power of Teacher Agency: Leading from the Classroom” by Amy Schmidtke and colleagues, educators are uniquely positioned to exercise leadership and agency from their classrooms. This includes the way they design lessons and activities— sometimes in the moment— to respond to children’ s questions, background knowledge, and interests. In the following practitioner reflection, Jason Surian shares how he built a learning day( and beyond!) around kindergartners’ enthusiasm about squirrels. His ability to modify lessons while still meeting instructional goals offers readers an engaging example of how educators can exercise agency from their classrooms.
38 Young Children
Summer 2026