“Our job as teachers and parents is not to prepare students for something; our job is to help students prepare themselves for anything.”

Hi, I’m A.J. Juliani. I’m the Director of Learning and Innovation for a public school district and the author of books centered around student-agency, choice, inquiry, and engagement. I study people, schools, companies, and organizations from around the world to analyze how we can learn in deeper and more powerful ways. I believe we need to be intentional about innovation in order to create a better future of learning. My latest book, The PBL Playbook, goes into a step-by-step guide for doing project-based learning with your students, including stories from 47 teachers around the world who are empowering kids through project-based experiences.

In January of 2012, I launched the “20% Project (like Google)” in my class. This project would change my teaching forever and lead me to advocate for inquiry-based education — where students are able to learn what they are curious about in school. Since then I’ve been a huge proponent of Genius Hour and 20% Projects in classrooms around the world. It’s led me down the path of writing LAUNCH and Empower with John Spencer and working to develop courses, workshops, and events that support this type of innovative learning.

Over the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing people, schools, and conferences. If you are interested in having me speak or present, please know that I only take a few of these opportunities per year (as I still work full-time in a school district). Click the button below or email me at ajjuliani@gmail.com to get in touch!