Facilitated by Lisa Arrastia, founding director of The Ed Factory.

Featuring talks with neurodiversity specialist and author of the personal essay inspiring the seminar, Michael J. Carley, and award-winning playwright Idris Goodwin, author of the YA book King of the Neuro Verse, one of the seminar’s required texts.

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Engaging the Brat: Rethinking Classroom Management is a live, online, project-based seminar for educators working inside and outside of schools. Together, we will reconsider what classroom “management” has often taught us to value: compliance, quiet, speed, order, and self-discipline. In direct contrast, we will study and practice a teaching approach rooted in relationship, attention, listening, imagination, and the dignity of every learner.

Through close observation, audioethnographic practice, reflective writing, and collaborative inquiry, participants will examine how classrooms are shaped by space, sound, time, language, power, memory, and the assumptions adults may carry about young people. Rather than beginning with the question of how to keep a classroom under control, this course asks different questions: What does a child need to be more fully seen? What conditions make social connection possible? What might teachers notice when they slow down before correction, discipline, or judgment?

The seminar title is grounded in Michael J. Carley’s essay “Engaging the Brat in Your Classroom . . . And the Power of Narrative,” along with readings and practices that help educators think more carefully about childhood, school memory, teacher authority, neurodivergence, and the stories adults tell about children. Participants will work with childhood photographs, school records, teacher comments, or related materials from their own lives in order to create a final project that revisits how children are described, judged, and remembered.

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Participants may have the opportunity, by invitation and with permission, to have selected writing or final project excerpts considered for inclusion in the facilitator’s forthcoming book with Neurodiversity Press, Engaging the Brat: Essays by Teachers Rethinking Classroom Management.

Engaging the Brat will be especially meaningful for educators working inside and outside of schools.

The seminar is open to classroom teachers, teaching assistants, paraprofessionals, school counselors, instructional coaches, school leaders, youth workers, teaching artists, museum educators, after-school educators, community-based youth program staff, undergraduate and graduate licensure students, and all adults interested in building more humane learning communities.

Required Texts:

1. Idris Goodwin, King of the Neuro Verse  

2. Naoki Higashida, The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism  

3. Herbert R. Kohl, I Won't Learn from You: And Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment  

All text formats permitted, e.g., eBook, paperback, or hardcopy. Additional texts required will be provided.

Participants will also need:

• A quiet place to join the seminar on Zoom

• A smartphone with basic voice and video recording capability

• Access to Google Drive

• A laptop or desktop computer

Tuesday, 22 September, 6-7 pm ET
Live, online via Zoom

Tuition: $0

For those who want to become more comfortable with basic tech, or who are new to Zoom, Google Drive, or working online, a live, online tutorial will be offered before the seminar begins. The session will cover the basics needed to participate comfortably, including joining Zoom, sharing your screen, accessing shared files, and other simple tools used in the seminar.

No prior technical experience is required.

You must first register for the seminar, then complete the Low-Tech Basics Tutorial registration form.

Low-Tech Basics Tutorial registration ends on 1 September at 11:59 pm EASTERN.

This seminar is eligible for 1-3 Graduate-Level Extension Credits for an additional fee of $79 per unit paid directly to the University of San Diego.

Even if you are not currently on a unit-based pay scale, credits may benefit you in the future. If you switch districts or roles where credit-based salary advancement applies, having USD credit already earned ensures you’re eligible without delay.

Participants are responsible for confirming acceptance, transcript requirements, deadlines, and the applicability of units with their employing district or intended institution prior to enrolling at USD.

The Ed Factory seminar payment and USD credit enrollment are two separate transactions.

1. Enroll in The Ed Factory seminar 

2. Enroll with USD for academic credit

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• Learn more about professional credits with USD.

• Register for credit with tUSDo.
  

USD Enrollment Deadline: 4 October 2026

→ Discounted tuition: $295 through Monday, 31 August 2026. Use code BRATFALL26 at checkout.

→ Standard tuition: $395 beginning Tuesday, 1 September 2026.

→ Fellowship access: 2 full and 2 partial fellowships will be offered by application. Full fellowship covers The Ed Factory tuition. Partial fellowship tuition is $150 total.

Fellowship applications are due: Friday, 14 August 2026, by 11:59 p.m. EASTERN. Decisions will be emailed by Friday, 21 August 2026. Apply for a Fellowship.

Additional reduced-rate access may be available when cost is a barrier. Please contact us to discuss options.

Tuition supports seminar instruction, course materials, guest honoraria when applicable, project guidance, and the sustained preparation required for close reading, reflective writing, and careful engagement with participants’ final projects.

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The Ed Factory tuition does not include graduate-level extension credit through USD or any required books participants may need to purchase separately.

Reduced-rate access may be available when cost is a barrier. Please reach out through Connect if you would like to discuss options.