Teach Boldly for Grades K–5 (Jump Start Guide)

Teach Boldly for Grades K–5

Projects to Help Learners Connect to Self, People and Planet

By Jennifer Williams and Billy Spicer

ISBN: 9798888370780

Release Date: December 2025

Length: 6 pages

Get practical resources and nine ready-to-go project plans to drive student inquiry and help your elementary students thrive!

In the book Teach Boldly: Using Edtech for Social Good, education leader Jennifer Williams invited educators to purposefully use technology and innovative teaching practices to connect students to causes of social good and impact. This follow-up jump start guide focuses on elementary age students, offering nine project ideas that prioritize access to action, student inquiry and innovation.

The projects are divided into Practices, which are regular, ongoing activities that students can engage in every day; Processes, continuing projects that progress, evolve and increase in complexity and difficulty over time; and Pursuits, major one-time endeavors that challenge and stretch students.

The guide:

• Prioritizes class-to-class collaborations and community and global partnerships. 
• Helps educators amplify student voice and inspire elementary student activism with students as knowledge constructors and global storytellers. 
• Connects to the ISTE Standards (Student section) as well as the ISTE+ASCD Transformational Learning Principles.

The related jump start guide for middle-grade and high school students is Teach Boldly for Grades 6–12: Projects to Help Learners Connect to Self, People and Planet.

(ISTE Jump Start Guide, 8.5" x 11", 3 laminated panels, 6 pages)

Audience: Elementary educators; elementary school leaders and coaches; preservice teachers

About the Authors

Recognized as a transformational leader in education, Jennifer Williams, Ed.D., has dedicated herself to the education field for over 25 years as an education activist, professor, school administrator, literacy specialist and classroom teacher. She speaks, writes and consults on practices that develop global perspectives and social good through creative uses of technology, and her research interests include innovations in teaching and learning, equity and diversity in education, and social action. As an educator and author of the ISTE book Teach Boldly: Using Edtech for Social Good, she empowers teachers to use educational technology purposefully for the planet and its people. She is the co-executive director of the nonprofit organization Take Action Global, a professor at Saint Leo University and the founder of TeachSDGs. She’s been named one of the Top 30 K–12 IT Influencers by EdTech Focus on K–12 and a No. 8 for Top Academics in STEM and No. 9 Top Campaigners in Sustainability by Onalytica. 

Billy Spicer teaches in Winnetka Public Schools 36 in Chicago. After spending more than a decade teaching in elementary grades and working as an instructional coach, Spicer currently serves students and teachers as an integration specialist. He recently spent time in the Bahamas with the Shedd Aquarium, where he lived on a research vessel conducting scientific inquiry. He previously worked in entertainment, education and conservation for Walt Disney World’s Animal Programs Department. He inspires students to be passionate about literacy, learning and social media as avenues to meet their individual learning needs. He enjoys sharing and learning as a presenter at local, regional and national events, including ISTELive, the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) and iEngage. Spicer earned his bachelor’s in elementary education at Illinois State University, and a master’s in literacy and reading from Benedictine University.