Teaching with Heart | 020 | Brilliance in the Classroom

Redefining rigor, elevating student brilliance, and making growth the goal.

Sometimes one sharp insight is all we need to hold on, reset, or reengage with purpose.

Practical takeaways pulled from the Student Success Podcast, so you don’t have to listen to the whole episode (unless you want to).

Episode with Kelly Spoon: Show Notes | Apple | Spotify

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Rigor. It’s a word that can either inspire us or shut us down. Too often in higher ed, “rigor” is code for compliance: checking boxes, meeting arbitrary deadlines, proving you’re “serious” by surviving hoops that may have nothing to do with actual learning.

Kelly Spoon, math faculty at San Diego Mesa College, refuses to play that game. In her classes, rigor means demonstrated understanding. And if a student masters a concept in week six instead of week four? That’s still mastery, and it still counts.

Her approach blends care, curiosity, and craft in ways that apply far beyond math. She designs classrooms, and professional development spaces, where students and faculty alike can take risks, struggle productively, and grow without fear.

Kelly’s episode is a masterclass in moving from a teacher-centered to a student-centered view of brilliance. And it’s a reminder that professional growth is iterative, social, and worth fighting for, especially when the culture of higher ed doesn’t always make space for it.

Kelly Spoon’s teaching philosophy—anchored in standards-based grading, productive struggle, and student belonging—offers actionable steps for any discipline.

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1. Redefine Rigor
Grades should reflect learning, not compliance. Homework completion and attendance points are behavior metrics, not proof of mastery.

Action Prompt: Audit your grading practices. How much weight is on compliance versus actual understanding? What can you shift this term?

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2. Let Students Show Their Brilliance
Kelly’s goal isn’t to display her own expertise only. It’s to uncover the brilliance in her students’ thinking.

Action Prompt: Add one open-ended prompt this week that invites multiple solution paths. Follow up with, “What made you approach it this way?”

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3. Build Productive Struggle into Your Class
Using “thin slicing” and whiteboards, Kelly keeps students just beyond their comfort zone, where learning happens.

Action Prompt: Identify one upcoming concept and break it into a sequence of increasingly challenging problems students tackle in groups.

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4. Make Growth Visible with Standards-Based Grading
Mastery matters more than timing. Students can reassess, try again, and show growth.

Action Prompt: Pilot reassessments for one standard this term. Make the second attempt different enough to measure understanding, not memorization.

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5. Design PD for Everyone. Even the Resistant.
Kelly embeds active teaching demos into required spaces, making professional growth unavoidable and inviting.

Action Prompt: The next time you facilitate a meeting, open with a 5-minute teaching activity faculty can use immediately.

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For more detailed written actions, visit the episode page.

Final Thought
You don’t need to overhaul your entire course tomorrow. But you do need to question whether your current structures measure what matters, and if they don’t, change them.

Student brilliance isn’t just waiting to be “prepared.” It’s already there. Our job is to see it, believe it, and make it visible.

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Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Onward…

Dr. Al Solano
Founder, Continuous Learning Institute | About
Host, Student Success Podcast
A meaningful test of success is how helpful we are in contributing to our fellow human being’s happiness.