160. How to Build Student Agency and Reduce Classroom Struggle with the Learning Mountain Framework with Special Guest Jewellyn Forrest

Aug 18, 2026

What if the reason your students shut down at "I can't" isn't a motivation problem — it's that nobody ever gave them a map?

Jewellyn Forrest, co-founder of Autonomai Learning and instructor at the University of Texas at Austin, joins me with over 33 years in education to introduce a visual framework that's changing how teachers and students think about struggle, effort, and what learning actually looks like. We talk about why circles are the wrong shape for learning, what happens when kids finally have language for what they're feeling mid-struggle, and why performing well on a test doesn't mean the learning is actually theirs yet. Jewellyn also gets real about her own parenting, her own burnout, and why this framework ended up doing something she never expected for her as a teacher, not just her students.

If you've ever felt like you're the one holding all the weight of your classroom's learning, this conversation is going to shift something.

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Website: autonomylearning.com

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