Key takeaways
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Experience helps educators deliver Tier 1 instruction that’s engaging and relevant—a key to making learning stick.
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Expanded Curriculum-Aligned Resources, Curated Content Collections, and high-interest, high-quality content support intentionality when planning and delivering instruction.
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Career-connected learning that builds future-ready skills continues to be a focus with new and updated resources to capture student interest.
Access all on-demand Engage K–12 sessions.
The second session of the K–12 webinar series focused on how Discovery Education Experience helps educators power student progress every day. Lance Rougeux, SVP, Curriculum Instruction & Student Engagement at Discovery Education, kicked things off by mentioning two big themes for 2026: 1) ensuring Tier 1 instruction is supported well with resources that are intentional about saving teachers time, and 2) keeping learning engaging with relevance and connections to students’ lives.
Strengthen Back to School 2026 with Experience
Kyle Schutt, Senior Director, Instructional Design at Discovery Education, took over to talk about what’s new in Experience for Back to School 2026. He led by pointing out that Experience strengthens what matters most in classrooms: daily instruction. It helps teachers engage students by activating thinking, building background knowledge, and giving opportunities for extension and connecting learning to the real world.
Improve Tier 1 Instruction with Curriculum Aligned Resources
For example, the new Curriculum Aligned Resources align Experience’s supplemental resources to widely used core curriculum programs. Mr. Schutt said, “They help save your teachers time when they’re looking for ideas to spark that extra little bit of engagement in the classroom and get students interested, or when they’re trying to augment and supplement what your program has and bring a lesson or activity grounded in high-quality media directly into their instruction.” He noted that Discovery Education will continue to expand Curriculum Aligned Resources throughout 2026 and spoke briefly about resource options like videos, activities, and reading passages.
Meet a Variety of Student Needs with Curated Content Collections
Now Experience is introducing curated content collections of age-appropriate, standards-aligned videos, activities, and resources—all grouped by topic. Teachers can use them to build background knowledge, support small-group instruction, and assign extension activities without needing to filter search results. Curated content collections are especially suited for differentiation, giving teachers an easy way to provide content to meet individual needs while staying connected to the day’s instructional goals. Mr. Schutt said, “We’d encourage you to think about these as learning playlists.”
Support Learning That Sticks with High-Quality, High-Interest Content
Throughout 2026, Discovery Education will continue to add more high-quality, high-interest content in Experience to support educators’ lesson cycles. The goal is always intentionality, whether for activating thinking at the beginning of a unit or providing extra practice for students who are struggling.
Move from Planning to Teaching More Easily
Mr. Schutt noted that Discovery Education strives to ensure technology simplifies and personalizes the work that goes into teaching. Based on educator requests, the team has made the search interface faster and cleaner in addition to streamlining the process of navigating Experience. Here the goal is to provide more context for how content is integrated into teacher lessons. Mr. Schutt closed with a request for continued feedback from educators that Discovery’s team can use to inform future updates and better meet planning and teaching needs.
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Drive Career-Connected Learning
Joanne da Luz, Senior Product Manager, stepped in to look at how Experience continues to help students make meaningful connections between what they’re learning and why it matters outside the classroom, which also makes learning stick.
Ms. da Luz stated, “We know how important future-ready skills are, especially as districts tell us how important those skills are for navigating a world powered by AI. We are focusing on making these connections across math, ELA, science, and social studies.” Experience gives teachers intentional resources related to careers for students of all ages.
Deliver Hands-on Learning with Mini Career Quests
DE’s new Mini Career Quests are short, interactive explorations for elementary students that let them explore real-world roles and complete related hands-on challenges. These types of experiences connect classroom skills to jobs like junior field scientist or data analyst. What’s more, educators will love that they are flexible and an easy lift.
Explore Career Pathways in Daily Instruction
Even the youngest students can start building future-ready skills like communication and curiosity with Super Skills Story Cards: short, illustrated stories that also offer guidance and standards alignment for teachers.
Elementary students can now use Career Finder to discover potential careers based on their individual interests. Teachers have a fun, interactive way to help learners imagine who they might become.
Target secondary students with the Career Conversation Collection, a curated set of ready‑to‑use resources that support internship preparation, capstone projects, and career‑focused seminar courses. It offers prompts and activities that let students practice workplace skills, such as asking questions, reflecting on strengths, or preparing for an interview.
Get Input from Workplace Professionals
Live guest speakers from many different industries can virtually visit classrooms with DE’s regularly updated Career Connect. It’s faster than ever for teachers to find speakers: they simply choose a theme based on their curriculum and then submit a request—Career Connect handles the rest.
In conclusion, Ms. da Luz said it’s easier than ever to “build a cohesive, K–12 pathway for career-connected learning” with the updates to Experience.
Closing
Mr. Rougeux took over to bring the webinar to an end, reiterating Discovery Education’s commitment to supporting great teaching and meaningful learning. Specifically, by helping educators strengthen Tier 1 instruction, deepen student engagement, and connect classroom learning to the real world. He also pointed out that all of the updates covered were shaped by feedback from leaders and teachers and that DE is grateful for the continuing partnership with educators that makes greater impact on students’ lives possible.
Access all on-demand Engage K–12 sessions.
Discovery Education Host and Presenters
Lance Rougeux, SVP, Curriculum Instruction & Student Engagement
Kyle Schutt, Senior Director, Instructional Design
Joanne da Luz, Senior Product Manager
