Kelly Tenkely shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Kelly, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
Absolutely. For the past fourteen years, I’ve had the incredible honor of building a school from the ground up. Anastasis Academy was a living, breathing expression of what learning can be when it’s rooted in love, curiosity, and deep relationships. We unexpectedly had to close our doors in 2024 due to building issues.
Last week, I stood in front of a storage unit that now holds the physical remnants of that dream made real, fourteen years of blood, sweat, joy, and tears condensed into labeled bins, furniture, and handmade resources. As I moved through the unit, I was overwhelmed with pride. Every item held a story: the furniture from our coffee shop that students had cheered over, the resource that sparked awe, the custom learning plan created for a child I knew so well.
We built it all together. A living curriculum handcrafted in real time for real people. I’m proud of what we created and the lives we touched. Even now, as these materials find their way into new schools and support new students, I’m reminded that nothing is wasted. The impact lives on.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Kelly Tenkely, an educator, school founder, writer, and ecosystem builder. For the last 14 years, I led Anastasis Academy, an inquiry-based microschool in Colorado known for its deeply human, relationship-centered approach to learning. We built everything from scratch, including a “living curriculum” handcrafted and responsive to each student.
That work continues to grow. I’m currently writing a book about how to create a Living Curriculum, which captures the philosophy, practices, and structures we used at Anastasis to reimagine what school can be. I’m also developing education technology through the Learning Genome Project, which takes the practices from Anastasis and makes them accessible to schools and educators everywhere.
Most recently, I co-founded CultivatED Colorado, a nonprofit initiative designed to create the enabling conditions for learner-centered schools to thrive. We’re building the connective tissue: shared infrastructure, funding strategies, and community support, so that innovative educators and entrepreneurs aren’t doing this work in isolation.
At the heart of everything I do is a belief that learning is alive, and schools should be, too.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
A moment that profoundly shaped how I see the world met me during my first year of teaching. I’d spent weeks crafting the perfect lessons for this particular second-grade unit. Everything had been carefully planned, standards-aligned, and full of the “right” pacing dictated by the curriculum. I was so excited to explore this literacy unit with my students.
Nothing could have prepared me for the moment one of my students interrupted a read-aloud, requesting a Band-Aid. She rolled up her sleeve to show me a fresh cigarette burn on her arm, her shirt had been rubbing it all morning.
It was a wake-up call for me. The needs in my classroom, in all classrooms, are far more complex, human, and urgent than anything I’d been trained for in my teacher prep program.
It was in that moment that everything shifted for me. The realization that learning doesn’t begin with lesson plans, pacing guides, or assessments. It begins with seeing the students in front of you. It begins with presence, relationship, and the courage to let go of the scripts.
It became a catalyst for all of the work that has followed. It’s what led me to start Anastasis Academy, to build responsive tools like the Learning Genome, and to write the Living Curriculum to help others see and respond to the students in their care. It’s also at the heart of what we’re doing now with CultivatED Colorado, creating the conditions where schools that honor students first can thrive.
That moment and so many that have followed have taught me that no curriculum, policy, or tech tool matters if it doesn’t start with seeing the individual child.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
One of the defining wounds of my life has been a persistent sense of not quite belonging. Growing up, I often felt like I was just a few steps outside of where I was supposed to be. It was like everyone else knew a secret langauge for how to be in relationship, and how to move through the world, and I’d somehow missed the lesson.
School, especially, amplified that feeling for me. It often felt like there was a right way to show up and belong…and I didn’t know it.
Looking back, I can see how much of my life’s work has been shaped by that wound. I’ve poured myself into creating spaces where kids don’t have to hope they’ll find belonging by chance, but instead walk into a school and classrooms where it’s intentionally cultivated. Where they are seen, known, and valued by a community that accepts them and celebrates them just the way they are.
I began to heal in the rare spaces where I caught glimpses of that kind of belonging, where someone made room for me without requiring that I change to fit in. Those moments healed and inspired me. They became the pathway for the work I do now, building learning environments where belonging isn’t a happy accident, but something we’re intentionally designing.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
One of the biggest lies education tells itself is that efficiency should be the goal. That if we just streamline the right curriculum, use the right tools, follow the right pacing guides, that every student that moves through the system will be “successful.” But learning isn’t efficient. It’s messy, relational, and surprising. It unfolds in rhythms that don’t always match our timelines.
Another glaring lie is that there is such a thing as an average student. We keep designing systems, policies, and assessments around this mythical average. As if standardization can meet the needs of real, complex, diverse human beings. There is no average. Every learner brings a unique story, pace, and way of seeing the world. When we build for the average, we serve no one well.
Both of these lies are deeply baked into how we train educators, how we fund schools, and how we define success. Both stand in the way of what is possible when we center learning as a living, human, dynamic process. I hope that in Colorado and nationally, we start holding these lies to the light and challenging them boldly.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
Education is an industry with a long tail. The seeds we plant today often won’t bear fruit for years. This has been true of every student I’ve taught. So many of the most meaningful outcomes don’t show up as a score or within a semester, but in who that student becomes over time.
It’s also true of the work we’re doing right now through CultivatED Colorado. We’re investing in the slow, essential work of building a regenerative ecosystem for human and relationship-centered education. That means supporting the R&D of new school models, resourcing educators who are reimaging what school can be, and connecting the dots between entrepreneurs, funders, policymakers, and the community.
The payoff won’t be immediate. 7-10 years from now, I believe that Colorado will be the place where the most innovative, human-centered education is happening because we dared to cultivate the conditions where real transformation can take root.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://cultivatedcolorado.org
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/ktenkely
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-tenkely/
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/ktenkely
- Other: https://ktenkely.substack.com
https://dreamsofeducation.podbean.com
https://dreamsofeducation.wordpress.com
https://ktsplace.com
Image Credits
Liz Levy
