Hilary Price 
Sam Deffes 
EdCircuit Staff 
edCircuit makes a point of having its journalists, contributors, and strategic thought leader staff attend many of the more relevant education industry conferences to capture opinions and thought-provoking discussions with education industry participants and strategic leaders, edLeaders emPowering Education, where we discuss groundbreaking educational developments today. The edCircuit team recently caught up with Sam Deffes and Hilary Price from Learning Without Tears. Learning Without Tears provides resources to prepare students to excel in PreK-5 environments. Their resources include print and digital materials to support a broad spectrum of literacy readiness, including reading, writing, keyboarding, and more. In this conversation, Sam and Hilary discuss their time at FETC 23, the unique positioning of Learning Without Tears’s services in the PreK-5 market, and Learning Without Tears powerful professional development resources.
Learning Without Tears at FETC
Q: There has been a lot of buzz around the Learning Without Tears booth at the conference. What has your experience been like at FETC so far?
A: Hilary– It has been excellent. We’ve been able to connect with educators, with administrators and really showcase what our digital tools and our technology can do with all of our amazing Learning Without Tears products.
A: Sam– And it’s just been great to share with educators a solution to meet that need in the literacy market and help students that need to close that gap. But also, one of the beautiful things about Phonics Reading and Me is we don’t forget about enrichment for those students that are high performing, and all students get access to grade-level materials no matter where they are.
Differentiation in the PreK-5 Market
Q: How does your new product, Phonics Reading and Me, set itself apart from other products in the market space?
A: I think it’s because it’s a beautiful integrated print and digital solution that informs teachers every step of the way. Every lesson starts with the oral reading screener, as we shared in our presentation. And it lets the teacher know with each lesson whether that student is below, on, or above level.
I have been shocked using it myself to see exactly where some kids are below level, and then we go to the next skill, and their above level. It helps me know my pacing, whether I need to spend a longer period of time or a shorter period of time, because truly if we’re going to use the product and train teachers, we use it ourselves. And that is also something that sets us apart from other companies. Hillary and I live and breathe this product because we want also to do the work if we’re speaking the talk.
Professional Development Resources
Q: Learning Without Tears has a full array of services for teachers. Can you discuss some of the focus areas of these professional development tools?
A: We offer professional learning for each of our programs. We have a wide variety of different types of professional learning. We have virtual. We have onsite. We have a blended hybrid version of that. We have question-and-answer sessions that educators and users can be a part of. And it is an amazing experience.
It’s one thing to take the products and program and use it in the classroom, but it’s quite another to use it to its full capacity. That’s really what we want educators to be doing: understanding the programs and the products as a whole and in their entirety and using them to its full capacity that way. So, we love providing that professional room for educators in all of our programs.
To learn more about Learning Without Tears, visit their website and follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Read part one of this three-part Q&A series to hear from leading experts in education.
