About SOAR
SOAR® Learning began out of frustration from a former “struggling student.” Today, it’s grown into a worldwide, best-selling curriculum!
Hi! We are co-founders of SOAR® Learning: Susan Kruger Winter, M.Ed. (I’m the former struggling student) & my husband, Brian Winter, M.Ed. We each spent years as classroom teachers, living the pressure and demands of classroom teaching: overloaded curriculum, limited time, unmotivated students, always feeling like we weren’t quite doing enough... One thing that made a BIG difference, however, was empowering students to effectively manage their assignments, due dates, and study time by teaching them study skills.
We’ve been teaching study skills since 1996, when we were in college together. (We met on our first day of freshman year.) I had so much success with study skills during my first semester of college, I immediately began tutoring other students. Brian was there every step of the way, helping me hash through ideas, offering creative solutions to problems, and encouraging my students. As soon as we graduated, Brian began co-teaching after-school and enrichment study skills classes with me. Together, we’ve grown SOAR Learning to become an international, best-selling curriculum.
We evolved into social-emotional learning (SEL) skills as a natural extension of teaching study skills. Supporting students to be successful in school always involves coaching of emotional intelligence. Over the past 20+ years, we’ve literally written/published hundreds of articles on SEL topics and created many videos. In retrospect, we should have created an SEL curriculum a long time ago! On my profile page, I share more details about the personal stories that ultimately inspired me to address SEL skills in a formal curriculum.
As educators by vocation, we are dedicated to ensuring that every student learns how to learn.
As former classroom teachers, we are dedicated to supporting educators who work tirelessly and give so much of themselves.
As parents of two children with learning disabilities, we are dedicated to providing information and resources to families trying to get proper help for their children with “special needs.”
We’ve carefully crafted our mission and values for SOAR® that reflect the standards we’ve always supported for our own lives, in our own classrooms, and for our own family…
Our Mission
We bring joy to the learning process by creating blueprints and curriculum that celebrate students’ individual strengths, aptitudes, and creativity. We build students’ confidence and support the creativity of teachers. We seek to be the central sphere of influence in education.
Our Six Trademark Values
- Simplicity through Efficient Systems: We seek the least number of steps to be effective.
- Relevance: All learning has a meaningful purpose in students’ lives.
- Joy! Seeking pleasure in life & (school) work. Satisfaction. Ease without resistance. Work/school is a place we want to be.
- Originality & Creativity: We are free to be the people we were created to be, able to express our natural talents.
- Personal Responsibility: We are accountable for our own actions and own our mistakes. We act with integrity: in alignment with our values. We are engaged in our work and take initiative.
- Excellence: We pursue our best work. (NOT to be confused with the “pursuit of perfection.”)
Learn more about our own stories and professional expertise on our own “About Us” pages: Susan Kruger Winter, M.Ed. & Brian Winter, M.Ed.