Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity

Erin Mote is the cofounder of the Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School, a community-based school organization that serves more than 1000 students. She is also the Executive Director and Co-Founder of InnovateEDU. In this episode, we'll go from the design of the charter school that Erin and her then soon-to-be-husband scratched out on the back of a cocktail napkin to a flourishing school of "scholars," many of whom come with a figurative backpack full of challenges and hard-earned grit and resilience.

This week I talked with Daniel Bauer, podcast host, author, mastermind facilitator, and coach. He has defined the art of growing leadership talent that seeks to change education to better serve 21st century students. He grows "Ruckus Makers." As successful as he is, he's as susceptible to self-doubt and the voice of his inner critic – his imposter syndrome – as the rest of us. The imposter syndrome is an extremely persuasive, loud, and rude critic – a real bully. But there are ways to turn its volume down.

We've been running a series called "Unstuck," which focuses on school leaders who are not just getting unstuck, they're already "unstuck." And by "Unstuck," we mean they are leading or embracing a major shift in student learning, instruction, ongoing teacher professional development, community relations, or personal leadership. Whiles he's not technically a leader inside a school anymore, Daniel Bauer epitomizes our "unstuck" philosophy with a unique brand of his own: developing "Ruckus Makers."

This week I talked with Dr. Daisy Morales, the new Superintendent of the Live Oak School District in Santa Cruz, CA. Daisy's big concern coming into the district on Day 1 wasn't rectifying the "lost learning" associated with managing classrooms in a virtual or hybrid environment. Her primary concern coming out of a year of COVID was with the wellness of her faculty and staff. So, we stay with wellness in this episode and focus on three unique ideas to help faculty and staff promote their own self-care.

Dr. Daisy Morales is the new Superintendent of the Live Oak School District in Santa Cruz, CA. Like other smart, experienced leaders, Dr. Morales didn't come into the district with her guns of change blazing. Instead, she began a series of one-on-one and group listening meetings to determine the priority for the year. Not priorities, but priority. And what she discovered is that the worlds of instruction and learning, and social-emotional learning need to come together. Fast.

This week I talked with Connie Liu and Jordan Mareno of "Project Invent," an organization that brings innovation, design thinking, and community problem solving into the classroom. "Project Invent" is all about helping students maintain their curiosity and sense of discovery — what a ZEN master would call their "beginner's mind." This approach isn't just a nice to have. Today's organizations operating in an environment of volatility, complexity, and ambiguity want innovative thinking from their leaders.

Teaching kids 21st century skills is not new news. Fortunately, most school systems have instruction in place that addresses the 4Cs or variations of them along with life & career skills and media skills. How schools develop the skills, however, does vary. Do you teach these skills in discrete lessons? Or do you weave them seamlessly into project-based experiences? In this episode, Connie Liu and Jordan Mareno of Project Invent share their philosophy and program.

This week we talked with Sunny Summers, the Founding School Leader of New Harmony High School in New Orleans. Our conversation centered on how one goes about designing a new school, especially one that is place-based around the local ecosystem. That approach is unique, but what really defines New Harmony is its people – its faculty and students. And people is where we go with this week's mini-feature, as we explore how one author is redefining global warming by focusing on the people affected by it.

This interview is part of our "Unstuck" series. By "Unstuck," we mean our guest is leading or embracing a major shift in student learning, instruction, ongoing teacher professional development, community relations, or personal leadership. This week talked with Sunny Summers, Executive Director of New Harmony High in New Orleans. New Harmony High rewrote the book on place-based learning because everything the students engage in leverages the local ecosystem: the land, the people and their culture.

This week we spoke with K12 social studies educator, Casey Jakubowski, Ph.D.. Our conversation dove into the debate about the purpose of teaching U.S. History. Is it about instilling patriotism, examining the promise of America versus its practices, or teaching critical life skills? A mixture? Teaching skills is where we go with this week's "Worth a Listen, Look or Read." We make the case that helping students develop their critical thinking is critical given that employers are looking for it.