Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity

The teaching of U.S. history and civics is in the news a lot these days. We're seeing controversy and divisiveness around the approach we should take with our students. Stress what's good about the U.S. and where we're making progress toward meeting our goals? Focus on where the promise is not yet being met? The discussions are leaving many teachers in pedagogical limbo. And students may be denied the opportunity to engage in some critical thinking. Guest Casey Jakubowski PhD, a K12 specialist, weighs in.

This week we spoke with Principal Michelle Pinchot who was asked to turn around a low-performing school. Rather than jump in immediately with a bunch of 'solutions," Michelle started asking a lot of questions and listening. And listening is where we go with this week's "Worth a Listen, Look or Read." We'll watch a TED Talk to learn about 5 strategies we can use to improve our listening. And then we'll learn about the 7-38-55 rule, which, well...check out the episode for the skinny on that.

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 we talked with Michelle Pinchot, Principal of the Heritage Computer Academy in Garden Grove, CA. Her challenge? How do you improve a low-performing school where only 50% of the faculty feel pride in what they're doing? Hint: don't start with a slew of actions.

In this week's podcast, we talked with Mike Matsuda, Superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District. Mike's focus has been to build a three-part framework that brings greater alignment between what happens in the classroom and the world of work. One of those elements speaks to developing student voice. We dug into that idea by watching a video that features a graduation speech given by Denzel Washington. In that speech, Washington outlines the real goal of having students develop their voice.

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. In this episode, we talk with Superintendent Mike Matsuda around his singular vision — to bring better alignment between what students are doing in the classroom right now and the world they'll face upon graduation — and the urgency by which he's pursuing it.

This week we chatted with Yasmeen Robbins, an Instructional Review Consultant for the North Carolina Department of Instruction. Her role takes her from one end of the state to the other where she engages with many administrators. And she hears from many of them how isolating the work can be. So, like the great change agent that she is, Yasmeen decided to do something to alleviate some of their isolation. And that "something" symbolizes her desire to connect people, enable collaboration, and grow community.

This interview is part of our "Unstuck" series, which focuses on school leaders who are not just getting unstuck, they're already "unstuck." And by "Unstuck," we mean they are supporting a major shift in education that will increase the potential for administrators and teachers to achieve desired outcomes. Yasmeen Robbins has spent 16 years in public education, most recently as an Instructional Coach. What caught our attention is the APP she's building that will promote cross-district collaboration.

This week we chatted with an Assistant Superintendent of the Mesa Arizona Public Schools, Dr. Randy Mahlerwein. Randy believes that educators need to create different types of learners with a different skill set from what they have typically produced in the past. Doing so is imperative if they're going to create learners who can thrive in the evolving world of work. To help educators navigate such a shift, Randy had to demonstrate adaptive leadership and create a psychologically safe environment.

If school leaders want staff to feel comfortable designing and initiating changes to benefit students, they have to create a culture of psychological safety for experimentation – and failure. Dr. Randy Mahlerwein, the Assistant Superintendent over Secondary Schools in the Mesa Public Schools explains how to do just that.

This week on "Getting Unstuck," we chatted with Principal "Missie" Patschke on the need to build leadership capacity with all staff. The necessity of building the capacity of others to lead is not a new idea. It's not universally practiced, though, because leaders typically get stuck trying to build capacity in one of three ways. We'll investigate a way to break free of those barriers in this week's deeper-dive feature "Worth a Listen, Look, or Read."