Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity

In this episode, we hear from Grace McGuirk, a Registered Dietitian with a Master's Degree in Public Health. Grace is the Evaluation Manager and Nutrition Advisor with the Sage Garden Project, a program that provides staff, equipment, and training to high-need school garden programs to help students experience standards-based, grade-appropriate lessons as they grow, prepare, and share nourishing food.

Children of color are held in virtual bondage through the negative stereotypes that define them as threatening, violent, criminal, poor, and academically disengaged. Children of color internalize these stereotypes as guilt before they even enter the school. For many children, these stereotypes become a script that influences their behavior and inhibits their ability to be engaged learners. Guest Alexs Pate explains how we can rewrite the script and bridge that gap to create an environment of "innocence."

Children of color are held in virtual bondage through the negative stereotypes that define them as threatening, violent, criminal, poor, and academically disengaged. Children of color internalize these stereotypes as guilt before they even enter the school. For many children, these stereotypes become a script that influences their behavior and inhibits their ability to be engaged learners. Guest Alexs Pate explains how we can rewrite the script and bridge that gap to create an environment of "innocence."

According to author and education researcher, Heather Clayton Staker, "schools can be a microcosm of the world that we want our children to grow up to create themselves. One starting point is to shift the power structure so that children are given agency and ownership to drive their own learning. Part of the shift from a teacher-led to a student-driven mindset will come from giving students multiple learning pathways and empowering them to set their own goals and follow them."

Even without COVID-19, leading a class, school or district isn't easy. You have to be focused on what matters most. Key to that, as argued here by Superintendent of Port Washington, NY schools, Dr. Michael Hynes, is knowing your North Star – your values, why you're going what you're doing, what you're trying to achieve, and what your non-negotiables are.

The traditional high school transcript reinforces outdated modes of education, limits learning to single subjects, and impedes the pursuit of educational equity. It sorts students through narrow measures such as grades and GPA. Ben Rein of the Mastery Transcript Consortium explains why the Mastery Transcript is a dramatic alternative. It supports each student in exploring varied pathways to futures of interest, and in being recognized for acquiring and mastering skills both inside and outside of school.

Our current system of education is broken. The structures and practices starting with our federal system, down to the states, to the districts, to the schools – including most of higher education – do not support or incentivize innovative ways of engaging students that encourage them to pursue their interests and passions, and develop the skills necessary to contribute to a better world. Dr. Chris Unger explains how we must inspire and empower educators to change education to better support students.

When the Gallup organization measured student engagement in school, they found that engagement drops from 5th grade on. Only about half of students in middle school reported high levels of engagement and about one-third of high school students reported the same. Why are our students increasingly disengaged? In this conversation, Dr. Eric Toshalis who for the past three decades has served public education in a variety of roles explains the causes of student disengagement and what we can do about them.

In this episode, we talk with Gregg Brown. Gregg spent 30 years in the telecommunications industry. He became an instructor at the Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) where he taught marketing and economics using Profession Based Learning. In 2017, Gregg became the CAPS Network Coordinator to support the growing number of programs using the CAPS Model. Here, Gregg explains how businesses and schools are partnering to provide students with meaningful exposure to the world of work.

In this episode, we talk with Patrick Cook-Deegan. Patrick is a leader in reimagining adolescent education through the lens of purpose learning. He is the Founder and CEO of Project Wayfinder. Project Wayfinder imagines a world where adolescent education is designed for all students to develop lives of meaning and purpose. It partner with educators to design innovative learning experiences that foster meaningful connection and guide students to navigate life with purpose.