New View EDU

Episode 56: Helping Students Shape Dynamic FuturesHow many of us have taken a history class? What about a class on the future? Or a class on how to navigate ambiguity? These are the kinds of educational experiences Lisa Kay Solomon urges us to design for our students, as we prepare them for an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. Guest: Lisa Kay SolomonResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“I'll start off and talk about futures thinking and I'll say, so how many people here have taken a class in history? And everybody raises their hand. There's probably some historians, probably teachers of history. Everyone's like, yes, of course I did. And then I'll say, well, how many people here have taken a class in futures? Zero, zero hands, zero. And maybe one person that took like a workshop or something. And then I say, well, which one of those can you influence? And it's like, oh, mic drop.” (8:54)“You gotta practice the stuff that you're gonna need in life. And unfortunately, so much of our K-12 system is based on rewarding things that are knowable, that are performable, that are easily measurable. You know, show me the scale on ambiguity. Show me the person that's like, oh, you got an A in ambiguity, crushed it. We don't have a great vocabulary for it. We don't have a great practice ground for it. So I think about this a lot, because you don't want the first time someone comes head to head with a high stakes, high uncertainty, highly ambiguous situation to be when it matters most. You want them to have done the practice steps along the way, the scaffolding in the safe environment.” (14:11)“You have a really important meeting and you've cleared it on everyone's schedule. People have flown in. They know it's important. And so because it's an important meeting, you go to the important board room that has the big oak table and the leather chairs and no windows and you got the PowerPoint set up. And yes, it's structured, but we have to remember there are human beings walking into that room, and our brains take a look at those signals: big oak table, leather chairs, no windows. And they think status, power, be right, be smart. They're not thinking, be open, be imaginative, be generative, right?” (29:15)Related Episodes: 47, 38, 31, 26, 17, 12, 9, 7, 4

Episode 55: Creating BravelyCreate Bravely. That’s the mantra of dynamic twin brothers Peter and Paul Reynolds. Together, they have built a life of service to others through creativity, as authors, illustrators, designers, educators, bookstore owners, and digital media executives. They share their passion for inspiring others and helping people of all ages find their path in life through creativity, kindness, and what they call “hard fun.”Guests: Paul and Peter ReynoldsResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“We're big believers that yes, school, learning does happen in school a lot of times, and sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes things happen in schools that are sort of counter to the mission. You may have the most important question in your mind, but I think that number one on the list is a really powerful question. It's only three words. Who are you?” (7:04)“We've seen, sadly, tragic results where kids just think, I don't measure up. I don't even measure up to my own version of who I think I'm supposed to be. So actually, you're not supposed to be anything other than who you're meant to be. And our job is to make sure that you get there no matter what...I think that learning is self-design. We're creating ourselves every single day.” (18:47)“You know, kind kids are our kind of kids. And kind adults are our kind of adults. And, you know, sadly, that's something that, that fabric, that civic fabric has been fraying, you know, in the last, you know, almost decade. And we have to, that's one of the things we have to all work on collectively. If we can do that with our kids in schools and our colleagues, then, you know, that will move the world to a better place, for sure.” (28:29)“So, you know, our first answer may be right. Yes, the sky can be blue. But your second answer is going to be more interesting. Your third, your fourth, your fifth. And you can even have, you know, wrong answers. And we, of course, we always say wrong-ish, because it always leads to finding a new discovery…When we do that deep dive, the answers get more and more interesting. And so that is with life. You know, if you only give something just a cursory think, you may even get sort of a correct answer, but if you really do that deep dive, it's going to get really, really interesting.” (38:12)Related Episodes: 51, 50, 44, 42,17,11, 6, 4

Episode 54: Creating Climates of CareWellbeing. Engagement. Belonging. These three values are the “trifecta” of attributes for healthy and productive learning, according to Denise Pope. But how do we design learning environments that put the focus on that trifecta, without diminishing the educational achievement, challenge, and rigor we believe our students deserve? Denise, the co-founder of Challenge Success, returns to New View EDU to help host Tim Fish unravel the tricky issues around creating climates of care in our classrooms while also upholding academic standards.Guest: Dr. Denise PopeResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“When you throw kids into groups for group learning, I think there's an assumption that they know how to do that well, and they don't. And, you know, even my kids will say, Oh my gosh, don't tell people to do more group work! I get stuck with the slackers, or I hate that because, you know, this person's not pulling their weight and I have to do all the work, or whatever. Right. We have to actively teach how to work in community.” (8:54)“And here's the thing, we undervalue students, we underestimate students, and we infantilize them. And then we're surprised when they get out that they can't do things, right? That's on us. That is on us.” (21:14)“Grades are heavily related to cheating, right? You don't cheat when you're doing a project that you're really excited about. When you're putting on a play, when you're putting out a yearbook edition, when you are studying a new move in a dance class or on a football team, you're not thinking about a grade. That’s not why people do things.” (24:57)Related Episodes: 52, 48, 43, 40, 35, 31, 19, 16, 8

Episode 53: Transforming the Future of School“Knowing what we now know, we can no longer do what we now do. To do so is educational malpractice.” That provocative statement is one of the principles that guides Sam Chaltain through his work redesigning education for the modern era. In this episode of New View EDU, Sam asks listeners to consider how the world has changed since our school system was designed, and what educational “sacred cows” we need to dispense with to help school keep pace with the rapid evolution of society.Guest: Sam ChaltainResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“The focus needs to be rendered down to the essence of who. Who is this unique individual? What are their unique interests, passions, and potential contributions to the world and to the people they come in contact with? And how can we set conditions that help that person answer the only question that matters, right? Which is: Of all the things I can do with my one precious life, what must I do?” (10:27)“The goal and the primary measure of health of a living system is disequilibrium, not equilibrium, right? The moment a pond establishes equilibrium, it gets covered in kind of green mushy muck. It's that constant delicate balance, the dance of all of these different, you know, contributing factors that allows for its ultimate and optimal health. And so too is it with us. Therefore, we have a different way and a different frame for how we can think about this thing that for the last 100 years we've called school.” (18:06)“All of our design work is in service of the answers to those questions. How do we, how do we unleash even more powerfully the things that are already powerful here? And how do we make possible the things that are not yet possible? And usually what that leads to is a space that is, that is flexible, that is adaptable, that is permeable, that has the ability…that doesn't look like the way that schools have looked.” (34:36)Related Episodes: 47, 45, 44, 32, 21, 15, 2

Episode 52: Designing Education for TransferWe know we need to work at redesigning our schools to reflect the future our students will inhabit. Issues of mental health, well-being, mattering, and social-emotional growth are emerging as vitally important challenges to solve – to say nothing of the continued need to provide a high-quality, rigorous, and academically sound educational environment. But while we may understand why an overhaul of our practices is essential to success, the big question remains: How? Globally renowned educational thought leader Jay McTighe returns to New View EDU to help provide some of the answers.Guest: Jay McTigheResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“We need to be preparing today's students to be able to navigate a world in which knowledge continues to expand, lifelong learning will be a requirement for success. We have to be able to deal with change, including unpredictable changes, and rote learning of factual information is an insufficient preparation. To summarize, a modern education should prepare students to be able to apply their learning effectively and appropriately, not only to the known, but to the unknown.” (3:50)“I've often wondered how many kids, let's say football players, would go out, work out in the weight room off season and punish themselves with a blocking play if they weren't trying to improve for the Saturday, Friday night, Saturday's game, or how many swimmers would endure grueling interval workouts if they weren't trying to improve their times. Too often, I think, teachers, as you noted, and often students don't know what the game is. And teachers, to be a little harsh, sometimes act as if their job is to cover the playbook play-by-play, as opposed to preparing players for the game.” (16:11)“Those skills of self-assessment, reflection, and goal-setting, are to me underpinning skills of self-directed learners. But if the student is the passive recipient waiting for the teacher to tell them how they did or what they need to do, you're never developing self-directedness. It has to be done by design, and it can be.” (36:21)Related Episodes:  49, 45, 38, 31, 23, Bonus Episode

Episode 51: What Schools Can Do About Achievement CultureWe all want our students to excel. In many ways, schools are set up to foster achievement – to help students reach their potential, strive for great things, and move on to successful next steps after graduation. But as Jennifer Wallace shares in her book Never Enough, focusing on achievement can create a culture that quickly becomes toxic to kids. Where do we cross the line, and what can we do about it?Guests: Jennifer Wallace and Debra WilsonResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“Unfortunately, in our modern society, we get a lot of false alarms. You know, we get the threat when our kid doesn't make the team or doesn't get the invite to the Friday night party that there is something, you know, an alarm going off in our head, but it's really just a bagel burning. The whole house isn't going down.” (9:54)“When I asked the young students how much they agreed or disagreed with the statement, ‘I feel like I matter for who I am at my core, not by what I achieve’ a surprising 25% of students either agreed a little or not at all, meaning that one in four students thought that it was their performance, not who they were as a person, that mattered most to their parents.” (19:56)“I was listening to a speaker at a conference a bit ago…he was actually talking about successful teams, basically, what makes an extraordinary team. And he was talking about competitiveness, but not competitive with each other, but for each other for a common purpose….When you start building in project-based learning, and particularly if you can harness and teach kids how to harness that power of being collectively competitive for a common cause, for a common purpose, and to start mapping that with what we want them to learn, I just think that's an incredibly powerful piece of the equation.” (40:23)Related Episodes: 48, 43, 40, 35, 29, 22, 13

Episode 50: Learning from Sabbatical JourneysIf you had the opportunity to step away from your day-to-day life for six weeks, what would you do with that time? Where would you go? And what lessons would you bring back with you, when the time came to return to your daily routine? School leader Briel Schmitz reflects on her sabbatical journey along the Camino de Santiago, and how taking that time away from work has influenced her whole school community.Guest: Briel SchmitzResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“I think you have to say what you need and want. And if you don't say what you need and want, then you're not going to get that back. So that's the first thing. And the next thing is that when a person like myself, who has a big personality in an organization, has been here for a long time, leaves, it allows everyone else the opportunity to grow into a space that they couldn't before.” (14:36)“I was thinking about what it felt like to be a beginner. What it felt like to be doing something that was difficult, what it felt like to maybe not be the best person at this, because I'm at a point in my career where I've had some success and I know what it feels like to be good at things, and I know the things I'm good at. And to really put myself in a position where I wasn't the best at this. What do I do in that moment? How do I respond to that?” (24:32)“I think it takes a lot of energy to say no. It's fun to say yes, in the sense of you're building something, you're creating something, it's something new, and saying yes is important, but I think our schools may benefit from some clarity that allows it to be more possible to say no. Like that's not actually a part of what we do, and that it gives you more time and space to do the things that you're saying yes to.” (35:01)Related Episodes: 42, 38, 25, 20, 13

Episode 49: The View From the ClassroomIn an age of educator burnout and high turnover rates, what keeps veteran teachers motivated to stay in the classroom? This episode of New View EDU explores how rapidly changing technologies have provided a constant source of inspiration and innovation for two educators. Howard Levin and Stacey Roshan have both transformed their practice through exploration of the opportunities technology provides to both teachers and learners, and used that spark as fuel for careers defined by both longevity and creativity.Guests: Howard Levin and Stacey RoshanResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“But to me, the preparation is really about ensuring that they have skills and confidence to navigate life with resilience and empathy, that they're critical thinkers, that they're effective communicators and active contributors to their communities. And as a math teacher, I always say that teaching math is the easy part. My most important role is helping students learn how to learn, embrace a growth mindset, take ownership of their learning, and just encouraging a love for the process of learning, I think is so critical.” (11:04)“I really believe that these are very new categories in today's world. In the world that I grew up in, the focus was, and in many places still today, the focus is on really good teaching, really good absorption, all kinds of techniques and tricks to get information to stick with students. And we're living in a completely different world right now. We're at our fingertips with a quick breath of our own speech, that information is just everywhere. And so I think it's a huge challenge for independent schools to really embrace and really look at how different the world is for our students and the future students.” (14:53)Related Episodes: 45, 40, 35, 31, 28,18,13

Episode 48: What We Can Learn From AnxietyWe’re accustomed to thinking of anxiety as something undesirable. But what if anxiety could actually be an effective tool, teaching us how to take appropriate risks, manage setbacks, and build resilience? That’s the premise of Dr. Tracy Dennis Tiwary’s book Future Tense: Why Anxiety is Good for You Even Though it Feels Bad.Guest: Dr. Tracy Dennis-TiwaryResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“Anxiety is apprehension about the uncertain future. So what that means is that when we're anxious, we're not actually in the moment. We're actually becoming mental time travelers into the future. And what anxiety both signals and helps us do really effectively, is picture that future. There is potential threat or peril. That is, you know, that's why it feels bad. We're kind of sitting up and paying attention. But at the same time, when we're anxious, there is also still positive possibility.” (6:22)“You don't go from zero to a hundred.You start with little 10 pound weights. And it's the same for this emotional endurance. We have to think of not psychological or mental health so much as mental fitness. I just think it sets us up, when it comes especially to anxiety and major anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, substance use disorders or these kinds of struggles. Let's think about fitness, because we can build these skills for people, we can help them. But you don't do it by going from zero to 100.” (17:57)“Part of, I think, the gift and the problem of the parenting space right now, if I may say, is that we have this sort of parenting advice industrial complex, right? Where I feel that, as wonderful as the advice out there is, it's created this culture in which we feel like we have to check off 100 out of 100 boxes on the good parenting checklist. And if we don't, we're a bad parent, we're letting down our kid.” (29:06)Related Episodes: 47, 35,  19, 18, 16, 11, 5, 3