Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity

Those who work for substantial educational change, do so within the context of today's heated nation and world. Two thought leaders are adept at shining a light on those educators who are trying to lead their communities out of darkness. Dr. Michael Fullan and Dr. Mark Edwards have penned an argument for change that highlights how eight districts are combining the emotional and scientific basis for how educators and communities can work together to address the problems we face.

If students are in a state of high stress or trauma, the part of the brain that facilitates learning is inaccessible. Thus, student academic achievement rests squarely on the shoulders of student wellness. Neuroscience researcher, Melissa Hughes, Ph.D., explains.

One of the goals of our series is to raise awareness and the level of discourse around student trauma and mental health in general. And if we're not bringing these subjects out into the open, kids keep all those emotions bottled up inside of them. Dr. Glenn Albright and Kim Weiland from Kognito, a firm that develops avatar-based simulations to help develop trauma-informed educators, explain.

Periodically on Getting Unstuck, we welcome a change maker to tell their story of personal transformation: how a specific event or catalyst propelled them into a different role or way of thinking from where they once were. Today, we hear from Suzanne DeMaillie who went from being the parent of three children to someone who led a four- year crusade to bring about a specific educational change. And as we've learned from countless other examples, bringing about an educational change isn't always easy.

Some students from low-income communities – often kids of color – may lack aspirations for a post high-school future because they feel it's simply unrealistic to think of life outside of their current situation. But many students from low-income communities do have aspirations, yet they are sidelines because of real or perceived societal barriers blocking their way. The organization OneGoal helps them find a pathway. Priya Linson, OneGoal's Executive Director of its Chicago chapter, explains.

As today's guest observed, "Many kids fall through the cracks somewhere." Maybe they've experienced trauma outside of school, and as a result, they don't fit in inside of school. But Jeff Rivero, veteran history teacher at Yosemite High School in Merced California, knows how to reach them and help them uncover their passion. How? He treats them like the natural resources they are.

Over the years, we've heard a lot of ideas from teachers, administrators and thought leaders on how to reform high school so that the institution would better serve tomorrow's graduates and the complex world they face. But we'd never heard students' ideas on how to improve their high school experience. In this interview, we get the details on the student-generated and award winning plan from Sheri Nelson (Assistant Principal) and Alex Campbell (teacher) of Elizabethton HS, Elizabethton, TN.

This week I talked with Janani Pathy, Principal of the Bill Hogarth Secondary School in Markham, Ontario Canada. Janani is one of those "unstuck" leaders that we profiled recently in our "unstuck" series. "Unstuck" leaders tend to demonstrate a few key behaviors, one being, they're highly adaptable and innovative. As a result, they don't tend to get stuck very often. That observation led to a discussion of a process for overcoming obstacles that Ryan Holiday outlines in his book, The Obstacle is the Way.

Over the summer, we've been running a series called "Unstuck" where we've profiled school leaders who are not just getting unstuck, they're already unstuck. A number of behaviors define them. They're adaptable, flexible and innovative community-minded, focused on life skill development and the whole child; and finally, they believe there is an imperative to develop student leaders. Today's guest, principal Janani Pathy, epitomizes the unstuck leader.

This week I talked with Peter McWain, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Sante Fe Public Schools. We reviewed a number of positive instructional outcomes that emerged from living under COVID. Unintended consequences occur all the time from change. While planners usually target desired outcomes, they often don't consider the negative outcomes that could accrue. To avoid that, change planners could ask themselves a question such as "How might the opposite of our desired outcome emerge?"