Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity

We recorded our first interview with Peter McWain, Santa Fe Public Schools Director of Curriculum and Instruction during the summer of 2018. As schools emerge from COVID — and as educators try to prepare today's students for an ever volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, we wanted to revisit some questions from our initial conversation: What is the purpose of U.S. education? What do we want for our graduates to know and do with their knowledge? And what kind of people do we want them to be?

We recorded our first interview with Peter McWain, Santa Fe Public Schools Director of Curriculum and Instruction during the summer of 2018. As schools emerge from COVID — and as educators try to prepare today's students for an ever volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, we wanted to revisit some questions from our initial conversation: What is the purpose of U.S. education? What do we want for our graduates to know and do with their knowledge? And what kind of people do we want them to be?

This week I talked with Dr. Lindsay Lyons, an educational coach who helps teachers integrate student voice in classroom learning so as to develop shared classroom leadership. There's a lot of interest in student agency, but there's also concern from many teachers and students. Teachers are leery of giving up control and not being able to cover everything they need to cover. Students are simply used to taking direction from their teachers. The research, though, says "Just do it!" and the benefits will come.

If you asked people to identify the qualities they want to see in high school graduates, most people would respond with points such as Independent thinking, Collaborative, Problem solving, Emotionally intelligence and Adaptability. These are also all qualities that we would want to see in leaders, rights? But what kind of opportunities do we routinely give kids to develop these leadership qualities? And what kind of barriers stand in the way of practice? Leadership coach, Dr. Lindsay Lyons, explains.

This week I talked with Erin Mote, co-founder of the Brooklyn Lab Charter School in Brooklyn, New York. Erin is passionate about helping the school's "scholars" discover their interests, their passions, and in the process, help shape their individual identity. This idea that we can be shaped by multiple interests and passions led us to investigate the book RANGE and the TEDx Talk "The Hidden Power of Not (Always) Fitting In." Life, we discovered, should be about investigating and living possibilities.

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.