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Year: 2019

Episode 056: Interview with Mithil Pujar – Chairman of the Executive Student Cabinet, San Diego County Office of Education, and learner, Poway Unified School District

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.

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In this episode we learn the power of learner voice through a conversation with Mithil Pujar, Chairman of the Executive Student Cabinet at the San Diego County Office of Education, and Poway Unified Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council (SSAC) member, dedicated to making school better. Through partnering with district and community leaders, Mithil works to elevate learner voices in the decision making process at the school and district levels. 

As a result of our conversation, here are questions we are pondering:

  1. What learner-centered aspects of Mithil’s journey might translate to your school or district?
  2. How might you better know your learners and be open and responsive to their needs?

Resources:

Episode 055: Josh Ecker, teacher & Amelia and Josh, learners on Project Wonder

Lynn Fuini-Hetten

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In this episode, we are learning with Josh Ecker, middle school teachers involved in the launch of a learner-centered model of education, Project Wonder (a micro-school within Salisbury Middle School) and two learners, Amelia and Josh.  

Josh is in his third year teaching in Salisbury. He is pursuing a doctoral degree in Mind, Brain, and Teaching, and using what he’s learning to inform his learner-centered teaching practices. He’s written several articles for Education Reimagined and enjoys engaging with others in discussions about learner-centered education.

Amelia is a 7th grade musician, athlete, and learner. She enjoys hanging out with her friends, and going on walks with her dogs. She is also the creator of the Project Wonder YouTube channel, which highlights exciting work happening in class. 

Josh is a 7th grade learner in his second year as a member of Project Wonder. He enjoys building things and helping others. This year he combined those interests by partnering with a 6th grader and the STEM teacher to build a bookshelf for class.

Here’s what we’re thinking about:

  • What would your learners share about their experiences in your learner-centered learning environment?

Resources

Episode 054: Interview with David Beyer and Josh Ecker – Project Wonder

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.

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In this episode, we are learning with David Beyer and Josh Ecker, middle school teachers involved in the launch of a learner-centered model of education, Project Wonder (a micro-school within Salisbury Middle School).  

Dave is a former software designer who has been teaching in Salisbury for 14 years. His learning philosophy is centered on meeting the students where they are, building personal connections with each student, and focusing on process over product.

Josh is in his third year teaching in Salisbury. He is pursuing a doctoral degree in Mind, Brain, and Teaching, and using what he’s learning to inform his learner-centered teaching practices. He’s written several articles for Education Reimagined and enjoys engaging with others in discussions about learner-centered education.

Here’s what we’re thinking about:

  • What would your learners say about their experiences in their learning environment?

Resources

Episode 053: Interview with Amanda Delaney – Graduate of Urban Assembly Maker Academy

Lynn Fuini-Hetten

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In this episode we are learning with Amanda Delaney, a 2018 graduate of a learner-centered learning environment, Urban Assembly Maker Academy. Upon graduating, Amanda earned an advanced Regents diploma and Career-Technical Education distinctions. As a founding student, Amanda acted as a key voice in the school’s design and iteration process. Amanda has worked with Springpoint—a nonprofit that supports innovative school design—as an intern, a writer, and a speaker, sharing her experiences as a student in a Springpoint partner school. Amanda also served as student council president and a student representative, traveling across the city and the country to talk about her experience in a student-centered, innovative school. She attends Hunter College as of fall 2018, majoring in Elementary Education.

As a result of our conversation, here is a question we are thinking about:

  • How can you involve students in the design and continuous improvement process at your school or district?

Resources:

Bonus Episode 15 – d.tech Intern Final Reflection Interview with Jemma Schroder and Monica Shannon

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.

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In this bonus episode of Shift Your Paradigm, we talked with Jemma Schroder and Monica Shannon, interns from Design Tech High School. We designed an internship in which our learners had the opportunity to learn the inner workings of podcast production by working to support our TLTalkRadio and Shift Your Paradigm podcasts. Our two participants—Jemma and Monica—worked with us for two weeks. During this episode, we reflected on this unique learning opportunity.

Here’s what we talked about:

  1. How has this experience been?
  2. What did you learn over the course of these two weeks?
  3. What were some key takeaways from this experience? How can you apply these takeaways to your future?
  4. What were some challenges you faced during this internship and how did you overcome them? 
  5. Did anything surprise you during this internship?
  6. Do you think you’ll create your own podcast sometime in the future?

Resources

Episode 052 – Springpoint–Building a future where high schools prepare every student to succeed.

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.

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In this episode we are learning with Elina Alayeva and Suzette Dyer. Both from Springpoint, a national nonprofit that partners with schools, districts, charters, networks, and foundations to create innovative school models designed for and responsive to the communities they serve. 

We learned about the mission of Springpoint and the problem they are working to solve with reimagining high schools. The principal is a key leader in school transformation to learner-centered models and we learned how Springpoint builds the capacity of principals. Elina and Suzette also provide some insight to leaders and learners making the shift to learner-centered education.

As a result of our conversation, here is a question we are thinking about:

  • What opportunities exist in your school or district for stakeholders to contribute to continuous improvement efforts? Where could more of these opportunities be created?

Resources:

Episode 051: Dual School Interview with Zack Jones

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.

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In this episode, we are learning with Zack Jones, Director of Dual School, located in Wilmington Delaware.

Dual School is a supplement to the existing education system, delivering a learning opportunity to students from public, private and charter schools in New Castle County, DE. Dual School also welcomes teachers to learn from their innovative pedagogy and connect with other forward thinking educators. Born out of a partnership with Blue Dot Education, a group of teachers from High Tech High, Dual School provides their flagship Idea Incubator program twice each year to about 40 students and their consulting work reaches another 100 youth who work on social impact projects as a workforce development experience. 

Zack is a graduate of Horn Entrepreneurship at University of Delaware, and is the author of The World Changer’s Handbook: A Young Person’s Guide to Creating an Impactful Life. He’s passionate about helping young people activate their potential by taking action on their ideas.

In our conversation, we learned about Dual School’s innovative learning model through many examples. During the 3-hour learning sessions, learners at Dual School work alongside adults to pursue social impact projects. The model represents learning that is personalized, contextualized and relevant to the participating high school learners. The projects shared also represent a high level of learner agency. We spoke about the importance of shifting adults roles in a learner-centered learning environment.

As a result of our conversation, we are thinking about the following question:

  • What did you learn today that can be applied to the transformation of your learning environment and the shifting role of the teacher?

Resources:

Bonus Episode 14 – d.tech Intern Update Interview with Jemma Schroder and Monica Shannon

d.tech Intern

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This blog post and podcast was created and edited by d.Tech High School Interns, Monica Shannon and Jemma Schroder.

In this bonus episode of Shift Your Paradigm, we talked with Jemma Schroder and Monica Shannon, interns from Design Tech High School. We designed an internship in which our learners have the opportunity to learn the inner workings of podcast production by working to support our TLTalkRadio and Shift Your Paradigm podcasts. Our two participants—Jemma and Monica—have been working with us this week. During this episode, we checked-in, reflected on their progress, and shared more about the process with our listeners.

Here’s what we talked about:

  1. How has this week been?
  2. What have you learned or what skills have you built in this internship so far?
  3. What is one challenge you have encountered in this internship?
  4. Has anything surprised you during this week?
  5. As mentors, how have we helped make this experience successful for you?
  6. Do you feel you are to make your own podcast or host an episode of a podcast?
  7. Going into next week, how do you feel? Would you change anything about this internship?

Resources

Episode 050: RiseUp Community School Interview with Karen Ikegami, Principal

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.

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In this episode we are learning about the learner-centered environment at RiseUp Community School in Denver, CO. We are speaking with Karen Ikegami, Principal of the school. RiseUp Community School is a charter school within the Denver Public School System. The school opened in August of 2015. The adults at RiseUp work hard to provide each learner with the opportunity to learn, practice, and excel with skills they’ll need to be active participants in the community. Curriculum at RiseUp is designed to examine self and community while various wrap-around services help students navigate barriers to school. Community building is a key aspect of the school and helps learners understand each other as individuals.

During our conversations, we learned what makes RiseUp learner-centered, and also discussed the challenges of a regulated public school environment working to provide as many learner-centered experiences for learners as possible. We also learned about the importance of prioritizing relationships and learner voice in the design of learning experiences.

As a result of our conversation, we are thinking about this question:

  • What did you learn today about supporting learners who are not successful in the traditional high school model of learning?

Resources:

Bonus Episode 13 – d.tech Interns Interview with Jemma Schroder and Monica Shannon

d.tech Intern

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This blog post and podcast were created and edited by dTech High School Interns, Monica Shannon and Jemma Schroder.

In this bonus episode of Shift Your Paradigm, we talked to Jemma Schroder and Monica Shannon, interns from Design Tech High School. We designed an internship in which participants will have the opportunity to learn the inner workings of podcast production by working directly on supporting TLTalkRadio and Shift Your Paradigm podcasts. Our two participants — Jemma and Monica — will also have the opportunity to plan and design their own passion project podcast for future publication.

Internship activities might include:

  • Researching guest author’s books and/or learning environments
  • Developing questions for podcast guests
  • Writing bios for guests
  • Preparing the podcast script
  • Editing recorded episodes for production
  • Intern also has the opportunity to create his.her own podcast/elements of a podcast

Here’s what we talked about:

  1. Give us some background on your learning experience at Design Tech High School and what interests you about this internship opportunity?
  2. What specific facets of podcasting are interesting to you?
  3. We believe you will need specific Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities to be successful.  How can we help you develop these skills?
  4. How can we best support you as mentors?
  5. If this is a highly successful experience, what will it look like?
  6. How might this experience connect to your future goals?

Resources