Be a Better Ally: Critical Conversations for K12 Educators

A conversation that reminds us how curiosity, art, and iteration can reshape are necessary and may even be assets for our school leadership and the ways we nurture creative courage in young learners....

In this episode, Tricia Friedman sits down with author-illustrator Christy Mandin to explore what school leaders can learn from the creative process behind children's literature. Together they unpack how curiosity fuels empathy, how messy iteration sparks innovation, and how embracing the dark and uncertain moments of creativity can make us more compassionate educators.

What You'll Learn

• Why boredom and unstructured time are essential ingredients for student creativity.

• How to help students (and ourselves) become friends with the dark—embracing uncertainty as a path to growth.

• Why modeling curiosity, reflection, and open-mindedness is one of the most powerful leadership moves.

Christy Mandin is the author and illustrator of multiple picture books. She's grown many interesting plants in her garden over the years but, so far, none with teeth or tentacles. She currently lives in Georgia with her husband and four children. Visit Christy online at christymandin.com or Instagram @christymandin

Learn more about our amazing show sponsor: Poll Everywhere

Keep learning with Shifting Schools.

Tricia Friedman sits down with bestselling author Ryan La Sala for a deep dive into the creative process behind his latest book. Together, they explore how queer horror, artistic design, and emotional literacy intersect to shape stories that resonate with today's readers.

La Sala reveals how multiple drafts, layered perspectives, and intentional design choices come together to build a reading experience that's as visual as it is emotional. The conversation highlights how horror can be a vehicle for exploring complex emotions and how queer narratives give young readers language for identity, resilience, and joy.

Whether you're a writer, educator, or passionate reader, this episode invites you to see how art and literature ripple outward—helping us process fear, find belonging, and create change.

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As mentioned at the top of the episode, connect with Gitane, and follow the amazing work she's doing for us through her free newsletter.

Join me through AAIE with The Future of Your Voice

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Chapters

00:00 Creative Storytelling and Design Elements 02:57 Engaging Young Readers in a Media-Rich World 05:37 Crafting the Perfect Opening Page 08:35 Balancing Horror and Queer Representation 11:08 Writing as a Coping Strategy

What can monsters, middle-grade fantasy, and community-centered storytelling teach us about the world we live in today? In this episode, Tricia Friedman sits down with New York Times bestselling author Claribel A. Ortega (Witchlings) to explore how fantasy fiction helps young readers navigate identity, belonging, and hope in turbulent times. Ortega shares her creative process—from plotting complex magical worlds to writing on planes during book tours—and reflects on the power of friendship, grief, and imagination as tools for resilience.

This episode is perfect for educators, librarians, creative writers, and fans of middle-grade fiction who want to learn how storytelling can mirror society and spark empathy.

⏰ Timestamped Highlights

00:02 – Monster Studies & Modern Mythmaking Tricia introduces the idea of "monster studies" and how the creatures we imagine reflect the cultures that create them.

00:51 – Writing Through Chaos Claribel discusses how writing became her way to channel frustration, community care, and activism during turbulent times.

03:27 – From Pantser to Plotter How a tight outline and collaborative editing process transformed her creative flow — and how she wrote Witchlings: Scepter of Memories in just 38 days.

07:19 – Creativity in Airports and Coffee Shops Claribel explains how she trained herself to write anywhere (even mid-flight) and why she resists being "precious" about her creative rituals.

10:03 – Fandom, Feedback, and Fanfiction Balancing reader expectations while staying true to her creative North Star — and why fanfiction is a beautiful sign of connection.

13:43 – Imagination as a Muscle Advice for aspiring writers: read current books, consume youth culture, live fully, and reconnect with your playful, curious side.

17:23 – Upcoming Projects Claribel reveals her next graphic novel 30 Ways to Kill Your Avatar — an exploration of grief, gaming, and resilience.

Claribel A. Ortega, New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Squad and the Witchlings series, and Pura Belpre and Eisner Award-winning author of the graphic novel Frizzy, is a former reporter who writes middle grade and young adult fantasy inspired by her Dominican heritage. When she's not busy turning her obsession with pop culture, magic, and video games into books, she's co-hosting her podcast Bad Author Book Club and coaching authors on how to navigate publishing. Claribel has been featured on BuzzFeed, NPR, Good Morning America, and Deadline. You can find her on social media at @Claribel_Ortega and on her website at claribelortega.com.

About the Host

Tricia Friedman is an educator, podcaster, and digital humanities advocate exploring how creativity, community, and technology intersect. Her shows help educators and leaders reimagine how storytelling, AI literacy, and futures thinking shape learning today. triciafriedman.com

Today, a college diploma is no guarantee that graduates have the competencies that businesses need, including using emerging technologies, communicating, working in teams, and other necessary skills. So, it's fair to ask, "Do students really need a college degree"?

Brandeis University President, and nationally respected higher education leader and researcher, Arthur Levine has been at the forefront of the changing role of higher education. Co-author of THE GREAT UPHEAVAL, HIGHER EDUCATIONS PAST PRESENT AND UNCERTAIN FUTURE, Levine argues that in the next 20 years, consumers of higher education will determine what higher education will be, and that every institution will have to change.

Today, the United States is undergoing change of even greater magnitude and speed than it did during the Industrial Revolution as it shifts from a national, analog, industrial economy to a global, digital, knowledge economy. At the same time, public confidence in higher education has declined. Threatened by a demographic cliff in most states where fewer students will be graduating from high school over the next 20 years, the increased competition for students means that a larger number of higher education institutions will be closing or merging with other institutions. It is expected that as many as 20 to 25 percent of colleges, particularly liberal arts colleges and comprehensive regional colleges, will close in the coming years.

Learn more about The Great Upheaval:

New content producers and distributors will enter the higher education marketplace, driving up institutional competition and consumer choice and driving down prices. We are already seeing a proliferation of new postsecondary institutions, organizations and programs that have abandoned key elements of mainstream higher education. These emphasize digital technologies, reject time and place-based education, create low-cost degrees, adopt competency or outcome-based education, and award nontraditional credentials. Increasingly, libraries, museums, media companies and software makers have entered the marketplace, offering content, instruction and certification. Google offers 80 certificate programs and Microsoft has 77. The American Museum of Natural History has its own graduate school, which offers a Ph.D. in comparative biology, a Master of Arts degree in teaching, and short-term online courses that teachers can use for graduate study or professional development credit. The new providers are not only more accessible and convenient, offering a combination of competency- and course-based programs, they are also cheaper and more agile than traditional colleges and universities which will lead to more contraction and closings?

This episode is made possible by our partner Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere's new version makes student engagement faster, simpler, and smarter. With AI-powered poll creation and seamless LMS integration, it's built to transform lectures into truly interactive learning experiences. Try it out today with special promo code '25OFF'

Raghad shares her remarkable journey from Syria to Canada through the Second Chance program. She discusses the challenges of being one of the few students applying to universities abroad from Syria, her initial rejections and waitlists from U.S. universities, and how Second Chance opened new doors for her education and future as a changemaker.

Key Topics Discussed The Application Journey from Syria

• Growing up in Syria with dreams of studying abroad
• Navigating an unfamiliar application process with no local precedent
• Working with Dawn Network, a program supporting Syrian women in higher education
• Selected as one of four girls from across Syria for support
• Applied to 20 U.S. universities in senior year

Discovering Second Chance

• Introduction to the program as a "late decision" alternative
• Acceptance as one of 40-45 students from 300 applicants
• Immediate sense of personal connection and individual recognition
• Diverse cohort from Africa, Middle East, Russia, and beyond
• Fast-paced process of informational sessions and applications

Ready to learn more about Second Chance?

​​​​​​Every year, brilliant low-income students from around the world risk being left behind — not for lack of talent, but for lack of financial means to accept their college admission offers. Until Second Chance takes action.​​​​​

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Each April, at the final hour of the admissions cycle, we identify a cohort of extraordinary students and connect them with full scholarships at leading universities worldwide.​​​​​​

https://www.secondchance.global/

Karam Abboud shares their Second Chance story.

If their story inspires you, consider exploring ways to make even more stories like this a possibility.

Learn more:

https://www.secondchance.global/

​​​​​​Every year, brilliant low-income students from around the world risk being left behind — not for lack of talent, but for lack of financial means to accept their college admission offers. Until Second Chance takes action.​​​​​

​​​​​​

Each April, at the final hour of the admissions cycle, we identify a cohort of extraordinary students and connect them with full scholarships at leading universities worldwide.​​​​​​

Thank you to Oskar Diyali for creating the intro and outro music for this episode.

​​​​​​Every year, brilliant low-income students from around the world risk being left behind — not for lack of talent, but for lack of financial means to accept their college admission offers.

Until Second Chance takes action.​​​​​

​​​​​​Each April, at the final hour of the admissions cycle, we identify a cohort of extraordinary students and connect them with full scholarships at leading universities worldwide.​​​​​​

On the podcast you get to hear first hand from students who have experienced the mission of Second Chance.

This September, we invite you to Step Up for Second Chance, and figure out how you, and your community can support them in helping even more students.

The intro and outro music is composed by Second Chance student Oskar Diyali .

Learn more:

https://www.secondchance.global/

Second Chance was conceived in 2018 when 60 of the world's best students had their full scholarships revoked by a university at the last moment.

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Every year, high-achieving, high-need students around the world miss out on university for reasons outside of their control. These students have applied to university, but are not able to access the financial aid they had hoped for.

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This is where Second Chance comes in. Each year, they identify a cohort of the world's most brilliant students who face financial and other barriers to higher education, who have not gained access to university in the usual application cycle. These students come from the most difficult circumstances worldwide.

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After April 1, when universities have usually finalized their funding, their team of highly committed, experienced college counselors rapidly place these students at excellent universities around the world, with full scholarships.

Learn more:

https://www.secondchance.global/about

Ruchira Gupta is a writer, feminist campaigner, professor at New York University and founder of the anti-sex-trafficking organization, Apne Aap Women Worldwide. She won the Clinton Global Citizen award in 2009, the Sera Bangali Award in 2012 and an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism in 1996. She has helped more than twenty thousand girls and women in India exit prostitution systems and her experiences with this work inspired her debut novel I Kick and I Fly. She has also edited As If Women Matter, an anthology of Gloria Steinem's essays, and written manuals on human trafficking for the UN Office for Drugs and Crime. Ruchira divides her time between Delhi and New York. Follow Ruchira at author website: https://ruchiragupta.com/ Learn more about her new middle grade book: https://www.slj.com/review/the-freedom-seeker

In this conversation, Leo Trottier discusses the interdisciplinary foundations of Fluent Pet, emphasizing the importance of cognitive science in understanding animal behavior and communication. He explores the emotional connections humans have with their pets and the implications of interspecies communication for animal rights and empathy. The conversation also touches on the future of technology in enhancing communication between species and the role of education in fostering empathy in children through interactions with animals.

Chapters

00:00 Interdisciplinary Foundations of Fluent Pet 03:34 Understanding Interspecies Communication 09:11 The Emotional Connection with Pets 13:27 Future Aspirations in Interspecies Communication 17:52 Teaching Empathy Through Animal Interaction 22:29 Exploring the Depth of Animal Communication 25:47 The Future of Animal Rights and Communication

Learn more about FluentPet

https://fluent.pet/en-ca

Learn more about Emily MacLean's new podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1lkuugFdimhfDhdDDOV3X2

Catch Tricia with AAIE this Fall:

https://www.aaie.org/leadership-learning/future-foresight-community