BRIGHT: Stories of Hope & Innovation in Michigan Classrooms

It can be incredibly powerful for students to have opportunities to learn where there are no grades attached and they can connect to the intrinsic value of a learning experience, whether it be for the love of a good story or for the joy of making a positive impact in their home community. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Erin Carlson, an English teacher at Sandusky Jr./Sr. High School who shares her journey in creating requirement-free learning opportunities for her students.

Design is all around us, but most of the time, it’s invisible. You see the products that result from it, but you usually don’t see the process that went into making them. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with David Byron, director of innovation strategy at Sundberg-Ferar, a product innovation studio in Walled Lake, who explains how the tried & true process of design thinking can help students and adults alike in solving complicated problems, such as the many and multifaceted issues facing the field of education today.

It can be fascinating — and alright, sometimes a little scary —  to speculate on the implications that artificial intelligence (AI) might have for the future of our society. But in many ways — both small and profound — AI is already transforming the way we interact with media and with one another through companies like Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, and more. In this episode of BRIGHT, we chat with Lou Aronson, the CEO and founder of a company called Discourse Analytics, who shares his perspective on how AI has the potential to transform the way we teach and learn.

One theme that has surfaced over and over again throughout our conversations with educators is the fact that, at the end of the day, relationships are the true heart & soul of teaching. The best way to teach someone, after all, is to first get to know them and develop a personal connection. Throughout Season 1 of BRIGHT, several of our guests shared their perspectives and experiences related to this topic, which we recap in this episode.

It’s no surprise that there are some deep equity issues in education that need to be addressed before every single student can have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Throughout Season 1 of BRIGHT, several of our guests spoke about issues related to equity, which we recap in this episode.

What will the classrooms of the future look like? In this episode of BRIGHT, we explore themes on the future of learning. Throughout Season 1, a few key terms came up regularly during our interviews: student-centered learning, project-based learning, and competency-based learning. At the center of all these theories lies the notion of giving students more agency over their learning. Many educators agree with this base premise. The more interesting question, however, is: What do these theories look like in practice?

For marginalized students, school needs to become a place that counteracts the cultural forces working against them. In this episode of BRIGHT, we talk to Kyron Harvell, the director of the school culture and climate grant for Lansing School District, who shares his mission of serving as a voice for the voiceless in his school community. In this conversation, we explore how Kyron and his team are cultivating a culture of inclusivity in Lansing centered around equitable access to learning opportunities, culturally responsive practices, social emotional learning, and restorative justice.

During this past year, one of the biggest challenges educators reported was keeping students engaged and motivated while learning online during the pandemic. In this episode of BRIGHT, we talk to Dr. Chris Harrington, the director of the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, who shares his reflections on pandemic teaching, common misconceptions about online learning, and the findings of his team's landmark study on student engagement.

As human beings, music has the power to enchant us, connect us, and also… to teach us. In this episode of BRIGHT, we talk to Ben Ashby  — or Señor Ashby as he’s known in his Spanish classroom at Zeeland Public Schools and to his online students at Michigan Virtual. We talked about the role music plays in learning, how online teaching has influenced the way he runs his face-to-face classroom and vice versa, and his hopes for education as we look to the future.

For all students — but especially for those who struggle in the traditional classroom — project-based learning can offer an opportunity to rediscover the joy of learning. In this episode of BRIGHT, we talk to Dr. Sarah Pazur, the director of school leadership at FlexTech High Schools, who shares the why and how behind this vision for learning along with examples of some really cool projects that allowed students to explore their interests, meet core competencies, and have real-world impacts.