Change Starts Here

The realm of education has been utterly transformed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic – and it’s going to fall largely upon educators to do what they can to help right the ship for their students.

The pandemic – and the resulting “COVID slide” in learning, disproportionately impacted underserved communities and students of color, making the issue that much more critical.

Here to talk about these issues in depth, as well as provide some insight into this unique learning phenomenon, is Eve Miller, Director of Research at FranklinCovey.

The COVID slide, Miller said, is a way to distinguish “learning models from other points of learning loss, such as a summer learning loss or other periods where there has been learning loss with students.

“COVID learning loss is widely spread and very exacerbated for different groups who have experienced gaps in their learning before, like equity gaps in learning or opportunity gaps in learning.”

The shift to virtual learning during the pandemic has also created a stark contrast between those with the means for and access to remote learning and those who don’t.

“It’s unfortunate, but we know these gaps in learning existed before the pandemic,” Miller continued. “What the pandemic has done is really shown how equity is about opportunities in the community, in the home, in the schools, and all different levels of a student’s life. I think it’s easy to blame the student and easy to blame the teacher – it’s easy to blame all these different levels, but that doesn’t get us anywhere.”

Although there isn’t a clear-cut answer to closing this divide in learning, Miller believes that it may take a new approach to do so.

“What I’ve seen in the literature coming out is an attempt to fix the large-scale issues in a similar way that we’ve always tried to fix things – ways that research has said doesn’t always fix things,” she said.

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Change Starts Here and host Dustin Odham, Thought Leader for FranklinCovey Education, are back with another thought-provoking and inspiring episode – this time featuring a bona fide legend in the field of education.

Dr. Christine Rubie-Davies – though she prefers to drop the titles and go by Christine – has spent decades immersed in the world of education and has led the conversation surrounding teacher expectations and their impact on learning, teacher-student relationships and more.

She began her career with more than two decades of work in primary school education, then transitioned to a role at New Zealand’s University of Auckland, where she currently serves as a professor in the School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice.

Taking a cue from past Change Starts Here guest Brad Montague, who prefers to ask people what they love about what they do rather than what they do for a living, Odham posed the same question to Rubie-Davies.

“The reason I love what I do is I get to make a difference for kids, still,” she said. “When I went into teaching, that was always my major goal. I wanted to make a difference for every kid in my class, every year.”

Odham and Rubie-Davies dove into how she’s making that happen with research into teacher expectations and their impact on students and more.

Not everyone is wired for natural positivity. In fact, one of the world’s foremost authors and keynote speakers on the topic doesn’t even find it easy.

However, if you can focus on implementing the power of positivity in leadership and beyond, you can unlock tremendous benefits for your life.

On this episode of Change Starts Here, host and FranklinCovey Education thought leader Dustin Odham was joined by Jon Gordon, author of “The Energy Bus,” “The Power of Positive Leadership,” and more.

As Gordon puts it, to win as a leader, you must win with people – and “it all begins with your decision to become a positive leader.”

Still, that’s easier said than done, a fact that isn’t lost on Gordon.

“It’s ironic that this is my life’s work, because I’m not naturally positive,” he said. “I grew up in Long Island, New York in a Jewish-Italian family – a lot of food, a lot of guilt. … My family wasn’t very positive, and I grew up not very positive. So, I had to struggle with it for years. Eventually, my wife had had enough of my negativity. She said, ‘I love you, but I’m not going to spend my life with someone who makes me so miserable. You need to change.’”

Positivity, like anything else, comes from, practice. Gordon said he literally began to take “thank-you walks” where he would physically walk down the street and vocalize things he was grateful for.

With that kind of intent and purpose, anyone can bring more positivity into their life, and Odham and Gordon spent the rest of the episode exploring how to do just that.

Change Starts Here host and Thought Leader for FranklinCovey Education Dustin Odham invites noted educator Erin Gruwell, on whom the 2007 film “Freedom Writers” is based, to share her powerful journey shaping the lives of young people through innovative teaching methods.

From her days student teaching in 1994 to her years creating and implementing the Freedom Writers method – which asks students to keep journals, leverages emotional connections to relate to the challenges they face, and spurred the original Freedom Writers on to graduation – and beyond, Gruwell is know for being an inspiring force in driving meaningful change.

In fact, Odham, himself was partly inspired to pursue education thanks to Gruwell’s writings, setting up an in-depth and exploratory conversation that spanned a wide range of topics.

The duo dove into Gruwell’s roots in activism, the inspiration she took from the likes of Hank Aaron and other pioneering Civil Rights voices, and how she made the leap from studying law to embarking on a career in education. That change largely came about in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles race riots, which exposed vast inequities and need in Gruwell’s community.

The conversation also turned to why powerful educators everywhere are relying on their own means to elevate their classrooms, how policymakers and leaders can work to change that dynamic, and working to empower that institutional change.

In 2013, a video swept through the internet, bringing joy to all who viewed it. It featured then-11-year-old Robby Novak, dressed to the nines in a suit, tie and sneakers, delivering a pep talk as the now fabled “Kid President.”

Brad Montague, Novak’s brother-in-law, was part of the dynamic duo that made that video happen. Since, Kid President’s videos have been viewed over 100 million times.

Montague, whose stated mission these days is to “create stories that cultivate empathy and imagination in kids and former kids,” joined host Dustin Odham on this episode of Change Starts Here to explore how he and his family are “joyfully rebelling” against the way things are to craft a better world.

Since Kid President, Montague has authored “Becoming Better Grownups” and helped bring to life “Kid President’s Guide to Being Awesome,” and his conversation with Odham centered on ways to focus on love and your “why” as opposed to the simple “what” of your day-to-day journey through life.

Montague told a story about how he and Novak met Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who sidestepped Montague’s most-dreaded question, “What do you do for a living?,” with a new one – “What do you love about what you do?”

“It’s really cool when you hear somebody put words to their love,” Montague said. “I’m a words person, so I need to hear those things. I think for any team, anywhere to hear from their fellow team members why they love being with them, why they love the little things about their work. … That breathes life to even more good.”

The opinions in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of FranklinCovey or the Change Starts Here Podcast. You can access the full notice and disclaimer at this link: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:e498c459-cdca-4a53-80c5-33d53c9a1359

The debut of FranklinCovey’s Change Starts Here podcast brought out the big guns, bringing on organizing and productivity consultant, New York Times bestselling author and speaker Julie Morgenstern to share her unique insights with host Dustin Odham.

Morgenstern, who’s appeared alongside the likes of Oprah Winfrey on television, has a new book called “Time to Parent: Organizing Your Life to Bring Out the Best in Your Child and You.”

Morgenstern is a bona fide time-management guru, and the exclusive tips she shared on this episode are geared toward helping you realize that organization is not the enemy of creativity – in fact, following her lead will help you be more productive and inspired than ever, all while ensuring you give those you love the best version of yourself.

“You can get more done when you’re organized. You can be more creative. You can be more spontaneous when you’re organized than when you’re not,” Morgenstern said.

Morgenstern understands what it’s like to crave order but not be able to make it happen, meaning she’s got an insight, tip or trick geared for your unique situation.

Tune into the entire episode to learn how you can exercise control over your own life and, by extension, be a productive, happy and contributing member of your family, community and the world at large.

The opinions in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of FranklinCovey or the Change Starts Here Podcast. You can access the full notice and disclaimer at this link: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:e498c459-cdca-4a53-80c5-33d53c9a1359

Learning how to manage your time properly and effectively can either make or break your overall productivity. In fact, good time-management is said to be an extremely beneficial tool in helping someone achieve adequate work-life balance and acquiring better work opportunities for themselves, per Proof Hub. However, good time-management does not just happen overnight. It can take time to build and perfect, which is why creating systems is so crucial.

How does someone determine if they need better time-management? And what are some important decisions one can make to learn how to build better time-management?

In the newest episode of “Change Starts Here,” host Dustin Odham interviewed author and organizing and productivity consultant, Julie Morgenstern, about the best practices in achieving time-management personally and professionally. It’s a vital skill that can improve a lot of personal goals, particularly in the workplace.

Odham and Morgenstern talked about ...

1. Morgenstern’s own journey with time-management from being formerly disorganized

2. The root causes that might impede time-management

3. Steps towards rebuilding new habits

“We underestimate the consciousness and sustained attention that we need to rebuild new habits …

you need to really surround that habit with a lot of support and attention to be a scientist and then you can actually build new habits,” said Morgenstern.

Julie Morgenstern is an organizing and productivity consultant, and a New York Times best-selling author. She’s written a half dozen books on topics like parenting, organizing, and time-management. She also founded her namesake enterprise company to offer professional training to various clients and has been providing services for over three decades. Morgenstern is a graduate of The Goodman School of Theatre at DePaul University.

If you are someone who knows that embracing failure is one of the keys to success, someone who is overwhelmed by the clutter and messiness of life and leadership, OR if you are someone who knows that your beliefs can move mountains while your doubts can create them, this podcast is for you.

Greatness is everywhere. It's in you, your students, and your school community. You have the power to unleash it.

So bring your mess, bring your false starts, bring your struggle. Fail forward with us.

Bring your “here” here, and let’s celebrate the messy, beautiful work of unleashing human potential in education.

Change Starts Here.