Digical Education

Dave Hill is the founder of Heart Smart (www.heartsmart.school), which is a character education program that originated with Dave's own life story and is now in 300 UK schools and making its way into schools in the US.

Dave shares about the story of Heart Smart, Boris the Robot, and his own family from where the idea. Likewise, he shares the "5 Core Principles" and sticky language of the Heart Smart program. Personally, I appreciate Dave's thoughts on healthy schools environments that have an appropriate balance of both Challenge and Love, and how both are necessary for the growth and development of children.

In this conversation, I get to talk data, a decade of Cardus Education Survey results (www.cardus.ca/research/education/), and the impact of religious schools in particular Protestant Evangelical schools with Beth Green. We both love data, research, and our profession, which I think comes out in the conversation. However, the question in the title comes from the end of the conversation where I ask Beth a question that many of my friends, family members, and other parents have asked me over the past decade.

Beth Green is a Senior Fellow in Education for Cardus (www.cardus.ca), and formerly Program Director of Cardus Education. She is also Visiting Professor: Research, Integration, and Educational Formation at Tyndale University College in Toronto. Beth is a former high school history teacher who has worked in both government and non-government schools in the UK.

Will Richardson is an internationally recognized speaker and author on learning and technology. He's authored six books, most recently "Freedom to Learn" and blogs at www.willrichardson.com. Most recently he was named one of the top 100 global thought leaders and changemakers in education by the Finnish group hundrED, and he is the co-founder of Modern Learners (www.modernlearners.com)

In this podcast, I ask him an array of questions on schools and some statements from "10 Principles for Schools of Modern Learning" (https://modernlearners.com/10-principles-schools-modern-learning/), such as its impetus, changing vs. starting schools, the issue that schools were started with a scarcity mindset, and the role of technology as an amplifier of learning.

I love talking with people who talk about Learning and Education as a juxtaposition to "schooling". In this conversation, I talk with Kerry McDonald about a recent article Compulsory Schooling Laws Aren’t Progressive, They’re Inhumane she wrote where she says, "The first step to restore education freedom and empower parents with choice and opportunity for their children is to eliminate compulsory schooling laws that authorize state control of education." https://fee.org/articles/compulsory-schooling-laws-aren-t-progressive-they-re-inhumane/

We talk about this, Unschooling, and innovation in Education that gets us to think outside of our current 'school' box.

Kerry McDonald (@kerry_edu) has a B.A. in Economics from Bowdoin and an M.Ed. in education policy from Harvard. She lives in Cambridge, Mass. with her husband and four never-been-schooled children. Kerry is the author of the forthcoming book, Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press). Follow her writing at Whole Family Learning.

This podcast conversation is packed with depth and implications for our profession and our work. Dr. Robert Loe shares energizing details on the Relational Schools Project and how having positive school relationships prior to the age of ten makes a significant impact on well-being in adulthood. Likewise, he takes it further and gives us a picture of what makes places like the XP school special.

Dr. Robert Loe is the Director of the Relational Schools Foundation (www.relationalschools.org). Having worked in education for over eighteen years with a range of leadership roles in schools throughout Essex and Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom, Rob founded Relational Schools Project in 2014. He researches, writes and speaks on the importance of fostering positive relationships between key stakeholders in schools.

Chris Everett is Culture Design Strategist for Engage2Learn (www.engage2learn.org), has been a Texas educator for 20 years, serving at multiple levels within the school structure including as a classroom teacher, a coach, a campus administrator, a district administrator, and a director at a regional Education Service Center.

I got to know Chris nearly a year ago at a Rex Miller MindShift gathering in Los Angeles where we discovered many of the same interests in how schools fit into a larger ecosystem. We had a fun conversation about his title, which is where we start the podcast conversation; however, the fun part of this podcast is in his experiences with catalyzing culture change in the learner experience through work with schools, building new facilities, and bringing about a sense of how what the future of learning looks like is even uncertain.

Having a conversation with Todd McLellan is a pretty special honor. Todd was drafted by the New York Islanders of the NHL, started coaching full-time in 1994, became an NHL assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings in 2005, and has been a head coach with the San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers. However, I got to know Todd as a parent of two sons.

I've always been intrigued by how hockey coaches make decisions and lead from "behind the bench" seemingly separated from the ice where the game is unfolding at a rapid pace. One author described it as "A ballet, a kind of speed chess. It has a basic pattern, but it also has improvisation created by coaches' tactical decisions."

Todd shares his experience as a young coach, the role of preparation, analytics, and trusting his "eyes" in making decisions, and a great perspective on evaluation and feedback in the development process.

Urban Education has interested me ever since an invitation to a meeting in Chicago in 2002 about the "Graduation Crisis" in urban schools. This interest led me to Boston University, which just continued to foster my interests. In many ways this conversation is a primer for future conversations with Stephanie and Evan as they are researchers at "The Urban Education Collaborative" at UNC-Charlotte (www.thecollaborative.uncc.edu).

Evan Willis is a researcher at UNC Charlotte and a Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Pastor. His research interests include equity and inclusion, the impact race and religion on Christian schooling, Black male outcomes and its function in both the Black community and in urban spaces.

Stephanie Jones-Fosu is a research at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Stephanie has taught middle and high school social students for 9 years. She has also coached over 100 first and second year teachers through a non-traditional teaching organization. Her research interests include preservice, teacher preparation, and culturally sustainable pedagogy.

"Introduce Joy, Invite Depth, Offer Reflection" - Will Richey on DaVerse Lounge

Will Richey is founder of Journeyman Ink (www.journeymanink.com), father of DaVerse Lounge a spoken word event in the Deep Ellam community of Dallas, lead teaching artist for Big Thought (www.bigthought.org), and award winning spoken word artist. Will has worked extensively with schools and shares his transition from the classroom to DaVerse Lounge to working with schools.

Prior to this conversation Will shared a spoken word presentation about his story (http://oralfixationshow.com/push-the-envelope-featuring-will-richey/), which is quite personal with deep grief and surprising forgiveness. He states in the podcast that he only did this  and we were able to record separately his poem "Broken.Mending" (https://epellefsen.podbean.com/e/brokenmending-spoken-word-art-by-will-richey/).

I think you will catch Will's idealism or as he says his "utopianism", his hope, and desire for good.

Will Richey is the found of Journeyman Ink (www.journeymanink.com), father of DaVerse Lounge, and award-winning spoken word artist. 

I had the opportunity to have a longer conversation with Will that I will post by itself, but in my low tech way I was able to separate a recording of Will's spoken word piece "Broken.Mending", which I think you will bind quite meaningful and will add incredible depth and context to the conversation.