#EduCrush

What if qualitative evidence were amplified to the same status as quantitative data in our education system? How might our schools transform if we tapped into the rich insights that come from story, anecdotes, experience, and emotion? Shane Safir, author of "The Listening Leader" and recent co-author of "Street Data" with Jamila Dugan, joins Natalie to discuss why we need to amplify qualitative evidence to engage in equity transformation cycles, and how these cycles will radically transform our approach to pedagogy and assessment.

Show Notes:

• How Shane's story as a mom, daughter, and teacher in a youth prison informs her mission to cultivate equitable education. (6:20)
• Why schools privilege quantitative data over the deep insights that come from stories and emotion. (10:30)
• Street data is qualitative data that forces us to shift from being statisticians and technicians to ethnographers. (13:30)
• Equity transformation cycles aim to be decolonizing as they are endless, iterative, and adaptive. (16:30)
• Is the achievement gap a mythology? (21:50)
• Jamila Dugan offers important equity traps and tropes including "doing" equity, tokenizing equity, and boomerang equity. (25:45)
• Centering street data through a pedagogy of voice. (28:15)
• We can't reimagine pedagogy without reimagining assessment. (30:30)
• Remove grades from feedback to build a culture of revision and redemption. (33:15)
• Rubrics increase equity as they lift the veil on implicit criteria that teachers have in mind and share power when we co-create them with students. (36:50)
• The purpose of education according to James Baldwin. (44:15)

Shane's newest book with co-author Jamila Dugan, "Street Data: A Next Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy and School Transformation."

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In this holiday special, Natalie explores the topic of grading through the lens of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. Get ready for a visit from the ghosts of grading past, present and a future yet to come!

Show Notes:

• The ghost of grading past. (2:29)
• The ghost of grading present. (11:05)
• The ghost of grading yet to come. (21:03)

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On this PodSwap episode, Natalie connects with Peter Hostrawser, one of the co-hosts of the Disrupt Education podcast, to talk about edu-podcasting, the industrial story of school that needs disrupting, and how Spikeview empowers students to tell their story.

Show Notes:

• Peter's backstory; what called him into education and what he's doing now. (2:00)
• Creating a podcast to stay grounded and connected as an educator in a siloed system that won't ask the uncomfortable questions. (7:15)
• The industrial story of school that we need to let go of. (12:30)
• How the conditioning of the industrial system makes it hard to embrace new instructional approaches. (16:25)
• Understanding the next generation of parents; millennials are becoming allies for innovative teachers. (23:00)
• How funding, leadership, and professional culture need to change to disrupt education. (25:30)
• Spikeview is a tool to help learners tell their stories. (34:40)
• The purpose of education. (43:00)

READY TO APPLY? If you're a change agent that wants to amplify your voice and build an empowering and equitable assessment system in your context, click the link below to schedule a time to see if we're a fit to work together inside of The Empowerment Ecosystem: https://calendly.com/natabasso/60-minute-meeting

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What does a Tarot card reading have to do with leadership? How is our current story of work depressing? What are we getting wrong about change in our schools and organizations? Natalie joins Meghan Donohoe who is a Principal Catalyst at the Southern Alberta Institute for Technology to answer these questions and more!

Show Notes:

• Reliving the "answers" we discovered during a Tarot card reading. (8:15)
• What a Tarot card reading had to do with leadership. (16:45)
• The art of staying in a space of vision and embracing multiple ways of sense-making by tapping into the Forer effect. (22:00)
• How the story of work is changing. (27:15)
• Embracing the innovation of things by focusing on the innovation of ways. (31:50)
• Mistakes we've made when leading for transformation. (38:55)
• The purpose of education. (53:55)

Interested in joining The Empowerment Ecosystem? Book a time to schedule an interview to see if it's a fit for you!

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This week on #Educrush I chat with Drama Teacher Arlene Orchard and Dance Instructor and Teacher Hayley Jonason as we continue our look into how electives and options courses lead students to build confidence and belonging in the classroom.

Arlene on Instagram: @ArleneOrchard_Writer

Alex on Twitter: @MrAlexNoel

Natalie on Twitter: @natabasso

Podcast on Twitter: @educrushpod

Podcast on Instagram: @educrushpod

A story about the permission, vulnerability and challenge inherent in creating an interdisciplinary middle school program. Preston Hickert is a teacher from Kansas City and he joins Natalie to share his story of "playing the mud" to learn with his students.

Show Notes:

• Despite originally pursuing journalism and film, Preston ended up bringing a passion for storytelling to the classroom as a teacher. (6:10)
• Exploring the magic of the middle years. (11:30)
• High Tech High was the inciting incident for an interdisciplinary approach to middle school that develops human skills. (17:05)
• Are we rescuing kids from challenge? (24:00)
• Playing the mud and embracing co-creation and uncertainty. (26:10)
• What evidence might capture the story of student learning? (32:30)
• New challenges emerging several years into the project. (40:35)
• Educators need to learn by doing and embrace vulnerability to model authentic learning. (43:34)
• The purpose of education. (51:50)

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On this episode of #Educrush we talk with Adam Mailman, a teacher, conductor, and musician who sees the potential for the music classroom to allow student to explore their limits. We explore some of the experiences and strategies that students undergo in the band room and how that can potentially apply to other spaces in school.

Alex on Twitter: @MrAlexNoel

Natalie on Twitter: @natabasso

Podcast on Twitter: @educrushpod

Podcast on Instagram: @educrushpod

Show Notes:

Introduction 02:37

Music lends itself to community building 04:17

Skipping over the obvious 09:07

The Value of Music 11:21

Things to develop relationships in the class 15:36

Reminders of why 22:34

Things we can take from the band room 25:25

How do we support the band room 34:16

Thu purpose of Education 42:00

The field of psychology offers important perspectives on topics integral to education, especially engagement, agency and learning. Teacher, author, and psychologist Don Berg joins Natalie to unpack the concept of agentic engagement and to explain what joy has to do with equity and deeper learning.

Show Notes:

• Two things more people in education should take seriously from the field of psychology; unconscious processing and social engineering. (8:30)
• Unpacking the concept of "fauxchievement" and why we need to focus on learning instead. (14:45)
• The "good" that we want to create in schools, namely agentic engagement. (18:30)
• How the structure of schools is a barrier to agentic engagement. (27:45)
• Why it's a problem that we are behaviorally engaged in shallow learning in our schools and workplaces and why we need to look for the byproduct of deeper learning, joy. (33:47)
• The purpose of education. (44:05)

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On this episode of #EduCrush we are talking through the idea of belonging. Particularly in music class through out my years of school. I think that belonging can be a key component in student success, and this is the start of a series where we explore where that can come from and how we can learn from what other teachers do in their classes.

Power is neutral, but how we use it determines whether it is positive or negative. The old story of power tells of dominance and control and sees it as a finite resource that must be hoarded. But, how might we rewrite the story of power to include more feminine values? Elizabeth Lesser is the author of several bestselling books, has given two popular TED talks, and is one of Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul 100, a collection of a hundred leaders who are elevating humanity. She joins Natalie to explore the mythical stories that have defined us, how we might do power differently, and why we need to "dream a little" in schools post-pandemic.

Show Notes:

• How words like "spiritual" can put us into a box we don't belong in. (8:20)
• An introduction to Cassandra, the namesake behind the title of Elizabeth's book, "Cassandra Speaks." (11:05)
• The complexity and backlash when trying to amplify women's stories in our current context. (19:30)
• Why it's not about "getting" power, but about doing power differently. (24:40)
• How studying women under stress can expand our widely accepted understanding of "fight or flight". (28:55)
• The cultural shift around power in culture and education. (35:35)
• How educators can heed Toni Morrison's words and, "dream a little before you think" post-pandemic. (43:35)
• Do no harm but take no shit. (49:25)
• The purpose of education. (51:25)

Check out Elizabeth's newest book: "Cassandra Speaks: When Women are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes"

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