Today's guest is Robbi Makely.  Robbi is a Digital Learning Coach in Colorado's 27J district north of Denver where she supports teachers in two schools to enhance effective technology instruction in classrooms.

With today's increased remote learning situation, the sense of urgency among educators to really find and utilize the right tools in order to build strong relationships and support our learners has grown exponentially.  Robbi offers advice about how educators can break down the "screen" and keep the emphasis on the right things - strong engagement and effective teaching.  She discusses her approach to coaching all educators regardless of their tech-savviness and why she believes it’s crucial to build strong connections among adults in a school setting and recognize expertise that educators hold.

It was great to talk to Robbi about her human-centered approach and to remember that often the best answer to tackling problems is so often the simplest one.  Enjoy the interview.

My guest today is Shalelia Dillard, the Founder and Executive Director at SCD Enrichment Program, a nonprofit organization that recruits and supports students of color in accelerated coursework. The SCD Program offers a wide array of services to schools and students, including cultural education workshops, professional development, advanced coursework, equity audits, summer camps, cultural history courses, and more.

In our conversation, Shalelia breaks down some of the historical and current inequities that persist in our education system and identifies what she thinks are some shifts that our country would need to make in order to combat this.  She shares her personal story that  follows her experiences from being a gifted and homeless student of color in a systemically racist education system to deciding to take her largest gamble in quitting her job as a science teacher to start her own business.

My guest today is Allison Meier.  Allison is a Restorative Practices Coordinator for Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado.  She has partnered with over 64 schools in the Jeffco school district to provide Restorative Practices support through trainings, facilitation strategies and systems analysis.  Previously, Allison worked with Denver Public Schools in the same role.

In our conversation, Allison discusses how Restorative Practices has recently gained momentum in challenging and replacing the traditional punitive discipline system most schools have historically adopted in addressing student behaviors.  She highlights important key foundational conditions she has learned need to exist in order for restorative practices to work as well as common pitfalls that often prevent it from really taking off in schools.

My first guest is Miguel Gonzalez.  Miguel is the director of Embark Education, an independent learner-centered microschool in Denver, Colorado that focuses on inspiring students to develop their intellectual curiosity.  Miguel is also a co-founder of The Iterative Space, a unique summer residency experience for educators in the Denver area that has just wrapped up its first cohort.

In this interview, Miguel discusses the foundational human-centered concepts of these two organizations and how they evolved.  He discusses the idea of radical trust, one of the key ingredients to the Iterative Space that allowed for it to be so impactful.  He also talks about the idea of Teal organizations, a concept introduced in the book Reinventing Organizations by Belgian author Frederic Laloux.  Miguel is a true humble badass and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Iterative Space: https://www.iterativespace.org/

Embark Education: https://www.embarkeducation.org/