Innovating Education

In this episode, Jentre and Ed visit with William Parker. William is the Founder of Principal Matters, LLC, an educator, author, and speaker who uses his expertise in school culture, leadership and communication to equip educators with solutions and strategies for motivating students, inspiring teachers, and reaching communities.

Together, they discuss William’s experience as the executive director of Oklahoma’s Association of Secondary Principals and Oklahoma’s Middle Level Educator Association as well as his success in his former role as the principal of Skiatook High School, near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Will also writes a weekly blog and hosts a weekly ‘Principal Matters’ podcast for school leaders available at his website: www.williamdparker.com or via iTunes. He is the author of three books for school leaders, including: Principal Matters: The Motivation, Courage, Action and Teamwork Needed for School Leaders; Messaging Matters: How to Motivate Students, Inspire Teachers and Reach Communities and Pause. Breathe. Flourish.: Living Your Best Life as an Educator.

Links: 

https://williamdparker.com

To learn more about the Innovating Education Podcast and work of the Brock Institute, click here. 

In this second episode of a two part series, Jentre and Ed follow up with Sugata Mitra and Jeff McClellen after Sugata’s 2022 Brock Prize Symposium talk. Jeff is the founding director of StartSOLE. StartSOLE helps educators and students implement student centered, inquiry-based learning experiences using self-organized learning environments (SOLE). Together we take a deep dive into SOLE and discuss how you can apply SOLE in your context.

Links: 

www.startsole.org

www.cevesm.com

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @startsole @sugatam

To learn more about the Innovating Education Podcast and work of the Brock Institute, click here. 

What should we be looking for in students…Computing, Comprehension, and Communication”

In this episode, Jentre and Ed introduce a two part series featuring the 2022 Brock Prize laureate, Sugata Mitra. In Part I, you will hear Sugata’s talk at the 2022 Brock Prize Symposium

Sugata is best known in the education community for developing the concept of self-organized learning environments (SOLEs) following his groundbreaking “Hole in the Wall” experiment in 1999, where he placed a computer in the wall of a slum in India and observed that given the right circumstances, children could teach each other almost anything. The Hole in the Wall experiment inspired Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup to write his debut novel, Q & A, which later became the movie, Slumdog Millionaire. Sugata is also the first recipient of the $1,000,000 Ted Prize, for his talk “Build a School in the Cloud”. 

If you would like to view the entire 2022 Brock Prize Symposium and coordinating slides, please check out the YouTube link below. Tune in next month for Part II. 

Links: 

2022 Brock Prize Symposium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vdho1FJ8A0

Build a School in the Cloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3jYVe1RGaU

To learn more about the Innovating Education Podcast and work of the Brock Institute, click here. 

“The most important thing we do in this life is educate our children” (John Brock).

 In this episode, Jentre and Ed visit with John Brock, founder of the Brock Prize in Education Innovation. The Brock Prize exists to find the best educational ideas that make positive societal impact, award the originators of those ideas, and showcase their concepts and practices to the world. 

John’s life has been marked with a dedication to family, friends, and philanthropy. John achieved success over a dynamic career in the oil and gas industry. At 92 and Chairman of the Board of Medallion Petroleum, INC., John still goes to the office every day at 8:30am. He is also an active outdoorsman, serves on numerous boards and in multiple civic organizations, and he is a strong patron of the arts. 

He is a member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and a prime example of legacy and leaving the world a better place. He believes education is a way to do this and a means to give people hope and opportunity, which is the primary the reason he established the Brock Prize. In this discussion, the focus is not only on education innovation, but also on the importance of living a life in service to others.

To learn more about the Innovating Education Podcast and work of the Brock Institute, click here. 

“When new teachers get into school settings with talented teachers, and they partner…together the school community becomes the hub of hopefulness.” In this episode, Jentre and Ed visit with Ellen Moir, founder and past Chief Executive Officer of New Teacher Center (NTC), a national organization dedicated to improving student learning by accelerating the effectiveness of new teachers, experienced teachers, and school leaders. She is recognized as a passionate advocate for our nation’s newest teachers and for the students they teach. 

Ellen received the 2014 Brock International Prize in Education for her work in scaling high quality teacher induction services to a national audience through the New Teacher Center. She believes the best way to ensure all students are college, career, and community ready is to provide educators at every level with the support necessary to succeed from their first day of teaching to their last. Together we discuss the importance of teacher mentoring and how we might best support and recruit teachers into the profession today. 

To learn more about NTC and Ellen’s legacy work, click on the links below. 

Links: 

https://newteachercenter.org

To learn more about the Innovating Education Podcast and work of the Brock Institute, click here. 

“A good education changes what you know. A great education changes who you are.” In this episode, Ed and Jentre visit with Rick Miller, the first employee and appointed President of distinguished Olin College of Engineering outside Boston, MA. Rick received the 2017 Brock International Prize in Education for leading Olin’s innovative approach to teaching engineering. Together we discuss the storied success of Olin as well as Rick’s latest project on the coalition for life transformative education.

Richard K. Miller was appointed President and first employee of Olin College of Engineering in 1999. In June 2020, he became President Emeritus and Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He then served as the Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems at MIT (2020-2021). To learn more about Rick and his work, click on the links below. 

Links: 

https://richard-k-miller.com/

https://www.olin.edu/bios/richard-k-miller

To learn more about the Innovating Education Podcast and work of the Brock Institute, click here. 

Welcome to Innovating Education, where we introduce our audience to leading change-makers whose innovative ideas are shaping the rapidly evolving educational landscape. Our audience includes educational leaders, policy-makers, academics, K-12 educators, parents and families, and anyone who is interested in ideas that influence how we learn, think, and act.
The Innovating Education Podcast is hosted by Ed Harris, PhD, and Jentre Olsen, PhD. 
Ed is Professor Emeritus at Oklahoma State University with over 35 years of experience in educational leadership and the Administrator for the Brock Prize in Education Innovation.
Jentre is a Teach for America alum and joined the educational leadership faculty at OSU after teaching in an urban middle school and earning his doctorate at OU. He is currently serving as the Brock Chair of Education Innovation.

To learn more about the Innovating Education Podcast and work of the Brock Institute, click here.