This week on TeachLab, we continue our series of conversations with innovative educators with Mel Cheng, a lifelong educator and learner. Mel is the Director of Engagement at What School Could Be, and before that worked as a classroom teacher, technology facilitator and coach, and administrator at Hawaiʻi’s first public charter school for 23 years. A maker enthusiast, Mel believes that intentionally designing environments in which learners are free to tinker builds stronger communities and richer connections.

We talk to Mel about her experiences with the Cycle of Experiment and Peer Learning, and the idea that people who can really change the teaching and the learning in schools are the classroom teachers.

“Intuitively we know that teachers are the driving force of change and administrators need to create the conditions for this to happen but rarely is that articulated, much less given a road map” 

Mel Ching’s review of Iterate:The Secret to Innovation in Schools

Resources and Links

Visit the What School Could Be platform to find resources for educators and join the community.

Order Justin Reich’s new book Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in Schools

Watch our documentary film We Have to Do Something Different

Transcript

https://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/iterate-melching/transcript
 

Credits

Host Justin Reich

Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett Beazley 

Recorded and Mixed by Garrett Beazley

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