LinkedUp: Breaking Boundaries in Education

Susan Maynor is an educator, visual storyteller, and creative who believes in the power of "what if" and "yes, and." She has taught K-12, produced digital media for various nonprofits, schools, and small organizations, and designed professional learning for schools on the redesign journey. She is one of the founding learning experience designers of EPiC Elementary.  In this podcsst Susan provid listeners with specific ideas and inspirations for designing learnng with design thinking and poject based learning in mind,  Susan can be found on social media at @shmaynor on Twitter and linkedin.com/in/susan-maynor         on Linked In,

Toney Jackson is a 4th grade teacher and teaching artist from Hackensack, NJ. He earned a degree in Fine Arts from Rutgers University, and holds two Master's of Education degrees. He has been honored as 'Teacher of the Year', and recognized as a "Hometown Hero" in his city and his congressional district. Toney has travelled the world sharing his writing and creating content for companies such as Microsoft and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where he is currently a contributor for their Teacher's Corner. Central to Toney's work and art, is a commitment to justice, equity & empathy. He is an author/illustrator who also writes and performs music and poetry, and brings his passion & love for learning into his practice, at all times.  earned a degree in Fine Arts from Rutgers University, and holds two Master's of Education degrees. He has been honored as 'Teacher of the Year', and recognized as a "Hometown Hero" in his city and his congressional district. Toney has travelled the world sharing his writing and creating content for companies such as Microsoft and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where he is currently a contributor for their Teacher's Corner. Central to Toney's work and art, is a commitment to justice, equity & empathy. He is an author/illustrator who also writes and performs music and poetry, and brings his passion & love for learning into his practice, at all times.  This podcast has all the tips you need to get in on the #tiktokteacher action!  Amanda Keller, @akbusybee, and Toney Jackson, @HeRhymesWithMe, share their experiences and innovations to help you (and Jerri and Jamie!) get started!"

Green screens have been around in the movie industry for years.  Today, educators have access to green screen technology that easy to use in the classroom either remotely or virtually.  Green screens are not just fun but add in a layer of decision making, productive struggle and higher level thinking to teaching and learning.

Our guests are green screen experts sharing amazing ideas.

Gustave Karagrozis  teaches PE at PS133.

And loves to incorporate technology into my PE lesson. Gustave says that “The green screen has changed his life with ways to get my students super engaged.”

Erika Sandstrom is a Digital Learning Coach as well as a 6th through 8th grade Digital Media Teacher who is in her 30th year as an educator.   Erika also founded the “Mindful Super Hero Club” @ClubMindful and is a Green Screen and Video Production online professional development presenter for educators.  Her mindfulness enthusiasm is derived from 16 years as a Yoga/Pilates Instructor and she has found a FUN creative way to share and teach it to ALL.  Erika was also dubbed “Green Screen Gal!” in 2018 and has a dream to teach ALL  educators globally the benefit of utilizing Green Screen technology!  Erika’s new series for 2021 of lesson plans, tutorials, a digital book, an online course, and video series is  called “Cultivating Compassion Through Creativity!.”  Additionally, her NEW online course “3..2..1..ACTION! Become a Green Screen ROCK STAR” is launching in 2021 as well as the very 1st “Green Screen Summit” and both perfect for any educator who is excited to get started with OR sharpen their Green Screen and Video Production skills!

They prepared a fun slide show for  our podcast listeners:

Listeners can also get $5 off tickets to the Green Screen Summit which will feature educators from around the globe. This is a must see:  LINK GOES Here!!!!!!!!!!!http://tiny.cc/GreenScreenGal44

Dr. Brad MacLaughlin is a retired superintendent of schools who loves to identify and foster innovative approaches to education.  He was instrumental in implementing the cutting-edge Academies of ISD 7  years ago in the Independence School District.  He also oversaw all instructional and educational activities in the Independence School District’s middle and high schools.  Before coming to the ISD in 2013, he spent 14 years in the Lexington (Mo.) School District as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and the last four as superintendent of schools.  Prior to that, he was a Missouri State Trooper.  Brad earned his bachelor’s degree at Northeast Missouri (now Truman) State University, his master’s at Central Missouri State (now UCM), and his specialist and doctorate degrees at William Woods University.

Brad retired from public education and serves as the Chief Learning Officer at Global Classroom Exchange, an education company that supports human-centered innovations in classrooms across the globe.  Brad also builds  and implements strategic plans with education leaders that view the future of community development and education through the lens of human-centered engagement and industry/community connection.  School leaders do not need another hero.  They need a host.  Systemic sustainable community change occurs in a large room with many people, and outlasts any one leader or program.

Joe Mullins is a Consultant - Workforce and Professional Education for the University of Central Missouri

Learning loss is a common and traditional term, but how can learning be lost if it were never found? That is the situation with remote learning during the pandemic. Teachers worked hard and students work hard, but some standards may not have yet been met, hence the term from the DOE, unfinished learning. Many schools are leveraging summer school as a solution to address this issue, but what are other solutions that schools are implementing? In our podcast, we talk to  Jeff McCoy and Darcy Krause about the plans their districts are making to close learning gaps.  Jeff and Darcy discuss specific ideas and the action steps their districts are taking to close learning gaps.  Jeff McCoy is the Associate Superintendent of Academics for Greenville County Schools. Greenville County Schools is the largest district in South Carolina and the 44th largest in the nation with 77,000 students in attendance. Jeff oversees the Offices of Academic Support, Academic Innovation and Technology, Accountability and Quality Assurance, Career and Technical Education and Early Childhood Education. Prior to assuming the Associate Superintendent role, Jeff held various district leadership positions and is proud to be starting his 21st year with Greenville County Schools. Jeff is active both state and nationally on multiple advisory boards including the National K12 Congress Advisory Board, National School Transformation Conference Advisory Board, National Chief Academic Officers Working Group and serves on the Board of Directors for the Upstate Children’s Museum. He and three of his colleagues recently published a series Blueprints on Personalized Learning, Cybersecurity and The Marriage of Information Technology and Academics. He presents frequently around the country on the topics of personalized learning, innovation in education and systems level change and support.   Darcy Kraus I has served  of the educational community for 35 years as a elementary and secondary teacher, learning coach, consulting teacher, principal, and now as the Elementary Director of Lawrence Public Schools. Darcy is known for her positive support of all educators and ability to bring out the best in educational leaders.  Darcy is currently leading the district’s summer school program in addition to her many other duties  as a district director..

Beau is CEO & Founder of SOLcademy - a new short-format educational video platform. He is on a mission to improve the quality and availability of learning.  He went to Dartmouth College and worked as a software engineer before discovering his true passion for education. He was the first sales leader of GoGuardian, a very successful EdTech startup. He's evangelizing personalized and adaptive learning to achieve his goal of Equity for ALL scholars. He is an avid traveler and spent 2 years backpacking through Africa and Latin America.

Over the last twenty years Lottie Dowling has worked in education as a school practitioner and professional learning leader on global, national and regional levels, both digitally and face to face. She specializes in Global Citizenship and Intercultural Understanding and has developed a comprehensive framework for whole school approaches to Global Competence. She spent 10 rewarding years working in both public and private education systems in Beijing, China and has worked in education in 6 countries in a number of roles; educator, designer and deliverer of professional learning, capacity building, curriculum development, global competency program content development and education management. She feels passionately about the way education shapes society and how we can truly engage the next generation to achieve their maximum potential through it. I work as an education consultant internationally.

What lessons have school leaders learned from this pandemic?  This podcast highlights two very different educational systems:  Kansas City Kansas Public Schools and the British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi.  Stephen Linkus, of KCK and Nigel Davis of the UAE discuss how they have worked with social emotional issues, digital equity and the effects of COVID  in schools.  As Chief of Staff for KCKPS, Stephen Linkus supports the superintendent in dealing with administrative, educational, legislative and public affairs issues, oversee Title IX and federal program communications, and represent the district with the Kansas Legislature.

In this podcast we bring educational leaders from around the world together to discuss the "Global Pandemic Silver Linings."   Mark Goldhawk, is the Head of Digital Learning and part of the Senior Leadership Team at The Hawthorns School in Surrey, United Kingdom).Mark leads  a successful Digital Strategy to deliver an innovative curriculum that engages and inspires our children to be creators, not just consumers.  Mark is also a Training Officer within the Combined Cadet Force, managing and delivering training to young men and women to develop their qualities of leadership, self-reliance and initiative.

In this podcast we bring back two former guests, Ken Shelton and Yaritza Villalba to discuss the work they are doing with Microsoft on culturally responsive curriculum.  Ken (He/Him/His) currently holds an M.A. in Education with a specialization in Educational Technology as well as New Media Design and Production. He has worked as an Educator for over 20 years and spent most of his classroom experience teaching technology at the Middle School level. As a part of his active involvement within the Educational Technology community, Ken is an Apple Distinguished Educator, a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, and a Google Certified Innovator. Ken has worked extensively at the policy level with a number of State Departments of Education, Ministries of Education, non-Profits, and was appointed to the Education Technology Task Force formed by a previous California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Ken regularly gives keynotes, presentations, consults, and leads workshops, covering a wide variety of Educational Technology, Equity and Inclusion, Anti-Bias/Anti-Racist, Multimedia Literacy, Cultural Intelligences, Visual Storytelling, and Instructional Design Topics. Ken is the ISTE Digital Equity PLN 2018 Excellence Award winner.  Yaritza Villalba is the Founding President of YV Educational Resources Inc. 501(c)3 and Host of the Flipgrid series #AskYaritza: Culturally Responsive Teaching, Yaritza Villalba has eleven years of experience in education. She started her career teaching Social Studies to high school students in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York.  Throughout the years she has developed Culturally Responsive curricula and conducted a variety of professional development webinars for educators around the world. Her overall mission, in education, is to provide teachers and students with an array of strategies and materials to assist in connecting what is being taught with the world in which they live in.