Rebel Educator®

In this episode I had the opportunity to speak with Felix Malombe!

Felix is the Executive Director and CEO of STEAMLabs Africa, a Technology Integration Specialist and STEAM Enthusiast with an extensive experience in mainstreaming STEAM teaching in schools and communities. He is a Google Certified Educator and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert with experience in creating and implementing effective digital strategies to aid teaching and learning in the 21st Century. Felix is a diligent and dedicated teacher with many years of teaching STEAM, Computer Science and Mathematics at all school levels.

In this episode, we cover:

• How Felix transitioned from studying computer engineering to being an educator
• Encouraging digital citizenship
• The app that Felix’s students created to help those struggling with language barriers
• Why humanity and character matter in developing technology ethically
• How one teacher changed Felix’s perspective about school

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/25

Daniel Sobel is the founder and CEO of Inclusion Expert and leads a team working with over 10,000 schools, offering training and support to professionals working to make education more inclusive. Daniel is the best selling author of ‘Narrowing the Attainment Gap: A Handbook for Schools’ as well as 'Leading on Pastoral Care' and 'The Inclusive Classroom’. He has worked with regional and national governments, the UN, UNESCO, schools and organizations across the UK and internationally to achieve outstanding inclusion.

In this episode, we cover:

• How schools and attitudes towards inclusion have changed over the last 20 years
• Why we need to ditch labels in order to have a truly inclusive classroom
• Emotional intelligence as the biggest barrier to creating inclusion schools
• The culture shift from the sage on the stage to facilitating learning
• School’s purpose in society, aside from a place of learning
• Investing in education to create a better and more equitable society

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/24

Our guest this week, Ulcca Hansen, is the founding partner of Educating Potential and author of the new book ‘The Future of Smart’. Ulcca has a unique combination of experiences in the public and private sector and within a range of organizations, a proven track record of assessing programs and developing effective teams to deliver transformative and measurable outcomes.

Join us as we discuss the origins of our education system and why it needs to change.

In this episode, we cover:

• What is the fundamental problem with the education system
• The origins of the of our current school system and why it no longer serves us
• How we can make our learning environments porous
• Do we really want to get rid of school?
• Building relationships within a community and fostering student engagement
• Why content is not the most important aspect of learning
• Seeing students as resources and not just receptacles of knowledge
• The Future of Smart and  human-centered Liberatory Design

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/23

Our guest this episode, Jin-Soo Huh, has spent his career working with schools to challenge long held assumptions to get closer to a learning environment that is conducive to encouraging creative, passionate learners. His experience implementing and developing student centered learning models for schools that serve high-needs communities has strengthened his ability to partner with key stakeholders to implement changes at the classroom, school, and network level. Jin-Soo is also a columnist at EdSurge with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion to make sure all voices are represented as we push what is possible in learning.

In this episode, we cover:

• Bringing together public health and education experts to navigate the current crisis
• How to create personalized pathways to meet students where they are
• Which schools are thriving with remote learning
• Ideas for providing individual intervention and changing the roles of teachers
• How the pandemic helped all teachers gain an essential proficiency
• The Learning Accelerator program and making the potential possible
• The power of connecting history with the present

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/22

Sunny is a co-founder of Tiny Docs, a company that creates health ‘caretoons’ that educate children and their families about surgical procedures and common health and wellness issues. Sunny measures his success in health outcomes and smiles, instead of dollars and cents and his goal for Tiny Docs is to improve kids’ health and make a billion people smile in one hundred languages.

Join us as we discuss Tiny Docs and what education could look like if we measured it in smiles instead of grades.

In this episode, we cover:

• Sunny’s solution for helping anxious children in healthcare settings
• Why Tiny Docs measures it success with smiles
• What would happen if we based students’ susses on their engagement, rather than grades
• The skills are employers looking for
• Improv as a tool to help students’ build life skills
• How saying ‘yes, and’, instead of no, can lead to meaningful ideas

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/21

Amos Fodchuk is the President and founder of Advanced Learning Partnerships, Inc., an education consulting firm that delivers customized, wide-ranging professional learning solutions for school districts and IHEs. Amos specializes in instructional leadership development as well as dynamic curriculum and assessment reform. He currently oversees partnerships with districts, corporations, universities, foundations and governmental organizations throughout the Unites States and Canada.

In this episode, we cover:

• Empowering childhood learning through empowered adult learning
• Creating a supportive and facilitative classroom environment
• Organically working with communities to evolve education
• Where do we need to start to revolutionary and incremental changes in education
• When will true educational innovation and revolution happen
• Why higher education is no longer a gateway to an interview
• Parent’s crucial role in education reform

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/20

A former public school educator of 22 years, Will Richardson has spent the last 15 years developing an international reputation as a leading thinker and writer about the intersection of social online learning networks, education, and systemic change. Most recently, Will is a co-founder of The Big Questions Institute which was created to help educators use "fearless inquiry" to make sense of this complex moment and an uncertain future.

Join us as we discuss how to navigate this moment and why we shouldn’t go back to normal.

In this episode, we cover:

• Meeting this moment of crisis with fearless inquiry
• 9 questions schools need to ask to avoid going back to normal
• How learning can be more student-centered
• Getting the social experience of college without cost
• Will’s best memory from elementary school

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/19

Carly Malatskey is a recent Stanford Graduate where she played on their top ranked soccer team. She is also the host of the SheLeads with Carly podcast where she interviews powerful female leaders from all industries. She was a Mayfield fellow at Stanford and is currently participating in a Coding Bootcamp in Israel.

Join us as we discuss Carly’s experience at Stanford, issues that learners face in elementary education that lead to stigmas and biases well into their careers, and what success feels like.

In this episode, we cover:

• Which experiences have best prepared Carly for entering the workforce
• The benefits of a college experience
• Flaws in the elementary school system that create stigmas in learners and disparities in the workforce
• Wanting to learn and being okay with failure
• Gender bias and sexism in schools and in the workplace
• What made the biggest impact on Carly’s learning
• The meaning of success and when it happens

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/18

Bob Lenz is the CEO of PBLWorks, an institute that uses project based learning to increase educational equity and provide learning that students connect with. Bob has spent his life creating project based classrooms for himself and teaching others how to do it. 

We discuss how project based learning prepares kids, especially black and brown and underprivileged learners, for college success through teaching collaboration, public speaking, and project management, and the education myth: just because someone teaches it, doesn’t mean you learn it; just because it was covered, doesn’t mean it was learned. 

In this episode, we cover:

• How a poetry project in the 5th grade sparked Bob’s interest in project-based learning
• Dismantling the myth that project-based learning can only work in certain schools
• Will kids learn ‘academics’ in a PBL model?
• What is hindering educators from having more agency in their classrooms and what we can do about it
• How we can assess students progress without grades
• How project-based learning works well in remote settings

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/17

Enjoy this fascinating conversation with self-directed learner and junior in high school Olivia Barnes. Olivia is engaging and real. Her thought process is probably similar to many students her age, even if her actual path of schooling is not. She is brave, she is different and she is walking her own path.

Join us as we discuss why Olivia chose to leave high school, her experiences with unschooling, painting under desks, and where she plans to take her education next.

In this episode, we cover:

• How the Black Lives Movement has impacted Olivia’s life & studies
• More about Olivia’s mantra “to be different, to be strong, to be you” and how she has accepted who she is and her purpose
• Why Olivia chose to leave high school and what she did instead
• Unschooling and what a day of self-directed learning can look like
• Getting into college after following a non-traditional learning path
• What an ideal high school experience could look like
• Why hands-on experiences make a strong impact

SHOW NOTES: https://www.podpage.com/rebel-educator/16