The transition to remote teaching and learning has surely stretched all teachers, students, and parents, but something distinctly challenging is happening in lower schools. To keep younger students engaged and learning requires planning, patience, and grit from all parties. It also requires a genuine strategy and a relentless focus on student well-being and growth. Courtney Martin, Hawken's Director of the Lower School, joins the pod to discuss how her teachers, students, and families are adjusting to the new normal and to provide a glimpse into the challenges and rewards she's witnessed. As an aside: This episode is a bit of a sneak preview of what you'll find in season three of ReDesigning School when we'll expand our focus to include topics and stories from Pre-Kindergarten to High School. Coming to your podcast feed in the fall!

Redesigning School

A Faster Future: How Schools Can Help Their Youngest Students

In the latest edition of our series on Remote Teaching and Learning, we wrestle with the whys and hows of creating inclusive, dynamic, and meaningful community while we're all working away from each other.  Heidi Wilbrandt --  teacher, coach, dean, and member of the Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice team -- joins the pod to discuss strategies for forming connections during a time when we risk many students -- and teachers -- feeling disconnected and alone.A few helpful resources:Elena Aguilar’s The Art of Coaching TeamsDaniel Coyle’s The Culture CodeAna Homayoun’s Social Media Wellness

Creating Community During Covid

Problem-based, place-based, project-based -- pick your P to accompany your BL. These days, many teachers are trying to figure out how to adjust their experiential learning plans when our shared experience is that we're all working from home. Many schools have projects and classes that ask students to engage with the community, but here at Hawken we have whole courses that we call Macros that use challenges from community partners as the primary learning and teaching terrain. We invited two Macro teachers, Janae Peters and Justin Cook, to share how they've modified their course to meet the moment without losing the heart, ambition, or meaning of their students' learning experiences. Some helpful links:The Korda Institute for TeachingHawken's Entrepreneurship Program

How to Do PBL while RTL?

Eric Hudson, Director of Learning and Design at Global Online Academy, has been at this distance learning thing for years, and he has wisdom to share. He joined the podcast to share important background and advice to help answer the central question of this moment: "What does it mean to be a teacher when you don't have a classroom?"A few key concepts that Eric mentions:Cognitive LoadUnderstanding by Design

We Can Do This: Lessons on Remote Learning from Eric Hudson

A not so funny thing happened on the way to summer this year... The global pandemic has disrupted the world as we know it, which has led all of us to reimagine, reconfigure, and redesign our lives. For teachers and students in particular, the moment has resulted in a momentous and sudden shift in how, when, where, and why we do our work.At ReDesigning School, we're going to change the focus of the podcast for the next weeks to explore how schools are adjusting their programs in real-time -- the good, the bad, the we're-not-sure-yets. First up: Jodie Ricci, chair of the performing arts department at Hawken and educational coach in Harvard University's Project Zero online classroom. We also interviewed Zoe, a Hawken senior, to hear a student's perspective on the shift to remote learning. What's clear is that for all its real and immense challenges, this moment is also an opportunity to refine and revise our approaches. 

We're All ReDesigners Now: Transitioning to Remote Teaching and Learning

A few days before schools closed and social distancing began, we spoke with Stacy Caldwell, CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium. She shared a lot of good news about how quickly and successfully colleges have accepted the Mastery Transcript. She also spoke about how the Mastery Transcript meets the moment when high schools are shifting approaches to focus on enduring skills, habits, and content knowledge.

A Revolution in Progress: An Update from the Mastery Transcript Consortium

Last month, we hosted the first cohort of accepted students at the Mastery School of Hawken for an evening of celebration and gratitude. It was quite a night and a key marker between the dream of a new school and its reality. To capture the energy of the evening, we set up the podcast and interviewed students and parents to hear their take on this enterprise. They had a lot to say! We also asked Rasa Drane, the director of admissions for the Mastery School of Hawken, to join the pod to share her experiences so far and update us on where we are with building the founding class.  

So, We Have a School: An Update on the Mastery School of Hawken

The landscape of college admissions is always complicated, so what happens when you add in paradigm shifts like mastery learning and the Mastery Transcript?  To answer that and other questions, we invited Renee Bischoff, Hawken's Director of College Counseling, to join the podcast so we could explore the intersection of the college admissions process and efforts to redesign school.The news, surprisingly perhaps, is good. A few resources that might come in handy:What about College? -- A whitepaper from your friends at ReDesigning SchoolA Fit Over Rankings -- A whitepaper from your friends at Challenge SuccessWhat ReDesigning School Looks Like: The Story of EngineeringLife in College Matters for Life After College  -- Results from the Purdue Gallup Poll 2014

But What about College?

The data around mental and emotional health in schools and college campuses are sobering -- to say the least. As we redesign school, we should think about ways for it to challenge, stretch and inspire growth without grinding kids down. That's the life work of Dr. Denise Pope, founder of Challenge Success, a non-profit school reform organization affiliated with the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. Besides being one of the kindest, smartest souls around, Pope is also a senior Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, where she specializes in student engagement, curriculum studies, qualitative research methods, and service learning. She is the author of “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (Yale University Press, 2001), and co-author of Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids (Jossey-Bass, 2015)A few relevant resources:A Fit Over RankingsRewriting the Myth of Supergirl

School Shouldn't Hurt: A Conversation with Denise Pope of Challenge Success

"Education is undergoing a period of dramatic evolution," Grant Lichtman writes in his new book Thrive. "The number of options families have for their children’s education is expanding at a rate never seen in human history. Schools that understand and deliver what families want and need will survive and thrive in the future; those that do not risk losing the critical mass of students they need to stay alive. This may not be the hand educators want, but it is the hand we have been dealt."Grant joins the pod to share his insights on how schools are evolving. One key takeaway: The pace of change is rapid and driven by market pressure and a deeper understanding of what students need to thrive in the complex world they'll inherit. A few resources mentioned in the episode:Dr. Ashley Poklar's blog postDesign 39 CampusIn Search of Deeper LearningGrant's booksMarie Kondō's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing 

Schools are a Changin': An Interview with Grant Lichtman

We know the story: high school can be an emotional rollercoaster for some (or most or many or all…) students. What if we designed school with emotional and psychological health in mind? That's one of the questions gnawing at Janae Peters, Hawken teacher and member of the team designing the Mastery School. Janae returns to the pod to talk about the whys and hows of embedding social-emotional learning into the very fabric of school life. For more, read her most recent post, "How to Make a School Human and Humane."A few other mentions on the episode for those paying close attention:Pedro Noguera's research on Social-Emotional LearningThe teaching methods of The Korda Institute for TeachingThe Harvard Business Review article about strengths-based learning

Building a School that Feels

On November 17, 200 or so people gathered at The Mastery School of Hawken's Open House. We thought it was a great time to take the pod out of the studio and record an episode in front of a live audience. Our topic: a deep dive into Macros -- the core building blocks of the academic program at the Mastery School of Hawken. Julia Hodges, Roze Kerr ‘21, Luke Kim ‘20, and Katie McGregor of United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Cleveland join the pod to detail how the Engineering Macro works and makes a difference in the lives of everyone involved.For a glimpse into the Engineering Macro, take a look at this short video. 

Live Episode! Macros, Real-World Challenges, and Water Balloon Catapults

In our final installment of our Meet the Team episodes, meet Nick Cheadle, Spanish teacher and intrepid traveler. Nick joined Hawken this fall and serves as a key member of the design team for the Mastery School of Hawken. Hear about his background and his vision for how students can learn about language, culture, and themselves. 

Meet the Team: Nick Cheadle, Language Lover and World Traveler

No one knows for sure what the world of jobs will look like in ten, twenty, thirty years. We do know, though, the world of work is shifting profoundly. The question for schools is what educators should do about it.In a sobering but ultimately invigorating post, Rennie Greenfield writes, "Much of 21st century schooling is languishing in an outdated paradigm in desperate need of a revolution, and, if it does not evolve, the system will be guilty of dooming these students to the impending jobocalypse."  In this episode, Rennie joined the pod to talk about his research and what it means for schools.We mention a few articles and videos that you might want to review:The Future of WorkSociety Is Changing What the Future of Work Will Be Like. Are You Prepared?What ReDesigning School Looks Like: The Story of Engineering

Preparing for the Jobocalypse

We're in the middle of a very heavy and very exciting lift. Not only are we opening a new school next fall, but we're also designing one that will use very different teaching methods and designs than most high schools. As we do this work, we think it's important that you to get to know the actual human beings at the heart of The Mastery School of Hawken.Next up: Janae Peters, Entrepreneurial Studies teacher and a key member of the design team for the Mastery School. Even as a kid, Janae wanted to be a teacher in part because she liked being a student. She seeks experiences that challenge her where, in her words, "it's hard, let's do it, let's learn, and then let's go." With a focus on equity, urgency, and empowerment, Janae Peters is a force for good. We're so glad she chose to join Hawken this fall. 

Meet the Team: Janae Peters, English teacher and Empath

There's a secret hidden in plain sight: school doesn't work for many, many students because, to a large extent, today’s schools were built for yesterday’s world. Schools still prioritize teaching over learning, conformity over agency, memorization over application, testing knowledge over using it, grading over growing, competition over collaboration, stress over engagement, the what over the why. What would happen, though, if we designed school with students and the future in mind? Every other Wednesday, parents, students, and fellow teachers should join Terry Dubow and Julia Griffin, teachers at Hawken School outside Cleveland, Ohio, as they interview experts, students, and educators, and explore ways to redesign school for changed world.

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Redesigning School

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