Season 2 Recap

Hayley Spira-Bauer: As I thought about recording a review of season 2, I had a lot of emotions. The Learning Can't Wait. Podcast is 2 seasons old.This is our 30 sixth episode, and we've had some incredible, profound guessas part of our recordings, and there is nothing I am more proud of than elevating these incredible individuals, and giving them a platform amongst the many other platforms they already have to share their experiences, their learnings, their impressions of the future of education. And hopefully give some optimism and hope to everybody tuning in and listening. Each week in this season we started off with one of my own colleagues, Marnee Grant, a teacher recruiter who shared about his experience in and around a tech recruiting teachers for vacancies in school districts for larger programs. And now here at iTutor. You know, as I listen to one of his episodes, I, or excuse me when I listen to part of his episode. I was really struck by a story that Marnee Grant shared regarding recruiting teachers of color, and he had shared an experience of listening to a student from a conference, asks why he should go back into a traumatic situation that he made it out of. And just today, you know, middle of January, towards end of January I read an article of the same ilk, just speaking to how challenging it is both to establish norms, habits, cultures within organizations that Don't have them to recruit teachers of colors and create a pipeline, and how important it is. But how it also exposes the same people who had traumatic experiences within schools to some of the challenges that school teachers and leaders face today. It's interesting because Education Week also published a piece about a particular district that has done a phenomenal job, both recruiting and retaining and re and promoting leaders of color. It's the Eden Prairie School district it, which is a suburb near Minneapolis. And nearly half of their principles and associate principles are people of color that is incredibly, incredibly profound and meaningful. Given what we know about both the shrinking teacher, pipeline, and the research that strongly correlates with student success. When school leaders and teachers of color are in the classroom and around classrooms, students of color perform better. So really exciting to read this article, entitled a School District, now has a deep bench of principles of color. See how it got there, and it reminded me of the episode I recorded with Marnee Grant, called the second most important job of the work in the world, which first most important job is alluded to in the episode which is being a teacher. Thus, the second most important job being a teacher, recruiter. And there were other episodes this season which spoke about teachers recruiting our recruitment of teachers, and the last episode last week's release was with Dr. Christian Wilkens, who is an associate professor at SUNY Brockport as as well as he is the as well as he is the Department Chair of Education and Early Development at the State University of New York, at Brockport. And what's interesting is, he is a leader and teacher preparatory expert at a university that is not experiencing a declining enrollment in their teacher. Preparatory programs as opposed to every other school within the SUNY system, which is experiencing a dramatic decline in enrollment. And so you know, those 2 episodes, amongst many other other episodes this season focused on teacher shortage the challenges that folks are experiencing in recruiting and retaining teachers, and I think, or I know you can expect season 3 to cover many of those topics as well. Another episode that I really want to highlight for everybody is an episode with Travis Anderson, who is a or actually he just moved on from his position as the just moved on. From his position as the director of Montana GEAR UP. He's moving into a new position supporting incarcerated youth in their education in the State of Montana. And you know I named that the teacher shortage was a theme throughout season 2. It's also going to be a theme throughout season. Season 3. But 1 point that we talked about in the Resilience and rural America episode from season 2 is just how dire it is in rural America to find talent. He stated that when there are 2 candidates that apply for a position a district nearly celebrates because of how rare that is. And many people within the district where multiple hats way beyond what you would expect from a teacher, a school leader, and aid. He spoke about the experience of having to get certified in fixing boilers when he was a school leader, because otherwise the building would have been too cold, which in rural Montana, in the middle of winter, makes learning absolutely impossible. Some of the challenges that some urban districts or city school districts do not face our unique and very high hurdles for people in rural regions like in Montana or other parts of the country, is a profound statement on how education can be different. And how the recent debate on the teacher shortage, where many pundits and researchers may generalize sweeping statements. There are teacher shortages. There are, in teacher shortages what it. What we learn later is that there are teacher shortages, but they're regionalized primarily affecting communities of color. Primarily affecting communities with low socioeconomic status, high populations of low as socioeconomic status. So not to be not completely surprising that rural America, Montana. One of the places that Travis speaks about has that particular need and challenge an episode that I keep rolling over in my mind. If you haven't listened, yet you should listen. Now is the episode entitled All Eyes on Student Attendance with Dr. Danielle Dooley. Hedy Chang and Dr. Lisa Downey. That episode focused on a community perspective of student attendance with Hedy Chang, who is the executive director of Attendance Works. Speaking on the research, the data we've collected, the severe crises we're facing in student attendance. Getting kids to school is a unique challenge, and our data tells us that getting them to school is more than half the battle in terms of socioeconomic to me social and emotional benefit and academic benefit. And Dr. Danielle Dooley, of Children's Medical in Washington, DC. Spoke about the community based perspective how pediatricians can work with school districts to play a part in getting to students to school. And Dr. Lisa Downey, of Minneapolis school district, one of the assistant principals there spoke about how they have built solid community practices that engage students not just from their classroom teachers, but more robust support from individuals who are assigned to students throughout their tenure at many old school district. That theme of community and connectivity is one. We also saw replicated in the episode with Juliana Finegan the VP of Strategy and Learning at Vivi. As well as with Tyrone Holmes in the episode entitled Creating a Culture of Belong and I, in in the episode that we recorded with him shared. He's the chief inclusion officer. And a very well known a tech company known as curriculum associates. But both Ty and Juliana spoke about the importance of bringing people together, creating inclusive cultures within an organization which can be extrapolated to within a school. As we saw mirrored in Dr. Lisa Downey's episode, all eyes on student attendance and creating that community element, creating a place where people feel excited and powered and have relationships with folks pays dividends. It's funny. I ask a question very often in this season. The very first question I ask is, how did you come to be the professional and personal version of yourself. And no, I I don't have the exact number, but I would say more than 90% of people named a mentor. Either one that they met in their high school career Collegiate Post College. But a mentor is the reason why they are where they are today. Someone they connected with that took a keen interest in them as a person as a professional, and who nurtured them and shepherded them and brought them and help them grow to become that professional and personal version of themselves. And every time someone said it I still felt surprised. Not in a way that I was shocked and didn't believe that that could be the reason why someone had achieved such prestige or such had been able to garner such impact in their field. But really because I think it's summarized for me a a point that this whole world is about relationships, not who we know.but how we invest in the people around us.And in school I would argue there is nothing more important between a teacher and a student, then their relationship. Not every teacher, has to in their heart and love every student. It is a fact of human nature that relationships may be challenging. There may be difficulties between them, but I have yet to find a situation where, in my own experience, investing in a student. Getting to know them. Getting to let them be their authentic selves in my classroom resulted in anything other than progress for that student, whether it be small progress, such as participating in the classroom, or greater progress, like a blossoming of a personality and engagement with the content, a curiosity that I hadn't seen before. And so again not completely surprising to me that that question I ask about how we became the personal and professional version of ourselves so often elicited a results about relationships. But in no other episode do you hear that? More than with David Adams. The CEO of Urban Assembly. And Jabali Sawicki Jabali Sawicki, the Compass director at NXU. Their episode entitled Mental Health Focus Building Systems Structures and Schools for the whole child. We talked a lot about actualizing a community, a system, a structure, as the title of the episode is in a way that allows students to get the tools, knowledge, and strategies to navigate the world at Urban Assembly. They incorporate and build in quality, social, emotional learning. They are integrally attending to behavior, attendance, decision making, ensuring students have again the tools to be able to navigate this world. And in listening to Jabali Sawicki and David sometimes agree and sometimes challenge one another. It was profound to me the emphasis on explicit instruction of strategies that promote mental health. Both as part of the curriculum in annex use case. But also as part of the fabric of the building of a school. So often these days we hear a debate or a dialogue around the terms social and emotional learning. And it's unfortunate. Both, Both of the speakers agreed. It is. It is troubling to hear that investing in in creating students mental fortitude, helping them navigate challenging relationships. Building within them the knowledge and know how to overcome challenges before them. Both personally and interpersonally. We know, has a profound and dramatic impact on students long term. So that episode really solidify this theme. The second theme i'm talking about, which is culture, community connection in and around schools that we heard in some of many of the episodes this week, including or many of the episodes this season. Including Dr. Dennisha Murff episode, collective urgency in school today. Now, you know Dr. Dennisha Murff is a repeat. Guests on the Learning Can't Wait podcast, and it was a pleasure to have her back sharing about how her particular district, MSD of Wayne Township in Indiana. Has not only cultivated the best teachers and school leaders in the State of Indiana, but also what structures they put in place to focus on students academic needs. In this 3 years of pandemic learning and challenges there has been a huge emphasis in her district on individualized support. Small group support what we call high dosage tutoring. We see it time and time again in districts that this is the main mechanism for improving student outcomes during this crisis, this time of crisis and academic learning. And what Dr. Dennisha Murff, and actually Tafshier Cosby in the episode the power of parents talk a lot about is again bringing the community together in Tafshier Cosby's episode. We talked a little bit about how her, as the Senior Director of the Center for organizing and partnership for the National Parents Union and the co- Sheet executive officer of parent impacts. How they create advocacy for parents. Or how. Oh. Teach parents how to advocate on behalf of their students and their community at their schools, to advocate for these items, such as high dosage, tutoring to really make sure that each child has equitable access to opportunities. Tafshier Cosby speaks about how parents are the second stakeholder in any conversation about education. And Dr. Dennisha Murff really spoke about some of the primary stakeholders being the students. And then you have teachers and school leaders. We all have to be on the exact same page. Which, of course, is a challenge. And I'm, thinking now to the episode called fractured learning. The need for cohesion in an education, a need for cohesion and education. That episode this season featured Dr. Leo Bialis-White, the part a partner at New School's Venture Fund, Shelby Hildreth-Ulrich, Eric Shannon and Molly Leger. All from the Academy for urban school leadership on the Liberated Way team. That episode spoke about how at the micro level within a school learning is incredibly fractured from classroom to classroom. And when you think about the Macro Level school to school within a district district to district within a state state to state within the Us. It's incredibly overwhelming to think about the many signals and jagging experiences as Dr. Leo Bialis-White shared that students have, when schools don't flow together from institution to institution, and how many point solutions there are out there making it more challenging to bring communities forward. In this episode. The AUSL team shared a little bit about how they are supporting schools in finding cohesion from classroom to classroom to allow for a a unified experience As students go from K to 12 within a district they are speaking the same language. Regardless of the teacher they had, regardless of what path or journey they were put on or experienced. Which is a incredible challenge at the micro level, no less at the macro level which we discussed in that episode. If you missed it. And then there are some incredible leaders of organizations I just absolutely respect. I interviewed Abbas Manjee of kid co-founder and chief academic academic officer of Kiddom. We talked about edtech Saturation Point, which was also a theme in that episode, fractured learning how many tools there are today, and how vital it is now, more than ever that we simplify what teachers have in their hands, and what students see on a regular basis to make learning more cohesive. More unified, and more coherent. There was Laura Slover. The chief, a. To me, Laura Slover, the chief executive officer of Center Point Education solutions similar to the conversation with Abbas Manjee of, another leader in the assessment space and the space around curriculum. Actually, Kiddom and Center Point have a partnership, so that kingdom's assessment. Solutions are important into. Excuse me, Center Points assessment. Solutions are important, and to Kiddom to eliminate some of that fractured learning we were speaking about earlier. But Laura and I spoke a lot about how schools can build their assessment with assessment literacy, and how to make data. Our friend and not the enemy within schools and necessary evil to promote learning. And we spoke to Rayna Glumac. The founder and lead of of Rye consulting and rye education group about procurement. How do these tools even get into school? How to how to tools, like I to your or Kiddom or center point? Get into a school, and the process of procurement and what it entails, and how we can get high quality tools and materials in the hands of teachers in a process that allows for a district to have unity, so that theme of coherence that we spoke about on the fractured learning episode. And last, but certainly not least, we had for George. Excuse me. We had Jorge Valenzuela speaking on an educator's voice within, finding the for him, binding his path, and in and around education starting up the practice of bringing project based learning and real leadership, coaching into school districts. An incredible journey he's had, and really high quality resources, both publish and and Utopia, and on his own website lifelong learning to find. And then Mike Yates. In the episode called questioning everything in education, which, if you know me, I tend to do. And so Mike and I had a really fantastic chat this season. Speaking on his experience, is now at Teach For America at the Reinvention lab. And also just what happened in the traditional teaching system, how and now i'm going on a theme here, starting with Marnee Grant, now leading back to Mike Yates. How systems and education needs to look different in order to really dismantle some of the systemic flaws that have continually oppressed and marginalized students and populations within school districts and build out one. He's really interested in storytelling again a theme that I love as I host a podcast as well. But to making sure that we are hearing success. Making sure that we're hearing success stories around in and around education. So that was a really really powerful episode which I highly recommend if you Haven't listened. And our finally final 2 releases were re-releases of the edtech week speech that I gave this year with start started is a tech making learning accessible for all, and my appearance on Holly Owens's EdUp EdTech podcast, which is incredibly fun. Huh, man? So that is a lot of me talking, but some highlights of this season, and really helping to unify all of the episodes that we released and get you excited about what's coming next in season 3. You can look forward to some incredible speakers. You can see the deputy director for the office of LED Tech for the us. Government. Kristina Ishmael will be on season 3. We will have Evan Stone. The co-founder and Co- CEO of educators for excellence and educator advocacy group that I really admire. You'll hear from some of my colleagues during this Stephen, Dr. Kelsey Young. Our Director of Research here at iTutor, but, generally speaking, about the field of a tech and research which will go really nicely with an episode we're recording this season with Bart. Epstein, that chief executive officer of the EdTech Evidence Exchange. And also a Board member of ISTE and ASCD. Someone that I think you all really appreciate. So lots to look forward to sharing a little sneak peek into season. 3 really grateful. You join me here for season 2, and I look forward to the upcoming episodes, and your participation in the learning. Can't wait. Podcast.