Human Restoration Project

Today, we are joined by Akil Bello. Akil is a supplemental education and test preparation expert. He's launched two companies, developed test preparation programs, and trained hundreds of instructors. He was the founding partner and CEO of Bell Curves, a test prep company based on community partnerships, worked for The Princeton Review, and now is the Senior Director of Advocacy and Advancement at...

Today we are joined by Carla Marschall and Elizabeth Crawford to cover their upcoming book, Worldwise Learning: A Teacher's Guide to Shaping a Just, Sustainable Future. I was fortunate to receive an advance copy, and Worldwise Learning is all about inquiry and experiential education: shaping global citizens by tackling real world issues in projects. The book walks teachers through the "inquiry cyc...

On today's podcast we are joined by Zoe Bee. Zoe is an English professor, poet, and content creator who produces content for YouTube and streams on Twitch. Some of her work includes "A Professor Explains", where Zoe dives into why Grammarly is a poor product or what makes a poem a "good" poem; or full overview of the themes of H.P. Lovecraft. Zoe is a successful content creator despite being activ...

Today we're speaking with Emi Takemura. Emi is the co-founder and representative director of FutureEdu Tokyo, which seeks to reimagine education in Japan based on project based learning and experiential education inspired by High Tech High. She is also the representative director of Learn by Creation, which provides professional development, conferencing, and networking for inspiring hands-on lear...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. In today's conversation, we are joined by Alex Venet. Alex teaches undergraduate students at the Community College of Vermont, graduate classes at Castleton Center for Schools and Antioch University New England, creates PD, is a community facilitator for Edutopia, co-organizes Edcamp Vermont and Trauma Informed Educators Networ...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. In today's conversation, we are joined by Dr. Ilana Horn. Dr. Horn is a professor of mathematics education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, who focuses on serving disenfranchised youth through authentic mathematics. She leads the Teacher Learning Laboratory, which focuses on sense-making of schools, how teachers and...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. In today's conversation, we're joined by Trevor Aleo, an English teacher in Wilton, Connecticut, Kayla Duncan, a professional instruction coach from Cumming, Georgia, and Julie Stern, author of Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding and many more, and workshop leader of Making Sense of Learning Transfer. Together, along wi...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. Today's conversation is all about 100 Days of Conversations About School! 100 Days is a project by Human Restoration Project, REENVISION ED , Choice Filled Lives Network, and Cortico's Local Voices Network. Simply stated, 100 Days is catalyzing conversations about school in communities across the country. Featuring young people...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. In today's conversation we're joined by Tesha Fritzgerald,. Tesha is an urban education expert who currently serves as a district level leader in an urban school district in Ohio. She is a Martha Holding Jennings Foundation Scholar who has a passion for UDL and culturally responsive teaching, which has led her to publishing her...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. Today we're joined by Dr. Tanu Biswas and Dr. John Wall. Dr. Biswas is a doctorate of pedagogy who focuses her research on children's civil disobedience for climate justice, and showcasing the richness that children and childhood have to offer adults. Dr. Wall is a theoretical ethicist who focuses on the idea of a moral life ce...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. Today we are joined by Dr. Jennifer Berkshire and Dr. Jack Schneider. Dr. Berkshire is a journalist and educator who focuses on podcasting and labor organizing at Boston College and Umass Amherst respectively, and Dr. Schneider is an education historian focused on reform and school accountability. Jennifer and Jack co-host the...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. Today we are joined by Dr. Susan Blum, Dr. Blum is a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, and the author of many works and articles, including her recently released: Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead), which features fifteen different educators, such as Arthur Chiar...

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org. Our conversation today will center on teaching organization and collective activism. Essentially, we find ourselves at an important crossroads, as the administration shifts to new policies - teachers will be at the whim of new federal (and likely, state) policies that will have massive ramifications on classrooms, especially du...

This is a recording of our Teacher Powered Schools Virtual Conference 2020 presentation: Sharing Power with Students: Reframing Systems Toward a Liberatory Pedagogy. This session dives into why reform doesn't work, how teachers can use collective action to change systems, and what really, is the point of us working against inhumane structures if not much is actually changing? RESOURCES One Teacher...

Today, Chris and I (Nick) are joined by John Hale, whose biography you will hear at the beginning of the interview. John was recently the guest of a Soho Forum debate on the topic of pandemic pods, which you heard excerpts of at the beginning of this episode and confined in its entirety on YouTube. Since the Human Restoration Project has primarily been focused on pedagogy and changing the structur...

Today we're joined by Dr. Erin Lynn Raab. Erin is the Co-founder of REENVISION ED , a movement to redefine the purpose of school.
  REENVISION ED aims to change the conversation of school away from standards, norms, and improving the status quo, toward human flourishing, community, democracy, and collective liberation. Erin and her co-founder, Nicole Hensel, both graduates of the Stanford Gra...

Today we're talking about ungrading with the EdTech tool, Floop, short for feedback loop,  found over at FloopEdu.com . Now, we don't normally talk about specific tools and strategies at HRP - we get into the theory and pedagogy of progressive systems...but the most common question we're asked is: okay well, is it even possible to do any of these things? It seems like a ton of work and it'll...

Today we are joined by Evan Whitehead, a veteran educator who is the director of special services at a K-8 school in Illinois. Evan has served in a variety of roles, from crisis and behavior interventionist to Latino parent outreach coordinator to Title 1 director. Further, Evan actively presents on reaching at-risk youth, leadership, and self-care for everyone in education, and is a national cons...

In this podcast, Nick Covington (of HRP) and I, Chris, discuss the "return to learn” plans of school and what we must think about as we reopen. We call upon other educators to hear their thoughts, including Dr. Jessica Zeller, Rachel Lawrence, Shane MacLeod, and an anonymous caller. Three key themes emerge in our conversation: We need to recognize that asynchronous learning is just as valid, if no...

This is an audio version of our Summit on August 1st, 2020. Here's the video ! Inspire Citizens is an innovative organization focusing on active, informed civics through social justice, sustainable development, collective well-being, SEL, and ethical media literacy. Out of the Blocks is an NPR program focused on capturing the sounds on the street of Baltimore, formed on the idea of interviewing ev...

Let’s put this into perspective: the United States is planning on the mass reopening of schools when COVID-19 has still not ended its first wave. Millions of people have been diagnosed, and the CDC has issued little concrete guidance on how schools will actually reopen next month. The US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has essentially ignored questioning of even the notion of remote learning...

Our podcast today features Dr. Astrid Poorthuis, an assistant professor at the developmental psychology program at Utrecht University, Netherlands, whose work focuses on performance, school, and its relationship to social/emotional learning. Dr. Poorthuis has researched and published a variety of works concerning grades, student/teacher emotional well-being, student/teacher relationships, and peer...

Our podcast today features Dr. Connie Wun, the founder and director of Transformative Research: An Institute for Social Transformation and AAPI Women Lead. Connie is an educator, activist, and researcher whose work centers on race and gender equity, community-centered research, women's empowerment, school discipline and punishment, and anti-Blackness in education.  Connie and I talk about sch...

What is Human Restoration Project? This introductory podcast provides an overview to our organization, what we do, and the goals of progressive education. Listen in to learn about the pedagogy and join the cause! Resources I use evidence to inform my teaching. by Chris McNutt At a Crossroads of Anti-Authoritarianism: Dismissing Far-Right School Advocates by Chris McNutt Human Restoration Project's...

Today I'm joined by Marie Bigham, founder and co-leader of ACCEPT Group, or Admissions Community Cultivating Equity & Peace Today. Marie has spent over 20 years in college admissions, most recently at an independent school in New Orleans, and serves full-time as ACCEPT Group's leader. ACCEPT coordinates support for equitable college admissions, such as staging walkouts and organizing like-mind...