Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity

Tania Marien is an independent environmental education professional and the Director of Talaterra — "Speak Earth" — a network of independent environmental education (EE) professionals who contribute to lifelong learning and environmental health in communities. OK, that's Tania's official bio. After talking with her for a couple of hours and studying what she does and how she works, I prefer to des...

My guest in this episode is Steve Ehrlich. Steve is semi-retired, but now applying his life-long experience in adult learning, psychology, and literature to a new chapter — bringing the transformative lessons and stories gleaned from the fly fishing environment to support personal and professional growth.  In this episode, we will wade into the literature of fly fishing — a contemplative, lyrical,...

My guest in this episode is Dr. Donna Curtin , a historian serving as the Executive Director of the Pilgrim Hall Museum. Pilgrim Hall is "the oldest continuously operating public museum in the country and America's museum of Pilgrim possessions. I wanted to talk to Dr. Curtin because as a former high school history teacher and developer of social studies classroom materials for more than 35 years,...

My guest in this episode is Bradley Wright , a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut and host of the "School of Purpose" podcast . When I began to investigate curiosity, Bradley's focus on purpose was one of the first ideas that intrigued me because I don't ever remember saying to myself, "That's why I'm here! That's what I meant to do in life!" Instead, it was more like, "Well,...

How do you go about telling a very inviting and understandable story in film? My guest in this episode, Rita Grant, is an award-winning documentary film cinematographer, director, and producer, and the driving force behind Sweet Sage Pictures. In our conversation, she explains how she harnesses her technical skills, curiosity, instinct, and heart behind the camera.

Today I'm joined by Erica Nelson, a member of the Navaho Nation. Erica is a fly fishing guide, host of the "Awkward Angler" podcast, and a contributor to the "Awkward & Clueless Beginning Fly Fishing" show on YouTube. She is a Brown Folks Fishing ambassador, a community that cultivates the visibility, representation, and inclusion of people of color in fishing and its industry. She is also the pas...

Bill Whiteside is a sales and marketing executive turned software salesman turned writer of narrative non-fiction, specifically a forthcoming book about an incident in Winston Churchill's tenure as Britain's Prime Minister during World War II. Our conversation explores the incident, which we then use as an opportunity to examine what makes a great leader great, what constitutes the art of writing...

We rarely reveal our true self to others, and sometimes (very often?) we don't reveal it to ourselves. Sadly, we can't interact effectively with others if there are layers of our personal onion between us. Diane Wyzga , a self-described story doula works to help professionals pull back the curtain and get to the heart of their message — their authentic story.

What can we learn from non-traditional sources if we're willing to look at things differently? How can we break out of our often self-imposed boundaries to see what the universe is offering us? For example, this podcast is broadly about "K12 education," but it's really about thinking and doing things differently to get different results. And in the case of this episode, what can a fly fishing guid...

The "Trauma in Schools" podcast series focus primarily on the trauma that students carry with them into the classroom. But, many school faculty, staff and administrators are also experiencing trauma. COVID has dislocated relationships and put pressure on educators to quickly address "learning loss." There is a critical need for school leaders at any level to promote self-care through mindfulness t...

Those who work for substantial educational change, do so within the context of today's heated nation and world. Two thought leaders are adept at shining a light on those educators who are trying to lead their communities out of darkness. Dr. Michael Fullan and Dr. Mark Edwards have penned an argument for change that highlights how eight districts are combining the emotional and scientific basis fo...

If students are in a state of high stress or trauma, the part of the brain that facilitates learning is inaccessible. Thus, student academic achievement rests squarely on the shoulders of student wellness. Neuroscience researcher, Melissa Hughes, Ph. D., explains.

One of the goals of our series is to raise awareness and the level of discourse around student trauma and mental health in general. And if we're not bringing these subjects out into the open, kids keep all those emotions bottled up inside of them. Dr. Glenn Albright and Kim Weiland from Kognito, a firm that develops avatar-based simulations to help develop trauma-informed educators, explain.

Periodically on Getting Unstuck, we welcome a change maker to tell their story of personal transformation: how a specific event or catalyst propelled them into a different role or way of thinking from where they once were. Today, we hear from Suzanne DeMaillie who went from being the parent of three children to someone who led a four- year crusade to bring about a specific educational change. And...

Some students from low-income communities – often kids of color – may lack aspirations for a post high-school future because they feel it's simply unrealistic to think of life outside of their current situation. But many students from low-income communities do have aspirations, yet they are sidelines because of real or perceived societal barriers blocking their way. The organization OneGoal helps...

As today's guest observed, "Many kids fall through the cracks somewhere." Maybe they've experienced trauma outside of school, and as a result, they don't fit in inside of school. But Jeff Rivero , veteran history teacher at Yosemite High School in Merced California, knows how to reach them and help them uncover their passion. How? He treats them like the natural resources they are.

Over the years, we've heard a lot of ideas from teachers, administrators and thought leaders on how to reform high school so that the institution would better serve tomorrow's graduates and the complex world they face. But we'd never heard students' ideas on how to improve their high school experience. In this interview, we get the details on the student-generated and award winning plan from Sheri...

This week I talked with Janani Pathy, Principal of the Bill Hogarth Secondary School in Markham, Ontario Canada. Janani is one of those "unstuck" leaders that we profiled recently in our "unstuck" series. "Unstuck" leaders tend to demonstrate a few key behaviors, one being, they're highly adaptable and innovative. As a result, they don't tend to get stuck very often. That observation led to a disc...

Over the summer, we've been running a series called "Unstuck" where we've profiled school leaders who are not just getting unstuck, they're already unstuck. A number of behaviors define them. They're adaptable, flexible and innovative community-minded, focused on life skill development and the whole child; and finally, they believe there is an imperative to develop student leaders. Today's guest,...

This week I talked with Peter McWain , the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Sante Fe Public Schools. We reviewed a number of positive instructional outcomes that emerged from living under COVID. Unintended consequences occur all the time from change. While planners usually target desired outcomes, they often don't consider the negative outcomes that could accrue. To avoid that, chang...

We recorded our first interview with Peter McWain, Santa Fe Public Schools Director of Curriculum and Instruction during the summer of 2018. As schools emerge from COVID — and as educators try to prepare today's students for an ever volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, we wanted to revisit some questions from our initial conversation: What is the purpose of U.S. education? What do we...

We recorded our first interview with Peter McWain , Santa Fe Public Schools Director of Curriculum and Instruction during the summer of 2018. As schools emerge from COVID — and as educators try to prepare today's students for an ever volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, we wanted to revisit some questions from our initial conversation: What is the purpose of U.S. education? What do w...

This week I talked with Dr. Lindsay Lyons , an educational coach who helps teachers integrate student voice in classroom learning so as to develop shared classroom leadership. There's a lot of interest in student agency, but there's also concern from many teachers and students. Teachers are leery of giving up control and not being able to cover everything they need to cover. Students are simply us...

If you asked people to identify the qualities they want to see in high school graduates, most people would respond with points such as Independent thinking, Collaborative, Problem solving, Emotionally intelligence and Adaptability. These are also all qualities that we would want to see in leaders, rights? But what kind of opportunities do we routinely give kids to develop these leadership qualitie...

This week I talked with Erin Mote , co-founder of the Brooklyn Lab Charter School in Brooklyn, New York. Erin is passionate about helping the school's "scholars" discover their interests, their passions, and in the process, help shape their individual identity. This idea that we can be shaped by multiple interests and passions led us to investigate the book RANGE and the TEDx Talk "The Hidden Powe...