Rebel Educator®

Welcome to Season 3 Rebel Educators! I recently had a conversation about why we chose the name "Rebel Educator" and what it means to me. I wanted to share with you the reason why I started this podcast, what it means to be a Rebel Educator, and what I think we can accomplish when we all challenge the status quo. Thank you for listening and enjoy the season! RESOURCES AND LINKS: Check out my bestse...

I’m excited to bring you this compilation of our series of episodes with Open Mind School. Open Mind School has been a mentor for me in launching UP Academy and they are a leader in inclusion education. Learning about their innovation lab, talking to their leadership, and hearing from their students is a unique experience and one that shouldn’t be missed. I hope you enjoy this mini-series with Ope...

It’s been such a wonderful season on the Rebel Educator podcast! I’m so excited to share these highlights from your all-time favorite episodes.  Thank you for tuning in and supporting us in this journey to reimagine education and build a better future for all learners. Keep challenging the status quo Rebel Educators!   IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER: Meaningful Learning with Raheen Fatima (ep. 35) The...

Rachel Kripke-Ludwig is a nonspeaking, college bound autistic advocate. She attends Open Mind School in Menlo Park, and is a Community Partner in the AASPIRE Community Based Participatory Research Group, working on a five-year project to develop tools to measure outcomes for adult autism services. She is also on the Community Advisory Council of CommunicationFIRST, the only nonprofit organization...

As an inclusive podcast our guests are both speakers and non-speakers. In this episode students and staff from the Open Mind, Silicon Valley Social Innovation Lab (OMSIL) come together, using various tools, to tell us all about social innovation.    The OMSIL bridges the gap between neurodivergent populations and the development of products, services, and research. It is an incubator for new techn...

Marina Vaserman is a Doctor of Social Work and she has dedicated her life personally and professionally to servicing youth in our community. Her background is in the field of mental health, neuroscience, and educational advocacy. She specializes in working with foster youth, children identified as gifted learners, and children with learning differences.    Marina is an experienced founder and boar...

Adam F.C. Fletcher is a writer, speaker and consultant focused on human engagement, education transformation, and social change.    Exciting, educating, and empowering are some of the words people have used to describe Adam F.C. Fletcher. A specialist in human engagement for more than two decades, he has consulted on more than two dozen international projects; written more than 50 publications; ke...

I’m excited to announce that my new book, Rebel Educator , has officially launched and in this special episode you can listen to an excerpt!   What is Rebel Educator? As a caring, dedicated teacher, parent, or educational professional, are you feeling more and more frustrated by the confines of today’s educational environment?     In Rebel Educator , I take a tough, honest look at our modern educa...

Louka Parry is an educator, strategist and entrepreneur working at the global forefront with schools, systems and organisations as they adapt for the future. As a school teacher, he was promoted to Principal at 27 and has been named Inspirational Public Secondary Teacher of the Year for South Australia. As Founder + CEO of The Learning Future and a Founding Executive of Karanga: The Global Allianc...

Andrew Jordan Nance has been an educator since 1990. He is the author of four published books; The Barefoot King, The Lion in Me, Mindful Arts in the Classroom, and the bestseller, Puppy Mind. He is the founder of Mindful Arts San Francisco; a program of the San Francisco Education Fund that provides volunteer mindfulness educators to teach in SF public schools.  On KTVU’s SF Loves Learning Mr. Na...

Paula Fynboh has extensive nonprofit leadership, program development, and equity and social justice experience at the local, national, and international level. Paula has studied and practiced social change extensively and believes that real and sustainable change happens when people come together at the grassroots and community level around seemingly simple, yet powerful actions that shift the nar...

SJ Barakony is an American small business champion with a boundless appreciation for people, entrepreneurship, liberty, & lifelong learning.   He started his journey as the Education Sherpa in late 2011; over the next 9+ years, he's been offered a number of opportunities to partner with others, inc. the H7 Network; Founders Live; Economic Impact Catalyst; The Entrepreneurial Leap; Elevate Capi...

Abby Falik is the Founder & CEO of Global Citizen Year, an award-winning social entrepreneur, and an expert on the changing landscape of education.    She is a frequent speaker and writer, and has been featured in prominent forums and news outlets including the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Fast Company Innovation Festival, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education...

For over three decades, Homa Sabet Tavangar’s work has addressed themes of culture, innovation, leadership, global citizenship and global competence, and deep diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion. She connects timely topics of the moment with the timeless desire to work with purpose and make a difference – whatever one’s circumstances.   Homa’s clients range from Fortune 50 corporations to p...

Tony DeRose is currently Chief Content Officer and co-founder of X in a Box, LLC. In partnership with innovative companies, X in a Box (xiab.org) creates world-class lessons that connect the classroom to the real-world.   Prior to founding X in a Box Tony was a Senior Scientist at Pixar for 23 years, and for most of that time he led Pixar’s Research Group. In recent years he has contributed to sev...

Nicole Dyson is a globally recognized expert and practitioner in project-based learning and youth entrepreneurship. She is the founder of Future Anything, an award-winning, curriculum-aligned entrepreneurship program for high school students, the founder of YouthX, Australia's only startup accelerator program for school-aged entrepreneurs, and the founder of Catapult Cards, a design thinking tool...

Big Stew, Scott Steward, or Professor Steward (depending on how you know him) has taught business management, entrepreneurship, and marketing at Chicago State University, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, and Lewis University.   Scott has a strong and vast business school education and he wants to share all of his knowledge with you. Known as the “force” behind a student’s limitless future,...

Heather Clarke is a Black Afro-Caribbean mother of 2 small children. She is also neuro-divergent, with an invisible disability. She has over 20 years of experience working as a teacher, and in the field of educational justice and policy.    She is an abolitionist educator and universal design for learning expert with more than 20 years’ experience working with children and families with disabiliti...

In this episode, I discuss some changes we're making here at the Rebel Educator podcast! We’d love it if you could take a few minutes to fill out this survey to let us know how we can bring you the best possible content:  https://forms.gle/JcKHf9DHTZnYUmQr6 Enjoying the show? Leave us a rating and review and help more people find us! https://bit.ly/RebelEducatorApplePodcasts Interested in being on...

Over 25 years, Matt has run an $18m hospital department, distributed $500m in philanthropy, led an education reform nonprofit, served on nine educational boards from selective public university to pre-K, and coached thousands of parents how to “W.I.N.” The Education Game. He is the father of three amazing teens who were educated in traditional, hybrid, micro, and self-directed learning models. One...

Chelsea Robberson always thought that her dream was to be teaching in a classroom, wearing an “I teach for the money & fame" shirt, and loving every second of dancing along with her students to Tooty Ta by Dr. Jean. She took her first classroom role in 2005, served in the states and internationally, and loved it all the way through her first taste of school leadership in 2009. Taking an Assist...

Chris Menage is an award winning educator and learning design innovator whose purpose is to shape ‘new ways of doing, thinking, seeing and being’ that create the human and social capital needed for progressive communities to thrive.    Chris’ experience as a migrant between three countries includes over 20 years’ in private enterprise, government administration, educational and school leadership,...

Chris Balme is an education leader and innovator, passionate about helping people discover more of their human potential. Chris was the co-founder and CEO of Spark, a US nonprofit which works across the country to re-inspire the love of learning in adolescents. He then co-founded and was Head of School at Millennium School, a lab school in San Francisco which uses developmental science to create p...

Andrew Ravin is the Founder and Head of School at Workshop Middle School. For nearly 25 years, he’s worked as a social worker, classroom teacher, instructional coach, and school leader. Andrew is an award-winning educator, mentor, and researcher. Most recently, he was named one of the Top 100 Innovators in American Education.  Andrew founded Workshop Middle School to be the change he believes in....

Scarlett Lewis founded the nonprofit Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement after her six-year-old son’s murder in the Sandy Hook tragedy on December 14th, 2012. She became part of the solution to the issues in society -- and that also caused the tragedy -- and advocates for social-emotional learning and character education.  She's the author of Nurturing Healing Love: A Mother’s Journey of Hope & F...