The What School Could Be Podcast

Stephen Ritz is a South Bronx educator and administrator who believes that students shouldn’t have to leave their community to live, learn, and earn in a better one. Moving generations of students into spheres of personal and academic successes they have never imagined, while reclaiming and rebuilding the Bronx, Stephen’s extended student and community family have grown more than 165,000 pounds of...

Today my guest is Paul Balazs , the Theory of Knowledge teacher, Student Activities Coordinator, Wipeout Crew founder and advisor, and Milken Award Teacher of Promise - among many other things - at Henry J. Kaiser high school in East Honolulu. Listeners, as always, I spent two weeks preparing for today’s conversation. In the end I must have had 30 questions I wanted to ask Paul, but in a painful p...

The very well traveled educator, Emma Reppun was raised between the hills of Marin County, California and the Koʻolau Mountains of O'ahu, in Hawai'i. In college she studied sociology at UC Santa Barbara where she received the first inkling that teaching would be her life’s work. In the following years she was trained in the ways of Forest School and Nature Connection by her mentors at Vilda and Ea...

Ted Dintersmith, at his website , writes, "I have an unusual vantage point on the future of our children and our nation. I spent my career in the world of innovation [and venture capital], and my track record there suggests I might know a bit about it. And over the past decade, I’ve immersed myself in the world of education. I don’t claim to have the expertise our classroom teachers have, and I re...

Dr. Cara Chaudron is a math enthusiast born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i. She teaches 6th grade math at the School For Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability , known as SEEQS, a public charter school near and dear to my heart. I have done two previous episodes with SEEQS faculty, including Zoe Ingerson and school founder, Buffy Cushman-Patz. Dr. Chaudron is a shining example of what it...

My guest today is Annie Evans, the Director of Education and Outreach for New American History at the University of Richmond in the great state of Virginia. Annie is a National Geographic Society Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, a National Geographic Certified Educator and Trainer, a Co-Coordinator of the Virginia Geographic Alliance and a great writer/blogger . She has over 30 years of classroom and edu...

Today my guest is Ali Pressel , a truly remarkable and impressive educator who teaches, guides, mentors and coaches young people in the St. John's County School District in Florida. She has masters in science from University of Maryland and a bachelors in Environmental Sciences and Human Ecology from Rutgers University. She is a leader in career academy education and develops innovative ways to en...

Today my guest is Rob Strain , coming to us from Oakland, California. This is his first time as a guest on a podcast! Working chronologically, Rob has done internships in Botswana, at NASA and at a refugee camp in Philadelphia. He taught in the 1st grade at a Bay Area public school, served in multiple roles at Teach For America , GripTape , the Catalyst Fellowship and at Transcend . Rob co-founded...

Today my guest is Brendan McCarthy . Brendan’s resume is complicated, so bear with me. He is currently working on a masters in education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa. Prior to that, he has degrees from Parsons School of Art and Design and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He also taught at Parsons, which is what we are going to focus on today. His undergraduate degree in mathematics...

Today my guest is Erik Swenson, the Student Service Coordinator and Project Teacher at West Hawaii Explorations Academy PCS, fondly known in Hawaiʻi as WHEA. WHEA began when a Hawaiʻi island high school teacher built a famous solar car team that raced across Australia, the continental US and Europe. From that experience came first a school within a school, and then, in the year 2000, the charterin...

So what will you hear in my conversation with Hawaii's Governor, David Ige? Over the next 75 minutes you will hear him talk about his passion for education and his involvement in a start up high school in his home community of Pearl City; how his degrees in engineering and business shaped his approach to appointing members of Hawaii’s Board of Education; his thoughts on No Child Left Behind, Race...

Jackie Freitas teaches the natural sciences and agriculture at Leilehua High School on the Island of Oahu in the state of Hawaiʻi. But really, she is doing much, much more than that. She is cultivating, nourishing, and shaping the minds and hearts of the next generation of young farmers, engineers, coders and makers who will move Hawaiʻi from unsustainable mono ag to a more diverse and organic AgT...

Dr. Kristin Alford has a Bachelor's Degree in Minerals Processing Engineering and a PhD in Ferrosilicon Corrosion in Dense Medium Plants from the University of Queensland. Dr. Alford, a futurist, also has a Master's in Strategic Foresight from Swinburne University. Yes, there is an interesting difference between being a futurist and having a degree in strategic foresight, whose connotation has a b...

My guest today is Parul Punjabi Jagdish, who came onto my radar screen because of a talk he gave in Las Vegas attended by one of my previous guests, Robert Landau . Currently, Parul is the CEO of AIME Mentoring, Inc. (USA) , a global movement founded in Australia. Parul’s resume is long, and deep. So what is AIME Mentoring? In 2004, AIME founder Jack Bancroft sketched an idea of a social network f...

In his 21 years at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, Kevin Matsunaga has taught over a thousand students how to use cameras and editing software, and how to conduct interviews and tell stories. He emphasizes that the digital media program also teaches students important life skills, like how to work in teams, meet deadlines, communicate effectively and solve problems. “Our goal has never been to...

Ashley Mika Ito-Macion is an educator at Kanoelani Elementary School in Honolulu and a proud Hawai‘i State Teacher Fellow . She has a passion for helping her colleagues and working to create opportunities for educator growth. Ashley also was recently awarded Teacher of the Year for the Pearl City-Waipahu Complex, which is in Honolulu, Hawai'i! She is also the founder of the Hawaiʻi Distance Learni...

“Over her years at High Tech High , Laura McBain (now at the Stanford d. School, K12 Lab ) did almost every job it was possible to do - teacher, principal, graduate school instructor. She can hold her own in any conversation about policy, standards, school design, school change. But the most important thing about Laura is she is all about FUN! Having it, creating it, sharing it. She never loses si...

Dr. Cara Chaudron is a math enthusiast born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i. She teaches 6th grade math at the School For Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability, known as SEEQS, a public charter school near and dear to my heart. I have done two previous episodes with SEEQS faculty, including Zoe Ingerson and school founder, Buffy Cushman-Patz. Dr. Chaudron is a shining example of what it...

Since 2015 Emily McCarren has served as Punahou School’s Academy Principal. Punahou is the largest, and one of the oldest private schools in the United States. Originally from Vermont, Emily graduated from Colby College in Maine where she majored in Spanish and Biology. She served as captain of the Alpine ski team and lacrosse team. Emily holds two master’s degrees: Spanish Literature and Educatio...

Today my guest is Lipoa Kahaleuahi, innovative educator, deep thinker, champion surfer and the executive director of Ma Ka Hana Ka ‘Ike (also known as Hana Build), a truly remarkable experiential learning program on the island of Maui. In this conversation, Lipoa and I range widely over a number of topics, including the remarkable way her life is a literal representation of the phrase, “it takes a...

Ayana Verdi is an educational leader and mother of two who, with her husband John in 2016, established the Verdi Eco School to provide hands-on educational experiences for children in the historic Eau Gallie Arts District of Melbourne, Florida. The school quickly grew to become the first K-8 urban farm school in the southeastern United States and has now expanded to include high school learners. T...

In the About section of his amazing resume Chris McNutt, co-founder of the Human Restoration Project and a digital art and design educator from Columbus, Ohio wrote: “I’m obsessed with revolutionizing education to meet the needs of students. Instead of standardized tests and rote learning, why not create equitable, authentic, and relationship-centered experiences where students can flourish? Let s...

“The best thing about Denise Karratti is not even all of the things she does, it is the way she does them-with complete openness, grace, warmth, and a collaborative spirit. Denise is grounded in our place and invested in all of the people who contribute to our communities. She is a connector and an innovator, and is going to be an incredible administrator in the near future.” (Kristen Brummel, Haw...

My guest today is Chad Carlson, the Director of Research and Design at One Stone Lab School in Boise Idaho. Chad is one of the most innovative, creative and imaginative educators and education leaders ever to come across my radar screen. To say he, and One Stone Lab School work “outside the box” is a vast understatement. In all ways, Chad and One Stone dispense with boxes and approach students as...

Today, I welcome back to the show Dr. Mark Hines, the Director of Kupu Hou Academy, and the founder of the Mid-Pacific Explorer program at Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. To his friends and colleagues, Mark is a Jedi warrior who uses The Force to help public, private and charter school educators find their inner deeper learning practice. To support this show, please give us a rating an...