Tag: leadership

Liberating Learning One District At a Time

In this episode, Dr. Michelle Sadrena Pledger, CORE Districts’ Chief of Improvement David Montes de Oca, and Dr. Stacey Caillier explore how educators are transforming systems using ideas from Liberate: Pocket-Sized Paradigms for Liberatory Learning. Listen in for stories, strategies, and a vision for what’s possible when we dare to liberate learning — one district at a time.

Simon Breakspear on “The Pruning Principle”

Alec talks to Dr. Simon Breakspear about the book he co-wrote with Michael Rosenbrock, “The Pruning Principle: Mastering the Art of Strategic Subtraction Within Education”

Welcome to Unboxed Issue 26

In 2009 I began an internship at the Innovation Unit in London. It being an internship, I was doing a little of everything, but my main project was Learning Futures, whose goal was to make school more engaging for students. 

Remembering David Price

Charged with the challenge and the honour of trying to capture the spectacular quality of David Price’s life, an image, not words, came to mind.

The Route To School Improvement Is Hiding In Plain Sight

“You know how you can tell you’re in a happy school within 30 seconds of walking through the front door?” This is a statement/question that I’ve experienced on countless occasions during a lifetime spent in education. It has a ring of truth to it and we’ve all felt it as visitors or (worse) inspectors.

Superintendent (and High School Dropout) Jessica Waters

At Deeper Learning, Alec just started recording this interview to show Jessica how the mics worked—but once she started talking, he knew it was going to be an episode!

Schools as Equitable Communities of Inquiry

We wrote this chapter several years ago, in response to a request from the Sitra Foundation in Finland that we envision the school of the future. The chapter is dated in some respects, but apart from minimal updates and revisions for clarity, it appears here as written.

How to Bring Your Full Artistic Self to School

At Deeper Learning 2024, artist/choreographer Aysha Upchurch and Enrique Lugo talk about being artists in school, and the power of the cypher (and cuffed Levis 501s).

Nurturing Student Well-Being and Engagement through Belonging

Educators have known for years that social, emotional, and cognitive processing are all neurologically intertwined and that school connectedness has long-lasting protective effects for adolescents.

Finding Your Leadership Soul

Big Picture Learning Co-Executive Director Carlos Moreno and Co-founder Elliot Washor talk about love, care, and vulnerability, the three key characteristics of leadership that Moreno identifies in his book, Finding Your Leadership Soul

The Six Relationships that Characterize Great Schools

Underlying Deeper Learning are the relationships that make learning meaningful and sticky.

Talking about Dancing and Deeper Learning with Jillian Juman

Alec talks to Envision Education CEO Jillian Juman about the experiences that brought her here, and shaped her vision for education

What Does It Take For Black Teachers To Thrive?

Currently, our nation is experiencing a national teacher shortage that has disproportionate effects on students

Scott McLeod: Leadership for Deeper Learning

Scott McLeod shares advice for school leaders who want to pivot their schools towards deeper learning.

Radical Love—Caring For Ourselves and Community

Resistance Communication co-founder Aisha Bain and Stanford d.School Design Lecturer Manasa Yeturu to talk about how we care for ourselves and live in community with each other

School Leadership for Radicals Who Want to Get Stuff Done

High Tech High Interim CEO Kaleb Rashad and Vista Innovation & Design Academy Principal Eric Chagala talk about school leadership, and how to turn soaring rhetoric into concrete reality.

Power Lunch

Power Lunch engages students in informal conversations with local professionals and …

Center for Love & Justice / / LAUSD

Center for Love & Justice collaborated with LAUSD to implement PBL in local schools

“Worksheets Won’t Make Good Artifacts”

What happened when a large Kentucky district decided to go big on Deeper Learning

A Found Year

As an educator for over 30 years, serving as a teacher, principal, and assistant superi…

Addressing Equity & Racism in Schools

This episode is a recording of a “Den Talk” from the 2021 Deeper Learning Conference, on “Leading School Staff in Work to Address Equity and Racism.”

We’re About All Kids, and All Kids Being Successful

The percentage of seniors who completed their FAFSA forms at …

Improving FAFSA Completion Rates

We are attempting to represent the findings of a major Continuous Improvement project …

Culturally Responsive Continuous Improvement

In the fall of 2019, I was entering my third year as an Induction Coach …

Bringing Continuous Improvement to Induction

California’s credentialing structure is a two-step approach …

Ten Lessons Learned About Improvement Networks that Work

In the midst of a national reckoning with centuries of racial injustice …

Shane Duenow on parallel prototyping & Padlet

Maker teacher Shane Duenow about how he uses software to facilitate student drafting.

“You can’t do this alone”: La Junta Collective

Jean and Alec talk to members of South Central LA’s La Junta Collective about how to …

“Showing Up” for Students when you’re Locked Down

School psychologist Cat Magielnicki talks about how to support your students’ (and your …

Why PBL?

High Tech High students, teachers and directors explain the thinking behind doing projects.

Continuous Improvement: Teacher Induction

This episode is about how High Tech High transformed its teacher induction program to . . .

Ron Berger on Whole-class Close Reading

In the inaugural episode of the “High Tech High Unboxed: Pro Sessions” podcast series …

Stephanie Hall-Powell: School is about Relationships

Alec talks to Stephanie Hall-Powell, founder of San Antonio Preparatory Charter School …

Student-Centered Teaching, Teacher-Centered Leadership

The first journal entry I wrote as a brand new apprentice teacher is dated September 13…

Don’t Grade Quizzes

A suggestion for improving formative assessment.

Teaching Skills that Don’t Fit Neatly Into Projects

Lots of teachers ask us about this when they come to visit High Tech High…

Electioneering Project

Teacher Mele Sato explains the exhibition rehearsal process for the electioneering …

What Makes a School a “Good School”

Sam Seidel, director of K12 strategy and research at Stanford d. School, describes …

Experience as Text – PBL Design Kit

HTH instructors break down key components that comprise a well designed project in the …

Disability & Identity

LeDerick Horne speaks about the importance of educators being open about their …

The Many Paths to Success

Carlos Moreno, C.E.O. of Big Picture Learning, discusses the value of being …

Early Student Connections

Laura McBain, K12 Lab Director of Community and Implementation, speaks about the …

My Teachable Moment

Chris Emdin, Associate Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education, …

Continuous Education for Teachers

LeDerick Horne, speaks about the value of profession development and how High Tech …

Remix Education

Sam Seidel, director of K12 strategy and research at Stanford d. School, talks about …

Building Off of Student Strengths

Carlos Moreno, C.E.O. of Big Picture Learning, addresses the importance of using …

Teacher Mindsets

Jessica Brown, Experience Designer for Business Innovation Factory, speaks about the …

Music to Literacy

Sam Seidel, director of K12 strategy and research at Stanford d. School, tells the …

Cultural Relevance

Chris Emdin, Associate Director of the Institute For Urban and Minority Education …

Non-fiction Writing Project Critique – PBL Design Kit

HTH instructors break down key components that comprise a well designed project in the …

Redefine Who You Are as a Learner

LeDerick Horne speaks about the importance of being transparent with students who have …

Observing Schools

Chris Emdin, Associate Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education, …

Lila Speaks.

As of yesterday, it had been 13 weeks, or 55 school days, since school started. Yet it was…

Crafting Beautiful Lessons

Ron Berger is interviewed on his approach to engage students in the creation of “beautiful work”

Project Tuning Protocol

Kelly Jacob and Sacha Casiato give a brief overview of the steps in taking a project …

Collaboration in PBL

Lillian Hsu, Founding Principal of Latitude High School speaks on the value of …

Teachers as Learners

Ron Berger, Expeditionary Learning Chief Academic Officer, explains the importance of …

Honoring the Students

Tony Simmons, Executive Director at High School for Recording Arts, talks about the …

Learning Together

Tony Simmons, Executive Director at High School for Recording Arts, talks about the …

Student Led Conferences – Student Perspectives

A High Tech High North County senior talks about what student led conferences are and how they help students communicate their academic progress to parents and guardians.

How to Conduct Student Led Conferences

Biology teacher Jesse Wade Robinson defines and explains the steps to creating a …

Needs of the Community

Emily Pilloton of Girl’s Garage talks about what is the driver for projects.

Executive Function And The Provenance Of Patience

Later, though, after the third time my mother had asked me the same question within the…

Little Bits Of Magic

My colleague was craving opportunities for us to share a success from our classroom, an…

Ideation

Kristin Komatsubara, Math/Science teacher, discusses the advantages of students …

Student Consulting

Disrupting Student-Teacher Hierarchies

Uncovering The Why In The Way We Teach

I was proud of the countless teaching strategies I had already collected before I began…

Redefining Well-Behaved In The 21st Century Classroom

I had never given a thought to the term well-behaved until I heard another teacher use…

Other People’s Children Are My Children

To be clear, this is NOT a guide, and I do NOT have all the answers, or any answer for…

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of a Successful School Project

“Human history is punctuated by the prolific rise and inevitable collapse of…

10 Principles for Distributed Leadership

The hardest part about teaching (well) and leading (well) isn’t creating meaningful…

Home Visits

What I’ve come to know, however, is that spending time in the home of each student gives…

Toy Story

In the Toy Story project, second graders explored the essential question, “What is the …

What Does it Mean to Think Like a Teacher?

When, as an infant, you come to terms with the fact that your mother leaves the…

Permission to Wonder: Using Art to Deepen Learning

We were asked to be accountable for our teaching: were we effective? Did people learn what…

Mindsets and Student Agency

We can’t force students to develop agency and drive their own learning. It must come from…

Don’t Just Talk About Character: Teach Habits

When was the last time you were involved in completing a project for work that didn’t…

Change Leadership For Learning

In this UnBoxed interview, Tony Wagner, first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology…

I Want to be a Leader Who…

I want to be a Leader who…

Everyone a Mentor

As he listens to his classmate read her story, his eyes grow wide. He turns to…

Revealing Riches: Mentoring in Clinical Credentialing

Benjamin Disraeli once said, “The greatest good you can do for another is not just…

Teachers’ Work And School Change

In this UnBoxed interview, Judith Warren Little, Dean of the Graduate School of…

Collegial Coaching

Many people think that to coach colleagues through the twists and turns of improving their…

A Hiring Bonanza

At one district, I was told to sub for a few years and maybe a job would open up. When I…

Learning To Lead

I doubt any teacher ever forgets her first year teaching. Inevitably there is always…

Water, Water, Everywhere

We are awash in data on students, and yet the focus on data has not dramatically…

Into the World of Projects

This year I fell in love with project-based learning. I am new to this world and I jumped…

Where Do Projects Come From?

The topic of discussion, as it so often is, was how to make projects meaningful and still…

In Over Our Heads

“It began in a whirlwind,” she started. “After the first week, it became apparent to me…

On Schools of Education

No enterprise in American universities has been subject to more ridicule than those…

Crafting Beautiful Work

Ron Berger has had an enormous influence on how High Tech High and many other schools….

Why We Did It

When we opened the first High Tech High in September of 2000, we had no idea that we would…