Inspire & Innovate: A Podcast for Educators

This week, we release our first interview, “Centering Students” with John Spencer, best-selling author of Launch and Vintage Innovation which features cutting-edge ideas around fostering active learning experiences for students of all ages.

Highlights from our conversation with John Spencer include:

• How working in the nonprofit sector unexpectedly  led John Spencer into the field of education (2:50-4:55)
• The “deeply human drive to learn and to create, to make . . . whether it’s kindergarteners or graduate students and . .  the  common fears we all experience.” (5:20- 5:50)
• What “failing forward” has looked and felt like for those teaching during a pandemic . . . and how relevant the “hero’s journey” might be for all of us right now.  (6:01-8:35)
• How important it is that a school’s culture, systems, and leadership allow for growth via mistakes; “you’ve got to provide slack to develop grit.” ; try out “the daily epic fail” in your classroom! (8:35-14:30)
• Why grace matters this year, not just for students but also for faculty.  Try this:  make a t-chart of all of the permissions you’ve given to students and then do the same thing for yourself . . . and think back to how far you’ve come since March 2020.  (18:20-22:40)
• How teaching is like weight training, and how to determine whether we need more reps or a season of rest/healing as we move into the 2021-2022 school year.  (23:00-24:30)
• What have our students lost . . . and gained this past year (24:30 -25:52)
• How it has been simultaneously more challenging and easier to incorporate design-based thinking, project-based, LAUNCH processes in virtual or hybrid classes this past year (26:35-29:52)
• For those new to more student-centered approaches, how to incorporate some of these principles into our more traditional pedagogies in a low-risk gradual way. . . and why this is the perfect time to try them out!  (30:20-32:35)
• What will “come back” in our teaching practice as we return to more in-person experiences . . . gardens, Socratic seminars, cardboard prototyping, all mashed up with digital tools as well!  (e.g. Vintage Innovation) (32:55- 34:32)
• Why we should all be asking ourselves: “What are the things that we did differently this past year that we will continue to incorporate?” (37:12-37:37)
• What book(s) John Spencer would recommend all teachers read  (40:40- 41:16)