I’m simply noticing a phenomenon that surprised me. In recent years, I’ve  dedicated hours and energy and creative thought to guiding my own school community’s “definition of learning”. Through that work, we’ve created a powerful statement of what learning is and what it isn’t including: ​

• “Learning takes place in all aspects of our lives and extends beyond school subjects, assignments, and assessments. Learning does not only take place in schools or educational institutions.”​
• “Learning takes place in all aspects of our lives and extends beyond school subjects, assignments, and assessments.”
• “People learn because they are naturally curious, creative, competitive, and collaborative.
  

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​As I watch my kids play and explore and collaborate in this digital platform, I can’t help but notice that this is learning and wonder if the work they are completing and submitting each day in school will stick with them as much as the lessons learned while playing.

By Ted McCarthy, Principal of Sutton High School in Sutton, MA and an Inspired Learning Catalyst

The truth is, I didn’t think much about that comment until about a year later. I was having a conversation with a student named “Mike” - he was black - and I asked him why he was having trouble in a particular class. He looked at me and said “Mr. McCarthy - what do you want me to do? They all say I’m ‘their N-word’ and call me ‘their boy’.” If you had polled the senior class that year, they would have told you that Mike was universally beloved, popular, and a great member of the class.  But his friends - each of whom was white - felt no pause using a word that has been used to violently target African Americans throughout history. Was their intent to be racist? Most likely - no. Did their behavior and language create a racist environment in my school? Undoubtedly - yes. Mike and I finished up the conversation, and I told him that I would do something about what he told me. If he asked me right then what I was going to do - I wouldn’t have an answer to give him. It was one of the worst experiences I’ve had in my career.

Sutton High School is like a lot of suburban schools. Great kids. Proud traditions. Engaged community support.  And almost entirely white. The Sutton Public Schools reflect the community. The town - and the high school - are incredibly homogeneous. What I realized in Sutton is that the issue wasn’t just about the small group of students of color, it was actually about our white students. Our white students had no experience living and working in a truly diverse environment. They had relatively few opportunities to interact with other students whose life experiences were different from their own, simply because of the color of their skin. If we were going to ensure that our school was a place where every student would feel safe and welcomed, and set our students up for success in a world that is far more diverse than the one where they spent the first thirteen years of their educational career, we needed to address issues of race, bias, and privilege directly. We owed it to them to do something different.

Dr. Ibrim Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and most recently, How to Be An Antiracist says about the topic of race & racism, “In no other capacity is a problem solved by not talking about it. And yes, it’s extremely hard to treat racism.” Yet, that is exactly what many schools do when it comes to the topic. If asked, almost every person in your school would agree that we should educate our students on issues of race and challenge any previously learned prejudiced or even racist ideas they may hold. However, how many of us systematically and intentionally have programs and practices that do just that? And if we don’t - why don’t we?

In Sutton, we have started to address these issues in a more direct and focused way - and we are seeing the results. We have programs in place that give our students the opportunity to explore these topics in a deep and meaningful way, not just as a side part of a lesson in English or history class. We’ve provided training to our staff so that they can be more aware of issues of implicit bias in their own practice and take steps to make their classrooms more inclusive and welcoming. And our Connections Club - a group of teachers and students that works on issues of social justice in our community, hosted our first Connections Conference where we hosted over 500 students, teachers, and administrators from all over Massachusetts. It was an inspiring day where participants got to learn from experts, and think about how they can make positive change in their own communities. We are hosting even more schools (and more states!) at this year’s conference. Do these steps make us perfect? Far from it.  But now I have an answer for Mike if he ever asked me that question.

As teachers, we would never expect our students to know something without us teaching it to them. As school leaders, it’s our responsibility to make sure that our school’s mission is more than a phrase on the website. We don’t need to be experts to start meaningful work to make our schools more inclusive and equitable. Certainly, when I had that conversation with Mike - I was far less aware and educated on issues of social justice in schools than I am now. I was lucky to have great teachers with whom I could partner and learn. No one wants their students to end up as cautionary tales of racism on Twitter or the Internet. More importantly, though, we want our students to be self-aware, empathic, and just.  We want our students to change the world for the better, and if they are going to do that they need us to make school a place where they think about and wrestle with things that truly matter.  ​​​

By Liz Garden, Principal of Mayo Elementary School in Holden, MA and Inspired Learning Catalyst

Fast forward thirty or so years to 2020; I popped into some 2nd grade classrooms in my school the other day.  I saw student desks in clusters, allowing for collaboration and community. In many classes, I actually never saw students sitting in their desks.  The 2nd graders were learning about habitats and their teachers had decided to turn each of their classrooms into a different habitat. Students had created an underwater ocean mural in one room.  There were 3D paper icicles hanging from the ceiling and the beginning stages of an igloo made out of pool noodles, garden wire supports and a sheet in another room. One classroom had crumpled up butcher paper vines hanging from the light fixtures (don’t tell the fire marshal) and giant leaves to transform it into a  “rainforest.” In the ocean room, students were investigating and researching different creatures with their science journals, trying to determine if they were invertebrates. Some students were reading science picture books on their own, looking for answers. Others were exploring information cards containing realistic photos of ocean creatures.  And the best part was that the students in the ocean room where not the students who were normally in that teacher’s classroom. My 2nd grade team decided that they would teach this unit by each focusing on one habitat and letting the students rotate into each classroom. Teachers were learning about and spending time with all of the students in the grade while students were getting the chance to learn with and from all of the teachers on the team.  ​

As my daughter enters public school next year, I am thankful that it won’t be the same public school experience that I had decades ago.  Today’s educators are exploring the world of Universal Design for Learning and realizing that “doing school” means figuring out ways to engage and empower our students instead of telling them what to do and expecting them to simply comply.  I love this thought from George Couros in the book Innovate Inside the Box: Empowering Learners Through the UDL and the Innovator’s Mindset: “If we understand information on a deeper level and do something with it, we also are more likely to retain it as well.”  Those 2nd graders who are exploring, investigating, and asking questions about the ocean creatures and the ones who are playing with Lego Inuit people in an igloo in their classroom, incorporating newly learned facts about the Arctic - I am hopeful that we are reaching these learners on a deeper level.  ​

The Inspired Learning Project was pleased to welcome Elliot Washor, author of Leaving to Learn and co-founder of Big Picture Learning to our podcast series. Our conversation touched upon a wide range of topics including Elliot's own path as a learner, the formation of his original school, The Met and Big Picture Learning and what Leaving to Learn looks and feels like in practices. We also discuss the new MURSD Learning Adventure's project which just launched in November. We highly recommend Leaving to Learn as it explores the logistics of off-campus learning framed in 10 expectations that students have for their schools.

If you like what you hear, and we think you will, and want to read more of Elliot's writing check out the links below.
These pieces get to the heart of inspired learning and provide thought-provoking insights to reimagine school

Learning is a Lifelong Game Where the Score Doesn't Matter
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​The Time Has Come for Assessment that Matters

What Are We Losing By Keeping Learners On-Track?

Getting Centered by Going to the Edge

Our interview with Elliot is one of almost twenty author interviews, including conversations with Yong Zhao, Tony Wagner, Anya Kamenetz, just to name a few. Our full lineup can be found on YouTube by clicking  here. We are also in the process of converting all of our video interviews into podcasts. Our interview on deeper learning with Harvard's Jal Mehta has been added and we'll update you as more are added to our feed.

Imagine that you had the opportunity to build a new version of school that was different by design. Where would you begin in your exploration, planning, and research? What decisions would you make about curriculum, instruction, and assessment? How would you build a vision and cultivate a team of educators to join you on your journey? How would you reimagine learning spaces to align with your beliefs about learning? 

In recent weeks, we had the privilege of connecting with Jennifer Young, a Principal on Special Assignment from the Mansfield Independent School District in Texas who has the exciting (and daunting!) responsibility of answering all of the questions above. Recognizing the imperative and possibilities of building a school of modern learning, Principal Young’s district asked her to lead this process for their community. Over the course of the year, she has been researching, reading, collaborating with her team, and visiting schools across the country to tap into innovative ideas about school redesign. 

We were excited to meet with her at Nipmuc during her recent trip to Massachusetts. We’re even more fortunate to stay connected with her and to have the chance to follow her work to build a school that is different by design. 

The questions, possibilities, and excitement for this challenge are endless. Enjoy the interview and check back with us for future interviews as we follow Principal Young’s progress.

Leading from the heart requires a mindset that respects the power of culture, builds a backbone of trust, and fuels a passion for the work.  We kicked off our 2019-2020 ILP Digital Conversations with Liz Garden, proud principal of Mayo Elementary School in Holden, Massachusetts. We connected with Liz to get insight into the mindset that guides her work and walked away with so many actionable strategies that can be easily replicated to create and sustain a culture that supports literacy, encourages inclusivity, and spreads positivity. 

To say we enjoyed speaking with Principal Garden would be an understatement.  Listen in on the conversation and walk away with new ideas, strategies, and activities to inspire learning at all levels in your schools and communities.

This week I sat down with Mendon-Upton Superintendent Joe Maruszczak to discuss a range of ideas that shape and support Inspired Learning. We started with the concept "playing the whole game" in school that was developed by Harvard Professor David Perkins. In hindsight, the idea should have been unpacked more in the microcast and this excerpt from Education at Bat provides a succinct overview:

Authenticity is a hallmark of Inspired Learning and the idea of "playing the whole game" provides a useful heuristic for instructional design.

We also explored possible tools for capturing the outcomes of Inspired Learning experiences. Our conversation focused on portfolio tools that provide more comprehensive evidence of student learning. Among the resources we discussed were  Badgr (open digital badges), bulb, Richer Picture and tried and true blogging approaches like Wordpress. With these tools, we can support students as they craft multimedia stories that better capture the depth and meaning of their learning experiences.

The assessment component of our conversation was sparked by Shane Parrish's new book "The Great Mental Models." It's first model is "The Map is Not The Territory." This model is particularly relevant in public education where we often overly rely standardized assessments (the map) to assess the quality of our schools. It's not that this map doesn't provide useful information, but it can't possibly encompass all of of school quality or even most of it (the territory). Our current "maps" often do not capture the diversity of skills that are developed and expressed in Inspired Learning experiences. Thus, it's incumbent upon us to become cartographers and design maps that capture what we value.

​Give our conversation a listen and leave us a comment with your thoughts.

,We recently spoke to Mike Caulfield, author of the free eBook Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers. We touched upon a wide range of topics in digital media literacy and learning as well as hs new open modular course, Check, Please! Any educator who is working with students to cultivate research skills, information literacy or civic engagement would benefit from both the interview and exploring the course. 

The Inspired Learning Conversation returns on Monday (10/28) at 4:00 PM with Dr. Julie Coiro to discuss her book From Curiosity to Deeper Learning. We'll focus on designing interest-driven inquiry experiences for students in grades K - 5. We hope you will join us.