Redesigning School

No one knows for sure what the world of jobs will look like in ten, twenty, thirty years. We do know, though, the world of work is shifting profoundly. The question for schools is what educators should do about it.In a sobering but ultimately invigorating post, Rennie Greenfield writes, "Much of 21st century schooling is languishing in an outdated paradigm in desperate need of a revolution, and, if it does not evolve, the system will be guilty of dooming these students to the impending jobocalypse."  In this episode, Rennie joined the pod to talk about his research and what it means for schools.We mention a few articles and videos that you might want to review:The Future of WorkSociety Is Changing What the Future of Work Will Be Like. Are You Prepared?What ReDesigning School Looks Like: The Story of Engineering

We're in the middle of a very heavy and very exciting lift. Not only are we opening a new school next fall, but we're also designing one that will use very different teaching methods and designs than most high schools. As we do this work, we think it's important that you to get to know the actual human beings at the heart of The Mastery School of Hawken.Next up: Janae Peters, Entrepreneurial Studies teacher and a key member of the design team for the Mastery School. Even as a kid, Janae wanted to be a teacher in part because she liked being a student. She seeks experiences that challenge her where, in her words, "it's hard, let's do it, let's learn, and then let's go." With a focus on equity, urgency, and empowerment, Janae Peters is a force for good. We're so glad she chose to join Hawken this fall. 

It's a bit of a challenge to write an episode title for a conversation with Daniel Gray-Kontar, Executive Artistic Director of Twelve Literary Arts. This arts organization in historic Glenville on Cleveland's east side has a mission to bring "performance poetry to public spaces, while supporting poets and writers of all ages with youth programming, adult professional development, and brave spaces to dream, write, and teach into reality a world of social justice and equity." First, Daniel is brilliant, so the conversation ran wide and dug deep. Second, the stakes he outlines were so potent that no clever phrasing -- at least none we could think of -- could rightly capture the import of his work.In this episode, Julia and Terry were joined by Ambrose Faturoti, Hawken's Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Justice for Student Life and a member of the design team for The Mastery School of Hawken. They spoke with Daniel about the intersection of arts and social justice and so much

What's it like to design a school from the ground floor? Particularly a school that's built on massive paradigm shifts around teaching methods, assessment models, and more? Julia Griffin and Doris Korda of the Korda Institute for Teaching share their thoughts on where we are with the design of The Mastery School of Hawken, which opens in ten short months. We're exactly where we're supposed to be, they say. And that's a complicated and invigorating place. 

We're in the middle of a very heavy and very exciting lift. Not only are we opening a new school next fall, but we're also designing one that will use very different teaching methods and designs than most high schools. As we do this work, we think it's important that you to get to know the actual human beings at the heart of The Mastery School of Hawken. Next up: Julia Hodges,  Mathematics and Engineering teacher at Hawken and a key member of the Design Team for the Mastery School. Julia's years in the aerospace industry gives her perspective about how to design educational experiences that allow high school students to understand how mathematics and engineering work in the real world. If you want to see Julia's approach at work, check out this video about her Engineering class.

We're in the middle of a very heavy and very exciting lift. Not only are we opening a new school next fall, but we're also designing one that will use very different teaching methods and designs than most high schools. As we do this work, we think it's important that you to get to know the actual human beings at the heart of The Mastery School of Hawken. Next up: Ambrose Faturoti, Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Justice for Student Life. He's also a key member of the design team for the Mastery School whose work focuses on developing community partnerships with our Glenville and University Circle neighbors. Ambrose has a passion for connecting people and communities. "We have a really important opportunity with young people who, when they leave us are going to be leaders in whatever sectors they find themselves," he says. "I want to help students understand how to practice empathy." He also has a flaw, however, which he reveals towards the end of the episod

If math is a language, most of us learn it as if it's a dead one, calcified and inscrutable. Some teachers, though, use methods and approaches that make math sing. Hawken teachers Dr. Chris Harrow and Zack Kordeleski join the podcast to discuss how they design opportunities for students of all abilities to discover and fall in love with the magic and beauty of mathematics. They also describe what excites them about how The Mastery School of Hawken might take these ideas to scale.

"Everything about the way we structure school communicates that failure is the opposite of success," writes Julia Hodges in The 'F' Word. "You either pass a class or you fail a class; and that pass/fail determination is made on a rigid timeline and leaves a permanent mark.... According the rules of school, failure is to be avoided at all costs."In the real world, though, failure is the genesis of success and a natural part of creativity and problem-solving. " Outside of school," Julia notes, "failure is not the opposite of success; it’s part of the process."What better way to start Season Two of the ReDesigning School podcast than an eyes-wide open examination of this failure to understand failure? Julia is a Hawken teacher and member of the design team shaping The Mastery School of Hawken. She also teaches a Macro course in Engineering that seeks, in part, to reframe failure so that students come to see it as an essential and even welcomed aspect of making so

In our summer series of episodes, we want you to meet the actual human beings at the heart of The Mastery School of Hawken. Third up: Zack Kordeleski, lover of all kinds of games, physics and mathematics teacher at Hawken, and a key member of the Mastery School's design team. Zack has been thinking about ways to redesign school since he was a kid when school left him uninspired and bored. Now, as a teacher, he's inspired and engaged with re-imagining school based on a series of basic principles: purpose, curiosity, and intellectual intersections such as the one between physics and philosophy that fascinates him. If you want to see Zack and the other Mastery School teachers in action, watch here!

In our summer series of episodes, we want you to meet the actual human beings at the heart of The Mastery School of Hawken. Second up: Katie Zielinski, architecture teacher at Hawken and a key member of the Mastery School's design team. Katie brings years of professional experience as an architect and a vision for how to use design principles to invigorate educational experiences for students at The Mastery School and beyond. 

In our summer series of episodes, we want you to meet the actual human beings at the heart of The Mastery School of Hawken. First up: Dan O'Connor, Humanities teacher at Hawken and a key member of the Mastery School's design team. Dan has written some of our most popular blogs, including Teachers are Furniture and Lessons from a Dinosaur-Shaped Taco Holder. He has a lot to say about education -- his own and the one he envisions for students at The Mastery School of Hawken. 

We're not alone! Not by a long shot. Educators around the world are immersed in rethinking what, how and why we teach and students learn. One school that's starting from scratch is The Revolution School in Philadelphia, a new high school with a mission "to inspire a diverse group of learners, thinkers, and doers to be active and reflective problem-solvers, who are bold and empathetic with academic and emotional resilience."Co-hosts Terry Dubow and Julia Griffin spoke with Noelle Kellich, Head of Teaching and Learning, and Tom McManus, Head of Mission, about the Revolution School's origin, mission, hopes, and worries. As they note on the website, "It’s not every day that a school gets the chance to build its curriculum from the ground up. With Revolution School, we are fortunate to be able to take a principled approach based on current research in education from around the globe."Also, if you're interested in reading the story about the legendary Polish Boy sandwich that

Google started as a search engine in 1998 and now is an Alphabet valued at three-quarters of a trillion dollars. In between those two moments in time, it transitioned from a mere idea to one of the most profound and disruptive technologies in the history of the human race. What could schools learn from this kind of evolution? A lot, it turns out. In this episode of the pod, Terry Dubow and Julia Griffin interview John Schirm, Compensation Manager at Google, to learn more about how Google created a culture that values growth, psychological safety, and collaboration. We also hear a bit of a defense of liberal arts colleges and just how amazing lunchtime is on the Google campus.Thanks as always to Nick Fletcher and Rennie Greenfield for their technical support. 

It’s hard to think of a field that demands more content acquisition than medicine, so what to make of medical schools that train doctors using problems not tests? Dr. Neil Mehta, Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, joined Terry Dubow and Julia Griffin on the pod to discuss the paradigm shift that has altered the way that he and his colleagues prepare our future doctors. They started with a simple and profound question: “What are the competencies that make a good physician?” The answers surprised them and changed everything. 

Every one of our graduates eventually becomes someone else's employee.  As we redesign school, how much should we take into account the world of work our students will enter? You could make the argument that the model of today's school was designed to create and sort labor pools for industries -- many of which have changed profoundly or even disappeared. (Truth in advertising: we make that precise argument at The Mastery School of Hawken...). Should we now design school around the needs of Google or the local wind turbine manufacturer? In this episode Terry Dubow and Julia Griffin chew on this topic with the help of Sarah Pearson, Product Support Manager at Google and Hawken alum, who sheds some light on the world of work. She also shares her ideas about what schools should and shouldn't do to prepare students.If you're interested in seeing the video that Julia references, click here. You might also be interested in this piece about how some employers are opting out of asking where or whet

If you haven't heard, we're designing a new school.  The Mastery School of Hawken is a new high school in Cleveland’s University Circle designed with students and the future in mind. We’ll welcome our founding class in August 2020. In this episode, Julia Griffin changed hats and sat down for an interview in her new role of the Director of the Mastery School of Hawken. Scott Looney, Head of Hawken School, joined Terry Dubow to dig into the why and the what and the how of this new venture. If you're at all interested in what the future of school might look like, you'll want to download this one...

When students hear there's a project coming their way, they don't always jump for joy. And yet we know that projects are some of the best tools we have for helping students achieve enduring and deep learning. In this episode of Redesigning School, Terry Dubow and Julia Griffin work on their own project: How to Make Project-Based Learning Work.They're joined by Doris Korda, former Associate Head of School at Hawken, who was the principal architect of Hawken Entrepreneurship program and the signature MACRO courses, as well as a critical coach/designer with the Hawken faculty of many of the Intensive courses. Doris' curriculum is the foundation of the educational and instructional framework of the Mastery School. She is working with the leadership and faculty at Hawken to design the school's curriculum, and is training and coaching teachers in how to bring this transformational teaching method to the Mastery School's classrooms.Thanks to Rennie Greenfield and Nick Fletcher for their

Does your school feel like it should rebrand itself as Suffering Academy? When kids are young, play is an essential part of learning, but then something happens that converts play and its black sheep cousin fun with something antithetical to the real work of a rigorous and challenging education. Why though?In this episode of Redesigning School, teachers and co-hosts Terry Dubow and Julia Griffin invite three of their colleagues at Hawken School to discuss the benefits of making school joyful again.Special thanks to Becca Marks, Lauren Coil-Sherck and Steve Weiskopf for joining the pod. And as always, thanks to Rennie Greenfield and Nick Fletcher for their production help!If you're interested to read some of the pieces mentioned in this episode, click away!Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students -- Denise Pope Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World -- Steven JohnsonThe Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human -- Jonathan GottschallF

Teachers and co-hosts Terry Dubow and Julia Griffin kick off the inaugural episode of the Redesigning School podcast with a conversation about the role grades play in a student's education and a teacher's vocation. Let's just say that it's a complicated relationship.A few references that we mention (or should have!) :"Letter Grades Deserve an F" -- Jessica Lahey The AtlanticMindset -- Carol DweckDrive -- Daniel Pink“Do School Better” podcast at Wildfire Education -- Doris KordaThe Secret of Effective Feedback -- Dylan Wiliam"Delaying the Grade: How to Get Students to Read Feedback" -- Kristy LoudenSpecial thanks to Rennie Greenfield and Nick Fletcher for their production help!