Today on the podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Ron Berger. Ron has been teaching for 40 years and is currently the Chief Academic Officer at EL Education. He’s also the author of some popular books you may have heard of! One of which, Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming Schools Through Student-Engaged Assessment , is one of Getting Smart’s favorites. Last year, Ron joined the Getting Smart podcast to discuss a companion piece to Leaders of Their Own Learning. (If you missed it, be sur...
Aug 26, 2020•33 min•Ep. 276
Today we’re talking with John Winsor on the open talent economy. John Winsor built a big publishing business around sports and fitness. He saw the business changing and started crowdsourcing articles from athletes. That got him interested in open talent — otherwise known as ‘work outside of full-time employment,’ which includes the freelance and the gig economy. Three years ago, John joined the faculty at Harvard Business School as a visiting executive and founded Open Assembly, an organization ...
Aug 19, 2020•44 min•Ep. 275
The Getting Smart team is excited to be bringing you a conversation with one of their favorite teacher bloggers, Rachelle Dene Poth! Rachelle is a French, Spanish, and technology teacher and an ed-tech consultant. She’s also an attorney with a Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology and leads the ISTE Teacher Education Network. In 2019, Rachelle received the ‘Making IT Happen Award’ at the annual ISTE Conference. Rachelle has published four books on education, with her most recent being Char...
Aug 12, 2020•37 min
Today’s episode is featuring a conversation on computational thinking with Conrad Wolfram. Conrad Wolfram directs global strategy for Wolfram Research, a leader in computational resources. For the last decade, Wolfram has been encouraging educators to teach math(s) as if computers existed. He wants teachers and policymakers to stop fixating on calculations like long division and factoring polynomial equations, and instead, start focusing on computational thinking. Conrad’s newest book, The Math(...
Aug 05, 2020•49 min•Ep. 273
In today’s interview, the Getting Smart team is talking to Ada Palmer, a history professor at the University of Chicago. As a historian, Ada studies the long-term evolution of ideas and the history of religious radicalism, science, and freethought, especially in the Italian Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Classical Greece and Rome. In addition to being a historian, Ada is also a composer and an award-winning science fiction author. In Tom and Ada’s conversation, they discuss how we can learn fro...
Jul 29, 2020•50 min•Ep. 272
Today, the Getting Smart team is bringing you a podcast with their friend, Michael Horn, a speaker and writer on the future of education. Michael has spent the last five years leading the higher education consulting practice at Entangled Group. One of their early investments was with Guild Education, a venture-backed startup leading the ‘education as a benefit’ movement. In May, Entangled was acquired by Guild Education and together, they have launched Next Chapter, a new kind of outplacement se...
Jul 22, 2020•45 min•Ep. 271
Today’s episode is featuring a recent interview Tom Vander Ark had with Brian Greenberg on creating great schools! Greenberg is an educator, investor, and entrepreneur at the intersection of technology, education, and philanthropy. He is also one of Getting Smart team’s favorite people right now in education! After teaching high school English in L.A., Brian Greenberg was the founding Principal for Leadership Public Schools in the Bay Area. He coached principals for new leaders and served as Chi...
Jul 15, 2020•47 min•Ep. 270
Today the Getting Smart team is speaking with Hardeep Gulati, the CEO of PowerSchool. PowerSchool is a leading ed-tech platform, serving more than 32 million students, 65 million parents, and nearly 100 million users in 70 countries. The company empowers teachers and drives student growth through innovative digital classroom capabilities and real-time communication across any device. Hardeep grew up in Central India, earned a Master’s in Computer Science at IT, moved to the United States, and st...
Jul 08, 2020•33 min•Ep. 269
In today’s episode, Kelly Niccolls, Learning Design Manager from the Getting Smart team, is joined by Kristi Dominguez and Ellen Dorr for a follow-up podcast on leading school systems towards healing with love. Building upon their first discussion in episode 252, Ellen and Kristi focus on the commitment of leadership practices and tending to the exhaustion of students, staff, and stakeholders. In addition to the uncertainty of the pandemic, Kristi and Ellen also talk about the current state of t...
Jul 03, 2020•37 min•Ep. 268
Today, the Getting Smart team is bringing you an interesting episode on educating on climate change with Nichole Berg and Kimberly Howard. Nichole Berg is the program’s manager for climate change and climate justice at Portland Public Schools where she leads efforts to support the school board’s groundbreaking climate literacy solution. Joining Berg in this interview is Kimberly Howard, the Program Officer at Portland General Electric, as well as the sponsor for the development of a climate chan...
Jul 01, 2020•35 min
In today’s episode, Tom is sitting down with former Governor Jeb Bush, to discuss all things digital learning. Bush served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 until 2006. After leaving office, he formed and still chairs the Foundation for Excellence in Education also known as ExcelinEd. The national non-profit organization focuses on state education policy and continues the important work that Bush championed in Florida. In 2010, Bush launched Digital Learning Now, a policy roadmap for the...
Jun 24, 2020•31 min•Ep. 266
In today’s episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Corey Mahn and Shameka Montgomery to discuss next-gen career education. Corey Mohn is the Executive Director of the Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies (or CAPS for short). This next-generation career center supports five suburban Kansas city high schools with, what they call professions-based learning, an applied project-based learning that immerses young people in the challenges of high wage, high gro...
Jun 17, 2020•34 min•Ep. 265
This week on the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is welcoming back a return guest — Ryan Craig! Ryan is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of University Ventures and Achieve Partners. As Managing Director of University Ventures, Ryan was the most important investor in higher education — or, more specifically, last-mile training alternatives to higher education. In his 2018 book, A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College, Ryan made the case that unless you get a free ride to a top...
Jun 10, 2020•34 min•Ep. 264
In this special episode, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Kaleb Rashad, a leading voice in education and the Director of Creative Leadership at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education. Over the past 10 years, Kaleb has worked with diverse communities to co-create equity-driven, liberatory school cultures characterized by student-centered pedagogy, trust-rich relationships, and creative leadership practices. Prior to High Tech High, Kaleb taught middle school math and science and served as...
Jun 05, 2020•34 min•Ep. 263
Today, the Getting Smart team is bringing you an episode on the innovation opportunity ahead. As we all try to make sense of the health, economic, and education crisis we’re all experiencing, the Getting Smart team has been participating in dialogues with educators from around the world about how to make the best of a bad situation. And now that the end of the school year is here, the team is shifting their Getting Through series from stories and advice to supporting remote learning and long-ter...
Jun 03, 2020•36 min•Ep. 262
This week on the podcast, Tom Vander Ark interviews Dr. Jason Glass, the Superintendent of Jeffco Public Schools! Serving 84,000 students, Jefferson County is the largest district in Colorado. It encompasses 800 square miles and serves urban, suburban, and rural communities west of Denver. Before Jeffco, Dr. Glass served as Superintendent at Eagle County School and District for four years. And prior to that, he served as the Chief State School Officer for the Iowa Department of Education. Dr. Gl...
May 27, 2020•31 min•Ep. 261
In this episode, you are welcome to join Tom Vander Ark and Greg Shaw for a discussion around reprogramming the American dream. Greg Shaw is a writer from Bellevue, Washington. He has supported the policy and communication needs of Microsoft and the Gates Foundation for more than 25 years. Three years ago, Greg worked with Satya Nadella on Hit Refresh, a book on the remaking of Microsoft as a leader in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. For the last two years, Greg has been working alo...
May 20, 2020•35 min•Ep. 260
In today’s discussion, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Dr. Eric Tucker, the co-founder and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School. Brooklyn Labs is a next-generation college-preparatory 6–12 public charter school that prepares scholars with the academic foundation, digital literacy, and leadership skills necessary to succeed in college and professional life. Recently, Eric created a 10-point plan based on insights and resources from practitioners and experts to help educato...
May 13, 2020•55 min•Ep. 259
In this episode, the team is diving into artificial intelligence and the future of work and learning. Today’s guest, Flynn Coleman, is an international human rights attorney, a professor, and a social entrepreneur. She’s also a former competitive athlete, she speaks five languages, and she has lived and learned in a dozen different countries! Flynn has spoken and written extensively on issues of war crimes, gender equality, behavioral economics, and emerging technologies. Her new book, A Human A...
May 06, 2020•44 min•Ep. 258
This week on the podcast, Tony Wagner is joining Tom Vander Ark to speak about his most recent book and all that he has learned throughout his career in education. Tony Wagner is a former high school teacher, principal, teacher educator, and school coach. For three decades, he’s been an advocate for deeper learning for all students. His books, Change Leadership, The Global Achievement Gap, Creating Innovators, and Most Likely to Succeed , sounded the alarm bell that the new economy requires new ...
Apr 29, 2020•46 min•Ep. 257
Today, the Getting Smart team is bringing you an episode focused on project-based learning featuring special guest, Jenny Pieratt. Jenny is the founder and President of CraftED Curriculum, an incredible PBL resource that offers educators and administrators a wide range of training and tools to help them achieve the PBL goals they have set for their organizations. Jenny is also the author of the Keeping It Real With PBL series — a fantastic resource on PBL! In this episode, Kelly Niccolls from th...
Apr 22, 2020•34 min•Ep. 256
Today, the Getting Smart team is speaking with Byron Sanders about the opportunity gap in Dallas, Texas. Byron grew up in Dallas, observing differences in opportunity. He remembers his mother scrambling to find enriching activities for him. Now, he’s doing the same thing for the youth of Dallas County on a much larger scale! As the CEO of the 30-year-old nonprofit, Big Thought, Byron and his team serve 150,000 students at more than 400 locations with creative enrichment. Their work is about clos...
Apr 15, 2020•49 min•Ep. 254
In this episode, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Daniel Gohl. Dan is the Chief Academic Officer at Broward County Public Schools. The district serves the greater Fort Lauderdale area of South Florida and has nearly 270,000 students on 241 campuses. It’s the sixth-largest district in the country. Dan has been a learning leader in Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and Houston, Texas. In his fifth year in Broward, as part of Superintendent Robert Runcie’s team, Dan oversaw the development of a great...
Apr 14, 2020•44 min•Ep. 255
Join the Getting Smart team today as they explore community development with community expert, Lia McIntosh! Lia McIntosh is a marketer, organizer, pastor, and most recently, a grant-maker. She leads the Education Fellows Program at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. The program’s goal is cultivating community leaders who are advocates for education. It’s a nine-month opportunity for 37 civic and faith leaders to learn and travel together. In the last year, the Gettin...
Apr 08, 2020•40 min•Ep. 253
This week, Getting Smart is bringing you another bonus episode as a part of their Getting Through series. Getting Smart launched this series to support educators, leaders, and families during this uncertain time and extended school closures. They have curated and created resources and inspiration around new learning environments, and are addressing equity and access from a new lens. Today, the team is bringing you a recent conversation with Kelly Nickels, the Learning Design Manager at Getting S...
Apr 06, 2020•47 min•Ep. 252
In today’s special bonus episode, the Getting Smart team is sharing two school districts’ success stories that are currently shifting to remote learning after the outbreak of the coronavirus. In these schools, the buildings may have closed but the learning has never stopped! Both of these Superintendents have built great teams and great systems and they are confident that education in their districts (and beyond) will emerge better than ever as a result of this crisis. First up to speak on the p...
Mar 27, 2020•49 min•Ep. 250
Today on the podcast, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Anant Agarwal, the founder and CEO of edX. In 2012, Anant founded edX, which was created in partnership between MIT and Harvard to extend open access to the courses taught by the best professors in the world. On top of this, Anant is also a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He has also served as the Director of CSAIL, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In total, he has worked at MIT f...
Mar 25, 2020•35 min•Ep. 249
With schools in a majority of states closes, more than 36 million of about 50 million American students are learning remotely. The pandemic is posing a huge challenge for students and parents. Some parents are trying to figure out how to stay at home with the kids. Others are trying to figure out how to work at home with the kids there. Some are scrambling for child care. Stress and uncertainty are high for everyone. To get some advice on this new situation we spoke Rachel Wigglesworth , founder...
Mar 18, 2020•41 min•Ep. 248
This week on the podcast, join Tom Vander Ark, Dr. Emily Liebtag, and Nate McClennen as they discuss their newly published book, The Power of Place: Authentic Learning Through Place-Based Education ! They speak about the main themes they cover, the experiences and examples they share throughout it, and the defining principles of place-based education. As a refresher, Emily Liebtag is the recently appointed CEO of Boundless, an organization dedicated to highlighting innovations in education. And ...
Mar 11, 2020•44 min•Ep. 247
In today’s episode, Tom Vander Ark is continuing the conversation about starting career education early with Ed Hidalgo and Dr. David Bluestein! If you haven’t already, be sure to tune into that conversation first and then come back here to listen to Part Two! After almost two decades of leadership and high tech human resource staffing, Ed Hidalgo led the development of the career education program called “World of Work.” Ed then joined the Cajon Valley Union School District as Chief Innovation ...
Mar 04, 2020•37 min•Ep. 246
