This episode is sponsored by our upcoming Smart Sprint. Find out more here. On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Greg Toppo and Jim Tracy, co-authors of the new book, Running with Robots: The American High School’s Third Century . Greg Toppo is a journalist who has covered education for more than twenty years. He is also the author of The Game Believes in You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter . This is Jim’s second time on the podcast . Jim is a Sta...
Dec 15, 2021•39 min
On this episode of the EduCatered podcast, we're joined by Rachelle Dené Poth , a Spanish and STEAM educator who lives in Pennsylvania. She is also a Getting Smart Columnist and active conference goer, tweeter and the first person to jump into a new tech solution. Shawnee chats with Rachelle about a range of topics, ranging from the importance of being involved to apple pie. She also expresses gratitude for the work of Katie Martin , a friend of Getting Smart as well! You can check out Katie's e...
Dec 10, 2021•18 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Nate McClennen is joined by Brent Maddin , Executive Director of Next Education Workforce at Arizona State University. Brent leads a team that is collaborating with P-12 practitioners and higher-ed faculty to help design the roles of current educators, expand who enters the education workforce, and rethink how we develop and credential these educators. Prior to coming to ASU, Brent was a co-founder and Provost at the Relay Graduate School of Education...
Dec 08, 2021•39 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Annie Murphy Paul author of the new book The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain. For the past decade, Annie has been a leading brain science writer on The Brilliant Blog. Let’s listen in as Tom and Annie discuss the importance of the body in using the mind, how this can be better applied in schools and distributed cognition....
Dec 01, 2021•32 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Kiko Suarez, VP of Higher Education and Workforce Development at Territorium , a global edtech company connecting learners with recommended jobs. Territorium recently launched its AI-powered Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) , into the U.S. to break down the barriers between universities and employers. Let’s listen in as Tom and Kiko discuss why learner records are so important, the state of higher education and who decid...
Nov 24, 2021•30 min
This episode of the podcast is a re-publishing of our recent Getting Smart Town Hall we are celebrating the one year bookiversary of Difference Making at the Heart of Learning by Tom Vander Ark and Emily Liebtag. We talked with our live audience about purpose-based learning, getting communities involved and how this ties into the idea of a global citizen. You can find links to the resources mentioned here . For a quick recap you can read it here....
Nov 19, 2021•50 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Clifton Taulbert , an acclaimed author, speaker and entrepreneur. His life story, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored became a critically acclaimed 1996 movie and one of his books was sent to Nelson Mandela as a gift for his release from prison in 1990. His most recent book, The Invitation , was chosen by the Architect of the United States Capitol as part of the 50 the anniversary celebration of the signing of the 1964 C...
Nov 17, 2021•31 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Tom Vander Ark is joined by Christine Ricci and Leo Morton, two business leaders from Kansas City who recently met with Tom at a Kauffman Foundation-sponsored real-world learning event. For the last five years, Christine served as CEO of Phone Medic, also known as UbreakIfix , an electronics repair chain. She has had twenty years of executive leadership in healthcare and tech with companies like HCA, Cerner, Sprint and more. Leo Morton is a private eq...
Nov 10, 2021•31 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Mason Pashia is joined by a very special guest — Luke Harris. Luke is a Junior at Horace Mann high school and has described himself as “enjoying taking things apart and not quite getting them back together.” For the past two years, he has been developing a design engineering curriculum for kids, created to teach real-world entrepreneurial and engineering skills. Let’s listen in as they talk about the design process, why problem solving and finding bo...
Nov 05, 2021•22 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Carla Marschall , co-author of the new book Worldwise Learning: A Teacher's Guide to Shaping a Just, Sustainable Future , which is a guide focused on supporting K-8 learners in gaining a better understanding of how to be global citizens. Carla has held leadership roles in international schools in Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, and Singapore over the past ten years and currently works as the Director of Teaching & Lea...
Nov 03, 2021•28 min
We are thrilled to bring you a new podcast from Getting Smart called EduCatered: A Podcast That’s Catered to Educators. It’ll be on its own podcast feed soon! At Getting Smart, food, education, and innovation are at the heart of our recipe. This podcast mixes it all together to get to know teachers that are doing the work and making a difference. We kick off the podcast series with Ululani (Ulu) Shiraishi, a middle school language arts teacher at Kamehameha Schools Maui. She is also a mother of ...
Oct 29, 2021•20 min
This episode of the Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by the Getting Smart newsletter: Smart Update. On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Robert Simmons III . Robert is a scholar and activist on diversity, equity and inclusion. Robert serves as a Scholar in Residence and a Scholar of Antiracist of Antiracist Praxis in the School of Education at American University and as a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Dive...
Oct 27, 2021•40 min
Be sure to sign up for our Smart Update newsletter to get a weekly round up of what's innovative in learning. On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Nate McClennen is joined by Kim Alexander and Alton Frailey from Collegiate Edu Nation (CEN). Kim is the CEO of Collegiate Edu Nation and has spent most of his career at Roscoe Independent School District where he served as superintendent from 2003 to 2019 before transitioning to lead CEN. Kim has done so much in Roscoe to promote early colleg...
Oct 20, 2021•31 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom is joined by Daniel Pianko and Nasir Qadree. Daniel is the co-founder and managing director of Achieve Partners , an investment fund harnessing digital transformation to build new models for learning and new pathways to good jobs. He also hosts the Better Money, Better World podcast . Nasir Qadree is the Founder and Managing Partner at Zeal Capital Partners , an inclusive investment vehicle partnering with entrepreneurs to bridge America's Wealth...
Oct 15, 2021•39 min
Getting Smart recently hosted a monthly town hall event called Ask Away: A Getting Smart AMA (Ask Me Anything). We invited the audience to ask us questions about leadership and the future of learning and we did our best to answer them. We recorded the session and you can listen to it now. You can register for our next town hall on Difference Making here .
Oct 13, 2021•49 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Getting Smart team members Mason Pashia and Shawnee Caruthers are joined by Timothy Jones, a long-time educator, coach, mentor and someone who lives and breathes hip hop. Timothy is the Chief Visionary Officer at #HipHopEd, a digitally-birthed organization with a sprawling membership of brilliant educators and passionate advocates that know just how powerful this intersection can be. He is also the founder of Techniques4Learning, a company dedicated t...
Oct 06, 2021•36 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom is joined by Sarah Stein Greenberg, the Executive Director of the Stanford d.school and the recent author of Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways . Sarah has spent the last decade leading d.school and her new book is a masterclass in design activities, design process and creativity. Throughout the episode Sarah and Tom mention "Sam", they are referring to Sam Seidel K12 Lab Director of Strategy +...
Sep 29, 2021•36 min
This episode of the Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by GettingSmart.com . On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Nate McClennen is joined by Amy McGrath, Deputy Vice President of Arizona State University . They discuss Learning Under Quarantine, a new model that is a fully adaptable, just-in-time learning support for students who have been temporarily sent home for any reason. Amy has spent the vast majority of her career in education, working in education innovation and transformation...
Sep 22, 2021•32 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Rebecca Midles is joined by Dr. Ulcca Joshi Hansen, the Chief Program Officer at Grantmakers for Education . She is also the author of The Future of Smart: How Our Education System Needs to Change to Help All Young People Thrive . Ulcca has a career built upon learner-centered and inclusive education policies and her new book looks for ways to incorporate those human-centered approaches alongside social justice and large-scale education reform. Let’s...
Sep 15, 2021•33 min
Dr. Roger Weissberg passed away this week after a multi-year battle with cancer. Roger always strove to live social and emotional learning as well as teach it, and he helped to shape much of the present day vision of what education should be. We are deeply grateful for Roger’s leadership and his commitment to making education better for all learners. You can go to this link to read more about Roger’s life and work. We are reposting this 2016 conversation with Roger in his memory. Roger Weissberg...
Sep 10, 2021•29 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark sits down with Roberta McFarland, Director/Principal of Outdoor Environmental Education for Waskowitz Outdoor Programs . Dr. McFarland has a long career in residential outdoor environmental education and she loves helping young people find magic by engaging on a journey of diversity with people and nature. Let’s listen in as they discuss the magic of the outdoors, learning by playing,...
Sep 08, 2021•44 min
his episode of the Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by our recent publication Designing Microschools: Why Small Learning Environments is a Big Idea On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark sits down with Martin Reeves, SVP Boston Consulting Group, BCG, and chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute , Martin recently co-authored a book called The Imagination Machine , an executive’s guide to systematically harnessing imagination for organizational reinvention and rejuvenation. ...
Sep 01, 2021•34 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast we’re talking with Michael Levine, Senior Vice President of Noggin , Nickelodeon’s direct-to-consumer interactive learning service for young people. Michael spent time at Carnegie, Sesame Street, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and has been a leading advocate for the importance of research in early learning. He is also the co-author of Tap, Click, Read. Let’s listen in as he and Tom discuss the role of digital media in early learning, the importance of le...
Aug 25, 2021•38 min
This episode of the Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by 20 Invention Opportunities in Learning & Development. On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Rebecca Midles sits down with Katie Martin, Chief Impact Officer at Learner-Centered Collaborative . Katie supports school and district leaders to reimagine school. Along with the professional learning team, Katie supports district and school leaders to create the conditions and experiences to shift to learner-centered models of educatio...
Aug 18, 2021•28 min
This episode of Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by Screencastify . On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark sits down with Richard Culatta , CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (better known as ISTE), a nonprofit serving education leaders in 127 countries. Richard was appointed by President Obama as the Director of the Office of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education. Richard also is the author of a new book, Digital For Good: Ra...
Aug 11, 2021•38 min
On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark sits down with Ken Kay, founder of Partnership for 21st Century Skills and its successor EdLeader 21, and Suzie Boss, long time education writer and consultant. Ken and Suzie recently co-authored the book Redefining Student Success: Building a New Vision to Transform Leading, Teaching and Learning. On this episode they discuss who should be present for the create of a portrait of a graduate, whether or not PBL is catching on, how to tr...
Aug 04, 2021•41 min
This episode of the Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by Screencastify . On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark sits down with Amir Nathoo ( @AmirNathoo ), CEO of Outschool , an education platform that offers live online classes for K-12 learners. Amir earned a Masters degree in Electrical and Information Sciences from Cambridge 20 years ago and has been an entrepreneur and business builder since. Amir led the development of Square Payroll and served as CEO and co-founder ...
Jul 28, 2021•33 min
This episode of the Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by Screencastify . On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Rebecca Midles ( @AKRebecca ) sits down with Rebecca Wolfe ( @rewolfe13 ), Vice President of Impact and Improvement at Knowledgeworks and Ryan MacDonald, S enior Program Associate on the Student-Centered Learning team at the Council of Chief State School Officers. They discuss the updated version of the Educator Competencies for Personalized, Learner-Centered Environments , a n...
Jul 21, 2021•27 min
This episode of the Getting Smart Podcast is sponsored by Screencastify . On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by John Watson, founder of Evergreen Education Group . John is the leading expert on online learning. He recently hosted the Digital Learning Annual Conference (DLAC). Let’s listen in as Tom and John discuss the promise of online learning, how it is different from remote learning and how educators and districts can better use online learning to serve th...
Jul 14, 2021•30 min
Be sure to sign up for the Getting Smart Smart Update for a weekly blast about what's next in learning. On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Tom sits down with Briony Chown (@BrionyChown ), Director of High Tech High Elementary Explorer . Briony is a seasoned educator who is passionate about creating a better future of elementary education. She is going into her sixth year as Director of High Tech Elementary Explorer and her ninth year with the Explorer team. Let’s listen in as Tom and B...
Jul 07, 2021•27 min
