Sometimes it takes time working and learning in a broken system to find the path to changing lives. After more than 25 years in education, John Camp (or Camp, as he prefers to be called) was on the lookout for something that was more student-centered and progressive at a school level than what he had experienced thus far.

As founding head of teaching and learning at New England Innovation Academy, Camp and his colleagues are on a mission to prepare a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs to enter the workforce and make a big impact.

How do they do that? By focusing on student-centered learning based on what the lead stakeholders (students and teachers) know is best.The school integrates many subjects into one lesson and has let go of both a traditional semester system and old-school assessment and grading.

Listen in to hear more about how this innovative school is changing the way we teach and learn.

About John Camp:

Camp had led and taught in independent schools for over 25 years. He is the founding Head of Teaching and Learning at New England Innovation Academy, which opened in the fall of 2021. He is an assessment guru, including being the architect of NEIA’s competency-based system. Camp also teaches Humanities and writing classes, such as “The TV Writers’ Room,” and interdisciplinary courses such as “The Art and Physics of Time Travel.” At St. Mark’s School, which bestowed him with The Trustees Chair and the Kidder Faculty Prize, Camp served as the Director of Experiential Learning and Associate Director of The Center of Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

Jump in the Conversation:

[1:38] – How Camp got started in transforming the system
[3:36] – What he’s created
[5:16] – Student and staff opportunities for innovation for students
[6:03] – Integration isn’t an exception to the rule; it IS the rule
[7:46] – How to assess in this model
[8:58] – What an assessment looks like
[10:06] – Letter grades are single data point
[11:50] – Feedback is key for any assessment system
[14:15] – What is human centered design
[16:10] – Be awesome and be able to defend why you’re teaching something
[16:50] – Unpacking some course titles
[20:56] – What innovation looks like in past jobs
[21:28] – Big perk of building a new school
[22:50] – Have the courage to try to fix something if you see it needs to be fixed
[23:39] – Stepping out of status quo school landscape
[25:37] – Turbo Time
[29:10] – What Camp would change about schools
[30:49] – Maureen’s Takeaways

Links & Resources

• New England Innovation Academy
• Heidi Hayes Jacobs on rethinking schools
• Email Maureen
• Maureen’s TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools
• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen’s book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids
• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

Transcript:

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 0:03
Hello fellow parents and educators. Thank you for joining me at education evolution, where we are disrupting the status quo in today’s learning models. We talk about present day education, what’s broken, who’s fixing it, and how. I’m Dr. Maureen O’Shaughnessy, your host and founder of education, evolution, micro school coalition, and co founder of active, I consult and train with schools and leaders who are fiercely committed to changing the narrative, reimagining the education landscape, and creating learning that serves all children and prepares them to thrive. If you are new, welcome to the podcast, please subscribe on our website to get it delivered to your inbox weekly. If you’ve been around a while, have you left a review?

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 1:08
Hi Camp, it is so good to have you on education evolution.

Camp 1:12
Thank you so much for just being here as exciting being able to talk about the broken educational system and getting it fixed.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 1:19
Amen. And listeners today I’m chatting with Camp, who is an assessment guru and founding head of teaching and learning at New England Innovation Academy, which opened in the fall of 2021. Amazing camp. So Genesis stories are a great place to start. How did this story of transforming education begin for you.

Camp 1:43
So this is my 27th year in education. And so for all those years, I was always on the very progressive end of the staff and always exploring different ways to have better experience and classes how to teach things better, and definitely how to assess better than the system that I grew up in and that I began working in. And so I’ve always sort of been on the lookout for some endeavor that would, rather than always being on the outskirts and endeavor that would dive into the passion I have for doing that. And so for many, many years, I was in a traditional system. And then I found this school that was just starting out called New England Innovation Academy. And I joined in February of 2021. That’s when I signed on to open in September 2001. And so that’s where we are, we’re basically a new school, we’re focused on human centered design that makes us unique. And we really try to think about doing everything as much as possible, different than what has always been done. I love that and

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 2:55
human centered, we have our microscope, LEAD prep gets to have that emphasis. And putting kids first and Siri seeing hearing valuing them. We just had a sixth grader turn in something he learned in science for the semester. And he created this video of Professor Pooh talking through me and Winnie the Pooh on stage instead of him. And what he shared was amazing, creative everything. And his mom was like, yes, yes, this is what kids need, they need to get to express on their terms. So you creating something in the midst of this pandemic. Haze is so powerful. Tell us more about what you have created.

Camp 3:38
So actually coming out of the pandemic, most people would think it’s crazy to start a school in 2021. But interestingly, we found out there was actually a pretty ingenious time considering the fact that many families saw students getting a wide variety of educational experiences in their living rooms on Zoom. And so we found that there were a lot of people once they saw that desperate for different different, you know, desperate for a school that would think differently and inspire students, especially coming out of that year that we were all on screens. And so, so actually starting that way was turned out to be a real positive for us. And to be able to then, like, have buy in for all the things we were doing differently. And again, so at our school, we have a competency based model where our competencies we have subject based and also competencies to go across the whole school. So we sort of focus on skills that we think a student needs to be set to be successful in a class, in a club, in an internship, and in their family life and a career. So it’s not just oh, you can solve equations in algebra, that’s great. But you can also problem solve in doing that equation in a way that will also have some sort of relevance in A mother endeavor you’re doing in your life.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 5:02
Wow, that is so powerful. And when I looked at your website, it wasn’t just creative, which is awesome. But I just saw that innovation piece and entrepreneurship, what are some of the opportunities that your students have?

Camp 5:19
Yeah, so we’re definitely founded obviously, on innovation and entrepreneurship and, and the innovation part is cool, because it’s not only the things that students do, but like I said earlier, it’s things that we do as a staff, like we are basically charged with trying to be innovative and everything that we do. And you know, it reminds me of Heidi Hayes Jacobs concept when they Rethinking Schools like what should be kept? What’s a, what’s a good to be kept? What should you get rid of, and what should you adjust. And so we are commonly thinking about those questions in a class on a daily basis in a program that we have. So that type of innovation like not only the students doing, but we’re doing it as an institution. And so students are doing things, we have a required class called Innovation Studio, and that’s based on human centered design concepts. So they’re always hands on making developing products in there. But then also, we integrate as much as possible. Another thing that, you know, we charge all of our teachers with you, it’s not the exception to the rule to be integrating, you should be integrating. So if you know innovation studios, making a lab science should do a circuit unit, so that that will coincide and complement with Innovation Studio, I teach humanities, and I was doing a unit on the Globe Theater, and the math teacher came in and did a unit on the angles and the construction of the Globe Theater. So it’s those types of things that in terms of innovating, we really, we really believe in the relevance and future focused element of education not looking backwards. So in other words, what can we be doing so that students see relevance? And get more excited about what they’re learning? To help them sort of dive in as much as possible?

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 7:07
Yes, I’m just like, yes, yes, yes, we need that so much. And it, it naturally makes me think that the typical way we assess in traditional schools is kids memorize, and it’s that summative assessment at the end of the semester, pencil and paper, short term memory, and a post mortem, as some people say, because the kids don’t get to look at it and learn from it and adjust it’s like at the end of their time in that semester. So I can’t imagine that you would be using a dead system of rote memory assessment. How do you deal with assessment?

Camp 7:47
So great question. Here’s, here’s the point, we actually are literally about to change, quote, semesters, on Monday. And the reason why I say quote, is we actually don’t operate in a semester system whatsoever. So when we assessed the assessed trajectory goes through the entire year, it’s an entire year experience. So we’re not taking a first quarter 25%, a second quarter, 25% or semester, that sort of concept, that sort of traditional concept, we believe in tracking a student’s progress throughout the entire year. So the only reason we have assessed semesters actually is just so we have a few semester courses. So that’s when they change. But that’s a super different model for a lot of people. And you know, you have to educate your your parents and your families and your students about that, that, Oh, my goodness is coming up on the end of a assess at the end of the semester, you’re gonna have a big assessment like, no, that’s not true, you’re gonna have an assessment in any of your courses whenever it’s the relevant time for that assessment. So we’re not bound by any calendar issue for when we’re going to assess students.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 8:53
And then when you do, give me a snapshot of what I might see as assessment.

Camp 9:00
Yeah, so you’ll see pretty much anything so similar to the whole point of innovating that we we should, we’re always thinking about different methods to assess, but also how you actually assess so we use in our competency based system and, you know, having done many assessment systems throughout my career, our system is unique, I think it’s a combination of standards of traditional of no grades of competencies, and that we have in each subject area, there’s three competencies that are pertain just to that subject area. And and then there’s 14 competencies that we call our pillar competencies that go across the whole school. So when a teacher is making an assessment, at the top of the page is these are the competencies you’re being assessed on. So it’s somewhere from like two to five, and it’ll say what that what that competency is, and then how that competency looks in this particular assessment that a student is doing. Then, unlike a traditional assessment, where Students would get a B or an 89 on it, which here’s my biggest point about that is that’s a single data point for something for many elements, hopefully many avenues that went into a student being ready to take that assessment or do that assessment. And so we don’t do that. Instead, each competency gets a measure. So you’re essentially, if you looked at an assessment, you would get it back you, you wouldn’t have a B or anything like that, you’d have your competencies in what you got, we measure it on surface immersed and deep. And so in a assessment with four competencies, you have four data points on skills to see where student is at and to see the student’s progress, rather than just a 83. That if you went home and said to your family, oh, I got an 83 on a math test, they bet that doesn’t mean anything, right? It gives you a general sense of like, where aptitude wise in the grand scheme, the way we’d like to think about numbers. But that doesn’t tell anything about skills where you could look at our competencies and be like, Oh, I justify my mathematical reasoning, that was an immerse, okay, you can improve a little bit, here’s how you do that, that sort of thing.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 11:11
I think that is, is so powerful, because numbers really don’t need that much. And to know, wow, this is where I am. And it also tells me where I can be going, you know, okay, I am immersed. But if I want to go deep, that’s an option. Hmm. So kids that can see themselves on that trajectory. And then my guess is the teachers can give them feedback, you know, like, Hey, if you want to get to that deep level, here might be some paths that you take, so that it’s more of a conversation than a stamped, final evaluation.

Camp 11:47
Yeah, and, you know, in any good assessment system, feedback is the key. So, our feedback, again, of a traditional system, somebody might like the end of an essay, right, like a paragraph at the end, commenting on it, or write a note at the top of a math test or something like that, where our focus is to give feedback on the competencies. So you’re getting feedback on the skill that you’re doing. So you know, where you’re at what you did well, and what you can improve on. So again, it’s it’s a little bit different, because it’s not just the single data point, it’s the multiple data points that a student is getting feedback on. And so for example, in my classes, what I do is I have when when we do an assessment, the students read their feedback that I make them, they have a document called competencies, and they go in, in any competency that’s used, they paste that feedback in. So they have a document where they can see all my feedback on any particular competency. But also, we use a LMS, called odus. And what odus allows us to do is input all of our data of competencies, and it produces nice graphs for where a student is on any individual competency. So you could pull out and we, you could look at any timeframe or whatever. So actually, when our first student goes from sixth to 12th, grade of Nia, I could literally pull up one of their competencies, and look at their entire graph from sixth through 12th grade, to see how they did, where they dipped, where their strengths were, etc. So that type of analysis of our system is something like I’m very excited about and I really think it’s, it will be important for students learning and for families to understand like, oh, because the good thing about the competency system, when you look at a graph, where you look at, look at how the students are doing, you can see like, Oh, you got surface on this, that’s not bad. But oh, that was that type of assessment, what was in that assessment? Oh, there was a lot of reading comprehension, maybe we have to work on your reading comprehension, that sort of thing. So it targets more that type of assessment, that type of skills on an assessment that a student can groom and work on.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 13:55
That just sounds really powerful. And it also then gives you a chance to see when dips might be related to outside factors. And new when you have that history, you know what a norm or baseline might be. So it just feels holistic. And that takes me back I want to unpack we you define for our listeners, what is human centered design?

Camp 14:20
Right. So human centered design is the engineering design focused concept that we adopted from one of our board members, Matt Cressy. At MIT, where basically human centered design is your first level is talking to the stakeholders of whatever it is that you’re making, whatever it is that you’re doing. And once you find out what the stakeholders that’s your first step, the Explore, you find out what they need, and then from the state code from that information, then that’s what steers you’re beginning of prototyping and designing. So we use that not only in our Innovation Studio class but also in the way we do things at the school. So if we wanted to change some, for example, where we’re having Guardian teacher conferences next week, and so what we did is we went to all the teachers, and we had a series of questions that ask them on their feedback on all that, and then we consolidate all that information, then we created a couple of different models and that we landed on. So human centered design caught as like a design concept, not only works for like product design, and from a business perspective, an engineering perspective, but we use it as a model for how we go about innovating. You know, that’s the biggest key, I think it we use it as our innovation tool. And honestly, it gives people voice, which is awesome. And like our students at our school, they have a lot of voice. Sometimes, like I’m sure some people will come in and be like, wow, like, what that what? How can that students questioning that like, well, they have a right to, you know, like, we want a student to question why a certain assessment is happening, or why they’re why they’re learning something like my biggest belief, as the head of teaching and learning to our teachers is like, be awesome, right? Number one, be awesome. And if a student asks you, you should be able to defend why it is you’re doing it, or why you’re learning something, right? Because they are the stakeholders who are going to be doing it. You’re a stakeholder, as a teacher, where those two things meet so that you can have the best learning outcomes.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 16:27
That makes really good sense. Thank you. I want to go a little deeper to you gave the Globe Theater example. But we know that relevant and engaging content matters. We know that kids often say, When will I ever use this? Why do I care? Or they’ll just do their homework by cutting and pasting things off of Google. And I’m excited about a couple of your course titles and would love to have you unpack them. One humanities course, I saw was the TV writers room. And then another one, the art and physics of time travel. So I’d love to hear more, because what you’re doing is so not traditionally, I want our listeners to understand it.

Camp 17:09
Yeah, so those two courses are ones that will be for 12th graders, and eventually for 11th graders as as we fill our school more in shape. Like right now we have 94 students, our goal is eventually to be 380 or so. And so the TV writers room, it’s a good example, of course, that’s tapping into relevant information for students in in them learning a brand new skill, but also applying the skills they’ve already had. So one of our global one of our pillar competencies is I connect previous learning to new ideas. So in that course, they’re going to be writing, they’re going to be writing, elevator pitches, and Synopsys, and things like that. So using their previous learning of all the writing training they’ve gotten at me, but then they’re going to be learning a new skill of how to write literally a TV script. So they will have that course is built is the class forms a writers room just like a regular TV writers room where they come up with all the ideas, they create all the plots. And then what happens is, they essentially create the first season of a TV show. And then so they’re learning all those skills. First of all, they have to learn a lot about the TV industry, so that a lot of reading involve a lot of writing about that. And then when they come up with their idea as a group, then they all brainstorm. And then for each episode, two writers go and write that episode. And it goes through a big review process with the whole writers room. And then the next episode goes to another two writers. And so again, that concept of being able to take previous learning and apply it to new learning, it’s something that’s relevant, especially nowadays with the way that streaming TV as it’s everywhere, every so much TV. So how can we capitalize on students creativity and watching that TV? Right? Like they watch a lot of TV, they watch a lot of media, how can we capitalize on that and making them be creative with it. And then also in that, in that vein, the great thing about Nia is that we’ll be able to use the Innovation Studio use our program to do some filming of episodes to do some prompt making for the episodes, that sort of thing. So that’s, that’s pretty exciting when at us when you can have an idea of a school and be like, just say to the room, we have a room called the integration room. And just put up there like this is what I’m doing. I we had let’s brainstorm on this. And then it happened. So, you know, I would say in my career, there’s been a lot of like silos, definite silos, right? Where you have an idea and it sounds cool. And everyone’s like, well, I don’t have time or ooh, I have to get through this part of my curriculum. And we don’t think that way. We think we’re gonna get through the we’re gonna get through what we need to get through in our curriculum, but this is irrelevant at this time, and this is real, bonafide learning. That’s what we’re gonna go with

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 20:00
I love that. And I, the whole idea of like, Wiggins Dymatize, Understanding by Design, that it’s not about surface covering, it’s about taking something, and going deeper and letting the kids really explore it. So somebody’s public school teachers, I feel for them because they have to cover so much curriculum with five groups of 30 kids in a day. And it’s just like so robotic. And what you have is so organic. And as a result, your kids do get this agency. Wow, super cool. I think that you from looking at past jobs you’ve had, I think some other schools have pieces of this. And listeners might be able to take pieces from NEA pieces from other ideas. Ms. Previously, were Director of Experiential Learning, and Associate Director of the Center of Innovation in teaching and learning. How have you seen pieces of this in other schools?

Camp 20:58
Yeah, well, you know, I think any great innovation, any great teaching is just a calling from your experiences, and taking what has been the best parts of those into what it is that you do. And so, you know, all my experiences have led, I’ve taken the best of those things that I did, and are able to implement them here. And I will say to listeners, and as you know, worrying from from doing a startup yourself that one major perk we have that a school it’s been around for 150 years doesn’t have is we are creating it together, like we were the ones building it. And so you don’t have to fight through years of traditions or years of a certain way something was done. And that’s liberating. It’s challenging. It’s super challenging, and exciting, but it’s liberating. So for example, in our competency based system, our entire teaching staff uses that system. So you know, I, in my old jobs, I would walk down the hall and a Spanish teachers assessing out of 10 points, history, teachers teach it using just letter grades all over the map, and you try to rein those in with some great ideas, and some people get on board. But other people are just not going to do it. We’re here we’re able to be like, this is the system we use, this is why we use it. And we’re all going to use it that way we can give each other feedback, we can learn from each other, that sort of thing. So I think that that has been a major bonus of being at a new school. And, again, challenging but exciting, but I wouldn’t I wouldn’t I would I would I do say though back to your your original question of what have I taken from my other jobs, is I’ve taken me having the courage to get my voice up in those jobs, and to try to make change in those places and make some change and fail in many ways, too. Because the most important thing is no matter what school you’re at, is having the courage when you believe there’s something to be fixed to try to fix it.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 22:58
Absolutely. Right. And failure is not the enemy. Lack of trying to me is the enemy.

Camp 23:05
Absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, at a school based on innovation, we We definitely believe in failing forward and all those concepts, you know, we need, we need students to understand that we need families to understand that. But the great part is iterating is the part of any great job or career or relationship in that sort of what we model on a daily basis.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 23:31
Agreed. So if a parent or a school leader or a teacher is listening right now, and it’s like, yeah, hi can’t start a new school, what might be a couple of steps that they could be taking to break out of this status quo school landscape.

Camp 23:46
I think giving, giving teachers and students voice because they’re the they’re the stakeholders, like back to the Human Centered Design focus there, the stakeholders. So you know, I thought about this a lot in my time at NEA, that, in, in traditional schools or schools that I’ve been at, they’ve been around for a long time, the stakeholders are often not the actual people in front of you. There are they are literally the history that the school was founded on, et cetera. And so I think I’m a big believer in my role as head of teaching and learning, like I’m in and out of classes all the time, because it’s really important to me that teachers are seen and heard the same motto for students like I want all my students to be seen and heard, but the same for teachers. Teachers need to be seen and heard. And so giving teachers voice and giving them agency about like, Hey, this is working, this isn’t working, and being able to have those fierce conversations those those messy conversations sometimes builds trust, it builds respect, and eventually it will build a better program. So that that’s what I think is is the biggest thing like creating a safe forum, where it’s okay to have fears conversations with the intention right of having the student the stakeholder at the center of the student at the center of like what’s best for the students? Yes.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 25:10
Nothing else is really going to happen in terms of innovation. If we aren’t listening to the, to the stakeholders voices. It makes perfect sense. It’s one of those things that is so simple and clear, but not at all easy.

Camp 25:25
Yeah, it’s not easy. Without a doubt.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 25:27
Yes. Wow, you’re giving us a lot to think about. And I hope that listeners will reach out to you directly, we’ll make sure to put your contact information in the shownotes. I’d like to pivot and ask you a few turbo time questions because it’s always fun to know, the person behind Nia or the idea. Are you ready for some turbo time?

Camp 25:49
I am ready.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 25:49
Awesome. Okay, Camp. What is the last book you read?

Camp 25:54
So the last book I read was The some of us. It’s a book about the economics and racism, a fascinating book completely recommend it. It’s great for schools, it’s great for politics, good for society.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 26:09
Wow. Yeah. How about two inspirational folks you’d love to meet?

Camp 26:14
I would love to meet Kamala Harris, because I’m still so part of my background is in gender studies. So as part of my master’s, I studied gender. And so that’s always a lens I have on everything on life, I watch a commercial because I say to my family, like look, do you notice what’s happening in this commercial with gender. And so the fact that we haven’t had a female president United States is baffling to me completely baffling. So the fact that Kamala Harris is a vice president, her experience is so valuable and such a opportunity for people to see that value and hopefully get us there, because it’s just, it’s sort of crazy that that hasn’t happened. And then the other person I always say is Mick Jagger. And I know that might sound crazy. But here’s a person who’s been doing their thing for 60 years. So talk about longevity, longevity, very good business person. And one thing I love when Mick Jagger’s quotes is that, he says, people expect you to be what you are when you go on stage. But when I go on stage, I’m a character. And in my personal life, I’m I’m my own person. And I kind of like that, because we all wear masks, we all are, are different things every every which way. And so there’s something about that, I think, is really cool for us to understand about ourselves, our students, and each other.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 27:33
Agreed. How about a TED Talk that inspires you?

Camp 27:38
So I saw his TED talk last year, and it was about sorrow and love and climate change. So things you don’t necessarily equate. And it was really fascinating way to talk about climate change and how we need to feel an emotional connection to the to nature and to the environment, to help inspire us to change. And again, one of the reasons why I really liked it is it was I love unique things. Obviously, I really liked things that are new and different approaches. And I had never heard that type of thing before. And so that just really stuck out to me. It’s like such a cool, philosophical concept that actually is applicable to help solve a crisis.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 28:23
That sounds really interesting. And finally, what is something that most people don’t know about you?

Camp 28:31
So most people would not know about me that I coached a professional women’s football team. So as part of my career from from college on, and I was a teacher and a coach, and I coach football. And at one point, I had a stint coaching a women’s professional football team here in Boston, and it was awesome.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 28:53
Oh my gosh, yeah, I don’t really even know much about women’s professional football. This is very interesting. I’d like to end the interview with a magic wand moment. So camp, I am handing you a magic wand. If you could change anything about schools, to make them relevant and innovative and human centered, what would be the biggest thing you would change?

Camp 29:25
I think it would be assessment without a doubt, the whole way that we think about grades in society, the whole way that students feel branded by a grade you know, I’m I’m really like blown away that there’s been the same essential system in place for so long. And there hasn’t been any like think tanks really coming up with ways to change it and to change it on the on the broader level. So you know, at NEA, we’re trying hard to give our students and our families a different type of experience around that. So so they think Think about their skills, not as much their grades. And I just think across the entire educational system, there has to be a better way, there has to be a different way that we can evaluate and assess, that isn’t branded in this singular way that we’ve always had. I mean, most things we do always iterate. And that hasn’t. And that’s fascinating to me.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 30:24
Completely agreed camp. I love what you’re doing at NEA, and wish you the best. I hope others will learn more, and try to do something aligned with your vision. It’s beautiful. Thank you for being our guest today.

Camp 30:40
Thanks so much for you. And thank you for what you’re doing with education evolution.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 30:49
Nia sounds magical. They are very intentionally creating education, with students and teachers voices influencing their decisions. Camp mentioned Heidi Hayes Jacobs, and she is legendary for helping deep thought around assessment and learning happen. And those questions that he asked are ones that we should be asking in every school? What is sacred to keep? And why not just because it’s tradition, but why? What do we need to get rid of what’s not serving us what might even be harming students, and what needs adjusting. And as we know, most things need iteration and adjusting because things change. So that was a valuable lens to guide how we build our innovative schools, I would have loved for my daughters to have had a list of pillar competencies. And for all of us to have been able to see their trajectory sixth through 12th grade, seeing their strengths, patterns, areas, we might want to shore up or find a creative way to address that would have been such an important tool for reflection and to guide us. And to think that me as teachers are reaching these competencies through innovative interdisciplinary classes that I think I’d really enjoy taking today. I mean, who doesn’t want to know how a TV series is created, and then get to make one, I agree with camps call to action for teachers. And I would add parents and school leaders, we have to have courage, we have to use our voices. If something needs to be fixed, we have to try to fix it. falling forward means we’re headed in the right direction. And anything worthwhile I’ve created has taken multiple iterations. And some of my projects are still taking iterations that I’m not sure we’ll ever end. This is a good thing. stagnation and status quo. Not a good thing. Camps magic wand makes wonderful sense. We want to make sure that our students and teachers have a voice. And we need to create a safe forum for those fierce conversations. As long as they’re centered about how we can best serve our wonderful rainbow of learners and help them be happy and productive members of society. Thank you Camp and Nia for all you are doing to help move education forward. And thank you listeners for being a part of the education evolution.

Maureen O’Shaughnessy 33:54
I know how challenging it is to make changes inside your own school or community. I’ve spent years working with schools around the world on creating learner centered programs. And it always struck me how much schools were able to get done with the right tools and guidance. If you’re ready to make changes like this in your own school, let’s talk and put together an action plan. Visit educationevolution.org/consult for a free 15 minute call. And let’s see if we’re a good fit for more work together. Thanks again for listening to support the education evolution. Subscribe so it lands in your podcast app and gets out to more decision makers. Then rate and review it. For more information in shownotes go to educationevolution.org education evolution listeners. You are the ones to ensure we create classrooms where each student is seen heard, valued and thriving. We are in this together and we need you Let’s go out and reach every student today. Thank you for listening, signing off. I am Maureen O’Shaughnessy, your partner in boldly reimagining education.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai