Changing Course: Reimagining Education for America's Students

During an educators' meeting in Memphis, KeAsia Norman, a BIPOC educator and aspiring school leader said, “If a school isn’t actively engaged in the community, it’s just another building.” In this special live episode, host Jonathan Santos Silva is joined by a panel of innovative BIPOC educators and Teach For America alumni passionate about radically re-imagining the role of school within communities. Through their unique insights, we learn how to transform school buildings into vital community spaces that better reflect their students’ and staff’s needs.

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Featured speakers include:

• Tony Delarosa, Educator, Writer, and Thought Leader
• Ebony Payne Brown, Founder and Executive Director at PEACE Academy Charter
• Christopher Sandoval, Performing Arts Teacher & Department Head at Kipp Comienza Community Prep

Each of these educators have been featured in One Day Studio’s video storytelling. To learn more about their work please check out the following resources:

• Ebony Payne Brown: Starting an Afrocentric School like PEACE Academy Charter
• Tony DelaRosa: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Teaching AAPI Narratives
• Christopher Sandoval: When Spirits Dance: Exploring Identity Through Día de los Muertos Traditions

Bonus Episode in Partnership with UnTextbooked: Gavin Scott, currently a Sophomore at Columbia University, interviews Dr. Brenda Child, author of the book Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families 1900-1940 and his Great Aunt Babe. They talk about Native boarding schools across North America and how they affected the lives of the students that attended them (some of which were Gavin’s ancestors). It offers a look at a particular set of experiences at Native boarding schools and is not meant to be reflective of all boarding schools across the U.S. and Canada at all moments in history.

About UnTextbooked: United by their curiosity and a thirst for knowledge that extends beyond the classroom, the UnTextbooked podcast is a global student-led search for truth. UnTextbooked is not affiliated with Teach For America.

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with the students and leaders of Kendall-Whittier Elementary in Tulsa, OK, about how students in the Tulsa Changemakers program are finding their voice and learning skills that are helping them make change in their communities.

Changing Course is a new podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with the students and leaders of DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach in Kapolei, HI, about how leadership engagement begins with embracing your identity as an individual and a community. Changing Course is a new podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with students and educators at The MET School in Providence, Rhode Island, about how designing a curriculum around a student’s unique passions and unlearning traditional academic expectations helps every student become their own valedictorian. Changing Course is a new podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.