The Shape of Education to Come

You can dance if you want to, but please, whatever you do, don't leave me behind! In this not-so-scary episode released on Halloween, I do a dance of the words (aka talking) with Romeo Suban, dance teacher at St. John's High School. We talk about if there are any bad dance moves, knowing the context for dance, the similarities and differences between English and dance, seeing both the individual dancer and the whole group, assessing dance, lead dancers vs. backup dancers, subjectivity, the importance of character in dance, motivation, and wondering why we have competition.

Did you know that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has an educator-in-residence? I didn’t! But they do – his name is Graham Lowes, and I talked with him about how the world sucks, moving away from essays and towards project-based learning and inquiry projects, banning the backboard, the Upstander Project, engaging learners by building a jail cell, effective vs. ineffective teachers of human rights, Paulo Friere, what we remember from high school, starting with stories, awareness as the first step, moving forward when we admit that these problems might not be solved, and how to move action past just awareness (if you can).

I get a little self-indulgent in this episode as I talk with David Cooper Moore about teaching and media literacy, but also a bunch about music.
Specific topics discussed include digital literacy, what criticism brings to teaching, how our feelings inform our practice, Taylor Swift and youth culture, relating to youth culture (or not), rating yourself as a teacher through the Pitchfork rating scale, understanding your students, how we can address the gaps in student learning when they arrive in high school, working hard and a problem with the structure of the school day, and a bonus question about the new Taylor Swift album, which was about to be released at the time of this recording.

In advance of the federal election, I talk with the education coordinator for Elections Canada, Joseph Péloquin-Hopfner. We discuss inspiring students to become thoughtful citizens, questions that matter, the resources that Election Canada has to offer and some of the pedagogy behind them, The Constitution Express, gauging how we know when a lesson was successful, co-teaching, the how and what of teaching, *not* telling students to vote, whether or not we should teach that democracy is good, the right of youth to vote, and teachers and partisanship.
There was also a moment where Joseph was unsure if he was allowed to say something in particular due to the nature of working for Elections Canada...we got it approved by EC, so listen to hear him try in vain to sound neutral, then give up entirely.

I talk with Dave Hoag, Victor Kolynchuk, Doug Hanna, Frank Locker, and Kyle Lewkowich about the structure of schools – the buildings themselves. We cover how a school begins in the planning stages, progressive and traditional design, portable classes and Michel Foucault’s idea that the design of school was inspired by prison. This episode is all about the *literal* shape of education to come.