Category: Student Centered Education
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“We need more time to stop and think. We’re all in a hurry and I don’t know where we’re going.” – Sonia
In this episode, I speak with Sonia, an educator, podcaster, and career coach—about her earliest memories of growing up as the youngest daughter of immigrant parents, to becoming an educator and advocate for defining what success looks like for the next generation. We talk about the mentors in her life who saw great potential in…
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“GPA is one predictor. But, also, have they started something from scratch? Did they take on something that was difficult?” – Adrienne
In this episode, I speak with Adrienne, a senior marketing executive, lifelong reader, and mom of two, about her education journey as the first person in her family to go to college. We talk about how her childhood love of reading fiction and memoirs translated to her studies in business school and the world of…
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“Be more open to the ideas that children bring. They learn better when they’re interested.” – Marie
In this episode, I speak with Marie, a homeschooling mom of two, about her earliest memories of attending schools in Canada, including at a French private school for kindergarten, and an alternative one for her final year of high school. We also discuss her journey of making the decision to homeschool her children, to ultimately…
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“We need to work on changing people’s mindset around what education is. Around how children learn.” – Fran
In this episode, I speak with Fran, a writer, unschooler, and consent-based education advocate about her education journey, which began in Italy. We talk about how her early interests in humanities and dream of becoming a writer led to her pursuing a career in journalism before she became a mother who decided to give unschooling…
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Identity, cultural acceptance, and the creativity needed for growth and expansion
In this season 2 finale, two of my good friends (who I co-host another podcast with, called Your Asian Besties) interview me about my education journey. Maryn and I attended elementary school together, and Lia was Maryn’s college roommate. They ask me about my earliest memories of being a student, how I navigated between my…
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Advocacy, leadership, and an ability to find the strengths of every student and their families
In this episode, I speak with Antoinette—the current principal of the elementary school I attended in the late 80s and early 90s. We talk a little about how her early memories of standing up for other people and correcting injustices in school and society might have led her to a career in education, in both…
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Connection, project based learning, and an understanding of how our brains work
In this episode, I speak with Megan—a special education teacher and advocate for the disability community—about her memories of testing gifted at an early age, and her discovery of what giftedness means when she went through her special education credentialing program, over a decade later. We talk about the structural issues with our heavily standardized…
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Self-expression, perseverance, and the ability to lean into discomfort
In this episode, I speak with Oswald—a poet, writer, and content creator—about his memories of growing up with cerebral palsy. We talk about what his environment both at home and at school was like, and what kind of messaging he he received from his teachers and peers about his talents and interests. We also talk…
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How might we empower students to lead their own personalized learning journeys by fundamentally reimagining education systems to prioritize collaborative growth over standardized metrics of competition?
Over the past 10 months, I spoke with people representing 27 countries across 6 continents to examine the shifting perspectives on education practices, globally. Using the human-centered design framework to facilitate and process these interviews, I asked lots of big questions, and received amazing responses. In this season finale, I’ll share five emerging insights, and…