The Hummingbird Stories

In this episode, we look at a school that was designed in the absence of many of the obstacles prevalent in the K-12 public school space. We talk with Long-View Micro School co-founders Kevin Moore and Lisa Zapalac, as well as Cathy Lewis, a math specialist working with The Number Lab at the school. They show us the possibilities that abound when you design school in a culture without barriers.

We don’t just want to hear from guests on our show. We want to hear from you, too. In every episode on this season of The Hummingbird Stories, we’ll pose a question and ask you to weigh in through our Telbee. This week’s question asks you to think about the four assumptions Moore and Zapalac made in designing the school. Following Long-View's example, what four assumptions would your ideal school have? Visit sayhi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.We know a lot of “Hummingbirds” who are no longer waiting for change in a system on fire, but rather choosing to do something. We hope they’ll inspire you to take real action, no matter how small, toward redesigning schools.

An extraordinary education for all young people is possible. But it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.

In our sixth episode, we’re exploring learning differences. We all learn differently, yet school is largely designed with the assumption that there can be a standardized way of teaching. That's the model Joann Blumenfeld is trying to disrupt. She's a former North Carolina public school teacher who runs two programs at N.C. State's Science House, where she works with students with learning differences and offers them hands-on STEM experience.

Her programs are aimed at increasing post-secondary attainment for students with learning differences and promoting interest in the STEM fields. She was recognized by Time Magazine this Summer as a 2022 Innovative Teacher of the Year.

This episode features an interview with Blumenfeld by EdNC.org's Rupen Fofaria. Rupen joins us in the studio to unpack issues confronting students with learning differences.

We don’t just want to hear from guests on our show. We want to hear from you, too. In every episode on this season of The Hummingbird Stories, we’ll pose a question and ask you to weigh in through our Telbee. This week’s question asks you to think about a time that you knew you could do something, but you couldn’t do it the way you were being asked to do it. What did that look like? What did that feel like? If you could go back, how would you redesign that experience for yourself? Visit sayhi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.

We know a lot of “Hummingbirds” who are no longer waiting for change in a system on fire, but rather choosing to do something. We hope they’ll inspire you to take real action, no matter how small, toward redesigning schools.

An extraordinary education for all young people is possible. But it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.

We don’t just want to hear from folks with innovative schools. We want to hear from you, too. In every episode on this season of The Hummingbird Stories, we’ll pose a question and ask you to weigh in through our Telbee. This week’s question asks you to think about your own community. Given your community’s strengths (like local organizations, businesses, cultures) and/or needs (maybe you wish your community had a bike shop, like Jenny does!): what learning experiences or school would you build, with an unlimited budget? Visit sayhi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.

As teachers and school leaders ourselves, we always knew relevance was critical to learning. What we didn’t always know was how to bring it to life in our classrooms or across our schools. As principals, we tried training from the Buck Institute to implement Project Based Learning (PBL). The training was fantastic and useful, but we didn’t have the structures in place for strong implementation. We also had a staff with varied levels of readiness. As a result, some teachers leaned in heavily and developed PBL units regularly, and we did our darndest to get them ongoing coaching and support. For some teachers, they did the one project unit minimum, because that’s what they could give at the time. We were glad to customize based on teacher needs and readiness, but it was really challenging to authentically make a schoolwide shift to change how we planned and executed learning experiences.

Ultimately, we have come to believe that to create authentic real world and relevant learning experiences with students and teachers, we must reimagine many other parts of school. But what are those other elements that need to shift? We believe we might start to answer this question by looking and listening to leaders who design innovative school models exuding relevance. On this episode, we hear from two of those Hummingbirds, Miguel Gonzalez of Embark Education and Dr. Tyler Thigpen of The Forest School.  We’ll also hear from Quinn and Luke, two students at Embark, the school.

We are huge fans of the work of Miguel and Tyler are doing. At Embark, students learn to create their own schedules each week with the guidance of an educator. Included in their choices of how they spend their time is an Integrated Shop Project. Embark has two North Denver businesses embedded in their school: Pinwheel Coffee and Framework Cycles. Students choose to spend time in either shop to learn and practice skills through projects. At The Forest School, learners in grades 9-12 design their own high school experience. They even get to build the courses they themselves take. How we wish we had an experience like that as young people!

We know a lot of “Hummingbirds” who are no longer waiting for change in a system on fire, but rather choosing to do something. We hope they’ll inspire you to take real action, no matter how small, toward redesigning schools.

An extraordinary education for all young people is possible. But it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.

Teachers and other adults at school have a huge impact on young people and, in this fourth episode, that's what we're talking about -- the adults in the room. In this episode, we'll hear from Miguel Gonzales, Tyler Thigpen, and three students -- QuaNasia, Quinn, and Luke. We also hear from Sonn Sam, who had this to say about what he looks for when he's interviewing candidates for teaching positions.

In every episode on this season of The Hummingbird Stories, we’ll pose a question and ask you to weigh in through our Telbee. This week’s question asks that you think about the role of the adults in the school building. We're thinking about teachers, TAs, principals, and more. If you could redesign the role of an educator, what would it look like? Visit sayhi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.

The Hummingbird Stories is the brainchild of educators Donnell Cannon and Jenny O’Meara. Robert Kinlaw produced Season 2 of the podcast, and Rupen Fofaria supported Season 2 as a creative producer.

In addition to Embark students Quinn and Luke and former Edgecombe County Public Schools student QuaNasia, in this episode you heard from:

• Sonn Sam, national director of partnerships at Big Picture Learning
• Miguel Gonzales, directors of schools at Embark Education
• Tyler Thigpen, co-founder of The Forest School

The hummingbird artwork on the cover is by then-eighth grade student Joselyn Hernandez, now a high school junior.

In this third episode, we talk about equity in education. How do we design schools centered around equity? How do we honor the identities of our students, and why is doing that so important? We’ll hear from two hummingbirds today — Leslie Brown-Rawlings, vice president of strategy at Beloved Community, and Carol Bowar of GALS Denver.

We want to hear from you, too. In every episode on this season of The Hummingbird Stories, we’ll pose a question and ask you to weigh in through our Telbee. This week’s question asks that you think about a time when you felt unseen. Did it change the way you think about yourself or others? Visit sayhi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.

We are Donnell Cannon and Jenny O’Meara, two passionate educators. Welcome to Season 2 of The Hummingbird Stories. This season, we're asking the question: What does an extraordinary education look like for every student?

We’re hosting conversations with the most innovative, equity-minded leaders in education from all across the country -- and that includes students.

On this episode, you heard from one of our former students, QuaNaisa. We met her at the micro-school we helped establish. You can learn more about that school here and here. Also in this episode, you heard from Sonn Sam, whose work you can learn more about here, and Janaya, a student at Nashville Big Picture High School.

We want to hear from you, too. In every episode on this season of The Hummingbird Stories, we’ll pose a question and ask you to weigh in through our Telbee. This week’s question asks you to think of yourself as a learner? If there was a school designed just for you, what would it look like?Visit sayhi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.

We know a lot of “Hummingbirds” who are no longer waiting for change in a system on fire, but rather choosing to do something. We hope they’ll inspire you to take real action, no matter how small, toward redesigning schools.

An extraordinary education for all young people is possible. But it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.

But first, we want to hear from you! Our weekly question is: Everyone in our state is talking about a sound, basic education. But what would an extraordinary education look like? Visit SayHi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.

Learn more about Aylon Samouha and Transcend: www.transcendeducation.org

Learn more about Sonn Sam and Big Picture Learning: www.bigpicture.org

Learn more about Carol Bowar and GALS Denver: www.galsdenver.org.

The artwork on our album cover is by 11th grade student Jocelyn H. Check out her work at @celyns_arts on Instagram.

The song featured in this episode is called "Contact" by artist Dylan Longworth, a graduate of Elkin High School.

In this update, Jenny and Donnell share what they are learning from the reopening process at their schools. They share lessons ranging from taking work one day at a time to the collective power of leaning on the geniuses around you. You’ll also hear the plan for the rest of the podcast season. We want to know what you’re learning from reopening!  Will you share your lessons with us? You can do so by filling out this short survey. We’ll share the answers in our next episode. Thank you for listening and engaging with us!

You can learn more about Dr. Terrance Ruth here.

You can learn more about Dr. Moody’s work here.

You can find a transcript for this podcast here.

Learn more about Profound Ladies here.

Read about the Leandro report here.

Learn more about Village of Wisdom here.

Check out these breathing exercises from the Rural Opportunities Institute

Learn more about the Rural Opportunities Institute here

The Hummingbird Stories is produced by Alli Lindenberg, Donnell Cannon and Jenny O’Meara. The music used in this series is courtesy of 8th grade student DX4L. The hummingbird artwork on the cover is by 8th grade student Joselyn Hernandez.

Click here for a transcript of the audio.