Shows
Breaking the ParadigmDo Parents Understand Montessori? Reimagining Parent Education With Isabella CaiWhat do parents really want to know about their child’s Montessori education?As a Montessori practitioner, I could talk about the importance of a developmental education for hours, but I doubt parents would want to listen to that.In my recent conversation with Kelly Jonelis and Isabella Cai, founder of Y Montessori, we examined the question of what parents really want to know through the lens of new data curated by Isabella and her team.Isabella started her work as a Montessori parent, asking the question “what’s going on in my child’...
2025-03-0943 min
Breaking the ParadigmBoys, Masculinity, and Education Pt 2: Beyond the Gender Binary with Tom Brown and Justin ToscoHow do we support the positive development of boys in our educational spaces?How does creating a truly gender inclusive classroom lift up all young people, including boys?In my last podcast with Tom Brown and Justin Tosco, we got our “section of the choir together” to discuss the crisis of boys in schools and how that manifested in the research and our own personal experiences.If you haven’t listened to that episode, you can find it here!In this part two episode, we were joined by Breaking the Paradigm Co-Hos...
2025-02-161h 21
Breaking the ParadigmStop Expecting You From Other PeopleWhen you interact with others, what are you expecting from them?If you asked me this question a few weeks ago, I would have said that I went into interactions with others without expectations.That completely changed with my co-host, Kelly Jonelis shared this phrase with me: Stop expecting you from other peopleThis phrase stopped me in my tracks.I reflected back on interactions I had with adults and young people alike and realized that I was going into these interactions expecting others to be like me.
2025-01-2746 min
Breaking the ParadigmLove, Trust, and Deep Relationships: Cornerstones of a Developmental EducationWhat if we’re focusing on the wrong things in education?I’ve been posing this question lately. I fear that those of us in Montessori, Progressive, Learner-Centered circles are often too focused on the products of education.The stellar paper. The math project. The capstone speech. The microeconomy sale.I won’t argue that these things aren’t important, but they cannot be the most important aspects of an education designed to foster positive human development.We are at a time of the school year when the anxiety of “are...
2024-10-0733 min
Breaking the ParadigmYour Teacher Desk Is Holding You BackOne of the best decisions I made as an educator was to get rid of my desk.My pedagogy and my relationships with students were hugely impacted by this small change.As I think about the key shifts that educators must make in order to enact a learner centered and/or Montessori paradigm, I continue to see how getting rid of the teachers desk is a requirement.I haven’t had a teacher desk in many years, after getting rid of it early on in my career. It fundamentally changed how I interacted with students in...
2024-09-0536 min
Breaking the ParadigmBreaking the Cycle of Math Phobia Starts With Adults: A Conversation with Kelly Jonelis, Part 2As a language and humanities educator, I used to “comfort” students who were “not math people” like me.“It’s ok, not everyone is a ‘math person,’” I would say.This language and attitude, which stemmed from good intentions, ultimately did a disservice to my students and their relationships with math.I had developed a phobia of math because of the traditional way I was taught. The implicit biases and language I used to describe math passed that phobia on to my students.As I discuss so often on this platform, the adults must do...
2024-08-0920 min
Breaking the ParadigmYou ARE Good at Math: Encouraging learners and educators to reconsider their relationship with mathematics with Kelly JonelisWe need to break the paradigm on math education because it helps our young people unlock a richer understanding of their world and a deeper level of critical thinking.All my life, I’ve described myself as “not a math person.”If we think about this statement, it doesn’t actually make much sense.Math is a symbol system, much like language, that humans have developed to understand the world and the phenomenon we see around us. I use math every day, to some capacity, as does nearly everyone.The reason why so m...
2024-08-0554 min