As the popularity of “Growth Mindset” has flourished over the past few years, we’ve seen many articles, books, and resources come out about how kids should be taught to have a growth mindset, over a fixed mindset. Yet, a lot of the talk around this switch in mindset is focused on what you believe will happen, versus the actual results. In my recent conversation with Trevor Ragan (founder of TrainUgly.com) we talk about all things “growth mindset” and the important distinction that happens when we see for ourselves that skills are built, not born.

Talking About Practice

#12 - Trevor Ragan: 21st Century Skills Are Built Not Born (Growth Mindset Like A Jungle Tiger)

The Backwards Podcast is back, and in our first episode of Season 2, Host A.J. Juliani shares a story of adaptable people solving unique problems. If we want to build something better, we almost always have to start from the ground up!

#11 - A.J. Juliani: Building From The Ground Up - A Story Of Adaptable People Solving Unique Problems

In this episode, we talk with best-selling author and curriculum expert Heidi Hayes Jacobs about her book Bold Moves For Schools and her work in education around the world.

#10 - Heidi Hayes Jacobs: How Post-Pandemic Schools Can Create Remarkable Learning Environments

In this episode we talk with Learning That Transfers co-authors Julie Stern, Kayla Duncan and Trevor Aleo (we were missing their fourth co-author Krista Ferraro). How can we design curriculum for a changing world? That is the question that their new book sets out to solve, and our conversation is a wide-ranging dive into all things design, especially in our current situation where education has been impacted by the pandemic.

#9 - Julie Stern, Kayla Duncan, Trevor Aleo: Learning That Transfers

This week we are chatting with two amazing educators: Zaretta Hammond is the author of Culture Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. She's a former classroom English teacher, and she's been doing instructional design, school coaching, professional development for the past 18 years. She's been on the national education reform organizations, National Equity Project, the former Bay Area School Reform Collaborative, and she does work every single day around the idea of practice, specifically in culturally responsive teaching and instructional equity. We'll also hear from cognitive scientist, Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. She is the author of the book Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning and an Assistant Professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, teaching psychological science to exceptional undergraduate musicians. Pooja's research has been published in leading peer-reviewed psychology journals; featured in the New York Times, Education Week, and Scientific American; recognized by the National Science Foundation; and highlighted in numerous books, podcasts, and videos.

#8 - Zaretta Hammond and Pooja Agarwal: The Science of Learning and the Brain

In this episode, we chat with NextLesson CEO and Founder Dion Lim. Dion has had tremendous success backward designing various areas of life. Now he has taken on education with his startup NextLesson and Grokspot. Listen as we talk about his upbringing, his business story, and how he is currently handling the challenge of parenting. 

#7 - Dion Lim: How to Backward Design an Ed Tech Startup

In this episode of The Backwards Podcast, we talk with Building For Everyone author, Annie Jean-Baptiste, and Blended Learning in Action author, Catlin Tucker.  Annie Jean-Baptiste is the Head of Product Inclusion at Google and dives into ways we can design learning with equity and inclusion in mind. Catlin Tucker follows up with practical strategies to create relevant and meaningful blended learning experiences. 

#6 - Annie Jean-Baptiste and Catlin Tucker: Designing Blended Learning That Works For Everyone

In this episode, we talk with Atomic Habits author James Clear. This book has sold over 1 million copies and has helped change countless lives around the world. James breaks down how to actually reach your goals by backward planning your habits in ways that allow for growth and consistency.

#5 - James Clear: How To Actually Reach Your Goals By Focusing On Your Habits

On this episode of The Backwards Podcast, we sit down to discuss education, parenting, and what it even means to be "successful" with Esther Wojcicki.  One of the reasons people go to Esther Wojcicki for parenting advice is because her three daughters are off-the-charts successful: Susan is the CEO of YouTube, Janet is a professor at UC San Francisco, and Anne is the CEO of 23andMe. What’s more, Wojcicki has been a teacher for 36 years, helping build a world-famous media arts program at Palo Alto High School. Her latest book, How to Raise Successful People, builds upon her life story as an educator and parent, and follows the success of her first book, Moonshots in Education.

#4 - Esther Wojcicki: How to Raise Successful People

We chat with Kristen Swanson about the work she is doing at Slack as the Chief of Staff for Customer Experience, and how her years of developing curriculum, helping to start Edcamp, and teaching led her to use a backwards approach in all kinds of areas.

#3 - Kristen Swanson: How To Build Better Experiences By Planning Backwards

In this episode of The Backwards Podcast, Erica Buddington, The Langston League CEO, shares how they create mirrors by decolonizing curriculum. You'll learn Erica's story as well as the work she has been doing in curriculum with schools and districts around the country.  Since 2016, Langston League has imagined and enacted culturally responsive instructional materials that have reached over one million students, families, and community stakeholders. Langston League specializes in teaching people how to design and implement instructional material through professional development, curriculum and product design, facilitation and coaching. Since inception, we’ve served clients across multiple states and three countries, with clientele including Google Code Next, Achievement First Schools, HBO, Movers & Shakers, Netflix, Medgar Evers College, Up Academy, Because of Them We Can, and so many more.

#2 - Erica Buddington: A Backward Approach to Creating Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Doors in Curriculum

A.J. Juliani talks with Jay McTighe, co-author of Understanding By Design (with Grant Wiggins). Jay breaks down how backward design works, what this looks like in learning, and what he has learned in training thousands of people on the backward design process over the past three decades. Inside you'll also hear about curriculum mapping 3.0 and what that means for learning, training, and planning in the future.

#1 - Jay McTighe: Everything You Need to Know About Backward Design and Curriculum Mapping 3.0

You’ve probably experienced this phenomenon yourself at some point in time. It always happens in the same way: Step 1: You don’t care about someone, something, or you have a pre-conceived notion of how you should feel about someone or something. Step 2: You hear, read, or watch a story about that someone or something. Step 3: You have a newfound respect, understanding, and empathy for that someone or something. This is not some magical trick that happens to all of us. It is the science of stories, and how they impact our learning and empathy for others. The short version of the science is this: Our brains pay special attention to stories, engaging more areas of the mind then when we hear or see facts. And when we learn a good story, our brains synthesize the neurochemical oxytocin. This helps us feel others’ emotions and empathize with them. In this episode I dive deep into the research, science, and impact stories have on learning experiences and building empathy in all of us.

Stories Are the Key to Building Empathy

In this episode we chat with Zaretta Hammond, the best-selling author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain. Zaretta Hammond is a former classroom English teacher who has been doing instructional design, school coaching, and professional development around the issues of equity, literacy, and culturally responsive teaching for the past 18 years.  She teaches as a lecturer at St. Mary’s College’s Kalmanovitz School of in Moraga, California. In addition to consulting and professional development, she has been on staff at national education reform organizations, including the National Equity Project and the former Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC).  She has trained instructional coaches in reading development, especially targeted at students of color and English learners.  She has also designed national seminars such as the three-day Teaching with A Cultural Eye series for teachers and school leaders. She is regularly invited to present at regional and national conferences. She has authored articles that have appeared in publications such as Phi Delta Kappan. Along with a focus on culturally responsive teaching, Ms. Hammond has a strong research agenda around literacy, vocabulary development, and equity. She has designed culturally responsive tutor training programs aimed at volunteer reading tutors for a variety of non-profit organizations. She currently designing a literacy program to accelerate low reading skills among high school students. She holds a Masters in Secondary English Education. She also writes the popular ready4rigor.com blog.  Zaretta is the proud parent of two young adult children, both of whom she taught to read before they went to school. She resides in Berkeley, CA with her husband and family. 

Zaretta Hammond: Coaching for Instructional Equity

Today in this short episode, we’re going to be talking about empathy. Yes, empathy. I just released a new book called “Empathy Every Day.” It is 366 short vignettes, stories, quotes, and research about listening, learning, and leading with empathy. As I’m going through this writing process, I’ve been reading a lot about empathy. Particularly, I want to share eight books that spoke to me in different ways about empathy, gave me the science behind it, stories behind it, perspectives that I didn’t have on empathy. In the podcast, I share my thoughts on these 8 books that I list below. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

These 8 Books Will Teach You About Empathy

Why Some People and Teams Get Better, And Others Don't A.J. Juliani shares the best science and stories around learning and practice, then talks with experts who know a lot more than him about getting better.

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Talking About Practice

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