Why I Stopped Grading the Final Project (And What Happened Instead)

Your school's best program has an expiration date. It's the day the one teacher running it retires, moves, or burns out.In part two of my S6E9 Schoolutions conversation with Dr. Annalies Corbin, founder of the PAST Foundation and host of Learning Unboxed, she names what the programs that survive that day do differently. Annalies is an anthropologist and archaeologist who has studied lasting school programs around the world. In this episode:➡️Why a program built around one teacher, one partner, or one grant disappears the moment that person or money leaves➡️Why owning your weaknesses makes you a stronger leader, and how that same idea works with students in a classroom➡️Scale vs. spread, and why the first step in any new school is cultural alignment with that community➡️How village schools in Alaska build their curricular calendars around subsistence seasons for caribou, whale, and salmon➡️What sustaining school systems share: team teaching, deliberate onboarding for new teachers, and learning that happens out in the community➡️Why onboarding starts at the interview, plus three questions she asks every teaching candidate➡️The PAST Innovation Lab, where every wall and desk is on wheels and students once spent six weeks building Mars out of two tons of lava rock➡️How to land an industry partner within one block of your school, even with no budget➡️Workforce readiness without the factory model➡️Why sharing what works in micro-schools isn't asking anyone to leave public education➡️One small next step for a grade-level team⭐Check out part one & more episode mentions:💫Hacking School by Dr. Annalies Corbin💫Learning Unboxed podcast💫PAST Foundation & PAST Innovation Lab💫Aeriale Johnson Chapters:0:00 Three questions about your school's best program1:00 Welcome back, Dr. Annalies Corbin1:45 Why great programs disappear when one person leaves2:55 Own your weaknesses4:20 Don't scale it. Spread it.5:40 Alaska village schools and subsistence calendars6:50 What lasting school systems have in common8:30 Learning beyond the building walls9:20 Onboarding starts at the interview10:35 Three questions for every teaching candidate11:40 A message for teacher prep programs12:15 Lessons from the PAST Innovation Lab13:15 What if schools ran on R&D?14:50 Two tons of lava rock and a six-week Mars mission16:05 Finding an industry partner with no budget17:55 Workforce readiness without the factory model20:45 A teacher passion fair for your school22:15 What 300 episodes of Learning Unboxed taught her24:25 Learn from what works instead of copying it25:30 One next step for grade-level teams27:15 Coming next week: Gwyneth Hagan and Wild Design for LearningPartner with Me:If your strongest program lives inside one teacher's classroom, it's one resignation away from disappearing. I partner with school leaders, instructional coaches, and grade-level teams to build onboarding plans, co-teaching structures, and coaching systems that keep great teaching alive when people move on. Let's map out which practice your school should protect first. Book a coaching or consulting call here.Next week on Schoolutions:We head outside. My friend Gwyneth Hagan is a poet, educator, and designer, and in a two-part conversation she shows us how to build learning rooted in place and purpose. In her new book, Wild Design for Learning: Moving from a Factory Mindset to a Forest Model, she draws on patterns from nature, like how a forest grows abundance, builds relationships, adapts, and renews itself, and turns them into a model for schools where students thrive. You'll leave knowing how to build your own Wild Design for Learning.When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

What if your classroom felt more like an archaeological dig?In this Schoolutions trailer reel, Dr. Annalies Corbin, founder of the PAST Foundation, explains why curiosity disappears when teachers show up with the answer, and how letting go of a fixed outcome unlocks deeper student engagement, student motivation, and student participation.Our students think deeply and have incredible ideas for solving real problems, but traditional instructional strategies often skip right past them. Dr. Corbin's advice for teachers who want more active learning and inspiring students without burning out: don't do it alone, and don't do it all at once. Start with co-teaching. Pick one shared project and teach it with one other person. It's a simple, low-lift step toward innovative teaching, effective teaching, and real education transformation.Watch part one with Dr. Corbin on Schoolutions - part two releases on Friday, 11/13.⏱️ Chapters0:00 Why classrooms lack curiosity0:08 Let go of the "right" outcome0:17 Students have incredible ideas0:24 Start small with co-teachingWant help building this kind of school culture in your classroom or across your campus? I work with teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders on innovative, inspired teaching that puts kids first. Book a call here.#Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #EvidenceBasedClassroomReadyStrategies #OliviaWahlCoachingConsultingWhen teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

What Brings You Joy? The Interview Question Every School Should Ask...What if the best way to boost student engagement started with a teacher's passion outside the classroom? In this Try It Tuesday teaching tip, inspired by my Schoolutions conversation with Dr. Annalies Corbin, founder of the PAST Foundation, we look at how schools onboard new teachers and why the typical interview process often misses the mark.Dr. Corbin suggests that school leadership open every interview with one question: "What brings you joy outside of family and outside of teaching?" The follow-ups ask how that passion connects to your content area, specialty, or elementary day, and how you actually make that connection. It's a simple shift for principal strategies, instructional leadership, and school culture that brings inspired teaching and empowered educators into the learning community from day one.My Tuesday tip for teachers: get clear on what you love to do, then start small by weaving it into your lesson planning. I love to bake, so I think about how baking can show up in science, math, art, and history, including how baking has fed communities in times of need. Bringing your passion into the classroom is one of the most effective teaching and instructional strategies for inspiring students, building student motivation, increasing student participation, and creating active learning that supports the whole child.👉 Try it this week: Name one thing that brings you joy and find one small way to connect it to tomorrow's lesson.Chapters:0:00 Rethinking how schools hire and onboard teachers0:20 The first interview question: What brings you joy?0:40 Connecting your passion to what you teach0:55 Try It Tuesday tip: Start small with your passion1:10 Example: Weaving baking into science, math, art and history#SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #TryitTuesday #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #OliviaWahlCoachingConsulting #TeachingTips #TeachYourPassion #InspiredTeaching #NewTeachers #SchoolLeadership #InstructionalCoaching #SchoolCulture #EffectiveTeaching #EmpoweredEducators #TeacherLife #ShortsWhen teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

What if the worst thing you could bring to tomorrow's lesson is the answer?For part one of my S6E9 Schoolutions conversation, I sat down with Dr. Annalies Corbin, an anthropologist and archaeologist who has spent her career excavating shipwrecks. Every dig starts the same way. Nobody knows for sure what's down there. Annalies believes every lesson should start that way too.She founded the PAST Foundation, which has helped schools in 42 states connect classroom learning to real-world problem solving, and she hosts the Learning Unboxed podcast. In part one, she shows teachers and school leaders why walking in with the outcome already decided shuts down student engagement before the bell rings. Then she gives us one thing to try tomorrow.In this episode:➡️Why showing up with the answer takes away a student's chance to explore and question➡️How studying mistakes in math class builds deeper thinking than chasing the right answer➡️The difference between strategic instruction and real-world systems learning, and why systems thinkers matter more as technology speeds up➡️How pre-K and kindergarten teachers can protect play and imagination while still building readiness➡️The five instructional strategies every lasting school program shares, from her book Hacking School: student agency, culturally responsive teaching, mastery, transdisciplinary learning, and problem-based instruction➡️Transdisciplinary vs. interdisciplinary, explained with biology, cell structure, and modern civics➡️Why real-world problem solving isn't about projects➡️The tiny Frozen Charlotte doll she found tucked inside a 19th-century woodworker's toolbox➡️The one word teachers need permission for: exploreThree questions for your lesson planning:1. Think about the last lesson you taught. Did you know how it would end before your students walked in?2. Which of the five strategies is missing from your classroom right now?3. What do you love doing on a Saturday, and how could it show up in next week's lesson?Episode Mentions:💫Hacking School by Dr. Annalies Corbin💫Learning Unboxed podcast💫PAST Foundation💫Education Reimagined💫Wild Design for Learning: Moving from a Factory Mindset to a Forest Model by Gwyneth HaganChapters: 0:00 Three questions for you 1:00 Meet Dr. Annalies Corbin 2:05 What shipwrecks teach us about how kids learn 3:15 Let go of the outcome before the lesson starts 4:15 Math, mistakes, and the messy middle 4:50 Strategic vs. systems learning 7:15 Collaboration over competition 8:15 Curiosity and play with young learners 10:30 Five Hacking School strategies 12:45 Trans- vs. interdisciplinary 14:00 It's not about projects 15:45 After the Bell 16:30 Her favorite artifact: a Frozen Charlotte doll 17:40 Students' big ideas 18:35 Permission to explore 19:00 Teach your passion 20:00 Learning ecosystems 21:20 Coming in Part IIComing in Part Two:Dr. Corbin explains why scaling a great program is a mistake. She gives school administrators three questions to ask every teaching candidate. And she shows how to land an industry partner within one block of your school. Partner with Me:Letting go of the answer takes a teacher who trusts their own expertise. I build that trust with teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders. If your team is tired of the same-lesson, same-day pacing calendar and wants learning built around real problems, let's talk. Book a teacher coaching or consulting call here.Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and caregivers who are ready to grow alongside their children. Each episode delivers research-backed strategies rooted in the five practices of expert teachers from my upcoming book, Forever Getting Better: Five Essential Practices for Reclaiming Teacher Expertise, so every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

If you ask a second grader at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary what they want to protect for seven generations, you might hear salmon. Or drumming. Or the right to wear their hair long.In part two of our S6E8 Schoolutions conversation, co-teachers Kristin Page and Dr. Melissa Cullen show me how they teach six- and seven-year-olds that what they do today reaches people who haven't been born yet. Their students drum, sing, and write about the people who came before them. They call themselves cultural guardians. A guest teacher once told Melissa, "Your kids really know who they are, and they're not afraid to show it."Ask yourself three questions as you watch:What choice will your students make this week that someone seven generations from now will have to live with?Who in your community could help write your next unit, and have you asked them yet?If you set aside the purchased curriculum for one unit, what would your students want to learn, and what would they discover about who they are?In this episode you'll hear:The Seventh Generation Principle and how first graders connect it to protecting salmonHow Melissa teaches generations using real family members in the building: a parent, a grandparent who is the principal, and a great-grandma who visitsFour picture books Kristin and Melissa reach for again and againWhat a cultural guardian is, and how students finish the sentence "I am a cultural guardian when I…"Why they co-create every definition with students instead of handing one downHow they built the Becoming a Cultural Guardian unit with Dr. Chelsea Craig and the Tulalip Lushootseed Language DepartmentWhy Kristin pulls a Tulalip staff member into the room mid-lesson when she needs guidance: "She's Tulalip, we're not."Inside a learner's workshop, from the learning goal set in the morning circle to SEL reflection journals that produced their strongest student writingHow the unit builds emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement with interdisciplinary standards at the centerWhy co-teaching splits the cognitive and emotional load, and why Melissa wants districts to trust teachers over prescribed curriculum💫Check out part one:  & the books from this episode:📗Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes by Wab Kinew (spoken word read aloud)📘I Am My Ancestors' Wildest Dreams by Tanisia Moore📕You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith Chapters:0:00 Three questions about seven generations1:05 Welcome back, Kristin and Melissa1:25 The Seventh Generation Principle2:20 Why first graders talk about protecting salmon3:15 Teaching generations through family in the building4:15 Aunties, cousins, and kinship beyond blood4:45 Picture books that connect past and future6:00 What is a cultural guardian?7:30 Co-creating definitions with students8:15 "Your kids really know who they are"8:55 Building a unit with the Tulalip Tribes9:55 Asking for cultural guidance mid-lesson10:40 The power of co-teaching11:20 Inside a learner's workshop13:05 Emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement14:05 Sharing the cognitive and emotional load16:05 Moving past prescribed curriculum16:55 Coming next week: Dr. Annalies CorbinWork with me:Kristin and Melissa didn't wait for a program. They asked their community to help them write one. I partner with teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders to design units, morning routines, and shared agreements built with the families and cultures in your building. Start coaching or explore a school partnership here.Next week on Schoolutions:How do you build real-world learning that outlasts one teacher's classroom and keeps kids asking questions after the bell? My guest is Dr. Annalies Corbin, an anthropologist, archaeologist, and founder of the PAST Foundation. Her team has helped schools in 42 states connect classroom learning to problems real people needed solved. She wrote Hacking School: Five Strategies to Link Learning to Life and hosts the top-ranked Learning Unboxed podcast.Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and caregivers who are ready to grow alongside their children. Each episode delivers research-backed strategies rooted in the five practices of expert teachers from my upcoming book, Forever Getting Better: Five Essential Practices for Reclaiming Teacher Expertise, so every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. I hope to have the book in your hands in 2027.#Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #OliviaWahlCoachingConsulting #CulturallyResponsiveTeaching #SeventhGeneration #CulturalGuardian When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

Students tune out when the curriculum comes out of a box. Melissa and Kristin explain what changes when lessons connect to who kids actually are, and why classroom behavior often tells you something.Their students go home and tell their families, "I need more sleep" or "I need to eat better." Caregivers are surprised. The conversations stick because the learning is real, and that builds a home-school connection no newsletter can match.Melissa doesn't bail kids out. Students do the learning and build the stamina while teachers cheer from the sideline. A guest teacher once told her that her kids know exactly who they are and aren't afraid to show it.That's culturally responsive teaching in a real classroom. Students become cultural guardians who protect, preserve, and carry their culture forward. Warriors of their culture.Watch part one with Kristin and Melissa on the Schoolutions podcast.  Part two releases on Friday, 11/6.Chapters:0:00 Bought curriculum and behavior as communication0:12 Kids bring sleep and food talks home0:27 Students do the learning, teachers cheer0:42 Kids who know who they areWant help building this kind of school culture in your classroom or across your campus? I work with teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders on innovative, inspired teaching that puts kids first. Book a call here.#Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #EvidenceBasedClassroomReadyStrategies #OliviaWahlCoachingConsulting When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

Try It Tuesday: Start Class with a Whole-Child Check-In (Not a Bell Ringer!)Before you jump into your lesson, try connecting as a community first. In this week's Try It Tuesday, I share a simple morning circle routine inspired by the Quil Ceda Tulalip Learning Community, an elementary school that checks in with the whole child at the start of every day. Middle and high school teachers can use it at the start of every period.The Quil Ceda Tulalip Resiliency Framework is a circle with four quadrants: spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical. Each one helps students get ready and open to learning. It's a powerful way to build classroom belonging, boost student engagement, student motivation, and attention in class, and support classroom behavior through emotional regulation. These education strategies, teaching tips, and instructional strategies fit easily into your lesson planning and make inclusive teaching, culturally responsive teaching, and inclusive classrooms part of your daily routine.The four check-in quadrants:💛 Spiritual: What are your beliefs? What helps you feel seen and like you belong?💙 Emotional: How are you feeling? Do you need to regulate?🧠 Mental: What's your learning process and mindset as a learner today?💪 Physical: Did you sleep? Are you well fed? What's your stress level?Swap the bell ringer for a whole-child check-in and see how it shapes school culture, student participation, student success, and thriving students. 👉 Try it this week and tell me in the comments how your students responded!Chapters:0:00 Connect as a Community Before the Lesson0:12 The Quil Ceda Tulalip Resiliency Framework0:28 Spiritual Quadrant: Belonging & Being Seen0:38 Emotional Quadrant: Feelings & Regulation0:47 Mental Quadrant: Learning Mindset0:53 Physical Quadrant: Sleep, Food & Stress1:03 Ditch the Bell Ringer: Start with a Circle#SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #TryitTuesday #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #OliviaWahlCoachingConsulting #TeachingTips #TryItTuesday #WholeChild #ClassroomBelonging #MorningCircle #StudentEngagement #TeachingTips #CulturallyResponsiveTeaching #SEL #SchoolCulture #TeachersWhen teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

Every morning at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary on the Tulalip Reservation in Washington, drummers and singers greet students at the gym doors. Kids dance on a floor that stands for a longhouse. Then they walk back to class, where first and second grade co-teachers Kristin Page and Dr. Melissa Cullen carry that energy into every lesson until the last bell.I've studied their classroom for a year. In part one of our S6E8 Schoolutions conversation, they show us how culturally responsive teaching builds classroom belonging, student engagement, and real resilience in six- and seven-year-olds. Their students learn one word that resets the whole room. They learn to say "I need a break" instead of throwing a pencil. And at family conferences, they tell their parents "I need more sleep" before anyone mentions an i-Ready score.Ask yourself three questions as you watch:What do the first ten minutes of your school day tell students about whether they belong in the room?Is there one word your students know so well that saying it once resets the class?When a child shuts down or acts out, do you ask what's wrong, or which part of them is out of balance?In this episode you'll hear:How a sacred circle puts a six-year-old and an adult at the same eye level, and why that matters for equity in education and student participationThe four SIAB agreements: take care of learning spaces, speak, listen, and act like a role model, show grit and stamina, and respect elders past, present, and futureHow Tulalip stories like Lifting Up the Sky and the Mud Swallow become everyday cues for classroom behavior and attention in classThe Quil Ceda Tulalip Resiliency Framework (physical, spiritual, mental, emotional) and how it turns low engagement into a conversation about balanceWhy Kristin and Melissa treat behavior as communication and push students toward self-regulation instead of bailing them outHow student-led, strength-based conferences change parent communication and build the home-school connectionThe day Melissa forgot her glasses, Kristin forgot her hearing aid, and they told the kids exactly whyThe research behind their instructional strategies: the science of reading, a trauma-informed lens, Sue Dockett's work on Indigenous children's transition to school, and a full hour of playChapters:0:00 Three questions to reflect on1:35 Meet Kristin Page and Dr. Melissa Cullen2:20 Inside the Quil Ceda Tulalip morning assembly4:15 The sacred circle and equity of voice5:20 Lifting Up the Sky and the Mud Swallow story6:30 Co-teaching nearly 50 first and second graders7:00 Why sitting at eye level flattens the hierarchy7:45 The four SIAB agreements8:50 Teaching SIAB to brand new students9:40 One word that resets the classroom10:20 The Quil Ceda Tulalip Resiliency Framework11:15 Strength-based family conferences12:00 Behavior as communication and self-regulation13:55 Modeling vulnerability with students14:30 Lightning round: favorite morning assembly15:40 How Kristin and Melissa refuel16:35 The growth that surprised them most17:30 Science of reading and trauma-informed teaching18:55 Favorite unit: Becoming SIAB19:20 Research that has their back: Sue Dockett and play22:35 What's coming in part twoComing in part twoKristin and Melissa explain the Seventh Generation Principle and why first graders talk about protecting salmon. You'll hear how their students become cultural guardians, the picture books they return to again and again, and how they built a full unit alongside the Tulalip Tribes. Part two drops Friday.Partner with me:You don't need a new program to build this kind of resilience. You need routines that come from your own community and the confidence to design them yourself. I partner with teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders to build a resiliency framework, a morning circle, or shared agreements that fit your students. Start coaching or explore a school partnership here.Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and caregivers who are ready to grow alongside their children. Each episode delivers research-backed strategies rooted in the five practices of expert teachers from my upcoming book, Forever Getting Better: Five Essential Practices for Reclaiming Teacher Expertise, so every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. I hope to have the book in your hands by June 2027.#Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #EvidenceBasedClassroomReadyStrategies #OliviaWahlCoachingConsulting  #ThrivingStudents #culturallyresponsiveteaching   When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

November on Schoolutions is about learning that goes beyond the classroom and stays rooted in place, community, and tradition. I talk with educators who build school culture, student belonging, and student engagement by connecting kids to the world around them.I open the month with Kristin Page and Dr. Melissa Cullen, co-teachers of a multi-age class at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary in Tulalip, Washington. They share the routines and rituals they create with students, strong examples of classroom belonging, student participation, culturally responsive teaching, and inclusive classrooms.Dr. Annalies Corbin, anthropologist, archaeologist, and founder of The PAST Foundation, shows how active learning and real-world problem-solving boost student motivation and inspire students who show low engagement.My friend Gwyneth Hagan joins me as her book Wild Design launches this month. She invites us to move from a factory model of school to a forest model, using patterns in nature to help school ecosystems flourish. It's innovative teaching and school change grounded in the whole child.I close with Dr. Chelsea Craig, instructional leader at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary. She talks about instructional leadership, school improvement, family partnerships, and the home-school connection as she reclaims her school community one story, one song, and one morning at a time.Subscribe to the Schoolutions Podcast now and learn with me all November. Chapters:0:00 November theme: learning rooted in place and community0:12 Kristin Page and Dr. Melissa Cullen on co-teaching and rituals0:30 Dr. Annalies Corbin and The PAST Foundation0:44 Gwyneth Hagan and her new book Wild Design1:08 Dr. Chelsea Craig on whole child leadership1:28 Join me this November#Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #EvidenceBasedClassroomReadyStrategies #OliviaWahlCoachingConsulting #EducationPodcast #WholeChild #SchoolCulture #CulturallyResponsiveTeaching #InstructionalLeadership #TeacherCoaching #ProKidMindset #StudentEngagement #WildDesign #OliviaWahlWhen teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

Jason Blair planned a fort-building challenge for 30-40 minutes. It took two weeks. One student stood on a chair shouting orders. Another group snuck off with supplies to build their own. Someone cried because nobody was listening. The fort was never the point.In part two of my S6E7 Schoolutions conversation with Jason, we get into what an artist mindset looks like on a Tuesday morning in a real classroom. Jason shares the exact debrief questions he asks kids after a group project, including "What successes found you?" and "Who did you become in the process?" These questions build classroom belonging and shift student motivation from the finished product to the child doing the work.You'll hear how empathy interviews become active learning when students redesign a classmate's desk or cubby with cardboard, tape, and paint, then present it back to them. Jason explains why his most valuable routine is having no routine. He tapes a sign to his locked door that reads "Meet me at the front of the school," and kids talk about it all year. If you're fighting low engagement and a scripted curriculum, try this innovative teaching tomorrow with zero prep budget.Three questions I invite you to consider:1️⃣After your next group project, will you ask students who they became or only what they made?2️⃣Which routine could you break this week so students walk in surprised?3️⃣What hobby does a teacher in your building love, and how could it become the backbone of your next professional learning session?💫Check out part one & more from Jason: 🔗Jason's Website🔗Instagram🔗LinkedIn🔗Substack⭐Columbus Museum of Art (these are links to projects, but also a TON of resources to use in the classroom tomorrow)!🔗Cultivating Creative and Civic Capacities- collaboration w/Project ZeroChapters:0:00 Three questions to carry through this episode1:00 Welcome back, Jason Blair Part Two1:45 The fort challenge origin story3:00 A 40-minute lesson becomes two weeks4:30 Reflection and the power of a callback point5:10 Action vs. goal: are the children flourishing?5:50 Debrief questions: body language and "What successes found you?"6:45 Loud leadership vs. quiet leadership7:10 Do community building every single day8:00 Asking eight-year-olds "Who did you become?"10:20 The 100 Languages and a piano in algebra class11:20 Empathy interviews that go deeper than favorite colors13:30 When kids share someone else's thinking14:30 Redesigning a classmate's learning space16:20 Why no routine is the best routine17:50 Imagination Island on day one19:30 Lock your door: "Meet me at the front of the school"20:40 Turning teacher hobbies into professional learning22:50 What IDEO teaches us about process24:20 Pollinating best practices as a coach25:15 Your challenge this week and coming next weekDid Jason's fort challenge or cookie PD spark an idea for your building? I partner with schools and districts on instructional coaching, teacher coaching, and leadership support. Together we can plan a professional learning session built on staff passions, design a community-building experience your students will remember in June, or coach your team through debrief questions that put flourishing ahead of the final product. Book a conversation with me here.Coming Next Week:Multi-age co-teachers Kristin Page and Dr. Melissa Cullen from Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary in Tulalip, Washington, join me for a two-part conversation. You'll learn how to cultivate resilience, create routines that honor your community's traditions and cultures, and inspire students to extend and apply their learning beyond the classroom. If culturally responsive teaching and family partnerships matter to you, subscribe now so it lands in your feed.Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and caregivers who are ready to grow alongside their children. Each episode delivers research-backed strategies rooted in the five practices of expert teachers from my upcoming book, Forever Getting Better: Five Essential Practices for Reclaiming Teacher Expertise, so every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. I hope to have the book in your hands by June 2027.#Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #EvidenceBasedClassroomReadyStrategies #OliviaWahlCoachingConsulting When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive.