Teacher Megan King masterfully conveys the connections between language, teaching, and learning to paint a picture of the key elements that create meaningful educational experiences. Her recently published book, Designing the Modern World Language Classroom: How to Guide Students to Proficiency, uses one content area as the foundation for the numerous, practical explanations in its pages, but every example shared is applicable to any subject matter. Listen and take away more than a few great ideas to make things better for those you serve, especially if you are a dedicated educator. (A link to the book can be found in the Show Notes.)
5:05 – the meaning of engagement, with an emphasis on relationships
6:30 – engagement, challenge, reflection, and learning
7:35 – initial awareness of the concept of working on the work
8:25 – theory, practical application, and context for a student-centric approach
9:40 – a book is borne out of a passion for teaching
10:55 – sharing content on the internet is easy but taking it to the next level takes effort
12:35 – what it means to be a teacher leader
13:10 – leadership cultivates an environment that models for learners how to maximize learning’s benefits
14:25 – technology increases connections and provides a platform for interaction with many others
15:10 – it’s important to convey to students the value of what they are learning
16:10 – learning world languages can have an impact beyond the classroom
16:45 – literacy’s broad significance
17:55 – colonialism’s intersection with language and identities
18:30 – “Who are we?” and “Where do we come from?” are sometimes answered inside a study of world languages
20:30 – design qualities – the most important ones are those that appeal to the learners and draw them into the work
21:20 – novelty and variety – a great idea, when properly leveraged
24:20 – young people, to be successful, need to understand that their voices matter
25:25 – students need to realize the consequences and impacts of their decisions
26:45 – teachers need to be intentional about creating a classroom where every student is heard and valued
27:50 – ensuring that student talents and interests have a platform in the classroom
30:00 – the organization of the book is intended to provide a spectrum of support from Why? to What can I do tomorrow? And
30:45 – Mr. Bob Pollock, Lakeside High School, DeKalb County Schools, Georgia – storytelling as a teaching tool
32:30 – the importance of the backstory and highlighting connections that are sometimes missing in some educational materials
33:20 – the call to action – make sure that student voice and student empowerment are part of each student’s school experience
35:00 – read the book, use the book, one bite at a time, and it will make a difference in your teaching
Designing the Modern World Language Classroom: How to Guide Students to Proficiency
David Reynolds (00:11):
What matters most in learning the challenge, the thrill, the benefits, interacting with other people or something else entirely. What is the connection between leading and learning? Does change drive learning or does learning drive change? What's more important teaching or learning? Is everyone a leader, a learner, a teacher want answers, listen in, as we address these intriguing issues through commentary and with guests who share their thinking and tell us their stories, Lead. Learn. Change.
Megan King (00:54):
How can I still make sure that their voice is heard in its unique way? You know, if they're an artist, am I showing off their work? Every chance I get, if they are musically inclined, have I done an activity where they can really excel and show off their skills and, and receive that affirmation from their peers that they need. So in terms of protecting students and making the learning environment safe for them, a lot of that comes back to how well do I know what's important to these students and how well do I know what's gonna be meaningful for them. The right way doesn't exist every single day for every single kid in the same way, maybe learn more with depth about their identity or their historical experience. And world language to me is especially fascinating because it creates that opportunity. Why do people in different places do what they do, the way that they do it? How is my lifestyle similar to theirs? And why, how does their literal geographic context influence their day to day experience? And what does that mean for my own? Make it have an impact that is lasting and bigger than just the classroom.
David Reynolds (02:09):
Today's guest on Lead. Learn. Change. is Megan King. Megan, thanks for taking time to speak with me today.
Megan King (02:16):
Good morning, David. I'm so glad to be here and to speak with you again.
David Reynolds (02:19):
What's the weather like there in Houston County, Georgia.
Megan King (02:23):
Ooh, it is muggy today. We're right in that crux of summer humidity and rain. And so it's hot and humid.
David Reynolds (02:30):
Well, that sort of feeds into the summer peach season, I think in Georgia. So I hope you've had a chance to enjoy some of that delicious middle Georgia produce.
Megan King (02:39):
Yes. I don't know if you know, but Georgia is actually one of the largest US exporters of blueberries. So we, we have both peaches and blueberries and abundance here.
David Reynolds (02:47):
I was unaware of the export blueberry piece. I know they're around in all the stores for our non Georgia listeners. Houston is spelled the same as Houston in Texas, but that's not how we pronounce it here. So we wanna hear about your work and your book. So let's get started. I knew who Megan King was about 45 minutes before she knew who I was about 10 years ago. I attended a PAGE conference for young people who were considering a career in education. There was a breakout session I was interested in attending, and Megan happened to be the facilitator today, while I cannot point to a specific statement, Megan made that day, or describe in detail a photo or story she shared. I do clearly recall being struck by her enthusiasm, her grasp of truly significant teaching and learning concepts and her focused intention to communicate what she knew and what she was learning to everybody.
David Reynolds (03:39):
I made a point to speak with her before I left the room and we've exchanged some ideas a few times since now in her second decade, teaching student Spanish, Megan has published a book, designing the modern world language classroom, how to guide students to proficiency in it. Megan does far more than catalog many solid ideas for interacting with students in a way that leads to a thirst for knowledge, she provides real examples and ties everything together in a way that makes great sense. They can currently serve high school students in middle Georgia, about 110 miles south of Atlanta. And at the approximate halfway point between Savannah, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama, Megan students represent a wide range of academic, economic, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds. And the lessons she has learned and captured in her book will apply to teachers everywhere. Megan, you've managed to embed a lot of content and philosophical underpinnings into 130 pages that makes your book and easy read. And it makes it a book that people will likely keep going back to. One overarching concept throughout the book is engagement, which some people will say is now an overused term. It's worn out, et cetera, but I'm guessing you're gonna have a different view. And your perspective is born out of the experience and results so that we're all starting on the same page. You and me and the listeners tell us what you mean by engagement and share why this is so important to you personally and to students.
Megan King (05:07):
Sure. Um, for me, engagement has always been a, a lot about relationships. When students show up to work in my classroom, they have a lot of reasons for coming into it that day. And I, I don't just mean, you know, showing up to my classroom or showing up to do Spanish. I mean, the way that they engage in the actual content that we're learning and their reasons for doing so that's where engagement comes in. And when we think about engagement as a spectrum from the student, who's all in all enthusiastic and the student who is coming in, putting their head down, not having a good day, the closer we can get in that relationship with students to understanding what brings them here today and what brings them in the form that they show up today, the, the closer we can get to how do I connect with them so that this work has meaning to them and how do I connect the content to them so that they will wanna show up for it.
David Reynolds (06:05):
I once heard Phil Schlechty say, and I'm sure you'll mention Phil Schlechty’s name at some point, uh, heard him say that he was definitely engaged when he wrote his books, but that they were parts of the process that he absolutely did not enjoy. So you can probably relate to that, finishing a book. So tell us how engagement is not necessarily synonymous with fun, yet engagement is still fulfilling.
Megan King (06:32):
I think all of us have some, some of the most fulfilling moments in our lives are not necessarily the easiest. Some of the things I have most enjoyed in my own academic experience have been things that really pushed me and challenged me that had caused me to reflect and reconsider the ideas that I have. And so ideally engagement in my classroom or any classroom is gonna push the students sometimes out of their comfort zone so that they can reach that next level where they, they can embrace concepts in a new way or embrace concepts that they hadn't considered.
David Reynolds (07:06):
Go ahead and mention Phil Schlechty and the Schlechty Center. I'll mention Steve McCannon who wrote the forward for your book a little bit later. Is there anything you'd like to share about how you really got started or focused on this whole concept of ensuring that your students are having access to content and opportunities that really appeal to their, their needs and interests and how that all connects to your work with the people at the Schlechty Center?
Megan King (07:38):
Absolutely. David and I'm, I'm glad you asked that question. So when I started working with the Schlechty Center, I was a new teacher and I was doing the Teacher Academy with the professional association. And the first round of that was hosted by an assortment of presenters that PAGE had gathered. And then it went through sort of a rebirth. And instead of just being a new teacher academy, it became teacher academy and Schlechty Center got involved with their philosophy of design and their philosophy about engagement and working on the work. And that was a big aha moment for me because a lot of my professional preparation, whether it was, you know, courses that I had been required to take or professional development, like what I had done with PAGE, it had focused either on the theory behind learning and how students learn or a strategy or practice that was supposed to be effective or a tool that somebody was promoting to accomplish learning.
Megan King (08:35):
And I always felt like there was a lot of people trying to give me messages about the right way to do what I was doing. And as a new teacher, that's a struggle because it takes a little while to realize that the right way doesn't exist every single day for every single kid in the same way. So reconceiving, what I knew about how I designed my lessons and the work that that I'm asking students to do, it really helped me draw on the best of all of those pieces. And give me a context for how to think about approaching learning with my students at the center and not with somebody's theory or somebody's recommended practice or somebody's tool of the day. It gave me permission to pull the best of all those pieces to be the best for my students.
David Reynolds (09:26):
You've embedded this way of thinking into virtually everything that you do. So I'm curious, Megan, why a book? You blog, you have a website you've likely led some professional learning experiences here and there. Why a book and why now.
Megan King (09:43):
It's actually been a long time coming. So when I, when I first had that aha moment with the ideas that were coming from the Schlechty Center, and really started looking at how do I apply this to my classroom? What does this look like in world language? Who else is doing this, that I can model my practice after and, and sort of get some mentorship in that department. And I didn't find a lot of people, you know, there's a lot of world language people on social media, you know, there's a great professional community on Twitter. All sorts of people are doing Instagrams and Facebook pages and publishing little mini seminars and things like that. But there wasn't anybody talking about working on the work. And so I thought, well, that's, that's a gap. And I was so excited about what I was doing and so committed to it that the writing part was really very easy.
Megan King (10:33):
Cause my ideas were, were exciting and fresh and I was passionate about it. So writing was for me was actually very enjoyable. I really enjoyed articulating this new understanding that I had. And then I kind of got bogged down in the publishing process, the, the tediousness of figuring out how do I take this, this concept? I have these words and ideas that I have and get them into my hands in somebody else's hands because sharing content on the internet is easy, but transforming that content into something tangible and something marketable is, is a different matter. You know, there's a lot of details about how big of the paper, what are the margins have I done that consistently on every single page? And am I gonna try to do that all by myself? Or am I gonna seek out a publisher for help? So that for me was the hardest part of getting it into my hands. And I'm so excited now that, that it is in my hands.
David Reynolds (11:27):
You mentioned working on the work a couple of times now, just in passing. And so for our listeners, I'll just toss in here that that phrase comes from Phil Schlechty and the way he explains it as a teacher, your key role is to design work for the benefit of the learner. And by default, that means that we're not working on the students. He would always say, the parents are sending the best students. They have to the school. We're not working on teachers. There's nothing wrong with teachers. They're dedicated great professionals, but we're working on the work that we design for students. So when we talk about working on the work, we mean providing learning experiences for students that benefits them and, and moves them forward. And Steve McCannon who wrote the forward for your book does mention your belief in a teacher as a designer, but he also toggled over and talked about your emphasis on the role of teacher as a leader. What does that mean to you to be a teacher leader in the classroom?
Megan King (12:38):
We are always leading by example in the same way that a parent or your boss might be leading by example. So the way that the teacher goes about interacting with students is gonna set the tone for the way students interact with one another. And with the teacher themselves, you know, if the teacher is excited about learning, that's contagious, the students are gonna feel that excitement too. If the teacher is respectful and intentional about building relationships and honoring the needs and motivations of their students, then their students are gonna return that back to the teachers. So when we talk about leadership in the educational sense is how am I cultivating an environment where I am modeling for my young people, how to be the kind of people that are gonna be their best selves and are gonna be in a position to get the most benefit out of what the classroom has to offer. And in the future, you know, those skills should be skills that are equally as valuable outside of the classroom.
David Reynolds (13:41):
That makes sense. I think that you address the applicability of the concepts that you emphasize in the book in a really masterful way, by the way, you've formatted and structured and organized the book. And in the early pages of the book, you wrote that some of your colleagues focused “on their classroom instruction rather than their students' participation in learning as global citizen”. When I read that, I immediately thought that this does not nearly apply to world language students, even though it might take on a different flavor for those that are seeking to become functionally fluent in two or more languages, but that this idea really applies to all students today. What, what are your thoughts on that?
Megan King (14:26):
As technology advances, of course, we're increasingly interconnected and that's been something that's been really delightful for me to see with my students and with my own children is the access they have to technology, which honestly, a lot of people are afraid of it, but it also helps them express themselves and engage with a lot of different people that they wouldn't otherwise bump into in their day to day practice. So when we talk about global citizens, our young people understand that their reach is far beyond their neighborhood or their classroom or their town or their state, or even their country, because they're interacting with other people in other places, in the spaces in which they relate to them. And I think a lot of teachers miss an opportunity to reinforce that through their content, to show students that, Hey, look, other people are studying this and doing this and practicing this.
Megan King (15:21):
And it's important because it matters in the world. Not just because somebody's standard said, we have to teach that and test all over it. So especially with language, you have the opportunity for doors, for communication to be opened in ways that aren't just, you know, by verbal and by text, but why do people in different places do what they do the way that they do it? How is my lifestyle similar to theirs and why, how does their literal geographic context influence their day to day experience? And what does that mean for my own? So understanding self and others and relating to self and others through the content of language is I think integral to the world language experience. And I think is something that can be extended broadly to any content area to make it have an impact that is lasting and bigger than just the classroom.
David Reynolds (16:17):
Speaking of languages in your, about the author segment in the book, the fact that you love Latin American literature is highlighted. And to me, that means that you're very aware of the difference between being bilingual and being biliterate. If you're digging into literature in another language, how important is this distinction? And to what extent does that difference make its way into your classroom?
Megan King (16:44):
David, I think literacy in any language is about a lot more than the words and how you structure them together. Literacy is gonna be, do you understand the nuance that the author is trying to communicate? Do you get the shades of meaning of a word that's chosen in a certain poem or the rhyme scheme in a song? So when we think about biliteracy, instead of just bilingualism, it's those depths of meaning and depths of communication, that really enrich the experience of language in the first place. That's how we get those exciting moments that we have when we're reading a new novel, or listening to a new song or engaging with a poem or a poet. And I think that's an equally important part of world language at the beginning of world language studies, we start with the basics, right? We've gotta get a solid grasp on hi, my name is, and this is who I am, but by the time we're getting into advanced world language, study those opportunities to engage with more depth, with the lovely parts of language and not just the functional parts of language are important and meaningful.
Megan King (17:48):
And for me, they were always one of the goals. You mentioned that I had a focus on Latin American literature with Spanish in particular, and with many of the languages taught in the us, whether we're talking about French and Spanish, meaning the main ones, but others as well, the history of colonialism and its impact on communities and languages and practices and identities. I think that there's a lot of commonalities that have yet to be explored between our experience in the United States and the experiences of others across the Americas. And it's not just limited to the Americas, of course, because there's colonies or former colonies all over the world, but the implications of colonization on language and expression and identity to me have always been fascinating and have asked some of the bigger questions about who are we and where do we come from? And I think a lot of students, at least I have always appreciated finding those answers in places where content maybe expected to be more, more mundane, right? Who shows up to a Spanish class and expects to maybe learn more with depth about their identity or their historical experience and world language to me is especially fascinating because it creates that opportunity.
David Reynolds (19:14):
Your entire book is arranged around the idea of design qualities. At least that's one of the structures that I took away from it. As I read it once or twice, is there a design quality or two or three design qualities that you think are the most important? We don't have time to talk about all 10 of those, but which ones do you think resonate the most often, the most strongly with the most students and you find yourself embedding them into your work. And as a preface, I would say to the listeners that when we talk about design qualities we’re addressing characteristics of the work that would appeal to the, the motivations or the interests or needs that, that students bring to the table, so that maybe I don't like to work with other people and Megan does or vice versa, or I like to have a lot of clarity about exactly what I'm supposed to do. And someone else might like things to be a little bit more loose. And let me have a little bit more choice and kinda run with some things in my own direction. So what would you share about your perspective on the most important design qualities? And if that's an impossible ask, because you say, I can't pick one of those, then that's fine too.
Megan King (20:29):
So the idea of the design qualities, according to the Schlechty Center is that there are 10 qualities of work that influence someone's willingness or excitement in showing up to do that work. And I think that concept extends far outside of the classroom. You know, the reasons that I show up to my workplace where I get paid, or the reasons that I would show up to a volunteer opportunity are the same reasons in my head as they are in the classroom. The other side of that in terms of where would I emphasize a design quality? I would say the most important design quality is the one that gets your children to show up. So on the surface of it, regardless of where I personally fall, what quality is most engaging to me as a teacher at the end of the day, if that's not engaging to my students, then it's time to step outside of that and do what my students need.
Megan King (21:18):
I'll use an example of novelty first to clarify that idea. So one of the design qualities is novelty and variety, and it's the idea that something would be new and exciting and, and something you've never seen before or done before. And that's the big thing for me. I get excited about trying new things, going new places, learning about new ideas, especially earlier in my career, I was very excited about doing all the things. And I worked really hard to come up with, you know, new games to play and when a new video game or a movie or a song would come out, I would incorporate those things into what we did. And at one point a group of my students looked at me and said, can we just have a worksheet? Like, can we do a study guide? Um, and I was, I was, it took me a moment because I thought, you know, Hey, I've worked so hard to do this exciting thing. And what they really needed in that moment was more structure, more organization, clear guidelines. And so that's not to say that novelty and variety isn't important, but that in that moment, what my students needed to show up was something different. And that's okay.
David Reynolds (22:27):
I really like the seed of your answer, which is the most important design quality or characteristic that I embed in the work or experiences I design for students is whatever is needed for them individually or collectively at the moment, not a particular one, because it would be very hard, hard to land on one that that's really solid advice. And you shared a specific example. And that's one thing that I found intriguing and helpful in your book is that is full of examples. Very specific examples. Many times people say, this sounds good. Going back to your original comments about theory, but what does this actually look like in the classroom? And anybody can pick up your book and flip to almost any page and find a real legitimate example that can be transferred to their situation with a little bit of tweaking. So another thing then that I want to hear you talk about because of the way you answer that question is student voice. What does that look like in the classroom? Because you did provide some specific examples in the book, and we certainly want listeners to pick up a copy and dig into it themselves, but if they didn't do that, or you wanted to reinforce how important it is for student input, student interest, student need student voice, what would you say about that?
Megan King (23:54):
That's a great question. And one that, that I feel really powerfully about when you originally asked about design qualities and some of the most important ones, the, the second one I had in mind was risk or protection from adverse consequences. And so I'm gonna circle back around to that, but in thinking about student voice, I think in education, a lot of times we get bogged down in the lesson that we have to teach or the standard that we have to demonstrate mastery of. And we forget that these young people to be successful need to feel that their voices matter need to understand that their voices are important, need to know how to make their voices heard. And no matter what I do today, if I don't have that and, and create space for that and ways for my students to learn that their voice is one of the most important things that they have and that their voice is intensely valuable.
Megan King (24:51):
And so many of our students get messages that their voices don't matter for lots of different reasons, whether that's systemic issues like the income of their family or individual things like what they look like, or how much they weigh. They spend a lot of time. And they're kind of in a critical time of development when they're in our classrooms in terms of receiving those messages and learning to value themselves and to make themselves heard and to have an influence because ultimately I think that them knowing that they're influence in the world around them matters is gonna be something that will impact the whole course of their life, that they know that their actions can impact their communities for better or for worse. And not just that they exist in a space. As I feel a lot of students kind of do at school. They, they move through those spaces and they go through those actions, but they may not see the power of their actions or the power of what they express, which is where we get back to talking about protection from adverse consequences.
Megan King (25:58):
And so the official title is protection from adverse consequences for initial failures, because what we ultimately want and in language, this happens a lot. A lot of students don't start world language courses until they're in high school. And by then, you know, they're writing five paragraph or five page essays. And so to be in a classroom space that asks them to put together words, they don't know to make a sentence is kind of a shocking and embarrassing experience. And they have a lot of risk trying to figure out, you know, and get comfortable with attempting to speak, which they haven't done since they were one or two years old. And so learning new language, learning to express yourself comes with a lot of risk. And on top of that, the fact that you're doing that in front of peers who are judging you for things like the shoes you have on, or the size of your t-shirt adds to those layers of risk.
Megan King (26:49):
So teachers have to be intentional about creating a classroom environment that minimizes all those forms of risk, which in a lot of ways boils down to how do we create a classroom where students have equity in terms of how their work is received, the opportunities they have to do work, how students receive one another's voices, you know, can everybody be heard is everybody's voice sought out. So it's part of that. Like we started with a lot of that has to do with how the teacher models those things, for example, I'm intentional, as we're doing participation things, you know, there's some kids that always wanna participate and there's some kids that always are quiet. Am I still calling on those students? Am I still finding a way to show maybe if, if speaking itself is not a something that that student desires to do, how can I still make sure that their voice is heard in its unique way?
Megan King (27:50):
You know, if they're an artist, am I showing off their work? Every chance I get, if they are musically inclined, have I done an activity where they can really excel and show off their skills and, and receive that affirmation from their peers that they need. So in terms of protecting students and making the learning environment safe for them, a lot of that comes back to how well do I know what's important to these students and how well do I know what's gonna be meaningful for them, safe for them, affirming for them. And that will ultimately land us with engagement.
David Reynolds (28:24):
That makes me remember a page in your book, where I saw more than a handful of some really creative ideas for pairing up students around meaningful work. And that provides them with a less risky place for them to work. It provides them with an opportunity to interact with somebody they might not have known before, which is another thing that you're emphasizing inside world languages. And it really does get at their individual preferences and needs. So you do things in your classroom and you list them as examples in the book that are just different enough from the traditional ways of doing something that might seem superficially similar instead of counting off by fours and all the ones, twos or threes working together, and that strategy or process may have its place for certain activities. You have some really good ideas about how to pair students together and have them work together around meaningful work.
David Reynolds (29:18):
So I think that what you've just said reinforces the examples that you provide in your book, and we've not even touched on strategies and frameworks that are specifically connected to learning a language, but listeners need to know that you have included more than ample information in your book around those concepts. And then you also address the other practical components of a teacher's world that we've not mentioned such as, uh, learning models or assessment or some curriculum issues. All this is is in the book. So people just need to buy a copy and dive in. Let me ask you about your favorite teacher or two, if you don't wanna land on just one
Megan King (30:00):
Sure. Before we talk about favorite teacher, I'm mention, um, recall something that you just said in terms of the organization of the book in doing my own professional learning things I participated in or things that I've led, you wanna know why that thing's important, but you also wanna know what can I walk away and do tomorrow. And then sometimes you need to simmer on those ideas for a little while and kind of come back to them and reflect on them. So I was very intentional with the book about covering all three of those, why are we doing this? The, what can I get started with right now if I wanna make this happen and what can I simmer on? How can I kind of really dig into this idea and extend it and personalize it to my own experience in terms of a favorite teacher, I'm gonna have to give a shout out to Mr.
Megan King (30:46):
Bob Pollock from Lakeside High School into Dekalb County Georgia. I was lucky enough to have him two different years. And what, what was most exciting for me about Mr. Pollock was his enthusiasm. He was a history teacher and he was just a storyteller and he would get so excited and so animated. And I'm sure there were kids in the back of the room, just like
David Reynolds (31:35):
I'm curious, were you interested in the subject matter before his class at all or not? And then he generated an interest or did it just accelerate when you're in his class? And I asked that because I had a similar experience in high school with one of my favorite teachers. And I was not the least bit interested in that particular content in his classes, but by the end of just a few weeks, I could not wait to go in there and hear what he had to say, and even the types of assignments that he prescribed for us. And we did have some choice embedded in those allowed us to really dig in even further and understand some things in a way that I couldn't have cared less about just a few weeks earlier. So I'm curious if you cared about the subject matter before Mr. Pollock's class?
Megan King (32:24):
I think I was always interested in, in history and language and context and literature. Like I I'm very much a humanities person, but I think what most got my attention in his class was the backstory to those things, not just where they are, but the things that brought them together that coalesce that moment. And I think that has definitely permeated what I do in world language, because a lot of times textbooks will have a cultural tidbit or a factoid. And, and I really want my students to go deeper than that and say, why is that the case to question what circumstances generated that moment or that fact to understand the bigger context. And I think that was what Mr. Pollock really helped me develop and pursue in my own work.
David Reynolds (33:13):
Megan, what's your call to action for the readers of your book. Somebody picks this up, reads it. What is it that you want to happen as a result of that?
Megan King (33:24):
Ooh, that's a big one. So because my book targets world language classrooms in a big way, it closes my audience to world language teachers. But the things that drive me in my beliefs about education are so much bigger than the language you might be teaching in the classroom, the importance of student voice and student empowerment, the importance of connecting with students and learning of helping them embrace learning as a passion, as something that's meaningful and productive and affirming for them is something that I think we overlook a lot of times in educational context, but I think it's fundamental to the work that we do. So my call to action would be to dig into that because no matter what content area you're in, that's gonna pay such dividends in terms of the young people that you influence and the power and learning that they can walk away from with you
David Reynolds (34:26):
Along those same lines I tend to think about the next step or the one thing or the one next step, because everybody can do something. So is there one thing, one action that you think any educator could consider or should consider in order to improve things in the classroom create better learning experiences for their students, assist their colleagues, that sort of thing. Is there one thing that you would say, Hey, really consider doing this
Megan King (35:05):
On a practical level I would say to educators, look, I understand that you're being pulled in in 80 directions in terms of your own life and family and what you provide to students. And so a lot of us don't have the time or the energy to embrace a challenge or, or something new. So in terms of my book itself, I was very intentional with the design qualities about keeping them sort of bite sized. You know, reading about a design quality would be several pages. And then it's followed up with a reflection at the end that kind of helps you chew on that and think about how is that gonna look for me? Why is it important to me? How do my own experiences connect with that? So in terms of what can I go out and do tomorrow, if you're overwhelmed by the idea of picking up a book and starting something new, I would say, I feel like my book is designed to be something I can have a bite today and, and improve what I'm doing tomorrow. And then in a couple days when I'm ready or I have time, I can take another bite and, and make a little bit more progress. The other thing I would say is check out what the Schlechty Center is doing because Phil, like these ideas on working on the work is pretty powerful stuff. And, uh, I think it would be a great starting place for any educator to sort of reevaluate how they do what they do and why they do what they do.
David Reynolds (36:27):
Yeah. It just provides a different way of thinking about your work with some focused intentionality. And I think another thing that everybody can do in any profession and any setting is we all have time to think, and you've mentioned reflection or dig a little deeper, those sorts of things with the concepts that you want people to think about a little bit more deeply. And we can always pick an issue, a topic a day, a lesson, a unit, a student, a colleague, an up coming project and think about it. And then the next step is take one action on that particular issue and make something happen, make something better for you or someone else as a result, great teachers serve not only their students, but they influence their colleagues and the profession at large. So thank you for your contributions and thank you for your time today.
Megan King (37:24):
Thank you so much, David. It's always a pleasure to speak with you.
David Reynolds (37:27):
Have a great day. Thanks for listening today. Find the lead, learn change podcast on your search engine, iTunes or other listening app. Leave a rating, write a review, subscribe and share with others. In the meantime, go lead, go learn, go make a change. Go.