MindShift Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Where Did All These Teen Activists Come From? Oct 29, 2019

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Teenagers are demanding to be heard on the issues that matter most to them including climate change, gun control, abortion and immigration. What's different now and what role does public education play?

How Art Can Help Center a Student’s Learning Experience Oct 15, 2019

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Art has often been relegated as an additional activity in schools. But schools that put art at the center of a child's learning experience through arts integration are seeing kids thrive.

How Students Would Improve Their School Lunch Experience Oct 01, 2019

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Adults have designed how kids eat at school for generations, directing students into single-file lines and seating them at long roll-away tables to eat mass-produced food. This is all about efficiency in order to feed hundreds of young people in a matter of minutes. However, baked into the process of feeding kids efficiently are bad food choices, waste, social anxiety and social isolation. Lunch hasn't been working for all students so schools are asking students to design a better lunch experience with the help of design thinking strategies.

Teaching 6-Year-Olds About Privilege and Power Sep 17, 2019

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Privilege and power play out in the world all around us everyday. And kids notice. First grade teacher Bret Turner has decided not to avoid the difficult conversations and questions his students bring to class. Instead, he's weaving issues of privilege and power into everything he does.

Childhood As ‘Resume Building’: Why Play Needs A Comeback Sep 03, 2019

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The kind of free play grown-ups had in previous generations is looked at with nostalgia in today’s era of adult-supervised activities. Children are missing out on the benefits of unstructured play, but a group of dedicated educators are trying to give kids back their play time. For one day in February, class time is dedicated to play time via the Global School Play Day movement. In 2019, more than 530,000 students participated around the world.

How Can Schools Help Kids With Anxiety? Aug 20, 2019

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Anxiety is running rampant in high schools around the country, both rich and poor. The driving factors may be different, but it’s the same lonely, debilitating feeling. It makes it hard for students to learn and to deal with life. Katrina Schwartz takes us inside the experience of anxiety from two teens’ perspectives and shares strategies educators and parents can use to help them cope.

MindShift Podcast is Back With Season Four! Aug 13, 2019

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We asked what issues matter to you most and we listened. The fourth season of the MindShift podcast dives into the question: How can we bring joy back to learning and teaching?

Dropping Out and Coming Back: Stories of Persevering for a Diploma Nov 20, 2018

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Close to 24-percent of Oakland ninth graders drop out before their senior year of high school. Some of those young people ultimately decide that they need to go back to school in order to get ahead in life. We explore what it takes to support over-aged students to a high school diploma -- and college or a career -- when they’re facing homelessness, juggling family responsibilities, or are navigating criminal records. We hear the stories of three young people: why they dropped out and what brought them back.

How Teachers Designed a School Centered On Caring Relationships Nov 06, 2018

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Ask almost any teacher why they teach and they'll give you similar answers: they love the kids. But what does that love look like when it's a community value, shared by every adult in the building, no matter how difficult it feels? At Social Justice Humanitas Academy in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, love is baked into everything from academic probation to math class. And it's making a difference for the mostly Latino, mostly low-income student population. We explore how Social Justice Humanitas has found success where so many others struggle.

The Role of Community in Creating and Healing Trauma in Kids Oct 23, 2018

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When kids live in violence-prone neighborhoods, the environment can enable trauma in their lives. One youth center in Richmond, California, is seeking to change the community’s culture by providing something to young people that’s sometimes missing in their schools and home lives: love and support. The RYSE Center is teaching a generation of young people -- and adults -- what it means to have a path for improvement for themselves and their community.

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