Thisis180

LEADS

Trung Le

Chicago, Illinois

“By the ocean”

Sam Chaltain

Washington, D.C

“A bird, an otter or a whale”

Thanh Bui

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

“I need more time”

Bobbi Macdonald

Cambridge, Massachusetts

"Sadie, Eve, Ramsay, Princess"

Shaun Adamec

Providence, Rhode Island

"Vacationing almost anywhere with my family"

Christian Talbot

Essex Falls, New Jersey

"Relentlessly optimistic"

Joanna Zhang

Brooklyn, New York

"In a log cabin in the Arctic with a team of sled dogs"

Rob English

Los Angeles, California

"Le Corbusier, Nas & Ayn Rand"

Medjy Pierre-Louis

Boulder, Colorado

“Selon sa mwen konprann"

010

Jordan Danelz

Memphis, Tennessee

"Growing up, it was always Spiderman"

011

Stephanie Pace-Marshall

Chicago, Illinois

"Holding up a mirror"

012

Aaron Baggett

Montevideo, Uruguay

"Everything is a movie"

013

Susan Oliver

Waterford, Virginia

"Happy is my default"

014

Jason Meyering

Chicago, Illinois

"When I walk, I walk"

015

Mary Jo Le

Chicago, Illinois

"Is the cake worth the bake?"

016

Matt Wylie

Chicago, Illinois

"Doggedness"

WORDS

Seed & Spark

Seed + Spark takes its readers in search of a better understanding of the future of learning — and, by extension, the future of humanity -- by providing a framework for remaking our schools, our workspaces, and our social structures in ways that align with the design principles of the natural world. The result is an eclectic, provocative series of interviews, ideas, and case studies in which sacred cows are slaughtered, parallel worlds collide, and our basic understanding of the world is forever altered.

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American Schools: The Art of Creating a Democratic Learning Community

In American Schools, Sam Chaltain interweaves the leading ideas from the education, business, and scientific communities to outline a framework for leadership that helps educators and organizational leaders create the optimal conditions for transformational change. By pairing a rich theoretical framework with the stories of communities that have, over several years, tried to create more democratic learning communities, Chaltain does what any reader of this book will have to do - provide enough structure to empower people to do their best work, and enough freedom so that each person's inherent creativity can be unleashed.

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Our School: Searching for Community in the Era of Choice

Our School documents a year in the life of two schools in the nation’s capital―one a new charter school just opening its doors, the other a neighborhood school that first opened in 1924. It weaves together the observations and emotions of the people whose lives intersect there, and the triumphs and the challenges they experience. The result is an unsettling, complex portrayal of American public education, one that is important reading for educational policymakers, administrators, parents, the media, and anyone who aspires to be a teacher.

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The Third Teacher

Created by an international team of architects and designers concerned about our failing education system, The Third Teacher explores the critical link between the school environment and how children learn, and offers 79 practical design ideas, both great and small, to guide reader’s efforts to improve our schools. Written for anyone who has school-age children in their life, from educators and education decision-makers to parents and community activists, this book is intended to ignite a blaze of discussion and initiative about environment as an essential element of learning. Including a wealth of interviews, facts, statistics, and stories from experts in a wide range of fields, this book is a how-to guide to be used to connect with the many organizations, individuals, and ideas dedicated to innovating and improving teaching and learning.

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SAMCHALTAIN.COM

Since 2010, Sam has written hundreds of pieces about the state of public schools, the meaning behind our search for meaning, and the rights and responsibilities of democratic citizenship. Read his columns to be challenged, informed, and inspired.

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FILMS

A Little Piece of Something

In a North Memphis neighborhood known for its struggles, a public Montessori school is changing the way people think about the community and providing a different model for the best way to foster a healthy identity in young children.

A Real Crime

The school to prison pipeline is real -- and it impacts real young people like Gloria. But there is a better way forward.

Ask Why: Memorization

Who remembers cramming for a test -- and then forgetting everything you crammed into your head moments later? For generations, this has been a core feature of school experience and expectation. Should it continue to be?

Ask Why: Classrooms

When we think of school, most of us immediately think of a classroom with desks, a blackboard, and a teacher at the front of the room. Why is that?

Ask Why: Ages

Why do we group kids by age? What would happen if we didn't?

Ask Why: Grades

Grades don't tell the whole story for every student.

Ask Why: Carnegie Units

Why do Carnegie Units still reign supreme in our education system?

Ask Why: 180 Days

School's out for summer. Why is that, exactly?

The Bell Curve is B.S.

Is the bell curve a useful way to understand human performance or a misleading assumption that continually leads us astray? Harvard's Todd Rose has a theory that will change everything about the way you understand human potential.

Diverse by Design

How do you reimagine something that has looked the same for generations? And what does a diverse society require -- and need -- in order to support a shared commitment to the common good? In a four-part series, we witness one community's efforts to answer both questions.

The End of Average

Harvard's Todd Rose explains why the air force developed adjustable cockpits for their fighter pilots -- and why that matters greatly for the future of American public education.

Journey for Justice

Do we have failing schools -- or do we have communities that have been failed? On MLK Jr. Day 2017, a group of concerned citizens from Detroit drove overnight to Washington, D.C. to protest the confirmation of Betsy Devos as U.S. Education Secretary

Nuestra

What saves us? What connects us? And what is it that allows people to feel like they belong to something (and/or someone) larger than themselves?

Synesthesia

Synesthesia is the neurological condition in which some people see colors or hear textures in music. One young woman set out to understand how others with the condition make sense of the world differently, and what it has opened up for them as a result.

A Little Piece of Something

A Real Crime

Ask Why: Memorization

Ask Why: Classrooms

Ask Why: Ages

Ask Why: Grades

Ask Why: Carnegie Units

Ask Why: 180 Days

The Bell Curve is B.S.

Diverse by Design

The End of Average

Journey for Justice