These two Quick Listens are from Episode 20 in Season 2 of the Lessons in Adolescence podcast. Listen to more where ever you get your podcast or online at: https://education.virginia.edu/faculty-research/centers-labs-projects/youth-nex/remaking-middle-school/youth-nex-rms-podcast-page

This episode features a conversation with three authors of “Career Exploration in the Middle Grades: A Playbook for Educators,” which was developed in partnership between the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) and American Student Assistance (ASA). Stephanie Simpson is CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based AMLE, which represents tens of thousands of middle level educators across the country and offers a variety of resources, training and convenings for the field. Ashley Hemmy is manager of program engagement at Boston-based ASA, a 60 year-old national nonprofit and student loan guarantor organization which has expanded its mission to develop and invest in resources and tools to help students as early as middle school to explore their long-term career and educational goals. Julie DiPilato is a seventh grade science teacher in Barnstable, Massachusetts, where she developed an array of career exploration programming in her school. 

Stephanie, Ashley, Julie and Jason talk about the career exploration playbook, how it came about, why career exploration is a perfect match for young adolescents and where it fits within schools. They then paint a picture of what career exploration looks like in the middle grades, how educators can use it to enhance their teaching, the ways AMLE and ASA are promoting the larger scale adoption of this practice, and the opportunities for career exploration in the field of education long-term.

Episode 22 Quick Listen 2

These 3 Quick Listens are from Episode 27 in Season 2 of the Lessons in Adolescence podcast. Listen to more where ever you get your podcast or online at: https://education.virginia.edu/faculty-research/centers-labs-projects/youth-nex/remaking-middle-school/youth-nex-rms-podcast-page

This episode features a conversation with three educators working to remake parts of the middle grades experience in a Chicago public school through a Liberatory Design process. Joyce Pae is principal of The Chicago Academy, or TCA, a preK through eighth grade school in the northwest side of the city. Oscar Newman is a National Board Certified science and math teacher at TCA. Shelby Hildreth is the Director of Program Design on the LiberatED Way team at AUSL, which is facilitating the Liberatory Design work at TCA. The process works to engage educators to reflect on teaching and learning and school environment and policy to advance equity in deep, specific and measurable ways.

Joyce, Oscar, Shelby and Jason talk about The Chicago Academy and the students and community it serves, some of the immediate challenges educators are facing this year as we continue to work through the pandemic, what the Liberatory Design process is, the way it’s being paired with adolescent development to focus on the middle grades, the application of the design process at TCA, the specific equity challenges that were identified and addressed through the process, the ways TCA worked to amplify youth voice and test new strategies that better aligned with adolescent developmental needs, and how educators across different contexts and environments can utilize Liberatory Design to address their own challenges.

Episode 27 Quick Listen 3

Episode 27 Quick Listen 2

Episode 27 Quick Listen 1

These 2 Quick Listens are from Episode 28 in Season 2 of the Lessons in Adolescence podcast. Listen to more where ever you get your podcast or online at: https://education.virginia.edu/faculty-research/centers-labs-projects/youth-nex/remaking-middle-school/youth-nex-rms-podcast-page

This episode features a conversation with Joel Daniel Harris, Founder and “Executive Dreamer” of TomTod, a nearly ten-year-old youth development nonprofit based in Canton, Ohio that offers summer learning opportunities for middle school aged youth, as well as after school and in-school programming. TomTod provides a variety of community-based, immersive experiences for thousands of youth across northeast Ohio that are deeply influenced by adolescent development and rooted in community and relationships, focusing on what young adolescents are capable of here and now, and not just in the future, which can work to change what most people think of the middle school period.

Episode 28 Quick Listen 2

Episode 28 Quick Listen 1

These 2 Quick Listens are from Episode 29 in Season 2 of the Lessons in Adolescence podcast. Listen to more where ever you get your podcast or online at: https://education.virginia.edu/faculty-research/centers-labs-projects/youth-nex/remaking-middle-school/youth-nex-rms-podcast-page

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Ken Ginsburg and Dr. Jillian Baker from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Ken is a physician in the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Founder and Director of Programs at the Center for Parent and Teen Communication (CPTC) at CHOP. Jill is a public health expert and Executive Director of the CPTC. CPTC develops and disseminates a range of tools and resources for parents, family members, caregivers, and adolescents, on a range of issues central to strengthening family relationships. These relationships remain core to healthy adolescent development, despite common perceptions of teens pulling away from their parents and other adults in favor of their peers.

Episode 22 Quick Listen 2

Youth Nex

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