A ‘heart of teaching’ and ‘honoring learners’ conversation today with (2-time) THINK Global School educator Daniel Garvey — who is now a member of the Mt. Sinai High School (New York) Science Department — for our latest Season 1 episode of the “Wander & Wonder: Exploring the Future of Learning” podcast.
Dan took us on a journey of some key concepts, including:
– why he believes: “Show kids you are willing to step into an uncomfortable realm of learning yourself.”
– how PBL can bring a community ‘into’ a school in an era when it seems that nobody but the student/teacher actually enters the school
– how training young lifeguards in “ocean rescue” (which he does on his off-time) is about ‘building confidence’ to actually make mistakes
– “Build a culture of fostering discussions and shared learning.”
– his advice to new teachers re: genuinely connecting with students: a) be humble (and embrace your own imperfection) and b) ask great questions but be willing to do so without trying to offer solutions
– how it was the project-based learning culture that really motivated him as an educator at THINK Global school, not the travel or ‘next country’
– building a process so that you as a teacher can step back so that the students own what lies ahead
– dealing with the “big transition from content-based to process-based teaching”
– why he believes an ideal PBL project is one that “slows time down”
– 2 barriers to PBL adoption in traditional schools: 1) schools measure the quantitative (from college matriculation to schools impacting local real estate values), and 2) existing learning cultures in a school or the larger community itself
and
– what years of spearfishing have taught him about honoring the ‘learning’ process. Hint: the fish is not actually the goal.
Release Date: We’ll release Dan’s episode in early November.
All 13 episodes will be released over the month of November with short video snippets released daily M-TH and full episodes/transcripts each Friday.
Article by
Seb Olsen
Web Designer & Podcast Producer
Seb Olsen, a forward-thinking tech enthusiast from York, UK, now resides in Amsterdam, Netherlands after graduating from THINK Global School in 2022. During his two-year journey exploring different cultures, he achieved various milestones such as app development, SCUBA diving mastery, marketing campaigns, and AI research.
