IDEA: School Startup

Today Christian has the special honor of speaking with Steve and Sunny Cairns, two founding members and teachers of SOTA and considered the Ma and Pa of SOTA. They share stories from the very first days of SOTA, the speed bumps and emotions involved in building up a new school, and what the guiding principles were at the start and how they are still around today.  Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

Today Christian talks with Elements Board President and long time community member Michael McGavock. Micheal helps shape what education looks like at elementary schools as well as getting involved first hand by being an internship host and helping students find unique opportunities.  Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

In this special episode Christian and Zach take a back seat so we can hear stories from four SOTA alumni who are now teachers at either SOTA, SAMI, or IDEA. They share their stories about the impacts being a SOTA student had on them, about their journey back into the Elements community, and why they believe the mentor framework at Partners schools is important.

This week Christian has SOTA Theater Director and Mentor Kay Onorati on to talk about self discovery. Kay shares about how she's seen art and mentorship help students to discover and grow themselves while also building community.  Curious about references made during the episode? Learn more: Uri Treisman and the Treisman model: https://merit.illinois.edu/for-educators/the-treismans-model/ Blackfeet's version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-06-18/the-blackfoot-wisdom-that-inspired-maslows-hierarchy/ Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week Christian invites SOTA social worker and long time friend Steve Primas to talk about emotions in the classroom and the community. Steve talks about social emotional learning, how to engage families and the community, and why students have to be well to do well.  Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

Christian invites IDEA CoDirector and NextMove program coordinator Brittany Skobel on to talk about how mentorship and relationships can extend into the community outside of school and how students in NextMove grow from interning with businesses in their community. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week Zach shares about a new graduation pathway being proposed for Washington States graduation requirements, its goals to meets students needs for the future, and how it plays in with Element's mentorship program. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

Today Christian sits across from Melissa Moffett, current NextMove Coordinator at IDEA, previous SOTA teacher and mentor, service and study tour leader, and so much more! Melissa talks about the importance of understanding students and their interests, building their strengths in those interests, and how service tours and internships can tie interests to the real world. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

Today Christian speaks with SOTA's special education para educator Zach Hightower. Zach talks about diversity and equity, about what inclusion in the classroom looks like, and the benefits it offers to everyone involved. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

Today Christian digs deep with long time mentor and SAMI Co Director, Liz Minks. Liz has been involved with the Elements schools since the early days of SOTA. She shares about some of the backstory of the current mentorship students of SOTA SAMI and IDEA experience today and balancing relationships and performance. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

Welcome to Season 2 of the Essential Element Podcast! For this first episode Christian and Zach sit down with Van DeGoede, previously the art and design teacher at IDEA and now at SOTA. Van shares about art's place in education as a whole, his journey into to art and then into education, and even a bit about the future of art with coming technologies. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

We're starting season 2 of the Essential Element how we start our school year at SOTA, SAMI, and IDEA; at camp! Christian and Zach take a moment to welcome you the new season and share some of their memories from the early days at this very same campground. Listen now to find out what makes starting the year with camp so special and catch a glimpse of the activities on our camp recap reel on Instagram.

This week Christian chats with Zach to recap some favorite moments during the first season of the Essential Element, touch on taking a break, and discuss some of the hopes for the future of the podcast and how it can showcase more about mentorship strategies happening at the Elements schools.  Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week Christian invites a handful of students from the NextMove Internship Program to share their experiences with learning to work outside of the school environment. Students share what it was like forming relationships with supervisors and colleagues, how they met worksite expectations, what they were able to bring to the table for their worksites, and how the experience has help shaped their future goals. This episodes is a compilation of three student sessions to get a wide range of voices. Learn more about the NextMove Program here: www.tacomaschools.org/departments/cte/internships/next-move Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week on The Essential Element, Christian sits down with SOTA teacher, career counselor, and mentor Jordan Villalpando to talk about what students post high futures can look like, the importance of seeing each student as an individual, and making sure students find out what they truly enjoy doing so their can make plans with purpose. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week on The Essential Element, Christian invites IDEA teacher, mentor, and pilot Jen Flonacher to talk about her hope for creating impactful experiences in schools. Jen is passionate about instilling confidence in her students and finding ways to improve the representation in STEM. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week on The Essential Element, Christian sits down with SOTA alumni, teacher, and mentor Jessie Fouts to share her experience of going full circle from mentee to mentor. Jessie talks about putting teachers at the center of decision making in schools, prioritizing their mental health, and about how a truly pivotal experience she had has a mentee has shaped where she is now. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

First, we want to thank everyone who made it out to our first Live Community Night at Alma Mater last week! The Partner School teachers and the Elements of Education team really felt the warmth of this community. Thank you! This week, for those who couldn't make it out, or anyone who just wants a recap of the night, that's what we have for you. In this special live event, Christian invites on stage SAMI Next Move Coach Alexa Folsom-Hill, SOTA choral teacher Emily Wickman, and IDEA engineering teacher Johnny Devine. They discuss why mentorship is important in school, share first hand stories of how mentees have shaped how they mentor, and how the future of communities rely on shaping positive relationships with young people. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week on The Essential Element, Christian sits down with SAMI teacher and mentor Stephanie Skaggs to talk about mentorship and what it means for the future of our community. Stephanie shares how she invests in our young people while in the classroom, about why mentorship is important, and what that looks like while also playing the the role of a teacher. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

FREE LIVE EVENT NEXT WEEK! If you enjoy the show, are interested in learning more about the Mentor Framework, or just want to meet some awesome Tacoma Public Schools community members, join us for our free live event on May 24th at Alma Mater. Tickets and more information here: https://bit.ly/PartnerSchoolTickets This week on the Essential Element, Christian sits down with IDEA Co-Director Kinoa Higgins to talk about the Mentorship Framework and how it is being embraced in the sister schools, Kai's own experience with learning to become a mentor when he first started at SOTA, and how your values should be showcased in your space and reach beyond the classroom and instruction. This week we shake up the format a bit with the invite of Zach Varnell, current Elements of Education Co-Director, previous teacher at SOTA, and an important player behind the scenes of the Essential Element. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week on the Essential Element, Christian sits down with community mentor Melanie Grassi to talk about growth and evolving through deeply difficult times. Melanie shares her experience on finding ways to continue to mentor, learn, and support the people in her community all while dealing with her own journey of becoming a widow. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week on the essential elements, Christian speaks with Carrie Hampton, the first face you see when walking through the doors at SAMI. Carrie shares with us about how she makes space to get to know every student that walks through the door by the end of the year, what it means to hold students, the ways she helps push them forward, but also how to show them grace when they may be struggling. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week on the Essential Element, Christian speaks with SAMI science teacher and mentor Matt Lonsdale about how so much of his teaching is actually human connection, about his hopes and dreams for his students futures, and about education through inquiry instead of focusing on just knowing the answers.  Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week Christian sits down with IDEA Humanities Teacher and mentor Kate Merwin to talk about intergenerational relationships, about her past work with incarcerated student has informed her current work in the classroom and as mentor, and about what it mean for empathy to be slow burn.  Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week Christian sits down with SAMI social worker and mentor Jodi Dumont to talk about creating a space for students to fail in ways that are constructive and that create a sense of worthiness along the way. Jodi speaks about going beyond meeting the basic needs of students to give them a sense of value and belonging that they can use even after they graduate.  Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

This week on the Essential Element, Christian sits down with IDEA teacher Peter Rutter to talk about creating an environment that brings empathy into the world of mathematics and electrical circuits. Peter talks about the importance of helping students create a network of connections to support themselves and each other, not just during their time at IDEA, but beyond it as well. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information.

On the fourth episode of the Essential Element podcast with Christian Paige, Christian talks with speaker, educator, and consultant Dr. John Gaines. Their conversation focuses on relationships and mentorship centered around his three pillars of people, place, and purpose. People find their purpose through a specific place. This translates to the partner schools at SOTA, SAMI, and IDEA, each of which provide a unique place for students that need a place to be seen, where their purpose connects to their passions.    Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information

 On the third episode of the Essential Element podcast, Christian talks with SAMI teacher Duncan White about the importance of relationships and student voice in projects and assessments. Duncan talks about searching for student's curiosity and passion and building on that to inspire engagement. Each student is unique with a complex set of interests and ideas, combined with a natural curiosity for the world. Learning how to unpack that curiosity and turn it into a spark of wonder is what Duncan excels at both as a mentor and a classroom teacher. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information

This week's episode of the Essential Element features SOTA teacher and mentor Tristan Towne. Tristan shares about her journey into education through theater, scriptwriting, poetry, improv, and storytelling. From teaching English to Seniors British literature at a traditional high school to teaching writing at SOTA, Tristan is a student of life that is passionate about people and brings that passion into her mentor group in caring for her students. Tristan talks about bringing her authentic self into the classroom as a mentor and how vulnerability and authenticity inspires a trusting culture. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information

On this innagural episode of the Essential Element podcast feautring Christian Paige, Robin Jaecklein shares her experience with being a teacher and mentor at the Tacoma School of the Arts and the Grant Center for the Expressive Arts before that. Christian dives into her passion for dance as an artistic medium and how she uses that passion as an individual to fuel her interest in helping young people find their own passions. Educators bring so much of themselves into the classroom both as people and as teachers, and Robin reminds us that it's a never ending journey of refining that craft and learning how to push yourself to try new and different ways of engaging with students. Featuring original music from SOTA Graduates Abbey Meysenburg and Ellia Coggins. Visit elementsofed.org for more information

Teaching high school is one of the more complex and misunderstood tasks by those outside of education. The complexities of managing a classroom full of 25 teenagers to say nothing of the difficulty of planning a curriculum and providing targeted feedback for a full teaching load of 150 students over the course of a semester can be daunting. This is something that’s very difficult to explain to someone who has never stepped into the role of working in public education. It’s also one of the many reasons so many people don’t find themselves taking the professional route of public education. When we first started IDEA we had a unique chance to lure Ben Warner into joining our team in starting IDEA. Ben has a unique and accomplished professional life before teaching. After graduating with a Masters from the University of Washington in Urban Studies, Ben founded a non-profit dedicated to promoting skateboarding and skate culture in the Northwest

Lauren Anderson grew up in Arkansas and moved to the Northwest once she became a teacher. Her expertise is designing curriculum in science around the individual passions and interests of her students. Lauren is a veteran in science education, teaching at Renton High School and SAMI before joining IDEA's team in 2017. Lauren blends her passion in science with a background in ESL and language, creating a learning experience that is accessible to every student. Recorded in 2018, this interview has she and Jaleesa share their experiences working with students in STEM that have traditionally not been included or engaged.

Jason Bommer is an engineer with a company called Ansys. They develop software that allows engineers to take any 3 Dimensional design done in CAD and simulate how it would respond to different environments based on the laws of Physics. Jason joined IDEA in the first year of the school and has spent the last 3 working with instructors to create project based lessons that teach Physics and Math.

Nicholas Bradford defines 'restorative justice' as a relational approach to dealing with conflict. In this episode we talk about how conflict can be used as a tool in public schools and how teachers can use specific practices within their classrooms to harness conflict and empower students to think deeply about their own power, social status and relationships. Nicholas is the founder of the National Center for Restorative Justice and leads school groups across the country in trainings and coaching. https://www.nationalcenterforrestorativejustice.com

There really cannot be enough said about the role that experience plays in working in public education. There are high as lows as an educator, emotionally, academically and even sometimes physically. Every building has that teacher, that’s been through this before and encourages everyone around him to stay focused on what matters and not let the daily grind get to you. At IDEA, that’s Dave. Dave came to IDEA in the second year of the school, but with over 15 years teaching at a similar trade-focused technology school in Portland Oregon.

Computer Science programs are still serving a small, largely white and male population in public schools. How can that change? Jaleesa Trapp is one of IDEA's founding teachers and is currently working on her PhD at MIT's Media Lab.

We start our series of episodes introducing you to our team at IDEA, starting with one of our founding team members, Linnea Bostrom. We met Linnea in the first year as we were planning the school before we opened. She reached out to us from a job posting for a Physics teacher and we met for coffee. She shared her story growing up in the Northeast, attending a private prep school (which we shared in common) and discovered her passion for physics in college. In this episode we talk about what motivates a teacher to get into public education, why they show up every day and what we can learn from failure. 

The school of industrial design, engineering and art opened in the fall of 2016 with 124 students and 10 teachers. This episode tells the story of the school along with two other schools that preceded it, SOTA and SAMI with the founder of all three schools, Jon Ketler.