The Listening Leader

My younger son Maximo is in Grade 11—too close for my comfort to graduation. I’m already pre-grieving him flying the coop, but also so excited for him.

This little student work artifact from his third grade year is a reminder of how simple the pedagogy of Questions Over Answers can be. His wonderful teacher, who engaged them in a yearlong study of local birds in Oakland, California, invited them to write two questions they had about birds.

I wrote my first book, The Listening Leader, from 2015-2017. It came out in 2017, and that May, close to the first inauguration of the illegitimate criminal in the WH, I had a celebration and book party hosted with my mentor and friend .cary.3. It was a beautiful evening with friends, family, and colleagues. It seems like a million years ago!!! My talking points here remind me that the values underpinning and aren’t new. They’ve been at the root of this work and these offerings always, inspired by so many. Sending ♥️ to everyone today.

On Wednesday, I was privileged to help open a 3-day Differentiated Assistance convening for . DA districts are doing the heartwork and hard work of supporting the most marginalized students and families. It was beautiful to build community with these leaders and offer as a pathway to healing our systems and centering voices from the margins. As a bonus, I got to see an old friend, the luminous 🥰, and one of my Stanford teacher ed besties, Maricela Ramirez. It feels more important than ever that we walk together in these times and this day was an opportunity to do just that. Honored and grateful.

💫 How are you working toward healing in your system or context?
💫 What is one recent way you have centered the voices from the margins?

Amazing morning with leaders unpacking as a pathway to healing and tool for transformative leadership. I invited people to engage with each other and got to listen in to a room full of wise leaders wrestling with how to transform their systems. Humbled to be invited to share this space.

I just finished two days of Lego facilitation training with run by Liam Isaac of . The training was brilliantly led 🔥 and sparked so much joy, play, risk-taking, vulnerability, and growth in me as both a learner and facilitator. And our little international cohort of participants formed a microcommunity of practice that I’m sure will stay in touch.♥️

We need play now more than ever. Students need learning experiences that help them connect, build cognitive flexibility, innovate, and take risks. I’m walking away grateful and humbled by the experience of Beginner’s Mind.

What a gift 🎁 to walk alongside the luminous storyteller, speaker and educator today as we keynotes the conference in Boston. We spoke about Pedagogies of Voice as an act of radical love. We talked about our own inspirations for radical love. We shared the PoV Agency framework, 10 Toxins that undermine student voice, and the 8 Pedagogies in Practice. I’m grateful to do this work with amazing human beings who I love with my whole heart.♥️

It’s been four months since the release of Pedagogies of Voice and I find myself reflecting on the students who have shared the gift of their voices for this project. Educators who have found ways to ignite student voice and agency in their classrooms understand what I’m talking about. When we create the conditions for students to share their identities, insights, and experiences, they enrich our classrooms.

As an educator, I am humbled by the brilliance of students whose voices have shaped my experiences in classrooms. As an author, I’m eternally grateful for the students who lent their voices to Pedagogies of Voice.

For educators seeking approaches to fostering student agency and voice, my co-authors and I demonstrate how applying the four domains of student agency—efficacy, inquiry, belonging, and identity—to pedagogical practices can engender agency. To go deeper into this work, check out the link in my profile to download a free sample from Pedagogies of Voice. In this download, we explore each of these four domains and demonstrate how they can be applied to a Geometry project.

Yesterday, I was asked to sign a copy of for a young student who is participating in a project along with her mom—one of the first times this has happened🥹. I teared up as the words came through me easily: “I wrote this book for you. Keep using your voice and keep shining.”

Inviting students (and caregivers) into professional learning spaces, centering their voices and TRUSTING their voices changes everything. Students and families are our colleagues in school transformation. We can’t do it without them. Thank you to this powerful mother daughter duo!🙏🏼♥️☀️