Interviews

Out of the Textbook and Into the Flow, with Joel Rose

In education, the obvious place to cut your teeth is as a teacher. Joel Rose knows the classroom well.

The Enrollhand Team

Jan 16, 2020 • 3 min read

“The idea that we need to invest in R&D - and I say, heavy on the ‘D’ ... of designing and developing - (to create) new student experiences that can be far more impactful - that is one of the biggest gaps we have in our sector.” - Joel Rose

Audio version:

Summary

In education, the obvious place to cut your teeth is as a teacher. Joel Rose knows the classroom well. He began as a 5th-grade teacher in Houston before moving into a variety of leadership roles in education. Joel is a respected commentator on education through his published articles and as a speaker at conferences. He is currently spearheading the nonprofit “New Classrooms,” which reimagines classrooms through the creation of new and different learning models.

In our interview, Joel Rose cuts to the chase. The industrial model of one teacher in a classroom with 28 kids is not working to prepare students for the postmodern world. He joins us to consider how to begin changing that model within the confines of the present education system. Joel shares his ideas about the role of student choice in learning, keeping students challenged and in-flow, how to initiate innovative programs without overburdening teachers with logistics, the importance of data collection to tweak personalized learning, and the accountability that must be charged to model-providers that design and offer innovative learning models.

If you would like to know how to less painfully ease into personalized learning, listen to Joel and learn the success factors for launching a new model at your school.

Quotes:

11:46 “What we have learned is that teacher enthusiasm and buy-in is essential for innovative learning models to succeed, but they are not sufficient in and of themselves.”

12:45 “What is emerging is a recognition that we need more R&D and more innovative learning models that teachers can then tweak and customize and leverage based on the unique needs of their school community.”

23:03 “The idea that we need to invest in R&D - and I say, heavy on the ‘D’ ... of designing and developing - (to create) new student experiences that can be far more impactful - that is one of the biggest gaps we have in our sector.”

31:48 “I think that future generations are going to look back at our generation and say what took us so long to recognize that innovation could really help to transform some of our most complex societal challenges.”

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:

Denver Frederick Interview with Joel Rose - https://denver-frederick.com/2019/01/28/joel-rose-co-founder-and-ceo-of-new-classrooms-joins-denver-frederick/

The Iceberg Problem - https://www.newclassrooms.org/2019/10/07/the-iceberg-problem-event-highlights-op-eds-and-more/

Twitter Graph - https://twitter.com/SuperMugatu/status/1205870814509359105

Podcast with Bill Gates - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/bill-gates-on-advice-for-founders-mistakes-philanthropy/id1316769266?i=1000443225347

Big Picture Learning - https://www.bigpicture.org/

New Technology High School - https://www.newtechhigh.org/

Where to learn more about the guest:

Joel on Linkedin - linkedin.com/in/joel-rose-0779357

Joel on Twitter - https://twitter.com/NCJoelRose

Joel’s website - broadacademy.org/fellows/fellow.php?alumni_id=102&category_id=14

New Classrooms - https://www.newclassrooms.org/