Episode Details

Today, we're sharing a conversation from Transformative Principal, between host Jethro Jones and guest Bryan Dean. Bryan is CAST's Innovation Specialist. Bryan has been working with hard-to-reach students with emotional impairments, conduct disorder, behavioral difficulties, and low interest for more than 20 years.

The conversation covers:

• Giving UDL away for free
• Building products through grants
• People think UDL is static, but it isn’t. 
• Identity is important. 
• UDL is human centric, not student centric.
• How UDL invites students to take ownership of their learning experiences. 
• Do you feel behind? 
• “What if I could have gone through school feeling unencumbered?” 
• Expert Learners vs. executive functioning
• Bounded autonomy. 
• Assumptions about student learning. 
• Joy Zabala - You can’t boil the ocean
• UDL Con is an Experience
• AI, Accessibility, 
• UDL Guidelines 3.0
• UDL Con - where the guidelines will be released. 
• CAST.org - check out the projects and resources. 
• How to be a transformative principal? Ghostwalks - walk with nobody there in your school. What is being said by what is on the walls and in the classroom. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks and IXL:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.