Want to build a discussion skills program?
Gwyneth Connell is the Director of the Grauer Institute and a Faculty Advisory Board member at R.E.A.L.® Discussion. We interviewed Gwyneth about her journey to becoming an academic leader and her vision for the recently announced collaboration between R.E.A.L.® and Grauer: an in-person PD opportunity this summer. What follows is a conversation between Gwyneth and…
R.E.A.L.® Discussion, a social enterprise on a mission to teach discussion skills to young people growing up in our tech-centric, polarized world, today announced that Dr. Sidra Smith will join the organization as Director of the Independent School Program. In this role, Dr. Smith will serve as the face of the organization in the K-12…
It’s been another fantastic year at R.E.A.L.® Discussion! As 2024 draws to a close, we’re taking a look back at what we published and learned on the blog this year. Here’s our Destination: Discussion 2024 year in review. We are so grateful to you for making your way to our corner of the Internet, reading…
When we started R.E.A.L.® Discussion, our original program was geared toward high school-aged students. As R.E.A.L.® grew, we listened to and learned from educators who said they wished their high school students had this kind of training earlier – and consequently, we added programming to support discussion skills scaffolding in Middle School. We kept listening,…
We are delighted to announce the winners of The Second Annual R.E.A.L. ® Discussion National Essay Contest! We invited the thousands of students who have used R.E.A.L.® this year to submit an essay exploring the differences between communicating in-person and on-screen. We asked for predictions about how Gen-Z will communicate in 10 years, and we…
Today’s teens spend close to 9 hours per day in front of screens – and devices aren’t going away any time soon. The results of so much screen time (the equivalent of a full work week!) are varied and complex – and one consequence is that today’s kids spend much more time than previous generations…
One of the best parts of R.E.A.L.® Discussion is our intern program. As we work tirelessly to create meaningful, usable, research-backed programming for Gen-Z students, we have on our team a slate of bright, passionate Gen-Z college students who help our company run. Unlike some other internships, ours embraces, empowers, and relies upon interns –…
At R.E.A.L. ®, we are big on listening! Over the past two years, we’ve listened to our partner schools, and we’ve heard one repeated thing loud and clear: we shouldn’t wait until middle school to teach students discussion skills. We listened, and we agreed. But per usual, we had a lot of follow-up questions. What…
Remember Computer Labs? When I was growing up, schools had Computer Labs: structured programs where students learned future-focused skills like typing and eye-mouse coordination (yes, that was a thing). Today’s schools don’t need Computer Labs, but at R.E.A.L.® we believe they need Conversation Labs: programs that explicitly teach discussion skills to kids growing up and…
As we turn the page to a fresh new year, we’re eager to see how seeds we planted in 2023 will bloom in 2024. One thing we’re most proud of from 2023? Developing our R.E.A.L.® Trainer program. R.E.A.L.® Trainers are teachers or leaders who have experience using R.E.A.L.® in their classrooms. They join R.E.A.L.® to…