Eric Hudson is a facilitator and strategic advisor who supports schools in making sense of what’s changing in education and on the role of technology in K-12 schools. What follows is a conversation between Eric and R.E.A.L.® founder Liza Garonzik. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. Liza: Welcome, Eric, to Destination: Discussion. We’re…
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…
Duncan Flaherty is a fifth and sixth grade math teacher at Nashoba Brooks School in Concord, MA. This year he is conducting an action research project through a fellowship with the International Coalition of Girls Schools (ICGS) on how using R.E.A.L.® Discussion in math class can be a lever for improving girls’ feelings of self-efficacy….
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,…
a Guest Post by Robert Barnett What can machines do better than humans? And what can humans do better than machines? In the world of AI, this is a question on many people’s minds. And for those of us in education, it feels particularly relevant. Teaching has always been a fundamentally human endeavor, and the…
I remember the moment I began to believe in the power of R.E.A.L.® Discussion. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2013: Grandfriends’ Day in my eighth grade classroom. The kids had decided they wanted to show their grandparents a R.E.A.L.® Discussion, and I had pulled together a packet of primary sources related to the…
Spencer Burrows is the Equity and Civic Engagement Coordinator and 11th Grade Dean at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad, CA. What follows is a conversation between Spencer and R.E.A.L.® founder Liza Garonzik. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. Liza: Spencer, we are so excited to have you here. You are so committed to…
by Dr. Ralph Covino Much has, obviously, been written about the dawn of the AI era with all the wild speculations about how AI will change the face of education as we know it. Some predict it will not only revolutionize education, but eliminate some sectors of it; they may well be right and only…