Welcome to the PBL Simplified podcast for administrators brought to you by Magnify Learning, your customized PBL partner. From over a decade of experience with you in the trenches, we are bringing you this top rated educational podcast designed for visionary school administrators seeking to transform their schools with project-based learning. Launch your vision, live your why, and lead inspired. Here's your host, Ryan Stoyer. Welcome to the PBL Simplified podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Stoyer, and today is a leadership episode. So, we bring on a leadership guest to give you a viewpoint in education that maybe you haven't considered before and you can see how it relates to wherever you're at in the world in in your current position. So, we hope you can pull out some insights. If you're new to the show, we'd love for you to go to whatispbl.com, whatisp.com, and you'll find some resources for you as a leader, but also some for your teachers. So, jump in there. Uh, find some things to get you started. But let's jump into our conversation today. We've got David Richards with us. He builds schools. He coaches leaders. He reimagines what learning can be. He's the founder of Growth Public Schools and Changemaker Micro Schools, host of Changemaker Edu podcast. He's here to talk about real world change and just have a good conversation. David, thanks for being with us.
Thanks for having me. Excited to have the conversation.
Yeah. So, David, everybody gets the first the first question is always the same. So, what is your why for the work that you do? Yeah. So, I always talk about myself as a banker turned educator turned entrepreneur. And so, when I was working at the bank in Washington DC, two blocks from the White House, and I was like 28 years old, and I thought it was so cool because I had this great job, but I didn't really feel very cool on the inside. I was like, "Ah, man. This is not what I want to be doing." I actually enjoyed tutoring Ethiopian immigrants in in English at nights and then coaching basketball in the urban neighborhood. Like, that was where I felt just wide awake and totally alive. And so, my why. So I decided to switch at the age of 30. I just quit my corporate job and went and started teaching in Oakland, California and completely fell in love with teaching and kids and it's like never turned turned back even though a lot of people thought it was crazy to leave my corporate banking job with a really cushy salary. And and it was like the banking job where you left at 501. So it was like the best job ever in that respect. But anyway, I ended up really deciding that when I made that decision, it was really about like what my heart really wanted. And I felt like growing up low-inccome, poor, whatever you want to call it, growing up with a single mom, first one to go to my first one in my family to go to college, I really felt like I wanted to serve that community cuz those were the kids I grew up and I was those kids, right? And then you talk about my father, my brother, and my nephew. So, three generations of severely dyslexic kids, right? So, I was the quote unquote lucky one cuz I was good at school and that's how I kind of made my way out of poverty. But my other family members, my dad actually grew up in England and they had a thing called 11 plus when he was you know he was born 1941 post World War II and in that at that time in England it was called 11 plus if you were not good enough to go to university or enroll in a vocational school. They literally kicked you out of school.
So he was kicked out of school at the age of 11. So he was educated to age 11 because he was severely dyslexic. Ended up being a really successful business owner and all that. But so and then seeing that happen with my brother and my nephew. A similar version of that but the American version of that which is they give you a high school diploma, but it's probably a GED equivalent. And like my nephew was a superstar athlete, so they didn't care if he as long as he had a 2.0, everyone was happy, right? But his in the instruction and the education was very mediocre. So, put all that together, my own experience, my family's experience. Really, that's my why for launching all these schools, for helping other people open micro schools because I really feel like education kind of worked for me, but I was one of the lucky ones. And so all the kids like my family and neurody and just all the kids that aren't just, you know, fit right in that box. They need a school, too. And it's starting to really hit a tipping point nowadays with families that are tired of kind of this oneizefits-all education.
Yeah. And I I also resonate with that idea that school kind of worked for me, right? Like I I had a 4.2. I was a three three sport athlete, but like you, I I went into engineering and Okay. same kind of field and then realized that wasn't my passion at all. Right. So, it's like I did all the things and I was still in the wrong spot. Right.
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, same a lot of people have that story. Yeah.
Yeah. I think so. So, I think, you know, if we can get to know kids and help them understand their passion and what they really want to do, who they want to be, right, then they're not they don't just go for the high paying job. And I mean, almost I think almost the worst outcome could be is you go to the high paying job you don't like and then you get stuck in it.
You get stuck. Yeah,
that might be worse.
And that's why and that is why I started my coaching business during the pandemic because so many of my friends because I was about mid-4s and you know there's a reason why it's called called the midlife crisis, right? And it's like actually like you got you can see a lot of text and psychological, you know, research and all that. So, a lot of my friends are calling me and they're like, "How come you're so happy? Like I'm 45 and I'm like tired of being a lawyer. I'm tired of being an engineer. I'm tired of being a banker. I'm so tired. I'm so bored. I'm so and you're so happy all the time." And I was like, "Yeah, because I chose something I really love." So, I started a kind of side business where I would help people get back on track with what they really love to do because it's like, you know, when you're a kid what you really love and what you're great at. Like for me, It's always in mentoring, coaching, teaching, and if I can be doing that, like some version of that, I'm always really happy. So, I just I I I help people do that, too.
Yeah. Super good. So, uh one of the things you've you've launched kind of sticking in this Y arena is you launched Growth Public Schools learner center environment. Why launch this school?
Yeah, so I had worked at Summit Public Schools, which is a nationally recognized charter network. We put that into 300 schools across the country. You know, we were Newsweek ranked top 10 in California, top 75 in the US, like really really successful charter school network that I started as teacher and then went from teacher to principal to chief schools officer. And then when I turned 40, I have these decade moments. When I turned 40, I really felt like I love the work I'm doing at Summit Public Schools. It was so meaningful and we were working on project- based learning and self-directed learning and social emotional learning. And really that's the model that we've kind of put into a platform across the country. But I really felt like my own kids, we were only doing middle school high school and I had a two and a four-year-old at the time and so I really felt like I wanted my kids to experience the things we were talking about in these meetings every day and my son was in a monur monastery preschool and I was so inspired by his monastery teacher and the way she talked about self-directed learning and like true agency and so I was really inspired to create an elementary version of the summit model that we were working on and so that's why I launched growth public schools and when I started doing the talking with people and doing the research at the time I was in the San Francisco Bay area And most schools that were all about student agency project based learning, they were either private schools or in more affluent suburban areas if they were public schools. And so I was like, why don't I go into kind of a low-inccome working-class community and see if I can give them this model of school? And the first thing that people said to me was like, that's totally impossible. Like they're not going to want it and they can't do it. And I was like, okay, now it's on. Like, thank you for saying that to me. I like now I'm really motivated to show you that you're wrong. Um, so yeah. So we we created Growth Public Schools because we wanted to have a school for workingclass community, a working-class community where their kids got to be treated like leaders and they got to feel like they were in charge of their lives and their schooling and they did really interesting projects and really creative things all day every day.
So, love that. And then I mean we're going to go off script here like what question two I think but you you also talk about micro schools. So, can we talk about your work there and changemaker micro schools because that's an interesting topic as well.
Yeah, I think as you hear me talk through the progression of my career, everything kind of leads up to the next thing, right? As it does for many of us. So, as I was opening Growth Public Schools and, you know, keep in mind, I went from kind of a seale executive overseeing 14 schools and 100 employees to now trying to convince a mom at Starbucks if she would enroll in my, you know, K8 charter school, right? So, it was a big it was a big shift, but but I followed my heart again. And what I found was I really started falling in love with microschools back then. I started following Actton Academy and I started talking to a lot of folks around micro schools and I thought my belief belief is that if you can keep it small and relational and really put the kid at the center and get the families involved, which is what we did we do and what we did at Growth Public Schools, then I think you can really see some really interesting change happening. So for years I was kind of thinking like maybe I should have just done a micro school with you know growth public schools but I couldn't think how to make that work and actually pay myself right like I was like how does this all how does all work? So I didn't know at that time but it was kind of brewing in the background and then I started on my podcast as you mentioned changemaker edu. I started interviewing micros school founders, the director of the national microschooling center, the uh CEO of kypod like different people in the space and I just got so excited about what they were saying about this intimate nature of a micro school that in the families being involved and seeing that there was like this shift happening before the pandemic and then it was like oh forget about it during the pandemic like people are just like calling me every week like how can I homeschool my kids? What do I I don't want to stay home with them all day but like what are these microschools just you know what are these pods, all these questions and I just thought there's a problem to be solved here and I'm absolutely poised to be one of the people that's leading this um solution and so that's when we launched changemaker micros.
Yeah. Awesome. Can let's take a step back though. So can you define a micro school for for us the audience?
Yeah. Yeah. So the way I like to define it is very simple. It's the size of the school. So people are like oh are they all private? Are they are there any public ones? You know is it a high school? Is it this? Is it that? And I'm like okay it's a it's a redux of the one room schoolhouse and meaning that it's typically pretty small and it's typically multi-age classes, right? Not always, but typically and it is anywhere from the National Microsenter defines it as 5 to 200. And you know, years ago, I looked at the research of small schools and they pretty much said anything under 200's a good size for a, you know, quote unquote small school. So, the micro school definition of 5 to 200 feels right. Um, and keep in mind that 200, the ones that are 200 are less common and they're usually like K through 12 or maybe like preschool through 12, right? So, it's a lot of grade spans for those 200 kids, but the average size of a micros school is like 30 kids or something. It's pretty small.
Um, so it's really just the size and majority of them currently are privately funded, private tuition, though a large percentage of those private tuition are offset by education savings accounts and vouchers. And there is a growing movement, which we're getting involved with at Changemaker Micros charter schools. So, I think you're going to see that percentage move towards more and more public microschools because it's very much, you know, trending.
Yeah. So, what would that look like? So, let's say you've got a larger district of 16,000 kids in it.
Are they going to open up a micro school?
Is that part of the vision or you think?
Yeah, I think that's going to start happening. I think it's going to be kind of like the way I like to talk about is you think about like Netflix to the cable company and so did Netflix close down Comcast cable? No, Comcast cable's still there. But you fast forward 15 years or 20 years since Netflix started and now you're seeing more and more people in the space doing streaming and you know internet's you know bandwidth's getting faster and now you have Hulu you have all these places but the big kind of companies are still doing it so now the cable has to ask how are we going to do it differently so I think school districts will do the same they'll start thinking about who are the kids that we're really struggling to serve and how can we create a micro school for them um you're already seeing so we're looking at a partnership with the Indiana Micros Collaborative which is a school district in rural Indiana that has a state charter that's looking to open multiple micro schools across the state. And so we're like, hey, let's talk about a partnership because you have a state charter that's asking you to have 6,000 students in charter microschools and we're looking to build multiple micros schools across the country. And so let's talk about that partnership. So we're we're already looking at ways to build these public uh micros partnerships.
So let's can we chase that a little bit. So if I'm a larger district and I want to I think maybe I want to open a micro school. I'm looking at a set of students that maybe we're not serving well in our current environment. What what would be an example of that? We're talking Yeah. What are we talking about?
Yeah. It might be like you have a group of kids that are Let me think of a good example. You could talk about kids that are on the spectrum like a an autistic kid, right? And you're like we're just not really finding success with them. We've tried different programs and you could actually create a school for those kids in your district and you could say let's cap it at 50 and maybe it's like a medium-sized district like you said 16,000 students whatever and now you're going to kind of have a few kids from each of those schools and you're and you're going to but you're going to have to keep the principles right in terms of the micro like the small um thinking about how to and you could do that version with an inclusive model right you could say like we're going to bring in a whole bunch of different types of kids and just make sure that's working for kids that are on the spectrum so that would be an example you could see kids So you're seeing a lot of neurode divergent focus areas in micro schools in general. So I think you could see that. Um you could do it for English learners. You could do it for kids that are really really struggling. I mean what is it? 75% of kids don't like high school. So you could go to your high school and be like who are the kids that are really struggling the most? And it seems like they're really creative and bright but they're just not doing well in these six classes 55 minutes. And you know so I mean it's kind of infinite possibilities. There a lot of options.
Yeah that's interesting. So So, in the district I'm thinking of right now, it they've got a high school of comprehensive high school of 3,000 kids.
Yep.
So, they're going to take out 1% of those kids and right and and create a micro school that gives them I mean, is there how many teachers are there? How many principles? I'm just thinking practically.
Yeah. Yeah.
What does that look like?
Well, so one of the things that's interesting is you have to kind of like almost shift your mindset, right? Because you're not thinking in the same way anymore because now you're talking about this kind of small school. So, for example, you could do a micro like let's use that example. It's a 30,000 student high school. Let's say we have a founder who's in Minnesota and he's looking he's a varsity basketball coach, special ed teacher, and now he's going to do a micro school that kind of serves those two types of kids. He has a gym already, so he's going to do it like he has space for them to be in there. It's like 14 kids. He's going to do hybrid, so it's like a rotation 14 kids. So, he's kind of already doing that on the side. But now, let's talk about it as an actual district school. So, you don't need you know, a principal that's making 150,000 or 100,000, you would just need like a lead teacher. And so you could you could do something where you could say, let's get 50 kids that are really So my daughter is in seventh grade and she comes home every day and she's like her three friends don't want to be in middle school anymore. It's a thousand student school. They have ADHD. They're super creative. Like when they come over, I'm like, "You're so creative. Like you're so fun to be around. Like ideas are flowing, right?" I'm like, "How do you sit still all day in a comprehensive middle school where it's like all day are just being told to sit still and be quiet. So, they want to their both of their brothers have done like an online school through the high school, but they're not really doing well in that online school. They just don't want to be in the traditional system. So, you could you could then take those types of kids and have like four 30 to 50 mic school, you know, in the district where it's like a classroom, couple classrooms that you're not really using. You already have the space. Now, you find you're a really interesting teacher that doesn't want to work in a traditional model and you start piling. I mean, it it's And the thing is a lot of people that want to open micro schools are stuck with we don't have the space. We can't we can't afford the space. We're not sure about how to help people. You know, we want to serve all kids but they have to pay tuition. The ASA voucher doesn't cover all the tuition, you know. So, this would solve the problem for all the different people.
Interesting. So, when I first started, I was doing project based learning. It was a school within a school, right? Large comprehensive middle school.
It's like 950 kids.
Yeah.
So, we kind of worked it within the system, right? Where they got us for, you know, four periods. in a row. So, they're kind of our kids, then they went to specials. Could we have made that a micro school?
Absolutely. Yeah. I think the school within a school is a very interesting like we've already done it before. It would just be making a little bit smaller.
Yeah. And and so some of the I I wrote about this in PBL Simplified too. Some of the barriers to a school within a school, the pros, the cons if you will, is
like it it can create a rift, right, between the halves and the have nots, if you will, and that like, hey, these kids are getting really cool experiences. They got one to one and then the traditional side doesn't have those things. Right. So, it's a pretty tricky leadership move.
It is.
Now, do we but does a micro school maybe solve some of that because now we're this independent entity that's in the school but we're separate from the rest of the school.
Yeah, I think it's still a tricky leadership play and I think it's, you know, just to be honest, we have not done this yet. So, I'm by no means an expert, but I do feel like I think that's what's going to happen because what's happening now is so I, you know, With our program, we support founders that want to launch microschools in their community. Like that's our that's our focused area. That's our the the core of what we're doing. It's like we want to help people launch high quality microschools and operate them successfully for years to come. And so we are trying to figure out how to do this. And we've been doing it by focusing on states that have, you know, like a Texas that just passed, you know, 10,000 per student ESA or Florida that already has that or Arizona or like Indiana. So we're trying to do it that way. But I feel like this is where it's going. to go because of the fact that you know you're you're trying to figure out what works best. So our biggest problem is the you know I've talked to I've talked to 700 educators in 12 months 700 and they all want to open a micro school
and typically they're like can I do this and I'm like I'm not sure what's right and the biggest obstacle is they have to become somebody who can like negotiate a facility. They have to become somebody who's going to deal with insurance. Like there's so many obstacles. If you could take many of those obstacles away and say like hey we have this really progressive superintendent and school board that's saying like let's do some micro schools in our community and let's see if this could be a model of what we're offering and you throw in there that majority of school district school districts right now are dealing with declining enrollment
so with the Indiana superintendent we're working with he was like I want to bring the homeschool families back to the district rather than having them all go out and do homeschooling somewhere else you know themselves so there's just ways to kind of solve this problem but yeah to your point, I think there definitely would be a lot of nuances and a lot of things we have to figure out and um but I think if you're really asking yourself as a leader of a comprehensive high school or bigger school like am I serving all my kids? I think the answer is probably no, right? And so you're looking for solutions to try and do that
for sure. I mean those are big ships, right? The staff's 150 and there's a lot there's a lot going on there. So I I
for sure
that's where it intrigues me because I think that those leaders that are thinking well about these types of things would be interested in that. Like we had that conversation. They're going to have some questions.
Yeah.
Right. Because again, it's it's a tricky leadership move, I think.
But we're also trying to solve a tricky problem, right?
Well, and yeah, and I think it's such a great point and as you're talking, I'm thinking you're doing the same thing that I talked about with Netflix to the cable company. You're doing that with the school to like a micro school within a within a high schools, right? So, it's like when we had our charter schools at Summit back in the, you know, years ago, we were in one high school district with one small high school and after 5 years of us being there and having a waiting list of 500 kids now they were doing an advisory within the the comprehensive high schools they were doing advisory they were doing like AP access for all they were doing college you know college access for all like they started doing the things we were doing that were pretty revolutionary 20 years ago now that are more common and so I think you would see that you'll see that in the larger space but if you could be that superintendent that's like hey I really want to create a micros school that's just going to like help others see like, "Oh, what's going on over there?" Right? It's any kind of like innovation or um you know, you pilot the microscope and then people are like, "Wait a minute. The families really like that." And then they're going to be like, "Oh, it's cuz it's small." But what are there ways I could do this kind of in my classroom? Oh, it looks like they're doing project- based learning and oh, they've actually figured it out. Like, oh, maybe I'm going to go over there and visit that little micro school and they'll bring that back to my classroom. So, that would be the hope, right?
Yeah. Yeah. That's exciting. That's a lot of fun. So, can we maybe go down that vein a little bit with micro schools that you've seen. So, it makes me wonder, you know, what um other schools that might be larger, uh what can they learn from micro schools with the micro schools that you've seen?
Yeah. Well, what I've noticed with micro schools is that the infrastructure in and of itself kind of allows for like 60% of micro schools have some sort of self-directed learning,
which kind of makes sense if you think about it because you're like, okay, it's a redux of a one room schoolhouse. It's typically multi-age. You know, there might be 30 kids between ages of five and and 10 years old or five and 12 years old. So, you're kind of grouping them based on, you know, maybe they're good at they're struggling with English, but they're good at math or whatever, and you're kind of you're kind of grouping them. So, you're really personalizing instruction even if you're not trying to, it's just going to happen. So, I think like really thinking about um you know, you could and then you're also creating a very intimate relation relational kind of environment. So, I think what the bigger systems can learn from microschools is how do you mimic that? How do you create these like really personal relationships with your students and your families? How do you create a more self-directed learning environment? Right? And and then people would say, but but the structure is off. It's like, okay, but there's got to be ways that you can bring that into a structure that's, you know, even more traditional. So, I think that those are the places where you can learn the most from from micro schools.
Yeah, I like that idea. Even yes, the structure you're going to butt up against the structure, but then then you have to ask, why is the structure there? How could we adjust the structure to achieve said goal?
Exactly.
There's typically a creative answer in there somewhere.
Yeah. Yeah,
got to answer the question.
Interesting. So, let's look um 10 years ahead here, David. And we've got micro schools are growing. Um they're maybe in the public space as well, like in these larger public districts, I should say.
Um yeah. What do you think it looks like?
Yeah. Well, I think what's really interesting is, you know, there's it's kind of like when I was in the charter space years ago and people would be like, "Oh, we don't know if it's ever going to be like, you know, 50% market share or whatever." But, you know, in Cal here here I'm in California, it's like 10%. And in some of the bigger charter states, it's probably close to like 8 or 10% right so I think you will see micro schools in the next 10 years in the like 5 to 10% of students attending micro schools right
and so I think that's go like I said before that's going to kind of push on the traditional system to see what they what they could do differently but yeah I really see basically well for us our vision is that we have 100 changemaker micros across the country all different types like a portfolio model so somebody calls me and says hey can I you know from a district or a parent says like hey I want to know about micros like what how do they work and I'm like well we have one in you know this area and they're like oh that's in Hawaii like we're in rural South Dakota and it's like oh we have one in rural South Dakota or rural Indiana you know so that we can really prove that these can work in multiple contexts multiple areas multiple student populations different funding mechanisms and that we can also start to we have an innovation hub that's part of our organization that we can start to create white papers and reports and say like here are the things that you can do with micros schools. So for us it would be micro schools are pushing 10 years micros are pushing on the traditional system. There is a body of research showing what really works well with this kind of smaller school movement and for us in our specific organization that we have a portfolio model that we can share with anybody like this is possible anywhere.
Yeah. Super good. So when you look at changemaker micro schools what what is it that you bring? So if an educator calls and says hey David I I think I want to start a micro school first tell me what it is and then what what kind of uh structures do you provide or what's the services?
You know, it's interesting because a year ago when I was talking to people, the first set of the the first part of the conversation, what is a microscope? I I just heard of it. And even a year later, people now know much more about them. Like, oh, I know what it is now, but I don't know what you do, right? So, that's already changed in one year. So, you can see kind of how this is the landscape is changing quickly. Yeah. What we offer is we basically give you all the support from your idea to your launch and the planning year and then we support you throughout once you open. So again, our mission is to help you launch and operate a high quality micro school for years to come. So we offer twice a month virtual coaching with myself and our COO. We offer a network of uh excuse me a yeah a group of founders. So virtual sessions with our founders. So you'll be with a cohort of like 15 other founders across the country that had a similar vision to you. We ask that you're aligned with our values around projectbased or experiential learning. uh self-directed learning or personalized learning and some version of social emotional learning. If you're like yes I agree I believe in those things and then we're like great let's go to let's go to work and then you bring in your academic vision like I want to do a steam school I want to do an arts performing arts school and we have all of those right now so they're very unique and we essentially just coach you and take you through everything we give you resources so it's it's the problem we're trying to solve is you're an educator that doesn't really understand business you're not sure how to deal with all this stuff you're just kind of overwhelmed, but you've always had this dream of launching a school and now you're like, "Whoa, a micro school that seemed a little bit less crazy than my dream of launching like a thousand student uh school, right?" So now we're shrinking the problem and we're giving you specific training and coaching and support and an amazing community of change makers across the country and the world soon that are um helping you open a microscope.
Yeah, super exciting. Yeah, that that seems like the biggest barrier, right? Like we in education, we understand kids, we understand learning, we love kids. Yeah.
But I don't know what fundraising is. I don't know what a budget looks like.
Exactly.
It's just because it's never been put before us. So it's
Yeah. No, no fault of our own, right? It's just And you know, because I spent several years in the banking industry and working in business, I can really that stuff's like really easy for me, right? Like I had to learn the education stuff. And so now I'm like, "Oh, well, I know both because I've done both, right? So it's easy easy for me to help people with that."
Super good. So changemaker edu is the podcast. Um, can you give me one conversation that you've had that kind of surprised you while you were you were on the podcast with a guest?
Yeah, let me think about that one. You know, I would say it is the conversation about how do we how do we actually do this in terms of the structures, right? Because I think I came in with the hypothesis that we'd have to go for like these private micros schools because we just need to minimize the red tape.
And as I've been talking Yeah. As I've been talking with more and more people, when I had Don Syer on from the National Microsing Center
and others kind of and other microschool founders, I realized that the microscope founders are so gritty that they're figuring this out that they're like
they're, you know, finding the grants or they're um, you know, getting working with a church to get like really inexpensive rent or they're finding like college volunteers and retired teachers. and grandparents like it's such a gritty movement which is not going to surprise you because educators are so gritty and resourceful right like we can take something and make it amazing nothing and make it amazing make something out of nothing and so I think it was surprising to me how many options there are for doing this and how much funding there is and how quickly it's changing like like I said there's so many I'm getting so many more phone calls from charter operators district superintendent and just parents in general that are like oh I think I already have a micro school like I was homeschooling pulling three kids and then I added seven and we went to like we rented a church classroom. Is that a microphone? Like yes, you have a micros. Oh wow. You know, so it's just been fascinating to see the energy, the movement. I think people are really ready for something different like families and educators. And so I was surprised by how excited people are. I had no idea when I posted the opportunity a year ago that I would talk to 250 people in 3 months that I'd have 200 applicants. Like I was shocked. And then as I have these podcast conversations, keep talking to more and more people that are like that's not surprising to us at all. Like we do this all day every day and it's normal.
It's out there and it still sounds like we're in the innovator stage, maybe first followers at this point, right? And
definitely the early adopters. Yep.
Yeah. I I I love that section of the work just because I think it pushes everybody's work.
Yeah.
Right. It's exciting work and you have to figure out the structures to to move it forward.
Absolutely.
So So David, you're doing a lot, right? You're a coach, you're a founder, podcaster, How do you personally stay grounded, aligned, and inspired with all this work? Because there's a lot going on.
Yeah, it's a great question. You know, it's interesting because as I work with these founders, I remind people that this idea came to me 10 years ago. I didn't know what it was going to be, but I had this clarity of vision that I would be helping people open some version of small schools. And I was like, what is that? You know, even to the point where I would get it reflected back to me all the time in my first kind of like mini retreat with my board chair at Growth Public Schools, he was like, what if you did this thing where you help people open schools, you know, cuz he saw the vision with the growth public school. He's like, why are you just doing one? And so it was reflected back to me and I just kept thinking about it and writing about it and but I just kept like in my own personal journal and stuff, right? I didn't talk about it much and then eventually it just kind of came to be and it was like, oh, now is the time. And so for me, because I'm so connected to my why and my purpose
that it doesn't really feel like work, um, you know, it's like you're just you're just like in the flow and it's so much fun. So I remind people of that when and they were like, "Well, I want to start a micro school, but I've been thinking about starting a school for 20 years." I'm like, "Great." Like, I I had this idea for 10 before I did anything, right? Like, that's that's great. I know how to help you. And so, that's one piece is just like really getting clear with your why and then knowing that everything you did up to this moment has prepared you for this moment, right? Like that's how it was for me. Like, I was doing the coaching, I was doing the innovative schools, and then all of a sudden like everything came together and now it's one comprehensive program and it's like all the things I'm good at has come together allin one. So I think like you can kind of see that happening when you're just open to the opportunities. And then the other big piece is just like my own personal development around meditation and you know like prioritizing my time and making sure I'm values aligned with my my work and prioritizing my family. Like just making sure that everything is aligned and that I'm not out of alignment with my purpose and that creates a lot of energy and makes it much easier not to burn out.
Yeah. Love it. Makes a lot of sense. Um we'll run with that. So Where can we find more about you, David, and the work that you're doing? Where's the best place to go?
Yeah, so really simple. It's changemakereducation.com, all one word. If you go there, you'll find the podcast. You'll find a way to reach out to me and that's the easiest way to find me.
Awesome. All right. Well, we'll put that in the show notes uh so people can reach out and learn more about micro schools and no matter what size school they're in, right? And and start to investigate things.
David, thanks for being on today. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
All right, PBL Simplified audience. Uh you got to hear a little bit more about micro tools quite a bit. Um the it's growing and it's systemizing and there's some best practices that may already be formed it sounds like and and moving forward and some of these innovative first follower ideas, early adopter ideas can definitely form the work that you're doing wherever you're at. So make sure you jump on there, go to changemaker.edu to check out the podcast with David. Uh add that to your podcast list. In the meantime, go lead inspired.
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