Conceptually Speaking
Conceptually Speaking is a show about exploring the cognitive processes and social practices that help us make sense of our world. As as teacher-scholar interested in the intersection of educational theory, practice, and scholarship, I host conversations with guests ranging from practicing educators to neuroscientists and literary scholars to YouTube video essayists. Each episode shares a common purpose: to consider, critique, and reconceptualize what we think and feel about education. If you enjoy the show and want to learn more, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, find me on Substack, and check out trevoraleo.com for more information, resources, and details on professional learning.
Conceptually Speaking
Mitch Weathers Talks Executive Functioning and Student Agency
This week on Conceptually Speaking science lead Julia Briggs and I are joined by the CEO and Founder of Organize Binder, Mitch Weathers. Mitch’s experience as an educator, department chair, and coach has provided ample opportunities for him to see the difference between students who have a clarity of purpose and sense of agency and those who feel lost in the swirling chaos of bells, lectures, and homework assignments. Through a combination of firsthand experience and diligent research, Mitch founded Organized Binder in 2005 as a way to create systems and routines to help students hone academic skills and executive functions like personal goal setting and time management. They are the types of skills many teachers are struggling to foster in their classrooms as students return to school, and more importantly, they’re the skills students need to reclaim or claim for the first time, a sense of agency in their learning. Though there are myriad systemic and structural problems facing education that must be tackled, there are also some simple, but powerful, steps educators can make in the interim to better equip students to navigate their academic journey. Our conversation with Mitch about his Organized Binder system sounds like it could be a great place to start.
https://organizedbinder.com/
https://organizedbinder.com/products/
https://twitter.com/organizedbinder