English teacher for Clarkstown Central School District and podcast guest, Rich Bertrand, joins this episode of “The Lecture is Dead” with WeVideo’s Director of Growth Marketing, Joe Wolff, alongside WeVideo’s Customer Marketing Director and co-host, Ryan Kochevar, to explore why student voice matters more than ever in humanities classrooms.
Rich opens the conversation by reflecting on the importance of building educational systems that best prepare learners for future generations. This requires interrelating core disciplines to better reflect how integral these components have become to daily life.
Read on to discover how Rich prepares his students to become future-ready by alchemizing language arts, mathematics, and the sciences.
Listen to the full episode now:
The importance of bridging core skill sets
Rich shares about his background in finance and the value he gained from bridging math, science, and economics with English skills.
"So I really do believe that humanities, especially, has a space moving forward with tech integrations and that this isn’t just something that is coded, but that is fueled by the thoughts and creativity of human beings; and that really resonates from [sort of] the English standpoint, the social sciences. So you need that insight, which is then programmed by your math and sciences," says Rich Bertrand.
Both Joe and Ryan express agreement through personal experiences in the teaching space. As a former educator himself, Joe reflects on outdated educational models where English, social studies, math, and science are treated as separate skill sets — versus today’s educational landscape — which requires a cross-disciplinary approach.
Ryan reflects on his idea of future readiness 10 years ago versus now with the advent of AI, as well as the professional landscape demanding interdisciplinary employee skill sets. In the effort to build effective and future-focused educational systems, Rich shares his process around design learning through summative assessments.
He discusses placing learners with a case scenario that may seem “a bit abstract at first glance, but when they begin to work through the case…they begin to recognize…that actually the humanities and English can be found in app design or something along those lines.”
Rich aims to deliver effective solutions to the classic question, “Mr. B, when are we ever going to use this?” by creating design thinking projects that address real “man versus society” conflicts, such as big tech.
Encouraging students to mediate relevant concepts transforms literary analysis.
"They’ve identified conflict in their literary analyses over the course of the quarter. But now when you see conflict in front of you in real life, how will you actually address that and then be able to create something that actually demands a better future moving forward? And to me, that’s the most rewarding aspect of it all…we can talk all about literary techniques. But how do literary techniques present themselves in the real world and how are you going to respond to that?" Rich poses.
Using technology and literature together, students deepen learning by problem-solving, collaborating, and bridging core skill sets.
Implement design thinking
Rich considers design thinking training as a “good mess,” or something that can be corralled to benefit learners. When asked how to help learners transition from the traditional literary analysis of reading books and writing essays to creating podcasts and prototyping products without losing academic rigor of the English curriculum, Rich advises:
- Be passionate
- Make sure the presentation is easy to follow, thoughtful, and holds real examples
- Adopt an entrepreneurial mindset to support unorthodox approaches to summative assessments
Develop modes of communication
Rich discusses a past podcast project that let learners record podcasts in class with flashy LEDs, headphones, microphones, and other equipment. Beyond the value of long-form writing, Rich discusses long-form conversations as equally important for future readiness, as they critically support social skill development.
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