Heather Staker is a researcher and author in the United States who has spent 15 years studying innovation in education and the rise of blended learning as the enabler of student-driven learning.

She is the co-author of the Amazon bestseller Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools (San Francisco: Wiley, 2015); The Blended Workbook (San Francisco, Wiley, 2017); and the popular report How to Create Higher Performing, Happier Classrooms in Seven Moves: A Playbook for Teachers (Christensen Institute, 2017).

Heather has been a featured presenter in over 125 radio, television, podcast, webinar, and live events worldwide and in legislative hearings in the United States as a spokesperson for student-centered learning.

As the founder of Ready to Blend, Heather leads a team of 150 facilitators in the United States, Middle East, and South America who have certified to deliver blended-learning workshops to their teachers. She holds a BA magna cum laude in government from Harvard University and an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School. She is the mother of five children and lives in Austin, Texas.

Key Takeaways:

00:14 Heather’s favorite thing about working with Young Learners

03:19 The Story behind the foundation of Ready to Blend

10:49 The Role of Adults in a Blended Learning Environment

16:37 Advice for Families and Educators who wants Change in the Current System

21:57 Is this Pandemic the best time to go non-traditional for learning?

26:47 Alternative Education, Is it an advantage or disadvantage to get into an elite university?

32:47 Metaphor that describes Blended Learning

Quotes:

"Try to honor their (children's) own path and help them find their gifts that they want to lean into."

"One piece of advice is to do your due diligence about the micro school networks that are emerging right now, because it takes a substantial amount of intellectual property to create a really good curriculum or to know how to curate it correctly."

"Most children want to feel like they're successful every day and they want to feel like they're having fun with friends."

"For parents that are really wondering what to do right now with their high school students, I think this is a window of opportunity to be more experimental and still assume that they're on track for college."

Social Links:

Heather Staker

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherstaker/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/hstaker

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Heather-Staker/e/B00M7ESIA6%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Ready to Blend

Website - https://www.readytoblend.com/micros

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/readytoblend

Podcast - https://www.readytoblend.com/podcast

Books

Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools (San Francisco: Wiley, 2015)

The Blended Workbook (San Francisco, Wiley, 2017)