Feeling stuck in old classroom routines that drain your energy and limit student ownership? Wondering how to reset your learning space without adding more to your plate?

In this Chinese New Year–inspired episode, I explore how the traditions of renewal, clearing space, and beginning again can guide a powerful classroom reset. Drawing on my own experience teaching in Hong Kong and across international schools, I share how small, intentional shifts in learning environment design, student voice, and co-creation can transform teacher-led classrooms into active, student-centered spaces.

You'll learn:

• Why student-centered learning often fails without an intentional classroom reset

• How to "sweep away" outdated routines before adding new strategies

• Simple ways to redesign classroom space to signal agency, flexibility, and collaboration

• How co-designing routines, questions, and success criteria builds real student ownership

• Why renewal, vulnerability, and starting again are essential for sustainable change

If you're an international educator feeling the mid-year slump, this episode offers a practical, culturally grounded way to reset your classroom, renew your energy, and invite students into deeper engagement and responsibility.

🧧 Student-centered learning doesn't require a full overhaul—just one meaningful shift to begin again.

Get the 12 Shfits Book: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Teacher-Shifts-Student-Centered-Environments/dp/103250370X

Take the 12 Shifts Scorecard: www.transformschool.com/12shiftsscorecard

Designing student-centered lessons but still seeing disengagement, emotional shutdowns, or surface-level participation? What if the issue isn't what you're teaching, but whether your learning environment aligns with how the adolescent brain actually works?

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Ari Pinar, neuroscientist and educator, to unpack what brain science tells us about adolescence — and why autonomy, belonging, and relevance aren't "nice-to-haves," but neurological necessities for learning. Dr. Pinar helps us bridge the gap between student-centered intentions and brain-aligned practice.

Drawing from neuroscience research and classroom examples across international school contexts, we explore how common school structures unintentionally work against adolescent development — and what shifts truly support agency, regulation, and motivation.

You'll learn:

• Why autonomy, belonging, and relevance are core drivers of adolescent engagement and learning

• How the developing adolescent brain responds to risk, feedback, identity, and peer connection

• Why some student-centered strategies fail without the right environmental conditions

• Practical ways to redesign space, time, relationships, and routines to support teen learners

• How brain-aligned environments reduce disengagement, resistance, and burnout — for students and teachers

If you're serious about moving from passive compliance to active, empowered learning, this episode will help you design with the adolescent brain — not against it.

Still stuck playing classroom referee, solving every issue yourself, and wishing your students would step up?

In this episode, I sit down with my colleague and veteran Montessori educator/ adolescent expert Meg Broz, who shares the single structure that transformed her classroom into a thriving student-led community: weekly student-run councils.

Meg outlines how a simple shift—from teacher-driven management to peer-led community circles—created more ownership, accountability, and connection among her students than any behavior chart or classroom contract ever could.

You'll learn:

• What a student-run council looks like—and why it's so much more than a glorified circle time
• A step-by-step structure you can embed into advisory, homeroom, or morning meeting
• How weekly councils support executive functioning, self-regulation, and community-building
• Tips for training student leaders to take the reins (and what to do when issues arise)
• Why this approach aligns with restorative practices, student voice, and real-world leadership

Whether you're teaching in an IB, PYP, or project-based setting, this episode offers a powerful, transferable model for giving students shared responsibility—without chaos or loss of control.

👣 Ready to shift from manager to mentor? Start small, start now—with your own version of student-led council.

Get the 12 Shifts Book: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Teacher-Kyle-Wagner/dp/1032484713/

Take the 12 Shifts Scorecard and identify areas for growth: https://transformschool.com/12shiftsscorecard/

Meg's Bio: Meg is the Humanities Adolescent Guide for the inaugural International Montessori School of Hong Kong, and an experienced middle school educator with a certificate in Montessori Adolescent Education. She has a passion for history, writing, and social justice, and imparts these loves on to my students. In her 15+ years as an educator, she has gotten deeply involved in DEI work, presented at multiple Montessori education conferences, and co-directed a conference in Chicago.

Meg recently completed a Graduate Certificate, and Masters of Science degree is in progress from the International Institute of Restorative Practices. Meg brings restorative practices and student led councils into spaces to help people better communicate and understand each other, to restore harms, and to find a way to move forward compassionately and equitably.

In her current role as Humanities Guide and past role as Junior High Coordinator, Meg uses her organizational skills to keep the program running smoothly, including G-Suite skills, communication, and project planning.Additionally, Meg has a past life as a theater technician, including carpentry, welding, painting, sewing, and stage management. I'm also 1/3 of the doo-wop rock band Midnight Moxie. These experiences make their way into her work in creative ways.