Behind The Startup Of Our Homeschool Microschool

And why the Carolina Panthers are prioritizing learning technology

As we set out to homeschool our daughters in a pod of families who, like us, would prioritize minimizing their potential exposure to COVID-19, with a teacher to help guide the learning, a daunting reality set in slowly.

As Josh Shirazi, one parent in our pod, said, we—and my wife in particular—would be taking on the roles of head of school, director of admissions, facilities manager, and, we would come to learn, director of curriculum.

Questions that at one point had been limited to the domain of my writing and advising would now become a central part of our life—and the core operations of our household.

But at a higher level, many of the questions we would be asking weren’t all that different from what parents and communities ought to be asking about their children’s education even in more normal times.

In this piece for Forbes, “Our Homeschool Microschool Goes Operational,” I tackle two of the key questions: with whom do I want my children to learn and in what educational philosophy will my different children thrive?

I hope our thought process is helpful. For those who have considered these questions, I would love to hear what you’ve learned in your journey as well.

The Carolina Panthers: Learning To Win

As the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in an era of remote teaching and learning across the country, attention has focused on how schools have shifted their approaches.

But it isn’t just schools that rely on learning for the success of their students. All organizations do.

For places where employees don’t spend hours looking at screens each day and yet learning is critical to success, the transition has been tricky. Which is why the Carolina Panthers— and their partnership with a Silicon Valley edtech start-up, Learn to Win—present a compelling case study. So much so that I wrote about the team and its experience with Learn to Win, a startup on the cutting edge of mobile learning, for Forbes in a piece titled, “For Carolina Panthers, Learning Online Translates To Better Play On Field.”

NFL teams tend to spend their offseason on the field. Players memorize playbooks. They run drills, lift weights, and practice the hundreds of plays they will run the next season.

Yet when the pandemic hit, NFL teams couldn’t assemble in the same way as they had. The traditional routines went out the window.

The Carolina Panthers were in a particularly deep hole heading into the season.

They had an all-new coaching staff. Matt Rhule was named head coach in January of 2020 after seven years as a collegiate head coach. He and his philosophy were unknown to the team’s players. The offensive coordinator, Joe Brady, was also new and unknown. Ditto with Phil Snow the defensive coordinator.

On top of installing all-new playbooks, the Panthers had a much younger roster than the team had previously. The defense returned only four starters from the prior season. And they had a new player at the most important position on the field, quarterback, in Teddy Bridgewater, who had spent the prior two seasons as a backup in New Orleans. The limited time to work together thanks to COVID-19 posed a big challenge.

Enter Learn to Win. I first met its founder, Andrew Powell, when he was the student-body president at UNC-Chapel Hill working on transforming classes at the college into blended-learning programs and then kept an eye on his career as he graduated and traveled to Mauritius to work for African Leadership University.

“At UNC and ALU, I saw the power of active learning,” Powell told me. “I spent years working with professors to transform their classes from passive lecture classes to active learning experiences, and the results were incredible in terms of improved learning. The idea for Learn to Win was to take those proven techniques, build them into a software product, and bring active learning to all the places where performance matters most.”

Powell’s vision was that using the science of learning, his app could help athletes learn mission-critical plays and tactics far faster. Learn to Win has also found early traction outside athletics to support the training of key military personnel.

The Carolina Panthers are one of Learn to Win’s initial clients, where the app has caught fire. The Panthers used the app to build over 2,000 learning modules that covered every play, concept and technique the players would need to know in easy-to-understand, interactive lessons.

And it’s paying off. Despite low expectations for the team in training camp, the Panthers have surprised. They got out to a smoother start than many would have expected. They also seem to be better than their 4-9 record would suggest. The Panthers hold a signature win over the Arizona Cardinals, and they’ve been within striking distance of winning every game they’ve played with the exception of two losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Their point differential suggests that as they gel and key players return from injuries, they could be a far more formidable team soon.

I encourage you to read my full piece in Forbes here to learn why I’m so bullish about the power of mobile-learning experiences built using the principles of sound instructional design to transform learning experiences in positive ways.

Reopening Campuses and School Buildings

Over the past six months of the pandemic, colleges have made different decisions around whether to reopen their campuses. In many cases, the media shamed schools that chose to open. Others worried about the impact on schools that chose to stay remote.

On Future U, Jeff Selingo and I dove deeper into the questions confronting colleges with back-to-back episodes with presidents on campuses that approached the question differently.

In the first episode, we interviewed the president of Boston University, which welcomed students back, to understand what went into that decision and the logistics behind pulling it off. Listen here.

In the second episode, we interviewed the president of Sonoma State University about why the Cal State system made the early call to go remote. Listen here.

On the Class Disrupted podcast, Diane Tavenner and I also dug back into the reopening question, but this time with a conversation around the hot-button topic of how teachers’ unions are impacting the decision. What role are they playing in school closures and reopenings—and how can they help or hinder innovation in schools? Listen here.

Goodnight Box Update

Finally, Tracy and I have been overwhelmed with the response to our new book, Goodnight Box, and the opportunity to use the proceeds to support fitness, nutrition, and mentorship programs for at-risk youth. We met our goal to raise $1,000—and then some. Thank you.

Morning Chalk Up had a great write up about the book and about our future children’s books plans if you’re interested in learning more. The article, “CrossFit Children’s Book Goodnight Box Takes Goodnight Moon To The Gym,” does a nice job of profiling the story behind the book and our larger vision to introduce children to stories of strong female role models.

For more, check out the Goodnight Box website at boxreads.com.

As always, thank you for reading, writing, and listening.