Our guest for this episode of College & Career Readiness Radio is the author of Pure Genius, Don Wettrick. In this wide ranging conversation about career exploration, Don talks about innovation in schools, teaching entrepreneurship to students, durable skill attainment, the concept of 20% time, and so much more.
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Don Wettrick is the founder and CEO of The STARTedUP Foundation, which hosts Innovate WithIN–Indiana's innovation and entrepreneurship programming and competition.
He is the author of Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation, which aims to create innovation mindsets in our schools.
Don is known for his award-winning work as a teacher, education and innovation consultant, and international speaker.
He is a TEDx alumni and podcast host.
Don Wettrick is the founder and CEO of The STARTedUP Foundation, which hosts Innovate WithIN–Indiana's innovation and entrepreneurship programming and competition.
He is the author of Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation, which aims to create innovation mindsets in our schools.
Don is known for his award-winning work as a teacher, education and innovation consultant, and international speaker.
He is a TEDx alumni and podcast host.
Don Wettrick is the founder and CEO of The STARTedUP Foundation, which hosts Innovate WithIN–Indiana's innovation and entrepreneurship programming and competition.
He is the author of Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation, which aims to create innovation mindsets in our schools.
Don is known for his award-winning work as a teacher, education and innovation consultant, and international speaker.
He is a TEDx alumni and podcast host.
Our guest for this episode of College & Career Readiness Radio is Don Wettrick.
Don starts the show by giving credit to Dan Pink, who was one of the pioneers of the motivation movement–exploring what motivates people to learn new things.
He explains the 20% theory in terms of giving students time to work on things that they care about that might not necessarily be aligned to a school-based unit of study.
Don’t miss what he says about school getting in the way of learning and the difference between how C and D students respond to freedom versus A and B students.
Don says that the freedom to learn whatever you want isn’t just a personal project. It comes with learning new skills and presenting to an audience beyond the classroom.
He’s reframing the concept of “innovation” at the high school level to be more about an “entrepreneurial mindset.”
Don dives deep into the definition of motivation: autonomy + mastery + purpose = motivation.
He tells a story about a student who challenged his thinking about 20% time in schools and that it should be 100% of the time dedicated to interesting problems to solve versus the curriculum.
Don has incredible examples of work-based learning, including two students who worked together to solve a fast-fashion waste problem with dog toys.
He says that a teacher’s most precious resource is their network. One of the best things we can do is to share what our students are doing and creating on social channels and more.
Don explains the type of durable skills and outcomes that students gain from identifying a problem and developing a solution for it.
Don’t miss what he says about community engagement with the local chamber of commerce and the concerns that mayors have with talent retention.
Listen to the difference between the traditional model where students get a problem to solve versus the skill of identifying the problem.
Don talks about an innovative teacher fellowship, and he describes a best case scenario when departments are working together on the same problem.
One call-to-action from Don is that teachers should have more conversations with employers: “what are you looking for in our graduates?”
Book a time to discuss college and career readiness with the host of the show, Dr. T.J. Vari.
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