Be a Better Ally: Critical Conversations for K12 Educators

Does the world keep getting stranger, or are we hearing more about how strange it has always been?
Returning guest Brian Boone joins Tricia to explore curiosity, creativity, and human behavior through the stories in Uncle John's All-Knowing Bathroom Reader. From the ways horses reshaped human societies to a chimpanzee's place in early morning television, Brian shares stories that invite us to reconsider what we think of as normal.
We also go behind the scenes of the book's collaborative process. Brian explains how the team traces stories back to primary sources, checks claims, and turns a writer's enthusiasm for an unfamiliar subject into something readers want to explore.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why Brian believes greater access to information shapes our sense that these times are uniquely strange.

What our relationships with other species reveal about human history.

How unusual experiments and failed ideas open up conversations about creativity.

Why fact-checking requires more work when stories circulate across multiple websites.

How collaborators with different interests expand one another's curiosity.

What decades of writing trivia have taught Brian about wisdom and our desire to learn.

For educators, this conversation offers a question worth bringing into the classroom: How might a surprising story get someone interested in a subject they thought wasn't for them?
Featured book: Uncle John's All-Knowing Bathroom Reader
https://bathroomreader.com/

What does it look like to be bold about AI in education while remaining humble enough to revise what does not work?
In this episode, Tricia Friedman responds to recent guidance from MIT by sharing a practical way to experiment with AI, assessment, and curriculum design. The challenge invites students to research a topic, develop the concept for a board game, select mechanics that support its theme, and pitch their idea.
Along the way, students must make five deliberate choices: three moments when AI could assist their work and two when the task should remain human. They then explain what each choice contributed, complicated, or diminished.
Tricia introduces a shorter version of her free GAMES Framework for educators who want to explore game design without committing to a complete game-development unit. Her example draws inspiration from the history of the Spokane River, but the structure can be adapted to almost any subject or local context.
The episode also considers:
Why AI literacy requires judgment, not simply tool proficiency

How game design can bring together research, writing, creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration

Why the relationship between a game's theme and mechanics matters

How playtesting gives students useful feedback about difficulty, clarity, and engagement

What board-game boxes, reviews, playthrough videos, and Kickstarter campaigns can teach us as contemporary texts

How the challenge could extend into mathematics, economics, visual art, media literacy, or local history

Why alternative forms of assessment can help students make their thinking more visible

The goal is not to use AI throughout the assignment. It is to give students genuine practice deciding when AI adds value, when it distracts from the work, and what evidence supports that judgment.
Explore the free GAMES Framework:
https://shifting-schools-games.netlify.app/salmon-challenge
 
Read the MIT report referenced in the episode:
https://aiandeducation.mit.edu/
 
Have a unit that does not seem to connect naturally with game design or AI literacy? Send Tricia the topic and challenge her to find the connection.
Contact Tricia:
tricia@shiftingschools.com

What do young people understand that adults mistakenly believe they have hidden from them?
Award-winning author Tiffany D. Jackson returns to the podcast to discuss Ghost in the Night, her haunting middle-grade novel set against the ghost tours, buried histories, and complicated beauty of Savannah, Georgia.
Tiffany invites educators to take young readers—and their capacity to confront difficult subjects—seriously. We explore why children sometimes attach themselves intensely to a particular interest while processing grief, and what educators might discover if they look beyond the fascination and ask what need it may be meeting.
We also discuss the importance of grief literacy, the trust created when adults acknowledge what children already know, and the difference between protecting young people and underestimating them.
The conversation moves beyond the ghosts of Savannah to examine whose histories become tourist attractions, whose stories remain untold, and how literature can inspire students to investigate the overlooked histories of their own communities.
Tiffany also shares why young characters need opportunities to form friendships without constant adult choreography, how she calibrates horror for middle-grade readers, and the deceptively simple practice she recommends to every aspiring writer: read closely enough to notice how a story works.
This episode explores:
Why educators need to take children's inner lives seriously

How intense interests can sometimes help young people process grief

The role of grief literacy in schools and classrooms

How honest conversations can build trust between adults and children

Why young people need agency in friendship and problem-solving

Whose histories are preserved, promoted, ignored, or buried

How place can function as a character in a novel

What horror offers middle-grade readers

How students can learn the craft of writing by reading like writers

At its heart, this conversation asks educators to consider what becomes possible when we stop assuming young people cannot handle the truth—and begin giving them stories that honour their intelligence, curiosity, and humanity.

What happens when we stop treating unaffordable healthcare as an individual problem—and recognize it as a shared crisis?
In this episode of Be a Better Ally, Tricia Friedman speaks with Dr. Camille Busette about One Nation, Overcharged, a people-powered movement demanding a healthcare system that puts people over profits.
Dr. Busette explains why so many people experience the rising cost of healthcare privately, even as families across the United States face the same impossible choices: medication or groceries, an inhaler or gas, necessary care or financial security. When these struggles remain isolated, it is easy to mistake a broken system for a personal failure.
But sharing our stories can change that.
Together, Tricia and Dr. Busette explore how personal experiences can build collective understanding—and how conversations in book clubs, faith communities, community gatherings, and even art spaces can help transform that understanding into action.
They also discuss:
Why asking "Whose perspectives are missing?" can change how we define a problem

How healthcare costs affect people far beyond the person receiving care

Why storytelling is essential to building people-powered solutions

What those with greater financial privilege need to understand about healthcare affordability

How seemingly small necessities, such as access to an inhaler, can prevent medical and financial trauma

Why we are all responsible for one another

How listeners can speak up, share their experiences, and organize within their communities

As Dr. Busette reminds us, when one person cannot afford the care they need, the consequences reach their family, neighbors, community, and all of us. Healthcare affordability is not someone else's issue. It is a social and economic responsibility we share.
Learn more, share your story, or find and organize a local event through the One Nation, Overcharged campaign.

Renata Castro on Supporting Immigrant Families, Choosing Competent Counsel, and Staying Resilient
My guest today is immigration attorney Renata Castro,ESQ. founder of USA4All, a law firm focused on helping immigrants, survivors of domestic violence, and victims of human trafficking. We talk about the role educators can play when families are facing immigration stress, how to recognize real professional competence, and why empathy matters most when it is paired with expertise.
Renata also shares the personal story behind her work, the emotional toll of immigration law, and the habits that help her keep going through difficult cases. The conversation widens into a bigger lesson about learning, resilience, and refusing to let other people define your potential.
Key topics
In this episode, Renata shares how her own experience as an immigrant and survivor of abuse shaped the creation of USA for All.
She explains that the firm has 5 working attorneys and a total staff of 90 across several countries, with about 3,200 active cases and roughly 2,000 new calls each month.
We discuss why educators are often the first people families turn to, and how the best support is to listen, show empathy, and avoid giving legal advice.
Renata suggests educators can help by referring families to more than one attorney when possible and by offering practical handouts from trusted nonprofit or pro bono sources.
She makes a strong case that empathy alone is not enough in legal work - clients should prioritize competence, clear strategy, and honest communication over chemistry.
We talk about why immigration law is demanding, multidisciplinary, and often emotionally draining, yet also deeply rewarding.
Renata describes the importance of resilience, detachment from personal criticism, and not letting one loss define a whole mission.
She shares the routines and supports that keep her grounded, including family, a partner who helps her stay objective, exercise, mentors, therapists, and a mindset of not spiraling.
She encourages young people to stay intellectually curious, read widely, and treat learning as a privilege rather than a chore.
The conversation closes with a reminder that success takes time, effort, and a willingness to sit with adversity.
Timestamps
00:00 - Why educators are often the first support line for immigrant families
00:34 - Renata's personal immigrant story and the origin of USA for All
01:58 - Serving survivors of domestic violence and trafficking
03:31 - What educators should do instead of giving legal advice
04:27 - Why listening and school counseling matter in crisis situations
07:25 - Competence versus empathy when choosing a lawyer
11:24 - Why the best legal work comes from challenge, not cookie-cutter cases
13:45 - Not taking client or public criticism personally
15:07 - Active caseloads, new inquiries, and the reality of immigration practice
18:16 - How family, exercise, mentors, and therapy help Renata stay grounded
21:49 - Why immigration law stays intellectually exciting
23:16 - Learning as a privilege, not a chore
26:01 - Kim Kardashian, persistence, and the myth of instant success
28:48 - A final reminder to keep going and trust your own path
 

 

Action items
If you work with immigrant families, listen first and avoid offering legal advice.
Refer people to qualified attorneys instead of trying to solve the legal issue yourself.
Encourage access to school counselors or psychological support when families are overwhelmed.
When choosing professional help, look for competence, clarity, and honesty.
For your own resilience, build support outside of work and protect time for recovery.