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Sierra Holtzheuser says value results in buy-in.
58 Plays9 days ago
Growth Over Grades Podcast:
ttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-growth-over-grades-podcast/id1760177088
https://open.spotify.com/show/2JujzaMu9vUiaCO8dj3eEO
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sierraholtz/
Hosted by Starr Sackstein & Crystal Frommert
Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/
Contact us: Starr@masteryportfolio.com crystal@masteryportfolio.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Learner Centered Spaces podcast, where we empower and inspire ownership of learning. Sponsored by Mastery Portfolio. Hosted by Star Saxton. And Crystal Frommer.
00:00:15
Speaker
In each episode, we bring you an authentic conversation with educators both in and out of the classroom that will hopefully encourage you to try something new. This podcast is created for educators who want to learn more about how to make the shift toward learner-centered spaces for their students, schools, and districts or education at large.
00:00:35
Speaker
The learner-centered spaces podcast is a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network. Get ready to be inspired as we dive right into the conversation with today's guest.
Guest Introduction: Sierra Holthauser
00:00:46
Speaker
On today's episode, we're joined by Sierra Holthauser, Vice President of Growth and Partnerships at My Blueprint, an edtech platform used by hundreds of school districts across North America for student success, career life planning, and competency-based learning.
00:01:02
Speaker
Over the past decade, Sierra has advanced through five roles at MyBlueprint, starting as a support coordinator helping districts across Canada implement the software and now steering strategy to meet new policy and workforce needs.
00:01:17
Speaker
Before EdTech, she was a researcher and teacher during graduate studies, rooted in K-6 classroom experience. Her purpose is to empower every student to build the skills, self-awareness, and confidence to define their own purpose, passion, and pathway, and to design systems that will help all learners thrive in a changing future.
00:01:39
Speaker
Fun fact about Sierra, she won three-minute thesis competition and three Graduate Research Excellence Awards, including one for promoting whole child education and, yes, challenge her to a dance-off at your own risk. Welcome, Ciara. Thank you so much, k Crystal and Star.
00:01:59
Speaker
I am very, very excited to be here today. So many things I didn't know about you, Ciara. I always love doing this with people I know because the fun facts come out and they are always very, very enlightening.
00:02:13
Speaker
There you go. Are we going to have a dance competition next time I see you? You do not want me to dance. um I am a little dangerous on a dance floor, um and I mean that literally.
00:02:23
Speaker
But perhaps in New Orleans, when we when we see each other next, we'll have the opportunity to to give it a go. Sounds good to me. I'll put it on my agenda.
00:02:35
Speaker
Okay,
Transformative Education Moment
00:02:36
Speaker
Sierra. So we always like to start by asking about a defining moment in your educational journey or something that you're working on that matters to you.
00:02:45
Speaker
So. Okay. I think I'll tell you a little bit about my education background and i should start off by saying that in general, I am a very joyful person.
00:02:56
Speaker
i like to operate from a joyful place and see the best in people. I can always find a silver lining. And in my final year of teaching, I had 19 of 23 students on an IEP.
00:03:10
Speaker
And to say that that was the least joyful beginning of a school year in my life is an understatement. I was, you know, midway through the year, maybe a little bit into the first few months. And i just started looking around and seeing that I was operating a pretty joyless classroom.
00:03:27
Speaker
And so like most teachers, I got curious. I started to ask my students, you know, and when I was seeing them, and their miserable faces or non-smiling faces, I started recognizing a pattern and it was always around grades.
00:03:44
Speaker
And those grades were completely demotivating to my learners. They weren't able to see their strengths or their success or their unique value and skills. And so I decided quite boldly at the time to throw grades out.
00:03:59
Speaker
I started each day with inquiry. I had every learner self-identify strength and something they felt they were really good at so that they could collaborate with others in a place of joy.
00:04:11
Speaker
And I also started charting goals and progress in paper portfolios because at the time, we actually didn't have really a lot of digital tools available to us.
00:04:23
Speaker
And so the first indication to families that grades were gone was my first parent teacher conference when I had my students present their own paper portfolios, what they were proud of, their goals.
00:04:36
Speaker
and what their plans were to achieve those goals that school year. And most families did not buy in at the beginning, but I can tell you by year end, everyone in my classroom and my classroom community was seeing the benefit of not leaning into grades and seeing how much students were capable of when they were able to demonstrate it using you know their own means and what they felt they were good at.
00:05:01
Speaker
So much of what you just said really mirrors my experience. I know that you worked with younger learners.
Learner-Centered Teaching Philosophy
00:05:09
Speaker
So I'm eager, as I'm sure our listeners are, to learn a little bit about what that actually looked like. Can you take us through how you set up those structures and and how you created that environment with the paper portfolio.
00:05:28
Speaker
And then you could also lean into a little bit about how that has evolved into the work you're doing now. Yeah, absolutely. i think that the first thing that we had to do was I had to say to my students that this was completely new to me.
00:05:44
Speaker
And I think by starting our entire journey together, they And telling them, you know, we're not going to be perfect and this is going to be messy and it's going to be difficult and it's something that we're not familiar with.
00:05:57
Speaker
And using the word we a lot was really helpful and helping them to get into the mindset shift that is really required for a big educational shift. Now, these were grade four students.
00:06:09
Speaker
And so a big part of being in grade four is that you're no longer really learning to read, but you're reading to learn. And so that was another shift that I really had to think about critically was that as we're collaborating more and as we're using inquiry and as we're speaking to almost at the time, it like I didn't know about design thinking, but now that I know more about it, I think that's what I was attempting to do.
00:06:37
Speaker
was to really think about the problems we were going to solve together. and I had this mindset personally, and I always have, I'm not a perfectionist, that it's better to be good and done than perfect and coming soon.
00:06:52
Speaker
And by working through that mindset with kids who were failing all the time, and were feeling like they were never successful, they got to just start iterating themselves in the classroom. And so I think the structures at place were really conversational in nature.
00:07:08
Speaker
at the beginning, it was just we talked every single morning and we co-constructed some of the activities we were going to do. And then I spoke to the fact and I said every single day, and it was my promise to myself and to my students, that when they asked questions, I would say, I don't know.
00:07:26
Speaker
because i think we believe as young people that adults have all the answers and it's easy to re relax rely upon somebody who can rescue you and give you information. And it's a little more difficult if you don't know something to get into problem solving mindsets.
00:07:45
Speaker
So by me always saying, oh God, that's a good question. i have no idea. I just brought them into a mindset that we don't have to have all the answers and we don't have to be correct.
00:07:59
Speaker
And that became through line in my classroom experience, in my graduate studies when I taught teacher candidates. And now today, as I'm leading a big team at an ed tech company, I'm consistently talking about how we can develop the skills and iterate and fail forward because that's really the only way to grow.
Career Transition and Technology Passion
00:08:19
Speaker
You transitioned from the classroom into tech with My Blueprint. um And there are probably a lot of listeners who might be exploring a transition outside of
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's such a good question. And my blueprint actually employs in our partner facing departments. I think we have over 80% of our employees are former educators because you can't create educational technology in a silo and you need to be thoughtful of the actual use case and how a classroom operates. And so i think there's a lot of space in educational technology for teachers, um but it's a big learning curve and that transition from one career to another can really hit hard.
00:09:10
Speaker
But when we focus on the durable skills we always say now, or what we used to call soft skills, or where in the interim we call 21st century skills. But when we think about those skills that you might have that can apply to unique scenarios, then the change isn't so scary.
00:09:28
Speaker
And I think for me personally, i was actually about three quarters of the way through my doctorate degree when I met our CEO. And at the time i thought, okay, I have a few months break. It would be nice to get some corporate experience or something that's a little bit different before i write my thesis and defend it and go into academia.
00:09:50
Speaker
And now I didn't want to be a professor. I'm just a yes person. And so I said yes to my doctorate because I got accepted to a wonderful program and and it was funded. So I thought, sure, why not?
00:10:02
Speaker
So when I went into my career at my blueprint, which I now say the word career, but at the time I really just thought of it as an experience. um When I made that shift, I had an open mind and an open heart to learn as much as possible.
00:10:17
Speaker
And the way that that company operates and has always operated has allowed people to do things that are hard and to try new things and to do it with a unique perspective.
00:10:28
Speaker
And so I fell in love with the company culture. I think I was maybe in my second day, third day when I decided I was not going back to my doctorate. but That was now 10 and a half years ago. And so if I ever do go back, I have to start from scratch. But all that to say is that if you have skills like cooperation or collaboration and strong communication skills, and you're able to adapt in the moment and solve problems, then i think a shift to any new career is possible.
00:11:00
Speaker
You just can't get weighed down in what you know, because that's the thing that, you know, in this day and age, AI can take over. um But the things that are uniquely human, the things that you bring to the table are going to help you make any type of career change, whether it's into educational technology or something completely outside of education.
00:11:20
Speaker
I really like what you said about it's it's not so much what you know. And it made me think about educators as learners and many educators, I don't want to generalize, but we are lifelong learners and absorb and ah observe. And I think we would make great employees in any industry because of our love for learning.
Overview of My Blueprint
00:11:40
Speaker
um To ask a little bit more about My Blueprint, how does My Blueprint contribute to a learner-centered space? and That's a really good question. and So when My Blueprint began, actually over 20 years ago now, we started as an education and career life planning company.
00:11:58
Speaker
And so we were very critical of what existed in digital tools and also outside of digital tools. If we think back 20 years, a lot of the planning that we did for education and for career was out of booklets.
00:12:11
Speaker
And we would compare post-secondary programs side by side because we found page 33 in book A and page 75 in book B. And so my blueprint was trying to provide learners with the tools that they needed to make informed decisions about their futures. so And back then it was really difficult to do that.
00:12:31
Speaker
And when we think about the adults that we lean into when we don't know how to do something, they're often our parents. And at the time, parents didn't necessarily pursue post-secondary institutions.
00:12:44
Speaker
um They might go to a teacher, but teachers at the time didn't feel like career educators. And the last person perhaps is a counselor. And gosh, they have so much on their plates and helping every student one-on-one was not always possible with the demands of the role.
00:13:00
Speaker
And so creating learner-centered digital tools is actually how my blueprint began. So how can we put the information students need in ways that's very easy to consume in the hands of a learner so that they can create plans for their future that align to who they are, but more importantly, who they want to be become.
00:13:18
Speaker
And I say who they want to become and not what they want to become. um Because I think especially today, that's very important. We don't even know what jobs will exist in five years from now, let alone you know the 13 years it might take for a kindergarten student to graduate K-12.
00:13:36
Speaker
And from there, a lot of the work that we did was directly with educators, with building administrators, with at the time provinces were a Canadian company. And so that work that we grew um starting in more of those learner centered career education spaces really started to grow into the idea that digital documentation and reflection are the ways that we grow and the way that we show that growth.
00:14:03
Speaker
Of course, the John Dewey quote comes to mind. you know We did not learn from experience. We learned from reflecting on experience. And so from there, we started building digital portfolios, again, with a learner-centered mindset. How can they document evidence of their experiences and reflect upon them and then utilize those portfolios for things that they were pursuing?
00:14:25
Speaker
So internships, scholarships, post-secondary workforce, how can i show what I'm capable of and who I am so that, for example, I could be employable.
00:14:36
Speaker
And I feel very excited by the way that we do work. And I know that there's other organizations, Mastery Portfolio included, that think really critically about the need and then make the how possible.
00:14:50
Speaker
And I think that's something we have in common because it's very difficult if the tools that you create don't make it easier on the person who's trying to have the impact.
00:15:01
Speaker
And by creating tools that are learner centered, we're not putting as much of a weight on the teacher. And on top of that, The way that you get buy-in from somebody is to show value.
00:15:13
Speaker
And so if the value goes direct to the user and that user is the learner, then you don't have to worry so much about building buy-in and building usage because students see the value of documenting, reflecting, and utilizing their experiences for the things that they are pursuing.
00:15:30
Speaker
Wow. I think what you just said, Sierra, is so spot on and it's also so important. There are so many tools out there that aren't necessarily thinking so much about workflow and support of what's happening, or they think they are, but they lack the expertise from real educators to really make something that makes people's lives easier and enriches the outcome.
00:15:58
Speaker
And obviously that's so important. You know that I'm super passionate about documentation and just different ways we're able to do that. So, it's always It's always good to listen to you talk about this stuff. And I could talk to you forever about these things.
00:16:14
Speaker
um I agree wholeheartedly. So who in your career so far has really like helped you get to where you're going? Are there people we should be following or specific folks you'd like to shout out that our listeners should know about?
Educational Influences and Acknowledgments
00:16:32
Speaker
That's a great question. um I could actually answer this probably for the entirety of the podcast and not to just lean into you. But um certainly if you're not reading everything Star puts out there, get on Amazon and buy her books.
00:16:48
Speaker
And no, she's not paying me to say that. um But I think um one of the organizations that I follow closely and that I'm obsessed with their mission is the Knowledge Society.
00:17:00
Speaker
The Knowledge Society is actually a program geared toward 13 to 17-year-old kids. It's an innovation accelerator. They have in-person and virtual offerings, and they really force us to think about the problems of our society and to build skills that are unique to what we are learning in school.
00:17:22
Speaker
And I know there are a ton of unique programs that are after school and even during school hours that we should be thinking about promoting to our learners because It's not that you have to pick one avenue and that's the way that you do learning.
00:17:37
Speaker
And so looking at programs like TKS is a fantastic way to really engage young learners in the skills that they're going to need for the future. And on that same note, big picture learning is fantastic.
00:17:52
Speaker
And i'm I'm consistently following what they're doing and what they're saying because they think about learning the way that you and I think about learning. um A few schools that come to mind, I mean Surrey School District out of British Columbia, and I'd say most of the school districts in that province are doing fantastic work when it comes to assessment and grading reform and what they're focusing on when it comes to core competencies.
00:18:20
Speaker
And a couple people that I love, um Redesign and 2Revs, they're really into learner-centered practices, and they help schools and districts who are creating competency frameworks and thinking critically about the transformations required at you know, the instructional, the assessment level, really thinking about strategic planning and how we can do the best for our kids.
00:18:44
Speaker
And finally, just a good friend who I love and is the best at PD is ah Abby Benedito at AccorShifts. And if you're not following her or if you're looking for a fantastic PD around, you know, even co-creating.
00:19:00
Speaker
your portrait of a learner or a graduate, um she's a wicked person to go to. And I would 100% recommend just talking to her because she thinks so differently about the world and how we can evolve our educational systems to help our learners.
00:19:16
Speaker
That's quite the list. Thank you so much. That's great. Yes. Yes. Well, there's so many there's so many people in our journey that that influence us and and help us along the way.
00:19:28
Speaker
um Speaking of helping along the way, um if listeners want to reach out to you and learn more about you or getting get in touch, where could they do that online? It's a great question. So I'm actually very limited online. So I'd say LinkedIn is the best place to find me and to contact me.
00:19:45
Speaker
I try to keep my online time to a minimum. I have a five-year-old at home and she is my world. um But we also have a podcast. um It's called Growth Over Grades.
00:19:56
Speaker
So very in line with this topic. um And that could be found on Apple and Spotify. And we have a number of really fantastic guests coming on who are district leaders who are doing education differently. And I would definitely recommend checking that out.
00:20:13
Speaker
We will put all of those links in the show notes. And thank you so much for ah for your time and chatting with us, Sierra. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. This is a great conversation.
00:20:30
Speaker
Thank you for learning with us today. hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as we did. If you'd like any additional information from the show, check out the show notes. Learn more about Mastery Portfolio and how we support schools at MasteryPortfolio.com.
00:20:45
Speaker
Please sign up for our monthly newsletter for resources to support your learner-centered pedagogy. You can follow us on LinkedIn on our Mastery Portfolio page. We'd love for you to engage with us.
00:20:58
Speaker
If you'd like to be a guest on the show or know someone who would be an inspiring guest, please email us. Look for our contact information in the show notes. And we'd love your feedback.
00:21:08
Speaker
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