Transformative Principal

Lindsay Jones
===

/ [00:00:00] Welcome to Transformative Principle. I am here live for this episode at the CAST UDL Con International Conference, and here we are talking about all things related to Universal Design for learning, which is a way to make it so that learning is accessible to all students. This has been a great conference

so far, the one you're listening to right now is from the UDL Conference. And really a great time. Check it out, Check out cast.org for information about UDL. UDL-Con and so much more. Alright. Welcome to this special episode of Transformative Principal. I'm here with the CEO of Cast, Lindsey Jones. Lindsey, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate you being here.

Yeah, thank you. We're [00:01:00] excited to have you here.

So talk to me about why UDL Conn is so important and why it means so much right now.

There's a lot of changes going on, so talk about that.

So UD Elcon to me is, and has been over these last couple of days, just like an incredible. Relief and shot

of inspiration. Yeah.

Together, especially in these times. I mean, um, you know, we're a remote organization at CAST and we're online a lot on Zoom. There's just no replacement for being with 450 people

in person.

and who are working hard every day to make inclusion and belonging priorities for education.

It's just been super inspiring for me to meet them and talk with them and learn. Hmm.

Mm-Hmm. And there's been a lot of that same feeling from the people that I've talked to, that people are feeling so good to be together with, like-minded folks who, who have this dream [00:02:00] of making, learning accessible for everybody.

And that's a really powerful galvanizing force to gather people around. And I think that's, that's incredible. Um, so. Cast is celebrating its, uh, 40th anniversary right now. Uh, guidelines 3.0 have just been released. What do you see as the future and the things that you need to be focusing on for the future of cast?

And I think you just said it, it's like, how do we make the dream a reality?

What do we need to do to really implement, um, the design and the intentional environments that we wanna create? Um, and so at cas, the 3.0 guidelines will be a part of everything we do.

Mm-Hmm.

Um, and we'll be sharing those with the field and kind of working and continuing to learn with others as we all implement them.

Um, and it was a very lengthy process. It took us four years to get there. Hugely community driven, lots of community involvement, and still also a real focus on the research, [00:03:00] expanding it, ensuring that it's correct. So it is a really solid foundation for our next. 40 years.

Mm-Hmm. Yep.

Um, but I think our goal is what kind of structures do we need to help put in place for the field or lift up?

What kind of stories do we lift up to make that dream a reality? It's hard work. Um, which is why coming here is awesome because it's hard work. And so to be with people who do the work is great

And it's so rejuvenating to be with people who are doing the work and to feel, uh, like you're, you're not alone in it. And it's so easy to feel alone when you're the one who's constantly saying, uh, what about this, what about this?

And always the de uh, not necessarily dissenting, but always the, uh, additional question, voice saying, what's, what's going on? You, you've talked about three main focuses for, um, forecast, uh, lead. Inspire and convene. Did I get those right? And talk about what those mean and what those look like going into [00:04:00] the future.

Yeah. You did get them right.

Yes.

Those. So when we looked, when, you know, we had our 40th birthday reckoning, right? Like, as we all do. And when we looked at ourselves and we're like, what's our purpose? Um, we started there. We started with our mission statement, all right, let's lead, inspire, and convene as our way to kind of create the change we wanna see.

So now we're really trying to think through what is, what can we do? To live out each of those. Definitely convening is, although the third is the top right, um, we also included a focus on the global community, which cast has been involved in for years. But, um, when you think about convening and you talk about the purpose of it, it's to be with people.

It's to learn from others, and we wanna make sure that happens in a global environment as well. Inspire because so many people, um, again, maybe feel alone in the work. Are trying to move it to a systems level, but to do that, have to convince other people of why it's [00:05:00] good and what it can unleash in people and schools.

And so we need to find ways to create stories and share, um, great work that's happening to inspire people and leading, we think kind of encompasses all of that and probably also will be really creating some tools that build out the guidelines in concrete ways for different types of audience or audiences.

With the complex needs that we're seeing that we are hoping that these new guidelines align us

to.

Mm-Hmm. Yeah. One of the things that stands out to me is that the previous guidelines seemed focused on instruction, and these guidelines don't take away from instruction. But they seem more applicable to, uh, leadership, to systems, to other, other, uh, places to put in, put in the UDL guidelines. Uh, what's your, your sense about that?

Yeah, I think that's [00:06:00] absolutely true. I think over the years that we, so they, the UDL guidelines were originally created, even the principles themselves, as a way to scale the incredible individual work that was happening, right?

It was like, well, how do we not just influence one person, but how do we influence lots of people? Um, and so this is a further iteration of that for sure. It also is, we have so many, you know, we hear all the time. Is it just one more thing? Oh gosh. It's just one more thing I have to do. So I think what these guidelines really help with too is they align very well with culturally sustaining pedagogy, with SEL, with things that educators are using every day, and then they don't replace those.

But they're more seamlessly integrated with

Mm-Hmm.

Um, and they, and they represent what we've learned as we've moved forward since they were last updated.

Yeah. Well, and the other aspect of that is that they really don't feel like another thing.

They feel like they are part, [00:07:00] like they're the way to look at those other things that you're doing. Which, which is a really different way of viewing things. Um, I want to talk a little bit about inspiration because yesterday you gave the first, uh, awards at an awards ceremony and I thought, okay, that's cool.

That'll be cute and it'll be fine. But then I was there and to hear the stories of what these people have done, how they have, uh, impacted others and made things, uh, so much better for so many people is, was really inspiring. And I was moved, um, uh, with. Their comments and, and the things that they shared.

So talk about that part of inspiring and how you're sharing their stories and, and what that looks like going into the future as well. Well,

Well, I think UDL. Advanced to the place it's been around so for 40 years. And so we have those stories now. And so our awardees are incredible examples of that. And we wanna make sure people see them 'cause they, it's real [00:08:00] work that they're doing.

You know, they can talk about, Louie can talk about in classrooms, here's how we designed it. Here's how you, we want you to think of it. Why is the system important? Dara talks about training 4,000 teachers in Ireland. Something that, 20 years ago, training 4,000 teachers in Ireland in UDL. 20 years ago would've been impossible.

You wouldn't have even. So it, I hope our hope for those is, and Kavita and Kavita's, incredible research really saying, wow, we have enough work now to kind of precisely more precisely understand the impact of UDL on different systems. All of them giving us real ways for people to enter the, enter the

conversation and

see what they could probably do in their lives.

So we wanna keep. Sharing those stories and just lifting up more examples of it. Because so many times someone says, well, that sounds great, but how would I do it in my environment?

Yeah. Yep. That is is something that I've heard multiple times. How do I do this in my [00:09:00] environment? And what's so cool about being here is hearing people have those conversations and say, well, I am at an Episcopal K eight school.

And here's how we're doing it. And I am, uh, an adult education specialist working with refugees, teaching them English and citizenship and those kinds of things. And somebody else saying, I'm working with, uh, incarcerated youth. And everybody has these different perspectives, these different, uh, audiences that they're serving.

And it works in all of the situations, uh, which is amazing. And it used to be, you know, that it was just focused on special education. And now we're seeing where it can be applied in so many different ways. So let's talk about the, the idea of, of being here in person, coming to this conference and being part of it.

Um, what's the value in that for someone who's like, oh, I missed it this year. Should I really prioritize going next year? What would you say to that?[00:10:00]

I would say

oh, sorry.

Sorry. I would say you should definitely prioritize it for next year.

Yeah, for sure.

I, you know, it's, I think it is what you are saying. I think it is so incredible. So, so I don't view it as one more thing. I think, and when you talk with people here, the way it's changed their practice in all of those environments, it supercharges what they're doing. It completely. It lifts off a lot of the work eventually, right?

Because it engages the learner in that as a learner, as a their agency in learning. And so being here is, to me, you can't replace sitting next to someone and saying, oh, I'm doing this. How are you doing it? Oh, I just, or sitting at a table and listening to someone at lunch talk about what they're doing, and you're finding commonalities and you're learning new things, and that just is really hard to replicate

sometimes.

Mm-Hmm.

Um, in Zoom and we've all been in a million Zoom breakout rooms and we've tried, and, you know, and it is, and [00:11:00] we still do that. And we will, and we're super excited to have online, uh, participants in this conference because that's over half the conference. And I, we certainly want to offer all of the, um, get everyone into the discussion, but. When you're sitting here and you're listening to this, I don't, it's just super helpful as you understand and get real life examples from others. It just triggers a lot of thinking. Everyone I'm talking to is like, I am, my brain is exploding. I've got a lot of ideas for how I can, this will impact my practice.

Well, and the amazing thing is, is that you'll hear one thing and you'll be like, oh.

I see how that one little comment somebody shared that was just an off the cuff re mark is like answering this very specific problem that I'm having. And I've seen that happen with several people, um, at different tables and different conversations where they're like, oh, now I get it. And that's really powerful.

Um, any final words? Lindsay, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for your time.

Yeah. Just that I [00:12:00] think, you know, there's no, it's been amazing. It is an honor of mine to even work at Cast.

I'm let alone lead it. It's, it's, I, it's a gift to work somewhere where I feel like. Every day I am with people trying to make the world better, trying to solve problems that I think of as really impactful and meaningful and being at this conference, it's just like I get on the elevator with people. I'm like, what are you doing?

What did you, what did you like today? I love it. Um, and so it's been a great experience and I hope people understand that like you aren't alone. You aren't alone doing it. There are lots of people here you can come and learn from and laugh with and be with, and it's a good

time.

Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you again Lindsay. Lindsay Jones, CEO of cast, and uh, thank you so much for taking the time and for putting on this amazing conference.

Absolutely. Thank you.