Transformative Principal

[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.

welcome to this special episode of Transformative Principal. I'm here with Alex Dang Lazano from West Ed, and we are here at the UDL Con uh, [00:01:00] conference, uh, powered by cast. Uh, kind of stumbled over that. Oh, well, we'll fix it in post. Here we go. So, uh, Alex, you're running the UDL Jam.

Session or the UDL Joy room or, uh, tell us about what that is and what you're doing.

Sure. So, um,

sorry.

Sure. So, um, well I'm co-running it with two of my colleagues. And, um, essentially what we're trying to do in, there are a few things. The kind of most superficial or out, out, uh, forward facing, uh, goal is to create joy and, and, um.

Build joy and make it just a, a nice easy space to be in. And so we've had a lot of people coming in just to come in, you know, and see what we're doing. And, and a lot of people when they come in, we always say like, uh, take a fidget toy, take a, take a candy, you know, just a little space. Um, [00:02:00] but underneath that, what we're really doing with the UDL labs and this, um, kind of UDL jam space.

Um, we're taking from that idea of like a musical jam, uh, an improvisational jam, and we're saying how can we take UDL Universal Design for learning and broaden and out, think about it just a little further beyond just what, uh, is happening in the classroom or, uh, in the teaching space, and broaden it out to how can we think, you know, about UDL as a problem solving tool.

As a framework for thinking about, uh, communicating and interacting with our colleagues or with our, um, you know, we, we just had a, a, a jam session about, um, having hard conversations in this case, or in that case we were talking about, uh, in a classroom setting, but we also brought it out to, well, how would we have had that conversation with the parents or, you know, whoever.[00:03:00]

But the, the goal is really just thinking broadly about UDL.

So one of the, uh, things that people get from a conference is the interaction in unstructured, non-scheduled time. And what you're essentially doing is providing a space for that time, uh, throughout the conference. Why is that so important for events like this for people to be able to have a space to go?

Uh, discuss, brainstorm, come up with different ideas. Why is that so important?

Yeah. Or even just come in and do nothing. Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. Um, you know, it's funny, we were talking about it yesterday after the keynote. It was a excellent keynote conversation or, um, a

keynote, keynote

keynote speaker talking for about 45 minutes, and we were saying, wow, isn't it interesting at a UDL conference to have a 45 minute, you know, uh, lecture

Mm-Hmm.

you know, [00:04:00] just, just a, a one way conversation.

Um, and so I think it's really important at conferences like this really any conference, but especially a conference like this, for us to broaden out what these, uh, interactions can be, right? And so having a space like ours has been really nice. Um, we, before we came, we called it an unconference room because we were just thinking like, how can we make it a space that's, you know, molding itself to the people that come in and open to whatever comes in?

Yeah. And, um, you know, I mean, I had somebody come in Yes. Uh, yesterday who just wanted to talk about her specific role. I, I, uh, focus on accessibility in my work and she focuses on accessibility. And we totally trailed off in our conversation way far away from UDL into just the challenges at our, at our, um, at our jobs.

And it was fun to find ways to bring it back to UDL and think about how could UDL support us, but also just being really [00:05:00] practical. I mean, it was just totally a. Another time and space for a moment.

Mm-Hmm. Yeah.

But having that space here, uh, I think is really important with all these really, uh, traditional conference, uh, setups.

Yeah. Well, and what I, what I love about the feel of this conference is that. Yes, there is a traditional keynote. There are traditional sessions, uh, but they're also doing some simulcast live online. They're doing the unconference room, like what you've got going, and, uh, they're, uh, I'm here doing it.

Podcast interviews is a different way to help people engage and interact. And being able to have all these different things, I think is really valuable and important. So it's good that it's not just another conference, but that it's, it's designed to be something different. Will you talk a little bit about the ways that you've designed that room to be adaptable and moldable to the people who enter?

Yeah, totally. Um, well, we. We have all [00:06:00] these fun signs outside, and this was our easy way or our fun way of trying to bring people in. We didn't, uh, we didn't even actually get on the formal agenda, um, because yeah, we were trying to keep it real, real wide open. Um, but walk in the room. We've got on each table, just a little box full of fidget toys and candies,

Um,

you know, little, uh, what, what do they call it?

Um. Uh, stress balls. Stress balls. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And, um, yeah, you know, we've got, um, poster boards up where we've asked people,

you know,

what sparks joy when you think about UDL for you? And, and people are just putting up their little post-Its of, of i things about UDL. That sparked joy for me. I wrote down accessibility 'cause I love that UDL has accessibility as its baseline.

Um, but then, then we have another poster board up there that says, um. It's essentially asking what's a sticky problem? That's, you know, just keeps coming up for you. And we've been [00:07:00] using that as a basis for our conversations, these UDL Jams, to kind of figure out like, how can we play with UDL, you know, make it a play space and, and figure out how to apply these principles that are geared towards learning.

How can we apply them to these interesting problems in our, in our work, in our lives, in our, uh, teaching, whatever it may be.

Uh, what I appreciate about that is that you, the room as you come in is fairly busy and there's, you can tell there's a lot going on, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. Like, I don't know where to start. It feels like I could do anything in here, and there's no. Uh, the, the lack of constraint, uh, is part of what makes it inviting in that you don't have to show up a certain way.

Like, you're not coming in here to be talked at, you're not coming in here to talk to someone. You're coming in here for whatever needs to [00:08:00] happen, and, uh, you and your team have done a great job of making it feel that way. And I've walked in there a couple times and have, have felt that both times. So, so kudos to you for that.

Great. Yeah.

Yeah. I, yeah. That's so great to hear. It's so funny. Before I left, I was talking to my wife and, and we were saying. She was like, so what are you doing?

Yeah. And

And I said, well, I think I'm presenting. It's not quite clear. We've been talking about this unconference, this, uh, this unconference room, this joy lab.

I, it's not quite clear. We've been working on this, uh, UDL Labs project for a while, trying to play with this idea in our own space, but it wasn't quite clear coming in and it turned out to be just what we needed to come in and set the space up, right? Like if we had come in with too many preconceived.

Notions it, it just wouldn't have worked the way you're, you're, uh, you're describing

Well, and what's so cool is that at, uh, the keynote this morning, I heard some people talking and then [00:09:00] they were saying they were getting into deeper ideas, and then one of them said.

We're gonna be just going to that UDL jam space today, this afternoon. So why don't you, we just go meet up there again, and like it turned into this, here's a place for us to go to continue this conversation that we started at breakfast. And just, I, I love that idea that there's, there's a place to go and, and it, it's a location and it's a, uh, a place where they felt comfortable saying, let's just go chat there and we can continue the conversation.

Uh, and so I, what I really appreciate is at a conference having a, a different type of space for people to be engaged. Um, would you like to say anything about, uh, WestEd and what you guys do, uh, as we close out here? Yeah. Sorry

that. Yeah, happy to. Um, and it's so funny, I, I, we were just at, last week, I was at a meeting, we were talking about our mission and values, and boy, I wish I had committed those to hard memory.

Um, [00:10:00] WestEd essentially is a, um, an organization that is heavily invested in creating research, uh, promoting development, all around education. Uh, we create a lot of resources, a lot of. Uh, we do a lot of professional learning. Um, gosh, there's just so many different areas and spaces that we work in, all the way from, uh, early learning, early, uh, early education, all the way up through, uh, career development.

And, um, yeah, geez. Um, I've worked on so many projects. I've been there now for about 11 years and, um, I really have seen just the breadth of expertise and knowledge. I've seen WestEd grow in these really amazing ways and. Um, what I love about WestEd is, um, that the field really recognizes the excellence that comes out of, um, out of our work, um, our commitment to equity and access.

Um, you know, I've loved growing in my role as an accessibility manager, [00:11:00] building up WestEd's awareness and, and, um, awareness of disabilities, awareness of accessibility in our work and, uh, becoming a leader

that space as well. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Very good. How would you like people to get in touch with you if they want to learn more? Sorry.

Sure. Yeah, you can, um, you know, you can re uh, check us out on wested.org, um, W-E-S-T-E-D. Um, you can reach out to me a lozano@wested.org. Um, and, um, yeah, all of, all of us here working around the UDL uh, conference and working with CAST are. Very happy to hear from you. Um, I think that's probably gonna be the best way to get in touch.

Yeah.

Okay. Well, thanks for being part of the Transformative principle and thanks for creating such a great space here at, uh, UD Elcon. It's been awesome.

Uh, you know what, I'll say, uh, look up WestEd on LinkedIn. That that is a great space to get in touch with us and we've been putting a lot of our [00:12:00] social media efforts in LinkedIn, so please look us up on LinkedIn.

It's gonna be a great way to get in touch, but thank you very much. Yep.