unboxED
unboxED podcast with Emily & Yvette, explores educational innovation and challenges traditional norms to shape the future of learning. Through insightful discussions with a range of guests, including innovators and educators, we aim to inspire reflection and forward-thinking in education.
Find us on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unboxeducation/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unboxeducation_/
unboxED
When One Teacher Challenges the Status Quo, Students of All Abilities Thrive: Tanya Sheckley, The Rebel Educator
Tanya Sheckley embodies what it means to be a "rebel educator"—someone who looks at traditional systems, identifies what isn't working, and takes bold action to create something better. As founder and president of California's Up Academy, she's built an educational model that truly embraces diverse learners through project-based approaches and mixed-age learning communities.
Her journey began with deeply personal motivation. When her daughter, born with cerebral palsy, needed an education that would honor her intelligence while accommodating her physical needs, Tanya found existing options inadequate. This sparked the creation of Up Academy—though tragically, her daughter passed away before the school opened its doors. Through profound grief, Tanya persevered, eventually launching a school that now serves as a model for inclusive education.
What makes Up Academy distinctive? Small class sizes foster genuine relationships between students and multiple trusted adults. Mixed-age groupings create natural opportunities for differentiation and peer mentoring. And perhaps most remarkably, the school fully embraces failure as learning through weekly "fail-abrations" where students proudly share mistakes and what they learned from them.
Tanya's latest innovation is the Rebel Project Literacy Curriculum, designed to integrate project-based learning with literacy skills, creating cohesive learning experiences where reading, writing, and hands-on projects reinforce each other. This solves the common teacher dilemma of "finding time" for projects by weaving them into existing literacy blocks.
Whether you're an educator seeking practical strategies for inclusion, a school leader questioning outdated systems, or simply someone who believes in education's transformative potential, Tanya's vision of creating "a generation of learners who see all things as possible and all people as capable" will inspire you to become a rebel in your own context. Listen, learn, and join the educational revolution!
You can find Tanya here:
Tanya Sheckley, Founder
650-796-3848
UP Academy - Where Curiosity Thrives
Projects and Professional Learning
"Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world...."
— Malala Yousafzai
Malala has said that one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world. We are going to explore how our guest is changing her communities. She is the founder and president of Californian Up Academy.
Speaker 2:She is a true rebel educator who works with new and existing schools to question the status quo and develop innovative student experiences through inclusion and project-based learning. She's currently working with Inquire to distribute the Rebel Project Literacy Curriculum focusing on social-emotional learning. Welcome, tanya Sheckley, to Unbox. How are you in California today?
Speaker 3:I'm good thanks. It's early morning here. The sun's coming up. It's going to be a beautiful day. Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Tanya. We just love the wording rebel educator. It makes us want to find out more. Where does it?
Speaker 3:stem from. Well, when we think about a rebel, it's someone who does challenge the status quo, who looks at the way things are done and thinks that there could be a different way or a better way, and takes action and figures out how could we make changes that will benefit the world around us. How do we look at what has traditionally happened and look at what isn't working and make changes?
Speaker 1:Do you feel like you've, as a person, have had this rebel personality? I've always wanted to.
Speaker 3:I always befriended those people and wanted to have more of that in my life, and so, yeah, this is one way that I can try and bring that out in myself but also just really encourage others to make the little changes, to challenge the way things have always been done, because that's generally the enemy of the future and the enemy of progress is the way things have always been done. When was?
Speaker 1:the moment when you started to put down the first ideas for Academy. What is it?
Speaker 3:really, my oldest daughter was born with cerebral palsy and she was extraordinarily curious and smart and social, but also non ambulatory and nonverbal, and so when it came time for her to go to school, we looked at all of the possible ways of supporting her and all of the things that she would need and what she was going to need to gain independence in the world, but also what she was going to need to get her academics and be successful in the world. There are just so many cool things happening with robotics and with neurointegration and with AI and computer generated motion and development that it would be possible for her to drive a car or, like there are doctors doing surgery with robots. She wouldn't necessarily need her hands to even become a surgeon, right? So how did she get an education to be able to do all of those things? And it wasn't something that public schools did well. So it was probably around 2014 that we started talking about what would it look like if we were to design something.
Speaker 3:We got our 501c3 business status in 2015 and decided to move forward and really work on creating something new and different and inclusive for students, and then my daughter unexpectedly passed away in 2016. I was really unable to function as a human for about a year, while I worked through the most intense periods of that grief. And then we opened our doors in 2018. We had two students when we opened. Those early years were quite a roller coaster, for sure, but we really have built a progressive learning environment that works for a wide profile of learners. So it's small mixed age classes, it's project basedbased. It has universal accommodations in the classrooms.
Speaker 1:Such an amazing, inspiring story that you're telling and I'm so sorry for for your loss. Of course, um, I'm a special educator in mathematics, um, and you know, one of the things that I really try to work on is the relationship building between our students, because I find that the most effective strategy. But what are some strategies you think that schools and educators can use to ensure that we are always meeting the diverse needs for all students, including the ones with, you know, learning challenges? How do you, how do you do it at Up?
Speaker 3:Academy. Yeah, I think what you said is exactly right. It's building those relationships, and for us, keeping our class sizes small really allows us to build strong relationships with all of our students. We also do a lot of differentiation in our classes and also some small group like electives and what we've called pinwheel in the past, where our classes move to different educator classes or they each educator will teach something that they're passionate about, whether it's gardening or yoga or drama or cooking, and so then students can choose to do one of those and it gives them an opportunity to get to know the other teachers in the school really well as well. So they have more than one well-known, trusted adult. Instead, it really feels like a community because they know everyone, they've built relationships with everyone, and then the mixed age classes feed into that as well, because they have older friends, they have younger friends, and we do recess and lunch as a full school. We do our field trips as a full school. We do our field trips as a full school.
Speaker 3:One of our fifth graders playing soccer and on his competitive soccer team.
Speaker 3:Like he's really strong, he's fast on the ball, he can pound in the shots really hard.
Speaker 3:But then you watch him play with the four and five-year-old TK Kinders and he's really gentle and he dribbles around him once in a while but also sometimes loses the ball and kicks in nice soft shots that they can stop as goalies and just watching that shift in play to really have that awareness and knowledge of how to play with different ages and different groups of kids and support them and to help them feel like they're included in the game.
Speaker 3:And I think the mixed age and the relationship building really builds that. And the mixed age classes are great for that too, because there are kids that learn at a slower pace and kids that learn at a faster pace and kids that read and comprehend at an early age, but math is more of a struggle and kids that comprehend math at an early age, but reading is more of a struggle and there's no typical first grader who's exactly on track for learning. Whatever it is you're supposed to learn on a Thursday in November in first grade, right? They're always a little ahead or a little behind, even in a homogenous age class. So mixing those kids in ways that they're together with their just right level group so they can be challenged enough to be engaged and interested, but not so challenged where they check out and it's too hard and it's overwhelming.
Speaker 2:If somebody is listening now and they would like to do work more on those mixed age groups, what could be a first step to take for them?
Speaker 3:I feel like it's something where you just jump in, you figure out, you know, for us we figure out which cohorts of kids are going to work best together. We're not mixing huge, huge cross levels, but looking at how do we create the best environment for students. Really, up Academy was fully built on that premise is how do we do the best thing that we possibly can for all of our students every day? And even if we're just starting out and it's something new for teachers or something new for a school, and we're not sure, you know, maybe it's a couple hours a day, maybe it's something new for teachers or something new for a school, and we're not sure. Maybe it's a couple hours a day, maybe it's only for elective classes to start, maybe it's a sampling to figure out how we can do this or how the culture shifts or how it changes before we make a full classroom shift. But again, it goes back to what's best for the students.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's just what is needed, yeah, and we're unboxing these key words that you're saying passion and community and it's the red thread with all the people that we talk to in our podcast the importance of having the community and basing the students learning on their passion.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking a little bit more about when we are talking about social, emotional learning, about well-being, creating those positive relationships, because what we see is that the world is becoming more polarized. So how are you working with empathy at Up Academy?
Speaker 3:That's a really good question and it's one of our core values. Head up is empathy, and when we think about empathy, we're really thinking about how do we look at each conflict or they are feeling and how they made them feel, and part of that goes back to relationship building. Whenever there's a conflict, we're working through from a restorative justice framework and having them reflect back each other's feelings and then working forward and how do we repair that relationship. I think one of the biggest challenges we're seeing definitely in the US. I think one of the biggest challenges we're seeing definitely in the US there's a ton of polarization. That is very real here, but we're also seeing such high levels of anxiety and depression and uncertainty and perfectionism, much higher than before the pandemic, which is really creating behavior struggles and relationship struggles within the classroom, and so getting students the outside support they need to work on those things and to build themselves also helps them build that empathy muscle when they're working with others and building relationships. We also have an innovation program that works from a design thinking standpoint.
Speaker 3:So what is the problem I need to solve? What is my idea for solving it? Let's build it, let's create it, let's try it. Okay, did it work, didn't it work? Well, if it didn't work, we haven't failed. We've found a way that didn't work. So what about it didn't work? And how do we fix it and make it better and get it to solve the problem that we wanted it to solve? And then one of my favorites is every Friday in community circle, we have what we call our fail-abrations, and these are where students share their mistakes or their failures during the week and then what they learned from them or how they grew. And it's not uncommon, you know, even during the week, to hear a student say oh, I made a mistake, but that's okay because my brain is growing.
Speaker 3:And yeah, the fail abrasions are really fun because it goes back to that reflection piece, right, and that's that's building self awareness, it's building empathy, it's building social emotional skills. But it gives them a chance to look back on their week and say, oh, this is a thing that I didn't do well, and here's what I did instead, or here's how I overcame that, or here's how I asked for help. So the fail-abrations are great fun and great growth mindset. I was brought up to believe that you got a good job in a good company and you'd have a pension and you worked there for 40 years and that was your life, and then you retired and you'd be supported by your company. And that's just not the reality of today.
Speaker 3:Workers switch jobs every two to five years. They're looking for something new, they want to be engaged, they want to be involved, they want to be challenged and also there's just so many opportunities for gig work. There are lots and lots of ways to make a living, to express your interests, to follow your own creativity and be able to do that, and our students need to have that flexibility of mindset and understanding of how to shift gears when something isn't working, or how to follow their interests or believe in their ideas and that basis of both self-awareness and empathy and growth mindset give them that toolkit that toolkit.
Speaker 1:I want to unbox women in leadership, and I mean reading about you and learning about you. You seem to be this person who truly lifts others, so what advice would you give to young women aspiring to leadership positions?
Speaker 3:That's a good question, I mean. I think the major one is just to believe in yourself and believe in your ideas and keep going. Like so many great ideas just don't come to fruition because we give up, we decide it's too hard, and so that stops progression, I think. And that goes back to growth. Mindset right why that's so important. Mindset right why that's so important. This didn't work. How do I do it differently? How do I overcome this problem?
Speaker 3:And sometimes it's just easier to go to a different company and make a vertical jump that way than to try and keep fighting against something that's not working.
Speaker 3:So, finding the right situation, finding the community, building the right community around you of people who can support and challenge and push you to do the things that you want to do. I'm definitely somebody who's very strong in my ideas and doesn't typically take no for an answer. I figure out another way to accomplish the things I want to accomplish. But that hasn't been done without finding incredible coaches and mentors. So I think that's the other key piece of it is who are the people who are a few steps ahead of you, who are willing to help, who are willing to lift you up, who are willing to be an ally, who are willing even sometimes just to listen while you vent all of the things that you need to vent, to vent, because that's stuff that can't be done in the office and can't be done at work. But it's so vital to have that network to be able to support and understand and bounce ideas off of and really to push you in the right directions.
Speaker 2:This is about role modeling, because when we were thinking of our dream list, our wish list, who are the people we want to get inspired by? And they are there, and we're curious to know who are the women that you are inspired by.
Speaker 3:As you asked the question and I thought through it, there's definitely a lot of men that I look to for those things as well and, honestly, that's been harder. When I first found a coaching group it was a women's mastermind and women's coaching group I was always surrounded by women. It was led by women and as I switched into a different accountability group and different format of coaching that was co-ed but co-ed for entrepreneurs, which is primarily men, I found, you know, and they did a good job there were two women in a group of five of us and this year there are two women in a group of six of us. But then when we go to the larger meetings, there's, you know, it's 20% women and the rest of the room is men.
Speaker 2:So that's been an interesting shift.
Speaker 3:So that's been an interesting shift. But we can like not to discount the voices or ideas of men, because they have really good voices and ideas as well. But it is really important. As women we are still the underdogs. We don't get the funding, we don't get the callbacks. We're often still looked at as not equal to men, even if it's not outwardly spoken. One example I'll give of that is when we first started looking for locations for the school. I would drive around and I'd look for vacant spaces and I'd call the real estate agents and talk with them and want to get a showing and learn more about the building. And I'd get them and want to get a showing and learn more about the building and I'd get probably 60% callbacks. But I drive around and take pictures of the sign, send them to the man who was on my board of directors. They would take his call, they'd set up a meeting and it would be so much easier.
Speaker 2:And so I just got to the point where I was like John, can you help me with this?
Speaker 3:Can you make these phone calls and take care of this, Because you're getting a lot better response rate than I am and they'll move a lot faster. So he would set the meeting and then I would be the one that would show up.
Speaker 2:But it's.
Speaker 3:You know it's unfortunate that we have to play those games. But at the same time, it kind of goes back to growth mindset. This isn't working. How can I find a way that it will work more efficiently? And I'm willing to use the tools that are surrounding me to make that happen HETCH, which is Helsingborg Tech Hub.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of tech companies here and it's the same thing here. I would say, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't be quotable, but the majority of the people here are men, but I also know that they are eagerly trying to get more women into tech, for example. So I think there is a will Slowly, slowly, it will move, for example. So I think there is a will Slowly, slowly, it will move. And I think it's also important to be those role models for young people. We have been talking about inclusivity for students, but we are also thinking about inclusivity for your teams. How do you work with inclusion in your teams, with your teachers, other staff in school?
Speaker 3:I mean we do a lot of relationship building that way as well. We spend time culture building, we spend time sharing our marketing and our outreach. We really want them to be involved and have some knowledge of how all aspects of the school works, and so it's important from that aspect that everybody has some background knowledge, but also, you know, it just helps everybody to have an understanding of the common goals that we're working towards. We do outings as a team several times a year, like we took the team axe throwing and to a video game place this year at the end of the year, which we were talking about, which must be just completely an American corporate bonding thing. I can't think of anywhere else in the world where you would go axe throwing.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe Scandinavia. We have the Viking.
Speaker 3:But bringing the team together and so doing those things from a development and business standpoint.
Speaker 3:The other thing we do, from a letting it evolve standpoint, is creating a lot of prep time for our educator team and our teachers which is aligned as much as possible to create a lot of time for them to collaborate. So their project units are built together, our field trips are built as a full school. And then how do we give them as much time as possible to collaborate together and honestly just get to know each other? Right? They're not using all of that time as super productive collaboration time. They're using that time to tell jokes and ask how each other's day went and get to know each other and build that company culture and company relationship as much as we try to cultivate for our students. I think so much of it trickles down right. When we give our educators autonomy, they're able to teach their students how to build autonomy. When we give our educators collaboration time, they're able to enable that for their students and create projects kinds of things that should be so obvious but is not in many schools.
Speaker 2:Emilie and I we were teaching in a primary school before and now we're teaching in the middle years sector, and we said to each other it's so much easier to do projects in primary years when you move to middle years. You really need that time to collaborate because otherwise it will not happen. Middle years you really need that time to collaborate because otherwise it will not happen. Yeah, we have one thing that we are very curious about the Rebel Project Literacy Curriculum.
Speaker 3:What is that? One of the things when we work with schools that we hear a lot is I don't have time to integrate projects into my school day. How do I make time for project-based learning? Does this need to be another time block or how do I create this? So that question and problem combined with you know, how do we make, like you just said, with the primary years? How do we make learning interdisciplinary? How do we draw our subjects together? How do we keep it interesting and relevant for our students?
Speaker 3:So we looked at these challenges and built the Rebel Project Literacy Curriculum. It is a content-based literacy curriculum fully designed to replace something like Lucy Calkins in the classroom, where it looks at different writing styles. It looks at comprehension and at reading, but draws in project-based learning or new to how to integrate this in an interdisciplinary way. A solid framework to build a literacy and project. It creates more time in the classroom because their students are doing some of their research and their writing and their reading on their project matter in literacy. So for the students it makes the day really cohesive because they've started their day.
Speaker 3:They're learning about like, for example, we did a transportation unit.
Speaker 3:So they start their day. They're learning about different modes of transportation or what transportation might look like in the future, and they're reading about that and then they might be working on a persuasive writing paper about the ways they think transportation will change in the future or why we need to go to flying cars or whatever their area of interest is right. And then when they actually get into their project block, they're continuing that learning and so they're continuing on that string and that focus and that interest. So it creates more time, it creates integration, it provides all of the building blocks of literacy that students need, based off of the science of reading. Yeah, we've just finished writing it. We've been using it in our school for a couple of years. We have a couple of other schools piloting it and we, you know, we're looking for schools who are interested in project-based learning, who want to create an interdisciplinary experience, or teachers who are new to project-based learning that are looking for a framework, because it is available and it's out, and thank you for helping us spread the word.
Speaker 2:And we will add Tanya's detail or anybody who is interested and inspired. They can also contact you.
Speaker 1:Last question we promise You're such a we love doers. What does a doer like yourself dream about right now, and for yourself and for the community, but also for the world?
Speaker 3:Well, the goal of opening up Academy was always to create a generation of learners who saw all things as possible and all people as capable. So I think that's that's the dream, right, you know? See everyone as capable and understand the possibilities in the world around them wow, that is a fantastic wrap up.
Speaker 2:Oh, my, those last words. Tanya, thank you so much for coming to Unbox.
Speaker 1:Remember the adventure of learning never ends. Stay curious, stay adventurous and keep unboxing the world around you.
