Why the Best Classroom in Your City Has No Walls with Terris King II

From The Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast | The #1 Downloaded School Leadership Show · 50:33

Show by Daniel Bauer Loves School Leadership

Outdoor learning isn't a field trip or a reward. Most principals already have a better classroom than their building: the forest out back. Outdoor learning in public schools is no longer a nice extra. In Baltimore, it's a right the city is writing into law. Terris King II built the Baltimore Forest School from a kindergarten classroom in Shanghai into a city-sanctioned system serving 79,000 public school kids, partnering with the Smithsonian and placing 60 weather stations across the city to close neighborhood data deserts. Terris breaks down the Outdoor Bill of Rights and what it takes to make it enforceable, why taking recess away should never be a punishment, how church volunteers kept kids reading during COVID, and why he swapped the word "play" for "participatory science," a term a principal can actually measure. Then he names the three city partners every Ruckus Maker needs at the table to Do School Different: city schools, parks and recreation, and the office of sustainability. THINK THROUGH YOUR NEXT LEADERSHIP MOVE: https://myprincipalcoach.com — your AI-powered principal coach, available 24/7. ⌚️ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Why nature is missing school infrastructure 04:41 - What COVID in Shanghai taught Terris 07:00 - Why screens are the most detrimental drug 11:05 - One Health and the recess disparity 14:43 - What the Outdoor Bill of Rights says 17:15 - Making children's outdoor rights enforceable 19:09 - Maryland's outdoor preschool licensure 26:28 - The joy metric and a five-year disruption plan 28:16 - Churches as classrooms during COVID 31:21 - Rebranding play as participatory science 32:10 - 60 weather stations erase data deserts 35:18 - Three city partners every forest school needs 40:08 - The forest patch behind your school 43:26 - Running the Chicago Marathon with students 🔗 CONNECT WITH TERRIS KING II: 🌎 Website: https://www.baltimoreforestschool.org/, https://www.templexschools.com/ 👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terriskingii/ WHENEVER YOU ARE READY, HERE'S 3 WAYS TO HELP YOU DO SCHOOL DIFFERENT: 📬 Weekly newsletter: https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe 📚 Monthly mini-books: https://ruckusmakers.media 🧭 Map your next 90-days: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/principals-entry-plan/ 💟 TODAY'S RUCKUSCAST IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: IXL: IXL's adaptive platform finds every student's knowledge gaps, adjusts difficulty as they learn, and gives you a dashboard showing exactly where growth is happening. Over 1 million teachers use it — get started at https://ixl.com/leaders ODP BUSINESS SOLUTIONS: ODP Business Solutions has supplied schools for 30 years — converting dead computer labs into STEAM centers, stocking multiple campuses, upgrading whiteboards to interactive displays — all from a single supplier through cooperative contracts. Learn more at https://odpbusiness.com/education ORCHARD: Orchard gives every student a personalized career action plan and scores readiness across 8 dimensions — a number you can take to your board. See how it works at https://betterleaders.orchard.careers/ KIDS FIRST EDUCATION: Kids First Education builds professional learning around your district's priorities, your data, and your classrooms — not pulled off a shelf — and 98% of educators walk out ready to use what they learned. Partner with them at https://kidsfirst.llc/leaders

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