In this episode of Make It Mindful, Seth talks with Travis Moyer - Banyan Global Learning's Director of Programming - about Global Cohorts, the four-week virtual exchange program he piloted this spring with three classroom cohorts, and what happens when students design their own festivals for an international audience. Moyer has written previously about designing for flow and deep engagement in virtual classrooms, and that thinking shows up directly in how the program's activities are structured. Together, Seth and Travis explore the origin of Global Cohorts in Banyan's 18-year partnership with Tsai Hsing School in Taipei, the recurring failure points of ad hoc classroom-to-classroom partnerships, and how running multiple cohorts in parallel solves for one partner dropping out mid-unit. They walk through the festivals unit step by step - how students share their own local festivals, study festivals from around the world, get matched with partner schools ahead of time, and eventually use AI to visualize a festival of their own design. The conversation lands on what happened when the exercise reached a cohort of Ukrainian students who'd been scattered by the war: without being prompted to, nearly every student built a festival about family and cultural preservation. Key topics:Global Cohorts program design and originBanyan's 18-year partnership with Tsai Hsing School, TaipeiSolving classroom-partnership dropout with parallel cohortsThe festivals unit: weekly structure and cadenceUsing AI to visualize student-designed festivalsUkrainian student cohort and displacementPlace-based identity themes across cohorts (Minneapolis, Calgary) Links & Resources:Banyan Global Cohorts program: https://www.banyangloballearning.com/programs/global-cohorts"The Flow State and Education: Deep Focus, Engagement, and Productivity" — Banyan Global Learning blog, December 20, 2024 Guest Bio: Travis MoyerTravis Moyer is Banyan Global Learning's Director of Programming, where he oversees new program development, including Global Cohorts. He spent over a decade as an elementary and high school science teacher in the U.S., and with Banyan has specialized in live, synchronous distance learning. He holds an M.Ed. from Pepperdine University and a B.S. in Biology from Duke University. About the Host: Seth Fleischauer is the founder of Banyan Global Learning and host of Make It Mindful. Through Banyan, he designs live virtual programs that connect K-12 classrooms to global peers and expert facilitators — building the kind of structured, human-centered learning the podcast explores.

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In this episode, Eric Rowe and Locha Brooks explore why many of the challenges schools attribute to students, teachers, or leaders may actually originate within the systems that shape their experiences. Rather than focusing on fixing people, the conversation examines how assumptions, structures, and processes influence behavior, decision-making, and organizational outcomes. Together, they discuss why meaningful improvement begins by understanding the system behind a problem, how leaders can become better listeners before becoming problem solvers, and why asking better questions may be the most important step toward lasting change.

Six Brands Every Catholic School Leader Should Study Host: John Mihalyo  Every day, families walk through your doors already trained by six companies to expect something incredible, and they don't even realize it.In this episode, John looks at Apple, Amazon, Nike, Southwest, Disney, and Chick-fil-A, six brands that have earned a level of trust and loyalty most organizations only dream of, and asks the question every Catholic school leader should be asking: what would it look like if we did the same thing our way, rooted in our mission and our faith? From Apple's gift for building anticipation to Amazon's obsession with removing friction, from Nike's unmistakable identity to Southwest's 47 years of profitability built on culture, from Disney's intentional design of every single detail to Chick-fil-A's hospitality that never apologizes for what it stands for, each company has something to teach us. John breaks down what each one does well and what the Catholic school version of that could actually look like in your building this year. The bigger point, though, is that recruitment and culture were never just one person's job. Your front desk, your cleaning team, your teachers at pickup, all of them are shaping the experience a family remembers. John leaves you with one challenge: pick the thing from this episode that made you a little uncomfortable, and change it this month. LINKS AND RESOURCESConnect with John Mihalyo! If you want help turning any of these ideas into something real for your school, reach out at elementaryadvancement.com If this episode got you thinking, send it to another Catholic school leader who could use a fresh way of looking at their building this week.

A lecturer challenges students to beat his investment performance by 20% for a shot at $10,000, then explains how he studies real-world signals and AI-era investment opportunities.