Voice and Choice vs. Curriculum Coverage? How One School is Making it Work
Release Date: 04/22/2025
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Tired of watching student teams burn out mid-project? Or seeing the same student take charge while others fade into the background? In this episode, I share a simple but powerful strategy that reinvigorated our year-long student-run business: rotating roles. You’ll hear how a single shift—letting students try on new responsibilities—rebalanced workloads, re-energized participation, and fostered deeper collaboration and skill growth. Through the story of our Montessori middle school café project, you'll hear how rotating a fatigued marketing manager into product development not only...
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Voice and Choice vs Curriculum Coverage (Replay)
The Student-Centered Shift: Empowered International Schools and Classrooms Through Project-Based Learning
I'm re-airing this episode based on popular demand and a recent study that shows a sharp decline in pupil's happiness in secondary school due to a lack of agency. Are you trying to build more student agency, but feel boxed in by curriculum coverage? What if you didn’t have to choose between voice and academic rigor? In this episode, I sit down with Natalie Harvey, secondary principal at Beijing City International School (BCIS), to explore how her team is shifting culture around student agency while still honoring the demands of a rigorous curriculum. From co-creating a three-year...
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The Student-Centered Shift: Empowered International Schools and Classrooms Through Project-Based Learning
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Stuck Teaching in a Bubble? How Place Based Learning Brings the World to Your Students
The Student-Centered Shift: Empowered International Schools and Classrooms Through Project-Based Learning
Do you ever feel stuck trying to make learning relevant, but tied to the four walls of your classroom? What if the place students learn became the curriculum itself—full of stories, problems, and people to learn from? In this episode, I sit down with Jen Buchanan, principal at Think Global School—one of the world’s only fully traveling high schools—to explore how place-based learning transforms education. Jen shares how students immerse themselves in local contexts like Japan, Botswana, and Greece, tackling real-world issues through interdisciplinary projects with community partners....
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Sick of Managing Every Project? How Student Managers Boost Engagement and Accountability
The Student-Centered Shift: Empowered International Schools and Classrooms Through Project-Based Learning
Do you feel like every classroom activity depends on you to keep things running? What if one small shift could hand that responsibility to your students, and spark more energy and accountability than you imagined? In this episode, I share a classroom story of empowering a student to take on the role of project manager. What began as a way to distribute responsibilities in a café project quickly expanded into labs, group work, and even whole class discussions. The result? Students who not only stepped up but often outperformed expectations, building ownership, collaboration, and confidence in...
info_outlineTrying to build more student agency—but feel boxed in by curriculum coverage? What if you didn’t have to choose between voice and academic rigor?
In this episode, I sit down with Natalie Harvey, secondary principal at Beijing City International School (BCIS), to explore how her team is shifting culture around student agency while still honoring the demands of a rigorous curriculum. From co-creating a three-year vision to redefining personalization in the International Baccalaureate (IB) framework, Natalie shares the intentional moves that are making voice and choice a lived experience—not just a buzzword.
You’ll hear how BCIS is navigating real challenges while building a culture where students know themselves deeply, make meaningful decisions, and drive their own learning.
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How BCIS reframed student agency through the lens of “jaggedness”
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What voice and choice look like in the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP) classroom
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How leadership created a shared language and clear expectations around agency
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Why building trust—and giving teachers choice—is key to sustainable change
Ready to hear how these shifts are playing out in practice and what they might look like in your setting?
Connect with Natalie: Natalie.Harvey@bcis.cn
Get the 12 Shifts Book: On Amazon, On the Website: www.transformschool.com/whereistheteacher
Natalie's Bio: Natalie is the current Secondary Principal of BCIS and was born in Hanover, Jamaica. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Language Education: English, from the University of the West Indies, a Master of Arts in Education from Wake Forrest University, a Certificate of International School Leadership from the Principal's Training Center, and is pursuing a Ph.D. in International School Leadership with Wilkes University.
Before BCIS, Natalie worked in various capacities in Jamaica, the United States of America, Venezuela, and Mexico. She was a Middle School Deputy Principal and Principal at the American School of Tampico for seven years. She has been an educator for 25 years and has a wealth of experience in teaching and leading. Natalie believes that forming solid interpersonal relationships leads to a positive school culture, functional collaborative structures, and exceptional outcomes for students and teachers.
In addition, Natalie is passionate about partnering with parents, promoting student voice, and fostering a sense of belonging and a focus on successful learning outcomes within the BCIS community.