Currently, he is the principal at Harrisburg South Middle School in South Dakota.  During his time in Harrisburg, he has been allowed the flexibility to rethink how education is provided to kids.  His staff has embraced new ideas: personalized learning, Makerspaces, global connections for learning, iChoose (Genius Hour meets EdCamp), and design thinking.

Darren emphasizes that relationship is the key to our work in education.  It is our purpose.  He also believes learners should be allowed voice and choice to be innovative, creative in their work.  This is done by empowering teachers and kids to write a new script for education.

Darren has written for Principal Leadership, contributed to EdSurge, worked on CoSN’s Driving K12 Innovation: 2019 Hurdles, and has been a guest on NPR’s 1A.  He has presented and keynoted at various conferences and school districts around the United States and has even presented internationally in Norway.  He and co-author Derek McCoy have written a book, The Revolution: It's Time to Empower Change in Our Schools, emphasizing the importance of voice and empowerment in education.  The time has come to break the traditional boundaries that hold us!

Start Your Revolution! -Keynote

Revolution takes place when people fight for a better tomorrow when the status quo has to be changed. Education needs to change today! We’ve embraced and protected systems from 100 years ago that do not serve learners in a globally connected, information-rich world. We think factory when we need to think creation; we think management when we need to think inspiration! We are called up to make bold, learner-centered decisions that force us to rethink what we know about learning, how learners engage and what all our new roles are. Let’s be the Revolution@ries our learners need, not the teachers we had as students.

Makerspace

In 2014 Darren connected with Laura Fleming about a new concept called a Makerspace.  With the help of Innovative Programs Director, Travis Lape, they convinced the Library Media Specialist, Kristi Jones, to create a Makerspace in the library.  With this experience, Darren has been a part of building a Makerspace and using it to attract a variety of learners so they can create and innovate. Makerspaces range from cardboard and art supplies to STEM equipment including 3D printers.  Darren began a Drone Club in 2015 and now works to encourage staff to integrate the maker philosophy and tools into their curriculums. 

Marketing Your School

Social media along with other tools can provide a method to not only communicate with your stakeholder but also tell your school’s story.  If you don’t tell the story of your school, someone else will or already is telling it. Social media has been used negatively by people, but it is not going away.  Discover how to embrace its use to show the greatness and caring of your school. You don’t need a marketing degree, but you do need time to highlight the unique learning and celebrations of your students.  

Personalized Learning

Personalized learning strikes up many different images.  Darren brings a picture that is unique to traditional education; a picture of our learners scheduling their day.  Personalized learning at Darren’s middle school has a high level of voice and choice, learner empowerment and collaboration.  It is not dependent on kids receiving instruction from a computer. Kids, learners, advocate for themselves to understand what is best for their learning.  Darren has experience of their program from day one to the present. It has and continues to evolve as it shatters myths from those that visit the program. 

Leadership

Darren has been a school leader for over a decade as a principal.  In his book, The Revolution, he highlights real stories in the leadership realm.  Whether it is leading adults or driving the learning needs of kids, he strives to empower people to look at education differently.  To include kids in our discussions, he advocates for ‘conversation versus consequence’. He also allows adults the space to take risks and learn from the outcomes.  Darren also speaks to our growth as educators. We need people in our lives that push us to be better and continue learning. 

Global Learning

If you want to take learning to a new level of creation, then learning with other classrooms is for you.  Darren began this journey in 2015 with several teachers from Norway. In his book, The Revolution, he describes three types of global learning or connections: Cultural Exchange, Authentic Learning and Global Empathy. Each builds on the other, but most educators stay stuck in the space of cultural exchange.  Discover how to facilitate these connections, build projects and create an experience for your schools. 

Innovative Learning Spaces

For Darren his passion to reimagine learning spaces began when he was accepted with a portion of his staff to learning about design thinking at Stanford University.  During this design workshop, he was enamored by the innovative thought put into the spaces and furniture. When he returned to South Dakota, he began to change the view of space in his building.  When staff was empowered to create spaces with their learners, amazing designs were and still are created. He eventually began to design and build furniture in his school with the help of parents from his school.  Today, they continue to build designs that are kid-approved. The prototypes are then mass produced with parents from his middle school on Saturday Builds. 

Culture

A few years ago, Darren realized he was spending too much time advocating for kids and needed to advocate more the adults in his building.  In the book, The Revolution, Darren details how he had his staff move to a collective purpose to impact the culture of his building. When you can identify your purpose and speak it in your culture, adults, and kids win!  For South Middle School that purpose was relationships. Culture includes those things that you emphasize. He is so intentional about culture that he has a group of teachers, Culture Club, who form ideas to promote core values.  Darren also details these core values emphasized in his building: risk-taking, learning from failure, emphasizing innovation, and more. If you want positive changes to take place in your school, it begins with a healthy culture.