Tired of the tunes? You can now toss “Dr. Nolin’s Dispatch” onto your Spotify playlist.
The idea for this new podcast from Natick Public Schools came via the Parent Academy town hall held in January 2020, and parents have since confirmed that they’d like a podcast featuring school Supt. Dr. Anna Nolin and touching on timely topics.
A trailer has been released teasing the first episode, which will explore “agility, innovation, and a Natick profile of a graduate.”
The podcast will start with three episodes, distributed over the summer at dates to be determined. Nolin will look to differentiate the podcast from her other communications, including a weekly newsletter and appearances before the School Committee and other town groups.
“This podcast will be focused on discussing the nuts and bolts of our district work by introducing some of our leaders and the work they’re doing that impacts the district,” Nolin explained in an email to us. “In addition, this is also an opportunity for us share our deep community-student connections in new and exciting ways; the first episode shares a glimpse into that aspect specifically.”
The podcast has been produced by Natick students, who are leaning on their technical theatre and production backgrounds.
“The great part of doing a podcast is that allows flexibility in how we record our episodes, so most of our work is done in a remote capacity right now. However, when things allow, we plan to move to recording in-person (using the NHS studio) in the future,” Nolin says.
Nolin and the Natick Public Schools Communications Office met with students 6 times this spring to create the podcast (students Allie Conwell, Sammy Scharr, Ellie Pantekidis, Anna Victor, and Daniel Zogby are cited in a recent Natick Public Schools newsletter item on the podcast).
Natick is not the only school district to have a podcasting superintendent, but there aren’t many around here.
We give Dr. Nolin credit for bravery (we’ve been encouraged to add podcasting to our mix and have held off).
Which podcasts does she listen to, and perhaps take inspiration from?
- Modern Love (NY Times)
- Kind World (NPR)
- The Moth
- Harvard Business Review
Stay tuned for the first episode.
