Two Teachers

In this episode, I am honored and humbled to be joined by 3 professors from the University Wisconsin Stevens Point to discuss and opportunity that is incredible important to me. Their passion and excitement is infectious. In previous episodes we have touched upon the increasing diversity and adding perspectives of those in our classroom and as the resident social studies teacher. That is my, my life goal. To be sure all people are heard. Amber, Stacy and Jackie provide incredible insight and resources to deliver just that. Check out their bios. Where To Start? The first step "would be to look at your social studies curriculum and see where you think you can bring in additional voices. And I would start small thinking about one unit, whether you're a third grade teacher teaching immigration and you've historically taken the perspective of the lens of European immigration and of 1800s into the 20th century or you're looking at that in a more sophisticated middle school or high school level. Start thinking

When students write, their audience is typically just the assessor(teacher). If we want to give them meaning in their writing, we have to give them an authentic audience. On this episode we explore R.A.F.T. and specifically the use of blogging in student demonstration of their learning. We will then reintroduce the new and improved Fan.School(see Episode 33). Authentic Audiences

Lindy and I have begun a long desired journey to provide a book club to the parents of our students who struggle to navigate the complication and challenges of the adolescent journey. We have chosen to read with our parents(of our students) two books. These books are by Rosalind Wiseman. Queen Bees and Wannabees was the basis for the movie Mean Girls and the companion book for navigating the male world is called Masterminds and Wingmen. Both are incredibly insightful for parents but have an even more incredible implications for educators world of all grade levels. We will briefly discuss a few take ways and will often acknowledge that the real lessons is in the book. Read along or just listen for some gems.

In this episode, Lindy joins us to discuss quick adaptations to everyday practices to increase engagement. We will run through a number of strategies that will not cost more time or money to improve the attention of your students. We like many of you find ourselves leveraging the same tasks throughout the years an are always looking to change it up and grad that attention of the students. What is engagement? Lindy describes engagement in 3 categories: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive. Behavioral is student behave in class, they don't act up, the bring their materials to class. Its their behavior in that class. Then there is emotional engagement. They feel connected to the school community. They are happy to be there. They act positively. When you are giving your lesson they are alert and are emotionally invested in what you are saying. And finally there is cognitive engagement. This is their intellectual engagement. They want to learn and think more deeply about the subject. They ask challenging que

On this episode I have identified 4 issues(my problems) I am having in my classroom right now(Classroom Management). I will share with you my plan for managing and hopefully improving my classroom with some researched and solid solutions. How did we get here? We have reached the midpoint of the year. It has been truly exhausting. Teachers are battling the ins and outs of learning modes in this pandemic world and the continuing addition of new students. We’ve implemented new procedures to keep us healthy and strained our eyes on the countless hours of screen time.  What cannot be lost is the routine that I practice every January. I take some time to receive feedback from my colleagues and my students. I more intentionally reflect on the shortcomings of my practice and how it is affecting the students I have right now. High Expectations Regardless of Circumstances This year is special, I am trying to divide the Covid problems and the normal challenges I would face in a typical year. I believe thi

This week we are joined by Brandon. He is Principal and Teaching and Learning Specialist extraordinaire. We hear from Brandon who is full of tips for managing the madness of the virtual classroom now and whenever. "Not to be lost is that this is still a human business no matter what the platform is."Brandon Buchman Background: The district Brandon serves is 1:1 Chromebooks and has implemented the common learning management of Canvas. They primarily use Zoom. He manages approximately 25 teachers who serve about 300 students in the virtual only world. Additional hurdle is the collaboration with in school principals because the district allows students to move in and out of the virtual classroom at the start of each quarter. Teacher Needs The immediacy of needs has changed. The shift in urgency has made the learning demands of the educators to function daily. Providing professional development has become a issue of timeliness. For example, teachers taking attendance or facilitating class discussi

Today we take a long overdue visit with Jayna who is a long time and exceptional English Learners teacher. She hails from the twin cities and has taught students of 39 different languages and cultural background. She has taught in immersion programs in many countries as well. She joins us to discuss what we could do for our EL students now in the pandemic but also every day in any year. Equity Issues Across the Board Luke and I have discussed this before, but the pandemic has exacerbated the shortcomings of education. Its not our fault, but its true. The pandemic has highlighted a few things. The first hurdle is the communication piece with families especially those who do not have an English speaking adult at home. Scrambling to translate the district website is a good start. However the student loses the practice with the academic language since the practice can not be daily in the classroom. Technological Literacy The families of English learners can often be new to our education system and ce

Here we sit usually setting up our classroom for the coming year. If you are like us, you might be in limbo with what is to come this year. Today's episode seeks to discuss things we can do NOW even though we are approaching the unkNOWn. We are both in two different places with our plan to return to school. I am beginning with a soft start to ease the students into the protocols of the new world. I will then be providing instruction for all in-person learners. About a third of my normal amount of students will be learning virtually under the instruction of a virtual-only teacher. Luke is in a hybrid situation where he plans and provides virtual instruction and sees the kids once a week in person in a block like schedule. He is instructing students who are in that hybrid and those who have chosen all virtual learning. Regardless of our approach we are entering a world not like the spring. Our instruction, rather than being an emergency, will be more like the experience we would provide in every other year.

On this episode we address how to grade within the inequity of virtual learning and how to set yourself up to be fair. We stumble upon the solution. It is not about the grade(letter, percentage or otherwise) its about the feedback. All students (essentially) are in this same boat. There will forever be an asterisk on this 4th term grade. Can you get evidence? If not, how can you assign a grade based on the body of work the students have already produced. In the end feedback is king.

We are devastated in this virtual learning world that we do not get to bring closure and celebrate success with our students in our physical classroom. With things so up in the air, we do not know if we will have this chance for months to come. Obviously there are some significant milestones like promotions and graduations, but we are talking about the little things too. Join us in the episode as we brainstorm on how to replicate this farewell in the virtual world. No Closure Makes Us Sad We emphasize so often the connection with the students. We also know that it takes 180 days to make some of these connections. Selfishly we feel like we missed an opportunity to build relationships and maybe have less concern about the academics. In that last month, last week or last day, there are so many opportunities to celebrate that friednship or growth of the students(as a person or academics). So how do we send them off? Brainstorming the "End" How does this look and feel for the students for virtual learn

On this episode we take a critical look at what #VirtualLearning has exposed good and bad about education. Our goal continues to be to provide take aways for now and later. We will discuss things that need to be tossed when we return to school and things that need to stick around. Virtual Learning is Crazy The pandemic of Covid-19 is upon us. Who knew that there would be so much "free" time yet we feel so overwhelmed and busy with our lives? We, like many educators, are striving to make this virtual classroom as meaningful as possible while battling equity and engagement issues. We will continue to provide usable takeways even in a real classroom. That journey continues in this episode as we evaluate what needs to go and what needs to stay. What needs to go? Unfortunately, this virtual learning has exposed some shortcomings in education. We are not suggesting that the teachers or the educational system is inadequate in anyway, but rather somethings have been exaserbated in this virtual world.

On this week's episode we share our thoughts, feelings, and reflections on our first full week of remotely educating our students from home. We take a look at what's worked and what struggles we're having during this time. When we recorded Episode 34: Remotely Educated virtual learning was a coming reality for Tom and a potential for Luke. Here we are days removed from that conversation with some advice and reflection from what we presumed from the start and what we know is most important now. We, ourselves, have done quite a bit of virtual learning. Stay connected, but not too connected. We are ones to be attached to our phones and our thus our email. We welcome the contact from our students at all hours of the day. I am not opposed to checking my email as I lay in bed to reply to a student concern or question. This obviously is our choice and not the choice of others. Separating yourself from email is more of the norm and needs to be with virtual learning. We have found that students are working

In this episode we address some very pressing teacher needs. What do you do with many days of virtual learning in a row? Remotely educated students have very different needs. Our conversation starts with what to do if your district is not so fortunate to be 1:1 in the tech world. We then share some go to tech and ideas to maximize learning when the teacher is not directly present. This is a difficult but potentially valuable task. School Closings due to Health Related Emergencies Here we are in a crazy time. In attempt to flatten the curve and manage the transmission of COVID-19 many schools across the country have closed for 14+ days. For many this is around spring break and thus lessening the unplanned burden on families and teachers. For others there is no good time for this to happen. We are placed in an awkward situation trying to prove our classroom value in a rather difficult to manage situation of delivering quality instruction to our students remotely for 2-3 weeks. Equity is an Issue I

This week's episode is a conversation with Eric Nelson, creator of FanSchool. FanSchool is a platform that gamifies world politics and increases global competence through a fantasy sports type competition. This is an incredibly engaging tool to engage students in world and nation news. It offers games that interact with states, countries or even US congressman. It is definitely worth the time to consider and even pass along if it does not fit your classroom. We enjoy it because it doesn't have to dominate your class time, but is a great reference for talking about the happenings around the world. Or as Eric says in the interview, "If I was the distributor of news to my students, they were not as interested in it." March Madness Style Games Luke is a veteran to the March Madness style games in his class. Tom is more prone to relying on FanSchool to facilitate the game. Luke's creation is one of a kind though. He has created M.A.R.C.H. Madness. For this M.A.R.C.H. is an acronym for Most Accomplished and R

On this episode we take a look at what is a bit of a new revelation to us as teachers. It is definitely something that should've been (and may have been) explained to us in our teaching education. This revelation is the concept of effective note taking. Furthermore, focusing less on what is written and more on what we ask students do as their post-writing retention process. This is where the episode gets its namesake. After note-taking, or any lesson for that matter, some sort of processing activity or study habit must be completed. This must be done in many repetitions to avoid what is sometimes referred to as the "Curve of Forgetting." (Researched by the University of Waterloo). Need to know more about this curve? This video may help. Note taking: Not new, but important! We know note taking is not a new thing. Over the years of teaching, we've gone back and forth on our note taking. What priority should it be given? How often should we be doing this? How do we teach our students to take notes?

On this week's episode, we converse on some equitable ways to welcome a student into your classroom especially in the middle of the year. The statistics on student mobility are just as shocking as the experiences that are causing students to move; some necessary, some unfortunate. We will share some easy strategies to help that student become a learner among your learners. Student mobility is a far too common struggle for many students. Statistics in some cities of the Midwest have 25%-30% elementary students moving at least once a year. Most states do not have accurate tracking statistics, but as Luke points out, knowing how many is not as important as knowing that a particular student has moved. Reasons for moving could be described as unfortunate, necessary, warranted, etc. Some of those "moves" are structural moves. This means that they may even becoming "new" to you from a neighboring school, another hour in the building or somewhere within your district. It doesn't matter why they move, when that

In this episode 30, Luke considers the possibility of pursuing his National Board Certification. In this discussion, Tom, who is NBCT and a certification cohort leader gives his best sales pitch on why this is something all teachers should do and do it now.

Episode 29 shares our thoughts on creating plans for a substitute teacher that will ensure success in your classroom while you are away. We share some of our secrets and discuss some potential dos and don't that may go onto your plans. After listening to this, you will deserve a day off. Luckily we got you covered with these recommendations.

In this timely episode as we come to the end of the 1st semester, we share our 5 keys to writing the perfect parent email. We share some strategies to be sure we infuse empathy, concern, compliment and even gratitude into even the most difficult to write email. (*disclaimer: a phone call home will always be better*) Create Context - Important to be brief but do not forget to create context. Paint the picture so the parent understands what you are getting out. This might be the 15 minutes leading up to the meat of the email or may be the days leading up to the need to send the email. Regardless, don't just speak about the incident, positive or negative.CC Someone - A third set of eyes can help better deliver the message. Consider CC'ing the student so there are no secrets among the stakeholders. Our favorite is the counselor. This can give them the opportunity to follow-up, provide context, or congratulate the student if the email is a positive message.Sandwich Method for Feedback - Take the "Positive-S

On our first episode of this new calendar year, we share our favorite ways to get kids engaged into high quality discussions centered around your classroom content. Luke shares what is called "I Wondered, They Wondered." In this strategy you really set the students up for success in asking questions and then sharing questions with one another. A great way to read and process a primary source, text, experiment or word problem. Use the link provided to try this in your own classroom today! Tom shares what is called Philosophical Chairs. Here is a link to a great Edutopia article that explains it. Especially what is called the rules of engagement. Some of my favorites are the "Listen to seek to understand" and "Summarize the previous speakers argument before sharing your own." Those are just 2 of the essential rules to assure fair and safe discussion space that is not a debate but a discourse. Try them both. You will like them.