Anchored in Education

Nothing can make or break a good lesson than student behavior. I can think of many times early on in my career where I gave too much attention to one area while neglecting the area of student engagement. This, at times, led to unfavorable consequences for my lessons as I had to navigate between disruptions and other disturbances to the classroom environment.

Classroom management is something that has been discussed for decades. It is a critical component to finding success in the classroom that I find many bring unique approaches for how to find success in the classroom.

This is true for my guest today, Scott Ervin. He can be found all over the country working with educators as well as beginning to work with higher education institutions to help teach pre-service teachers the necessary skills to find success in their classrooms.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Scott.

I can remember back to eighth grade. It was the spring semester. Only two quarters to go before I could say to heck with junior high; I'm a high schooler now. But before all that could happen, I had a new class on my schedule. Not just me, every eighth grader had it. If my memory serves me correctly, my section of the class was right before lunch once a week. The class even taught by a high school teacher. The title of the course. Study skills.

Some might be thinking, what on earth is study skills while others might be nodding their heads thinking of a similar course they took. I have found over the years that study skills was called various names depending on the school, but the fundamental principles never changed. It was a class that centered around note taking. Concepts like how to abbreviate words to write faster and how to pick out the main idea that is worth writing down.

My guest today realizes the value of note taking as a skill and a learning tool. I found Hank Barbour through an article he wrote about how he incorporates note taking into his classes. Today he joins us to discuss more a practice he uses and truly believes in, and it is centered around note taking.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Hank.

Raise your hand if you've heard the narrative before on how we are all so fortunate to be called to a profession to make such a tremendous impact on the lives of children. My hand is up. Heck, I've probably even mistakenly said similar things myself as an administrator. Here is the deal though, teaching is a profession. Can we be called to it? Yes. Do we have to be? No. Can we come to our classroom or our school each day, not loving what we do while at the same time, being amazing at how we do our job? One hundred percent.

If you're anything like me, this sort of plays with your mind and maybe preconceived notions. What if instead I was able to share how this rhetoric that has been given to us over the years is actually not reality. We can absolutely not love teaching but still be a highly effective teacher.

To help me out, I've invited Elizabeth Dampf onto Anchored in Education today. Elizabeth recently published an article with ASCD in their EL magazine titled "It's About Skillsets and Support, not Sainthood." After an overwhelmingly positive response, she wrote a follow up article for ASCD's blog titled "Let's Stop Expecting Teachers to Love the Job." I read both and realized, we need to extend this conversation.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Elizabeth.

Making connections and fostering positive relationships has always been a cornerstone in education. Sometimes though we become near complacent in this area as we take advantage of routines and practices that have always just been there and worked. The pandemic brought the importance of prioritizing connections to the front and center.

Even after we've entered this sort of psuedo post-pandemic era, prioritizing connections remains more critical than ever. Thankfully, my guest today Dr. Michelle Hope, an assistant principal from Memphis, Tennessee has written and discussed extensively on how we can prioritize properly. Michelle offers important tips and simple strategies, many of which do not take more than a couple of second to accomplish, yet make a world of difference.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Michelle.

We've all received bad news at some point in our lives. Or, what about this, have you ever been impacted by a physical ailment? Did you think it was the end of the world? I know it sounds dramatic but I can remember times when things happened to me that had me asking questions like why me.

Now, for a second, I want you to imagine that you're an accomplished piano player. You've taken lessons since you were five or six. It was an integral part of your life growing up, so much so you majored in it when you went to college. After college you took your incredible skill and talent with you into the classroom to impart knowledge. Then one night, an event would absolutely rock your world. You go from perfectly fine at night to waking up finding yourself in the hospital. This is what happened to my guest today, Amy Effler. Amy is currently an elementary music teacher in Easton, MD and a doctoral student at UMES. She was in the first ever class I taught at UMES and she shared this incredible story. I hope you listened to last week's episode with Jodie Eckleberry-Hunt, because this is a story of grit, growth, hope, and healing. I knew the minute she shared it that I wanted her to join me on the podcast. This story is beyond incredible. And she's going to share with us today.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Amy.

The title speaks for itself. Jodie Eckleberry-Hunt is back again to talk about her latest book set to release on 2/14/23.

Listen to this can't miss episode of Anchored in Education as Jodie reminds us of what we should be doing when faced with adversity.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Jodie.

To be honest, this is a long overdue episode of Anchored in Education. Inclusion is something that is extremely important to me. My start in education came as a 1:1 special education aide which also included working three summers at a summer Autism camp. As a principal, I transitioned an entire pre-k program in a full inclusion model. Not only did the transition happen, it was a successful one as evidenced by a state monitoring visit in which our program received it's highest marks.

But must of the success of that inclusion transformation can be credited to Dr. Erin Barton. I attended one of Erin's workshops on inclusion prior to transitioning our program. I also stayed in touch with her, getting advice along the way. She nows joins us on the podcast to talk about the importance of inclusion and how to do it the correct way.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Erin.

What do you do when you majored in drama and you have a Spring musical to reveal to your class? Well, you definitely don't just announce the musical, you find a way to go all out, leaving students full of suspense and completely engaged. That is exactly what my guest today did for his class. And then, the unexpected happened.

Myles Finn shared his reveal in three separate videos uploaded to Tik Tok. Shortly after part three was shared, Myles had over 80 million combined views. Today he joins Anchored in Education to discuss what it's like going viral as well as how he approaches education.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Myles.

This profession has always required a certain amount of resilience. For decades, dare I say centuries, educators have been challenged on best practices, content, and more. Educators have had to face criticism despite doing the best they can. And then two things happened: First was social media. All of a sudden anyone with a keyboard could hide behind a veil and lob insults and damaging criticism at schools and educators. Second, the pandemic hit.

Faced with many lose-lose scenarios, educators from classroom teachers to principals to superintendents have had to make decisions that they felt were necessary and right for the majority. But it was impossible to make everyone happy. Recognizing this need, certified pyschologist and frequent Anchored in Education guest Jodie Eckleberry-Hunt began presenting teacher resilience workshops. Today she joins us to share with us many of the things she tells her participants.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Jodie

I have always been a fan of turning the word fail into acronym, First Attempt In Learning. I think many would agree with me that we can learn valuable lessons from failure. Yet, failuring is not often accepted in our professional practice. We often operate under the assumption that we must not, cannot, fail. By having this mindset, we put an inordinate amount of pressure on ourselves.

My guest today, Zak Cohen, wants to help normalize professional failure. In a somewhat humorous, unintentional mishap, I experienced failure on multiple levels when Zak and I first connected for this interview. I've included pieces of those first attempts. And while I say that I like the idea of the acronym of F.A.I.L., when it was happening in the moment, I was not initially thankful for the failing that was happening. But the lesson and experience created authenticity to our topic today.

After you listen to today's episode, go to www.escottengland.com and click on the Podcast tab at the top to find today's episode page and read more about Zak.