Brothers Who Teach

For our final episode of Season 1, we brought back two guests: Jameel's wife, Dr. Amy Jonason, and our father, aka the original Mr. Brenneman! We wanted a big topic for our finale, so we boldly chose politics, debate, and controversy in the classroom. We start off with dad talking about how the relationship between students and politics has changed from when he was a teacher (3:40), that students in the US are more "politically engaged" than ever before, and we discuss whether or not this is a good thing. Amy then talks about academic freedom at the university level, which allows her to present and discuss topics she cares about, political or not (19:55). Along the way, we all give tips about how to guide students to work with controversial subjects and class debates: to be respectful of others, to back up one's own view with solid evidence, and to be open to changing in the light of new information. Dad gives a funny or bizarre story of a gun in school being used nonviolently, and we finish with a Brothers Who Teach-themed Numbers Game.

We are looking ahead to Season 2, and we want to focus on how people in the workforce were trained to do their various jobs. So, if you work, worked, or will be working, and want to talk about your experience, we want to hear from you!

This is not our season finale (contrary to what the title may indicate), but we are approaching the end of our school years, so we thought we'd talk about the final week of school. We start with our experiences in high school (1:45) and college (7:30) and how we handled final exams and the big papers and projects coming due (with a sidebar about the music that helped us get to the finish line). Then we talk about how this works for us as teachers: what do our finals look like, if we have them at all, and what other traditions come with that last week of school. (15:55). Joe's funny story includes a special announcement, and twenty miles of running is on the line in a holiday-related Numbers Game.

It's Joseph's turn to have his wife on the show! Dr. Kate Brenneman joins us to talk about her experiences as a student, and an introverted one at that. This leads us to get into how we handle participation in our classes, and how we account for the different personalities we encounter. First, Kate shares from a class where she felt more comfortable than usual to participate (4:15), and a class that was particularly hard for her to engage in (12:17), then she gives us a sense of what is going through an introvert's mind while in class (18:20), and she addresses some misconceptions that might be out there about introverts (26:25). Jameel shares a funny story from Arabic class, and then Kate gives a scientific Numbers Game that throws both brothers for a loop.

The average attention span is 2-3 times a student's age. So with that in mind, how do you keep them from losing focus in a 90-minute class? This episode is all about how to use brain breaks and other strategies for maintaining focus. We start the episode discussing how long our classes are, and in the case of longer periods, why it is necessary to take breaks if you want students to stay productive, and why it's unrealistic to expect someone to be attentive for the duration of a class. We talk about the need for "predictable variety" as a way to keep students on their toes (9:00), before actually going over some brain breaks, which serve as "palette cleansers for the brain" (14:00). Then we discuss how to keep variety in the classroom even without breaks that go off topic (23:15). Joseph gives a funny story from coaching soccer, and then we play the Numbers Game with an incredibly close finish.

We've got a returning guest! Bobby Long, Director of Athletics at Crystal Springs Upland School in the Bay Area, comes back to talk to us about coaching at the high school level. First, we talk about how each of our schools handle coaching: how many of our coaches also teach at our schools, and what is expected of them (2:30)? Then we ask Bobby if bigger, more profitable sports should get special treatment (8:40). We also share stories of "coach-first teachers" whose classrooms were, let's say, not the most engaging (17:45), and how to make sure coaches are properly invested (24:10). Then, Jameel shares a funny sports moment and Bobby gives us a baseball-related Numbers Game.

How does a teacher know if their students learned anything? Did they understand the day's lesson, and will they be able to recall and use it in a week? A month? A year? We begin by talking about different types of formative assessments, which are used to see how well a lesson was understood (3:20), then about how to distinguish information from similar concepts that have different rules (9:45), and then how to keep the knowledge fresh months down the road (19:45). Joseph gives April Fool's Day stories, and then we play a Numbers Game about big cities.

Our father, Brice Brenneman, the original Mr. Brenneman, is on the show today! We do our best to retrace his 35-year career as a teacher: from being surprised and unprepared to be teaching psychology and sociology in his first year (5:45), to serving for two years as the director of Hope School in Palestine (12:40), to the reputation he felt he had (19:00), to dealing with changes in technology and curriculum (28:00). We don't ask him which son is his favorite, but we do talk about what it was like teaching his sons, as well as some other interesting tidbits and fun stories. The Numbers Game was our Elite 8 picks, which were identical except for one game: North Carolina vs. St. Peter's. One of us picked the Tarheels; one of us picked the Peacocks, and will be making brownies for the other as a punishment!

We continue our New Teachers series with guests Jack Fader and Wyatt Long. Jack and Wyatt teach at Christ School, and while both have been there for a few years now, they had very little experience before they arrived. But they've made it! More or less. So we are talking to them about how--despite the struggles--they have been able to succeed, and what veteran teachers can do to help their younger colleagues. Our guests share some fun stories from their time at Christ School, and we go over our Sweet 16 picks with a Dirty Dozen on the line.

*Jameel was recording on the road for this one, so apologies for the occasional low-quality audio.

On this pod, we reveal the Brothers Who Teach Survival Kit! Forgot your computer? No Internet? Extra time with nothing planned? We tackle all of these situations and more. First we talk about some of the primary causes of these "oh crap" moments (2:30) and what our primary lifesavers are--textbooks, this should be you! (14:12). Online options include: Quizizz (that's how it's spelled), Kahoot, and Quizlet, which all have a lot of pre-made materials. Then we offer options when you don't have the Internet or the time to prepare things online (28:08), before moving on to general tips for when you realize things are not going according to plan (rule #1: don't panic!). Then Jameel offers a funny story from teaching poetry, and we reveal how our First Round March Madness picks turned out in the Numbers Game.

We're back, and with a guest! Caleb Sonneland, Jameel's former colleague, joins us from East Side Catholic in Seattle where he is an English teacher. Caleb is a department chair and wanted to discuss how each of our departments work and what we could change if we were in charge with no obstacles. We begin by focusing on Joe and math, since that is foreign to us English teachers (7:50). Then Caleb gives us an idea about retreats instead of shorter department meetings (18:10). After Joe talks about his ideal department, Jameel weighs in about the unique challenge of a world languages department (30:00). We also get to vent as we share our pet peeves (38:25). Caleb gives us a funny story from an eventful first weekend in his first year of teaching, and we play a March Madness-related Numbers Game.