Class Dismissed

How one teacher grew his YouTube audience

Back in 2009, Matt Beat began posting social studies lessons on YouTube. His goal was to inspire and educate his students.

"It was never meant for anyone other than my students in real life," said Beat.

Mr. Beat, as he's known on YouTube, teaches high school social studies at Tonganoxie High school in Kansas.

But as Beat continued to post lessons on YouTube, his views and subscribers continued to grow. Beat now has over 22,000 subscribers and combined, his videos have been viewed more than a million times.

"Over the past two or three years it's really expanded to people who love to learn about history and geography."

To learn more about Mr. Beat and how he's grown his audience listen to Episode 45 of Class Dismissed on iTunes.

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When she teaches the book "1984" she turns her class into a totalitarian regime.

Just before Dina Leygerman teaches George Orwell's, "1984" to her seniors, she runs a simulation. Much like the book, she transforms her class into a totalitarian regime.

"They can't talk to each other, they can't even ask for a pencil, without asking my permission first," said Leygerman. "They can't get up; they can't move around the classroom. They can't even go blow their nose."

Leygerman rewards students that to turn in their classmates for breaking her new rules.

"I kept marks on the board saying 'Josh' did x,y,z, so he gets a point for telling on 'Kristen,'" Leygerman said when the students would see the scoreboard, most of them would fall in line.

"They started to get really upset and they started writing notes to the administration."

Leygerman backs the drastic changes to her classroom with research information that she's falsified, and her administration is in on the whole thing.

The Kids' Reaction

The first few times Leygerman ran her simulation the students were concerned and confused, but they also cared about their grade, so they complied.

However, in her most recent simulation, the kids rebelled.

"They said, where did you get this research? And how do you know it works?"  Leygerman said one of her students asked for links to her research.

But Leygerman held firm, and other teachers played along.

"They started to get really upset, and they started writing notes to the administration. The President of the Student Government wrote this long email about how they refuse to live in a totalitarian environment," said Leygerman.

Why She Loves Their Response

The kids' rebellious response gives Leygerman hope about the future.

"The teenagers today, they're more aware I guess, and they're more involved, and that was really great for me," Leygerman said she also learned that she'll have to step up her game next year.

To hear our full interview with Leygerman, listen to Episode 44 of the Class Dismissed Podcast.

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For more than a decade, Joel Bezaire has been reading "The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time" to his pre-algebra students.

The main character in the mystery novel is a 15-year-old boy who has a form of autism and is very gifted in mathematics.

Bezaire says that as the book progresses, his students really come to enjoy and connect with the character.

"Because of that, when he [the character] talks about something interesting, the students are invested."

Bezaire says the best selling book was not originally intended for a math class, but some recent public comments by the author, Mark Haddon, indicate that he's excited to learn about the books new purpose.

"I'm trying to show them that mathematical analysis and thinking is everywhere, not just when you're trying to solve a math problem," says Bezaire.

To learn more about how Bezaire implements "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" into his curriculum, listen to Episode 43 of the Class Dismissed Podcast.

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Nick Ambrosino has three decades of teaching experience, and he's well aware of the struggles that come with being an educator. In Ambrosino's books, "Coffee with Ray" and "Lessons with Matt," the main character, Matt, is at a point in his career where he's frustrated with teaching.

Ambrosino says many educators find themselves at the point where they've "had it." However, they often stick with it because of a love and a mission to help others.

Ambrosino's books follow Matt as he reignites that spark for teaching and learns important strategies for communicating with students along the way.

The lessons Ambrosino writes about come from his own experiences working with students and other educators.

Ambrosino offers subtle communication strategies he calls "diamond distinctions" in "Coffee with Ray."

For example, Ambrosino says, "When they [students] come to a lesson with me it's never 'did you practice?' Because any intelligent child is going to say yes." Instead, Ambrosino likes to ask, "What did you do this week that you felt proud of?"

Ambrosino says the little changes you make in how to communicate with students can refocus the magnifying glass. The child then realizes that learning isn't about pleasing the teacher, it's about if the student is proud of what they're working on.

To hear all of Ambrosino's conversation listen to Episode 42 of Class Dismissed.

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Our Favorite Question.

We've had dozens of teachers, scientists, professors, and authors on the Class Dismissed Podcast. All of our guests have graciously participated in the "Pop Quiz" segment of our show, and all of them have answered our favorite question.

Which teacher changed your life and why?

"Who would have imagined I would have gone to MIT and started this whole program"

-Dr. Steven Farber - Carnegie Institute for Science

What's so great about this question?

We love this question because it triggers nostalgia. It requires our guest to reflect on their childhood and pinpoint a moment where a teacher made a profound impact on their life.

The answer also offers current teachers insight into what makes a teacher great.

What do they say?

Dr. Steven Farber - Scientist

"That one's easy! My fourth-grade teacher," said Dr. Steven Farber. Farber now runs a groundbreaking zebrafish lab at the Carnegie Institute for Science. "She asked me to teach the class electricity."

Farber credits his fourth-grade teacher with "getting him out of his shell" and says he wonders if he would have been a scientist today if it were not for that teacher.

"Who would have imagined I would have gone to MIT and started this whole program [BioEyes]."

Jayda Pugliese - Educator

"My eighth-grade teacher Ms. Crawson. She's the one that gave me confidence," said Philadelphia teacher Jayda Pugliese. Pugliese, a Milken Award Winner, was our guest in Episode 08 to discuss her classrooms incredible work with a 3D Printer.

Pugliese talked about how her hearing is impaired and when she was in the eighth-grade classmates would bully her about her disability.

"I said to my teacher that I'm going to end up with a job that only people with disabilities have. And she [the teacher] was like no, you can do whatever you want don't listen to anyone."

Pugliese says her eighth-grade teacher challenged her to "show the bullies that they were all wrong." So Pugliese did."

Kim Bearden - Educator and Founder of the Ron Clark Academy

"Mrs. Brown, my seventh-grade English teacher," said Kim Bearden, Founder of the Ron Clark Academy. "I wanted to walk like her, talk like her, smell like her. I wanted to be Mrs. Brown."

To hear more of our guests' inspirational stories listen to Episode 41 of the Class Dismissed Podcast.

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How can you make science cool?Lynn Brunelle is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for "Bill Nye the Science Guy," and she describes her time working on the Nye's show as similar to working for a combination of Mr. Wizard and Saturday Night Live.

"It [Nye's show] tapped into my love for writing funny things," said Brunelle.

Brunelle said she enjoys making difficult concepts accessible and fun.

"In my experience, if it's funny, and you laugh, you remember it," said Brunelle.

Over the past several years, Brunelle has shifted her energy into writing science books directed towards kids and those that educate them.

Her works include "Pop Bottle Science,""Big Science for Little People" and she's releasing a new book which will be available April 3 called "Turn This Book into a Beehive."

The latter is packed with 19 sensory-driven experiments and activities that offer a deeper understanding of what it’s like to BE a bee.

Brunelle says "You actually do turn the book into a beehive!"

The book comes with a removable book jacket and paper nesting tubes that turn into a home for the mason bee, with each “room” providing space for 10-12 mason bee babies.

Ignite that love for science when they're youngIn our conversation in Episode 40 of Class Dismissed, Brunelle talks about the importance of encouraging more girls to learn STEM and she tells us the age kids usually decide if they're going to be interested in science.

Brunelle believes that everyone is a science person because it's all based on how the world works.

"I think we need to rebrand this and show how cool it is." Said Brunelle.

You can listen to our full conversation with Brunelle on iTunes here.

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When she's not writing her next best selling book, Jennifer Serravallo travels to school districts around the country working as a literacy consultant. Serravallo partners with her clients to develop strategies for reading and writing and they do this by using a responsive pedagogy.

Serravallo says it's about really understanding what kids need and then responding to them with appropriate strategies. It's a matter of changing from a textbook approach where everyone is reading the same text at the same time to a responsive model where kids are engaged in their own writing projects, and getting instruction that's tailored to their goals.

So when Serravallo authored her most recent books "The Reading Strategies Book" and "The Writing Strategies Book"  she used the same approach when designing the layout of the book.

"I know that busy teachers need to find things quickly," said Serravallo.

"I envisioned this to be sort of like Zappos shoe shopping," said Serravallo. "If you're like I want a size 9 boot with brown leather, show me what you've got. This is kind of the same idea."

Serravallo's book "The Writing Strategies Book" is packed with content, but using it to respond to the writing needs of a student is straightforward.  You just pick one of 10 goals that your student(s) may need to work on, and then you drill down into the strategies that are paired with that goal.

One convenient feature that lies within each chapter/goal is a table which serves as an "in chapter index." The table has columns for grade level ranges, genres and the next step of the writing process.

Credit: Heinemann Publishing

"I envisioned this to be sort of like Zappos shoe shopping," said Serravallo. "If you're like I want a size nine boot with brown leather, show me what you've got. This is kind of the same idea. You look at this table and say, I want a first-grade level strategy for a child who is revising that works with fiction writing.  So you filter through and find the one or the ones that might work for you?"

To learn more about strategies to help your students meet their writing goals, listen to Episode 39 of Class Dismissed.

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For over 30 years Brian Crosby taught upper elementary in Nevada. Many of his students were considered "at-risk".

Crosby says many of his students were students of poverty and for others, English was a second language.

"Often times they weren't really solid in any language," said Crosby  "Everybody just assumes that oh, they speak Spanish fluently. Well over the years you finally came to realize that really they don't have Spanish fluently either."

Crosby who also runs the "Learning is Messy" blog, says he would have his students come to teacher-parent conferences.

"By doing that, we'd also get into conversations about how we could communicate. In some cases, they [parents] spoke almost no English."

Crosby says sometimes they would come up with a plan to communicate with an older sibling or an aunt that was bilingual.

"We could tell it paid off because they [parents] would show up after school because they wanted to see the assignments that we were doing or the Social Studies projects we had on the wall," Crosby said.

Listen to the full conversation with Brian Crosby on Episode 38.

Other Show Notes

Tech workers in Silicon Valley are sending their kids to a $28,000-a-year private school that shuns technology

The District of Columbia schools chancellor resigned on Tuesday after support for him, including from the mayor, collapsed in recent days over the disclosure that he had arranged to have his daughter transferred to a coveted high school.

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Before the Ron Clark Academy was created in 2007, Kim Bearden and Ron Clark already had successful careers. Bearden was a celebrated teacher and administrator in Atlanta and Clark was a rockstar teacher in Harlem.

"Everbody kinda thought I was a little insane."

-Kim Bearden

Founder and Executive Director of the Ron Clark Academy

Together, they took a leap of faith and purchased a dilapidated 100-year-old factory in a crime-stricken area of Atlanta.

"When we got out of the car the real estate agent said, 'This is no place for a school,' and we looked at each other, and instantaneously we knew it was the place," said Bearden.

With grit and determination, Bearden and Clark transformed the rundown factory into the Ron Clark Academy, one of the top places for learning in the country.

Bearden says they wanted to show that there was beauty in everything.

"Everything was on the line quite honestly. It was one of those things, a lot of people thought I was a little crazy," said Bearden. "I was very stable in my career. I had tremendous success in my career and to just turn around and just walk away and say that I'm going to start a school with this guy [Ron Clark]. Everbody kinda thought I was a little insane."

Bearden was newly remarried at the time, and she says she was fortunate her husband believed in the dream and supported her in it.

"It took us three years. People think it was an overnight thing," said Bearden.  "If I had known how hard it was going to be, I don't know if I would have been brave enough to do it. I think sometimes ignorance can be bliss, and in this case, it was."

In November 2017, The Ron Clark Academy celebrated their 10-year anniversary.

On hand for the event was Oprah Winfrey. While visiting Atlanta, Oprah told local media, “There’s not a better school, organization or institution in the USA.”

In Episode 37 of Class Dismissed we asked Bearden about...

* What she looks for when hiring a teacher?

* What tricks she uses to connect with hard to reach students?

* Why an accomplished author and executive director of a successful school still teaches students daily?

* How surreal is it to receive so much praise and support from Oprah Winfrey?

Kim also reveals that she just finished writing her new book, which will focus on how we communicate with parents, students, and co-workers.  Bearden says the working title of the new book is "Talk To Me" and it's set for release August 1st, 2018.

Bearden's current book "Crash Course: The Life Lessons My Students Taught Me", chronicles the life lessons that Kim Bearden has learned during an award-winning career in education.

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Educators are tied to a fantastic network of creative people.

Follow a familiar K-12 hashtag on Twitter or Instagram, and you'll see dozens of new ideas for tweaking your pedagogy.

For a teacher, ​it may be tempting to tackle each new idea. Anything that will give you an edge when trying to connect with your students and maybe even impress your administrator.

Robert Ward has been teaching in the Los Angeles area for over two decades, and his experience has allowed him to watch hundreds of education strategies come and go.

Now, he's calling for moderation. Ward recently wrote an article titled "Enduring the Educational Pendulum," and he dialed into the Class Dismissed Podcast to talk more about it.

Ward also just released his latest book, "Talented Teachers, Empowered Parents, Successful Students," which focuses on providing educators with creative strategies and professional development activities to transform teacher-parent relationships.

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