Confessions of a PYP Teacher

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Hello my lovely podcast friends, welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher.  This is episode 171.  My name is Lu Gerlach from thinkchat.  In this episode, we will continue to uncover the beautiful moments in John Dewey's Experience and Education and dig into chapter three: Criteria of Experience, part 2. This is the fifth episode in this book club series, as I'm trying to unpack the ideas of John Dewey and think about how they still apply to learning today. 

Let me tell you, John Dewey gives his manifesto in the second half of this chapter.  I see so many elements of contemporary education shouting loudly in our face with much glee.  There are so many quotes that I want to talk about, but there is not enough time.  You must read this chapter for yourselves!

Before we begin, I want you to think about the last episode.  Something I took from is that experience is on a continuum and not all are good.  This really stayed with me as I navigated planning for my next unit.  How will I ensure there are experiences that push towards conceptual understanding? 

Now, we are ready to move forward into connecting between the learning experiences and the learning environment.  What a novel idea. 

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher. I'm Lu Gerlach with thinkchat. This is Confession 170, where we look at John Dewey's Experience and Education and dig into chapter three: Criteria of Experience. This is the fourth episode in this book club series, as I'm trying to unpack the ideas of John Dewey and think about how they still apply to learning today. Something tells me this chapter is full of juicy tidbits just from the title. 

Dewey begins this chapter speaking about how not all experiences are of equal value.  In fact, there is an experience continuum.  Dewey claims, “I have already mentioned what I called the category of continuity, or the experiential continuum.  This principle is involved, as I pointed out, in every attempt to discriminate between experiences that are worth while educationally and those that are not.”

• What is an experiential continuum?
• How do we discriminate between a worthy and unworthy experience? 
• How will this impact my practice? 

All of these questions will be explored in this episode.  Take a listen. 

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher. I'm Lu Gerlach with thinkchat. 

This is Confession 169, where we look at John Dewey's Experience and Education and dig into chapter two: The Need of a Theory of Experience. This is the third episode in this book club series, as I'm trying to unpack the ideas of John Dewey and think about the implications for today's educational landscape.

This episode will explore the difference between experience and education and how they show up in traditional and progressive schools.   We will lean into what Dewey has to say and how they might reflect our current classrooms. 

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Welcome back my friends to Confessions of a PYP Teacher. This is Lu Gerlach with thinkchat. 

Today, I'm focusing on chapter one of Experience and Education by John Dewey, which is the second episode in the series. This chapter focuses on traditional versus progressive education.

Just a reminder: this text was originally written in 1938. Ninety years ago, my friends. It's really interesting. As I was reading through this chapter, I found lots of tidbits that made me pause to think about the argument for traditional versus progressive education.

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Welcome to confession number 167. My name is Lu Gerlach from thinkchat. This episode is starting a new book club series, because you know I love a good book club. 

This summer, while traveling, I've been diving deep into podcasts and books that have genuinely shifted how I see the world. I've found myself captivated by figures like Marcus Aurelius, who, despite being one of history's most powerful rulers, spent his life wrestling with the most human of questions: What is the whole purpose of why we're here? He wasn't just a conqueror or a statesman. He was a thinker, someone who looked at the world around him and refused to stop asking why.

Then I started asking, who are the Stoics of education? Who are the all-time greats, the true GOATs, who forever changed how we think about learning, about the rights of children, about what it actually means to teach? My brain started percolating. Naturally, names like John Dewey and Vygotsky rose to the top. These are people we reference constantly in education circles, people whose ideas form the backbone of so much of what we believe about how children learn.

I began the quest to return to these educators who laid the foundation for modern thinking.  The person we are exploring here is John Dewey in his work, Experience and Education.  His work is dense, but also quite powerful. 

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the fifteenth episode in our well-being series.

As we come to the end of this series, we have spent time sitting with some heavy, but very real parts of learning and teaching.

We have explored worry, fear, panic, anxiety, stress, burnout, boreout, and trauma. We have looked closely at what they can look like in our classrooms, and how easily they can be missed, misunderstood, or mislabeled.

If we are honest, there may have been moments where we recognized ourselves in those descriptions too.

That is part of our work.

Because well-being in a PYP school has never been about getting it right all the time. It is about learning to notice, to respond, and to grow with more awareness and care.

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the fourteenth episode in our well-being series.

I’ve been waiting to talk about our next topic for awhile, because it is quite heavy.  But I would be remiss to skip it, because it makes me feel uncomfortable.  If you haven’t guessed, it is trauma informed teaching. 

We have already gone in deep on all of the areas that make us feel uncertain.  Why not explore trauma too?  

I know this is deep, but it's about making a safe space for our learners. 

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the thirteenth episode in our well-being series.

Today, we are continuing our exploration of boreout, this time from the learner’s perspective. If teachers can experience boreout, is it possible that our learners can too?

In a PYP classroom, this can be easy to miss because everything might look like it’s working. The tasks are getting done, the room is lively and orderly, and expectations are being met. But when we look a little closer, we might notice something else.

Take a listen to see how learner boreout shows up in our practice and what we can do about it. 

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the twelfth episode in our well-being series.

As I am writing this episode, I can’t help but to reflect on my last year in Brussels.  I met so many people who had worked at the same job and complained of burnout and boreout.  This is not a criticism of them, but rather that system that they work in that could bring it about.  These were highly paid people in supposed interesting professions, but they were bored with what they were doing.  No matter how you talked about their work, they were no longer interested and were out on leave. 

This made me connected to how this connects with our profession as PYP educators.  These questions came to my mind.

If teachers do burnout, do they also boreout?
What is the fine line beneath the two? 
Is one more severe?
Is one more preventable? 
How can we swing back into the “in” zone? 

If you want to find the answer to teacher boreout, be sure to listen to this episode.

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the eleventh episode in our well-being series.

I have been curious about learner burnout as I watch my five-year old niece.  She is a neurodivergent thinker who has ADHD, but also struggles with speech delay. For most of her life, she has been unable to articulate herself and her needs.  I have personally witnessed her frustration to be understood.  

I was reminded of these issues related to learner burnout as I returned to the classroom three weeks ago.  My school needed an additional teacher for new learners enrolling into the school in the middle of the year.  I was fortunate to lead this class, but I was reminded of the potential burnout of neurodivergent thinkers and myself. 

I went on a hunt to determine the primary causes and found the cycle of neurodivergent burnout by New Glade Counseling based in the UK.  They state that five major causes can create learner burnout in our schools, which I think applies to all learners who are struggling to keep up. 

Listen to this episode to find out more!

Thanks for listening!  Please join the epic learning journey at lugerlach.com

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