Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to our book study of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain (CRT) by Zaretta Hammond.  As I reviewed my notes for the last episode, I discovered that I missed two key significant ideas that I want to explore before moving forward. 

Hammond refers to the school-to-prison pipeline, which is something that is quite prevalent within the United States.  This pipeline consists of learning systems that withhold rigorous instruction to children of color, particularly black and latino boys.  The repetitive instruction sparks behavior issues, which increases learners from being removed from the learning setting.  The decrease in instruction widens the gap for developing young people who can critically and creatively think. 

The pipeline can largely be attributed to the pedagogy of poverty.  Hammond describes this as, “setting up students up to leave high school with outdated skills and shallow knowledge.  They are able to regurgitate facts and concepts but have difficulty applying this knowledge to new and practical ways.”  Unfortunately, you often see this at the elementary/primary level in poorer schools.  Having worked in these conditions, I’ve seen the pedagogy of poverty used repeatedly by teachers who came from a similar background.  They are often perpetuating the same low-level instruction to the next generation without knowing it.

Listen to this episode to find out how we can address the school-to-prison pipeline and the pedagogy of poverty through Hammond's Ready for Rigor framework.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome my friends to a new book study.  I have wrestled with what to talk about next within my podcast series and I kept circling back to Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond.  This book changed me this past year and I couldn’t wait any longer.  There will be insights from Zaretta’s book, my thoughts, and my meanderings.  If you’ve been listening at all, you know I tend to get off track a bit, but I believe these are the times that I make the most ahas.  I hope you do too. 

Let me start off by saying that, Zaretta Hammond is the first person in a long time that made me excited, weep, and find hope in a short span of time.  This book made me excited to see all of the possibilities that are available to learners from diverse backgrounds if we just focus on building rigor instead of watering down curriculum.  She made me weep, because I think of all the learners I wasn’t able to reach during my teaching career, because I didn’t have this book to guide me.  Zaretta made me hope that if more people read this book, then we will have less learners falling through the cracks of the education system.  I choose to focus on hope. 

My hope is that you find nuggets along this ready journey that stay with you and help you think differently about our role as educators.  Be sure to check out Zaretta's keynote address at Toddle TIES 2023.  Here is the link to watch the presentation:  https://www.toddleapp.com/ties/speakers/

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

Hello, dear educators, and welcome to the final episode of our application series. I'm Lu Gerlach, your host and fellow advocate for empowering young minds through thinkchat. Today, we're embarking on a thrilling journey, exploring how to craft a classroom that truly tickles our learners' brains and igniting a fiery passion for learning. It's all about creating a learner-driven haven that celebrates agency, choice, and ownership. So, let's dive right in!

We are engaging in the ultimate reflective practice.  As we go back through all of the elements of a PYP classroom success criteria, what is on your list?  Here is a recap of the big ideas we have discussed.  Get ready to apply!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

Hidee Ho Neighbor, my name is Lu Gerlach and I’m from thinkchat.  Welcome to confession #126!  In this episode, we'll be exploring some of the big ideas presented in the inspiring book, 'The Expert Effect' by Zach Rondot and Grayson McKinney. Get ready to join me on a journey of reflection and growth as we uncover the transformative power of allowing our learners to become the experts. So, grab your favorite cup of tea, find a cozy corner, and let's reflect back on how to allow your learners to become an expert in their learning.

This episode, we will only have one application challenge, because I have been quite intense the past two episodes.  I can’t help it, I get excited about this stuff and have to share it with you! 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back my Lu Crew.  I’m Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, just in case you forgot my name.  This is confession #125!  We are going to sit for a moment and reflect on how to make local and global inquiry happen within our context.  This seems like quite an abstract concept to many people, because we tend to overthink it.  Let’s take a deep breath and break it down into manageable parts that you can apply.

Disclaimer, there are two possible ways to apply local and global inquiry to your context.  You can choose to complete both or only one, based on where you are on your inquiry journey.  I like to have choices, so I don’t feel hemmed into a process, especially when talking about this topic.  The primary goal is to have fun with local and global inquiry.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

Good day to my fabulous thinkchat family.  It’s me again, Lu Gerlach, your host, and welcome to confession #124, where we will explore how to use personal inquiry in our practice.  Every time that we loop back with an application series, it has helped me to grow as a practitioner and consider my own actions. 

For this episode, we are returning to Kath Murdoch’s book, Getting Personal with Inquiry Learning. 

This episode will be a three-part process to stretch us, since it’s been a while since exploring the book.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

Good afternoon to my favorite people, I’ll just call you my Lu Crew.  If you haven’t guessed, I’m your host, Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and I am having fun with today’s episode. As we end 2023, I want us to think about where technology has greatly exploded this past year and where it is rapidly going in the years to come.  We cannot pretend that it won’t change our roles as educators.  Of course it will. At the same time, we need to look at AI as a partner in getting information more quickly and sometimes more accurately.

We have known for quite some that the internet is the depository of information and we are the facilitators of meaning making.  Our role will require us to know how to engage with the technology to gain the maximum output.  With this in mind, we are going to explore our new relationship with ChatGPT in this episode and challenge ourselves to start using it tomorrow.

Before we begin, I want to be clear that our goal is meaning making.  More is not more.  For ChatGPT to be effective in our practice, we need to know how to engage it successfully.  Here is my attempt in modeling the process while making some mistakes along the way.  I will present my prompt, ChatGPT responses, and my commentary of the answers. 

Let’s get started!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

Hey there, wonderful people! It's your host, Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and I am beyond excited for today's episode.

We're going deep into the heart of the PYP philosophy exploring how learners visually represent their unit of inquiry journey. So, buckle up for Confession #122, where we'll dig into the nitty-gritty of shifting from showcasing finished products to emphasizing the process and giving every student a chance in the spotlight.  This will be the final episode of our PYP classroom success criteria series.

A big thank you to Siba Shekhar, the PYP Coordinator at the GEMS Modern Academy Kochi for providing the inspiration for this episode.  Let's close out our series with a bang!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, we are going to explore two questions posed by my Twitter friend, Donna Mathew.  

• To what extent can we differentiate an inquiry classroom?  
• What are the different ways of doing it?

We will answer these questions through the wisdom of Lynn Erickson, Lois Lanning, and Carol Ann Tomlinson.

Let's have some fun!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP teacher.  I have taken a bit of a hiatus from this podcast due to personal health issues and work schedule.  This is my ultimate passion project.  When I’m not sharing with you, it means I’m off-balance and need to calibrate again.  

I’m super pumped to continue our series of creating a PYP classroom success criteria.  It’s more than just the walls, but the feeling within the classroom itself.  This can be demonstrated in so many ways from choices you provide to the materials being used. 

The key question for this episode:  How are we celebrating student voice through agency?

As always, I am interested to learn how you celebrate student voice through agency.  Please share your ideas on Twitter @thinkchat2020 and LinkedIn @lugerlach.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group!  Let's have some fun!