In this final episode with Elisa Lewis, we discuss both the connections and disconnects that working primarily outside the classroom creates. We discuss the unique opportunities and challenges that the role of academic liaison presents. 

This is part 5 of our ongoing series with Elisa Lewis an Academic Liaison and we discuss the broader perspective working in a school but not in a single classroom can provide.  We discuss how many people in different roles can be needed to help students be successful. Join us as we continue our discussion.

In today's episode, we continue our short mini-series of interviews with Elisa Lewis. In this episode we talk about the planning and development role that Elisa plays in the school-wide RtI system.  We talk about how using a 25 minute block of time at the end of the day helps provide for both intervention and enrichment for students. We also discuss training and utilizing student mentors and leaders in various capacities to help underpin the school environment.

In today's episode, we continue our short mini-series of interviews with Elisa Lewis, and Academic Liaison. In this episode we talk about the interplay between the liaison, student, and classroom teacher. We also continue to discuss some of the tightrope that coaches, interventionists, and other para-classroom educators walk when working with other classroom teachers when it comes to meeting student needs across the student’s academic day.  We also discuss how a staff member that works with relatively small numbers of students pays big dividends for the whole school environment.

Join me this episode as Elisa Lewis visits the Teacher's Lounge and we talk about her role as Academic Liaison.  In this first part of our conversation we discuss her role with struggling students. 

In today's episode, an encounter with an old high-school teacher of my own brings up the topic of reflection from the three of us about the changing seasons of our teaching careers. Join us as we talked about being an 11 year teacher, a 17 year teacher, and a 21 year teacher.  How do seasons change in our career, and how do those changing seasons affect our classroom management, planning, presentation, and role that we play in our learning community.

Eirik Wattengard and I talk good practice for effective learning videos. 

"Idea #5 Sharing your summer", centers on including students in an ongoing project or conversation that allows them to see progress, frustration, setbacks, problem solving, learning, etc. To differentiate what I am talking about in this entry from the last entry, idea 4 was taking pictures, video, etc of isolated events you experience this summer.  What we are talking about in this entry is a longer term project that will happen over a larger time frame.  Think Game of Thrones story arcs rather than Big Bang Theory episodes. For me I am going to document the building process from planning, estimating cost, construction, etc. to use next year in class. Join us for Idea 5 in our series All Flipping Summer.

This one is a big one.  Find some way to take your students with you, digitally, this summer. Every life science teacher I know finds themselves in the forest or on the lake. Every English teacher I know has a stack of books they've been saving for just these three months. Every social science person scours the internet or antique malls for relics to add to their Sanford & Son classroom museum. Alternatively, they pack up the family truckster for travels with Charlie going to battlefields, museums, or visiting every cast plaque historical marker they can locate on Google Maps. Regardless of your content, there is something you're going to do this summer that would benefit your students. 

Q: How do you eat a whale?  A: One bite at a time.  It doesn't much matter where you start on any big project or adjustment to your classroom.  The reality is you will likely not use the first thing you create or first change you make as learning is a process and you won't know where the road leads or the skills you need until well after you have set off. This is why making a second one of anything takes far less time and frustration than doing it the first time, you figure out a more efficient methods using newly acquired skills. It is a bit ironic that as teachers we forget so often what it means to be a learner.