I'm back, and kicking off Season 14 of the podcast! Listen in for a quick personal update about my summer, what new changes are coming to the website and podcast, and get a sneak peek at some upcoming podcast episode topics.  Click here to read the transcript and participate in the discussion or, join our podcast Facebook group here to connect with other teachers and discuss the Truth for Teachers' podcast episodes.  

EP229 Something NEW is coming to Truth for Teachers...

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Bored with your curriculum or instructional routines? I’m talking with Betsy Potash of the Spark Creativity Podcast about easy ways to make things feel fresh and interesting again. Often we switch things up in our teaching to keep ourselves from getting bored. But, too much change can create unnecessary work for us. It can also waste class time for students as they spend more energy on figuring out how to complete an assignment than on practicing the skills we want them to learn.  So, Betsy’s identified 5 open-ended activities that you can add to your rotation of go-to strategies, and incorporate them in unique ways throughout the year. We’re talking about how to use the following in gr. 2-12 classrooms: • podcasts • stations • hexagonal thinking • escape room design • one-pager Betsy will definitely spark your creativity as you listen to these easy-to-understand activities which you can plug into the lessons you’re least excited to teach. These ideas will get students actively engaged in learning and boost your energy and enthusiasm as a teacher.   Click here to read the transcript, see photos of the lesson ideas, and get links to Betsy's templates. Resources mentioned:  Spark Creativity website and podcast Learn about student podcasting in a free PD series  Free Digital Toolkit for Hexagonal Thinking  Video: Using hexagons to build critical thinking skills Free escape room toolkit  Guide to creating one-pagers Angela's Teachers Box of Tricks on   TPT /  Truth for Teachers shop 

EP301 5 ways to make an old lesson feel fresh and interesting again (with Betsy Potash of Spark Creativity)

 This topic is definitely new territory for my Truth for Teachers podcast, and I was initially hesitant to include it because I didn’t want to overshare.  However, as I began to talk to other women about this, I realized how many of us really didn’t have a good grasp on the way hormones impact our daily function. The experience is so individualistic, and no two bodies are alike. I realized that the more folks talk about this, the better informed we'll be.  So in this episode, I’m sharing my own journey with perimenopause and brain fog. It took me many months to recognize what was changing in my body and why, and I misdiagnosed the brain fog as simply pandemic-related stress.  At age 43, menopause wasn't on my radar yet, and I didn't know pre-menopausal symptoms were a thing. Once I sought guidance from my OB-GYN, I was able to find relief from my symptoms, and I want to help other women understand their options, too.  So, I’ve invited Dr. Jen Gunter to shed some light on this topic for us. Jen is an obstetrician, gynecologist, and author known for her advocacy work in women's health and her efforts to debunk health misinformation. She is a prominent voice on social media and shares evidence-based information about women's health issues and challenges pseudoscientific claims, and has authored several books, including "The Menopause Manifesto," in which she addresses common myths and provides accurate information about women's health.  In this interview, Jen and I discuss the impact of hormonal changes on energy and focus, throughout different stages of life, emphasizing that hormones should be viewed as a symphony of factors rather than isolated elements.  Jen also dispels negative stereotypes about hormonal changes and challenges patriarchal concepts around women's competence related to hormones and aging. She encourages women to embrace their capabilities, and make informed decisions about how and when to utilize medical experts for support.   Click here to read the transcript and participate in the discussion.

EP300 Teaching through hormonal changes: post-partum, perimenopause, and beyond (with Dr. Jen Gunter)

Do you refuse to throw anything out because you MIGHT need it one day, or find yourself holding on to worthless stuff “just in case” you need it? In this episode, I’ll share 10 things you can get rid of in your classroom this spring to make space for what you actually need and use. And, I’ll help you establish a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, so you can approach spring cleaning with a perspective that will help you feel good rather than apprehensive about getting rid of the things you worked so hard to accumulate:  I like to streamline and simplify how my classroom runs. I don’t keep things I don’t really need. I could still teach well with a fraction of the materials I’ve accumulated. If there is something that I need later and don’t have, I trust that I will be able to find it again, or borrow it, or be able to do without it just fine. The foundation of my classroom is my energy, enthusiasm, and know-how, not my stuff. I feel good about clearing away the things that drain my energy and enthusiasm by creating a cluttered, disorganized work space. I can let go of things I don’t need in order to make space for things I do.   Click here to read the transcript and participate in the discussion.

EP299 A spring cleaning classroom guide: what if you didn’t need all that STUFF to teach well?

This episode features a sneak peek from one of the upcoming 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Online Summit sessions. You’ll hear from a teacher named June Link, whose session is called, “Clock out confidently: 5 tips to get out the door at contract time.” In this episode, June shares some helpful principles and mindset shifts, along with the exact process she used to carve out time for a new demand in her workload. June and her colleagues were supposed to implement a new socio-emotional learning curriculum, but needed to find time to explore it, write lesson plans, and figure out how to integrate the new materials into everything else they were doing. June shares how she estimated how much preparation time she’d realistically need in order to implement this new curriculum, which was 10 hours. Then she explains how she made time for that work during her contractual hours, instead of taking the new curriculum home to figure out on the evenings or weekends. Listen in to learn about that experiment and more. Then, save your spot for the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Online Summit: ✅ 30+ presentations ✅ Opening and closing keynotes by 40 Hour founder Angela Watson ✅ All presenters are current K-12 classroom teachers ✅ No fluff, filler, or pitches: each session is just 15-20 minutes long ✅ Chat with other teachers during the live sessions and get personalized advice Sign up for the free live Elementary Summit April 5th-6th Sign up for the free live Secondary Summit April 12th-13th If you can’t attend live or the event has already passed by the time you see this, you can purchase forever-access to all the sessions (both elementary and secondary), plus get time-stamped transcripts, note-taking guides, and all the presentation links and templates in one document so that you can reference them easily.  Forever-access is just $19, and helps cover the cost of running this event and compensating the teachers who share their ideas. Thank you for your support, and for spreading the word about this event!

EP298 Clock out confidently: 5 tips to get out the door at contract time (with June Link)

It's the only event focused entirely on saving teachers TIME! Learn from current K-12 teachers as they share their best tips for working more effectively, efficiently, and enjoyably. The 40 Hour Teacher Workweek program is an online course I first created in 2015 (with a total update in 2020), and we’ve now had tens of thousands of teachers complete the course. With so many different personality types and teaching contexts, the amount of new ideas to spring out of the course was inevitable. I’ve always been impressed by the tweaks, offshoots, extensions, and transformations teachers have done as they’d made my ideas their own. The Summit is an opportunity for you to learn more about them and their phenomenal work! The 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Online Summit this April features:  Opening and closing keynotes by 40 Hour founder Angela Watson (that's me) 30+ presentations by current K-12 classroom teachers No fluff, filler, icebreakers, or sales pitches Each session is just 15-20 minutes long The ability to chat with other teachers during the live sessions to get personalized advice  This event is entirely online, completely FREE, and beneficial for all K-12 teachers! Some presenters will take you on a video tour of their classrooms to share organizational tips and classroom routines. Others will screen share their way through tutorials of how they organize digital files, manage assessment, or plan lessons. Still others will give a fast rundown of all their best timesaving tips for grading, differentiation, email, and more. You can join us LIVE for FREE in April: Sign up for the free live Elementary Summit April 5th-6th   Sign up for the free live Secondary Summit April 12th-13th If you can’t attend a session or want to watch and rewatch at your convenience, the  Forever Access Pass will get you all the recordings, plus a notetaking guide, summary of key ideas for each session, full time-stamped transcripts, and special bonuses. It’s just $19 right now (the price will increase once the event begins).  Your purchase of the Forever-Access Pass helps me recover some of the costs of running this as a free event and paying our presenters. Thank you for your support! Questions? Check out the FAQ here. Please share this free event widely with teacher friends and colleagues! Just send folks to join.40htw.com/summit.

EP229 Something NEW is coming to Truth for Teachers...

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