We educators are such busy people, aren’t we? In today’s episode, we consider a selection from Jenny Odell’s book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Maybe this sounds like we are encouraging slothfulness? Not that, exactly…but we discuss the idea of being intentional in planning ways to be fully present in Creation, with family and friends, and perhaps choosing to do different things. We consider the magnetic pull of social media, and the way it pushes us to feel FOMO (fear of missing out.) Odell suggests that we instead embrace NOMO (the necessity of missing out), and we discuss this idea, and what it might look like to live this way. We hope that this episode is a word of encouragement for educators as we wrap up our teaching for this academic year and set some different rhythms for rest and play–and maybe put our phones down?

• The book that prompted our discussion for today is available via Amazon

Oh boy, friends…are you ready to talk about dangerous ideas?? In this episode we discuss an essay from the New York Times by Matt Gross entitled “Your Kids Can Handle Dangerous Ideas.” (With thanks to our former professor, Jim Schaap, for recommending it to us!) The key quote from the article: “Parents–or at least the parents who seem to win media attention–are freaking out over everything their kids see, read, and do.” We think through some of the reasons why parents and teachers might be so worried about the kids, and consider some of the cultural forces that seem to be in effect. We also wonder about why (many) Christian schools seem to be afraid to approach potentially “dangerous” ideas–despite perhaps being the ideal place for having faith-informed, honest discussions about potentially-controversial topics. We welcome you to listen in, and as always, your feedback is most welcome!

• You can read the piece from the NYT here: Your Kids Can Handle Dangerous Ideas

For today’s check-in question, Matt asks us what random things we have on our desks or shelves that tell something about us. You might be surprised by what we share…or maybe not! As we are looking towards the end of another academic year, the main topic today is around summative assessment. Dave recently shared a professional development workshop for a local school about the topic, and we spend some time thinking about the purposes and practices of summative assessment. Dave shares his definition for summative assessment, and then we argue a bit about the different ways summative assessment is used (and abused) in schools today…and how our thinking about summative assessment has shifted over time. The difference between “assessment” and “judgment,” just how high-stakes assessment should be, and ideas for alternatives to traditional cumulative exams…lots of ideas we bat around in this conversation!

Are you flourishing? Are your students? Your school community? What do we mean by “flourishing” anyway? This week we wrap up our five-week series discussing Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe’s new book Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools. The book is divided into five sections, and in this episode, we discuss part five of the book, which is all about “well-being.” As we begin, we talk about work-life rhythm, and why it’s often so difficult for teachers to find this rhythm. We discuss the challenges of resting well, and other facets of well-being for teachers, administrators, and schools. As we conclude this series, we are grateful for the work Lynn and Andy put into this book, and if you have been listening along and haven’t yet read the book yourself, please take this encouragement to find a colleague or two, read the book, and discuss it together this summer. We hope our conversations spark some discourse of your own!

• We would love to hear your reactions to this book as well! Please feel free to share your thoughts, questions, comments, and wonderings with us at [email protected]. 

Are you flourishing? Are your students? Your school community? What do we mean by “flourishing” anyway? This is week 4 of our five-week series in which we are reading and discussing Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe’s new book Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools. The book is divided into five sections, and in this episode, we discuss part four of the book, which is all about “resources.” We begin by thinking about teacher resources we remember from our own school experience–and how technologies and tools have shifted over time. Matt shares a quote about scarcity and abundance from Walter Bruggeman, which led us to think about why so many schools think about what they don’t have rather than what they do have. We grapple with the question, “How much is ‘enough?’” and think through how we student our human resources as well as material resources really well. Lots in this section to unpack and consider!

• We would love to hear your reactions to this book as well! Please feel free to share your thoughts, questions, comments, and wonderings with us at [email protected]. 

Are you flourishing? Are your students? Your school community? What do we mean by “flourishing” anyway? This is week 3 of 4our five-week series in which we are reading and discussing Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe’s new book Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools. The book is divided into five sections, and in this episode, we discuss part three of the book, which is all about learning. We obviously talk about student learning–which is the real focus of schooling!--but we also spend quite a bit of time thinking about professional learning for educators, which is also essential for flourishing schools, students, and teachers. Further, we think about ways we can be surprised and delighted by students and their creativity and learning.

• We would love to hear your reactions to this book as well! Please feel free to share your thoughts, questions, comments, and wonderings with us at [email protected]. 

Are you flourishing? Are your students? Your school community? What do we mean by “flourishing” anyway? This week we continue our five-week series in which we are reading and discussing Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe’s new book Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools. The book is divided into five sections, and In this episode, we discuss part two of the book, which is all about “relationships.” We use the Triple A protocol (What do you AGREE with? What do you ARGUE with? What do you ASPIRE to?) to guide our conversation around this section of the book, and make connections to our own practices. 

• We would love to hear your reactions to this book as well! Please feel free to share your thoughts, questions, comments, and wonderings with us at [email protected]. 

Are you flourishing? Are your students? What do we mean by “flourishing” anyway? This week we begin a five-week series in which we are reading and discussing Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe’s new book Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools. The book is divided into five sections, and In this episode, we discuss part one of the book, which is all about “purpose.” We share some of our noticings and wonderings from our reading, and make connections to our own practices. 

• We would love to hear your reactions to this book as well! Please feel free to share your thoughts, questions, comments, and wonderings with us at [email protected]. 

We start off today’s show with a check-in question, wondering about who we would like to interview if we each had our own talk show. Our responses probably say quite a bit about each of our own unique personalities! Our main topic today is a question from a listener; Loretta asks, “In the past few years, our school has embraced Project Based Learning as a preferred teaching method. What are your thoughts on PBL? And what do you think are some of the best things about PBL and maybe what are some of the downfalls of teaching in a PBL style?” This was a timely question, as Matt and Abby had visited a PBL school just the week before we recorded this episode! We think together about the similarities and differences between having students “do projects” and implementing “project-based learning.” We further explore some of the habits of mind that seem to be important for implementing PBL at a classroom level and at a school level. Expanding audiences, exhibitions of student work, student empowerment–we talk about it all!

• Friends, we are preparing for our first book discussion! We are going to be reading and discussing Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools by Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe. We would love it if you would read along, and even submit questions you might have! The book has five sections, and we will be discussing one section each week beginning with next week’s episode, dropping on March 30, 2022. We would love it if you would read along with us, and even submit your questions, comments, wonderings. Drop us a note at [email protected] You can order your copy of the book here: Amazon link

Many thanks to you, our dedicated listeners! We are on Spring Break this week, and so we are pulling one of Dave's favorite episodes out of the archive. In this episode, we discuss a question from a listener about end-of-the-year awards ceremonies--maybe this will be good food for thought for you at this point in the spring as you might be thinking ahead to the end of this school year? We hope you'll be challenged and encouraged by listening.

• Friends, we are preparing for our first book discussion! We are going to be reading and discussing Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools by Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe. We would love it if you would read along, and even submit questions you might have! The book has five sections, and we will be discussing one section each week beginning on March 30, 2022. We would love it if you would read along with us, and even submit your questions, comments, wonderings. Drop us a note at [email protected] You can order your copy of the book here: Amazon link