Have a Life Teaching

In this episode of the Have a Life Teaching Podcast, Roxie Patton, Founder of RJ Consulting and Coaching, and I continue our conversation on the importance of having educators who understand the students and families they serve.

Since many educators no longer live in the communites where they teach, this becomes a particularly important consideration within teaching. Roxie and I discuss ways through which educators might combat the internal biases they may have of others/their students as well as how school administration can proactively develop inclusive school communities.

Roxie and I also discuss how schools might better provide inclusive environments for educators - those who may be neurodivergent and/or require physical accomodations themselves and why we want these diverse educators on our payrolls.

Roxie J. Patton LinkedIn

Music - Aylex

When we teach students how to write, we often do so by teaching certain writing "moves" - introducing a topic, expanding on it, and summation, etc.

We also should be teaching the communication moves that go along with public speaking and presentation. So says my guest Robyn Brinks Lockwood, speech professor at Stanford University, on this episode.

So that students can meet the rigor of college teaching and learning, Professor Brinks-Lockwood and I discuss what K12 educators, particularly high school teachers, can do to better prepare students to not only give presentations but also to serve as facilitators and moderators of student led discussion.

We also discuss how students can better capture important learnings from the traditional lecture model of teaching and to become active as opposed to passive listeners.

Robyn Brinks-Lockwood LinkedIn

Books by Robyn Brinks-Lockwood

Q&A With Robyn Brinks-Lockwood

Music - Aylex

Over 27 percent of all students in America have immigrant parents. In this episode, Ari Gerzon-Kessler and I discuss strategies for better engaging this traditionally underserved population of families.

Gerzon-Kessler, a former principal, currently serves as a coordinator of family partnerships and is the author of the new book "On the Same Team: Bringing Educators and Underrepresented Families Together". He and I discuss the power of newcomer parent-teacher teams as well as home visits in both helping educators to better connect with these families and in providing newcomer families with additional voice on and insight into their child's education.

Ari Gerzon-Kessler LinkedIn

On the Same Team - Book

Music - Aylex

In this episode, my guest Allison Rodman, author of the new book Still Learning and the founder/CEO of The Learning Loop, and I discuss what is required to embed effective teacher professional development in schools. We discuss what administrators must do to ensure that all training is systemic and has established success criteria as well as how to improve the effectiveness of teacher professional learning communities and overall teacher collaboration in schools.

Allison Rodman LinkedIn

Still Learning Book

The Learning Loop Web Site

Music - Aylex

In this episode, the authors of the Formative Assessment Handbook, Marine Freiburn and Sandy Brunet, and I discuss how to craft learning intentions that then allow teachers to align assessment and student engagement to those learning goals. In our chat, we discuss how to unpack standards into child friendly learning intentions, how to embed success criteria in learning, and strategies for engaging students in understanding and measuring their own growth towards mastery of learning intentions.

Marine Freibrun LinkedIn

Sandra Brunet LinkedIn

The Formative Assessment Handbook

Music by Aylex

Maker spaces are anywhere and everywhere where students are taking knowledge and creating something physical that adds on to that knowledge in new ways. Students' cognitive skills are developed in the process. Yes, schools can create labs with 3D printers but teachers can also turn a closet into a maker space. Join my next guest Matt Zigler, maker space cordinator at the Bullis School and professional artist, and I as we discuss ways through which he helps classroom teachers design a maker space component to their lessons.

Matt Zigler LinkedIn

Make: Three Modes of Making Book

Matt Zigler Website

In Part I, Sybil Hall and I discussed what educators can do to take ownership of their own wellbeing. Here, in Part II, Aimee Parkinson Presnall. Founder and CEO of Well-Nest (Australia) and I discuss how individual responsibility for our own wellbeing as educators can and should be further supported by school systems/administrators. School leaders also have a responsibility to implement and sustain initiatives that prioritize the collective wellbeing of all within their school community. Aimee provides some strategies for how school systems might do this in our chat.

Linkedin - Aimee Presnall

Well-Nest

There are a wealth of things we can do to reduce the stress and anxiety that we feel as educators. In this episode, weath and wellbeing consultant, teacher, and author Sybil Hall (Burn Bright Not Out) takes us through some simple ways we can make our lives calmer as educators be that through scheduling our time, batching our teaching tasks, and/or taking brief time outs before and during the day to meditate/reflect.

Sybil Hall LinkedIn

Burn Bright Not Out Book

Music - Aylex

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) means much more than just ensuring that students are reading books with a diverse character. Join Maria Garcia Underwood, founder of M Ideas Consulting, and I as we discuss what deep DEI looks like in terms of curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy within school communities vested in ensuring that all members are seen and heard. We also discuss allyship.

M Ideas Consulting

Maria Underwood LinkedIn

Music: Aylex

Many teachers are teaching 21st Century students in buildings designed in the 19th and/or early 20th Centuries. Join my next guest, Prakash Nair, CEO of Education Design International, and I as we discuss in this episode what school communities are doing around the world to design buildings that are purposefully built to engage students through collaboration and inquiry based learning.

Prakash Nair LinkedIn

Education Design International

Music: Aylex