We are a culture that loves choice and that goes for all ages. So offering choice in an elementary writing classroom is extremely powerful. Today, we will hear firsthand how making the small shift results in tremendous engagement. Join us for a discussion between Kelly Boswell, author of Every Kid a Writer, and Blake Williams, a second grade teacher in South Carolina.

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Join us today as we hear from Jennifer Lempp and Kristen Stump about shifting the culture and structure of their elementary math classrooms. Jennifer is author of Math Workshop, Five Steps to Implementing Guided Math Learning Stations, Reflection and More. And Kristen is a current classroom teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia. Their conversation is a beautiful testament to teacher growth that leads to student success. 

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Can you write a 100 word story? Sounds easy, right? That's what the students in Kim Culbertson's high school English class thought at first. A 100 word story, or piece of flash fiction as it's otherwise known, is a small yet densely packed teaching tool and harder to write than you think. In today's discussion between Kim and her contributing co-author, Grant Faulkner, they delve into the origin of the book, their own writing journeys, and beautiful stories from the classroom where flash fiction is fostering deep concentration, agency, and feelings of personal success.

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Students today are learning the importance of analyzing all forms of text for accuracy and truth. A great way to engage students in honing this skill is to practice identifying dominant narratives and seeking out counter narratives. In this excerpt from their audiobook, The Civically Engaged Classroom, authors, Mary Ehrenworth, Pablo Wolfe, and Marc Todd offer practical advice and resources for starting this work in your classroom.

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What is a book written for doing, not just reading? Matt Glover and Carl Anderson can answer this question. Their new book, How to Become a Better Writing Teacher is a book written for doing. It puts the power of day-to-day curriculum decision-making and fine-tuning into the hands of the teacher. In our conversation today, Matt and Carl dive deeper into some of the 50-plus high impact strategies from their book, that you can easily find as you need throughout the year.

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Less planning, more student autonomy, and more time to confer. Sounds pretty great, right? In an integrated reading and writing block Ellin Keene aims to achieve all three. Her newest book The Literacy Studio –titled after this approach— is full of research-backed insights from the classroom, and practical strategies on how to do this in your ELA classroom. Today in a special commuter podcast episode Edie talks with the author before we hear the clip from the audiobook.

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Today we are going to revisit a podcast from 2022 on teacher mental health. My colleague Steph speaks with Dr. Kris Scardamalia associate professor from the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland.

 If you enter “teacher mental health” into a search engine, you’ll probably be met with a surprisingly short list of results. But teachers have long experienced high rates of stress and burnout, which have only grown in recent years.

We wanted to take some time to address the long standing and often overlooked state of teacher mental health in the U.S. Well-meaning approaches tend to miss the glaring issue of broken structural supports that leave teachers and their students with little to work with.

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One way to better understand today’s issues in schools is to know the history of how we got here. Today, we’ll hear about the landmark supreme court case; Lau v. Nichols, that established that bilingual students have the right to equal educational opportunities and a meaningful education. In this excerpt from his audiobook, Elevating Equity and Justice: 10 U.S. Supreme Court Cases Every Teacher Should Know, former civil rights attorney Robert Kim tells the story of why the Laus and other Chinese American families sued the San Francisco Unified School District 50 years ago and how their victory has shaped today’s schools. 

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The pleasure of storytelling is the entry point for everyone into writing, as well as what propels the writer as they move into different genres. Today we’ll hear from Tom Newkirk about his new book Literacy’s Democratic Roots: A Personal Tour Through Eight Big Ideas. Tom is interviewed by fellow Heinemann author Ralph Fletcher. In this delightful conversation between two old friends Tom and Ralph discuss the importance of narrative, the resources students bring to any curriculum, and how the marriage of the two is imperative in facing the current challenge to democracy—to bring everyone in, to make everyone welcome.

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As far as I’m concerned," educator and performer Rebecca Bellingham writes, "there is no one busier than a teacher." Fitting it all in can feel impossible. Still, the benefits of reading aloud to students of all ages are vast and comprehensive – so if you’re going to skip something, Bellingham argues, please don’t let it be read aloud! This week, in an excerpt from Rebecca’s The Artful Read Aloud, we’re going to hear how reading aloud is essential to becoming a lifelong reader, and the perfect moment to slow down, take a breath, and give students – and yourself – time to think and make meaning, even in the midst of impossibly packed days.

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