If you've been around the education world for a while, you've probably heard these acronyms thrown around: RTI, MTSS, and PBIS.  But Dr. William Hunter takes us on a deep dive into what each of these terms mean, how they function to help our students, and most importantly how they work together to create a system that prevents students from falling through the cracks.  Whether it's behavior or academic, these systems help us serve our students the best we can...
And then we "rap" up with a fun conversation about #HipHopEd and how using poetry, rap, and spoken word can help engage students in a creative learning environment that honors their youth while meeting the demands of the curriculum.

Jon Ruths breaks down what he's recently learned about stress and tiredness and gives some suggestions on how to deal with both.

If you think language is fixed in stone, think again!  In this episode Dr. Raúl Alberto Mora shares how he learned to speak English with what was available to him at the time - WWE Wrestling!  Believe it or not, this led him down the path of becoming an English teacher in Colombia, and ultimately professor of English Education and Literacy Studies.  Through his Literacies in Second Languages Project (LSLP) he’s cultivated a space where some really unique research on language acquisition is being done.  We dive into the three pillars of his project, how language is alive, and how to engage your students with purpose.

How do we pull students into a lesson so they are genuinely curious and want to learn?  Dr. Khan shares today that one way might be to include some socioscientific issues (SSI). Socioscientific issues are socially-relevant, real-world problems that are potentially controversial, are informed by science, but often have an ethical component.  Dr. Kahn explains that using these issues in the classroom can have numerous educational benefits.  When students see the learning material is applicable to their lives today, and not just because a teacher says they’ll need it in the future, they engage more and remember more.  SSIs really pull information from several disciplines and force students out of the silos of the different school subjects.  And finally, students get to practice skills such as listening to someone else’s perspective and respectfully responding.  All of this and more in an episode you definitely don’t want to miss!

This conversation is twofold:

If you live in a rural part of the country, you know the struggle of being so far away from help when you need it.  That’s why the STAR initiative at the University of Virginia is so special. Gail and her colleagues built a support system modeled after the medical system Project ECHO.  Through virtual communities, teachers and other support staff in rural, lower socioeconomic, or just simply underfunded schools have access to specialist who can help train them so they can serve students with autism to the best of their abilities.

Additionally in this conversation we discuss Gail’s true passion, which is highlighting the importance of principals and administrators being knowledgeable about literacy learning.  They are, after all, the ones who come in and observe, critique, and mentor us on our teaching.  Since instructional leadership is second only to classroom instruction in student achievement, I think it’s fair that we hold these coaches accountable to walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

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How often do you reflect on the curriculum you teach? Most teachers (myself included) would probably say not often enough. 

In today’s episode Dr. Helfenbien reminds us that curriculum, by nature, is exclusionary. We cannot possibly teach everything, so naturally some material gets left out. So what are we saying when we include or exclude certain information? This is why reflection is so important. 

The challenge we must consider is not only analyzing the formal curriculum, but also the enacted curriculum. Not only what’s written in the textbook, but the lessons and content that actually gets taught in your classroom.  What are students learning, often subconsciously, through our decisions, words, and actions.

Dr. Helfenbein also shares with us how the physical spaces - the critical geography - of our classrooms, schools, and greater community can play a role in our students learning.

I believe that choosing to pursue a career in education is a choice that is rooted in the ultimate goal of helping others and creating lasting impact and change.  2018 Pennsylvania teacher of the Year, Mike Soskil, acknowledges his original jump into the education world came from a desire to coach soccer, but since then he has gone from a self-proclaimed mediocre teacher to an international speaker, author, leader, and positive change agent.  On this episode Mike dives into how he uses community needs to drive learning and engagement in his classroom, how teachers can begin to own their leadership potential, and how his new book “Flip the System U.S.” challenges the structure of the educational system in the United States and how we can begin to change it for the better.

Spatial skills are crucial for many tasks, especially STEM activities.  For a while it seemed like spatial awareness was something you either had, it or you didn’t.  But aligning with much of the research on growth mindset and neuroscience, it turns out you CAN teach spatial skills.  But if they’re so important for so many tasks, why don’t we explicitly teach them in school?  Why don’t you see a lesson on spatial skills in science class?  In this episode we dive into what types of spatial skills are needed to succeed in STEM, why a student’s spatial awareness is an important factor in predicting their STEM success, and how we can (and why we should) begin to develop spatial skills as soon as students develop language.

We each have our own story.  We each have grown up with certain influences.  Some influences are obvious to us - like for me when I went and saw a John Williams concert in 7th grade, which pushed me into a career in music.  But for most of our life, the influences are subliminal, affecting our subconscious without our awareness.  This is what brought Alexs Pate to develop the Innocent Classroom.  He says society tells us a story about students of color, and those students (by way of simply existing in our culture) hear that message.  Whether it’s a tv show, an advertisement, a song on the radio, students pick up on this message, often with negative side affects on what they believe about themselves.  It’s our job as educators to dismantle this belief so EVERY student can succeed to their full potential without negative stereotypes holding them back.

Amid the COVID19 pandemic, teachers have been thrust into trying to teach in a new distance or hybrid learning environment.  Allie Goldstein has spent her career working on building community through online education platforms, and while her focus is on higher education and semester courses that were designed from the start to be online, there's plenty of crossover value for k-12 teachers to absorb.  Listen as we dive into different strategies, resources, and tools for building your classroom community, no matter what it looks like today.