K-12 Greatest Hits: Your shortcut to what works in education

We absolutely love teaching, and we’ve all had moments of burnout, but pandemic teaching is different. This week we talk about relieving the stress and exhaustion we’re feeling.

Follow on Twitter: @ideasforteacher @peter_santoro @MrHabegger @DrBioTom @jonHarper70bd @jonbergmann @bamradionetwork

Jake Habegger is an 8th grade US History Teacher in Franklin, Tennessee. His goal in education is to invigorate student learning by meeting them where they are through the use of technology. Peter Santoro has been teaching high school mathematics for 12 years. In addition to two sections of Introductory Calculus, Peter also teaches one section of Geometry and two sections of Mathematics Research Honors. In addition, he is the coach of the Garden City High School Math Team (Mathletes). Dr. Thomas Mennella has been an instructor in higher education for over ten years. Starting as a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and then moving on to an Assistant Professorship at Delaware State University (DSU), Tom is now an Associate Professor at Bay Path University, a private liberal arts institution in western Massachusetts. Dan Jones earned a BS in Middle Grades Education from Ashland University and a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American College of Education. Dan is an FLGI Master Teacher whose professional interests include e-learning and technology, as well as Project-Based Learning.

We invited school psychologists,  teachers, school principals, superintendents, a school safety specialist, and an education law expert to help us figure out what to do in the wake of a historic inflection point that demands some difficult discussions as soon as possible.

Follow on Twitter: @2WardEquity @kylehamstra  @pFagell @jonHarper70bd @DrAmyKlinger @sgthomas1973 @rpdelcastillo @bamradionetwork

Dr. Angela M. Ward is a public-school administrator with over 20 years of experience. She is focused on creating identity-safe schools and workplaces and strives daily to nurture equity-centered schooling. Follow Dr. Ward http://2wardequity.com/blog/  Phyllis L. Fagell, LCPC is the school counselor at Sheridan School in Washington, D.C. and a therapist at The Chrysalis Group. Phyllis frequently writes columns on counseling, parenting and education for The Washington Post, and she’s the author of Middle School Matters (Hachette, 2019). Kyle Hamstra teaches fifth-grade math and science at Davis Drive Elementary for fourteen years. crafting learning experiences as a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) specialist. He is a 2016 ASCD Emerging Leader, a member of the Wake Science Core Leadership Team, and a member of the North Carolina Digital Leaders Coaching Network. Jon Harper is an assistant principal at Sandy Hill Elementary School in Cambridge, Maryland where he actually attended school himself. Previously, he was a math coach and taught first through fifth grades. He is the author of My Bad: 24 Educators Who Messed Up Fessed Up and Grew! He hosts #MyBad Radio and Teachers' Aid. Tom Hutton is the Interim Executive Director of the Education Law Association’s (ELA). Tom is a former school attorney who served in-house with the National School Boards Association and its Council of School Attorneys and later in private practice in Seattle. He had been a co-founder as a law student of Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School, a law-themed high school in the District of Columbia. Dr. Amy Klinger is nationally recognized as an expert in school safety and crisis management. She delivers training and lectures to audiences throughout the United States and abroad. She has more than 28 years of experience as an educator and administrator. She is an associate professor of Educational Administration at Ashland University and is the co-founder and Director of Programs at The Educators' School Safety Network. Shawn Thomas is in her 20th year of teaching in the largest county in Georgia. She has taught Kindergarten, Second and Third Grade, and ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) K-5. Nancy Blair is a middle school principal in Georgia. She previously served as a school improvement consultant. Dr. Rocio del Castillo began her career as a school psychologist in Peru and has dedicated her professional career to being an advocate for educational equity and social justice. She currently serves as Assistant Superintendent for Special Services in Huntley Community School District 158 and as an adjunct professor.

While emotions were running high over the attack on the United States Capitol, we asked eight educators to share their thoughts on the academic dilemma created by this historic moment in American history. Are any of us really ready to discuss sedition in the classroom? Should we just leave it to social studies and civic teachers?

Twitter: @HeFields3 @jonHarper70bd @ideasforteacher @RLamourelle @inspireteach @MisterMinor @eduflack@MsSackstein @bamradionetwork

Dr. Howard E. Fields III is the 2020 National Elementary Distinguished Principal from Missouri. Described as a passionate and courageous leader, Dr. Fields started his career in urban education, serving as a coach, teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Jon Harper is an assistant principal at Sandy Hill Elementary School in Cambridge, Maryland where he actually attended school himself. Previously, he was a math coach and taught first through fifth grades. He is the author of My Bad: 24 Educators Who Messed Up Fessed Up and Grew! He hosts #MyBad Radio and Teachers' Aid. Daniel Jones is a middle school social studies and reading/language arts teacher. He is a Master Flip Educator and has been teaching in the classroom for the past 13 years. He is an FLGI International Faculty Member, Master Flip Educator, and author of Flipped 3.0 Project Based Learning: An Insanely Simple Guide. Dr. Regina Lamourelle is a professor of Human Development at Santiago Canyon College in Orange, CA, where she is also the department chair. She serves on the Board of Orange County Association for the Education of Young Children and is a former Orange County representative to the California Association for the Education of Young Children. She hosts Inside the Minds of Teens and Tweens. Aleta Margolis is founder and president of Center for Inspired Teaching, an organization dedicated to transforming the school experience for students from compliance-based to engagement-based. Margolis is a former public school teacher and professor of education and is the creator of the blog Hooray For Monday. She is an Ashoka Fellow who is committed to investing in teachers. Cornelius Minor is a Brooklyn-based educator. He works with teachers, school leaders, and leaders of community-based organizations to support equitable literacy reform in cities (and sometimes villages) across the globe. His latest book, We Got This, explores how the work of creating more equitable school spaces is embedded in our everyday choices -- specifically in the choice to really listen to kids. He has been featured in Education Week, Brooklyn Magazine, and Teaching Tolerance Magazine. Patrick Riccards is the executive director of Best in the World Teachers and the founder of the Driving Force Institute for Public Engagement. Author of the nationally recognized Eduflack blog and its companion Twitter feed. PR News named Pat the Not-for-Profit Communications Professional of the Year for his work in teacher preparation and higher education transformation (2015). A former local school board chairman, Patrick is also the author of the award-winning Dadprovement. Host of TrumpED and co-host of Common Core Radio. Starr Sackstein (NBCT) is a certified Master Journalism Educator through the Journalism Education Association (JEA). She serves at the New York State Director to JEA. She is the author of several books, including Teaching Mythology Exposed: Helping Teachers Create Visionary Classroom Perspective.

How do we lead a class, a school or a school district when there is no textbook, guidebook or map for the scenarios we face? As big anxiety, fears and doubts arise, how do we teach or lead others when we are struggling ourselves?

Follow on Twitter: @ASCD @DrRachaelGeorge @PrincipalKafele @Jenschwanke @jonHarper70bd

Award-winning educator Baruti Kafele is a leading keynote speaker and best-selling author. His books include Is My School Better a Better School BECAUSE I Lead It?, The Principal 50: Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence, and The Teacher 50: Critical Questions for Inspiring Classroom Excellence. Jennifer Schwanke has been an educator for 20 years, teaching or leading at all levels. She is the author of You're the Principal! Now What? Strategies and Solutions for New School Leaders. In addition to on her blog, she publishes frequently on the Choice Literacy and Lead Literacy websites as well as Education Week Teacher, Principal, and Principal Navigator. Guest host Rachael George is the principal of Sandy Grade School in the Oregon Trail School District and an ASCD Emerging Leader.

Increasingly, teachers report that students in remote learning are not turning in their work. Join us as we unpack the assignment completion gap and what can we do about it.

Follow on Twitter: @ideasforteacher @KtBkr4 @MrRKhusky @MrHabegger @jonHarper70bd @jonbergmann @bamradionetwork

Kate Baker, M.Ed and MAIT, is the Senior Community Engagement Manager at Edmodo, a veteran high school English teacher with 20+ years classroom experience, board member of the Flipped Learning Network, & contributing author of Flipping 2.0: Practical Strategies for Flipping Your Classroom. Passionate about evolving authentic learning into digital formats, Kate leads by example and shares her expertise with the global Edmodo Community and on Twitter..Richard Kline is in his 30th year of teaching and former teacher of Dan Jones and a graduate of Ashland University in Elementary Education 1-8, Ashland University's Master's Program in Educational Administration. Jake Habegger is an 8th grade US History Teacher in Franklin, Tennessee. His goal in education is to invigorate student learning by meeting them where they are through the use of technology.

Grading is always a challenge, but teachers are reporting that hybrid and remote teaching are adding a new level of stress and angst to the process. Join us as a panel of teachers share what they are doing to make the new grading demands more manageable.

Follow on Twitter: @ideasforteacher @martharamirezco @DrBioTom @jonHarper70bd @jonbergmann @bamradionetwork

Martha Ramirez has worked in the education field for more than 16 years. Her experience includes being a school teacher, a department head, a higher education educator, an academic consultant, and a researcher. She is an English professor in the Department of Languages and Sociocultural Studies at Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia and works in various Flipped Learning international projects. Jon Bergmann is one of the pioneers of the Flipped Classroom Movement. He is leading the worldwide adoption of Flipped Learning through the Flipped Learning Global Initiative (FLGI) flglobal.org. He is the author of 12 books, including the bestselling book: Flip Your Classroom, translated into 13 languages. After spending seven years as a consultant, he has returned to his passion of reaching every student every day. Besides his work with Flipped Learning Global, he teaches full-time high school science in a suburban Houston Texas high school. Dr. Thomas Mennella has been an instructor in higher education for over ten years. Starting as a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and then moving on to an Assistant Professorship at Delaware State University (DSU), Tom is now an Associate Professor at Bay Path University, a private liberal arts institution in western Massachusetts. Dan Jones earned a BS in Middle Grades Education from Ashland University and a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American College of Education. Dan is an FLGI Master Teacher whose professional interests include e-learning and technology, as well as Project-Based Learning.

This week the stress levels of hybrid teaching hit crisis levels, and we all had to make major changes to avoid going over the edge. Here are three things we did to get our classes back on track when we came to the end of our rope.

Follow on Twitter: @ideasforteacher  @peter_santoro @MrHabegger @DrBioTom @jonHarper70bd  @jonbergmann @bamradionetwork

Jake Habegger is an 8th grade US History Teacher in Franklin, Tennessee. His goal in education is to invigorate student learning by meeting them where they are through the use of technology. Peter Santoro has been teaching high school mathematics for 12 years. In addition to two sections of Introductory Calculus, Peter also teaches one section of Geometry and two sections of Mathematics Research Honors. In addition, he is the coach of the Garden City High School Math Team (Mathletes). Dr. Thomas Mennella has been an instructor in higher education for over ten years. Starting as a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and then moving on to an Assistant Professorship at Delaware State University (DSU), Tom is now an Associate Professor at Bay Path University, a private liberal arts institution in western Massachusetts. Dan Jones earned a BS in Middle Grades Education from Ashland University and a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American College of Education. Dan is an FLGI Master Teacher whose professional interests include e-learning and technology, as well as Project-Based Learning.

Today, the elephant in every classroom is politics: How are you managing the thorny issues that are present in your classroom, whether you discuss them or not?  Four educators share their approaches.

Follow on Twitter @2WardEquity @klrembert  @rpdelcastillo @HolSpinny @larryferlazzo  @jonHarper70bd  @bamradionetwork

Dr. Angela M. Ward is a public-school administrator with over 20 years of experience. She is focused on creating identity-safe schools and workplaces and strives daily to nurture equity-centered schooling. Follow Dr. Ward http://2wardequity.com/blog/  Holly Spinelli is a students' rights activist with specific focuses in alternative, strengths-based pedagogical approaches where students' voices serve as the catalyst for their education. She is a New York public high school teacher, an adjunct instructor at SUNY Orange County Community College, and an active member of the NCTE's Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. Keisha Rembert is a passionate learner and fierce equity advocate.  She was an award-winning middle school ELA and United States History teacher who now instructs preservice teachers. She hopes to change our world one student at a time. Dr. Rocio del Castillo began her career as a school psychologist in Peru and has dedicated her professional career to being an advocate for educational equity and social justice. She currently serves as Assistant Superintendent for Special Services in Huntley Community School District 158 and as an adjunct professor.