Second in a series of conversations with students about what they’re doing instead of your homework, returning Lunch Duty guests Kendall Wienecke and Carrie Goeke-Morey update listeners on the latest in the James Charles beauty influencer drama that broke out in June. With professorial authority, they explain the rise of TikTok and its grip on today’s young cell phone users. Sure, TikTok may not be your thing, but many, if not most, of your students are into this.

Dr. Katharina Matro explains her decision to pursue a career in secondary school education as a history teacher after finishing her PhD. in Eastern European History at Stanford University. Her article in the American Historical Association periodical Perspectives on History about this path and her reflections on her satisfaction with her career course generated some interest and resulted in an all-expenses-paid trip back to Stanford to talk to humanities graduate students about professional life at an independent high school.

Producers Giovanna Basney and Tom Doyle talk about the significance of summer to teachers. Parenting, catching up, exercise, reading, chores, sleeping, getting outside, and saying goodbye to beloved colleagues who are retiring or moving on to other opportunities are among the many things that they consider in this fast moving consideration of this sacred time for teaching professionals.

Another day, another drama: Juniors Carrie Goeke-Morey and Kendall Wienecke return (E14: As You Like It: Goat Scream) to “spill the tea” on the latest social media influencer scandal--the rise and fall (and rise) of beauty guru James Charles. Teachers! This is what you should know and why you should care about students’ daily interactions with digital media.

Stone Ridge seniors Alayna Kinkead and Madeleine Sateri explain their strategies for getting ready for the Advanced Placement United States History exam their junior year. They describe some idiosyncratic strategies and some really effective habits. This will be of interest to students facing similar challenges or teachers curious about how some students deal with the complexities of junior year.

Lunch Duty Producer Sharon Kenny interviews Ithaca City, New York public school principal Liddy Coyle about what Liddy does and does not control and what she thinks about first when she makes important decisions, helps her students, councils teachers, and keeps Northeast Elementary School on even keel, even in these turbulent times.

Producers Giovanna Basney and Tom Doyle talk about the dilemmas teachers face with presents: thank you note or no thank you note? Is verbal acknowledgement enough? Are emails sufficient? Or is a handwritten note correct? Should the note go to the student’s home address, or should the student receive the note by hand? All this and more in this fast moving back-and-forth between two hard working teachers.

Students, the whole point of teaching, are the stars of this episode in which juniors Kendall Wienecke and Carrie Goeke-Morey offer a stage-setting explanation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. As for the goat scream, it has to be experienced to be appreciated.

As educators know, teaching is about much more than information and skills. Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education Visiting Scholar Lauren Brownlee touches on teaching’s power to inspire in a conversation with Executive Producer Ken Woodard about her journey to her role as the CSEE’s first visiting scholar, her article in the recent issue of the CSEE’s publication Connections Quarterly, and her high school elective history course Genocide Studies.

The Internet is changing almost everything including textbooks. This conversation with the editors of the free online United States History textbook The American Yawp sheds light on it origin and process. Editors Joe Locke and Ben Wright talk about the challenges and rewards of their remarkable contribution to the digital humanities.