MindShift Podcast

With social distancing, stay-at-home orders and remote learning during the pandemic, many caregivers allowed more screen time than usual. Teenagers’ screen time doubled during COVID, and now many caregivers and parents are afraid their kid’s screen time has gone overboard. Dr. Anna Lembke, author of “Dopamine Nation,” makes the case for how technology, with its promise of nonstop engagement and flashing lights, can be addictive.

MindShift partnered with KQED Education to create the "Rethink Schools" youth media challenge. Here are a few of the student proposals.

Nested within the national teacher shortage is an equally concerning Black teacher shortage. In response to push out factors that cause Black educators to leave the profession altogether, Mosley founded the Black Teacher Project, an organization that supports the shrinking population of Black teachers through leadership-focused professional development. In this minisode she shares the thinking behind their tagline “Every Student Deserves A Black Teacher” and strategies to improve Black teacher retention.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve our brains -- from apps to help you focus to games that purportedly keep your mind fresh. But science journalist Annie Murphy Paul says we’re not focusing enough on what’s happening outside of the brain -- with our bodies. When it comes to work that is all about thinking -- like writing, math, reading -- our society is largely designed around sitting still at a desk. Annie will share some of the latest research on embodied learning and how teachers and parents can apply some of those findings at home.

Most teachers feel they have to hide negative emotions from students. That puts them in a tough situation because - as we showed in our episode on toxic positivity - research shows suppressing negative emotions can make stress worse. In this minisode, we look at what happens when teachers show their real emotions in class, from the highs to the lows.

Glenn Singleton is the author of “Courageous Conversations About Race,” which gives helpful ground rules when talking about race. One Florida school district taught Singleton’s techniques to all their educators so they could develop cultural competency and address systemic inequities. What can their experience teach others?

Gholdy Muhammad, a teacher and professor at Georgia State University, spent years researching Black literary societies of the early 1800s, where people debated ideas, cultivated a deeper understanding of themselves and thought critically about change needed in the world. From this model, Muhammad developed the historically responsive literacy framework to help teachers and parents raise the geniuses of tomorrow.

For many students, their mental health took a nosedive during the pandemic. But there are bright spots. One Oakland school was able to meet most students' mental health needs – and it didn’t call for anything too drastic.

There’s a growing movement to teach data science in schools. Some experts hope it will disrupt the dropouts caused by other math classes and even lead to more diversity in STEM. In this episode, we study how educators have designed the classes to be more engaging for women and people from groups underrepresented in STEM.

The pandemic has pushed many educators to their limits. And yet, some teachers are being told a better attitude could make the job easier. Some call this toxic positivity, which is when you focus on the positive and ignore the negative. In this episode, we look at how teachers can combat toxic positivity and help their classrooms avoid a culture of it.