In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Samantha Shaffner and discussed digital assessment tools. Ms. Shaffner has utilized assessment EdTech tools inside and outside the classroom in her various roles in her career. Our conversation focused on a number of assessment tools ranging from Pear Deck, Edulastic, Wakelet, Quizzizz, and Buncee and how to effectively use them for formative assessment to then collect data to drive our instruction. Overall, if you are a teacher or school leader looking for a few new instructional practices to be used with assessment tools, this is an episode you will definitely want to tune into!

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Guest Bio: Samantha Shaffner is a district administrator at Pickerington Local School District in Pickerington, OH. Her current role is to serve as the district’s K-12 Assessment and Accountability Coordinator. Prior to working at PLSD, Samantha has served in multiple administrative and instructional design roles in Ohio community schools. Her most recent work was in a network of Drop-out-Prevention-and-Recovery (DPR) schools in Ohio called Career Prep High School. As a 14-year veteran educator,  An award-winning ELA teacher, Samantha has 14 years of experience in the classroom as an ELA teacher and blended learning expert. She has served as a curriculum designer, content creator, blended learning coordinator, district testing coordinator, and academic coach. Additionally, Samantha is an independent contractor and consultant with cutting-edge educational technology companies. For years, Samantha has advocated for effective remote learning and for student access to the technology they need to succeed in all learning spaces. Samantha serves on the Edulastic Innovator Team and is a contracted blogger and content writer for Edulastic and other cutting-edge Ed-tech companies.

Twitter: @SamanthaShaffn2

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Robert Martellacci, who is one of Canada's foremost EdTech Leaders to discuss co-working spaces, the state of education in Canada, and Canadian EdTech. First, we began our discussion with co-working spaces and how they have evolved. Additionally, the conversation moves to how they will look in the next five years as well as how schools may create their own community hubs. Next, our conversation shifted to how Canada navigated the past 16 months during the pandemic. Mr. Martellacci outlines the Canadian playbook and its future development to create a second edition to help educators. Finally, the discussion discusses the Canadian EdTech scene, which is in a renaissance with major companies like Paper making a large splash throughout North America. Mr. Martellacci talks about this expansion and where it is headed next. This is an episode you will not want to miss out on as there's much to learn from learning about how countries around the world navigate education and Edtech. 

Guest Bio: As founder and president of International award-winning MindShare Learning Technology, Robert is recognized as one of Canada's foremost EdTech thought leaders and was recognized by EdTech Digest as a Top100 Global Influencer. He's a champion for igniting student success through innovative solutions and partnerships in Canadian schools. Often referred to as the 'connector,' Robert specializes in forging mutually beneficial partnerships between education and technology solution providers.

A passionate life-long learner, Robert pursued a transformational learning journey earning a master’s in educational technology from Pepperdine University Graduate School of Psychology and Education. His Pepperdine experience inspired the creation of the MindShare Learning Report—Canada’s Learning & Technology eMagazine.

Robert's innovative spirit and desire to see an accelerated pace of change in education, led to the creation of C21 Canada--Canadians for Learning and Innovation. A not-for-profit he co-founded and currently serves as its CEO.

Twitter: @MindShareLearn

Website: www.mindsharelearning.ca 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviews David Frangiosa, who is the author of Going Gradeless for Corwin Press, discusses how to take classes from a traditional grade-based classroom to a gradeless classroom. Throughout this discussion, we outline the why, mindset, and then how it can be done in your classroom. From setting up the gradeless classroom to providing student feedback after assessments, this episode is thought-provoking and can help any teacher or school leader curious about going gradeless to begin implementing it in their classrooms and schools. 

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Guest Bio: David Friangiosa is a high school teacher science teacher and coach from Northern NJ, entering his 16th year of teaching. For the past 6+ years, he’s been performing action research on grade reform, leading to co-authoring Going Gradeless for Corwin Press. He is also an educational blogger and contributor to SchoolRubric.com. He’s been producing the podcast From Earning to Learning since March 2021.

Twitter: @davidfrangiosa

Website: www.reimaginedschools.com 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed John Maguire, a middle school Special Education teacher from the Bronx in New York City. He wrote the case study found in Chapter 5 of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. During this conversation, Mr. Maguire outlined his background and context in education and how he switched to education after a career in finance, which started after coaching for ten years. He found that he could be his authentic self around students and that gave him the motivation to move into education. He discussed the importance of social-emotional learning and showing compassion and empathy for students as the foundation for building relationships with them. Then, the conversation shifted towards balancing case management and instruction during the toggled term. He outlined how he used a variety of tools to help him be effective in each facet of his job as well as a lifelong learner. Last, he provided two to three recommendations of how all teachers navigate this time in education. 

Order the Book: Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Biography: Mr. John Maguire is a middle school Special Education teacher in Bronx, New York. Mr. Maguire is a first-year teacher after changing careers from a finance and investigative background. After graduating from St. John’s University in Queens, New York, Mr. Maguire started working on Wall Street and from there, began work as an investigative analyst. He coached a group of middle school students in his downtime while working for a security company and decided he wanted to work with young people.

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Alfonso Mendoza on getting started with creating your own education podcast. As someone who has over 75 plus episodes on his own podcast, MyEdTechLife, Mr. Mendoza has a lot of experience podcasting, which gave light to many great nuggets of information to help would-be and current podcasters during this episode. We discuss the production to marketing process of creating education themed podcast. Overall, this is an episode you will not want to miss out on because these same practices can be incorporated not only for your own podcast, but for also producing school and classroom podcasts. 

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Guest Bio: Alfonso Mendoza Jr., is an Instructional Technologist, Podcaster and Google Innovator from the Rio Grande Valley located in the heart of South Texas. He attended the University of Texas-Pan American and graduated with a Bachelors in Business Administration in 2003. He later found his true calling and passion in 2006 when he became a teacher. Alfonso taught in the classroom for 11 years where his business skills such as customer service, personalized service, and knowing your audience paid off in dividends as he became a successful classroom teacher.

During this time his passion for technology grew and experienced firsthand the amazing work that students can do if given the opportunity to create. Alfonso's class was even featured by Scratch MIT for the work he did with coding.

Alfonso serves as an Instructional Technologist and has received his Masters in Educational Technology, E-Learning Certification, Technology Leadership Certification from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, along with his Technology Director Certificate from TCEA. He is currently working on his doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction with an emphasis in Educational Technology. He is also 1 of less than 3000 Google Innovators worldwide and was named 1 out of the top 50 EdTech Influencers on Augmented Reality K-12 worth a follow.

Alfonso is also a podcaster and blogger and loves to share his story and passion for education with others.

Twitter & Instagram: @myedtechlife

Website: www.myedtech.life

In the final bonus episode of the Navigating the Toggled Term series, all of the contributing authors of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders met for a launch party to celebrate the book as well as discuss the present and future of education. The book's contributing authors all wrote short case study's at the end of each chapter to illustrate and provide firsthand accounts as to how the themes of the chapters are being implemented by teachers and school leaders from across North America. Perspectives from case study contributing authors provided a lens to the schools and students they serve in urban, suburban, rural, private, and public settings. Additionally, we had teachers and school leaders in varying points of their careers from first-year teachers to veterans who have been in the educational profession for over 30 years.  These various perspectives provided for powerful conversations and case study's in the book as they provide diverse perspectives of how to navigate education now and in the future. 

The goal of the launch party's conversations was to discuss the following five areas: 

1) Instructional Innovations and EdTech Integrations

2) Challenges to Future Innovations

3) What have we learned in teaching and leading students and schools over the past 16 months (after March 2020) and how has that prepared us to navigate the future of education?

4) How can we best support teachers and school leaders? 

5) What advice would you give teachers and school leaders as they navigate the upcoming school year and the future of education. 

Overall, the conversation we had was inspiring, motivational, and empowering. If you are a teacher, school leader, parent, or a stakeholder in the educational community, this is a discussion that will inspire you along with giving you real practice strategies and advice to navigate education now and in the future. 

Slides from Launch Party: Navigating the Toggled Term Launch Party Slides

Order the Book: Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Contributing Authors Featured in the Podcast Along with the Moderator Dr. Rhoads

Dr. Belinda Karge

Dr. Darrin Peppard

Alicia Rhoads

Victoria Lowe

Elizabeth Esposito Haupert

Jillian Dubois

Ariel Adrian

John Maguire

Jennifer Ingold

Shannon Moore

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Dr. Janet Ilko, who is the Chapter 6 Case Study contributing author in Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. In Chapter 6, the book discusses how to communicate and engage with students and families. It provides strategies and EdTech integrations to communicate and engage with students when they are in a wide variety of settings ranging from online, blended, and traditional in-person classrooms. During our conversation, we dive deeper into the case study Dr. Ilko wrote as well as some of the content from the chapter. Many important takeaways for teachers and school leaders to utilize in their practice are discussed. This is a bonus episode you will not want to miss out on!

Order the Book: Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Edit: This is bonus episode 10. In the episode, I noted that it was bonus episode 8, which was incorrect. 

Guest Bio: Janet Ilko Ed.D. is an educator with over three decades of experience spanning K-12 classrooms. She has been an academic coach, elementary teacher, middle school humanities and ELD teacher, and a program manager for an independent studies program for grades 9-12. Her doctoral work with Long term English learners focused on the effect of relevancy and rigor on student academic success, sharing the findings through a variety of professional developments and articles.  Her current work at the high school level is focused on literacy engagement with students grade 9-12, providing specialized language supports for students with an emphasis on struggling readers and second-language learners. She recognizes and fosters the importance of student and family engagement, access, and support in teaching and learning in online environments, ultimately seeking “techquity” for all students.

Twitter: wrtin4change

Website: www.writinginmyhand.org

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Dr. Kevin Leichtman on the topic of teacher burnout. This topic is important, especially now, as teachers and schools are navigating uncharted waters as we are taking on the challenges of living in a world of COVID-19. Along with the everyday stress of navigating a classroom, parents, students, and administration, teachers have had to navigate moving between online, blended learning, and traditional in-person settings. Altogether, this has created an unprecedented number of teachers leaving the profession. My hope with this conversation is to help provide teachers with a blueprint of how to navigate burnout. Dr. Leichtman has a lot of research on how school leaders and teachers can mitigate burnout. Our conversation covers this and more, which we hope you take a listen to as it can help set you with some tools to help navigate and mitigate the effects of burnout. 

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Guest Bio: Kevin Leichtman received his Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from Florida Atlantic University, where he also completed a Master’s degree in Curriculum & Instruction. His dissertation study was on new teacher burnout. His research has been published in a textbook on andragogy and pedagogy, and he is the author of “Teacher’s Guide to the Mental Edge” and “The Perfect Ten.” Kevin is also an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University, teaching equity and diversity courses to education majors. Kevin has developed curriculum, professional development, and presented on the topics of mindset, burnout, and equity to teachers, schools, and students across the nation.

Website: www.tlceducate.com 

Twitter: @kevinleichtman

In this bonus episode of the podcast, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Elizabeth Esposito Haupert, who is the case study contributing author in Chapter 4 of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. Our conversation discussed differentiation strategies and EdTech integrations to help students within any classroom setting. As someone who works with a wide variety of students, Mrs. Haupert focused on feedback strategies, small group instruction, and personalized learning with student choice. Ultimately, this conversation is just the beginning of what you can find within Chapter 4 of the book, which covers differentiating instruction for all learners. 

Order the Book: Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Guest Bio: Elizabeth Esposito Haupert has a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education – History from The Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University and a Master’s Degree in Urban Education – Administration and Policy. She taught middle school history in Oakland Unified School District before moving to San Marcos Unified School District, where she works now. In San Marcos, she spent one year at San Marcos Middle School and is now in her third year at San Marcos High School. Elizabeth has taught History in every grade from 6 through 12 and focuses on literacy-based history and inquiry-based instruction. Elizabeth takes pride in knowing she has taught students of all different backgrounds and ages in very different environments.

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Alexander Deeb, who is the co-found and CEO of the EdTech platform Classhook on student engagement. As a company that thinks about student engagement constantly, our discussion outlined how bite-sized learning using relevant popular culture media is essential to help students build conceptual frameworks around the skills and concepts they are taught. Additionally, we discussed how bite-sized clips can help solidify retention and create more fun and interactive spaces for learning to occur. Last, we outlined several engagement strategies as well as how a tool like ClassHook can be utilized to not only help create more engaging lessons for educators but also helps cut down the time it takes to develop lessons as tools like ClassHook are great curators of content. 

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

LinkedIn: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Guest Bio: Alexander Deeb is co-founder and CEO of ClassHook, where he helps educators improve student outcomes by making learning relevant, engaging, and fun using popular TV shows and movies to teach. He has a passion to create positive social good in the world and believes that education is the way to better society and individuals. He’s personally gained many opportunities he otherwise wouldn’t have had by teaching himself to code in high school, and he wants to create opportunities for students through their learning. In his free time, Alex enjoys reading about science, playing video games, and reading.

Social Media/Website

Website: www.classhook.com

Twitter: @alexanderdeeb