Learn how to engage your students with an icebreaker activity that is both academically rich and exciting!

Episode 1: Not Your Average Icebreakers

As fellow educators, we understand just how busy your schedule is. We also know just how important it is to get regular doses of motivation to keep you going throughout the year and tips for how to make your classroom run even more efficiently day to day. Part inspiration and part implementation, you'll hear a short episode designed to provide you actionable steps regarding how to make your classroom more efficient, new technology or ideas to try out in your classroom, and other resources that we find along the way.

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This week on the Edverything Podcast, we welcome Spencer Sharp, also known as @sharpthebuilder
Spencer found himself in a unique situation back in his first year of teaching - to build something from nothing, and if you thought his name hinted at something, you’re right- @sharpthebuilder reflects Spencer’s path as he was approached by his school leadership to build a STEM curriculum from scratch with limited supplies and funding, and he certainly did!
Spencer sits down with us to talk about his experience as a 1-person department, his philosophy on failure, and his mission to make STEM accessible no matter your subject area.
Let’s get started…
For more ways to connect with Spencer:
Email:
sharpthebuilder2020@gmail.com
Feature at STEM Con 2020:
https://www.steamcafe.net/virtual-stem-con-2020-pd-in-your-pjs/
Website:
https://www.sharpthebuilder.com/
Podcast:
https://innovativeteacherpodcast.com/
Store:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Sharp-The-Builder
Blog:
https://www.sharpthebuilder.com/blog

88. How To Make STEM Accessible Across Subject Areas with Spencer Sharp

It feels like now more than ever educators are reexamining classroom practices and procedures with a different lens; enter: 2020-2021 school year. An ever-changing learning environment calls on teachers to get creative especially when it comes to traditional classroom procedures like student note-taking. This week, Danielle and Nicole challenging student and teacher assumptions about note-taking as they ask 3 major questions and identify valuable criteria when deciding on a new note-taking approach. 
In this episode you'll hear 3 key questions every teacher should ask oneself: 
1. Does the style and organization matter? 
2.  Who are these notes for? 
3. How can provide explicit instruction on note-taking to my students? 
You'll also hear key criteria to consider when choosing a new note-taking system, procedure, or software:
1. Ease of transparency in sharing student to teacher and student to student
2. Accessibility of differentiation
3. Storage and organization options
4. Possible integration with past software
5. Compatibility with discipline and subject area
6. Cost to school and cost to student/family 
*bonus* is this tool and associate learned skill a  new addition to your #teacherresume? Can you update and revamp pre-existing content on TpT? 
Jen Gonzalez of @cultofpedagogy 
Notetaking: A Research Roundup Article
Ashley Bible of @buildingbooklove
Episode 63: Wonderful, Wonder-filled Classrooms for Any Age Group with Ashley Bible
Peardeck: formative assessment
https://www.peardeck.com/
Parlay ideas: The future of class discussions
https://parlayideas.com/

87. Challenging Student and Teacher Assumptions about Note-Taking

Many edupreneurs find themselves creating classroom resources to sell to other time-strapped educators. Marshall and his wife, Lindsay, decided to start a podcast, not for their fellow teachers or teacher side hustlers, but in an area where they saw a real lack: inspiring science education content. Combining Lindsay’s background in science journalism with Marshall’s passion for teaching middle school and his musical talent, the couple started Tumble, a self-described “science podcast for kids, to be enjoyed by the entire family.” In this episode, Marshall explains the process for creating each episode, how they gained the attention of brands early (and how they’ve recently leveraged this into a brand partnership), what role Patreon plays in his business (and what he’s learned that you can apply to your very own content creation account), and the invaluable role networking has played in the success of the podcast every step of the way.
To learn more about the Tumble Science Podcast:
https://www.sciencepodcastforkids.com/
To visit Tumble Patreon channel: 
https://www.patreon.com/tumblepodcast
To listen to Tumble: 
https://beta.prx.org/series/38125

86. Tumbling Head-first Into a Successful Science Podcast with Marshall Escamilla

Though going into the field of education was the single biggest career choice that we’ve made, starting our podcast 3 years ago has become a very close second. Starting a teacher podcast was a literal game changer for us. Without it, we would still be dreaming of one day becoming teacherpreneurs. As proud teacher side hustlers, we know that there are plenty of decisions that need to be made at any given point, but we can also say from experience that choosing the right platform for releasing your regular content is one that can really make all the difference. Podcasting has truly been the catalyst for so much of our success—and we want to give you the motivation and the inside scoop to help you make podcast a part of your content strategy as well. 

In this episode, we talk about why we started a teacher podcast to begin with, but we go on to list a number of other reasons why podcasting might be a good fit for you as well. Whether to further your career aspirations outside of the classroom or to document your experience to track your own personal growth, we consider a number of reasons beyond promoting items from your TpT store that might make podcasting the right path for you. Once you’ve determined that podcasting makes sense for you, we make sure that you’ve thought through what you’ll podcast about.

But we won’t leave you with tons of ideas and no way to implement. In the second half of the episode, we deep dive into what you need (and what you don’t) to start recording right away. After breaking down some myths and misconceptions that might be holding you back from pressing recording or releasing your first episode, we take you through the entire process, from recording software to distribution platforms, so you’ll find your way into earbuds in no time.

In this episode you’ll hear
-Why podcasting is a great platform when you are just starting out 
-What equipment you need (and what you don’t need to spend money on) when first starting a podcast
-What software we use to record and distribute our own podcast (spoiler alert: its free)

85. The Why and How of Starting a Teacher Podcast

Though teaching can feel like a rather solitary profession at times, more and more educators are realizing the benefits of working with their fellow teachers. Whether schools assign a co-teacher or encourage us to work with a team, we establish formal or informal mentorship relationships with those within our own district or teachers that we follow on Instagram, or we simply regularly listen to education-focused podcasts or attend virtual PD, nowadays, the opportunities to network and learn from other instructors seem endless.
But we shouldn’t rely on our peers alone to help make our classrooms thrive. Your district may have any number of other amazing individuals that serve as resources for not only the students but for you as an educator. One position that can help bring a unique perspective into the classroom is to work with a Behavioral Specialist, and while your particular school may not have one on staff just yet, Maria Helton is on the show to bring her top tips for how to increase positive behavior and habits in the classroom— no matter what grade level you work with.
Whether you are interacting with your students virtually or in person, Maria, of Teaching Behavior Together, explains how to cultivate the behavior we want our students to display. From building rapport to coping mechanisms, Maria demonstrates the need to model behavior, to be cognizant of providing reinforcement for the behaviors we want to see more of, and to meet students' needs at the moment rather than rush to finding blame or consequences. While there are certainly unique challenges in terms of behavior that arise in the virtual environment schools may find themselves in in 2020, Maria’s optimism shines through, seeing this as an opportunity to leave behind the relics of traditional school punishments and instead think of new, creative ways that more appropriately set students up for long term success in whatever environment they find themselves in. 

Episode 1: Not Your Average Icebreakers

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