powerED Up

powerED Up

By Ken EhrmannEducation
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powerED Up episodes

  • Show 86: Empowering Students through Authentic Experiences

    Autumn Rivera is the Colorado 2022 Teacher of the Year and finalist for National Teacher of the Year.  She is a middle school science teacher and part-time adjunct educator.  She loves to create and engaging environment where students are hands on.  She empowers her students to see how they have the ability to make changes now and see those changes.

    In This Episode We Cover
    • Creating hands-on real world experiences connected to the local community.
    • Supporting her students to raise money for a local area to help preserve it as a natural park.
    • Creating an environment where students feel comfortable to raise questions and pose ideas of change to a teacher.
    • Using the standards as a guide to our curriculum and preparing to pivot and move with student interest while still teaching all of the standards.
    • The value of strong routines and procedures in a classroom and how it impacts student-centered learning.
    • Allowing students to fall, be wrong, and productively struggle.
    • Reflection at the end of class is essential to allowing the students conceptualize learning.
    • Practicing reflective strategies as a teacher with our students.
    • Creating safe, cohesive environments for students.
      • 57 min
    • Show 85: Educating the Next Generation with Authentic History

      Theresa Maughan is the New Jersey 2022 Teacher of the Year and a forty-year veteran.  The insight, wisdom, and guidance she shared is priceless for any educator. We learn how her experience teaching 6th grade prior to moving into high school had a large impact on her instructional practices today. She is a strong focus on how relationships in the classroom will have a direct impact on the content delivery of her classroom.   

      In This Episode We Cover: 

      • Her first moment of standing in front of students, and how she almost panicked out of the position. 
      • The process of building relationships and understanding them culturally to connect the content directly to them. 
      • As a history teacher, we are story tellers.  We shouldn't be afraid to share how those stories connect to us personally. Theresa shares her story as an immigrant, the challenges she faced, and how her teachers helped her. 
      • Providing students access to primary resources so they can form their own perspectives on a topic. 
      • Structured academic controversy is a process Theresa uses to encourage students to evaluate topics with the use of primary resource documents. 
      • When forming relationships with students, there is a line we can't cross.  However, it is important to push ourselves towards that line so we open up to students as much as possible. 
      • How to differentiate with primary resources. 
      • Teaching students sourcing and corroboration.  Learning how to evaluate a source and search for bias and did you find the information in more than one source.  ​
        • 1 hr 8 min
      • Show 84: Facilitating Effective and Valuable Student Discussions

        We had the pleasure of speaking with the 2022 Tennessee Teacher of the Year Morgan Rankin. She offers honest insight and reflects on her own upcoming transition from third grade to second grade. She creates an atmosphere where students feel empowered and encouraged to participate in valuable and effective conversations.  Her strategies for encouraging student voice are easy to follow and aspirational to achieve.

        In This Episode We Cover
        • A comparison of self-contained versus departmentalized elementary classrooms.  There are instructional differences in the set-up of a lesson and challenges to accept in terms of building relationships.
        • The use of reflective practice when we have the opportunity to teach a lesson multiple times per day.
        • Evaluate the classroom management strategies you use.  If systems like team points, Class Dojo, and other programs don't work for you, don't use them.  Focus on student relationships and authenticity.
        • Strategies for encouraging collaboration between students.
        • Using student examples to dissect student thinking and promoting classroom discussions.
        • The value of student conversations, how to facilitate effective conversations, and the power of talking less.
        • Key questions and phrases to promote student conversations.
          • 1 hr 3 min
        • Show 83: Reflections and Advice from a Retired Teacher

          It was a pleasure to speak with Terry Wetzel in this show, with-in just a few weeks of Terry officially retiring from public education. Terry was a teacher, technology coordinator, and administrator.  The knowledge, wisdom, and authentic insight he offers is very special for our audience. We can have a direct impact on the way we view our experience as teachers a s well as a direct impact on our colleagues.

          In This Episode We Cover
          • Students today are not any different than students twenty-eight years ago.  They need the same guidance, the same commitment, the same relationships.  However, they are very different, and they should be.  Society is different, we are different, we should embrace these changes.
          • Our pursuit of innovation is needed, but we don’t have to overcomplicate it.  We should find ways to change the student experience.
          • Being innovative in your space, providing students trust. In order for our students to operate at a high-level we need to treat them at a high-level.
          • Move away from the rhetorical information that students can search, we should move towards experiences where they explore the curriculum.
          • Advice for a second year teacher: relationships matter, relax but be dedicated, stay away from the negativity
          • Strategies for feeding into the positive culture of the school. Administrators should hold teachers accountable when they are not pulling their weight.
            • 1 hr 4 min
          • Show 82: Summer PD Series 9, The Joy of Teaching, Back to School Special

            Time to set our mindset in the right direction as we prepare for the launch of the 2022-2023 school year. We thought of no better guest than bringing back Christopher Albrecht to help us out. The beginning of the year we don't need to have a big song and dance. We should focus on the values of the classroom that we want to perpetuate throughout the year. It's important we listen to the students and adjust our approach based on the students we have in front of us.  It's our job to create an inspiring, appropriate, and empowering experience.

            In This Episode We Cover
            • View the start of the school year like Christmas morning, we should be anxious and excited!
            • A story of Christopher's student who started a crochet club just because he listened to his students.
            • Observing your students in the beginning of the year to find their talents so you can empower them to help each other in the future.
            • It is our responsibility to set a positive first impression, it's not just the on the students.
            • Establishing effective lines of communication with parents via phone calls, emails, and social media.
            • Advice on the first couple days of school, and actually keeping things simple.
            • Set an appropriate pace, and set that pace based on the students.
            • Take a risk on a student, because you never know where it will end up.
              • 1 hr 10 min
            • Show 81: Summer PD Series 8, Building a Successful Classroom Culture

              We have the special honor of adding to additional guest co-hosts two this show, Mike Creed and Lee Carlson.  They are both masters of developing positive relationships and classroom communities.  Mike has experience with teaching students K-5 and Lee has experience teaching middle school and high school. The insight they offer is incredible, and amazingly correlates between secondary and elementary.  It is a balancing act between our efforts in the community and pushing the students to make their efforts.

              In This Episode We Cover
              • First day of school activities that highlight the value of each individual student while connecting it to all past students.
              • Lee's strategy for good day/bad day and how the students have taken ownership over that activity.
              • The value you in being different and how students buy into that mentality.
              • Be explicit and intentional to design activities and conversations to constantly build the classroom culture in a positive direction.
              • When we open ourselves up to our students it builds trust in the relationship, but also opens up opportunity for them to share with us.
              • We should always be striving to move our students towards a feeling and space where they feel confident to share about themselves to us.
              • It is not always going to be perfect, but we do our best everyday.  Sometimes, that is being tough and reminding them we need to hunker down and focus on our work.
                • 1 hr 5 min
              • Show 80: Summer PD Series 7, Starting SEL Right

                Stacie Lawler is the 2020 Idaho Teacher of the Year and is dedicated to supporting students' and teachers' mental health. We have to take care of ourselves in order to take care of our students. We need to dedicate time to think about our values and build our life around it. Beyond mental health, we dive into the conversation of social and emotional learning and how that fits into the classroom.

                In This Episode We Cover:

                • Self-care is much more than "getting a manicure".  It is creating sustainable opportunities for us to take care of our own physical and mental health.
                • Be authentic and recognize why we are struggling and where we fall on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
                • Reflect on your own values and be sure to intentionally dedicate time towards this.
                • We need to have these conversations with students and get them to reflect themselves.
                • When we have challenging conversations with students, you need to draw the line in the sand.  You can say "that's a good question, but as your teacher I can't answer it.  Please ask ______".
                • Lean on your PLN for support and a listening ear.
                  • 54 min
                • Show 79: Summer PD Series 6, Teach Like a C.E.O. Part 3

                  When students are leading the learning community, they have to have a passion for learning.  We can fuel that passion through a high-quality culture of learning.  In this third and final part of the series Teach Like a CEO, we learn the frameworks and systems for developing a holistic approach to student centered learning.  Part three focuses on the O in the acronym, Operations for Classroom Management. This is the foundation of the CEO framework because it is what empowers students to become effective decision makers.

                  In This Episode We Cover:

                  • Operations are more about systemizing the classic practices of classroom management so the teacher no longer has to turn the wheels him or herself.
                  • It is easy to overlook the operations because it's easier just to do it ourselves, but these operations set the foundation for a true student-centered classroom.
                  • Automate the opening transition of a classroom so you can engage with students as they enter the room.
                  • When we systemize transitions, we allow ourselves as the teacher to also successful move from subject to subject and class to class.  Transitions are very busy, and we need the time to mentally prepare for the next set of instruction.
                  • Simple tasks such as taking attendance, should be handled by students and systemized to completion.
                    • 48 min
                  • Show 78: Summer PD Series 5, Teach Like a C.E.O. Part 2

                    When students are leading the learning community, they have to have a passion for learning.  We can fuel that passion through a high-quality culture of learning.  In this second of a three part series all about Teach Like a CEO, we learn the frameworks and systems for developing a holistic approach to student centered learning.  Part two focuses on the E in the acronym, "Empowering Experiences". As we develop structures for student-centered learning, the actual lessons have to be more engaging and more empowering for kids.   Ken showcases specific strategies you can embed into lessons and projects to create those lessons.

                    In This Episode We Cover
                    • Sitting down and teaching a skill with a small group will come naturally, it is about everything happening around that which is a challenge.
                    • Commit to empowering your students on a daily basis to fuel the success of lessons.
                    • Screencasts allow us to multiply ourselves and differentiate learning at a higher-level.
                    • Empower students to be learners and teachers with peers.  Ken introduces his A-B system to allow students to efficiently find partners and teach each other.
                    • Develop strategies and expectations for how students should independently learn with the instructional styles you will execute.
                    • Evaluate if your students need to learn new content from you directly, or if they can learn through different resources and exploring it on their own.
                    • Data is a very important piece for us to create empowering learning experiences, and we should involve the students in the data analyzation process.
                    • Data Collection Tools:
                      • Socrative​
                      Google Forms
                      Formative
                    • Ken goes through a specific lesson and how the entire classroom is structured to showcase differentiation and empowering independent experiences.​
                    • Why MATH or READS workshop is a great starting point for teachers, but how we have to move beyond that to really provide students what they need.
                      • 1 hr 1 min
                    • Show 77: Summer PD Series 4, Teach Like a C.E.O. Part 1

                      When students are leading the learning community, they have to have a passion for learning.  We can fuel that passion through a high-quality culture of learning.  In this first of a three part series all about Teach Like a CEO, we learn the frameworks and systems for developing a holistic approach to student centered learning.  Part one focus on the C in the acronym, "Culture for Learning". If we want and expect students to navigate content independently, they have to become a part of a classroom culture that values learning.  Ken showcases specific strategies you can embed into lessons and projects that encourage this exact culture.

                      In This Episode We Cover:

                      • Defining the C.E.O framework.
                      • Understanding what a culture for learning is and how it impacts student engagement.
                      • Analyzing the three levels of student led systems.
                      • Specific example of a project, applicable to K-12, that showcases how a teacher can implement systems to fuel student-centered learning while also creating a stronger culture for learning.
                      • Specific example of a simple system to embed into classrooms to motivate students to take a stronger ownership in the learning process.
                      • Reflections on how this will impact lessons.
                        • 48 min

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                      We are powering education up by empowering you! Join us to talk about everything education with the hosts and weekly interviews. We will interview teachers to find out what makes great teachers and…