powerED Up

Jorge Rodriguez is a physical education teacher from Saudi Arabia, relocated from Houston Texas.  His calm presence, open mind, and willingness to take risks in is inspirational.  After sharing the experience of moving his family across the globe, Jorge jumps into his key instructional strategies to run a democratic classroom.  He provides specific examples of how his lessons are structured to create this type of learning environment.  

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"I was able to align my head and my heart as a teacher." Those words of inspiration were one of many from Abby French, a middle school social studies teacher from Virginia. In our conversation with Abby, we learned how she works as a local advocate for her teachers and schools, creates passion and excitement in the classroom, and facilitates student-centered learning.  She finds ways to teach history through empathy and connect the past to the present.  Abby is an incredible teacher and her work goes well beyond the curricular standards.  

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Dr. Tracy Scott Kelly went through every effort to record this podcast, the passion and enthusiasm are palpable from the moment it began.  He is a dedicated, relentless educator always striving to do his best for students.  He has made a career out of special education, whether it is a five-student or 25 student caseload he does everything necessary to see the success of those students.  Tracy is inspirational to push for change, step out of our comfort zone, and make a positive influence on education.  

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Christopher Albrecht is a humble, committed, passionate, and inspirational educator for everyone to look up to. For 24 years Christopher has impacted countless lives of students and is committed to the betterment of his community.  As a community member himself, he serves as a role model for all.  Christopher shares his insight on how to make new teachers more successful and to prevent burnout.  His approach to classroom management is powerful.  This podcast is a must-listen for educators in pre-service education all the way to teachers approaching retirement.  

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Imagine walking into your child's fifth-grade classroom two days before the first day of school for an open house and seeing 30 desks and chairs in a pile. Ken Ehrmann's parents and children went through this very experience, and it was all by design.  Ken shares how he launched his year through a student-centered experience to completely immerse the students into the room.  The phrase "we share this room together" took on a whole new meaning.  

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Casey Jakubowski is a passionate advocate for teacher well-being and preventing burnout. His desire to support new and veterans teachers come from a place of experiencing burnout himself.  He is a former high school civics teacher and has worked many years in the pre-service training of teachers. He provides motivation to grow as a teacher and actionable steps to do so.

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Cara Bowerman is teaching and coaching her passions and influencing young adults to pursue the same. As a high school art teacher, Cara has the unique experience to work with students passionate about the content and interested in growing their own skills.  She doesn't assume this will create instant buy-in.  Cara works hard to develop real respect from her students and to promote an environment of risk-taking.  Her students are supported and encouraged to do their own version of "best".  

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Linda Rost is the 2020 Montana Teacher of the Year.  From the moment the podcast begins it is evident as to why she has earned those accolades.  The learning experiences she creates are all designed around one goal, to improve student learning. She provides students with the opportunity to redesign a local lake, and challenge the decisions made by the Department of Interior on endangered species.  Her passion is palpable and the podcast will truly leave you feeling powerED Up!  

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Connecting with a large group of students year after year is a teacher's highest priority but also a major challenge.  Stacie Lawler uses an open, authentic, and honest approach to accomplish such a task.  As a Health and P.E. teacher, Stacie wears many hats and one she has added to her collection is the daunting task of mental health.  In 2014, Stacie was faced with her own challenges of mental health as a parent.  This translated into an endless mission to change the narrative in her school, state, and now the country.  Stacie shares great advice, practical strategies, and encouragement for approaching this topic with young adults.  

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Creating lesson plans, how exciting! In pre-service education, most aspiring teachers will spend many classes and assignments designing lesson plans in different templates all to find out that every district has its own expectations for design and components.  If you are a ten-year teacher, do you even need to write lesson plans? Matt and Ken have very conflicting answers.  In this episode, the two co-hosts debate over the purpose, relevancy, and value of lesson plans.  

In This Episode We Cover: 

- The purpose of writing lesson plans. 

- How a new teacher and veteran teacher should each approach lesson planning. 

- Using your instructional style to guide the lesson plan format. 

- How to keep your current students at the forefront of planning.