powerED Up

powerED Up

By Ken EhrmannEducation
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powerED Up episodes

  • Rapid Fire Questions Between Ken and Matt

    Ken and Matt can sit down without a guest and have no preparation for the recording.  Due to a last-minute conflict with a guest, they were left to devise a recording idea.  They decided to go with a rapid-fire question format.  Each host asked a question that the other did not prepare for.  The questions included:

    • Teaching superstition
    • Best lesson
    • Worst moment teaching
    • What is your classroom "thing"
    • The time you saved a student
    • The cafeteria food you look forward to and the one you will avoid at all costs
    • Funniest recess moment
    • Best last day of school memory
    • Will Ken ever go back into the classroom?
      • 58 min
    • Value Every Moment with Students and Teachers

      Joe Sanfelippo is the ultimate leader. He is the current superintendent of the Fall Creek Wisconsin School District, #GoCrickets. He drives his district, administrators, teachers, and students to think outside of the box and explore what they are most passionate about.  He has created an environment where everyone can lead, and is empowered to do so. His leadership style is most evident in the professional development practices and hiring techniques they have put into place.

      • Finding your own leadership style and how you can best thrive.
      • Recognizing where we begin to know where we are going.
      • Fueling professional development with self-guided passion projects and concluding the work with a teacher-led street fair.
      • Empowering teachers to recognize students for who they are and support them on an individual level.
      • How to best tell the stories of your classroom, school, and district.
        • 1 hr 9 min
      • Creating Partnerships to Help Young Readers Grow

        The success of a student requires a community effort.  We need to help and best support our youngest learners, and sometimes, schools do not have all the resources they need. Reading Partners is an organization that can help support our young readers in partnership with the schools.

        • Teach for America in middle school science for four years, and then taught in Mexico to teach English as a second language 3rd - 6th for eleven years.
        • Teach for America is a challenging experience because you don’t have full education training before starting. It is also incredibly rewarding to work in new communities and support children in education.
        • Reading Partners: National Non-profit with a mission to make students life-long learners.
        • Provide one on one tutoring in the community.
        • Visit readingpartners.org to see the areas where they service with virtual tutoring options available.
        • Explicit instruction of phonics to teach the foundations of reading.
        • Most of the schools are Title 1, and the leadership shows interest.
        • While still focusing on phonics, read grade-level texts to the students so they can focus on comprehension.

          • Website: www.readingpartners.org

          1 hr 2 min
        • SEL with Structure and Purpose

          This show has it all and our guest Wendy Turner, 2017 Delaware Teacher of the Year, brings the fire! She is passion from the get go of the conversation up until the last minute.  She is all in on students, teachers, and social and emotional learning.  She clearly defines the how and the why of SEL in classrooms.

          • Starting career outside of education first brings life perspective.  Wendy gained so many experiences that created confidence to solve any problem.
          • If second graders are going to be successful learners, we have to teach them to be successful humans first.
          • Every student shares something nice about the birthday student, even if it is the first day of school.
          • Specific programs were put in place to help support social and emotional learning in the classroom.
          • Cassel website, including the frameworks for SEL, and the 3 signatures practices
          • Foster curiosity and competence in SEL. You have to teach it explicitly, but you have to engrain it into the academics.
          • Wendy shares about her professional moves and changes in her career to best serve students and social and emotional learning
          • Sustainable and systematic plans to implement true SEL practices into classrooms
          • The “Unless Project” from the Philadelphia Zoo
          • Skype a Scientist
          • The innovative teachers are the ones that don’t won’t to get bored either

            • Connect with Wendy:

            • Twitter: @MrsWendyMTurner
            • Wendy’s Facebook Page
            • Wendy’s Wakelet 
              • 1 hr 13 min
            • Technology to Increase Student Agency

              Debbie Tannenbaum 23rd year in teaching and 5th year as a technology coach.  She brings a consistent, realistic, and authentic light into the world of instructional technology.  Her approach has a single target: improve learning experiences for students.  Technology is a tool to help us facilitate a learning environment that will encourage students to be creators, not consumers.

              • The shift from COVID was a forced innovation. Teachers are now much more welcoming to the idea of coaches and technology.
              • Technology can help facilitate a Universal Design for Learning philosophy of teaching. It provides students multiple ways to access the same content and skills.
              • Digital natives versus digital literacy.  Our students are not digitally literate if we do not teach them.
              • We need to teach students icons and skills to navigate devices independently.
              • As the teacher, start using the phrase “activities are for you or for me.  If it’s for you, I can’t promise I will provide you feedback.  If it’s for me, I will. However, you can always ask for my feedback.”
              • It doesn’t need to look perfect, sounds perfect, or be perfect.  Especially when students are making videos.
              • Real authentic paths and experiential learning: choice boards, webquest, student-centered.
              • Project Zero from Harvard: Thinking routines, scaffolds to help reveal student thinking
              • Become a connected educator, leverage social media and different organizations like www.teachbetter.com.

                • Connect with Debbie Tannenbaum

                • www.tannenbaumtech.com
                • @Tannenbaumtech
                •  Transform Techy Notes to Make Learning Sticky
                • Amplifying Instructional Design
                  • 57 min
                • Recharging and Reflecting for the New Year

                  Returning from the winter break marks the unofficial half-way mark of the school year.  Ken and Matt talk about the best strategies and ideas to think about as you return from the coveted winter break. There is so much we want to accomplish with students in such a short amount of time. This episode gets a little emotional when Ken and Matt start sharing about the journey they are on with their students how how much they hope to accomplish.

                  • The value of attending a conference and how to best find ways to attend
                  • Reset classroom management strategies, rules, and what you expect from students on a daily basis
                  • State testing is looming in the future and we can't ignore it.
                  • This is a great time to facilitate goal setting activities with your students.
                  • A school year is a 180-day journey, we can't expect to solve every problem on day one.  Now is the time of year to really start attacking goals.
                  • The difficult for semester teachers to "start over" with a new class in January when not many other colleagues are in the same mindset.
                    • 1 hr 2 min
                  • Leading for a Culture Where All Students Succeed

                    Norah is a well-rounded, experienced educator.  She has taught in special education, led buildings as an assistant and lead principal, and now services the entire district as special education and curriculum supervisor.   Norah is using her background to create systems and transform school cultures to create the most successful environments for students.

                    • When you feel burnt out in education, seek a purposeful change and fuel your own fire.
                    • We have to help equip regular education teachers to best service all students and help special education teachers best support all.
                    • Students should not need a label to get personalized support.
                    • As a building leader, creating systems to be more preventative and less reactive.
                    • SEL has empowered our teachers to better support students from a proactive stand point and providing concrete ways to approach what students need most.
                    • It is important to create quantifiable measures to evaluate our own success of servicing students.
                    • If you want to shift a culture in a school, you first need to evaluate where you are currently at. What is the current culture?
                    • We have to pay attention to the whole child and allow it to impact our instructional strategies.
                      • 1 hr 28 min
                    • Relationships MATTER and they WILL Impact Academic Success

                      Dr. Nancy Miles is a grounded, authentic, passionate educator always setting forth to do best by students.  She has a diverse experience in teaching almost every elementary grade-level and her seasoned approach is apparent in this episode.  She is all in on relationships and student-centered learning.  She showcases how we can focus on the behavioral expectations of choice and allow that to transition into the academic expectations of choice-based learning.

                      • Nancy started a career in marketing, and after having children went back to education to become a teacher.
                      • She started in a multi-age classroom and learned she needs to meet children where they are.
                      • Relationships matter in marketing in sales, and that is completely transferable to the classroom and how teachers interact with students.
                      • Take the time for relationships with former students to nurture and thrive.  It will impact your relationships with current students.
                      • Student-centered learning doesn’t happen over night.  It is a dedicated, committed, systematic approach from the teacher constantly relinquishing control.
                      • If you are trying to create a more student-centered environment, just start with giving them simple choices.
                      • When you want to control your classroom, giving students these choices can be extremely difficult.
                      • Strategies for scaffolding  towards a choice-based classroom.
                      • Using phenomena to teach concepts first and follow-up with vocabulary second.

                        • Twitter: @milesnawmiles

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                        1 hr 13 min
                      • A Leader for Life

                        It is amazing to sit down and talk with Dr. Winston Sakurai.  He has a diverse, impressive, vast experience in education.  Through all his positions, he has always had a clear sight set on doing what is best for students.  He champions their leadership and supports teachers in every way possible.

                        • Winston had an amazing start to his career, working on the state board of education side to support and push education in a positive way.
                        • His first teaching experience was as a long-term substitute where he learned the ropes of teaching
                        • As a building leader, Winston encouraged teachers to allow students to be the leaders.  At assemblies, graduations, and leadership classes.
                        • They created leadership classes which changed the mindset around student leadership.
                        • Providing students with true ownership, including the budget for a project, to allow them to learn through the experiences and attach emotions to remember it forever.
                        • Creating opportunities for students to obtain ownership in the classroom with specific lessons.
                        • Winston questions Ken and Matt to see how the pandemic has shifted education for us in Pennsylvania.

                          • Twitter: @winstonsakurai

                          1 hr 18 min
                        • Humble Leadership Creating Innovative Results

                          Greg Bagby is a humble, experienced, knowledgeable leader. HIs passions as a teacher have transcend his ability to support teachers as a building leader and district leader.  In our conversation we discuss the best ways to work as a reflective teacher and how that can directly impact your students' performance.

                          • Learning is a process.  Performance based doesn't mean it has to be perfect, but a process to reach our goals.
                          • Shielding teachers from unnecessary communication from district office to encourage better teaching
                          • Encouraging teachers to take risks and try new strategies in lessons
                          • Reflective practice as a teacher is key to improve our practices and pedagogy
                          • Take a risk and film yourself.  It is the best feedback you can give yourself to adjust your teaching and find areas to improve.
                          • Using Edtech for a purpose, it doesn’t need to be the center focus of the lesson
                          • Enhance the lessons with technology, move from consumption towards creativity

                            • Podcast: BookswithBagby

                            Podcast: Education Soapbox

                            Twitter: @Gregbagby

                            1 hr 13 min

                          About powerED Up

                          From the publisher's feed

                          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…