This episode is a recap of a synchronous professional development session offered on November 2nd in which we discussed the importance of allowing choices for your students and different ways to start incorporating choice into your classes.  Hopefully, this episode will hit the highlights for those of you that couldn’t attend the session and be a good review for those of you that were able to attend.  

Here are links to the session slideshow and agenda if you would like to view the resources provided.  Here is a link to the Student Choice section of our REAL Hub website.  

In this episode, we interview English teacher Maureen Ritter, one of our pioneer BlendEd teachers who recently presented at Central’s Professional Development day. We were so happy to talk with her more about her presentation on an instructional model that’s become more and more popular at the secondary level: the Station Rotation Model.

Listen as Maureen gives a brief overview, explains why the model is so compelling, and provides some guidance for starting. Find her Station Rotation HyperDoc here. 

In this episode, we interview department chair and  Democracy School Committee leader Jason Janczak who recently presented at our PD day with the help from Loyola University.

In this episode, Jason explains the importance of having difficult conversations with students, what it means to "make the space," various self-reflection matrices, how to plan ahead, and the importance of setting up house rules with students. 

Find Jason's presentation here, and house rules template here. 

In this episode, we interview Grayslake District Department Chair of EL and Equity, Gabrielle Devlin, and English and ESL teacher Chelsey Hernandez. Join us as we discuss some important terminology, guiding philosophy, and practical tips to help support our multilingual learners.

Learn more about content and language objectives here.

In this episode, Vic digs into some video lesson research to explain just how important video lessons are for our students, and presents some tips on doing them well. 

Check out this Playlist Hyperdoc for more on creating effective video lessons. 

In this episode, we check in with French teacher Maggie Shore with the ups and downs of eLearning. 

Join us as we speak with GCHS alumn and English/Fine Arts teacher Lauren Tracy. She highlights the power of the HyperDoc, the challenges of making connections with students, her joy of dabbling in video editing, and how she's finding balance with work and life. 

During this last year, we have been forced to learn all new tools, to completely adjust the way we build relationships with our students and our co-workers, and to be “at the mercy” of the technology working when we need it to work.  We are really proud of how so many of our teachers have taken this opportunity to reflect on their teaching practices, to model what it means to be a life-long learner, and to adjust on the fly to whatever the day throws at us.  But we also understand that this can be exhausting, frustrating work. 

Join me as I chat for just a bit about this new reality that we find ourselves in, discuss some practical solutions for when things don’t work, and encourage you to find a balance between school and not school.

Making connections with students is harder than ever, but as we all know, it’s the foundation for everything that happens in the classroom. Engagement doesn’t happen, academic success doesn’t happen unless students feel connected.

Join me as I build on the work of educators John Spencer and Dave Stuart to help us make those important connections in the classroom while we teach remotely. 

Articles to check out: 

We're (finally) back! Welcome back to REALity Check, Season 2. Our first season was short-lived, but we're back with philosophical conversations and quick takeaways. In this episode, Jen interviews Shanna and Vic on their experiences teaching and coaching in this new normal.