Today on the show we veer away from discussion of a curriculum product to focus instead on a teaching strategy.  Learn from Emily Fields in Douglas County, Colorado, how and why she uses Socratic Seminar to teach critical reading & writing in her middle school classroom.

Chris Miraglia discusses how he uses Flipgrid in his middle school social studies classroom to give students a voice, and engage 75% of the students who wouldn't normally participate in a classroom discussion.

Resources:

Connect to Flipgrid

Ashley Cooksey, a school librarian in Arkansas, shares the way that implementing codeSpark in an elementary library taught her how to code right alongside the students, paving the way to her current role as an Instructional Technology Coach and an accomplished educational leader.  

Resources:

Connect to codeSpark

Ashley's resources to help teach coding through storytelling:  https://padlet.com/ashley_cooksey2/CodeWithBooks or bit.ly/CodeWithBooks. 

Diane Sweeney from Diane Sweeney Consulting shares how school systems can use the coaching cycles in Student-Centered Coaching to support a successful curriculum implementation.

Serri Mills shares how she found AVID, and found students' stories about AVID so compelling, that she brought it to her entire elementary school and became a "Truly Changed Teacher" as a result.

Rebecca Sklepovich, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at the Denver School of Science and Technology at Green Valley Ranch, shares what she has learned about running a successful curriculum adoption, including how to research and what to look for when procuring high quality, evidence-based curriculum resources.

Sarah Noble shares how her use of the Facing History and Ourselves curriculum helps her tackle tough issues of race and racism in the classroom, to make sure she doesn't alienate students when reading canonical texts that include dehumanizing language.

Resources:

Connect to Facing History and Ourselves

John Nolan from the Alameda Unified School District shares how E.L. Achieve's Constructing Meaning has helped him, for the very first time in his long teaching career, feel like he is EFFECTIVELY meeting his ELL students' English-learning needs.

Resources:

Connect with E.L. Achieve and Constructing Meaning

John Damaso, English Teacher at Brophy Prep College Prep in Phoenix, shares about how he supports students' vocabulary growth through Membean's individualized instruction, and just how much his students have embraced this online learning program.

Resources:

Connect to Membean