reThink ELA Podcast

reThink ELA Podcast

By Michelle WatersEducationArtsVisual Arts
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reThink ELA Podcast episodes

  • reThink ELA #005: Interview with Scott Bayer
    How much time do you allow your students to write in class? What is the appropriate amount of time you think kids need to write? Or are you so busy lecturing (Just say no!) that you send them home to do their writing? While the appropriate amount of writing time may be arbitrary and subjective […]
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  • reThink ELA #004: Interview with Lara Searcy
    Have you ever asked your students what they're interested in learning? Or their thoughts about certain lessons? Or are you stuck teaching the same curriculum year after year, fighting to keep the kids engaged even though their eyes glaze over with boredom? In today's episode, we discuss how to get students more vested in the […]
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  • reThink ELA #003: Interview with Aaron Blackwelder
    What would you think if your principal said, “We're doing away with report cards, but you still have to tell your students and their parents how they're doing in class.” How would you measure a student's success? In today's episode, we delve into the idea that teachers, students, and parents place too much emphasis on […]
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  • reThink ELA #002: Interview with Jennifer Williams
    It’s so easy to do things as they’ve always been done. Why fix what’s isn’t broken, right? But what if that tried-and-true way of doing things doesn’t work in your classroom or for your kids? 
    Today’s topic is Rethinking the Literary Canon. While this canon is a general compilation of the best literary works of our time, have you ever thought about whether your classes have any interest in these classic readings, mainly by White male authors? Do they zone out or become entranced in the stories? Do you feel they really teach something new or do they perpetuate the traditional White experience that our students see everyday in their own lives?
    In this interview with Jennifer Williams, we discuss how to get our kids more engaged in class by choosing literature that is more current and speaks to their current lives. Jennifer is an Oklahoma teacher with 13 years under her belt and a staunch advocate for rethinking the Literary Canon. While there is a place for the classics that we all read in school, many kids – especially minorities – simply don’t relate to these stories and that’s where you as a teacher need to carefully choose books whose characters are relatable and more current. While it’s important to teach and learn about experiences that are not our own, teaching becomes much easier when the kids have a real interest in what’s happening in the story. 
    Resources mentioned in today’s episode
    Jennifer’s original article: reThinking The Literary Canon: Part 1 
    Best TED Talks For High School Students 
    The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
    Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
    Unwind by Neal Shusterman
    Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman
    Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
    The reThink ELA Social Justice Writing Project
     
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  • reThink ELA #001: Our Vision And Mission

    As English teachers, we understand how important it is to share our stories. Stories help us connect to each other, help us experience another person’s journey, help us understand each other, help us build empathy. So I thought it would be appropriate to begin my new podcast by sharing my story. 

    I’m a secondary English Language Arts teacher in Oklahoma. I started my teaching journey in 2011 after attaining alternative certification. In a “previous life” I was a newspaper reporter and later managed a home-based web hosting and design company. I became a teacher because I wanted to help my students leverage their innate story-telling abilities to better their own lives. At least, that’s what I have finally figured out as I have continued this journey.

    This episode’s interviewer

    Because I think it’s boring to sit around and talk to myself, I asked my friend and colleague Shanna Mellott to interview me for this episode. Shanna is a 12th grade English teacher and has been teaching at all levels of high school for more than 26 years. She became Twitter-famous when she posted her paychecks showing how her take-home pay has decreased over 11 years.

    From alt-cert to “Teacher of Today”

    To start off the interview, Shanna asked me about my journey as an alternatively certified teacher. I talked about how I realized I didn’t know anything, and what I did to figure out what I was doing. My journey started with me thinking I was teaching content — until I realized that I am teaching kids. The content is just a tool that I am teaching my kids why and how to use. I know I’m taking the right steps because of the feedback I’ve (sometimes randomly) heard from my students, and because I was named the Masonic Lodge “Teacher of Today” at my school last year. I have taken these steps throughout all of my careers to learn and become better. It’s an ongoing. lifelong process.

    How can we amplify student voices and choices?

    This process led to the start of reThink ELA, which is an offshoot of the original Mrs. Waters’ English. I changed the name because it’s not about me anymore. In the interview, I talked about what this site, and the business it represents is about and the focus I’ll be taking this year and beyond — amplifying student voices and choices — both in and outside of my classroom.

    If you are new to this teaching journey, this reThinking of teaching English, in particular, follow me here or on social media to learn how you can amplify student voices and choices in your class. If you’re a veteran of this process, contact me. I want to talk to you.

     

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About reThink ELA Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Hosted by Secondary English Language Arts teacher Michelle Waters, reThink ELA offers strategies, products, and expert advice to help teachers build student-centered, socially conscious, and…