In this episode of School Chat, I sat down with Bruce Janu, a history teacher at Elk Grove High School. We both recently watched most likely to succeed and have since been inspired to try new approaches to our classes. Bruce started a project in which students could choose to create a podcast on World War I as an alternative to the traditional assessment. Our conversation pushes the boundaries of what a traditional classroom could be and how do we engage all of our students. I hope you enjoy.

Jessica had a non-traditional path to becoming a teacher. Her unique path of Elk Grove has lad her to embrace that mentality that teaching will constantly evolve. She says in the podcast, "Teaching will be refined for the rest of my life." She is an amazing educator and is passionate about her students and viewing them as learners.

Patrick McGing is a Career and Technical Education teacher at Elk Grove High School that learns with his students. He teaches a course in which students remodel an entire house that the district purchased from start to finish. He constantly focuses on learning and pushing students for them to find their passion.

In the fifth episode of School Chat, I sat down with veteran physical education teacher, Anthony Furman. He is ever-evolving and has made some incredible changes to the physical education program at Elk Grove High School this year. His reflection will inspire you to change your mindset about traditional practices to focus on the student and learning.

School Chat S1E4: Natalia Habas "What I love about school" by Elk Grove CollabLab

Longtime educator sits down with me to discuss the changes she has seen in her career, the direction she is motivated by, and how changing the mindset of literacy can refocus schools to an institution of learning.

This is this second episode of School Chat, I sat down Alyssa Trausch a current sophomore at Elk Grove High School. She wrote an amazing piece on what she wants school to be. Here is an excerpt:

I want school to be a place where I love to go to every day. A place where learning is new, innovative, and exciting. When learning feels natural and not like all the content is being forced into my brain I have a tendency to remember it more. Truthfully I think what I really want school to be is a place where I can learn new things without being worried all about what score/grade I’m going to get and rather worrying about how I can use what I just learned to make my life (or someone’s else’s) better.

It's a message everyone should here and we should strive to make happen in our classrooms every day. Have a listen.

This is the first, of what hopes to be a more frequent podcast series entitled School Chat. This episode is a conversation with Dan Saken. Dan talks about the relationships he builds with his students, uses psychological principles to focus on learning, and how he implements learning celebrations.