Kindergarten teacher extraordinaire "Mr. Greg" of The Kindergarten Smorgasboard and ELEVATE Conference shares why being a teacher matters most. Listeners will leave inspired by Greg's hilarious tales from the classroom and practical tips to try right away with their students!  

Episode Mentions: 

• The Kindergarten Smorgasboard
  • Resource Center
  • Blog
• Basket Head 
• ELEVATE Conference
  • Holly Ehle - The Science of Literacy Learning
• Scheduling Sunday!

Greg's Recommendations:

• Greg HIGHLY recommends a doorbell for the classroom
• Greg HIGHLY recommends glue sponges to replace glue sticks
• Here is a great DIY sensory bin idea
• ABC Bootcamp is one of the most effective ways to teach letters & sounds in early elementary. The HOW & WHY

Chapters
0:00 Welcome to Schoolutions with Mr. Greg Smedley-Warren
0:54 The Teacher Who Inspired Greg: Mrs. Sears
2:50 Why Greg Became a Teacher
3:56 What Public Education Is Actually For
4:55 Building Play and Inquiry Into Kindergarten
6:26 The Basket Head Game
8:05 Curriculum Pacing vs. Teacher Judgment
10:02 The Post-COVID "Learning Loss" Narrative
11:28 How Greg's Kindergarten Team Plans Each Week
12:15 Staying in the Classroom Right Now
14:19 Real Stories from a Real Kindergarten Classroom
16:12 The Student Who Narrates the Whole Day
17:32 Why Kids Need Structure and Routine
19:22 The Science of Reading with Holly Ehle
20:22 The Unofficial Fun Squad
21:16 Why Greg Started The Kindergarten Smorgasboard
21:38 The Envelope: How Greg Got Assigned to Kindergarten
23:52 Calling His Mom and Falling in Love with the Job
24:54 Starting the Blog
26:31 Balancing Family, Teaching, and Creative Time
27:53 Learning to Say No
28:57 Sunday Planning
30:31 Being Honest on Hard Days
32:50 Greg's Call to Action for Teachers
34:22 Why Teachers Need Each Other
35:14 Closing Thoughts

Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and school leaders, families and homeschoolers, and the coaches, counselors, and mentors who believe every student deserves to thrive. Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child.

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise.
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Don't forget to🔔SUBSCRIBE for more teaching tips, and 💬SHARE with fellow educators! 

#schoolutions #schoolutionspodcast #forevergettingbetter #curiositydriven #evidencebasedclassroomreadystrategies #KindergartenSmorgasboard #TeacherPodcast #EffectiveTeaching #InstructionalCoaching #StudentEngagement #ActiveLearning #InclusiveTeaching #TeacherSupport #ProfessionalDevelopment #ClassroomBelonging #NewTeachers #TeachingTips #SchoolLeadership #WholeChildEducation #EducatorLife #StrongerTogether

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

Discover why true educational transformation happens when we shift from content-centered to student-centered learning! In this insightful conversation, educators Julie Wright and James Goldberg share wisdom from their book The Limitless Classroom: Mantras to Deepen Learning. Learn how giving students time, purpose, and ownership develops genuine curiosity and transferable skills.

Julie and James explain their three powerful mantras:

1. Kids deserve more time to think and do
2. Kids deserve the why and how, not just the what
3. Kids deserve to own their learning journey

Whether you're a teacher, coach, or administrator, you'll leave with practical strategies to prioritize student voice, create menus of opportunities, and embrace responsive instruction that meets learners where they are.

Check out these resources from Julie and James!

• Slide Deck with Graphics 
• PDF with Graphics
• Julie’s Books

Chapters:

0:00 - Introduction and Overview 

1:59 - Meet Julie Wright and James Goldberg 

3:50 - The Purpose of "The Limitless Classroom" 

4:40 - How Julie and James Met and Collaborated 

7:54 - Why Mantras for Teaching? 

9:40 - Mantra 1: Kids Deserve More Time to Think and Do 

13:55 - Responsive Classroom Approach 

17:02 - Mantra 2: Kids Deserve the Why and How, Not Just the What 

21:55 - Surface to Deep Learning 

24:00 - Mantra 3: Kids Deserve to Own Their Learning Journey 

27:00 - Student Ownership Revelation Story 

28:30 - Creating Menus of Opportunities 

34:35 - Call to Action for Educators 

40:00 - Conclusion and Contact Information

Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and school leaders, families and homeschoolers, and the coaches, counselors, and mentors who believe every student deserves to thrive. Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child.

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise.
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Don't forget to🔔SUBSCRIBE for more teaching tips, and 💬SHARE with fellow educators! 

#schoolutions #schoolutionspodcast #forevergettingbetter #curiositydriven #evidencebasedclassroomreadystrategies #LimitlessClassroom #EducationalMantras #StudentCenteredLearning #EducationTransformation #TeachingMantras #ClassroomStrategies #DeepLearning #StudentVoice #ResponsiveTeaching #TeacherProfessionalDevelopment #MathEducation #LiteracyInstruction #MeaningMaking #CurriculumIntegration #LimitlessClassroom #EducationalCoaching #TeacherCollaboration #ContentIntegration #TeachingStrategies #StudentAgency #MeaningfulLearning #EducationTransformation #ResponsiveTeaching 

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

I spent last week at the Quoddy Writing Retreat in Lubec, Maine. My colleague Angela teaches fifth- and sixth-grade writers. She tells her students that every writer works differently. Some students write inductively. They start with small stories and scattered facts, then hunt for the pattern that reveals the big idea. Other students start with the big idea. They find the stories and facts that support it afterward.

Angela's lesson applies to any writer, young or old. It has real value for lesson planning and instructional strategies. Teachers, mentor teachers, and teacher coaches can use it directly: ask students how they naturally build an idea before you teach them how to organize one.

This kind of insight comes from real conversations that happen between teachers who trust each other. New teachers need this kind of teacher support. Experienced teachers need the reminder too. Naming a student's writing process is a small move. It changes how a student sees their own thinking.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro & Setting: Happy Writing Wednesday opener, mention of the Quoddy Writing Retreat in Maine
0:08 - Introducing Angela's Insight: Angela and her fifth and sixth grade writers, the idea that every writer has their own process
0:18 - Inductive Writers: Students who start with small stories and facts, then find the pattern to reach a big idea
0:28 - Big-Idea-First Writers: Students who start with the big idea, then find supporting facts and stories
0:36 - Takeaway & Sign-off: Why this applies to writers of any age, closing with Happy Writing Wednesday

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise: 

#OliviaWahlCoachingConsulting #Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #EvidenceBasedClassroomReadyStrategies #WritingWednesday #HappyWritingWednesday #TeachingTips #ProfessionalDevelopment #InstructionalCoaching #TeacherSupport #WritingProcess #EffectiveTeaching #NewTeachers #TeacherMentors #EducationStrategies

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

In this S5E4 Schoolutions conversation, Dr. Molly Ness challenges what you know about learning to read, sharing insights from her most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Katie Pace Miles, "Making Words Stick." Discover how brain science and the alphabetic principle reveal better teaching reading strategies and build stronger reading skills for kids.

You'll discover why 99% of "impossible" sight words actually follow phonetic rules and how orthographic mapping - not memorization - creates fluent readers. This episode is for teachers, education coaches, caregivers, homeschoolers, and anyone supporting developing readers.

🔥 KEY REVELATIONS:
💡 Why flashcard memorization fails (and what works instead)
💡The 4-step process that makes words "stick" permanently
💡How adult brains store 30,000-70,000 words instantly
💡The rubber band analogy that explains reading vs. spelling
💡Why middle school comprehension struggles start in elementary

Molly breaks down complex brain science into actionable teaching tips that work for new teachers, mentor teachers, and seasoned educators alike.

📚 Make sure to get Making Words Stick: A Four-Step Instructional Routine to Power Up Orthographic Mapping by Dr. Molly Ness & Dr. Katie Pace Miles so that you can implement the 4-step routine tomorrow.

People Mentioned:

• Dr. Linnea Ehri 
• Dr. Jan Hasbrouck 
• Mr. Dolch/Dr. Fry 
• William Nagy
• Dr. Jan Wasowicz 

Resources from Molly:

• Making Words Stick (pdf one-pager)
• Building Language Comprehension for Readers in Grades K-2

Chapters:
0:00 - The Flashcard Myth That's Hurting Kids
1:00 - Meet Dr. Molly Ness & "Making Words Stick"
3:00 - The Research Behind Orthographic Mapping
5:00 - Lanaya Ehri's Groundbreaking Discovery
8:00 - Least to Most Reliable Ways to Learn Words
11:00 - The Shocking Truth About Sight Words (99% Are Decodable!)
13:00 - Why Orthographic Mapping Never Stops
16:00 - High Frequency vs. Sight Words Explained
19:00 - The 4-Step Process: See & Say It
21:00 - Step 2: Segment & Spell It
23:00 - Step 3: Study & Suss It Out
25:00 - Step 4: Search & Stick It
27:00 - The Rubber Band Analogy: Reading vs. Spelling
29:00 - Helping Struggling Middle School Readers
33:00 - The Three-Legged Stool of Word Learning
35:00 - Take Action: Your Next Steps

Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and school leaders, families and homeschoolers, and the coaches, counselors, and mentors who believe every student deserves to thrive. Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child.

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise.
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Don't forget to🔔SUBSCRIBE for more teaching tips, and 💬SHARE with fellow educators! 

#schoolutions #schoolutionspodcast #forevergettingbetter #curiositydriven #evidencebasedclassroomreadystrategies #MakingWordsStick #ReadingScience #OrthographicMapping #TeachingStrategies #EducationResearch #LiteracyInstruction #ClassroomManagement #StudentEngagement #EffectiveTeaching #InstructionalStrategies #TeacherCoaching #ProfessionalLearning #EducationLeadership #StudentSuccess #ThrivingStudents #EmpoweredEducators #InclusiveTeaching #WholeChild #ProKidMindset #InnovativeTeaching #LessonPlanning #TeachingTips #InstructionalCoaching #MentorTeachers #NewTeachers

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

I sit down with teacher, instructional coach, and author Julie Wright to dig into her book What’s Our Response: Creating Systems and Structures to Support ALL Learners. We talk about the five problems of practice she names in RtI and MTSS models, and why so many well-intentioned systems end up boxing kids in instead of lifting them up.

Julie and I explore what classroom belonging actually looks like when teacher autonomy and agency are honored rather than handcuffed by a chart. We talk about asset-based thinking, why child study teams need to focus on student strengths instead of deficits, and how to build real student engagement by increasing kids' thinking and doing time instead of defaulting to more direct instruction.

I ask Julie how Tier 1 instruction becomes the best intervention a classroom teacher can offer, and she breaks down practical moves for small group learning, early intervention, and closing what she calls the knowing-naming-doing gap. We also talk about student motivation, active learning, and what it takes to build a school culture where teachers and students both get to thrive. 

Episode Mentions: 

• What’s Our Response: Creating Systems and Structures to Support ALL Learners
• Dr. Mary Howard
• What is RtI?
• What is MTSS?
• What is Tier One Intervention?
• Autonomy & Agency
• Asset-Based Thinking
• Observation Protocols
• Least Restrictive Environment
• Teaching with Fidelity
• Learning Walks
• That Workshop Book: New Systems and Structures for Classrooms That Read, Write, and Think by Sam Bennett & Workshop as a Time Structure
• FREE Resources from Julie Wright Consulting - What’s Our Response?

Chapters
0:00 Introduction and Julie Wright's inspiring educator, Mary Howard
3:15 Defining Response to Intervention and MTSS
5:40 The five problems of practice in RtI models
8:00 How the RtI and MTSS triangle boxes teachers and students in
12:30 Honoring and increasing teacher autonomy and agency
17:00 What asset-based thinking really means
21:15 Building child study teams around student strengths
25:45 Increasing students' thinking and doing time
32:00 Why tier one instruction is the best intervention
38:30 Small group learning without making it a whole thing
42:00 Closing the knowing-naming-doing gap
46:00 Julie's call to action: What's Our Response?

Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and school leaders, families and homeschoolers, and the coaches, counselors, and mentors who believe every student deserves to thrive. Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child.

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise.
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Don't forget to🔔SUBSCRIBE for more teaching tips, and 💬SHARE with fellow educators! 

#schoolutions #schoolutionspodcast #forevergettingbetter #curiositydriven #evidencebasedclassroomreadystrategies #RtI #MTSS #InstructionalCoaching #TeacherSupport #StudentEngagement #SchoolLeadership #EquityInEducation #WholeChild #ProfessionalDevelopment #TeacherPodcast #SchoolutionsPodcast #InclusiveTeaching #NewTeachers #EducationLeadership #studentsuccess 

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

I'm at the Quoddy Writing Retreat in Lubec, Maine, this week, working alongside Ralph Fletcher and Georgia Heard and a room full of writers on completely different projects. Yesterday they gave us three prompts to bring into our response groups each day, and I'm sharing them here because every teacher facilitating peer feedback in a classroom can use these too.

"This seems to be about..." "I really connected to the part where..." "I wanted to know more about..." These three prompts pull meaning from a writer's work instead of jumping straight to fixing it. That shift matters for how writers apply feedback during peer response time, and it builds real connection instead of surface-level editing comments. These three prompts will change how your students talk to each other about their work.

I also want to put a book on your radar: Valerie Bolling's book, Goal Setting in the Writing Classroom, released in 2025. Chapter Four highlights peer feedback and critique groups, and I'm obsessed with it right now.

Chapters:
0:00 Writing Wednesday from the Quoddy Writing Retreat
0:12 Meet the facilitators: Ralph Fletcher and Georgia Heard
0:25 Three prompts for response groups
0:50 Why these prompts pull meaning instead of fixing writing
1:05 Book recommendation: Goal Setting in the Writing Classroom by Valerie Bolling
1:20 Chapter Four: peer feedback and critique groups
1:30 Sign-off

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise.

#Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #EvidenceBasedClassroomReadyStrategies #WritingWednesday 
#PeerFeedback #WritingWorkshop #ClassroomBelonging #StudentEngagement #InstructionalStrategies #TeacherCoaching #ActiveLearning #LessonPlanning 

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

Christy Lynn Anana is a Mindfulness Director with Whole School Mindfulness at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary, located on the land of The Tulalip Tribes in Washington State, north of Seattle. In this episode, Christy offers listeners two guided meditations alongside a peek into her published book series called I Am Healing. 

This is one of my top 20 most-listened-to episodes, back now as part of our summer rerelease series. My guest is Christy Lynn Anana, Mindfulness Director at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary and author of the I Am Healing book series. We talk about classroom belonging, classroom behavior, and what active learning looks like when a school builds mindfulness into its actual culture instead of treating it as an extra.

Christy walks me through a grounding breath practice, explains how student engagement and student motivation shift when kids have tools for big emotions, and describes teaching fifth graders to lead student participation in mindfulness for younger kids. We get into attention in class, effective teaching, instructional strategies, and lesson planning for teachers navigating low engagement after the pandemic. 

Christy also breaks down the difference between school counseling and mindfulness coaching, what instructional coaching and teacher support can look like at the district level, and why mentor teachers and new teachers alike need coaching strategies built around real classroom pressure, not just professional development checkboxes.

Chapters: 
0:00 Welcome and introduction 
1:13 Three-breath grounding exercise 
3:48 Inspiring educators: Dr. Anthony Craig 
6:16 What a Mindfulness Director does 
7:48 Defining mindfulness 
9:47 Fifth graders leading mindfulness 
12:29 The I Am Healing book series 
13:53 I Can Feel Better and EFT tapping 
16:09 A Safe Place and EMDR-inspired practice 
18:26 What is EMDR 
20:10 Circling up and big emotions 
21:33 Waves of Emotions 
24:21 A Guide for Lonely Kids 
25:05 Supporting families through grief 
26:25 Mindfulness Director vs school counselor 
31:34 Post-pandemic mental health trends 
36:03 Call to action and resources 
37:20 Closing guided meditation

Episode Mentions:

• I Am Healing Book Series
  • I Can Feel Better: A Tapping Story
  • A Safe Place: Strategies to Feel Better
    • Dr. Francine Shapiro -  EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing)
  • Waves of Emotions: A Mindfulness Story
  • A Guide for Lonely Kids
• Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary
• University of Washington - Leadership for Learning (L4L) Program  - Facebook
• Dr. Anthony Craig  (Schoolutions S1 E5: Accessing the Wisdom of Tulalip Tribes' Elders as Cultural Guides in Public Schools with Dr. Anthony Craig)
• Tulalip Tribes
• Rainbow Dance - Boston Children's Foundation
• Dr. Bruce D. Perry
• EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques
• Whole School Mindfulness
• Kobayashi Maru 
• Tricia Hersey - Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto
• Sam Bennett's Circles (Types) of Engagement

Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and school leaders, families and homeschoolers, and the coaches, counselors, and mentors who believe every student deserves to thrive. Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child.

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise.
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Don't forget to🔔SUBSCRIBE for more teaching tips, and 💬SHARE with fellow educators! 

#schoolutions #schoolutionspodcast #forevergettingbetter #5practicesofexpertteachers #curiositydriven #evidencebasedclassroomreadystrategies #ClassroomBelonging #StudentEngagement #InstructionalCoaching #TeacherSupport #SchoolCounselors #EducationLeadership #WholeChild #CulturallyResponsiveTeaching #ProfessionalDevelopment #SchoolCulture #MentorTeachers #InclusiveTeaching #EquityInEducation #ParentInvolvement #EmpoweredEducators 

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

Leah Mermelstein returns to Schoolutions for S2E35 to make the case for bending curriculum instead of buying a new one for literacy instruction every few years. She walks me through the exact process she uses with school districts to build integrated units of study, work that pulls reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar together around real content like a kindergarten animal unit or a fourth-grade historical fiction study tied to local history.

The conversation covers:
💫What teaching with fidelity actually means (hint: it's not "follow the script")
💫How to form a teacher cadre that drives instructional coaching and professional development
💫Why starting with a school's mission statement changes the whole planning process. 

Leah even lays out six concrete steps: form a cadre, root the work in the mission statement, set priority goals, connect grammar and vocabulary to what's already being taught, build in cumulative and spaced practice, and plan for real independence.

Episode Mentions:

• Leah Mermelstein's Schoolutions Interview, "We-Do" Writing Book, "We-Do" Model Graphic & Self-Directed Writers Book
• P. David Pearson
• Cornelius Minor's Schoolutions Interview & We Got This. Book 
• Dr. Tanya Wright's Schoolutions Interview & A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day Book
• Patterns of Power Series 
• Nell K. Duke & Kelly B. Cartwright's The Science of Reading Progresses: Communicating Advances Beyond the Simple View of Reading (graphic on page 9)
• First Education Writing Summit  (June 14, 2023) - Reboot, Revamp, and Refresh Your School's or Classroom's Writing Instruction
• Align the Design: A Blueprint for School Improvement by Nancy J. Mooney & Ann T. Mausbach 
• Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement by Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Leah Mermelstein returns
1:10 Cornelius Minor: being in time, bending curriculum, pro-kid
4:30 The NAEP scores and why they matter here
7:15 What integrated curriculum looks like: the animal unit
11:00 Teaching with fidelity vs. bending curriculum
15:20 Step 1: Forming a curriculum cadre
17:40 Step 2: Starting with the mission statement
19:30 Step 3: Priority goals and enduring understandings
22:00 Step 4: Connecting grammar and vocabulary
23:18 Step 5: Cumulative and spaced-out practice
27:00 Step 6: Planning for purposeful independence
31:00 Reading student writing to guide instruction
33:45 Nell Duke's Active View of Reading and the "We-Do" model
36:30 Reboot, Revamp, Refresh Writing Summit, June 14th
38:00 How to reach Leah Mermelstein
39:00 Dialogue, not debate
40:00 Closing thoughts

Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and school leaders, families and homeschoolers, and the coaches, counselors, and mentors who believe every student deserves to thrive. Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child.

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise.
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Don't forget to🔔SUBSCRIBE for more teaching tips, and 💬SHARE with fellow educators! 

#schoolutions #schoolutionspodcast #forevergettingbetter #5practicesofexpertteachers #curiositydriven #evidencebasedclassroomreadystrategies #IntegratedCurriculum #EffectiveTeaching #InstructionalCoaching #ProfessionalDevelopment #WholeChildEducation #EquityInEducation #TeacherSupport #SchoolLeadership #StudentEngagement #InclusiveTeaching #LessonPlanning #NewTeachers #MentorTeachers #EducationPodcast #CulturallyResponsiveTeaching #RadicallyProKid #LiteracyInstruction #TeacherImpact #schoolculture 

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

Research alone won't move a teacher to change what they do tomorrow. A story will. In this Writing Wednesday, I break down the method I use in my own writing: for every piece of research I include, I pair it with a real classroom moment, either something I lived through myself or something I watched happen in another teacher's room.

The story is what makes a reader trust you. The research is what backs up the claim. Put them together and you get writing that actually sticks with the teachers, coaches, and school leaders reading it.

This one's short, but it's a habit worth stealing if you write for educators, coach teachers, or create content for classrooms. Whether you're building out professional learning materials or writing instructional strategies for a blog, tie the research to a person. A moment. A room with real kids in it.

This Writing  Wednesday series is for teachers, instructional coaches, mentor teachers, and school leaders who've thought about writing their own book.  See you next week.

Watch the reel here.

Chapters:
0:00 Why research alone falls flat
0:10 The method: pair every research point with a real story
0:25 Stories build trust, research backs the claim
0:35 Who this habit is for
0:40 Sign-off

This series is for teachers, instructional coaches, mentor teachers, and school leaders who've thought about writing their own book.

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise: 

#Schoolutions #SchoolutionsPodcast #ForeverGettingBetter #5PracticesOfExpertTeachers #CuriosityDriven #EvidenceBasedClassroomReadyStrategies #WritingWednesday 
#WritingWednesday #TeacherCoaching #InstructionalCoaching #EffectiveTeaching #TeachingTips #ProfessionalDevelopment #MentorTeachers #NewTeachers #TeacherImpact #InstructionalStrategies #EducationCoaches #InspiredTeaching #SchoolLeadership #EducationWriting #TeacherSupport

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.

In S3E11 of Schoolutions, I sat down with school counselor Zack "Coach Kasabo"  to talk about self- and co-regulation mental health strategies that actually work, not quick fixes teachers try once and abandon. Zack told me about his own struggles with anxiety and depression as a teen, and how that experience now shapes his work on classroom belonging, classroom behavior, and student engagement. His core belief: relationships come before punishment. That's what drives real student motivation.

We talked about why low engagement usually traces back to unmet emotional needs, not laziness or defiance. Zack walked me through why active learning and inspiring students start with connection first, correction second. He also broke down two frameworks he created himself: the C.A.L.M. Redirection Technique and the T.I.P. Framework. Both are tools any teacher, counselor, or parent can use tomorrow to improve student participation and attention in class, without shaming a kid into compliance.

I asked Zack about parent involvement, parent communication, and the home-school connection. He shared how he built family partnerships and caregiver support at a Title I school, including partnerships with local police, the fire department, and the YMCA to get kids winter coats. We also talked about education at home and what caregivers can do differently.
Throughout the conversation, we kept coming back to culturally responsive teaching, equity in education, inclusive classrooms, and anti-bias teaching. Zack's mindset is pro-kid without being permissive. He wants every student to reach real student success, not just survive the school day.

Episode Mentions:

• The School Counselor and Multitiered System Supports 
• Title I 
• Conscious Discipline Brain State Model
• Schoolutions S2E2: Stopping Bullying and School Violence Before They Start with Professor Ron Avi Astor
• What is the Difference Between CBT and Solution-Focused Therapy?
• Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Watch the episode on YouTube here.

Chapters:
0:00 Welcome to Schoolutions
1:01 Zack's grandmother, his inspiration
2:23 Compassion without enabling
3:36 Zack's teen mental health struggles
6:10 His current role as a K-8 school counselor
8:15 Why Tier 1 support has to come first
9:34 Working in a Title I school
11:14 Relationships before academics
13:36 How weekly classroom guidance changed everything
14:29 Building community partnerships
19:58 Life as Coach Kasabo
20:16 Punishment versus consequences
24:16 Compliance versus proficiency
26:26 The C.A.L.M. Redirection Technique
32:40 The T.I.P. Framework for self-regulation
36:29 Should kids be forced to apologize?
42:14 The theories and tools Zack relies on
44:57 How to connect with Zack

Schoolutions is the podcast for educators and school leaders, families and homeschoolers, and the coaches, counselors, and mentors who believe every student deserves to thrive. Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child.

🌿Ready to grow alongside your children? Book a coaching session with me here. We'll unlock the expert who is already within you and surround you with a community of educators committed to forever getting better through collective expertise.
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Don't forget to🔔SUBSCRIBE for more teaching tips, and 💬SHARE with fellow educators! 

#schoolutions #schoolutionspodcast #forevergettingbetter #5practicesofexpertteachers #curiositydriven #evidencebasedclassroomreadystrategies #SchoolCounselor #CoachKasabo #ClassroomManagement #StudentEngagement #TeacherSupport #InstructionalCoaching #ProfessionalDevelopment #SchoolLeadership #ParentInvolvement #EquityInEducation #InclusiveClassrooms #WholeChildEducation #SelfRegulation #CoRegulation #EducationPodcast #TeacherTips #NewTeachers #SchoolCulture #EmpoweredEducators

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, they create schools where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged, supported, and ready to thrive.