Stories from the Classroom

I took a break over the summer from the podcast. The plan was to get a handful of interviews recorded over the summer and be ready to go with episodes starting in mid-August. That didn't happen. But here's what I did instead.

It's been a rough school year to say the least. In this episode, I help you think through how you will rejuvenate, recover, and recharge this summer so you can come back ready in the Fall semester.

It's the end of the year. Traditional paper/pencil tests seem to be tricky with remote learning.  Today I share 3 end-of-year STEM projects I did with my math & robotics classes.  They involved TikTok, Minecraft, and eBay.

A month ago I read an article that said schools will definitely be doing 'blended' learning permanently and that social distancing will require schools to have kids come to school on different days to lower the capacity.  I thought 'well...that MIGHT happen but we can't say with certainty.'

30 days later, these are the exact things school leaders are discussing around the world.  What will education look like in the Fall of 2020?  What will it look like in a post-COVID-19 world?

*This episode was recorded in February before many schools began remote teaching. While the context of the conversation is a normal classroom, there are applications to remote teaching if you and/or your students have a device at home*

Generally when people thing of augmented reality, they think of Pokemon Go. The game tapped into the nostalgia of Pokemon fans everywhere, myself included. It created an immersive experience for users where they could actually see Pokemon in their physical environment through the use of their camera phone. Creating an immersive experience shouldn't just be limited to mobile games though. How can we give our students an immersive experience in the classroom?

Four educators (from elementary to high school) share their best advice for those doing distance / remote learning, including one educator in Hong Kong who has just completed his 10th week of remote teaching.

**This episode was recorded and edited before the coronavirus & distance learning was front of mind for educators. Valuable takeaways though regardless if you're virtual or in person**

One of challenges of teaching math is being able to satisfying answer the question 'why'? Before we can even answer the question for students, we have to answer the question for ourselves. Why does the math work this way? It's much easier to teach a student how to do a problem. It's a bit harder to explain to them why it works the way it does. It's even more challenging to help them discover the why for themselves.

We had a baby amidst all this coronavirus stuff. I wanted to share an update on how things have been and my plans during my time at home on paternity leave / quarantine .

What do you do if you don't have a planning period? How do you help students master a skill after they've failed a test? How do you correct students when they're wrong? Any advice for a first time long-term sub? We explore these questions into today's Q&A show.

Sometimes we don't utilize simple tools that could have a powerful impact in our classroom. Skype has always been one of those tools for me. It has the power to bring the world into my classroom but I've rarely utilized it. I think it's not until we hear stories of how others are using it that it begins to spark ideas for what it could look like in our classroom.