I spoke with several people that are on the front lines of where esports and education intersect. We discuss:

You'll also hear a little audio from an esports project I tried out with my some of my students.

A few months ago I didn't know that storytelling competitions were a thing. Then I heard Matthew Dicks on a podcast and he shared what makes for good storytelling. I thought it was interesting but it wasn't until he told a short 5-minute story that I was convinced of his mastery of the craft and I wanted to learn more.

I found out Matthew Dicks was not only a champion storyteller but also a classroom teacher and that he had a podcast with his wife Elysha where they listened to stories told from the stage and critiqued them; sharing what made them such powerful stories and what they could have done to improve the story.

I initially was drawn to the storytelling podcast because I thought I could get tips on how to tell better stories in social contexts but I walked away wondering how I could implement this into my classroom.

In today's episode, Matthew and I explore the following:

LINKS AND RESOURCES

Connect with Matthew at www.matthewdicks.com

Matthew's storytelling podcast 'Speak Up Storytelling'

'Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling' by Matthew Dicks[affiliate link]

The Art of Manliness Podcast episode with Matthew Dicks

Connect with me, Thom Gibson

In this short episode, I share a little bit of why I started this podcast, why I changed the name, and the vision going forward. Hope you like the new podcast art!

Connect with me:

In this episode:

Resources James Butler spoke about:

Connect:

Epic Rap Battles of History is one of my favorite YouTube channels. I knew that giving students opportunities to write songs about content was a good assessment, but I never thought of utilizing raps / slam poetry specifically. So much opportunity for students to show what they know in this creative assessment.

Chalimar Chieza has been doing rap battles in her history classes for years. In this episode we talk about:

Connect with Chalimar Chieza on LinkedIn!

Rap Battle / Slam Poetry Rubric

I got the chance to go into Mike Franz's high school gov & econ class when they were playing YOLO, a year-long game where one week of school represents one year of life. The first week of the game the students are 18 years old, the last week of the game they are near retirement age. What will they make of their society, of their economy, of their investments, of their world?

We explore the following:

If you'd like to reach out to Mike about YOLO or gamification, he can be reached at:

If you'd like to take a look at the YOLO rule book, here it is (it's a living document always being revised):

Music by:

Currently working on a couple Thom Gibson Podcast episodes that aren't quite done yet but I did want to get an episode out this month.

In this, I pulled a review that I did for my #bookstagram Instagram account. It was a review of Carla Shalaby's 'Troublemakers' which is a book on what we can learn from kids who we generally deem as 'troublemakers' and how can we love and honor them as members or our learning community.

I agree with the general premise of the book (work harder to love kids that are hard to love) but really had a hard time with the tone and arguments of the author on this one.

Follow me on Instagram for more book & jerky reviews:

See the video version of this podcast on my YouTube channel:

With the start of the school year upon us, I've been thinking a lot about the first day of school.

Is it the most important day?

Special thanks to CJ Reynolds for his video that sparked this podcast. See the video and his YouTube channel HERE.

Thanks to Terra Lynch for offering her 20 years of classroom insight to the discussion. You can find here on Twitter HERE and her new book, Protocols In The Classroom can be found HERE.

Music by Hippo Campus

Think of your Kindergarten teacher. How do you think your educational experience would have been different if that teacher continued to be your teacher for every year until you graduated high school?

In today's podcast I chat with Mark Rogers, who will be starting a 13-year experiment this year. The practice is called 'looping' where a teacher sticks with a group of students for more than one year.

We discuss the following:

Learn more about Mark Rogers 13-year looping project at loop13.org Follow Mark Rogers on Twitter at @rogersmarkd

In Kindergarten, students are bursting with curiosity; why are doorknobs round, what is carpet made out of, why are my fingers little? Unfortunately, as students progress through their education, they tend to become less curious about the world around them and settle for just asking the questions that will get them the answers to pass the tests that determine their future.

In todays episode, I chat with two-time Teacher-of-the-Year science teacher Kelley Janes who takes time out of every class to allow students to ask questions about the world around them; fostering, encouraging and nurturing that innate curiosity.

We talk about the following:

Music by [DigitalDisciple][1]