Teacher Saves World!

Laurie & Matt ask an important question as we inch closer to the end of the first semester, "Should We Accept Late Work?" Late work, the assignments students fail to complete on time and want to turn in after the due date, has always been a contentious issue with teachers, but this year requires some deeper contemplation and debate.

Laurie & Matt start by asking what your priority objective is with your assignments- learning content or making deadlines? They then venture into grading late work, overly intricate and unsustainable systems, fairness to those that complete work on time, the motivation of deadlines, and the potential collapse of teacher credibility due to hypocrisy.

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt put their parent pants on and look at the devastatingly tough situation our teens are in with distance learning, being asked to exercise self-control well beyond what is normally, and reasonably expected of them. Is this an opportunity for them to learn some tough lessons about responsibility and the consequences of poor choices, or should we fire up the helicopter and swoop in for some 11th hour intervention?

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt pick up where they left off last week, adding a part two to their discussion around the question, "How Do We Stay Healthy in an Unhealthy World?" The conversation this week touches on topics like tongue scraping, vitamins, and prayer. Aristotle and gratitude are also weaved into the conversation, and the show begins and ends with a reflection on the passing of a friend. Molly was a friend of Laurie's from middle school, and her unfortunate passing at the hands of cancer serve as a reminder that living our best, healthiest life is not a task we can put off to tomorrow, because we don't know if it exists. Molly, the first person ever to review Teacher Saves World! on Apple Podcasts (molcoATX), was a vibrant liver of of her best life, an example for us to follow. This episode is dedicated to her.

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt open up about their routines as they, like all of us, are wondering "How Do We Stay Healthy in an Unhealthy World?" As if staying healthy, body, mind, and soul, weren't already challenging in a world where sugar is in everything and escaping into the matrix is as simple as inserting an airpod, an invisible and deadly virus seems to be hanging in the air everywhere, forcing us to spend even more time on our devices.

Laurie, forever the seeker of personal health wisdom, starts off the conversation talking about what we've learned from the Blue Zones, those pockets found around the world where the inhabitants have found the secret to long-term health and well-being. Intermittent fasting is discussed, as Laurie & Matt are firmly into their second year as practitioners and staunch advocates. Appropriate levels of exercise are discussed, as is old school, pen and paper journaling.

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt have been living in the land of WHY lately, having explored the question "why are we teachers?" on their previous episode as an exercise to pinpoint those core values that provide both motivation and navigation, along with easing the burden of decision making by providing a clear framework for determining "yes" (because it serves my why) or "no" (because it doesn't). This led them further down the path to "Why Are We Parents?"

Beyond the obvious biological underpinnings of why they are parents (which at different points during the show cause Laurie to revert to her 13 year old self), Matt questions whether it's a fair question to ask because we can't do anything about it, unlike a job that can be changed if the "why" fades. They do, however, fumble their way to a destination that they recognize as a waystation more than a final port. It's the life they signed up for, the life they love, the life that kicks their butt, and the life that fills their souls. Why? Because.

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt get philosophical, but in a good, practical way. Noting that our shift to distance learning brought with it a deluge of "how to teach," as newbies and veterans alike were forced to earn minors in computer science to facilitate student learning this year, Laurie & Matt hit pause to ponder the vital question, "Why Do You Teach?"

Quoting Nietszche, again, Matt points out that our "hows" are made bearable by our "whys," and it's time to make sure we have one, or dust off the one you penned in your credential program and do a little revising. Laurie shares a list of personal whys to get the conversation started, and Matt makes the connection that prior to our distracted existence, people seeking to live their best life all had a list and checked it daily. Like soldiers experiencing battle fatigue that need a rousing Patton speech to remind them of the mission, our personal "whys" are necessary as motivation and navigation, and they can offer stress relief as well. Your homework: make a list of the reasons why you teach, put it somewhere and meditate on it every morning before you start your day, and then reflect afterwards on how you lived your values.

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt return from their Heart & Soul of a Teacher Journey to visit a dark place where few venture intentionally, but where many often end up. They revisit their regular format to address the question, "Are We Having an Educational Existential Crisis?"

Grappling with the demands of distance learning and the strange alternative universe they seem to visit everyday, where they stare at black boxes and try to coax work out of and build relationships with the teenage humans they believe are behind the dark rectangles, Laurie & Matt let it rip on the mixed-up emotional state they find themselves in. Admittedly thin on practical advice, this episode explores the emotional and psychological grinder that teachers are fed through daily, and the warped reality it is creating. When the people of the future discover and analyze this podcast, it will definitely be definitive of Laurie & Matt's "dark period."

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt continue with their bi-weekly Teen Parent Therapy sessions, this time exploring their struggle to find the right balance of being helicopter or hands off parents. They find themselves careening between the two, rarely with thoughtfulness and purpose, and more often reacting to the failings of their current parenting modality.

Remembering that these sessions are not about solutions and advice, but rather about honesty and exploration, Laurie & Matt open up about their missteps and wonder how they could have done things differently, and whether it would have made any difference at all. Laurie admits that hands off is a style she can adopt for only the briefest of moments before the helicopter blades start turning, and Matt opens up about his compelling sense of duty and whether it's insufficient as a primary driver of fatherly actions. So, no answers were found, but the questions asked and the confessions made are sure to resonate with other members of the Teen Parenting Club.

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt continue to gather data on the heart & soul of a teacher, this time collecting choice insights from Ryan Sagare (pronounced SAY-GAR, like if you were drunk and tried to say "Sammy Hagar" and it just slurred together). Laurie & Matt got to know Ryan through School Rubric, the international education website Ryan co-founded. Matt affectionately refers to Ryan and Wallace, another School Rubric co-founder, as the "School Rubric Dudes."

Now based in Austin, Texas where he works as the Coordinator for Distance Learning at the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas, Ryan traces his educational path from the Pacific Northwest, to the Midwest, to South America, and eventually the Lone Star State. He informs of us how his mother forced him into his first teaching job at age fourteen, which sparked a journey that would include some questionable outdoor education, luxurious digs in Brazil, and an embracing of online learning. Ryan shares his belief that passion burns in the heart & soul of all great teachers, along with how he married the Girl from (almost) Ipanema.

To connect with Ryan:

https://twitter.com/ryansagare

https://www.instagram.com/ryansagare/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/ryansagare

RayanSagare.com

schoolrubric.com

Matt's interview with School Rubric (Wallace interviewed, Ryan ran tech):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYRrPnFatc4&t=332s

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net

Laurie & Matt reconnect with an old friend, Tyler Dilts, for the next installment of their Heart & Soul of a Teacher series. Laurie & Matt both met Tyler while theatre arts majors at Long Beach State, Laurie logging some extra Tyler time years later when they both spent time in an office.

Tyler would eventually find success as a writer of crime fiction, which would allow him the opportunity to pursue his true passion, teaching. Tyler recounts his journey from high school dropout to junior college, where an attempt to fulfill an arts requirement as easily as possible may have saved his life. At the very least, changed it deeply. And it wasn't the subject, it was the teacher. Online teaching, meditation, and the need for the old people to get out of the way and let the kids take a shot at it are discussed.

To connect with Tyler:

twitter.com/tylerdilts

https://www.amazon.com/Tyler-Dilts/e/B002E4441Q%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

If you have a story to share and would like to be a guest on their show, reach out to Laurie & Matt through social media or by email.

Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! It really helps us become more visible and grow the coalition of caring adults dedicated to the health and wellness of our teens.

Get your copy of Matt's book Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Website: TeacherSavesWorld.com

Email them: [email protected]

Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld

Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/

Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net