Teachers Aid

We’re all gearing up to bring our best selves to school so we can bring out the best in our students. In this episode, we talk about balancing relentless positivity with the need to respond authentically and realistically to those challenging and frustrating moments.

Follow Twitter: @AnnettePonnock @Glennr1809@5Silber@Jonharper70bd @bamradionetwork

Annette Ponnock, PhD is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Yale Center Emotional Intelligence. Dr. Ponnock’s research focuses on teacher motivation and well-being, with an emphasis on urban schools. She received her PhD in Educational Psychology from Temple University and her MA in Psychology from the University of Santa Monica.

Breanna Taylor is licensed to teach K-12 Special Education. She graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello with a Bachelor of Arts P-4 Early Childhood Education, a Master of Education Degree.

Sara Silber is an award-winning elementary school teacher and a lead mentor with 30 years of classroom experience. Sara has written two blogposts, for BehaviorFlip’s Blog-“Social Emotional Growth Maps” and “A Teacher’s Journey Through Hacking School Discipline.” More recently, she authored a chapter in the inspiring book Thank You, Teacher. Sara enjoys working with her students and helping them grow and become independent learners. When she is not teaching or planning she is finding ways to support her colleagues. She loves to share her expertise,funny stories and other things that happen in the life of a teacher.

Taren Nance is the high school principal at Urbana School District.

Glenn Robbins is the proud Superintendent of the Brigantine Public School District in Brigantine, New Jersey. His passion is harnessing a school culture that thrives on design thinking, futurism, innovative digital spaces, technology integration, Social Emotional Learning Zen Dens, and Maker cultures. In addition, Glenn encourages all students to have a voice, not only in building a school culture but also in designing student-led entrepreneur opportunities. Glenn is a New Jersey representative for the AASA Aspiring Superintendent Mentor Program, AASA Governing Board, CoSN Empowered Superintendent Panel, NJ Innovative Superintendent Award, NASSP National Digital Principal of the Year, the co-chair for the NJASA Technology Committee in New Jersey, and has received numerous state and national leadership distinctions during his career.

The four-day school week is not new, but the speed at which schools are adopting the model is breathtaking. Largely driven by the difficulty in attracting and retaining teachers, school districts are making the leap at increasingly rapid rates. In this episode we ask, what do teachers and school leaders need to consider ahead of time to be prepared?

Follow on Twitter: @sgthomas1973 @bamradionetwork @jonharper70bd @DocSig @askpang

Dr. Robert Sigrist currently serves as the Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations for the St. Joseph School District in St. Joseph, MO. He is beginning his 29th year as an educator. He received his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He earned his M.S. in Secondary Administration from Northwest Missouri State University and his B.S. in Natural Science from Missouri Western State University.

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, PhD., is the author of “REST: WHY YOU GET MORE DONE WHEN YOU WORK LESS.” Rest has been translated into a dozen languages, and recently appeared in a new paperback edition with a foreword by Arianna Huffington.

Shawn Thomas is in her 20th year of teaching in the largest county in Georgia. She has taught Kindergarten, Second and Third Grade, and ESOL K-5.

Dr. James L. Floman is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He received his PhD at the University of British Columbia, where he studied the effects of mindfulness and compassion meditation on teacher emotion regulation and prosocial behavior with Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl. Dr. Floman has three core research streams: 1) The assessment of dynamic social-affective processes (i.e., developing and validating EI and well-being measurement tools); 2) EI, mindfulness, and well-being training (i.e., developing, optimizing, and scaling EI and well-being-enhancement interventions for real-world applications); and 3) Affective neuroscience (studying mental training-induced changes in ‘emotional brain’ function and structure).

Jennifer Yoo-Brannon is a teacher and instructional coach in El Monte, California, with over 16 years of experience teaching high school students, mentoring teachers, and designing and facilitating professional learning. Jennifer’s passions include: building collective teacher efficacy, designing meaningful professional learning, and fostering emotional resilience among all educators. She is an Edsurge Voices of Change Writing Fellow and has written for Edsurge and The California Educator.

Kevin Leichtman is an adjunct professor and former English teacher of grades 7-12. He is the author of two books and a researcher in the fields of burnout, mindset, SEL, and equity. You can learn more about Kevin by visiting tlceducate.com

John Griesse has been teaching for 13 years with Fayetteville Public Schools. He spent the first four years teaching all subjects in third grade. The last 9 years he taught in a departmentalized fourth grade. He focused on math, reading, science, and social studies in those nine years.

For those of us who are still winding down the school year, we look at strategies for managing the final days when students have had enough and so have we.

Follow on Twitter: @sgthomas1973@ToddWhitaker @bamradionetwork @jonharper70bd

Dr. Todd Whitaker has been fortunate to be able to blend his passion with his career. Recognized as a leading presenter in the field of education, his message about the importance of teaching has resonated with hundreds of thousands of educators around the world. Todd is a professor of educational leadership at the University of Missouri and professor emeritus at Indiana State University. Todd has written over 50 books including the national best seller, What Great Teachers Do Differently. Other titles include: Dealing With Difficult Teachers, Ten-Minute Inservice, Your First Year, What Great Principals Do Differently, Motivating & Inspiring Teachers, and Dealing With Difficult Parents.

Marjo Burk, Fayetteville Public Schools, 5th Grade Teacher 2021-2022 marks her 20th year teaching public school. Engaging students in learning by building background knowledge and a culture of literacy in an environment of positivity has always been her top priority. Teaching for 20 years has given her the opportunity to teach biology and environmental science in the high school setting, English language arts, social studies, and math in the upper elementary and middle school settings. She is also 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year supporting 13 schools across the Fayetteville Public School district.

Shawn Thomas is in her 20th year of teaching in the largest county in Georgia. She has taught Kindergarten, Second and Third Grade, and ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) K-5.

As we all grieve and grapple with the loss of students and teachers in Uvalde, Texas, we wanted to talk about how we can best respond to students when these events continue to happen despite efforts to prevent them.

Follow on Twitter: @DrKpsychologist, @drchriscip, @ideasforteacher, @jonHarper70bd @bamradionetwork

Jelena Kecmanovic, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Arlington/DC Behavior Therapy Institute and an adjunct professor of psychology at Georgetown University. In addition to academic articles, she has written for the Washington Post, The Conversation, Psychology Today Magazine, and others.

Christina Cipriano, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Yale Child Study Center and Director of Research at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (YCEI). Dr. Cipriano’s research focuses on the systematic examination of social and emotional learning (SEL) to promote pathways to optimal developmental outcomes for the traditionally marginalized student and teacher populations.

Dan Jones earned a BS in Middle Grades Education from Ashland University and a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American College of Education. Dan is an FLGI Master Teacher whose professional interests include e-learning and technology, as well as Project-Based Learning. He is the author of Flipped 3.0 Project Based Learning: An Insanely Simple Guide.

In many classrooms, May is not just another month. It’s four weeks that require a special mindset to get our students and ourselves over the finish line as the school year winds down. Listen to this episode on the May Mindset and what’s required to get through this unique month with skill and grace.

Follow on Twitter:@almutzieher @YaleEmotion @5Silber @MeredithNewlin @Jonharper70bd @bamradionetwork

Sara Silber is an award-winning elementary school teacher and a lead mentor with 30 years of classroom experience. Sara has written two blogposts, for BehaviorFlip’s Blog-“Social Emotional Growth Maps” and “A Teacher’s Journey Through Hacking School Discipline.” More recently, she authored a chapter in the inspiring book Thank You, Teacher. Sara enjoys working with her students and helping them grow and become independent learners. When she is not teaching or planning, she is finding ways to support her colleagues. She loves to share her expertise, funny stories and other things that happen in the life of a teacher.

Almut K. Zieher, Ph.D., is an associate research scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Dr. Zieher received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, her M.A. in Special Education, and her B.A. in Elementary Education from the University of New Mexico. Dr. Zieher’s experiences as a general and special education teacher lead her to study how teachers learn and engage in social and emotional behaviors to increase their well-being and pedagogical effectiveness. She uses social, emotional and mindfulness approaches to inform training and measure development. Previously she developed and deployed mindfulness training using the skills from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy with pre-service teachers. Currently, she is developing an indirect self-report measure of teachers’ mindfulness to better understand how the mechanisms of mindfulness work. Additionally, Dr. Zieher is focused on improving measures of SEL implementation, including developing a checklist for measuring elementary school teacher’s social and emotional teaching and a teacher self-report measure of emotion-focused SEL implementation.

Meredith Newlin is entering her 17th year teaching secondary English. Her passion and purpose are to help motivate and inspire educators to rediscover—and keep— their joy for the teaching profession.

In this episode, we pause to examine the seemingly endless minor and high-stakes decisions that we need to make in our classrooms every day. Listen in as we identify ways to manage the decision fatigue that some feel.

Follow on Twitter: @katyfarber @Non_Toxic_Kids @dubioseducator @drchriscip @Jonharper70bd @bamradionetwork

Faige Meller taught for 38 years at the same school “The Center For Early Education” and that’s where she is a substitute teacher. She began teaching in 1977 in the preschool. In 1991 she became one of the kindergarten teachers. She taught kindergarten until retired in June 2015. She started subbing in 2016 and subbed in Toddlers, 3 and 4-year-old program, kindergarten, 1st and 2nd. She did a three-and-a-half-month sub position for a kindergarten teacher from January till April 17th — which included in the classroom and then remote learning.

Christina Cipriano, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Yale Child Study Center and Director of Research at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (YCEI). Dr. Cipriano’s research focuses on the systematic examination of social and emotional learning (SEL) to promote pathways to optimal developmental outcomes for the traditionally marginalized student and teacher populations.

By now most of us know why many teachers are leaving the profession, but one study reveals what may be the most overlooked reason teachers stay and what it will take to attract and keep more of us.

Follow on Twitter: @educationweek @MrJosephHamer @elainemcneil16 @jonHarper70bd @bamradionetwork

Marina Whiteleather is the Director of Social Media and Audience Engagement for Education Week.

The ups and downs of the pandemic have elevated stress levels across the board and one of the potential flashpoints is sensitive discussions between teachers and parents. Join us for a fast list of do’s and don’ts for diffusing and managing these emotionally difficult conversations.

Follow on Twitter: @sgthomas1973@MeredithNewlin @ToddWhitaker @mattwachel @bamradionetwork @jonharper70bd

Dr. Todd Whitaker has been fortunate to be able to blend his passion with his career. Recognized as a leading presenter in the field of education, his message about the importance of teaching has resonated with hundreds of thousands of educators around the world. Todd is a professor of educational leadership at the University of Missouri and professor emeritus at Indiana State University. He has spent his life pursuing his love of education by researching and studying effective teachers and principals. One of the nation’s leading authorities on staff motivation, teacher leadership, and principal effectiveness, Todd has written over 50 books including the national best seller, What Great Teachers Do Differently. Other titles include: Dealing With Difficult Teachers, Ten-Minute Inservice, Your First Year, What Great Principals Do Differently, Motivating & Inspiring Teachers, and Dealing With Difficult Parents.

Meredith Newlin is the founder of The Transformed Teacher. As a veteran educator who has been teaching for more than 16 years, her passion and purpose are to help motivate and inspire educators to rediscover—and keep—their joy for the teaching profession. She is the author of Captured Fireflies: Truths, Mistakes, And Other Gifts Of Being an English Teacher as well as Freed To Teach: 7 Keys To Thrive In an Era Of Uncertainty.

Matt Wachel is an ASCD emerging leader and an elementary principal in the Gardner Edgerton School District in Gardner, KS. He is the co-author of the book, Having an impact on learning, the public relations professional and the principal.

Shawn Thomas is in her 20th year of teaching in the largest county in Georgia. She has taught Kindergarten, Second and Third Grade, and ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) K-5.