Teachers Talking Teaching

Amy Otteman-Freeman joins the podcast today to share her teaching origin story from growing up surrounded by educators in a small community during her own high school education to becoming an English educator in high school. Amy's joy for learning and for working with kids is evident as she talks with Traci & Tracey in this episode.

This week as we continue our conversation with Andrew Shumate, in his fourth year as a new teacher, share about how he inspires his students through his love of science. Andrew talks about how his masters degree program and understanding of inquiry-based science learning has spread to other subjects in his fourth grade classroom. Hear how new teachers can inspire experienced teachers with their new learning, understanding of kids, and passion for content.

On this episode of Teachers Talking Teaching, Traci & Tracey talk with Andrew Shumate, a new teacher to the profession, tell us about his journey to becoming a classroom teacher. Andrew shares how working in a science museum also contributed to his love of helping kids find joy in learning. You'll be inspired by Andrew's passion as he shares his teaching origin story.

Jo Dixon sits down with Traci & Tracey to talk about the challenges and joys of teaching physical education. This year Jo has taken on the challenge of being a district facilitator for PE and health. Hear how she has designed and carried out professional development for her teachers in her district in meaningful ways. Jo talks about the current focus on teaching students movement for life and health skills. She also shares the science behind using PE to address the social/emotional needs of kids, especially post-pandemic.

Tracey & Traci talk to Jo Dixon about how she entered the profession of teaching and coaching. Find out how Jo decided that teaching PE and health were her passion that she wanted to share with children through classroom teaching and athletic coaching.

In episode 14, Traci & Tracey continue the conversations around the science of reading. We also continue our conversation with Carla Hewitt as she shares what her role as an elementary literacy interventionist entails. She shares her best tips and tricks for gathering data, determining needs, and devising a plan for our struggling early readers and how to work with classroom teachers. Carla also shares her experiences as a professional development leader, specifically around LETRS training. https://www.lexialearning.com/letrs https://www.95percentgroup.com/

Join Traci & Tracey as they talk with Tami Wolff about inspiring middle schoolers to love reading and writing in her middle school classroom. Learn about her process of "PDER-ing" (planning, doing, evaluating and refining) and how she sets up the physical environment helps her build a comfortable and reflective space for both her and her students. She works to give her students real-life experiences that require them to reflect and defend their developing awareness of the world and their place in it.

Join us as we talk to Carla Hewitt and continue our conversations about literacy. Carla shares her origin story and what led her to become a literacy interventionist and also become a teacher of teachers.

Learn about how middle school English teacher Tami Wolff spent time learning her craft by experiencing schools all over the world. In this week's episode, we learn about Tami's teaching origin story from the Pacific islands to Alaska to Colorado.

Tracey and Traci talk about what teaching literacy is like in the upper elementary levels. We discuss the role of the read aloud, even with older students who can read themselves. The conversation also shifts to what do kids do in their independent reading time to deepen their understanding of the texts they are reading and become skeptical readers and consumers of text.

Video chapters
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00:00 - Intro
04:20 - First Chapter Fridays
05:33 - First Cat in Space Ate Pizza https://www.thefirstcatinspace.com/
05:55 - Independent Reading using work of Kylene Beers & Robert Probst
"Disruptive Thinking" by Beers & Probst & BHH (Book, Head, Heart) Reading https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-tools/articles/disrupting-thinking.html
09:10 - Notice & Note Signposts
"Reading Nonfiction" by Beers & Probst
https://www.heinemann.com/products/e05080.aspx
"Notice & Note" by Beers & Probst
https://www.heinemann.com/products/e04693.aspx