Teaching Channel Talks

How might student learning improve if assessments were innovative, authentic, and playful?

Learning can — and should — be fun, but when it comes to assessment, teachers can be very serious. However, there’s no need for the fun to stop when the assessments come out.

On this episode of Tch Talks, Dr. Yoon Jeon Kim, a research scientist at MIT Teaching Systems Lab, and Louisa Rosenheck, a designer and researcher of educational technologies in the MIT Education Arcade, come together to discuss how thoughtful design of authentic, creative, and playful assessments can engage students, help them to learn and grow, and allow them an opportunity to demonstrate their skills and abilities in a more personalized and meaningful way. YJ & Louisa — both self-proclaimed "assessment nerds" — discuss types of playful assessment, assessment tools, connections between assessment and social and emotional learning, and their shared goal of empowering teachers with assessment literacy. Perhaps, moving away from traditional assessments and embracing a little whimsy in the classroom just might be a key leverage point to impacting the way students learn in schools. Listen in to find out more.

• MIT Teaching Systems Lab
• MIT Education Arcade
• Overview: Playful Assessment
• MetaRubric Activity
• Beyond Rubrics: Assessment in Making
• Game-Based Assessment
• Follow YJ Kim on Twitter: @yjkimchee
• Follow Louisa Rosenheck on Twitter: @skiptomylouisa

Tch Videos

• The Work of Play
• Project Earth Game
• Performance as a Culminating Activity
• Museum Exhibition as a Culminating Event
• Living Wax Museum: Researching & Portraying Influential People
• Student Profile: Portfolio Defense
• Calibration: Assessing Portfolio Defenses

Tchers' Voice Blog Posts

• #TchWellness: Incorporating Play Into Your Life As An Educator
• Tch Tips: Creative Assessment Strategies
• Tch Talks 22: Intention & Critical Creativity in the Classroom
• Minecraft: Education Edition

School just got out, so hopefully, as an educator, you’re taking time to relax. But we all know that most teachers don’t shut their minds off completely in the summer. You’re probably already thinking about the year ahead. One thing you might be thinking about is how to better serve your English Language Learners (ELLs), especially since they continue to be a growing population in U.S. schools.

In this episode of Tch Talks, educators Sarah Ottow and Nicole Shimizu share their list of five things you can do to reach and teach your ELLs during the next school year. Their ideas are practical and fairly easy to try, and there are some ideas you can staring work on this summer! Listen to find out more.

ELL Deep Dive

Resources and Tips from Confianza

Collaboration & Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners

3 Tips for Supporting ELLs Through Co-Teaching and Collaboration

Authors of Color Reading List

Video Playlist: The Power of Collaboration for ELLs

ENLACE, a program for ninth and tenth grade newcomer students at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, is working hard to answer these questions. On this episode of Tch Talks, Allison Balter, founding principal of ENLACE, shares her story of getting ENLACE started two years ago and what she’s learned from this experience so far. She talks about how teachers at ENLACE work towards supporting students’ learning of both content and language simultaneously. Allison also describes how ENLACE helps students feel a sense of belonging when they are physically so far away from their home countries. Listen in to find out more.

• ENLACE Videos on Tch
• ELL Deep Dive
• Lawrence Public Schools website
• Follow ENLACE on Twitter: @ENLACE_Lawrence

Can teachers use spoken word poetry as a tool for literacy, empowerment, engagement, education, and community building across content areas?

Poet, performer, and educator Sarah Kay says absolutely, YES! Sarah is a founder and co-director of Project VOICE, an organization that uses spoken word poetry to entertain, educate, and inspire. Through Project VOICE, Sarah is dedicated to promoting empowerment, improving literacy, and encouraging empathy and creative collaboration in classrooms and communities around the world.

On this episode of Tch Talks, Sarah discusses the origin story of Project VOICE, her own introduction to spoken word poetry, and her work as a poet, an educator, and a bestselling author. Whether speaking from her heart or from her head, Sarah believes that spoken word poetry can be an important educational tool that will have a lasting positive impact on your students' motivation, creativity, self-esteem, agency, and their desire to share their own stories and listen to the stories of others. Listen in to find out more.

Sarah Kay:

• Sarah Kay
• How Many Lives Can You Live? by Sarah Kay at TEDxEast
• If I should have a daughter… by Sarah Kay at TED2011
• Project VOICE
• Spoken-Word Poets Bring Words to Life for Students via EdWeek
• Video Playlist: National Poetry Month! via Sarah Kay on YouTube
• Spoken Word Poetry Guide for Teachers - Resources for Writers via TEDEd
• No Matter the Wreckage: Poems by Sarah Kay
• B: A Poem by Sarah Kay
• The Type: A Poem by Sarah Kay
• All Our Wild Wonder: A Poem by Sarah Kay

Tch Videos:

• Poetry Open Mic
• Exploring Poetic Elements
• Analyzing Poetry: Imagery & Emotions
• Poetry Workstations
• Taylor Mali: Undivided Attention
• Taylor Mali: I Teach for the Fire
• Taylor Mali: What Do Teachers Make?
• Taylor Mali: Miracle Workers
• Taylor Mali: In My Middle School
• Creating Found Poems

Spoken Word Poetry Resources:

• 5-Minute Film Festival: The Power of Spoken Word Poetry via Edutopia
• Louder Than A Bomb
• Youth Speaks
• Global Writes
• Lesson Plan: Crossing Boundaries Through Bilingual, Spoken-Word Poetry via ReadWriteThink
• Song of Myself: Spoken Word Poetry in the Classroom, by Shannon Reed via Visual Thesaurus
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Bring Spoken Word Into Your Classroom, via Funky Pedagogy
• Video Playlist: Classroom Friendly Poems via Button Poetry on YouTube
• 10 Tips for Teaching Hip Hop and Spoken Word Poetry by Brian Mooney
• Why I Dropped Everything and Started Teaching Kendrick Lamar’s New Album by Brian Mooney
• Part 2: High School Students Write Essays on Kendrick Lamar’s Album, To Pimp a Butterfly by Brian Mooney
• 25+ Slam Poems Appropriate for Middle School and High School via Teacher Off Duty
• Spoken Word Poetry Videos via Penny Kittle
• Say the Word...Spoken Word Poetry, That Is. via Megan McClure on BloomBoard

What are the questions that your students carry inside of them but rarely ever discuss?

2015 National Teacher of the Year Shanna Peeples wanted to find out. What started as a small idea or strategy to help students build empathy transformed into nearly 15 years of work helping children -- and adults -- voice the questions they carry inside them. On this episode of Tch Talks, Shanna talks about why it's important for both students and teachers to "Think Like Socrates," to allow students to take ownership of their own learning through authentic questions, and to leverage student questions as learning experiences that develop critical thinking.

For Shanna, curiosity is key, and allowing students to own their learning through creating questions is the most fundamental change a teacher can make in their teaching practice.

• Response: Students Can 'Own Their Learning Through Creating Questions'
• We Become Who People Say We Are
• Check out Shanna's website
• Shanna Peeples: Presentations
• Draft Protocol for Generating Students’ Authentic Questions
• 50 Great Teachers: Socrates, The Ancient World's Teaching Superstar
• Follow @ShannaPeeples on Twitter
• Follow Shanna Peeples on Facebook
• Follow @slpeeple on Instagram
• Dogfooding: How Often Do You Do Your Own Assignments by Cult of Pedagogy
• Big Thinkers: Judy Willis on the Science of Learning, Edutopia
• The Heart of Philosophy by Jacob Needleman
• The Ten Great Questions of the Heart by Jacob Needleman
• The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life by Parker Palmer

• Strategies for Student-Centered Discussion

Socratic Seminar Videos

• Scaffolding for Socratic Seminar
• Socratic Seminars: Patience & Practice
• Socratic Seminar: The "N-Word"
• Socratic Seminar: Supporting Claims and Counterclaims

Inquiry Videos

• Inquiry-Based Discussion
• Inquiry-Based Teaching: The Inquiry Approach
• A Teacher's Role In Inquiry
• Inquiry-Based Teaching: Powerful Ideas
• Inquiry-Based Teaching: Building a Culture of Respect
• Inquiry-Based Teaching: Discussing Literature
• Inquiry-Based Teaching: Encouraging Student Voice
• Inquiry-Based Teaching: Asking Effective Questions

Questioning Videos

• Structure Learning with Essential Questions
• Higher-Order Questions: A Path to Deeper Learning

Tchers' Voice Blog Posts

• Never Easy, But Essential: Tough Conversations in the Classroom
• Tch Tips: Engaging Students in Socratic Seminars
• New At Tch Video Lounge: Personalized Learning and Socratic Seminar
• Video Playlist: Eight Ways to Engage Your ELLs
• Design Thinking, Empathy, and Equity
• Design Thinking, Empathy, and Equity – Part 2

When teachers solve problems, they inspire their students to solve problems, too. How can teachers use their best strategies as a launching pad for deeper learning and professional growth? And how can curiosity, co-creation, and collaboration before a lesson idea is formed be a game-changer for classroom practice?

On this episode of Tch Talks, Ashley Lamb-Sinclair, Instructional Specialist and Deeper Learning Coach for Fern Creek High School in Louisville, Kentucky and 2016 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, joins us to talk about her work with School Startup. This pilot program is where three cohorts of Teacher-Founders are engaged in the design process to rethink and redesign deeper learning in their classrooms and professional learning communities.

She also shares her recent adventures as founder and CEO of Curio Learning, an app that helps teachers discover new ideas and curate them in a personalized way. The app also facilitates collaboration with other educators in order for them to grow as professionals and find the ways to best help their students.

Ashley believes that if every teacher woke up to the awesome influence he or she has, there would be a drastic overhaul of the system and that -- bottom line -- it takes a teacher to transform learning.

• Follow Ashley Lamb-Sinclair on Twitter
• Explore Ashley’s blog: Beautiful Junkyard
• Ashley Lamb-Sinclair’s work featured in The Washington Post
• Ashley Lamb-Sinclair’s work featured in The Atlantic
• Are You Teaching Content Or Teaching Thought? - Teach Thought
• School Start-Up
• Curio Learning
• Follow Curio on Twitter
• Follow #TeachLikeARebel on Twitter
• Curio Journal on Medium
• Sevenzo
• Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
• True School Studio
• Design Thinking for Educators
• 45 Design Thinking Resources for Educators
• The d.school Bootcamp Bootleg
• Design Thinking Mixtapes
• Tools for Taking Action
• Deep Design Thinking
• Luma Institute

• Pinwheel Discussions: Texts in Conversation
• Tcher's Cut: Pinwheel Discussions
• Design Thinking, Empathy, and Equity
• Design Thinking, Empathy, and Equity – Part 2
• Critical Friends: Building a Culture of Collaboration
• 4 Big Ideas for Engaging Students (Deeper Learning)
• Deeper Learning Video Series
• Critical Friends: Building a Culture of Collaboration

What is Critical Creativity?

To Dan Ryder and Amy Burval, critical creativity is “students using creative expression to demonstrate deeper thinking and the nuances of understanding content.” It's a portmanteau of sorts, which has the potential to turn ideas into action and push your students toward deeper learning and meaningful understanding.

Dan and Amy believe that, “When students make connections, transform knowledge, and articulate the reasons behind their creative choices, learning becomes more sticky, meaningful, and authentic.” Articulation of creative reasoning is key, because as students learn the power of explanation, rationale, and intentionality, they shift from passive pupils along for the ride to active drivers of their own learning. And the best part of this shift is that it occurs in the midst of purposeful play.

On this episode of Tch Talks, Dan Ryder, Education Director of the Success and Innovation Center at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, Maine, joins us to talk about his and Amy's new book, Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom, and how a little rigorous whimsy can help you transform learning in your classroom right now.

• Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom by Amy Burval and Dan Ryder
• Follow @IntentionBook on Twitter
• Follow #IntentionBookChat on Twitter
• Follow #RigorousWhimsy on Twitter
• Follow the Success and Innovation Center at Mt. Blue Campus on Facebook
• Website: Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom
• Critical Creativity & Rigorous Whimsy Videos
• Try it Out: Samples from the Catalog of Creativity

Tch Videos

• The Power of Student Voice in First-Person Commentaries
• Fun & Funny Improv Activities
• Creating Found Poems
• Analyzing Texts with Storyboards
• Learning to Think: A Foundation for Analysis
• Comic Book Templates: An Entry Point into Non-Fiction
• Scaffolds for Critical Thinking

Tchers' Voice Blog Posts

• Fidgeting for Physics: Spinner Science in Six Steps
• Educating Students to “Think Intensively and Critically”
• Why Social Studies? It’s “Self-Evident”! - Featuring Amy Burval
• I Want to Get Better at... Social Emotional Learning Next Year
• Hamilton: The Ten Dollar Founding Father Proves Priceless in American Classrooms
• Making in Schools Series
• One Goal, Two Lessons: Teaching Critical Thinking To 11th and 4th Graders
• Design Thinking, Empathy, And Equity
• Design Thinking, Empathy, and Equity – Part 2

Does social-emotional learning really make a difference for at-risk students? In Part Three of our series on Social and Emotional Learning, Daniel McCutchen, a recently graduated student from Austin High School in Austin, Texas, joins Tch Talks to discuss his experiences in an intentional SEL-dedicated course. Daniel is not only a former learner, but also attends national conferences and presents on the topic with his teacher. Learn how SEL helped Daniel adjust to the demands and expectations of high school, to prioritize the most important things in his life, and to develop life skills that he is able to apply in a variety of circumstances.

• Video: Encouraging Students to Persist Through Challenges
• Video: Mindfulness in the Classroom
• Video: Emotional Check-Ins
• Video: Using Guided Relaxation in the Classroom
• Video: Building Emotional Literacy
• Class Culture Deep Dive
• Blog: Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain
• #aNewKindofPD Podcast: Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain
• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning
• School Connect Curriculum
• Edutopia: Social and Emotional Learning
• Second Step: Skills for Social and Academic Success
• MindUP
• PATHS: Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies
• Social-Emotional Learning: Essential Skills for Success in School and Life — R. Keeth Matheny at a Capitol Hill briefing held by Committee for Children
• School Transformation Through a Social and Emotional Learning Based Freshman Seminar

Students may be the experts when it comes to the world of Minecraft, but teachers are the experts in curriculum design.

Teachers can use what they know best to design engaging, real-world experiences within Minecraft that are aligned with curriculum and standards and focused on a learning goal. Students can use the tools within Minecraft to show evidence of their learning, document their progress, share their achievements, reflect, and learn through hands-on experiences. What's more, students love Minecraft and are excited to craft!

Dr. Amy Tong joins Tch Talks to discuss how we can create tangible learning outcomes for and with students through Minecraft.

Minecraft Education Edition

Minecraft Starter Kit

LaVonna Roth is passionate, driven, successful, and accomplished. Yet, following what has become a theme among the women I’ve interviewed, she's human and thus, is challenged at times by her own self-doubt. As the founder of S.H. I. N. E. (an acronym for Service, Heart, Inspire, Navigate, and Exceptional), LaVonna engages teachers and students in “funshops” where they work to reflect on their passions and make plans to accomplish work motivated by the same.

LaVonna refers to the dynamic educators with whom she works as Edustars (Educational Rockstars) and works to help inspire teachers while also advocating for teacher self-care — which together leads to exceptional educators. Sitting down to interview LaVonna, I could hear the passion she speaks to in her voice. Lavonna and I covered a series of topics. 

Some of the highlights include:

(1:11) Our responsibility and obligation as teachers and leaders to put students first and think about what’s best for kids when making decisions.

(3:58) Facing the challenge of self-doubt and understanding that limiting beliefs only do us a disservice in the long run.

(7:00) The need to take a step back and ground yourself in your “WHY” when facing challenges or entering into challenging conversations.

(16:45) The need to surround yourself with supporters so you can take risks, knowing that people will be there to support and encourage you no matter the outcome.

(20:00) Having a friend who is willing to tell you the truth, even if the truth hurts or is painful to hear.

Listening to LaVonna, there is a sense of urgency in her voice. An urgency to listen to the narratives of students, an urgency for teachers to become inspired by being engaged with their most passionate interests, and an urgency to overcome self-limiting internal dialogue to rise above the challenges we face. It’s also clear that LaVonna speaks from personal experiences as she acknowledges that we’re all just trying to find our own path — herself included. As you listen to LaVonna, think about your path ahead and what actionable steps you can take to further your own passions. Once you reflect, reach out to someone from your support group to engage in a conversation about your plans.