Teaching Today

School counselors lead, advocate, and collaborate to promote equity and access for students of all ages. As the realities of our world have shifted, their roles have expanded, playing a tremendous and crucial part in bridging the social, emotional, and academic needs within schools. We're joined by three school counselors — Dr. Jenan McNealey, John Nwosu, and Channelle Joseph-Nwosu — who discuss the misconceptions, challenges, and opportunities within their work.

When it comes to social-emotional support, school leaders support teachers. Teachers support students. But what about the school leaders — who's supporting them? Cheryl Green returns this week to discuss the stress of being a leader coupled with the stress of leading during a pandemic.

Social-emotional health plays an integral role in education, and continues to impact both teachers and students as we navigate various stages of the pandemic. In this week's episode, we're joined by school leaders from New York, Connecticut, and Georgia who discuss how they're offering social and emotional support to their school communities.

Being a leader comes with tough challenges, and leadership in difficult times certainly brings its own unique set of obstacles. In this episode, The Main Idea's Jenn David-Lang joins us for a conversation about the diverse and complex skills needed for 21st century leaders.

We're back! This week, we're sharing the promising practices we'll be leaning on in 2022 to help make the year more manageable and restorative for our team and our school communities.

During an(other) unpredictable year, our team and community of schools have remained dedicated to breaking down the problems, policies, and promising practices that define teaching today, continuing to expand our creativity and innovations to meet fellow educators and students where they are.

In our last episode of 2021, we look back on how developments in areas like technology, social-emotional learning, and flexible instruction have impacted the year and will continue to impact education in the future.

As school districts have returned to in-person teaching and learning this fall, district leaders have continued to make tough calls, balancing a number of safety and instructional concerns within their communities. This week we continue our New Normal series with two district leaders — Dr. Michelle Aquino of New Jersey's North Plainfield District and Dr. Roderick Richmond of Shelby County Schools in Memphis, TN — who sit down with us to discuss the strengths and struggles of resuming in-person instruction.

Experienced instructional coaches Melissa Bryant and Ashlynn Wittchow revisit our New Normal series — in which we take a look at the instructional interruptions and innovations that have surfaced over the past two years — and explore the successes and challenges of returning to in-person classrooms this fall.

Questioning is a key formative assessment strategy that helps students digest the content they're being taught and generates useful feedback for teachers. When used effectively, questioning can inform adjustments to your instruction, and identify necessary supports for students who may be struggling. 21st century learning specialist G. Faith Little is back this week to discuss this critical assessment tool and identify effective questioning strategies.

Discussions are an important component of 21st century learning in all disciplines; they help students process and communicate information, and help teachers better understand which concepts students are connecting with. 21st century learning specialist G. Faith Little joins us this week to unpack the benefits of classroom discussions, and how they can be a simple, authentic way to assess student learning.