The Beautiful Struggle

By F.R.E.D.

I struggle as a father, husband, educator, GenXer and more, all the while trying to live life more fully.

Join me as I figure out what it means to be a modern father using the 4P's of parenting.... more

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1515 ratings

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FAQs about The Beautiful Struggle:

How many episodes does The Beautiful Struggle have?

The podcast currently has 251 episodes available.

The Beautiful Struggle episodes:

March 17, 2015 013: Classroom Furniture & Equipment
In the spirit of sharing our favorite productivity tools in Ep. 11 & 12, we thought you’d like to know what furniture and equipment we use in our classrooms and why. Perhaps you need a classroom makeover or have been looking for easy solutions to make your teaching smoother? Well, we are here to help you out! We’ll go over each item and suggest alternative methods to achieve the same outcome as sometimes budget is a big reason why we have a hard time getting what we want.
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32min
March 17, 2015 013: Classroom Furniture and Equipment

In the spirit of sharing our favorite productivity tools in Ep. 11 & 12, we thought you’d like to know what furniture and equipment we use in our classrooms and why. Perhaps you need a classroom makeover or have been looking for easy solutions to make your teaching smoother? Well, we are here to help you out! We’ll go over each item and suggest alternative methods to achieve the same outcome as sometimes budget is a big reason why we have a hard time getting what we want.
Resources/Links

* Sharon’s equipment

* Copernicus Dewey Classroom iPad Stand: instead of buying an ELMO doc camera (cost too much!), I bought this to use w/my iPad as a doc camera so kids can bring their work to the board & explain their work. I use books, worksheets, or demonstrate building/assembly tasks and project them up instantly. This stand is sturdy, can rotate from portrait to landscape and can be adjusted up and down.

* Alternatives: go to your local hardware store and buy PVC pipes to make your own.
* Use a locker shelf!

* Copernicus Tech Cruiser Cart CC7: this stand allows me to teach using my laptop and projector. The storage tubs are great and I put manipulatives so that when I use my iPad as the doc camera, it’s easily accessible. I also put my chargers for my laptop, iPad, bluetooth speakers, and chart paper markers. It’s not too big and easily wheels around the classroom. The wheels lock as well!

* Copernicus Tech Cruiser Cart CC9: this is the one with the lockable bin.
* Alternatives: use a rolling cart- you must have one of these either lying around your school or you can use your current cart to act as your media cart. As long as there are wheels, you can always put boxes on top to make it your ideal height.

* Epson PowerLite S9 LCD Projector: This projector on the link is the closest I can find to my current projector as I couldn’t find the exact one. I got it through my Donor’s Choose grant (see our blogpost about how to write a great proposal and listen to our podcast show Episode 16 all about Donor’s Choose!) and it has an HDMI port as well (not listed on the specs for this model). Since Fred’s school uses Epson projectors, it had many connectivity ports and is in HD, I chose this one. I’ve had it for 5 years now and it has worked very well under many hours of use! This model is specifically for classrooms, but I think that any Epson projector would work!

* Fred’s Equipment

* Ikea Hacks
* Instructables

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32min
March 10, 2015 012: Pt. 2 Our Favorite Productivity Tools
This is part 2 of 2 where Sharon and Fred share their favorite productivity tools. These tools in particular, are especially valuable for managing their own personal workflow. Join us now and see if these can work for you too!

Have one or two tools that you like? Let us know! Please leave a review, rating and subscribe! Thanks!
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24min
March 10, 2015 012: Pt. 2 Our Favorite Productivity Tools (for Students too!)

In this episode, we continue with our favorite productivity tools that we use in our classroom and that our students use as well. Check out part 1 in Episode 11!
We’ve got a real postcard from John G. in Iowa! You are awesome! This made us so humble and inspired to keep going. We sincerely are in awe. We are glad to know that you like our show and that you took the time to send us a postcard! How cool is that? Thank you John!
Fred’s favs

* Legos Mindstorm Robotics (EV3) and Cubelets Robotics
* Camera to document process, reflection (video editing software – iMovie)
* Canva– a free graphic design tool. Photoshop for the rest of us. Drag, drop, fonts, upload images, icons, pay for stock photos

Sharon’s favs

* Typing.com– it’s FREE!- uses student’s GAFE accounts, keeps track of progress (time/wpm/accuracy)
* Dance Mat Typing is FREE, fun, cartoons, but doesn’t track progress- do 5 min 1x/week

* BrainPop & BrainPop, Jr.- featured video free, otherwise, should get site license- good for frontloading, reviewing concepts- bookmark for students to do for choice, extension activities available for different learning styles, kids LOVE the quizzes! Great for all curricular areas.
* Word work template- use for weekly vocabulary words & anytime students don’t know a word- builds vocabulary to help them progress in their reading- give everyone 1 template to use, then they make their own so as to not limit space/work- check it out on our Teachers Pay Teachers page- “Building Vocabulary Power!” Helps students visually see words with a picture or symbol that they create, has student input example sentences, and definitions so students are more likely to remember the meaning of the word.

Resources/Links

* typing.com
* Dance Mat Typing
* Word Work on Teachers Pay Teachers
* Brainpop.com
* canva.com

Music
“Presenterator” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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24min
March 04, 2015 011: Pt. 1 Our Favorite Productivity Tools
In episode 11, This is part 1 of 2 where Sharon and Fred share their favorite productivity tools. These tools in particular, are especially valuable for managing their own personal workflow. Join us now and see if these can work for you too!

Have one or two tools that you like? Let us know! Please leave a review, rating and subscribe! Thanks!
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26min
February 22, 2015 010: Are Teachers Learners?
Yup! We are back after a week haitus! Its so good to be back. In this episode, we ask the question: Are teachers learners? You would assume that teachers are automatiically are learners. But, we do share what can prevent us from learning. This is the logical extension of our very popular TBP 006: Burnt Out on Teacher Burnout episode.

We share our insights on why we should be learners, the obstacles that can take away our passion on learning and finally we share our solutions on how to keep going.

Don't forget to leave an honest review! It means a lot for us on iTunes - its free!

www.teachingbites.com

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28min
February 10, 2015 009: Bits & Pieces, Boats, Tech Time-Out & Being Less Helpful
This is the Bits & Pieces episode, where we put a little bit of everything from the past week and roll it into one! 

The new TV show, Fresh Off the Boat as it explores growing up as Asian Americans 

Tech Timeout - our effort to raise awareness of digital distractions through encouraging students (and adults) to voluntarily abstain from certain devices for a 72 hour period on Feb. 12-14 

Fred's school Tech Time Out participation and the TeachThought article

Dan Meyer’s Be Less Helpful. Student independence, student centered classroom. Watch Dan's TED Talk here: Math needs a makeover 

Sharon's classroom shapes experiment, which was referenced to TBP 006: Burnt Out on Teacher Burnout and go w/teachable moments ; Student-centered learning 
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41min
February 10, 2015 009: Bits & Pieces – Boats, Tech Time-Out & Being Less Helpful

Bits & Pieces
We call this episode Bits & Pieces as we put a little bit of everything from the past week and roll it into one!
Fresh
Sharon and I are very excited about the new TV show, Fresh Off the Boat as it explores challenges growing up as Asian Americans and how this acts as a great learning moment. Yeah, we do relate with it as we laugh and reminisce experiencing a lot of the same things as the characters. This show is based on Eddie Huang’s popular book (affiliate link).
Tech Time Out
What is Tech Timeout? Fred’s school will be raising awareness of digital distractions through encouraging students (and adults) to voluntarily abstain from certain devices for a 72 hour period on Feb. 12-14. This will be very interesting as Fred’s school is a 1:1 device 4-12 school (K-3 has shared iPad carts).
We have been featured in TeachThought’s article and in the SF Examiner.
Be Less Helpful
Sharon and I discuss Dan Meyer’s Be Less Helpful philosophy to help our student become more independent and really perplex them. Sharon talks about using this in her student centered classroom. Watch Dan’s TED Talk here: Math needs a makeover.

Sharon’s classroom shapes experiment, which was referenced to TBP 006: Burnt Out on Teacher Burnout explains how she took a teachable moment and ran with it. The book she referenced is The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns.

Music
“Presenterator” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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41min
February 01, 2015 008: Our Best Tips for a Successful & Efficient Parent Teacher Conference
In this episode, Fred & Sharon share their favorite tips and some cool new ways to have a successful and efficient Parent-Teacher Conference.
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23min
January 26, 2015 007: What Are You Struggling With?
In this episode, we share the struggles we're currently facing and how we're pushing through them. We discuss our attempts of using several strategies of taking the negative stuff and turning them into positives.

Maybe you can relate with what we're sharing, or maybe you've already turned your struggles into positives, join us and see if this all sounds familiar.

Please subscribe, rate and give an honest review as it'll make our show better. It also helps us be discovered by other like minded educators.

YOU are appreciated!

Thank you!

Fred & Sharon

www.teachingbites.com

Like our Facebook page!

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37min

FAQs about The Beautiful Struggle:

How many episodes does The Beautiful Struggle have?

The podcast currently has 251 episodes available.