The Broken Copier

This 15th Kicking The Copier episode is a simple one: a single daily habit—one that takes less than a minute before you head home for the day—that, at least for Marcus, has shifted the way he looks at his classroom in a considerable way.

Our gratitude, too, for those who continue to listen and response and share, as the community at The Broken Copier keeps finding new ways to grow (especially now with Bluesky)! Also, please don’t hesitate to reply in the comments with any or your own habits or strategies that you have found meaningful this year, too—or to record a reflection you can go to fanlist.com/brokencopier.

(You never know, it might end up on a future episode!)

As always, thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for contributing their music to The Broken Copier podcast—and also Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.

* Email thoughts and feedback to [email protected], too!

Thanks for listening, and take care of yourselves!

Pretty simple summary here: like many teachers and educators out there, we have a lot of thoughts about the election and what it means for our classrooms and students—so we decided to take some time to talk about what we’re thinking two weeks later.

Not our normal type of episode, but we’d rather be authentic about what’s on our mind in this moment. (Note: we recognize and respect this might not be the episode for you right now, but it was the conversation we both wanted to have as friends and teachers.)

The articles and posts mentioned in the episode are linked here:

* a link to the video Jim references regarding President Trump’s threat of “severe consequences” for teachers and school officials

* the NY Times interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders mentioned by Jim with the Sanders’s takeaway from the election

* the article detailing the Ohio principal being placed on leave for assuring staff that they would continue to value and celebrate diversity

* the Inside Higher Ed piece by John Warner emphasizing the need to prioritize “the work” over the job in this moment

As always, we are always open hearing your thoughts! Along with commenting or emailing us, you even also leave us an audio message to be featured on a future episode: fanlist.com/brokencopier

Thanks, as always, to: 

Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

Email us here: [email protected].

Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! As

Marcus and Jim are back to talk about reading—more specifically, the broader discourse in education that students aren’t reading nearly as much as they used to.

In this conversation, Marcus and Jim begin by reflecting on their own reading identities (06:05) before discussing the article “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books” (16:52) and their initial reactions to it, how severe they think the problem actually is (23:07) and what it means in their classrooms now and going forward.

Heads up: there are a few audio glitches early on before it smoothes out, so just be patient—and also keep in mind that this is a bit more of an authentic, classic Marcus-and-Jim conversation where they go back and forth quite a bit (amicably, of course) in trying to figure out where they want to land on this, respectfully.

Feel free to rate and review wherever you listen, and also to hop in the comments on the Substack to give your take on this topic!

Thanks, as always, to: 

Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: [email protected].

Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)!

In our 14th Kicking The Copier episode, Marcus reflects on what he is keeping in mind as a teacher over this final stretch of election season, sharing three priorities that he finds helpful to center as an educator.

This isn’t an episode suggesting any specifics of what educators should say or do—that would be the most foolish of enterprises!—but rather to transparently share what one teacher is trying to center in this moment and why.

As always, thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for contributing their music to The Broken Copier podcast—and also Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

* Email thoughts to [email protected] or leave feedback at fanlist.com/brokencopier.

Thanks for listening, and take care of yourselves!

The hot seat is back for today’s episode, but this time Jim is the one asking Marcus for his immediate thoughts on a handful of education “buzzwords”—with the conversation jumping from Standards-Based Grading to Social-Emotional Learning to Critical Thinking (with some other topics in between).

If you want to play along, during the episode you can pause and think about what your thoughts are on these topics before Marcus and Jim dive into quick exchanges on each—and then, if you want, leave a comment with your thoughts or disagreements with their answers.

Thinking about what we think as educators is a worthwhile enterprise, right?

Also, as promised in the episode, three SEL resources that are far more in-depth than anything Marcus and Jim talk about in this conversation:

* “How to Help Students Without Being a Savior” from Cult of Pedagogy

* “A Pathway to Better Social and Emotional Learning” from Edutopia

* “Systemic Social and Emotional Learning” from Human Restoration Project

Thanks, as always, to: 

Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

 Email us here: [email protected].

Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)!

After a great conversation at the beginning of summer about what the 5th grade classroom is like, Adrian Neibauer was generous enough to return to the podcast to share about the mindset he is taking into this school year and the incredible community that is already building in his classroom.

In this conversation, Marcus asks him about the choices he made in preparing over the summer and especially in the opening weeks of his school year—and then they dive into some deeper questions about the idea of “loving teaching” more broadly.

Two pieces by Adrian that are referenced in this conversation (also, you can find everything he shares here on his Substack, which we highly recommend!):

* “Turn the Lights Back On” (Aug 12)

* “Adrian’s Top Five” (Sept 2)

Additionally, Marcus mentions a recent Cult of Pedagogy podcast featuring Elena Aguilar, which you can check out here.

And as always, we love to hear your thoughts! Along with emailing or commenting, you can leave us an audio message for the next episode: fanlist.com/brokencopier

Finally, thanks as always to: 

Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

Have feedback? email us here: [email protected].

Big news: Jim’s back! In this episode, Jim catches up with Marcus and fills him in on how the first few weeks have gone—which, in turn, gives Marcus a chance to reflect on his upcoming school year.

A big focus for both Marcus and Jim this year, they realized: making this work in the classroom sustainable going forward, and that is where this conversation ultimately goes.

Links to what we mentioned in the conversation:

* “We Need to Reclaim Slowness” by Marc Watkins

* “Damn Good Conversations” by Joe Ferraro

Thanks, as always, to: 

Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

 Email us here: [email protected].

Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)!

In the 13th Kicking The Copier episode, Marcus shares how the umbrella works as a perfect analogy for him in thinking about the “bigger picture” of feedback in his classroom—and how, at the end of the day, feedback is really about the trust students have in us as teachers and the purpose they see in what they are learning.

Tall orders, yes, but ones worth aspiring toward. Umbrella in hand.

As always, thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for contributing their music to The Broken Copier podcast—and also Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

* Email thoughts to [email protected] or leave feedback at fanlist.com/brokencopier.

Thanks for listening, and take care of yourselves!

Most of us educators have thought a lot about school cell phone policies in recent years, but very few of us have experienced them in different contexts. Education journalist Paige Tutt, however, has done exactly that: she visited numerous school communities that had implemented cell phone bans and interviewed myriad building leaders, teachers, students and families in her research for what became a must-read article for Edutopia: “3 Schools, 3 Principals, 3 Cell Phone Bans.”

In this conversation, Paige shares what she observed from across her research, the differences as well as the similarities she noticed across the various schools, and overall what she thinks can be helpful for all of us when thinking about the impact of policies around cell phones in school communities.

For those looking to explore more of Paige’s work, you can check out her profile page at Edutopia—and she also recommends subscribing to their new technology newsletter for educators, The Wired Classroom. (One of the pieces mentioned in our conversation comes from this newsletter, too: “Why I’m Banning Student AI Use This Year.”)

Finally, thanks as always to: 

Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

Have feedback? email us here: [email protected].

Given that summer is coming to a close for many teachers out there—or, for a handful, already has!—we decided to focus on that “thing” that we all go through as educators this time of year and that we all have our own opinions about: professional development for teachers.

In this episode we’re joined by Trevor Aleo, a full-time teacher and doctoral candidate who spends a lot of time thinking about, designing, and delivering professional development. The conversation focuses on what keeps “Teacher PD” from being a positive experience far too often as well as what “better” can and should look like. (Including what teachers need to bring to the table, too.)

For those looking to explore more of Trevor’s work, the best place to access it is at his website www.trevoraleo.com. We also recommend checking out his podcast Conceptually Speaking and the book he co-authored, Learning That Transfers: Designing Curriculum for a Changing World.

Finally, thanks as always to: 

Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.

* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro. 

Have feedback? email us here: [email protected].