This time of year is difficult for everyone in education! Students and staff alike have to find extra motivation to push though.  In this episode , we go over 3 ways to re-engage students and make teaching fun and meaningful for the rest of the year.

For additional resources mentioned in this episode, click on the following links:

TPR and Repetition YouTube Video

Notecard Heads Up

Stress Down, Scores Up! Online Course

If you know that you need to move your campus into a more equitable place, you don't want to miss this episode with Diversity and Inclusion Director for Wylie ISD, Mr. Reggie Bibb. Reggie's candid and practical wisdom will get you inspired and ready to take those first steps towards equity!

I wanted to take just a moment and talk through an emotionally charged topic right now - state assessments. While I definitely disagree with state assessments holding any weight towards accountability, I do think they are necessary.  I dive into "why" in this episode.  If you are looking for a way to talk through this reasoning with your teachers, this episode may help.

Also, head to www.pressing-onward.org for information on how we can partner wiht you to  move your campus into cultural competence.

This episode was a treat to record!  The more Sha Sparks and I talked for my other podcast, The Faith Filled Entrepreneur, the more I thought how PERFECT her framework is for teachers! 

Sha moves us through the 4 As - Acknowledge, Allow, Ask and Act!  This will give you tangible steps as you move towards teacher care and guidance during this school year!

You can find more information on Sha at www.shasparks.com! 

Dr. Maricela Helm gives some practical steps for taking care of teachers, building a more inclusive climate and creating an environment for learning in this episode. Her collaborative and honest approach made her an HEB Award Winner as a Principal and super effective and respected in her role as Director of Student Services in Wylie ISD.

In the episode, we discuss the 5 Love Languages Quiz for students, linked here.

We also discuss our Cultural Competence in the Classroom Course, where you can find more information at our website www.pressing-onward.org.

As I interviewed Mabble for our other podcast, her story about her own children, and the reasons she pulled them out of public schools hit hard, and I thought her story needed to be told on this podcast as well.

Her focus is helping parents build up the strengths in their own children, but teachers have the power to do this as well!

Seven years ago, when her first child was younger, Mabble found that she needed more parenting solutions that would help her, not just differently but a method that would help her bring out the best in what her children had within themselves, without feeling like there is something wrong with him and that he needed fixing. She was after a parenting style that empowered her children and left her feeling happy and confident with her abilities as a parent.

Mabble is a qualified mental health nurse with experience of over 15 years. She has seen worked with families and children who experience challenges in all walks of life, school, at home, peer pressure etc. Through her experience, she has identified that lack of expression and understanding of the child’s strengths and abilities, contributes to children’s frustrations and can be a contributory factor to some mental illnesses eg anxiety and depression.

Having lived in 3 continents, born in Zimbabwe Africa, studied and lived in the UK for 12 years and now living in Australia. Mabble has acquired insights, experience and exposure to different cultures and developed an understanding that allows her to empathise with the families she works with.

Mabble herself has identified and is cultivating her children’s gifts, strengths, and talents. Her boys who have now come out the other side as high achievers and are amongst the top young athletes in the country and working to become professional athletes.

Now living her purpose and passion as a strength coach, she successfully manages Intentional Living Coaching. Mabble created Intentional Parenting, to provide the support parents need to raise confident human beings who know and value their unique genius and how to leverage it. .via workshops, coaching programs and masterclasses. 

Mabble walks up through how her sons' teachers unknowingly squashed their natural strengths, and how she uses their strengths and learning modalities to help them thrive!

You can find Mabble on FB at Intentional Coaching 1, IG at Intentional Coaching, and at www.intentionalliving.com!

Clement Townsend is a former journalist who spent 17 years on TV. He is the creator of Video Journalism Pro, a supplemental online program that teachers can seamlessly integrate into their current curriculum.   This online program offers a project based learning approach that engages students and teaches them valuable skills they can use in any profession such as writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills.  The program also helps students develop their creativity so they can thrive in the 21st century. The online program contains 4 modules and walks students step by step through the storytelling process while teaching the technical skills of media, including shooting video and editing. 

Upon completion students will have demonstrated their ability to create and present information in a compelling way.  Students will have a tangible video story that can be posted on the internet to impact the school, parents, the community and even the world. This is a great fit to integrate with the core curriculum in the classroom, a media club or afterschool program.

And now, you can go to www.videojournalismpro.com and enter Coupon Code: PressingOnward10 for 10% off!

There is so much goodness in this episode!  Mary is an EL guru! She has a huge heart and the instructional knowledge to move ELs forward.  In this episode, we discuss how she changed the program model by adding a coaching model. We also discuss the strategies she used personally in the classroom to move her ELS to tremendous linguistic and academic growth.

In this episode, Ms. Green, Academic Dean and Martin Middle School in Austin, Texas, discusses ways to take care of teachers during this pandemic so that they can continue to take care of students.  As a new administrator just out of the classroom, she has a unique perspective on how to focus on learning even in a virtual world.

You won't want to miss this conversation about some practical ways to guide teachers during this chaotic time in education.

In this episode, Mr. Stewart and Ms. Saxenian talk about the transformation of their Waco High School by giving students the opportunity to take ownership of their campus and their learning.  They discuss 4 really powerful ways they've seen learning increased, as well as some amazing ideas for creating a student-centered campus.

I've known these two administrators for 16 years, and I loved hearing their perspective as they are doing what is needed to move marginalized students into success in a difficult environment.

Check out this quiz to see how Culturally Responsive your campus really is.

How Culturally Responsive Is Your Campus?