The Grounded Learners Guild

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 The work of a teacher is multifaceted like a diamond. With every shift an educator makes, another need is met and another aspect of learning has the potential to be achieved…but the responsibility that accompanies this power requires a great deal of confidence and self care to continuously uphold. Like talented educators, in music, no diamond shines brighter than Lizzo. With messages of self-love, positivity, and the power of reframing, Lizzo’s music perfectly aligns to our need to ground our practice in similarly positive and self-affirming ideals. 

Let’s kick off our shoes, take a deep breath, and focus on you as we explore the music of Lizzo in this episode of GLG’s Pop Culture Playground.

Dearest Listeners,

As is befitting, we rejoice in the summer season and allow our minds to finally meander through many a hot, sunny day. Yet, the social season is upon us and the comings and goings of London High Society cannot be ignored!  We turn a keen eye to the numerous offspring of Dowager Viscountess Bridgerton and, in so doing, we all may hastily awaken our minds and connect something of value in a different, more scholarly world. Dear listener, rest assured if there is a connection, these podcasters shall uncover it! 

Art available on Etsy from MagicAroundShop

Hey, guild members! We hope you are finding some time to relax and play this summer. Welcome to our first of several minisodes for GLG’s 2nd installment of Summer Pop Culture Playground where you get the benefits of checking out a little bit for the summer while still having the opportunity to check in on fun, relevant topics in a game we like to call Six Degrees of Education. Today, we unpack the connections between what we know about education, leadership and learning and one of Disney’s recent films, Encanto, where la familia Madrigal drops earworm after musical earworm. Just when you thought we all finally were at the point where we stopped talking about Bruno, we couldn’t resist.

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When do you first remember being aware of your learning? Was it a particularly memorable lesson? Maybe just having the maturity to understand a complex topic? Whether we realize it or not, metacognition drives us all towards deeper, more ingrained learning. This episode, the 3 of us are doing what we do best: making metaphoric connections in order to round out this season 2 finale and warm up for our beloved summer Pop Culture Playground Series. Ready to take today’s subject and turn it “Inside Out?” you better believe here on the GLG we are…

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Hands tremble. Breath quickens. Feet tap. Beads of sweat halo the competitors’ brow. Sounds like a pretty high stakes situation- right? Olympics? Super Bowl? World Series? Baking… bread?

Let’s not sugarcoat this - We all experience these physical symptoms during high stress moments, and over the last few years, students and teachers alike are feeling the squeeze from these big emotions. While Social Emotional Learning (SEL) seems like the next big dirty word in education, in truth, SEL practices have been around for ages to help educators and students alike self-monitor and cope when stressful moments happen. After all, life is what you bake of it… and it’s our ability to regulate, know ourselves, and connect with others that makes it really sweet. And we have just the expert here to “proof it”  - coming up on the GLG.

Remember the dawn of the pandemic, when our lives were filled with nonstop fear and uncertainty? But amidst all chaos, many of us might remember the joy that came from that little web show “Some Good News” produced by John Krasinski.

We know it’s rough out there, but we could all use some good news of our own, and that’s why we are passing the mic to members of our PLN who are still finding ongoing joy in their work. In this episode the GLG is returning to its roots and keeping things in the family with our spotlight guest: elementary-educator-and-big-sister-to-our Emily, Katie Gabor!

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In this installment of the GLG’s Talk Nerdy to Me series, we connect with PD and Gamified-Learning Legend Stefanie Crawford to reflect on the joy that games bring to both teachers and students alike. Be sure to have some notes handy - you’ll definitely want to jot down a list of the games and order from your local game store. Enjoy!

Welcome to The Grounded Learners Guild’s four episode series, Talk Nerdy To Me.” In this series we connect with our listenership by passing the mic to members of our PLN who are finding ongoing joy in their work. In this episode we talk to sketchnote-extraordinaire and majestic starfish Dana Ladenburger to learn what brings her joy in her professional and personal life - and try our hand at our own sketch-themed game. Enjoy.

Photo by David Goldman on Unsplash

Remember the dawn of the pandemic, when our lives were filled with nonstop fear and uncertainty? But amidst all the terror and loss, many of us might remember the joy that came from that little web show “Some Good News” produced by John Krasinski.We know it’s rough out there, but we could all use some good news of our own! And that’s why the GLG is looking to connect with our listenership by passing the mic to members of our PLN who, even now, are finding ongoing joy in their work. In this episode we talk to Educator-Twitter-maestro and fellow-podcaster Don Sturm to learn what brings him joy in his professional and personal life.

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

Remember when we refused to talk about “Ted Lasso” character Rebecca Welton when we did our Lasso mini-episode? Well, that was intentional. Rebecca as a character offers simply too many connections to the idea of redemptive leadership to cover within those 20 minute norms, so we’re devoting this full-length episode to Rebecca- and leaders everywhere- to help you hop in the perfect pedi-cab to lead you down the road to redemptive leadership.