The Teachers' Classroom

Schools aren't the only place where trauma is studied, unpacked, and used as a new lens through which to view human psychology and behavior. DeCruit is a nonprofit whose mission is to help veterans work through their trauma with the help of Shakespeare. Matt's conversation with Dawn Stern illustrates just how much of what happens in schools to help students with trauma can work throughout their lifetime.

You know how every once in a while you cross paths with someone and you wonder why you’ve never met this person before? In this episode of The Teachers’ Classroom, we are going to take a slight detour so that I can introduce you to Kim Darche who is definitely someone you should know.

Anger is one of the most common human emotions and one that educators often face from other people, whether parents, colleagues, or community members. Understanding what anger is from a physiological standpoint, how we receive anger, and then how we can best deal with the anger of others helps us to maintain control of our lives and sanity.

The teacher, substitute teacher, and administrator shortage continues to cause classes to be cancelled or filled by unqualified people. Dr. Jim Rosborg, long-time educator in Illinois, discusses the history of teacher certification as well as the poor choices that have been made. This is a republishing of the most-listened to episode on this podcast with an update on developments since the original publication.

As educators empower students with personalized learning and problem-based learning, we need to make sure that their opinion matters. In this episode, Desiree Alexander defines Student Voice, how it differs from Student Choice, and how teachers and schools can start hearing their students' voices.

Digital Equity in schools involves many different conversations, from big-picture politics to families and their access to - and knowledge about - technology used for learning. Dr. Beth Holland from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and Mindy Fiscus from the Illinois Learning Technology Center discuss what digital equity conversations are going on at both the national and state level before we dig down to talk about what schools and teachers can do to ensure equity within their classrooms.

Sometimes the people you meet by being a Connected Educator help you with a single question. Others remain long-term collaborators, like Rae Fearing with Matt Weld's NoWorksheetWeek project. In this episode, Rae and Matt talk about teaching, leadership, technology, NGSS, Google Innovators, and more.

Positive relationships between students and teachers solve both discipline and instructional challenges while making the classroom experience even more rewarding for everyone. Kiera Vargas gives concrete methods on how to form positive relationships with students.

In a continuation of our 'What Do They Do?" series, host Matt Weld of TeachIllinois talks to two IL school superintendents about their roles and responsibilities. Their answers may not be what you'd expect.

Two college students talk about how they teach forgiveness - what it is and steps to getting there - to incarcerated youth. They discuss the different forms of forgiveness including re-forgiveness, something we all need to practice.