This is the second half of our fourth interview with Gary Gray Jr. (@garyrgrayjr) and we asked him how he has curated his classroom libraries with books that his students can see themselves in. Whenever we are in need of book recommendation or have questions on how we can be more culturally responsive in our teaching Gary is one of the first people we reach out to.  He always uses the metaphor of WINDOWS, MIRRORS, and DOORS when describing the books that students need. The need books that are mirrors they can see themselves in, books that are windows to see the world through, and doors for the to step through to grow in their understanding of others.

Throw in a little NBA talk and this episode is everything we hoped it would be!

Thanks again to our brother Gary Gray Jr. for spending time with us and thank you for listening!

Find Gary on Twitter, Youtube and Instagram @garyrgrayjr!

To learn more about Lighthouse Educator Development and the projects we're pursuing head to theledproject.com!

Over the last 15+ years Joe Beckman has spoken in educational settings all over the world with one simple mission… to reclaim human connection. We were so lucky to have the chance to talk with him about his new book JUST LOOK UP!

Just look up. It is amazing how easy it can be to forget to look up and appreciate what we have as teachers. It is especially true this year that we have gotten bogged down in our classrooms, virtual or otherwise, and lost sight of our purpose. That is why we were so fortunate to have Joe Beckman on the podcast this week to talk about classroom culture, authenticity and his new book JUST LOOK UP! 

We also got to talk about how to make connection the plate that all our other plates sit on, striving towards community culture in through community buy in, and and how we can stay focused on our values.  

https://justlookupbook.com/

https://joebeckman.com/

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We are happy to share with you part 1 of a 2 part interview with our good friend Gary Gray Jr. We are so blessed to call Gary and his wife Narin family and to have interviewed him four times for the podcast. On this episode we caught up with Gary for the first time since the summer of 2019 to discuss with him his move from Singapore to Manila, what it has been like to be off of Instagram, and how he has built a thriving professional development community on Twitter.

Once again this conversation centers around helping teachers find their authenticity and voice so that we can help students do the same thing. Gary strives to make every student feel seen and be the curator of their own learning. It got super interesting when we talked about whether the traditional role of the teacher as "content expert" has become outdated when our students can fact check us with Alexa, Siri, and Google.

In the second part of the episode we'll be talking about how to create a library that is inclusive and so much more!

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Welcome back the Value Adds Value Podcast! On this episode we talked with Tabatha Wesley, who is currently a math instructional coach in Georgia, but has lived and taught in many different places. We wanted to have her on the podcast to talk about how she uses TikTok and teach math, but that conversation will have to wait because we got to talking and things went a different direction. This episode is about how to embed your content into the culture of the students. It stemmed from her answer on why she started making TikToks and how they have made a difference for her kids.

Here's what else we talked about:

We hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and be sure to go follow Tabatha on Instagram and Tiktok!

Instagram and TikTok: @tabwesley

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This is throwback to conversation we had in the summer of 2019 about building relationships that influence students to do the right things versus using authority to get what you want. It seemed relevant to us given the challenges that many of us are facing building relationships this year over virtual, social distanced, and with far less interactions.

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Value Adds Value Podcast! We loved being in the same room when record podcasts and in this episode we talk about how our relationships with students impact the leaders they will become. If you listen to this podcast you know that we believe there is nothing more important for a teacher to succeed than their ability to build, maintain and leverage their relationships. Building relationships is the easy part, maintain them is more difficult, but being able to leverage them is the most difficult challenge for teachers. When you have built and maintained relationships with kids you still are using some degree of authority to get them to do things, but when you have built relationships that are deep enough to leverage you then are able to move kids through influence rather than authority. If you want to hear more about what we mean take a listen to this episode, and if you love it please hit the subscribe button!!

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Danna Thomas is an educator in Baltimore who was the founder of The Happy Teacher Revolution. After seven years in the classroom Danna realized the need to make the health and happiness of teachers a priority and started her organization that now has more the 31,000 members. The Happy Teacher Revolution is a network of teachers – a network that serves as a support system for teachers who are struggling with the shame, blame, guilt and difficulties of balancing an incredibly demanding profession with their own sense of self and happiness.

We brought Danna on the podcast to talk about creating our own sense of self and happiness and it was one of the most fun and inspiring interviews we have had. It was just a real conversation about the negative impacts our emotions can have on students (like how our stress creates stress in them), how pursuing hobbies and passions can change our attitudes, and how we can strive for work life integration.

We hope you enjoy this episode of Value Adds Value and if you don't mind hit that SUBSCRIBE button while you're at it!

Find Danna on social media @happyteacherrevolution or learn more at her website!

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It is crazy to us that we are approaching our 300th podcast episode and that we continue to get to talk with amazing educators like Shannon Cunningham Lanning! Shannon is known to many teachers as @primaryshannonigans on Instagram and provides a ton of resources through her website http://primaryshannonigans.com/. Shannon is an elementary literacy specialist in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who joined us for a conversation on what it takes to create safe spaces for students in 2020 and how we can communicate the needs of this school year to students in ways that are age appropriate. 

Here are a few other things we talked about:

Thank you to everyone for tuning into to this episode of Value Adds Value and if you liked this episode please share it out!!

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This part 2 of our conversation with Lauren Larson (@structuredspecialed on Instagram) who is a K-6 SEL Specialist in the Phoenix area. Prior to that job she was a self contained Elementary SPED teacher and an ABA Therapist. We talked with Lauren about how dangerous it is for teachers to try keeping up with the Joneses. We had seen a post on Lauren's IG about how teachers should strive for function in their classrooms over having things that look cute and we asked her about it during this part of the podcast. It got us into a conversation about how now more than ever teachers are seeing things on the internet highlight reels of people and thinking that will work for them in their teaching. This episode is ultimately about how we stay true to ourselves as teachers whether we are teaching from home or on campus. 

Here are some of the other things we talked about:

1. The desire of teachers and schools to rush into content.

2. The 2 minutes for 10 days method.

3. How to equip parents and caretakers with resources to support students.

4. Setting boundaries for your time and energy.

Please be sure to go follow Lauren on Instagram and Facebook @structuredspecialed!

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Lauren Larson is SEL K-6 Behavior Specialist in Phoenix who has a background as an ABA Therapist and Special Education teacher. We brought  Lauren on to have a conversation about what SEL looks like in a school year that looks different than any other year we've had before. In part one of this conversation we had with Lauren how her background as an ABA therapist and how she was inspired by the inaction of the teachers she worked with in regards to using strategies to help her students. After getting her Master's in Special Ed. she worked in self contained rooms before taking this job working specifically and building SEL strategies into behavior plans. We also began a conversation about what great teachers do for students who have experienced trauma and how to build on the relationships between families and teachers. We hope you enjoy this episode and be sure to go follow Lauren on Instagram @structuredspecialed!

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Hey Teacher... YOU ARE ENOUGH!!

Hey Teacher... YOU ARE ENOUGH!!

Hey Teacher... YOU ARE ENOUGH!!

And to prove it we'll give you some reasons why on this episode of Value Adds Value!

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