We Teach Inspired!!

So twice a week we have meetings at 5:00am to continue the work we started six years ago. Most days the are not recorded, but more and more we are deciding to record every session because there always seems to be unexpected gems in every session. This is one of those sessions where we didn't do any of the work we set out to, but had a powerful discussion on the cultures we are working on in our classrooms! We hope you enjoy it!

To learn more about our work head over to theledproject.com!

Follow us on social media @valueaddsvalue and @its.wil.law.iii

If you want to sign up for the Educators 2 Educators New Year Teacher Reboot click the link below!

https://e2e.mykajabi.com/a/18734/Q8mR9myu

To try out Nearpod for free click the link below!

go.nearpod.com/valueaddsvalue

Are you trying just to 'get through' to the holidays? Are you at the end of your rope? If you are you are not alone in that, but we want to help you get back on track with this episode of the Value Adds Value Podcasts with our friend and mentor Carrie Conover! Carrie is the founder of Educators 2 Educators (educators2educators.com) and the New Year Teachers Reboot Conference! After ten years in the Chicago Public Schools and another decade in the Ed. Tech world she branched out on her own two years ago with a podcast that led to the conference. We have been so grateful to her for including us in her events and for the constant advice she gives teachers on how to better themselves. We're delighted to share that with you here! As she puts it, "my mission is to take care of teachers and teaching." In this episode she gives great advice on how to grow through your struggles and explains how teacher can benefit from her FREE online conference! We hope that you will sign up for the conference and maybe check out our session HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS!!

If you want to register for the New Year Teachers Reboot click the link below!!

https://e2e.mykajabi.com/a/18734/Q8mR9myu

Go follow Carrie's work on instagram!

instagram.com/educators2educators

We had planned to release a new episode with our friend Gary Gray Jr. today, but the stars didn't align for us to make that happen. In preparation for that episode which will be coming soon we wanted to share one of the powerful conversations we had with him this year!

Over the course of this 2.5 year journey of creating a podcast we've been blessed with so many new relationships, but the one we have with Gary Gray Jr. is at the top of the list of most valued! Not only is he an incredible teacher who is providing amazing content to teachers across the world, but he is genuinely one of the most caring people we've ever met. He has continually been willing to be a sounding board for us and has provide perspective and wisdom at every turn. We hope you enjoy the first part of our conversation with Gary on the burdens of being a content creator as an educator, his move to Manila, and how we can grow in our practice of being culturally responsive as educators. 

We're sure you already follow Gary, but please go subscribe to his Youtube channel!! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUY2yhkrA78P6tfXV0Zfy8g If you are interested in getting PD hours on your own terms and improving your relationships at school then please visit patreon.com/valueaddsvalue to how you can become a part of Value U! That is what we are calling our online training platform where you can grow as a part of a community and have access to our network of educators!

Well it's that time of year when it's dark most of the day. It's dark when we wake up and for a lot of us it's dark when we get home. We know it can be draining to be cold and deprived of sunlight, but we believe its a time of year as teachers that we need to take advantage of our opportunities strengthen our relationships and teaching practice. In this episode we introduce our topic over the next couple months which is how to thrive going into the holidays. We know that it can be so easy for us to coast through this time of the year, but when we do we make that latter parts of the year more challenging than they need to be. The best thing we can with our upcoming time off is reflect on our year to this point and strategize on how to get better in the time we have between Thanksgiving and Christmas break. We hope you enjoy it!

If you want to try out Nearpod for free click the link below!

go.nearpod.com/valueaddsvalue

To sign up for the Educators 2 Educators New Year Teachers Reboot Conference click the link below!

https://www.educators2educators.com/nyr

Welcome back for part 2 of our interview with Brandy Gratten (@brandygratten on TW and IG) on the power of reflection for teachers! If you haven't listen to the first part please go back and do so because hearing her story of starting her reflection practice as a college athlete and having it carry her into her adult life was so powerful. We felt so fortunate to be a part of this interview and to be able to call Brandy a friend! During our talk she lays a few concrete steps teachers can take to improve their teaching practice through reflection. No matter what your current position in the education space you can improve your practice through reflection. We hope you enjoy it!!

Be sure to follow Brandy on Social Media and please follow us and reach out @valueaddsvalue!

Also if you are looking for other podcasts check out theledproject.com/hub!

And if you want to try Nearpod for FREE head over to go.nearpod.com/valueaddsvalue!!

We were very fortunate to get to see Brandy Gratten present at The AIE Conference in October about how they engaged in building culture with their students. We are even more grateful that she gave of her time to record two episodes of the Value Adds Value on the power of reflection! We loved getting to hear the story of how she started her reflective practice as a college basketball player and how it still carries her through her teaching practice.  As an assistant principal at YMLA in Austin, Texas, she still takes notes on her days and reflects on how she can improve as an educator. We hope you enjoy the first half of our interview with Brandy Gratten and be sure to check in next week for the second half! 

You find Brandy on Twitter: @brandygratten

If you want to try out Nearpod for free go to go.nearpod.com/valueaddsvalue!

Thank you for checking out this episode of the Value Adds Value Podcast!  On episode 8 of season 2 we reflect on the first part of our school year and how we have grown from where we were last year. Our relationship developed out of the reflections we shared as teaching teammates and over the last six years we have each played the role of mentor and mentee. Before we discuss the need for teachers to reflect on their practice we felt the need to demonstrate we reflect on our own! We hope you enjoy this episode and that it inspires you to do the same!

If you haven't please hit the subscribe button and leave a review! It would mean the world to us! 

Also click the link below to try Nearpod for free!!

go.nearpod.com/valueaddsvalue

With the release of the Teach Better Team book with thought we'd throw it back to our conversation with Rae Hughart! During this conversation we talked about themed internships and how to create buy in with our students.

If you want to buy the Teach Better book click the link below!

https://www.teachbetter.com/product/teachbetter/

As we move into October the focus of the podcast is shifting to the power of being a reflective practitioner as a teacher and what better place to start than our weekend on the River Walk! We had the incredible good fortune to have two of our favorite conferences line up over a three day span this past week! We were able to attend The AIE Conference and Teach Your Heart Out at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio.

We were able to present two sessions at AIE that we are very proud of: Old School Strategies, New School Tools and Building Digital Character.

When then had some of our favorite humans on the planet pour into us at what was our 4th Teach Your Heart Out Conference!

We encourage you to attend both and for more information you can click the links below:

http://aieconference.net

https://www.teachyourheartoutcon.com/

And to try Nearpod for free check the link below!

go.nearpod.com/valueaddsvalue

On this episode we talk with Nasser Muhammad of Lifting as We Climb an educational consulting firm with the mission to provide educational services to schools, students and parents in a three pronged community approach which creates a hub of responsibility for all involved. Thank you so much to Liz Kleinrock for the introduction!

On this episode we talked about how teachers how teachers can discover their implicit biases, his view on personalized learning and how he strives to better serve our black boys who are in special education. We were so thrilled to meet Nasser and we look forward to working with him in the future!

Please be sure to check out the work Lifting As We Climb is doing!