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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Welcome back to the podcast everyone!! Thank you again for being a part of this journey that we are on. This journey that has introduced us to some amazing people like Liz Kleinrock! We had Liz on our podcast three years ago when we first started and we are thrilled to have her back on to talk about her journey as an educator, her work in Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist education and her new book START HERE, START NOW: A Guide to Antibias and Antiracist Work in Your School Community. 

Here are a few topics we covered:

If you would like to buy Liz's book you can head over to her website https://www.teachandtransform.org/ or find her on Instagram @teachandtransform!

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We are back with part 2 of our conversation with Viv Eliot!! On this episode we talk with Viv about what she hopes that we have learned from the pandemic, how as k-12 educators we can support the students entering higher ed, and what you should consider before entering graduate studies! We are so thankful for Viv perspective and wisdom and hope you'll take time to check out her work as a professor and poet!!

As always thanks for listening to VALUE ADDS VALUE!

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Sometimes life brings you people you wouldn't expect. Like when you are doing a wine tasting on your honeymoon and your server happens to be a fellow educator. That happened to Kyle and his wife on their honeymoon and it brought Viv Eliot onto the Value Adds Value Podcast. Viv is an adjunct college writing professor and a parent to two girls, so we brought her on the podcast to talk about her experiences this year as both and a teacher and parent. We hope you enjoy listening to her story!!

Here are some of the topics we cover: 

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Thank you for providing us a platform to have these conversation amongst ourselves. On this episode we continued our conversation about what our responsibility is as teachers to make space for conversations with our students and how to do that within the context of our teaching positions. Here are some of the topics of our conversation:

Thanks as always for your support! Have a great week!

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As we work to process the last few weeks of the Derek Chauvin trial and two more instances of police killing people of color we are trying to be understanding of the needs of our students. We understand that all of our students have different needs at this time just the same as we both do. After a conversation about what our schools were doing to address the social unrest Wilkie reminded me of what Yoda said, "do or not, there is no try.'' 

In this podcast we started the conversation of what it means to be trying to do the best for our kids versus doing what is best for our kids and it led us to this question at the heart of our next episode-- are moving on and moving forward the same thing? 

Here are a few of the highlights from this episode:

Thanks for listening as we do the work!!

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We had the great pleasure of meeting Lauren Roig on the Teach Your Heart Out Cruise and it was such a pleasure to reconnect with her! We found her journey to the classroom fascinating and her experiences truly shape her as an educator.  Lauren is an 8th grade ELA teacher in the suburbs of Houston who has visited 47 different countries, has a degree in International Relations and a Master's in International Business and had an internship at the U.S. Embassy in London! Add three years a flight attendant on international flights and you understand the dynamic experiences she brings to her classroom.

Lauren's message to students, "You can do anything you want if you're willing to work hard enough and understand that your path will be different than the path that others take." Much of what we talked with Lauren about was how her dad instilled in her the idea that anything is possible if you'll work hard enough for it. She reminds us to be careful of how we speak of challenges as teachers because our students are listening. Lauren challenges us to help kids break free from their thinking paths in order to see their roads to success!

If you want to connect with Lauren for teaching advice or travel advice find her on Instagram @therealtravelingteacher!

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Does anyone else out there have a fear of contacting parents or families? Not sure why it seems so scary especially when the vast majority of parents are super supportive of their students. I know for me I sometimes get caught up with the feeling that parent contacts are just one more thing I need to check off my list rather than something that helps me create another connection to my students. I talk about that a little bit on this episode along with home it feels to be back from spring break!

Much Love, Kyle

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As we return from spring break and start the race to the finish line of the school year it can be easy to feel a sense of urgency. We have both felt that fear that we will run out of time, so we try to get in as much as possible. The problem with this is that it can cloud our judgement on what is important versus what is urgent. The shorter our time gets with our students the more we need to lean into the things that are important over those that are urgent. 

What are the most important things you want to teach your kids to end the year!! Hit us up on social media and let us know.

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Welcome to Value Adds Value! We are thrilled to introduce the newest season of the podcast in which we will be focusing exclusively on relationships. In this episode we discuss why discourse is required for relationships and how it seems to be more challenging than ever.  Let's define it.

Discourse- a formal discussion of a topic in speech or writing

We focused on the word formal for our discussion and how formalities are lacking in the current political and social climate in our country. We hear a lot on TV and in social media that the "other side" isn't willing to listen or change their perspective." Or we hear in within our social circles that you just don't talk about race, politics, religion or finances. These are just excuses people use because they don't want to have their point of view challenged or feel uncomfortable.

This can't be us as teachers. We can not be people who shun discourse. We can't be afraid to be called out for our shortcomings or be unwilling to listen to the perspectives of others because the discourse we are running from is the one with our kids. If we don't teach our kids what discourse looks like who will?? If we don't model discourse who will?? If we don't get out of our bubbles and get uncomfortable our generation will miss the opportunity to change education in America!!

LET'S GO FAM!!

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