What Do We Know? A Podcast for Teachers

The second in a series, this episode is exactly what it sounds like: a highly critical examination of what it was like to teach in 2020. I talked to admin, teachers, students, and even my school's psychologist about the visible and invisible impacts of the pandemic on instruction, student life, and the future of teaching.

Also featured in this episode is some food for thought from the new book A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, by Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider, which you should all go find and read immediately.

Special thanks, again, to Cole Harding, Jessica Post, Trip Sargent, and Willow Mason.

The first in a series, this episode is exactly what it sounds like: a highly critical examination of what it was like to teach in 2020. I talked to admin, teachers, students, and even my school's psychologist about the visible and invisible impacts of the pandemic on instruction, student life, and the future of teaching. 

Special thanks to Cole Harding, Jessica Post, Trip Sargent, and Willow Mason.

Dan and I talk about our districts’ respective remote learning plans and explore the logistical, instructional, and personal obstacles we’ve had to navigate as we try to do our jobs.

In this episode, I review Dana Goldstein’s book The Teacher Wars, and I talk to Sam Long, a science instructor at my school who is developing a gender inclusive approach to teaching biology.

Episode notes

Sam's most recent Chalkbeat articles:

Disrespected and excluded as a teen, this transgender teacher wants a different high school experience for today’s students

I’m a trans educator who’s had to fight for my place in school. Here’s how you could help, and learn from, teachers like me.

Sam's resource page for biology teachers:

genderinclusivebiology.com

In this episode, I talk with Jonathan Wolfer -- a Regis University professor and the principal of Douglass Elementary School in Boulder Valley -- about educational policy, leadership philosophy, and some of the more unique aspects of Colorado's education scene. 

Links to important things:

TABOR

The negative factor (there's a great breakdown about halfway through the article)

SB-191

In the first episode of season three, I talk to Ying Ong -- an English language acquisition teacher from Cherry Creek Schools -- about how her racial consciousness has impacted her work in education and the many ways that dominant cultures influence public education, often for the worse. Also -- there's new theme music.

Links to things we talk about:

Courageous Conversations

Crucial Accountability

The Wallace Foundation

On June 12, 2019, I had the tremendous honor of delivering the commencement address at George C. Marshall High School's graduation ceremony. It feels a little self-aggrandizing to put that speech on this platform, but it's a love letter to my former students and to my son. I worked hard on it, and I wanted to share it.

I am thankful for so many things. Marshall's administrators helped arrange my flights and in general made it possible for me to be there. My friends picked me up and dropped me off at Metro stops and airports and everywhere in between. And of course, the students of Marshall High School -- you are ever so gracious, and I already miss you.

This was the best day.

I talk about my five key experiences and takeaways from the 2018-19 school year: school culture, grief, technology, curriculum, and writing.

There's no interview this time, and while it's May and it very much feels like the end of a sequence, there will probably be a couple of bonus pods over the summer featuring some grad school action, so stay tuned.

Music credit: "Thrum Room" by Podington Bear

In this episode, Jessica and I talk about her Multicultural Perspectives Class -- a cohort of students that works to address systemic problems within the education system, and our school specifically. And I talk about a bunch of random things that have been on my mind since it's been three months since we had a pod.

Links and such.

smashSMARD: https://www.smashsmard.org/

Colorado Youth Congress: https://coyouthcongress.org/

Sources of Strength: https://sourcesofstrength.org/

The Absurd Structure of High School (Medium): https://medium.com/s/story/the-insane-structure-of-high-school-762fea58fe62

Music credits: "Thrum Room" by Podington Bear