09 Feb 2020
How to Keep Your Sub Days From Being a Total Wash

How to Keep Your Sub Days From Being a Total Wash

My first day in the classroom was as a sub. I went in with ambitions to change young peoples lives; to see the student who isn't seen, to hear the student who isn't heard. The sub plan read as follows: "have the students work on odd problems on page 114 in the workbook." There were about 4 different workbooks amidst the pile of papers on her desk and I don't know which one she was referring to. Needless to say amidst my complete lack of classroom management skills and lack of direction, the day was a total wash and one…
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31 Jan 2020
How to Celebrate Multiculturalism in Your Class…Even If All of Your Students Are White

How to Celebrate Multiculturalism in Your Class…Even If All of Your Students Are White

A multicultural classroom is a celebration of the ethnic and racial groups in your classroom, particularly those that have been historically under represented. How do you do that in a meaningful way, whether you have a variety of cultures in your classroom or you teach in a predominately white school? My guest today is Roberto Germán, director of middle school and creator of the educational consulting group 'The Multicultural Classroom.' EPISODE NOTES In today's episode we explore: the differences between multiculturalism, a multicultural classroom, and social justiceRoberto's journey from an extremely poor and under-performing school in Lawrence, MA to one…
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24 Jan 2020
Have Students Make Your Coffee…And Other Class Job Ideas

Have Students Make Your Coffee…And Other Class Job Ideas

Stop doing things in your classroom that your students can do. In this episode I share all of my classroom jobs and what you need to think through as you develop jobs in your own classroom. Class jobs in and of themselves have tremendous value in creating a positive classroom culture, building responsibility in students, and saving YOU time as the teacher. My classroom jobs are part of a larger classroom economy system. If you want to dive into how I do that, check out the course I created for teachers linked below: 'How to Teach Kids About Money' course…
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17 Jan 2020
10 Grading Time Hacks

10 Grading Time Hacks

It's good to be doing the podcast again after some time off over the holidays! When I got back to school, I led a PD session for my colleagues on how to save time grading and thought it'd make for a valuable podcast. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro3:47 - Update on the podcast6:17 - Why grading takes so long7:28 - Hack 1 | Grade fewer things10:23 - Hack 2 | Have shorter assessments11:52 - Hack 3 | Skip written feedback14:55 - Hack 4 | Batch your grading16:58 - Hack 6 | Take assessment yourself (by hand)19:05 - Hack 7 | Use…
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28 Oct 2019
Screaming at Kids, Comparing Students, and Creating a Self-Sustaining Classroom | Q&A Show

Screaming at Kids, Comparing Students, and Creating a Self-Sustaining Classroom | Q&A Show

How do you handle the noise level in your classroom and get your students attention without screaming? What do you do about students who just refuse to study for tests? How do you create a self-sustaining classroom? We answer these and more in this first Q&A show! EPISODE NOTES In this Q&A show, we discuss (timestamps included): 0:51 - What are the top three books that guide you in building a self-sustaining classroom culture?8:37 - As a first year robotics teacher, do you compare one class with another as a way to motivate students? In Brazil, if one class is falling behind another, it's common to…
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28 Sep 2019
How Do You Teach Creativity?

How Do You Teach Creativity?

EPISODE SUMMARY Working with students on creative projects is challenging. What exactly is creativity and how do you teach it? What role does structure and deadlines play in the creative process? How do we guide students in collaborating together on creative work? What's the importance of self-assessment and peer assessments? How subjective or objective should our assessment as teachers be? EPISODE NOTES A conversation on Facebook with my friend Jake led me to ponder the nature of teaching kids how to do creative work. Jake Ritter is a broadcast journalism teacher and John Mulvany is an artist and art teacher…
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29 Aug 2019
Should You Start Your Own Teacher Podcast?

Should You Start Your Own Teacher Podcast?

EPISODE SUMMARY Podcasting has served as an amazing avenue for reflection on my own educational practice, both from using classroom audio and sharing it as well as getting the opportunity to sit with master educators to talk with them about their craft. Teacher blogging started to boom about 10 years ago and it's been said that podcasting is the now the new blogging. So should you start your own teacher podcast? And if so, how do you do it? EPISODE NOTES Chris Nesi and Jeff Bradbury are two of the biggest names in educational podcasting. Chris is the creator of…
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01 Aug 2019
3 New Things I’m Trying This School Year

3 New Things I’m Trying This School Year

Hello all. This is my first written blog post in quite some time. Most of my posts have been sharing of all my other media (YouTube videos, podcasts, etc.) I'd like to spend a little more time on written work again this year. A few years ago I was blogging every week, sometimes reflecting on the week, other times just sharing thoughts about some topic in education. It's a different medium than video or audio as I found out when I was trying to think of video ideas a few months ago and I decided to look at some of…
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28 Jul 2019
Giving Students Voice Through Socratic Seminars

Giving Students Voice Through Socratic Seminars

EPISODE SUMMARY: Having undistracted conversations about important ideas is where some of the most meaningful learning happens. It was the preferred method of education, all the way back to the ancient Greeks. Unfortunately, most education today is focused on student acquiring knowledge rather than exploring ideas. I chat with an educator today who is taking a different approach and and utilizing socratic seminars to give each student a voice and provide opportunities for them to explore important ideas. EPISODE NOTES: Join me as I sit in on Chalimar Chieza's 9th grade World Geography class as they dive into a socratic…
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