The Broken Copier

It’s a new year, and for many of us, Q3 is either starting or has already started. Marcus and Jim are excited to get back to recording after holiday travel, a little bit of the sniffles, and a whole lot of grading. They talk about what the end of their first semesters looked like, and what they wish it could look like instead. Want to be featured on the next episode? You can leave us an audio mess...

A new AI writing tool, ChatGPT, has K12 teachers and college professors alike scratching their heads and revisiting a fundamental question: Why do we need to write stuff? Derek Thompson’s recent article in The Atlantic has explored this question, and while the professional world might be excited at the possibilities this opens up for their bottom line, teachers are now suddenly faced with the pros...

How will AI writing tools impact education? When is writing original? How should teachers incorporate–or avoid–what seems to be an inevitable push towards faster, better, and more nuanced writing tools like AI language generators? Teachers are constantly balancing the world we live in against the world our students will inhabit. We’re often quick to lean into fancy new technologies in service of p...

How many new buzzwords have you had to memorize in the past few years? How many times have you had to… um… tweak… a lesson plan to ensure that it does, in fact, demonstrate XYZ? Especially when the person looking for XYZ has little (read: no) context for your classroom culture, systems, and goals. New buzzwords and acronyms fly around schools all the time. Sometimes they can be a useful way to get...

How many students are allowed out of the classroom? What happens when you only let one student out at a time, but another teacher lets two? Should there be a difference between going out to your locker and going out to visit the nurse? What if one student is out in the bathroom, but another student suddenly needs to go fix their contact lens? This week, we talk about the idea of collective efficac...

Who is responsible when students fail? If students aren’t meeting the bar for learning, what should the response be from the teacher? What is the appropriate balance of accountability and opportunity, especially for taking a risk, when the stakes are so high for students? Now that they’re both treading water a little bit better with the start of a new school year, Marcus and Jim are happy to be ba...

Jim has had students for just over a week, and Marcus is getting ready to go back. They debrief how the first few days of school have been, talk about some tough in-the-moment decisions teachers have to make on a daily basis, and Marcus gives Jim a hard time about his beloved practice of covering textbooks in brown paper bags. Are you a textbook fan? Let us know! Jim apologizes for accidentally re...

As another first day of school approaches, Marcus puts Jim on the spot with a new game: Wise or Unwise. Marcus shares some common advice that we’ve all heard about starting a new school year, and Jim shares his hot takes about them. They circle back to the omnipresent jeans debate, and Jim talks a little bit about his penchant for conspiracy theories. Thanks to Courtney Milavec for graphic design,...

Jim is able to sit down with one of his old friends from the St. Lawrence University admissions office, Mx. Sam Gradess. Sam has worked in education all over the world, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Afghanistan. Currently, they are a school leader at South Bronx Classical Charter School, serving students in grades K-8. Sam talks about how their experience abroad has shaped their work in Ne...

It seems like every summer, teachers have to go through the same song and dance routine around standardized testing, what the numbers actually mean, and whether they made any impact whatsoever that year. Fun, right? Marcus & Jim sit down and talk through how they process getting test scores back every year, and offer up what they hope are some healthy ways to process the scores without feeling lik...

Welcome to The Broken Copier, a conversation about teaching. Marcus and Jim are excited to get back into recording after taking some time to redesign a bunch of aspects about the podcast. We think we’ve got some good systems up and running, and we’re excited to learn and grow as the show evolves. In this episode, we took some time to discuss the new law in Arizona, which allows people to teach eve...

During teacher appreciation week, Jim published this essay called "Build the Compound." Marcus points out that compounds aren't exactly where young, idealistic, fresh new teachers want to spend their time, and for an essay in which the central thesis is that you should quit your job to be a classroom teacher, might not have been the smartest title choice. Jim agrees, and would like to take some ti...

Mr. P is back! After strenuous negotiation with our record label, Brandon was granted paternity leave from the pod to help care for his new baby girl! On behalf of the entire @realPDpod family, we'd like to say congratulations to the entire Piasecki family - especially to the newest big brother in our fanbase, Langston. In the midst of balancing teacher life with dad life, Jim and Brandon are fina...

Marcus & Jim sit down to talk about The Great Education Resignation. Teachers are quitting mid year, creating viral social media content about how to transition out of the classroom, and we're just getting the sense that after this school year is over, a lot of teachers are going to leave their jobs. We talk through how that's impacting our classrooms right now, what we think some of the cause...

After a short brush with viral Twitter fame, Jim heard from all kinds of different people. One of them was Joseph Maffey, who didn't email about the infamous bus tweet, but rather to let Jim know that not only had he listened to the podcast, but that he actually liked it! The two teachers are finally able to connect and talk about their classrooms, what's been going on in Joseph's district around...

As many state legislatures are drafting and passing legislation aimed at requiring teachers to be more transparent about their curriculum, especially out of fears of indoctrination and the idea that teachers are "teaching Critical Race Theory," Marcus & Jim dive head on into a conversation about how they approach politics in the classroom. Should teachers talk about politics with students? Whe...

Jim and Marcus sit down with Dr. Chris Jones to talk about his run for Governor of Arkansas. After a viral campaign launch video that took Twitter by storm (currently with 5.3 million views), Dr. Jones has been clear that education in Arkansas is a top priority in his campaign. He's got a tough road ahead of him: he's running against Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former White House Press Secretary for P...

Jim and Marcus debrief the recent report from The Teacher Salary Project, "Teacher Salaries and Teacher Shortages: The View from the Classroom." They walk through their reactions and experiences around compensation in both rural and urban contexts, and discuss the role they think salary plays in teacher retention from both a systemic and personal lens. Since they recorded the episode on Dr. Martin...

Marcus & Jimmy catch up after all the hustle & bustle of the holidays, and discuss how they're thinking about their jobs in the midst of some really serious questions emerging about the relationship we should have with work itself. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Jim interviews Matt Wright, the Superintendent of the Marked Tree School District. Matt was Jim's principal when he started teaching in 2011, and has been a significant mentor for him throughout his career. In this episode, Matt shares some insight into how he led his district through the transitions around shifts to remote learning during the pandemic, and how he approached some critical decision...

Jim talks with his former Master's thesis advisor, Dr. Patrick Comstock, about his own journey in education and some of his current research on mindfulness in the classroom. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Jim & Marcus return to the conversation about pivoting from remote instruction. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Jimmy, Brandon, and Marcus talk about their goals and mindsets as they go back in person into an uncertain school year. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Jim reconnects with his old college friend and track teammate, Whitney Koch, to talk about her journey in the classroom. Whitney dives into her own process of discovering her love of teaching a few years into her teaching career, some of the people who helped her along the way, and her current efforts teaching high schoolers about sexual health, identity, relationships, and wellness. They also dis...

Hosts Jimmy and Brandon dive deeper into their remote learning discussion (since there's a lot to talk about). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com