Coffee Break Classroom: Brewed for Higher Ed

Ben and Amanda kick off Episode 5 with some fun news – They are top 119 in “how to” podcasts through Apple. This is a wild fact considering that when this was recorded, they have been only live for less than a week! As long as no welders or basket weavers start podcasts, they might even start climbing the ranking. Getting into the core of the episode, Ben and Amanda are doing something new! Every...

After discussing the need for a skip intro button and... did Amanda say she wanted to eat a baby? Uh, anyway, the syllabus is often the first thing that students see for a course. It sets the tone for both the class and how they see us as instructors. How do we make a syllabus that brings students in? Amanda and Ben unpack the syllabus. They first discuss how you communicate why the class matters,...

In this caffeine-fueled episode, Ben and Amanda jump into the world of formative assessment—what it is, why it matters, and how it can level up your classroom without adding to your grading load. But this isn’t your average edu-chat. Things get competitive as they play a round of Formative Assessment Scattergories, going head-to-head to see who knows more assessment techniques under pressure. Alon...

In the second episode of Coffee Break Classroom, hosts Ben & Amanda pull back the curtain and share the personal journeys that brought them into the world of community college teaching. From winding career paths to those “whaaaattt?!” moments in the classroom, they reflect on what drew them to higher education—and what keeps them coming back. They also spill the beans on why they launched the...

Welcome to Coffee Break Classroom, where Ben and Amanda—two community college teachers who genuinely love what they do—chat about all things teaching over a good cup of coffee. In their very first episode, The Hook, they dive into the magic of grabbing students’ attention from the start. Whether it’s an unexpected fact, a wild question, or a real-world connection that makes students go, “Wait, wha...