Teach Me, Teacher

Hello everyone! Coming off the major release of my spoken word poem THESE KIDS, where I say the line, "I'm tired of hearing ABOUT these kids, I want to hear from them..." I decided to do just that on this episode of the Teach Me, Teacher podcast. I sat down with one of my school's top students and discussed with her what it was really like to be an 8th grader. Along with this, we covered: Do phone...

Hello everyone! Literacy Essentials by Regie Routman (Stenhouse 2018) is by far one of the most influential books I've read in my teaching career. It's a book I turn to weekly for advice, insight, and encouragement in my work to bring authentic literacy to my students.  So when I was given a chance to talk to Regie herself, I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity. In part 1 of the podcast, we do...

Hello everyone! Literacy Essentials by Regie Routman (Stenhouse 2018) is by far one of the most influential books I've read in my teaching career. It's a book I turn to weekly for advice, insight, and encouragement in my work to bring authentic literacy to my students.  So when I was given a chance to talk to Regie herself, I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity. In part 1 of the podcast, we do...

Hello everyone! Literacy Essentials by Regie Routman is by far one of the most influential books I've read in my teaching career. It's a book I turn to weekly for advice, insight, and encouragement in my work to bring authentic literacy to my students.  So when I was given a chance to talk to Regie herself, I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity. To my delight, Regie is just as honest and passi...

Hello everyone! It's time to talk about where we go now as educators. We live in a world of gun violence, quick fixes, and with communities that would rather see education fail than succeed. So, what do we do? We addressed some of this in part 1 of this series, but now we are going to talk about the rest. This is an honest conversation between Emily from @teachingsaveslives on Instagram, and mysel...

With the seemingly endless gun violence plaguing our schools in America, both physically and mentally, it's time we have an honest talk about the toll this is taking on teachers and students. This is not a political discussion. This is not a right versus left. This is not an episode where two teachers have a biased talk. This is an honest conversation between Emily from @teachingsaveslives on Inst...

Hello everyone! I have been asked over and over again to get more math teachers on the podcast. So much so, I have been working diligently to make this happen. Knowing I couldn't just get anyone, I made sure to reach out to some top minds in the field, and today, I have brought on one of my favorites! Kathleen, otherwise known as @misscraftymathteacher on Instagram, is such a star on social media,...

Hello everyone! Today I have brought on one of my favorite Instagram friends, Haylee Harwick, to continue talking TECH, but more importantly, to discuss how we can all use podcasts in the classroom to extend and support learning! If you missed part 1, check it out here. Using podcasts in the classroom is something you'd think I would have done by now, considering my roots with Teach Me, Teacher, b...

Hello everyone! Today I have brought on one of my favorite Instagram friends, Haylee Harwick, to discuss her journey to using tech, and how she views the roles of technology in her 5th grade class! Haylee is such a fantastic resource for teachers and has some AMAZING ideas and advice for using tech in the classroom. This episode is a solid primer for anyone who is skeptical of the role of technolo...

Hello everyone! Today we are talking about how teachers can support teachers by sharing and creating resources with the amazing Kayse Morris, one of the thought leaders in "Teachers as CEOs" and a truly magnificent human. Her work with the Go-Getter's Podcast is phenomenal, and a great resource for any teacher wanting to make money and run their own business. If you missed part one where we aired...

Hello everyone! I just realized that we have had "edgy" topics on the show for two weeks in a row now (here's last week's episode on phones shouldn't be banned from classrooms). Middle school attitudes must be affecting my judgement... In any case! I'm bringing a topic to the podcast I have wanted to for awhile now, and that is the BIG discussion of Teachers Pay Teachers, it's value to educators,...

Hello everyone! Today I'm super excited to bring you part two of my talk with the one and only Jessica Golz (@teachergolz)! If you missed part one, check it out here.  In this episode, we continue our discussion about STEM, why it's important, and why we should all be embracing it in our schools. But we also hit on a special topic that I see floated around in the teacher sphere quite often... CELL...

Hello everyone! Today I couldn't be more excited to talk with Jessica Golz (@teachergolz) about STEM! In this episode, we discuss how Jessica got started in STEM, how she transitioned to being a librarian, and pretty much everything innovation and creation! Jessica is such a great force for good in education. She has her eyes on the horizon for what's new, but she also has a healthy idea for quali...

Hello everyone! This past July, I went to the Get Your Teach On national conference, and it was absolutely astounding, to say the least. I knew I wanted to talk about my experience, but I needed someone special to help me, so I brought back friend of the show and fellow attendee of the conference, Halee Sikorski (otherwise known as @ALatteLearning on Instagram.) In part 1 of our talk, we took an o...

Hello everyone! This past July, I went to the Get Your Teach On national conference, and it was absolutely astounding, to say the least. I knew I wanted to talk about my experience, but I needed someone special to help me, so I brought back friend of the show and fellow attendee of the conference, Halee Sikorski (otherwise known as @ALatteLearning on Instagram.) Together, we discuss our experience...

Hello everyone! Today on Teach Me, Teacher, I am continuing my talk with Nicholas Ferroni! Last week, we discussed why men in the classroom needs to be something seen more often, and this week we dive deep into what teaching is, how powerful it can be, and how we should all take part in making the messaging about teaching POSITIVE. I had the pleasure of hearing Nicholas speak at Get Your Teach On...

Hello everyone! Today on Teach Me, Teacher, we are talking about the power of men in the classroom with none other than Nicholas Ferroni. I had the pleasure of hearing Nicholas speak at Get Your Teach On this year, and I KNEW I had to have him on the show to share his insight and perspective on education. Nicholas Ferroni is a nationally recognized educator and activist who educates, mentors and i...

Hello everyone! Welcome to part 2 with Kelly Gallagher! Today we are continuing our talk about authentic literacy, and we are diving DEEP into the practice of conferencing and why you should be doing it everyday.  Since 1985, Kelly Gallagher has devoted himself to the teaching of reading, writing, listening and speaking—first and foremost, as a high school ELA teacher in Anaheim, California, and a...

Hello everyone! Welcome to season 4 of the Teach Me, Teacher Podcast! If you're new to the podcast, welcome! If you're returning, then you know how I like to start things off every season...WITH LITERACY. Season 2 started with the wonderful Donalyn Miller. Season 3 started with none other than the amazing Penny Kittle. And now season 4 is starting with Kelly Gallagher himself! Since 1985, Kelly Ga...

Hello everyone! With the new school year upon us, I know you all are gearing up to make MAGIC happen in our classrooms! You're planning great experiences, sitting through PD, and trying to catch some sleep. To support you, I'm planning an AMAZING season of great podcasts coming for season 4, but I wanted to cover some key pieces first, as usual. In this intro, you'll hear about who is coming on th...

Hello everyone! I couldn't be any more excited to bring you none other than Hamish Brewer  for part 2 of our close out to season 3 of the podcast! If you missed part 1, check it out here. If you don't know who Hamish is... the relentless, tattooed, skateboarding principal in Northern Virginia isn't your normal principal. Hamish is high octane, constantly calling on his students to "Be Relentless....

Hello everyone! I couldn't be any more excited to bring you none other than Hamish Brewer to close out season 3 of the podcast! If you don't know who Hamish is, the relentless, tattooed, skateboarding principal in Northern Virginia isn't your normal principal. Hamish is high octane, constantly calling on his students to "Be Relentless. Mr. Brewer has become known as an educational disrupter and ga...

Hello everyone! It is my absolute pleasure to bring you one of my favorite people in the world, Nicole Marte, otherwise known as @MarteintheMiddle on Instagram to continue our discussion about the power of teaching middle school, why it's the best school, and debunking (and validating) myths about teaching middle schoolers. If you missed part 1, check it out here. A lot of personal anecdotes in th...

Hello everyone! It is my absolute pleasure to bring you one of my favorite people in the world, Nicole Marte, otherwise known as @MarteintheMiddle on Instagram. In this episode, we dive into why we both LOVE middle school so much, the magic of teaching 6th grade, and why relationships at this critical age are so extremely important. We also spend a healthy amount of time praising how teaching scie...

Hello everyone! Today I have a special announcement: Teach Me, Teacher: Life Lessons That Taught Me How to be a Better Teacher is now available for purchase! To celebrate, I took some time to talk about the book, and read a few pages from the opening chapter. I hope that you'll take the time to listen and read the book. I wrote it for you. Buy on Amazon Buy on B&N ABOUT THE BOOK: Jacob Chastain gr...