Morning Duty: A Teacher Podcast

Join Maggie and Piers as they delve into practical strategies such as Choice Boards, Learning Menus, and Flexible Seating, explaining how these methods encourage autonomy and cater to individual learning preferences. They also cover the benefits of Project-Based Learning, Literature Circles, and Homework Menus, which promote deeper understanding and personal relevance in education. The episode goe...

In this episode we dive into our secrets of running a great advisory. Having been advisors for ten years now, we've boiled our experiences down into the five most helpful tips we have. From what activities to have in your toolbox to the best methods of communication, we've got you covered! Whether you're a new advisor or a veteran, we recognize how hard you're working and what a vital role you pla...

Ever wonder where standards come from? Or when they started? Explore education standards' evolution with Morning Duty, from indigenous methods to Common Core. Uncover Horace Mann's reforms, the impact of Sputnik, and legislation like No Child Left Behind. Learn about Social Emotional Learning (SEL) standards' significance in reshaping education. A must-listen for educators interested in teaching s...

Piers and Maggie take a deep dive into their personal teaching archives, reflecting on over a decade of experiences in the classroom. They discuss what they've kept, dropped, and added to their teaching repertoire, offering a unique lens on the evolution of teaching strategies, lesson planning, and the core principles of pedagogy and best practices. Through stories and reflections, they explore th...

Welcome to the Season 2 trailer of the Morning Duty Podcast, where veteran teachers Piers and Maggie Blyth dive back into the world of education with renewed passion and insights. In our season opener, "A Decade in the Classroom: Reflections and Revelations," we embark on a journey through time, reflecting on our combined 20 years of experience in teaching. From the heart of the classroom, we shar...

In this episode we go through Doug Lemov's famous Teach Like A Champion book and play Smash or Pass with his strategies. Okay, okay... Smash or Pass isn't school appropriate. Instead we play "Stash or Pass." Thank you, Doug for letting us have fun with your book :)

Are you looking for ways to help your students perform their best on standardized tests? Join us for this episode where we explore the history and purpose of standardized testing and offer practical tips and strategies for teachers to help their students navigate these high-stakes exams. From test-taking techniques and time management skills to creating a positive testing environment and providing...

We've all felt burnout...but what exactly is burnout and what causes it to happen to teachers? In this episode we discuss our own experiences with burnout and how we've learned to manage.

As teachers and former instructional coaches, we've learned a thing or two about observations along the way that we want to share. We have the tips and tricks you need to get the highest score possible. Observations can be stressful, but we're here to guide you each step of the way!

ChatGPT is an incredible new technology and we're already seeing its use in the classroom. In today's episode, we talk about how teachers can use artifical intelligence to help make prompts, exemplars, multiple choice quizzes, parent emails, and so much more. Chat GPT is here to stay and we discuss how you can use A.I. as your assistant to make your teaching life that much easier!

In this episode we dive into Whole Brain Teaching and why it's an awesome way to increase active learning and engagement.

Telling isn't teaching, and teaching doesn't always equal learning. Learning happens when our students are engaged, active thinkers. This comes down to the cognitive ratio in the classroom. Cognitive ratio is the balance between how much the teacher is working, talking, and thinking, vs how much the students are working, talking, and thinking. Trust us, we all want our students to be working harde...

In this episode, we discuss lesson planning with subobjectives. Each subobjective is scaffolded with Bloom's Taxonomy (or DOK), and has its own gradual release cycle. This method can help students progress towards mastery of the final learning target. It also feels very quick and urgent! Follow for more!

With the Nation's Report Card, NAEP, released a few weeks ago we saw how academic acheivement dropped these past few years. Pandemic learning loss has also led to changes in attention span and focus. Attention spans have been decreasing for years but HOW students pay attention has also changed. More multi-tasking, split attention, and divided focus has become normal and we may all need to learn to...

On today's episode we discuss why you should write your test before you start teaching your unit. When we're truly UbD (Understanding by Design) planners, our tests should be written before the first day of the unit...but how many of us do that? It's one of those teaching habits we know we should be doing. There's been many times when we've written our test a few days before the assessment when we...

On this Friday morning we discuss how excellence sheets are a high quality spiraled review page and we talk about ways to feedback to students that is both warm and honest.

Mesa Public Schools comes up with an innovative way to handle the teacher shortage...team teaching large groups of kids! Plus why Ben Franklin's refusal to finance a church bell led to summer vacation. Thank you for listening to Morning Duty.

Happy Wednesday! We're sharing some of the most interesting data we've learned about the earnings of Teachers Pay Teachers and its most successful sellers, as well as a new way to support executive functioning and student organization.

Happy Taco Tuesday! What if we had mandatory substitute duty like we do jury duty? We also chat about a new way to build anchor charts for the room. Come along with us for morning duty!

In this episode we look at how Ben Franklin used a tongue-in-cheek article to introduce daylight savings to the Parisians and how educator Sam Balto made coming to school greener with his weekly "bike bus."

On this frosty Friday we talk about the AI teacher feedback app TeachFX and better ways to help your students reflect.

On this glorious Thursday morning, we chat about the power of using stopwatches and how things can change when we start measuring them.

THANK YOU MATH TEACHERS! From pandemic loss to Common Core to NAEP scores, math teachers are often under a microscope. So, we're giving them some much-deserved love. Also, why we love bringing joy into the classroom and a few easy ways to do it. Teachers: good luck and godspeed during this Halloween week!

Happy Thursday morning! In this episode we discuss the benefits of using table points and we highlight one of the most creative physics teachers out there, Dr. Skateboard.

Brain science, lesson planning, and retention. That's what you get when you start teaching with the primacy-recency effect in mind. We're most likely to remember the beginning and the end of the lesson the best, so hack learning, memory, and student achievement by lesson planning around this structure.