Teaching Today

As 2020 comes to a close, we're looking back on this challenging year and reflecting on what we've learned, what questions still remain for educators, and what new opportunities for growth await us in 2021.

Our panel of school principals joins us again to reflect on what they've learned since our last conversation, when they were preparing to reopen their schools for the 2020-21 school year. Amidst shifting regulations and rising COVID-19 numbers, principals have not just been tasked with maintaining safe, socially distant environments, but have entered into a cycle of reopening and closing their sch...

Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of speaking with district leaders from around the country as they were developing and implementing plans for returning to school. Now, we're revisiting the conversation to see what has transpired over the past few months — how these leaders are continuing to navigate uncharted territory, what new challenges they're facing, and how they're responding to the so...

Politics, protests, and the pandemic have dominated headlines and contributed to what has been an extraordinary final stretch of 2020. Communities across the country are continuing to wrestle with COVID-19, which has reached frightening rates of infection; the aftermath of a historic presidential election with an unprecedented response from the current administration; and continued social/politica...

Creating a positive classroom culture at the beginning of the school year is an essential component of our work as educators. But this year, returning to school has been anything but typical, and the notion of building culture has become more complicated. How can we help students feel safe, accepted, and included?  Special guest: -- Matthew Mazzaroppi, Principal at the Morris Academy of Collaborat...

In a matter of weeks, COVID-19 changed how students around the world are educated, and challenged many long-held beliefs about teaching and learning. What new opportunities and challenges can we anticipate for students as a result of COVID? Joining us for this discussion is Judy Dimon, Founding Chair of HERE to HERE (@heretoherebx)and Chair of the James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation. For over 30...

In the third part of our New Normal series, Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), joins us to discuss the challenges and opportunities surrounding the reopening of K-12 schools.

Schools across the country are approaching the reopening of schools with many deliberations and caution, and the challenges surrounding these efforts are on the minds of everyone from public health officials to parents. In the second part of our New Normal series, we’re chatting with school principals about their plans to manage teaching, learning, safety, and social-emotional health for their stu...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to continued closures of schools, universities, and colleges. These closures have created social and academic disruptions for nearly 58 million children in the US alone. Without an end to the pandemic in sight, leaders are approaching the reopening of schools with extra caution. In between the pandemic and the politics is th...

Blended learning — and eLearning as a whole — has seen rapid changes in the past two decades, beginning in 1998 with the first generation of web-based instruction. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic made blended learning a household term as schools around the world transitioned their teaching and learning practices. With so much uncertainty still ahead of us, the 2020-2021 school year will be unlike a...

In education, one of our greatest shortcomings is ignoring widely available research that confirms optimal learning experiences can be achieved by implementing multi-sensory activities, pursuing meaningful tasks, and exploring a variety of skills using real-world applications. Instead of traditional learning that focuses on reciting and reiterating content, our students would be better served by l...

Charlotte Danielson's Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching (commonly known as The Danielson Framework) has become the most widely used teacher evaluation tool in the United States. But is the framework being used in the way it was intended? We're joined by Charlotte Danielson as we unpack the framework, explore its origins, and examine how it's being used today. ---------- Spe...

Meeting the needs of our students is the totality of our role as educators. To do so, we must know our students, know our curriculum, and know ourselves. What happens when we find that a curriculum isn't working for us? How can we maintain autonomy and creativity while using materials that are aligned to academic standards? How can we include challenging content and activities for students? -----...

Research increasingly shows that the academic performance of students of color often suffers due to differences between curriculum and culture. Culturally responsive and sustaining curriculum is a critical element in reversing this trend. How do we integrate culturally relevant material into traditional curriculum? How can we provide students with a curriculum that recognizes and celebrates their...

Curriculum plays an important role in students becoming global citizens, critical thinkers, and caring advocates. Yet educators and policymakers continue to grapple with the concept of curriculum — identifying its components, determining the content to include, or evaluating a curriculum purchase. What considerations should schools make when determining whether to purchase a curriculum or design t...

In his 2011 New Yorker article, "Personal Best", Atul Gawande said, “No matter how well trained people are, few can sustain their best performance on their own. That’s where coaching comes in.” In education, we’ve seen the role of professional coaching shift from presentations, to workshops, to one-on-one and small group professional development. What's the difference between coaching and teaching...

In the past, teaching and learning was centered around finding information and remembering it. But advances in technology have fundamentally changed our relationship to information, allowing us to have it at our fingertips, and we must consider how this shift impacts the focus of education. What skills do students need in order to succeed in the future — especially one that's increasingly unpredic...

Part professional development, part artist collaboration, and part non-for-profit publisher, the Student Press Initiative (SPI)'s mission is to revolutionize education by advancing teacher leadership in reading and writing instruction. Through publication, SPI raises the bar for what, how, and why students write. What makes the SPI approach to writing instruction so powerful, and how does it impac...

Predicated on a belief in the power of play in the secondary classroom, Literacy Unbound seeks to unbind traditional approaches to the teaching of reading and writing, troubling the divide between critical and creative thinking, and demonstrating that intellectual rigor ultimately requires both. How can you use Literacy Unbound approaches to support students in moving their reading experiences bey...

Developing literacy skills is a challenge for students of all ages. But students with special needs, and those who are new to speaking English, experience obstacles in literacy that impact their ability to learn even more than their counterparts. What are the best ways to include English language learners (ELLs) and students with special needs into academically diverse classes? What unique challen...

The New York City Department of Education recently integrated the philosophy of Advanced Literacy into their Instructional Leadership Framework (ILF), which focuses on teaching in linguistically diverse communities and instruction across content areas — all centered around four literacy hallmarks. How is this different from other approaches to literacy? How are schools adopting Advanced Literacy,...

For years, it’s been said that we need to have a serious discussion about race in this country, but that discussion is often put on hold until another tragic incident is discovered by the media. All the while, schools across the country are wrestling with generations of racial inequality. How do events like the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others impact stu...

Accessing academic vocabulary can either be a student's greatest strength or their greatest struggle, and as they move into high school, command over content-specific vocabulary has a major impact on performance. What does academic vocabulary entail? Why is it difficult for students to expand their vocabulary? And is literacy in different disciplines really all that different? Special guests: Kate...

We often see students begin to struggle with reading as expectations shift from learning to read, to reading to learn. Struggling with this shift can have implications on a student's ability to meet learning demands across all content areas, especially as they move into middle and high school. How can you recognize a struggling reader? What prevents students from becoming more fluent readers? What...

Teachers confront students' emotional responses to reading on a daily basis, particularly as more complex texts are introduced. We're unpacking the idea of a "complex text", reflecting on why reading can elicit such emotional responses, and focusing on how teachers can support readers of all ages. Special guest: Dr. Laura Rigolosi, Curriculum & Literacy Specialist