Confessions of a PYP Teacher

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to our specialist and supporting teachers series!  This is our sixth episode leaning into inquiry for our supporting teachers, particularly the inclusion specialist.  In specified roles that support learning and behavioral development, the challenge is there isn’t a set curriculum you are following.  This is how the PYP can help you the most, because it’s full of appr...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to our specialist and supporting teachers series!  This is our fifth episode zooming into inquiry for you fabulous teachers.  In this episode, we will explore how we might infuse more inquiry into our practice through think, chat, create, particularly in the PE classroom.  This will be a fun exploration of how we might ask some thought provoking questions to bring abo...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the fourth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series.  We are continuing our journey with agency through the lens of the specialist teacher, in particular the librarian.  All other specialist and supporting teachers should be able to find ways to modify the strategies over the two episodes to help their practice.  It's about look at practices and our...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the third episode in our specialist and supporting teachers series. If you haven’t listened to the series so far, consider going back to the beginning, because we are getting into the nitty gritty about your roles in each part of the PYP. Agency is a huge push in the PYP, but I rarely hear it being discussed in the role of the specialist and supporting teacher role.  It...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the second episode of my new series to support specialist and supporting teachers.  I just want to let you know that in this space you are so valued.  The work you do makes the rest of the school more complete.  Never forget this my friends as you try to navigate your role within the PYP framework.  Before we begin, I want to honor the contributions of my friend Yuni Sa...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to our new series about specialist and supporting teachers.  I have been thinking a lot about this series over the past couple months, especially during a visit to Le Jardin Academy in Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii.  I had a candid chat with the specialist team and it made me think that other specialist and supporting teachers might appreciate the same guidance. This episode, we wi...

Send us Fan Mail I can’t believe that we are almost done with Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond.  This book has reaffirmed that some things I am doing are reflective of cultural responsiveness and that there are many ways that I can still grow.  As we talked about in the last episode, it’s all about having a balanced academic mindset.  We know that tasks may be challe...

Send us Fan Mail This is the final week of our exploration of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.  We will explore how to build more intellective capacity with Zaretta Hammond.  At my age, I feel like this capacity is waning, so I hope to pick up some tips! The chapter begins with a quote by Benjamin R. Barber, a political theorist. He states, “I don’t divide the world into the weak and...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back my friends to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher.  This episode speaks directly to my heart and I hope it will resonate with you too.  Zaretta Hammond focuses on building deep alliances with our learners in chapter 6 of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.  We will uncover some parts, but it’s not possible to unpack all of the ideas.  Have fun re...

Send us Fan Mail Something I’ve been thinking about has been learner relationships and why they are not the primary focus in many elementary classrooms.  Usually within the first month of school, teachers are building systems and routines of how the classroom will operate, but do they really take the time to get to know their learners personally?  Zaretta Hammond points out, “Too often though, we...

Send us Fan Mail In the past episode, we discussed our own role as a culturally responsive teacher and how it shapes our frame of reference when teaching a classroom full of learners from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, let alone language acquisition, disabilities, and gender identity needs.  This was compared to our understanding of surface, shallow, and deep cultural beliefs and ways we...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to another deep dive into the fabulous book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond.  This week will be full of insights about ourselves.  Are you ready to go deep into your practice?  To be honest, this chapter left me with a feeling of being exposed, but that is the process of recognizing how our beliefs and behaviors shape cultural responsivenes...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher and our exploration of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brian by Zaretta Hammond. I’m not going to lie, this next part of the book makes me feel like a numpty.  Zaretta Hammond begins the chapter by stating, “If we want to use culturally responsive teaching to support the cognitive development of dependent learn...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher.  We are continuing our exploration of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond.  This week, we will examine the influence of culture and shine light on our need for awareness. Zaretta Hammond states, “Building background knowledge begins with becoming knowledgeable about the dimensions of cultu...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to our book study of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain (CRT) by Zaretta Hammond.  As I reviewed my notes for the last episode, I discovered that I missed two key significant ideas that I want to explore before moving forward.  Hammond refers to the school-to-prison pipeline , which is something that is quite prevalent within the United States.  This pipelin...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome my friends to a new book study.  I have wrestled with what to talk about next within my podcast series and I kept circling back to Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond.  This book changed me this past year and I couldn’t wait any longer.  There will be...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, dear educators, and welcome to the final episode of our application series. I'm Lu Gerlach, your host and fellow advocate for empowering young minds through thinkchat. Today, we're embarking on a thrilling journey, exploring how to craft a classroom that truly tickles our learners' brains and igniting a fiery passion for learning. It's all about creating...

Send us Fan Mail Hidee Ho Neighbor, my name is Lu Gerlach and I’m from thinkchat.  Welcome to confession #126!  In this episode, we'll be exploring some of the big ideas presented in the inspiring book, 'The Expert Effect' by Zach Rondot and Grayson McKinney. Get ready to join me on a journey of reflection and growth as we uncover the transformative power of allowing our learners to...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back my Lu Crew.  I’m Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, just in case you forgot my name.  This is confession #125!  We are going to sit for a moment and reflect on how to make local and global inquiry happen within our context.  This seems like quite an abstract concept to many people, because we tend to overthink it.  Let’s take a deep breath and break it down into manageable pa...

Send us Fan Mail Good day to my fabulous thinkchat family.  It’s me again, Lu Gerlach, your host, and welcome to confession #124, where we will explore how to use personal inquiry in our practice.  Every time that we loop back with an application series, it has helped me to grow as a practitioner and consider my own actions.  For this episode, we are returning to Kath Murdoch’s book, Getting Perso...

Send us Fan Mail Good afternoon to my favorite people, I’ll just call you my Lu Crew.  If you haven’t guessed, I’m your host, Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and I am having fun with today’s episode. As we end 2023, I want us to think about where technology has greatly exploded this past year and where it is rapidly going in the years to come.  We cannot pretend that it won’t change our roles as educat...

Send us Fan Mail Hey there, wonderful people! It's your host, Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and I am beyond excited for today's episode. We're going deep into the heart of the PYP philosophy exploring how learners visually represent their unit of inquiry journey. So, buckle up for Confession #122, where we'll dig into the nitty-gritty of shifting from showcasing finished products...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we are going to explore two questions posed by my Twitter friend, Donna Mathew.   To what extent can we differentiate an inquiry classroom?   What are the different ways of doing it? We will answer these questions through the wisdom of Lynn Erickson, Lois Lanning, and Carol Ann Tomlinson. Let's have some fun! For a written blog post and other resources, visit...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP teacher.  I have taken a bit of a hiatus from this podcast due to personal health issues and work schedule.  This is my ultimate passion project.  When I’m not sharing with you, it means I’m off-balance and need to calibrate again.   I’m super pumped to continue our series of creating a PYP classroom success criteria.  It’s m...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I was provoked by ideas and questions by Yuni Santosa and Shailja Datt.  Yuni asked,  ”Hmmm... is this the criteria based on the visible aspects (see and hear)?  This made me think about how we are balancing what we put onto the walls into our daily practice that can be evidenced by learner behavior and thinking. Shailja suggested, "Key concepts begin with an...