Education: a Clusterf_ck in Need of Repair

This episode, part rant and part philosophy, considers the role of teachers and education in helping kids decide who they want to be and how we help them get there.  Not as futureastronauts, sports stars, or influencers, but as humans with a moral center and a deep understanding of themselves. No pressure. Keep up with the conversation: Instagram & TikTok: @educationclusterf_ck

This episode was inspired by an article on education in which the words child, student, and teacher were conspicuously absent, replaced by discussion of politics, data and money. What happens to schools when people become an inconvenience for the system? What motivates that and how do we stop it? Keep up with the conversation: Instagram & TikTok: @educationclusterf_ck

Welcome to the looooong awaited return of Education:A Clusterfuck in Need of Repair.  Season 2, Episode 1: The Phoenix is about where we are as educators in this most perilous of times.  About where I am. It’s about the most important survival trait of teachers- resilience- and about theimportance of the profession of teaching.

The big news about this episode, Off Script: Skin in the Game, is that I’m speaking extemporaneously- no script.  We’ll see how it went.  And I’m announcing a break until mid-September- a classic summer break from teaching.  AND I discuss who has skin in the game of teaching.  Wow, that’s a lot for such a short episode! Keep up with the conversation: Instagram & TikTok: @educationclusterf_ck

This episode completes our exploration of the role of agency, for both teachers and students, as a component of constructivist teaching.  With a focus on WHY to do it, HOW to do it, and WHAT stands in the way of doing it, we start and end by asking, why is this so fucking scary for the system?    Keep up with the conversation: Instagram & TikTok: @educationclusterf_ck

Episode 15: Agency, Achievement, more Agency, More Achievement, and so on… Jesse Bastarache returns to the podcast to talk about her theatre class for students with substantial learning needs.  By acknowledging and encouraging their agency, she helps them build on their performance skills and achieve beyond all expectation.  Is it really that simple?  Yes- with the energy and commitment of a gifte...

Episode 14: No One’s the Boss of Me, continues the exploration of constructivism, but through the overlapping lenses of agency, fear and me.  Using my experiences as a student, a teacher, and a teacher of teachers to explore the role of agency in learning, this episode looks at what happens when we throw off the boot of fear and control, and embrace agency for ourselves and our students. Keep up w...

Making Meaning, One Brick at a Time looks at the importance of the meaning we make from every experience we have and every idea that we come across.  Helping students use their own meaning making orientation in schools can help themsucceed, encourage brain development, and foster engagement.  Or we can ignore all that and create some more standardized tests…   

Years ago, I toured the Francis W. Parker Charter School when I was looking into creating a school based on constructivist learning, child centered education and multiple intelligences approaches to curriculum.  I was touched and impressed by the school, and many of their approaches to teaching and learning reflect what we still know to be best practice in education.  A long-time teacher at the sc...

Welcome to Episode 11 of Education: A Clusterfuck in Need of Repair.  This episode, Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose: The Hidden Gems of School Leadership, is the third in a 3 episode sequence on School based leadership. principals, assistant principals, department heads, etc. I’m founding this episode on two primary areas of thought- types of school leadership as discussed in What are Leadership The...

Welcometo Episode 10 of Education: A Clusterfuck in Need of Repair.  This episode, Voices from the Field, is the second in a 3 episode sequence on School based leadership- principals, assistant principals, department heads, etc. Two teachers, Alec Kealing and Amy Czarnowski Rawlins, with nearly 50 years of experience between them, talk about the different types of administrators they’ve worked wit...

This episode, At the Heart of the Job:  Community and Leadership, explores the establishment and maintenance of community as THE important element in school leadership.  What is the actual value added of shared effort and shared outcomes?  And why do we assume that the goal is to struggle on alone?   Keep up with the conversation: Instagram & TikTok: @educationclusterf_ck

On Sunday, January 12, a group of 15 teachers joined me for our first ever Zoom Salon.  We talked about the things they know- teaching, learning and education.  Entitled Sunday Salon: Educators in Search of Repairs, this episode shares that Salon, and reminds us all how knowledgeable, funny and loving teachers really are! Keep up with the conversation: Instagram & TikTok: @educationclusterf_ck

This Episode: On a Need to Know Basis, shares the behavior management strategies offered by some listeners, and is a brief reflection on some of the things I’ve learned from teachers over the first 6 episodes.  Most important, it extends an invitation to you, as teachers, to talk about what you know when we return on January 12! Keep up with the conversation: Instagram & TikTok: @educationclus...

Episode 6 brings our 3 episode arc on Behavior Management to a (temporary) conclusion.  Schools talk about student behavior, and behavior management, as though they are a stand alone component of classroom function, an iceberg looming out of the dark to sink your ship.  In this interview, Amy Czarnowski Rawlins, an experienced and successful teacher in urban schools, draws connections between the...

This episode continues the exploration of kid behavior in schools from Episode #4, and suggests strategies for improving it.  Not by creating ever more draconian punishments, but by working with what we know about how humans work to encourage, leverage and, in some cases, demand the best they can do.  This is the second of a 3-episode sequence on one of the most annoying, puzzling, frightening, ev...

Bad kids or bad schools? This episode explores the roots of kid behavior, not as a manifestation of the child, but as the result of the child interacting with the environment of schooling. Why does it seem to be getting worse? And what can we do about it? This is the first of a 3-episode sequence on one of the most annoying, puzzling, frightening, even enraging behaviors in classrooms: mis- behavi...

Jesse Bastarache, a high school teacher in Waltham MA, shares effective strategies for integrating Social Emotional Learning into her high school theatre curriculum, and reflects on its impact on the students in her classes. As Jesse says, "Happy Teaching!" And in case you're curious, Jesse's Bio: Jesse is a veteran Theater & Dance teacher in the Waltham public schools, having taught every grade l...

Who decides what we know about education? Right now, it's politicians and mass media who skip depth in favor of catch phrases, facile explanations and assigning blame. If we want to change education, we need to reclaim the language of teaching and learning! Keep up with the conversation: instagram & TikTok: @educationclusterf_ck

Trigger warning: explicit language and mention of the disaster Titanic. An introduction to the podcast and "why's" - why this, why now, why me.