Field Trip Podcast

After nearly a year of remote learning, hand washing, and six-feet-apart staying, who’s doing not doing okay? The answer is… quite a few of us, kids and adults alike. This week, Dr. Rosanne Capanna-Hodge, a psychologist and author of The Teletherapy Toolkit: Therapist Handbook for Treating Children and Teens, explores the long-term impact the pandemic has on students, teachers, and school staff: S...

School closures have been tough for everyone. Administrators, district leadership, teachers, and families raced to adapt to new teaching and learning conditions. Students faced an entirely unfamiliar school experience. Already-existing inequities grew starker, and English Learners faced extra hurdles as teachers and families often struggled to communicate. In this podcast, Dr. Jessica Hazzard, an...

Over the past 10 years, anxiety disorders among adolescents has risen 17%. Serious depression has gone up 80%. Suicide attempts are startlingly common.[1] That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is an increasing awareness of the need for student mental health care, a greater focus on the whole child. Schools are taking more steps to provide this kind of care — and more and more, they’re b...

While schools are wrestling with how to re-open in the fall, Robin Cogan says there’s one perspective that is especially critical to consider: that of the school nurse. Robin is a school nurse in Camden, NJ and the author of the blog The Relentless School Nurse . She joined us to talk about: Questions schools need to answer as they consider reopening Why school nurses are a vital part of any schoo...

When Stephen was in school, his hand was always raised. A mind brimming with ideas, a packed schedule because he wanted to be involved in everything, an appetite for challenge. Today, Stephen is in college, pursuing a career in aerospace engineering — and we’re speaking with him and the teacher of his elementary gifted program, about what such programs can offer students. Why such programs are so...

Right now, schools are closed across the country, as we all try to stay safe and healthy. But we all know that for educators and for parents, this doesn’t mean more downtime on the couch. You’re still hard at work, because learning goes on, at home and online. This shift has been a huge effort for schools, administrators, teachers, and staff. So today, something a little different. Normally, we br...

“You could have a great conversation with somebody, you could talk about [teaching practice] and then, all of a sudden: ‘Okay, what was my rating?’ ‘Well, you got a ‘2’ in this area.’ And that would defeat the entire conversation.” - Jason Smith, Principal, Anna Reynolds Elementary School At Newington Public Schools, teacher evaluations look different these days. Rather than a process that focuses...

The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System used to outsource their substitute teacher program. But in 2014, they decided to bring it back in house — no small thing for an office of just four people, in a district with 36,000 students. But… it’s a success. A savings of over $300,000 in just the first year A higher fill rate (99% the first year!) Over 800 substitutes hired into permanent positi...

Racial equality is an important factor in ensuring every student has access to the general education curriculum. But equity in special education goes deeper yet. What does equity in special education mean? What does it look like? Today we’re speaking with Dr. Dorothea Gordon, Executive Director of Special Education at Grand Prairie ISD in Texas. Dr. Gordon helps to set a baseline definition for eq...

In Louisiana, 1969: “separate but equal” is a thing of the past – in theory. In practice, schools are largely still divided along racial lines. Eileen Sanchez was a white teacher who taught in the “black school,” at least until the day students and staff were told the school was closing. In her book Freedom Lessons, Eileen details that tumultuous year and what it was like for her, the students and...

Note: This episode is a rebroadcast, and originally aired on July 20, 2018. A few miles east of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights University Heights School District serves primarily white community of Cleveland Heights, as well as the much larger and more diverse city of University Heights. We spoke with Dr. Talisa Dixon, who at that time was the Superintendent, about her years leading the district and...

DISCLAIMER: Frontline Education does not provide legal advice. Please consult your district’s legal counsel before taking action on anything discussed in this podcast. Peanut butter and jelly: a staple for children everywhere, right? Maybe when we were kids… but today, schools increasingly have to reckon with a rising number of students with allergies, many of whom now have 504 Plans that lay out...

Indian Hill Exempted Village School District is not large, but it has a great reputation and a culture of achievement. Like any fruitful organization, the central pillar of that success is the people at Indian Hills. Today, Superintendent Kirk Koennecke and Assistant Superintendent Mark Ault discuss how their hiring, onboarding, and ongoing professional development all contribute to teacher qualit...

No Child Left Behind… Race to the Top… the Every Student Succeeds Act. All have had significant impact on teacher evaluations. Over time, have such laws led to an increase in the quality of teaching our schools? This year the Frontline Research & Learning Institute looked at the data around teacher evaluation scores. We speak with Sarah Silverman, Ph. D., of Whiteboard Advisors, the firm that...

In the early 2000’s, Greece Central School District in New York had 25 full-time mentor teachers. After the 2008 financial crisis, that number dropped down to one, plus a handful of part-time staff. Now, the program is thriving again. Director of Professional Learning Marguerite Dimgba shares why she’s so proud of their teacher mentoring, how it fits into their broader professional learning progra...

What is the single biggest thing that school leaders can do to impact student outcomes? According to Ted Neitzke, it’s to create the conditions that enable everybody in the school system to take on leadership roles. Ted is the CEO of CESA 6, a consortium that serves school districts in Wisconsin. He is also the host of the Smart Thinking Podcast . Today, Ted shares what he means by leadership, why...

As a parent, learning your child has a learning disability or other special need comes with a whirlwind of emotion. “Who will take care of them when I’m not here? How will I make sure they get the supports they need?” Fear and anxiety rear their heads. Everything you pictured about your child’s life is suddenly in doubt – including what school might look like. Today, we’re speaking with three curr...

Paul O’Neill and Dennis Griffin, Jr. are principals in schools hundreds of miles apart — yet they regularly encourage and challenge each other through #EduGladiators, an online community of learners. The principal’s world includes plenty of conflict. And while conflict is never easy, it’s not always bad. Today, Paul and Dennis talk about leadership and conflict, and how when conflict arises, schoo...

Adam Brown, Ed. D. is an assistant principal for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. As a new teacher, there were days he wanted to call it quits — but he had great support, and got through those tough times. And his research into what causes teacher burnout is packed with insights for teachers, leaders and mentors. Today, we speak with Dr. Brown and with Basil Marin, also an assistant principal,...

Sheila B. Robinson, Ed. D., has spent decades in education, as a classroom teacher as well as working with adults in professional learning and program evaluation. Today, we ask Sheila about: Frequent challenges in professional learning How to collect and analyze data to understand if a professional learning program is meeting teachers’ needs and moving the needle on classroom practice How to ask q...

Ian? He’s of Generation X. Erin is squarely in the Millennial camp. Today on Field Trip, they explore the differences between the five different generations currently represented in the labor force: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. Why understanding the characteristics of each will help administrators and district leaders communicate better and tap the st...

Garland Independent School District serves thousands of dyslexic students. Dyslexia is a learning disability that has profound effects on students as they move through high school — so identifying students early on is incredibly helpful. But how do you do that? In this podcast we find out how Garland ISD is empowering people to work across departments, train teachers to become dyslexia therapists,...

Teaching today is more demanding than ever — and whether or not that leads to stress and exhaustion is often up to the principal and how he or she leads the building. Today we speak with Dr. Brad Owen, Assistant Superintendent of Burkburnett Independent School District in Texas, about his research into teacher stress, faculty trust in the principal, and what principals can do to increase that trus...

From lunch-and-learns and chat-and-chews to food trucks and taking events out into the community, Hatboro-Horsham High School principal Dennis Williams means it when he says he wants to hear from parents. In this podcast, he shares how they’re working to get parents more engaged in the school lives of their students: What the changing socio-economic makeup of the community means for parent engagem...

In our interview, we asked Bruce Chaffin about: The 33″ of rain that Livingston Parish got in a 24-hour span, and the impact it had on the district The financial impact the district faced, and steps Livingston Parish Public Schools is taking to rebuild Using gamification with principals to reduce teacher absences How the district saved $63,000 on substitute costs in the first 19 days of school in...