Have a Life Teaching

In an earlier episode with Darlene Prott, we discussed how to help students to engage in the act of reading itself. In this episode, we speak with Lorraine Radice - K-12 director of literacy in a public school district in New York and author of the book Leading a Culture of Reading -about how to create a welcoming school community culture centered around reading. This culture can take many forms,...

These are challenging times in the world and, as we see on university/K12 school campuses, global events are having a direct impact on the teaching and learning environment. How do we teach students about both Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia? How do we engage with those who do not share our perspectives on the Israel-Hamas conflict? I hope you will listen to this podcast conversation with Dr. Debbi...

As Darlene Prott - Founder and CEO of NJ Teacher 2 Teacher says, we may think students should be able to read once they pass third grade but we may want to think again especially if we are supporting multi-lingual learners. Students may be able to decode words by 3rd grade but do they truly understand and can they make meaning of and draw connections from what they are reading? In this episode, Pr...

Today, principals are coming to the job younger and with less experience. While they come with curiosity and enthusiasm for the job, many still struggle in the role because they do not have a grounding in the basic pillars of leadership in school settings. In this episide, my guest David Franklin - CEO and founder of The Principal's Desk - and I discuss the five pillars of leadership as discussed...

In this episode, Jose Bowen - DEI education consultant and former President of Goucher College - and I discuss his new book Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning. Indeed, in his book and in our chat, Professor Bowen asserts that AI will not replace jobs but rather require students today to use AI to develop both their metacognition and creativity if they are to be mark...

April 7th will be the thirtieth anniversary of the start of the Rwandan Genocide in which 800,000 men, women, and children - mostly from the Tutsi minority group - were deliberately and systematically murdered because of who they were - not because of anything they did. In this episode, my guest Jacqueline Murekatete - human rights lawyer and founder of the Genocide Survivors Foundation - and I no...

Educators can't do well by their students if they are not whole themselves. Sometimes, the best course of action is to know when enough is enough and change course to new jobs in the education field or outside of it. In this episode, Casey Jakubowski - co-author of Crush It From the Start: 50 Tips for New Teachers and school principal - and I discuss the signs to look for to determine if moving on...

In this episode, Megan Conklin - founder of Conklin Educational Perspectives and Trainer at the Washington Education Association - discusses her work in designing and facilitating substitute teacher team training programs and how her model could and should be replicated across the country. Data suggests that K12 students in the USA can spend up to a year in classes managed by substitutes who are o...

In this episode of the Have a Life Teaching Podcast, Jo Boaler, Stanford Math education professor and author of ther new book "Math- ish", and I discuss how to make Math instruction more accessible to students in K12 schools. Math learning can cause unnecessary anxiety if it is taught only abstractly rather than in a way that connects it to the world in which we live and helps to explain it. We ch...

In this episode of the Have a Life Teaching Podcast, Roxie Patton, Founder of RJ Consulting and Coaching, and I continue our conversation on the importance of having educators who understand the students and families they serve. Since many educators no longer live in the communites where they teach, this becomes a particularly important consideration within teaching. Roxie and I discuss ways throu...

When we teach students how to write, we often do so by teaching certain writing "moves" - introducing a topic, expanding on it, and summation, etc. We also should be teaching the communication moves that go along with public speaking and presentation. So says my guest Robyn Brinks Lockwood, speech professor at Stanford University, on this episode. So that students can meet the rigor of college tea...

Over 27 percent of all students in America have immigrant parents. In this episode, Ari Gerzon-Kessler and I discuss strategies for better engaging this traditionally underserved population of families. Gerzon-Kessler, a former principal, currently serves as a coordinator of family partnerships and is the author of the new book "On the Same Team: Bringing Educators and Underrepresented Families To...

In this episode, my guest Allison Rodman, author of the new book Still Learning and the founder/CEO of The Learning Loop, and I discuss what is required to embed effective teacher professional development in schools. We discuss what administrators must do to ensure that all training is systemic and has established success criteria as well as how to improve the effectiveness of teacher professional...

In this episode, the authors of the Formative Assessment Handbook, Marine Freiburn and Sandy Brunet, and I discuss how to craft learning intentions that then allow teachers to align assessment and student engagement to those learning goals. In our chat, we discuss how to unpack standards into child friendly learning intentions, how to embed success criteria in learning, and strategies for engaging...

Maker spaces are anywhere and everywhere where students are taking knowledge and creating something physical that adds on to that knowledge in new ways. Students' cognitive skills are developed in the process. Yes, schools can create labs with 3D printers but teachers can also turn a closet into a maker space. Join my next guest Matt Zigler, maker space cordinator at the Bullis School and professi...

In Part I, Sybil Hall and I discussed what educators can do to take ownership of their own wellbeing. Here, in Part II, Aimee Parkinson Presnall. Founder and CEO of Well-Nest (Australia) and I discuss how individual responsibility for our own wellbeing as educators can and should be further supported by school systems/administrators. School leaders also have a responsibility to implement and susta...

There are a wealth of things we can do to reduce the stress and anxiety that we feel as educators. In this episode, weath and wellbeing consultant, teacher, and author Sybil Hall (Burn Bright Not Out) takes us through some simple ways we can make our lives calmer as educators be that through scheduling our time, batching our teaching tasks, and/or taking brief time outs before and during the day t...

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) means much more than just ensuring that students are reading books with a diverse character. Join Maria Garcia Underwood, founder of M Ideas Consulting, and I as we discuss what deep DEI looks like in terms of curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy within school communities vested in ensuring that all members are seen and heard. We also discuss allyship. M Idea...

Many teachers are teaching 21st Century students in buildings designed in the 19th and/or early 20th Centuries. Join my next guest, Prakash Nair, CEO of Education Design International, and I as we discuss in this episode what school communities are doing around the world to design buildings that are purposefully built to engage students through collaboration and inquiry based learning. Prakash Nai...

Join me and my guest Nicola S. Morgan - Founder/CEO of NSM Training and Consultancy - as we discuss strategies for developing resiliency in the students we teach. Nicola also is one of a select few to successfully swim across the English channel and uses this experience to guide her resiliency work in schools. We also discuss how this experience has informed her work in schools. Nicola S. Morgan L...

Many of us in education, particularly these days, feel like we are not capable of addressing all of the needs of our students and families. This is often the case for both teachers and administrators. Join me and my guest Jill Stoddard, author of the book "Imposter No More", in this latest episode, as we discuss strategies that educators can use to quell the anxiety and fear that often accompany i...

India is becoming an ever increasingly important player on the international stage. It is the largest democracy in the world and its population to set to shortly overtake that of China. Further, citizens of India have long been successful participants in the global economy - and in particular within the tech/innovation sectors. Join my guest Greshma Momaya, Principal of the Prarthana World School...

No one needs to be told that many teachers are leaving the profession these days for a variety of reasons. However, there are ways to make teaching more sustainable. Join my guest Paul Emerich France and I as we discuss how to grade less but still assess learning, how to lesson plan for impact rather than compliance, and on how to develop less toxic/more welcoming school communities that will embr...

As my next guest Maribeth Edmunds says, students with Autism will grow up to be adults with Autism. In this episode, we explore how to help our students with Autism grow and achieve academically and socio-emotionally so they can become fully integrated adults participating in our economy and community. The number of students being diagnosed with Autism is on the rise. Be prepared to educate these...

It's that time of year again. College applications are due! Join me and my guest Kate Stone, CEO of University Gurus, as we discuss how high school/rising college students can be writing effective application essays. We also discuss what high school teachers can be doing to help students develop strong writing skills as well as how students can become better storytellers through the writing proces...