Phenomenal Teaching with PEBC

What happens when educators learn where learning actually happens—in classrooms alongside students and teachers? In this episode of the Phenomenal Teaching Podcast , Michelle Morris Jones sits down with Annie Patterson, PEBC's Senior Director of Education and Lab Networks, to explore the power of Learning Labs as a form of job-embedded professional learning. Annie shares how Learning Labs create o...

How might Adaptive Leadership help team, school, and system leaders navigate today’s complex educational landscape? Dr. Ashlee Saddler joins Michelle Morris Jones on PEBC’s ⁠ Phenomenal Teaching Podcast ⁠⁠ to explore why Adaptive Leadership is essential in this moment. As Dr. Saddler shares, “Leadership is not found in certainty. It functions in the grey, where clarity is created, not assumed.” In...

In what ways might Math Workshop foster a joyful scuffle and a thinking rally that develops capable and agentic mathematicians? Join Wendy Ward Hoffer as she sits down with Michelle Morris Jones on PEBC’s Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to discuss her newest book, All Minds on Mathematics , and the intricacies of Math Workshop. In this episode, Wendy and Michelle explore how problem solving, number se...

How might we cultivate a joyful numerate community in our early childhood and primary classrooms? Join Michelle Morris Jones on the Phenomenal Teaching Podcast as she chats with Carrie Halbasch and Kirsten Myers-Blake about practical, concrete strategies for developing early number sense, fostering positive math identities, and weaving mathematical thinking into everyday routines. Carrie and Kirst...

In what ways can Math Workshop meet every learner’s need for safety, purpose, inspiration, challenge, support, and growth? Join Wendy Ward Hoffer as she sits down with Michelle Morris Jones on PEBC’s Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to discuss her newest book, All Minds on Mathematics: Math Workshop for Every Learner . In this episode, Wendy reflects on how her thinking about Math Workshop has evolved...

Listen in as Dr. Marlee Bunch and pre-service teacher Chrissy Kim join Michelle Morris Jones on the PEBC Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to discuss Dr. Marlee Bunch's book, The Magnitude of Us: An Educator's Guide to Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms. In her new book Marlee provides an accessible blueprint for utilizing histories, culturally responsive teaching, and community responsive pedago...

Listen in as Dr. Katy Anthes (former Colorado Commissioner of Education) joins Michelle Morris Jones on PEBC's Phenomenal Teaching podcast to share strategies for managing healthy conflict and avoiding extreme polarization. Dr. Anthes is leading PEBC's latest initiative "Forward: From Polarization to Progress" and is supporting commissioners, superintendents, educational leaders and teachers. In t...

How might we integrate whole class lessons, small group work, and individual conferences to support students’ growth as readers and writers?  Listen in as literacy leaders, Ellin O. Keene and Dan Feigelson join the Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to discuss ways to enhance student engagement and agency by integrating reading and writing. When teachers make these connections apparent, students com...

Listen in as Dr. Marlee Bunch and Brittany Collins join PEBC’s Phenomenal Teaching Podcast with Michelle Morris Jones to discuss planning for ABAR and SEL pedagogy. Both Marlee and Brittany value the importance of telling and understanding one’s own story as well as the stories of others.  Oftentimes the stories of history and our own students’ stories are “hushed” and not included in classro...

What happens when we focus on assets rather than deficits? Listen in as Julie Wright shares strategies for “growing the good” with Michelle Morris Jones on PEBC's Phenomenal Teaching Podcast.  Identifying and leveraging student and teacher assets allows us to, "Size up what students CAN do and use that to lift their learning."  This episode of the Phenomenal Teaching podcast connects to...

Nicole Tucker-Smith joins Michelle Morris Jones on PEBC’s   Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to share ways teachers and school leaders can cultivate spaces that promote agency, equity and connection for all learners.  Nicole encourages us to confront how and why school spaces encourage assimilation, compliance, and conformity and to envision how we might transform our classroom and school env...

Lily Howard Scott joins Michelle Morris Jones on PEBC's  Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to discuss how a focus on social and emotional learning (SEL) isn’t simply a nice-to-have, a perk, but a need-to-have, a prerequisite for meaningful learning. How children feel in the classroom is inextricably linked to how they do in the classroom. Emotionally literate children who know how to navigate their...

Gita Varadarajan joins Michelle Morris Jones on the Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to talk about the ways in which diverse texts allow students to develop empathy for others, explore challenging topics, find joy and deepen their comprehension skills. Gita brings years of classroom experience to spark conversation and  scaffold opportunities that guide students toward a variety of texts to create...

Listen in as Crystal Hughes shares how she developed scaffolds to support her 8th graders shift from passive online learners to engaged historians and writers on PEBC's Phenomenal Teaching Podcast with Michelle Morris Jones. When school began last year, Crystal’s students were quite reluctant to engage in writing, yet Crystal knew that her students were capable of being successful with argumentati...

Marlee Bunch and Brittany Collins join the Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to discuss the intersection of Grief-Responsive Teaching and Anti-Bias/Anti-Racist (ABAR) Teaching with Michelle Morris Jones. Developing our collective understanding of how to support students who have experienced trauma and loss increases our ability to develop classroom and school communities that support agency, equity and...

How might we support vibrant, diverse, passionate individuals to become teachers? Listen in as John Kearney, Director of Recruitment and Alumni Engagement for the PEBC Teacher Residency Program , shares the ways in which a career teaching is more accessible than ever before, and recent graduates, Nicole Herrera & Char Brock share their stories of their experiences of becoming educators. John K...

We can’t give what we don’t have! Educators more often than not play the role of advocate on behalf of their students, and this work can be equally rewarding and exhausting. Listen in as Dr. Kimberly Muñoz and Michelle Morris Jones dive into the realities of equitable education advocacy and suggestions for sustainable advocacy. Dr. Muñoz shares her perspectives on the importance of healing, and ho...

Our students are the problem solvers of the future! Unfortunately, by 3rd grade 50% of kids have already decided if they are confident STEM learners or not. Let's disrupt this trend by creating learning experiences that shift mindsets from, "I don't like..." or "I've never been very good at..." to productive and positive STEM identities that foster joy, curiosity, and understanding of STEM related...

Kids helping other kids get unstuck! After recognizing that the “old ways” weren’t working for kids or teachers, the leadership team at Cherokee Trail High School embarked on developing an MTSS structure that was more about meeting the needs of kids and less about being convenient for adults.  When asked, students reported that they wanted a place to go where they could get help from other st...

Striving to increase student engagement, wondering what community resources exist to bring content to life, needing time to recharge with art, science or history? Listen in as Ellen Spangler, Museum Educator and Consultant, shares all the ways in which museums, art centers, and nonprofit organizations can provide unique and engaging learning opportunities, high quality resources, and inspiration t...

The “Conditions of Learning” work synergistically to support student engagement and understanding. But what happens when systems are stressed? What happens when deficit based language and practices start to creep into our work with children? What happens when teachers are not able to be responsive to the students before them?  In this episode of the Phenomenal Teaching Podcast, Michelle Morri...

At PEBC we believe that each and every student deserves a great teacher!  In many of today’s classrooms and schools, leaders are struggling to fill vacancies with high quality teachers who are well prepared for the rigorous yet rewarding work of teaching.  We are also well aware of the shortage of substitute teachers and other school based professionals who serve students in many, many w...

Do you find yourself wondering how you will ever grade that giant stack of papers?  Wondering if there might be other ways to support your students’ progress or monitor their understanding? What would happen if we eliminated the points for compliance exchange, students advocated for their own grades, and grade books essentially became “point-less”?  Would student agency increase, would s...

We don't want kids to leave school each day without reading 67 minutes or hating to read!  So how do we get texts back into kids' hands, hearts, and minds?  Cris Tovani joins the Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to discuss her latest book, Why Do I Have to Read This? Literacy Strategies to Engage Our Most Reluctant Readers , and research based strategies to get students re-engaged with readin...

If we want to create learning experiences that are worthy of students’ time and attention, we must be planful!  PEBC Lab Host and 6th grade Advisor at Jefferson County Open School , Gabrielle Hovinen, joins Michelle Morris Jones on PEBC’s Phenomenal Teaching Podcast to share her process for cultivating a community of reflective, self-directed, and inquisitive students. Student centered, life-...