The Broken Copier

In January 2021, Nick Covington was a social studies teacher in Iowa fully-immersed in his classroom and students. Successful, purposeful, and thriving. A year later, after being swept up into the culture war against educators and facing targeting and harassment for doing his job , he handed in his resignation later in February 2022. Once he finished out that school year, Nick moved into his posit...

The little solutions in the classroom can often create big impacts for the classroom—and today’s Kicking The Copier is very much one of those examples: a simple question you can begin occasionally including as a teacher to better support students in the way they deserve to be supported. As always, thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for contributing their music to The Broken Cop...

The idea of “100% engagement” is a loaded one in education, particularly when it comes to the expectations and implications for the classroom. Adrian Neibauer tackled this idea with conviction but more importantly humility in a recent post on his Substack called “The Scary Teacher” —and he was generous enough to hop back on The Broken Copier to expand on this reflection and discuss his views on th...

Today’s conversation is with Courtney Eddleman and Don Sturm, two educators who have been an integral part of an ongoing, district-wide partnership with MagicSchool AI. Rather than asking teachers to navigate this potential paradigm shift with AI on their own, Courtney and Don share a much-different experience that is taking place right now in their school district— including the feedback they hav...

Today’s conversation features John Warner , author of the new book More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI —a book that explores how ChatGPT and other large language models force us to reconsider what writing means in education and, more broadly, in society overall. (Also: this conversation ends with one of our favorite ever shout-out’s to a former teacher since starting this...

Sometimes our Kicking The Copier episodes are more teacher-centered in terms of habits and strategies—but today is very much the opposite: a specific, student-centered strategy that you can use tomorrow in the classroom, if you want! (Seriously: Marcus uses this pretty much every day in some sort of way, no matter the class. Try it out!) As always, thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former stud...

For our 16th Kicking The Copier episode—our continuing series focused on specific mindsets and strategies that can be helpful for teachers and educators—Marcus shared about a ritual that he has come to find considerable value in each year as a teacher—and why he believes finding and leaning into rituals as a teacher can be incredibly affirming and restorative especially within the grind of a schoo...

After their months-long, slow-read journey through Becoming an Everyday Changemaker , Adrian Neibauer joined Marcus in this episode to talk with the author, Alex Shevrin Venet, about this transformative book she has written for educators. In this conversation, Alex shares her intentions behind the book and responds to both Adrian and Marcus’s questions at end of their respective reading journeys t...

For the last Broken Copier episode of 2024, Marcus was able to speak with Jireh Keys, an early-career elementary school teacher in Fordyce, Arkansas— who also just happens to have been a freshman back in the first English class Marcus ever taught back in 2012. In this conversation, Jireh shares about her path into the classroom, the experience of returning to teach in the community that raised her...

Marcus and Jim sit down to talk (again) about AI, since it looks like it’s not going away. Jim shares what he’s doing with AI in his planning and feedback process as a teacher. Marcus shares his hesitations and frustrations around AI in education more broadly. Some agreement, some disagreement—and a conversation that both felt was worth having. Two writers referenced in the conversation: * Marc Wa...

This 15th Kicking The Copier episode is a simple one: a single daily habit—one that takes less than a minute before you head home for the day—that, at least for Marcus, has shifted the way he looks at his classroom in a considerable way. Our gratitude, too, for those who continue to listen and response and share, as the community at The Broken Copier keeps finding new ways to grow (especially now...

Pretty simple summary here: like many teachers and educators out there, we have a lot of thoughts about the election and what it means for our classrooms and students—so we decided to take some time to talk about what we’re thinking two weeks later. Not our normal type of episode, but we’d rather be authentic about what’s on our mind in this moment. (Note: we recognize and respect this might not b...

Marcus and Jim are back to talk about reading —more specifically, the broader discourse in education that students aren’t reading nearly as much as they used to. In this conversation, Marcus and Jim begin by reflecting on their own reading identities (06:05) before discussing the article “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books” (16:52) and their initial reactions to it, how severe they th...

In our 14th Kicking The Copier episode, Marcus reflects on what he is keeping in mind as a teacher over this final stretch of election season, sharing three priorities that he finds helpful to center as an educator. This isn’t an episode suggesting any specifics of what educators should say or do—that would be the most foolish of enterprises!—but rather to transparently share what one teacher is t...

The hot seat is back for today’s episode, but this time Jim is the one asking Marcus for his immediate thoughts on a handful of education “buzzwords”—with the conversation jumping from Standards-Based Grading to Social-Emotional Learning to Critical Thinking (with some other topics in between). If you want to play along, during the episode you can pause and think about what your thoughts are on th...

After a great conversation at the beginning of summer about what the 5th grade classroom is like, Adrian Neibauer was generous enough to return to the podcast to share about the mindset he is taking into this school year and the incredible community that is already building in his classroom. In this conversation, Marcus asks him about the choices he made in preparing over the summer and especially...

Big news: Jim’s back! In this episode, Jim catches up with Marcus and fills him in on how the first few weeks have gone—which, in turn, gives Marcus a chance to reflect on his upcoming school year. A big focus for both Marcus and Jim this year, they realized: making this work in the classroom sustainable going forward, and that is where this conversation ultimately goes. Links to what we mentioned...

In the 13th Kicking The Copier episode, Marcus shares how the umbrella works as a perfect analogy for him in thinking about the “bigger picture” of feedback in his classroom—and how, at the end of the day, feedback is really about the trust students have in us as teachers and the purpose they see in what they are learning. Tall orders, yes, but ones worth aspiring toward. Umbrella in hand. As alwa...

Most of us educators have thought a lot about school cell phone policies in recent years, but very few of us have experienced them in different contexts . Education journalist Paige Tutt, however, has done exactly that: she visited numerous school communities that had implemented cell phone bans and interviewed myriad building leaders, teachers, students and families in her research for what becam...

Given that summer is coming to a close for many teachers out there—or, for a handful, already has!—we decided to focus on that “thing” that we all go through as educators this time of year and that we all have our own opinions about: professional development for teachers. In this episode we’re joined by Trevor Aleo, a full-time teacher and doctoral candidate who spends a lot of time thinking about...

Another guest interview today on The Broken Copier : Marc Watkins, professor at the University of Mississippi, Director of the Mississippi AI Institute, and author of the blog Rhetorica —a go-to resource for thinking about artificial intelligence through the lens of education, particularly as classroom instructors. (Seriously: go check it out!) In this conversation, Marc shares his thinking and st...

We’re excited to continue our shift on The Broken Copier with more conversations with more listeners today, as Dr. Julie Arnold joins the podcast to talk about her work around assessment and the ways we can do better in our classrooms to make assessment part of the learning experience—as well as the barriers we encounter in that work. (Dr. Arnold also is gracious enough to offer her Australian per...

It’s summer and a time for rest and restoration for teachers, so Marcus figured, why not talk about something that riles pretty much every teacher up the moment you mention it? That’s right: differentiation . In this twelfth installment of our Kicking The Copier series of individual reflections, Marcus shares about what he believes made the difference in a more-successful experience with different...

Marcus finally gets a chance to talk with Adrian Neibauer, a 5th grade teacher who just finished his 21st year of teaching and also happens to be the author of Adrian’s Newsletter — probably Marcus’s favorite weekly read on teaching out there. In this conversation, Adrian reflects on his path into the elementary classroom; what it was like to leave the classroom for a different role and then retur...

It’s been awhile, but our series of “Kicking the Copier” episodes is back—and this one is about a strategy, literally but also figuratively, that might help you center your “wins” of the school year more intentionally. (Especially before summer arrives!) Another note: congratulations to those getting near (or even across) the finish line of your school year. I think it is fair to say to pretty muc...