The Parent/Teacher Conference

Today Coach talks about youth sports, the difference between coaching girls and boys in middle school, and concerns he has about recreation level coaches.

Last in a series on commencements speeches. The episode begins with more responses from the speech given by KC Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker and then turns to the one given by Jerry Seinfeld's at Duke University. Undeterred by very small level demonstrations, Seinfeld reminds us to look at the little things for enjoyment in life, and that your privilege is a strength that you should be proud o...

If you went to college, do you remember the name of the person who gave the commencement speech? Do you remember the topic? I, like millions of others have forgotten, but this year, graduates of two colleges will never forget. 1st in a two part series, Coach talks about the commencement speech of Harrison Butker, the place kicker of the Kansas City Chiefs, at a small Catholic college in Kansas and...

The number one reasons that teachers are quitting is the deterioration of classroom behavior & lack of consequences. In this episode, Coach questions the push to remove writing names of misbehavior on board, addressing outbursts in classroom privately, and clip arts. Why do we often think the worst of teachers in the addressing these situations rather than the worst of the acts? Do we display...

State Testing Season is Upon, but did No Child Left Behind Act (Bush #2) and Every Student Succeeds Act (Obama) emphasis on high stake testing really improve anything other than the bottom line for testing corporations? Coach shares the changes he has seen education since there implementation, the tension they create for students and educators, and the lack of real value these tests offer him abou...

Special Edition...At one point does a protest stop being lawful? Are the college protests over the Palestinian Israel Conflict of 23-24 the high water mark of progressivism? Did the book, "The Coddling of the American Mind" get it right? Coach contrasts the campus demonstrations of the 60's with today's and sees if we can learn where American culture is going. Playing Nostradamus, Coach uses thoug...

Using the experience of two brothers who were both top athletes and scholars at his high school, and graduating with the late NFL defensive lineman Tony Siragusa, Coach shares his perspective that the "Dumb Jock" trope was something he never saw; no one was excused from school work for their athletic skills. Playing sports teaches skills that will help athletes not only be successful on...

One of the influences of my wife is the enjoyment of one her favorite TV shows of all time, Wings. Coach shares the overarching story of Joe and Brian Hackett needing to know the value of brotherhood (which we laughed at the many lessons they had of that over 8 years). Coach then turns to the classroom and the home and explains how we need to have a holistic view of both in order to build true saf...

Last in a series on Old School Teaching Tools That Shouldn't Be Tossed. Starting with a discussion of the blow back he has received from the episodes "More Than a Pencil" & "Past Due Review", Coach shares the purpose of these episodes; to support teachers who are being told to ditch consequences (typically the #1 reason given as to why teachers are leaving the professio...

Second in a series on Old School Teaching Tools That Shouldn't Be Tossed. Do you give deductions for late work? Have you been told it's wrong to give deductions for late work? Coach shares some of the faulty arguments that teachers use to convince other teachers to give up consequences for late assignments. The requirement of a project often goes beyond the actual content being assessed. P...

First in a series on Old School Teaching Tools That Shouldn't Be Tossed. Have you ever heard the legend of the rock band Van Halen and their request that no brown M&M's could be backstage? It's not a legend and was for a valid reason. From that story, we discuss: Should a teacher freely give a student a pencil if they forgot one for class? It seems like such a minor point, but Coac...

Coach throws a curve in this episode by discussing one of his favorite movies of all time, Hoosiers. He reveals some little known facts of the movie (Did you know Gene Hackman thought it would sink his career?) and then discusses the theme that penetrates the soul of all who watch it, REDEMPTION. With the Lent/Easter season upon us, it seems to be a great time to talk about such a great word.

The day before St. Patrick's Day, I taught a lesson about Irish discrimination in the U.S. Students had never learned that before. Is it because some in our culture have widened the net of what is racism. And widening the net of these definitions places people who do not agree with these expansive new definitions as unjustly complicit and guilty of those terms.  Coach denounces all forms of ra...

What games did you play as a kid? Spud, Manhunt, Red Light, Green Light? What were they providing you in a low risk environment? What board games did you play? On this episode, Coach gives specific board games that can be used in the classroom or at home to teach different topics, get kids off social media & their devices for a bit, and just to have some fun. Games mentioned include: Chutes &a...

What games did you play outside with your friends growing up? What did you learn? On this episode, Coach shares his thoughts on the reason why we decrease play (the increase of professional youth sport programs and how it decreases play and local community cohesiveness) and how we believe play takes away from academics. He ends the episode with quotes that support the need for play in young people...

Recent studies reveal worsening mental health outcomes for teens today with many pointing to sharp rises in issues such as anxiety, depression, self harm, and loneliness in American youth coinciding with the introduction of smartphones and social media in society. What can schools do to help & what are they doing that may be fanning he flames of the rise? Coach shares his opinions on how a not...

In this episode, Coach discusses some disturbing trends for teens. He begins by giving us a history of how communal our entertainment once was and the move to individualization. He then shares statistics on teen self harm, anxiety, depression, and loneliness, and those stats are NOT in a positive direction. Jonathan Haidt's video referenced in the episode (author of upcoming book "The Anx...

Episode One in the Disconnect from Tech Series Coach will be conducting a session on Non Digital Games in the the Classroom for the NJAMLE (New Jersey Association of Middle Level Educators) Conference in mid March 2024. The next few podcasts will be expansions of some of the ideas he will be sharing. In the first of this series, Coach shares how being a recreation/camp director of a small church c...

Coach celebrates the start of his 3rd year of the Parent Teacher Conference podcasts by doing a retrospective of his teaching career in order to discover the reason he remains in the classroom while other teachers are quitting the profession.

Restorative Justice is a modern buzzword in education, and although some of its practices can be chalked up to what is already considered good classroom management & relationship building, many teachers are questioning its move to remove consequences from the equation (and some are even quitting the profession due to this issue). Where is the justice for the teacher and the majority of the stu...

After a month break, Coach discusses his struggles with the winter months, and shares his approach to students who have missing assignments. He questions if we are teaching them to narcissistic by never deducting points or giving out zeros. He ends by praising the parents who have been supportive when he approaches them for their assistance.

What does a near perfect game in baseball have to do with the classroom and the family? In this episode, Coach discusses how an official on the athletic field demonstrates the necessity for the need of a power imbalance in the classroom by the teacher and by the parents in order to satisfy the purpose of the game, class, and family and to keep kids safe. My father living the quote "I'm no...

From a Harvard President, to President's Biden and Trump, to AI use among students in the Classroom, Coach offers his opinions on plagiarism and what we really should be teaching our students, character development, the one thing each individual can control.

In this year in review episode (the 80th of 2023), Coach revisits several topics that seemed to span several episodes: How the Disney Way can influence the classroom positively The classroom behavior crisis, the impact of digital devices on kids, and the teacher shortages. Why Coach is proud of his daughters for choosing a colorblind approach in their relationships rather than an Anti-Racist one....

IF YOU HAVE DOWNLOADED THE ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS SPECIAL EPISODE, DELETE IT.  A LOT OF ERRORS HOPE THIS ONE IS MORE ENJOYABLE! On a very special episode, Coach uses the format of an old Christmas special, with 4 different talks centering on Christmas. Being addressed are: 1) Coach's Christmas Tradition Origin Story 2) The Grinch Who Want to End Christmas 3) Why Die Hard is a Hallmark Christmas Mo...