The Parent/Teacher Conference

Review of Coach's vacation of Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge where he discovered the joy of Mountain Coasters?  Coach reflects what his new favorite ride reminded him about raising his children as he encourages parents to be actively involved in imparting their worldview to their children because anti-parental views such as childism are making its way through special interest think tanks, then into...

Using ideas by a NCAA basketball championship coach and Major League manager, Coach lays out how a parent should deal with their child & coach on the athletic field, how a coach should deal with parents, and how a parent who is a coach, should deal with their child/player.  

What do fireworks on the 4th of July teach us about our children and/or our students?  How can we tap into a child's innate sense of wonder in the classroom and in our homes to stoke learning about the world around them?  Coach shares some ideas from his teaching experience and his childhood. (Included in this episode is Coach's rant about state testing.  He couldn't help himself)

Join us on this podcast as Coach interviews the co-host of the Between the Frames Podcast, Jon Gibson, in discussing what we can take away as teachers and parents from the classic 80's movie The Breakfast Club Topics discussed will be the genius of John Hughes, where would the school society have placed YOU as a teenage, what differences do teenagers in the 80's face as compared to teenagers today...

Extroverts seem primed to be teachers, but there are a bunch of us introverts who have long careers in the classroom as well.  Coach dispels some myths about introverts from his own perspective and shares an idea for students/kids who are introverts because sometimes a 

The Supreme Court declared a public school coach's right to religious expression did not conflict with the establishment clause.  On this podcast, Coach believes it is a benefit to both parents who see their proper role in their child's spiritual and political formation as well as enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom from a teacher's perceptive. 

What were your thoughts of your history classes in school?  Were they a seemingly endless list of events and people or put together with a sense of purpose? What should that purpose be?  With the discussion of Critical Race Theory and Anti-Racism being pervasive in education circle today, Coach discusses an influential book in his teaching from 30 years ago by an advisor to President Ken...

Netflix put out a warning before the first episode of Stranger Things 4.  Was it necessary or was it addressing our society's general anxiety?  Is the perpetual "sky is falling" mentality good for both kids and adults in the long run?  Do students need "safe spaces" from words that offend them or is their a better way for them to deal with those words?  And in not hearing diffe...

For Father's Day...Words of wisdom from my Dad, often about baseball, but ideas that transcend the ballfields and helped to form me into the man I am today.

What is the last day of school like from a teacher's perspective?  Coach discusses why it's the longest day, how to extend academic learning days, and the excitement and sadness of the last day for both students and teachers.

How working at a small week long church camp helped to encourage Coach to pursue teaching as a career and how its influence can be seen in his classroom over 30 years later.

I sum up the year in history by showing my students that are travels through the world and time ended exactly how I told them it would in the beginning.  How people have gained more rights in the past few hundred years than in any point in history and even with the strength of diversity in the United States we still need something that unites us or we will Balkanize.  And we conclude wit...

A good tour guide makes or breaks a tour.  As a teacher, how is the tour you are giving of the subject you teach?  As a parent, how is the tour you are giving your child of this thing called life.  How are you doing as a tour guide?

Surviving a pretty intense car accident reminded me of some words of wisdom my Dad shared with me comparing a car to a loaded gun.  In this episode, Coach shares that wisdom as well as two other bits of advice, one he shares with his daughters, and the other he shares with his students.

Modern education preaches diversity and inclusion and then fails to address them in the main purpose why public schooling exists, to teach children to read, write, and compute numbers.  In this episode, Coach speaks from a parent's point of view to educators who deem the redundancy of times tables and phonics as "drill and kill", aspecting uniformity in their students in the stage of developm...

What a famous 80's classic can teach us about treating people as individuals and not as stereotypes. With talk in education about researching people and events from different perspectives, we as teachers and parents need to avoid the trap of having our students and children looking at all people only from the identities that we categorize them in.  If they do, people become stereotypes rather...

In honor of Mother's Day, Coach explains how is Mom could make "common things into gold" and shares the trials of his own wife, how she became a Mom through the "alternate route" of adoption and how she has been rewarded with two wonderful daughters. If you are or know of any couples struggling with infertility, this episode may be an encouragement to them.

The podcast's first interview with Dr. Katie Nieves Licwinko, who has created a website, assemblinginclusion.katienieves.com that provides courses teachers can access to learn ideas and tip to integrate technology for the sake of the special education students.  We also discuss how we can make the IEP Meeting more collaborative for parents, the conflict that can develop between young and...

Classroom that are quiet are the norm, but what about the kid who needs background noise to allow them to focus.  Coach shares how playing baseball helped him to find comfort in noise.  How do we address students who do better with a bit of background noise while still helping those who need the silence?  

President Biden recently said "They are not someone else's children, they are like yours (teachers) when you are in the classroom.".  Irregardless of what he meant, he did use it as a chance to lob a political volley and the other side responded in kind.  Coach discusses the need to listen to all voices if a public school education is going to work and asks the question both parents and...

Abusive parents are causing coaches and officials to quit in higher numbers than usual in youth sports.  In this podcast, Coach addresses what he sees from a coaching perspective as the reasons for this phenomena, and how we need to check our heart; to see others as human and not react to them as we tweet we see on Twitter.

If a student forgets their pen or pencil for class, should a teacher just give them one?  In this episode, Coach shares his best Liam Niessen impression from Taken as he shares what he tells students about the skills he learned as the kid who never had a pen or pencil.  It's not just about a pencil, but about responsibility.

As a teacher, I often pull in music and movie clips to help my students see grasp the meaning of historical events, people, and movements.  In the movie, The Shawshank Redemption, we have a wonderful example how the Christian Easter story can be seen in the story of Red and Andy (just as it has been portrayed through art and literature throughout the ages).  And it serves to remind us, t...

Some educators try to be very scientific in reporting grades, but in a classroom where grading is subjective, our scientific can you be when accounting for the human factor?  Coach breaks down how he responded to parent request for grading effort that isn't subjective and places all the burden on it where it should be, the child.  An explanation of how extra credit and retakes work in on...

Did you ever hate a food before you even tried the food? On this episode, Coach talks about why it is important to teach our children and students about history and literature that they may believe to be irrelevant to their life in the "modern world" and why the approach of allowing children to pursue their own passions may lead to a narcissism that is unrealistic when enacted in the world.