The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Author Isela Arredondo discusses her book about about an absent parent I Will Always Be There and how she works with cancer survivors using jewelry making as a healing activity. She also shares her education experiences from her perspective as a US immigrant. 

Send us Fan Mail This commentary by Thoughtful Teacher Podcast host Scott Lee outlines a vision for meaningful change in how we do schools. Using a historical background we explore the current state of our education systems and what is missing as many schools do not adequately respond to the changes in society that are not reflected in our schools. 

Send us Fan Mail Host Scott Lee offers commentary about what should be assessed in schools. 

Send us Fan Mail Ellen Montgomery returns to The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast to discuss her work in implementing trauma informed programming in the Metro Nashville (Tennessee) Public Schools. We discuss how this student mental health centered initiative helps students who have experienced trauma and Ellen shares some stories about how this work positively supports both students and teachers.

Send us Fan Mail In the second part of our discussion on school safety and de-escalation Amy Muphy, Brian Van Brunt and Scott Lee discuss the public health model for safety and de-escalation, teacher creativity, relationships and get sidetracked a little about films that feature teachers.

Send us Fan Mail School safety and crisis intervention experts Amy Murphy and Brian Van Brunt discuss techniques for classroom crisis de-escalation with host Scott Lee. Amy and Brian recommend a research-based three-pronged approach to preventing or mitigating crisis situations in a classroom setting: clarifying norms for a safe climate, de-escalation, and teamwork. 

Send us Fan Mail Sanford Johnson the Executive Director for Teach Plus Mississippi and host Scott Lee discuss teacher advocacy. Sanford has spent a great deal of his career advocating for education professionals, in this episode he shares his work supporting teacher quality as well as the activities that he and Mississippi Teach Plus Fellows including improving teacher compensation, improving ment...

Send us Fan Mail In the second part of our discussion with Larry Brendtro we talk about how the latest brain science and social science research continues to demonstrate that youth develop resilience by developing supportive relationships with caring adults. The values that support these relationships are belonging, mastery, responsibility and generosity which are universal values. 

Send us Fan Mail Larry Brentro shares his experiences in his career as a teacher, principal, program director, social worker and professor as he helps illuminate what what effective educators do in classrooms and schools. Larry has authored or co-authored 15 books on topics include teaching and learning, healthy brain development and quality learning environments for students who have been margina...

Send us Fan Mail A non-profit Haitian and US based partnership for recycling plastic also has a growing educational mission within Haitian schools. In this episode, guest Blada Desauguste and host Scott Lee discuss this teacher-created education program that operates as part of a plastic recycling program in Haiti. Blada also explains how some short-sighted policy decisions have led to a large pla...

Send us Fan Mail Malcolm Gillard and Scott Lee discuss equity issues, restorative practices and creating a positive classroom environment for all students. 

Send us Fan Mail Executive Director of the Tennessee Council for the Social Studies and I discuss recent laws that limit discussion of equity, race, and gender issues by teachers. Tennessee was one of the first of several states have passed such laws. We talk about how this law may affect teachers, particularly social studies teachers, in Tennessee and elsewhere.

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Jennifer Knowles returns and we dive deeper into mindfulness in schools as we discuss trauma informed mindfulness. Enjoy learning more about how mindfulness is a part of transforming learning and schools.

Send us Fan Mail Our friend Joshua Sneideman returns to discuss his new book Parenting Tweens: Successfully Navigating the Middle School Years. We learn about a useful resource for teachers and parents about this important (and sometimes difficult) developmental time. 

Send us Fan Mail We continue our conversation from last season with Adam Jordan discussing the negative public narratives that professional educators are facing.

Send us Fan Mail Guest Adam Jordan and I discuss some of the exciting events planned for this summer and fall sponsored by the All Y'all Social Justice Collective. After that he and I discuss some of the problems of equity facing the teaching profession.  This part one of two episodes of conversations where we discuss equity issues.  This episode will conclude our spring 2021 series, we will...

Send us Fan Mail Commentary by host Scott Lee discussing Tim Shriver's recent call for "An Education Moon Shot". 

Send us Fan Mail As part of the continuing series on restorative practice, we continue our discussion with Dr. Paul Baker focusing on how all school staff members can learn to be a therapeutic helper for students who have experienced trauma. Specifically, Dr. Baker outlines the ways in which Neurotransactional Repair happens for students who have become disconnected. 

Send us Fan Mail Guest Dr. Paul Baker discusses what is going on with students who have experienced trauma and why the approaches that some educators often fail. We also talk about what does work and a mindset that will help teachers work with students who exhibit difficult behaviors. 

Send us Fan Mail For a variety of reasons, students bring white nationalist and extremist ideas into schools. For most educators this is a challenge because this is rarely a topic for professional learning and this is an unusually difficult topic to address. The Western States Center recently published the 2nd edition of their Confronting White Nationalism in Schools Toolkit and in this episode we...

Send us Fan Mail We continue our discussion with Mark Freado in our restorative practices series. In this episode we follow up our discussion about restorative culture by talking about interventions. We specifically discuss Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) and Planning Restorative Outcomes both of which educators and youth care workers can use to enhance their professional practice.

Send us Fan Mail Mark Freado discusses how to develop a restorative culture within a school or youth serving organization and why focusing solely on punishment and rewards does not foster positive change within children and adolescents.

Send us Fan Mail Teachers Laura Fittz and Ellen Montgomery discuss their experiences as the implemented restorative practices and continue to strengthen their teaching by being intentionally restorative in their relationships with students. Each are high school content area teachers who understand the real nature of the student-teacher relationship and how the promote student motivation and studen...

Send us Fan Mail Guest Joshua Sneideman discusses his award winning book (co-authored with Erin Twamley) Everyday Superheroes: Women in STEM Careers. Joshua is also an expert in education technology and we discuss how technology could change (or not change) the work of educators.

Send us Fan Mail This year, many teachers have found themselves teaching remotely, whether they had planned on it or not. Hamilton County (Tennessee) Technology Coordinator Greg Bagby normally works with teachers to integrate technology for in-person schooling. As one would expect, this year his job has changed and he shares his ideas for how to navigate potential pitfalls to remote teaching. We a...