This Teacher Life

Welcome to a fresh take on classroom engagement! In this week’s episode of This Teacher Life, we explore how the classic game of Truth or Dare can be the key to transforming the culture and climate in your classroom. But this isn’t your average recess game—this is a remix designed to deepen relationships, build trust, and create a space where students feel seen, heard, and empowered. T...

What if we told you that one of the simplest and strangest ideas could completely transform your classroom dynamics? In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast, we’re diving into a “really dumb idea” that sounds too easy to be effective—but trust us, it works wonders, and all you need is one notecard . Whether you’re struggling with student engagement, participation, or si...

Looking for a simple, yet powerful tool to boost student participation and spark creativity in your classroom? In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast, we reveal how you can transform classroom discussions and interactions with just one small, unexpected tool —a dice ! We know that getting all students engaged in the lesson can feel like a challenge, especially when some stud...

Teachers wanting a powerful strategy for improving student behavior, this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast is for you! It’s all about goal-setting with accountability partners. And while that may sound lame or lacking substance, I absolutely promise that the details shared with shift your thinking! Learn how you can guide students to set meaningful, personalized goals an...

When your students are done with a classroom assignment or project do they immediately engage in another meaningful task? OR do students get on a device and start finding their way to YouTube or other tech tasks? How can we get kids motivated, engaged, and excited about defaulting to increasing their literacy levels? In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I give all the deta...

Join me as I share the 4 best books I read this year—stories that captivated, inspired, and stayed with me long after the final page! And PS- every single one of the best books connects PERFECTLY to the classroom without even being books about education! Whether you’re looking for your next great read or just want to hear what made my list, this episode has something for every teacher! Episo...

Teacher Truth: Paper assignments are easy to create, but often create less engagement. Additional Teacher Truth: hands on activities are harder to create, but often create WAY more engagement. Which brings us to the big question, how can we get all kids excited about real-world learning without spending every single second of our “free time” on creating those moments? In this week&#821...

When was the last time you were able to get your students super motivated with a paper plate? When was the last time you increased student engagement with a reverse card from Uno? When was the last time you handed out notecards and nobody refused to participate? Because after listening to this week’s episode of This Teacher Life podcast, you are going to be so excited to bust out paper produ...

Getting staff AND students on the same page can be incredibly difficult these days. But what if there was a silly, simple way to increase the climate and culture of your school while also bringing people together? What if that same idea would INCREASE positive office referrals too? In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast we unpack the details of how a plastic golden cat when...

The holidays can be really stressful in schools. But the holidays are also a perfect time to spread smiles in schools. What is a small but significant want to surprise staff and students? Sometimes all you need is a little sugar and a little support. In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I dive into all the details of the “holiday” Little Debbie December, If you...

Is your school a safe places that is full of success, smiles, and situations that inspire teachers and leaders to be their best? Or is your school a place where teachers feel like the toxic traits are tarnishing the relationships of staff and students? Maybe the better question is… how do you really know? What’s “normal” in schools across the country? In this episode of the...

Classroom games are a great way to build relationships with kids and create student engagement. But sometimes those games can be complicated, take a ton of prep, and can get chaotic. What if I told you there was a SUPER simple game that is easy to implement, takes practically no time to prep, and creates connection rather than chaos. Would you play that game with students? In this week’s epi...

Get ready to dive into a hilariously unconventional yet surprisingly effective approach to boosting student reliability. Join us as we explore the wild idea of using a raccoon as a quirky connection for kids. In this episode of This Teacher Life, we’ll discuss how positive signage on the walls and in the halls is some of the best “marketing” that can happen in schools. Whether you’re a...

Do you struggle to get kids to turn in work? Do you wish students put forth more effort on the work they turn in? Do you feel like students are failing and they don’t care? If you answered YES to any (or all of those) questions then this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast is for you! We will dive into my #1 way to get students putting for their best effort on the first try and the ama...

How is life going for you right now? Are you able to answer that question WITHOUT bringing up work or school related- topics? Sometimes as teachers we have a difficult time separating personal and professional life. And sometimes that means we need a reminder and a re-boot on balancing our priorities. In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life we pause on teacher topics and proceed with...

Looking for some simple, strategic classroom and behavior management strategies? You are in the right place! On this week’s episode of This Teacher Life special guest, Jack Berckemeyer, shares some solutions that are so meaningful. The best part, all 3 of these ideas can be tried with students by the end of the podcast because they are no prep and no stress! I promise you will laugh and lear...

How is behavior managed in your school? Would you say it is more proactive or reactive? When it comes to school culture, nothing building positive climate better than parties over punishment. But how can we celebrate students in a way that gets kids motivated to make the right behavioral choices? In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast we tackle the word RESPECT and how that...

Do you get 100% attendance at your parent teacher conference? Do you get 100% of people engaged at the table during those conferences? I’ve got an idea that can make BOTH of those happen. And the best part these conferences will create LESS work and LESS stress in your teacher life. Sometimes in order to make parent-teacher conferences between, we just need to remix them with raisins! Becaus...

How are you currently feeling in your position in education? Do you feel like you are supported as staff? Do you feel like your kids are supported as students? Sometimes all our school needs is a little social-emotional support for everybody! But how do we do that? In this episode I dive into some ideas that I’m using as a K-12 SEL teacher. I’m confident they can easily be applied to y...

When was the last time you asked students questions like… What do you really want teachers to know about you? What would you say to your teachers if you knew they would listen without judgement? What can I do in this classroom this year to help decrease your frustration and increase your engagement. Yes, kids want things like snacks, snapchat, and to sleep in class. But kids actually want WA...

How are you currently handling the stress, emotions, and frustrations of education? How are you currently handling the celebrations, smiles, and successes of education? And maybe the biggest, best question yet, how can we balance those two sets of very different emotions? In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast we dive into 2 unpopular teacher opinions about teaching being &#...

Really dumb ideas can be SO dynamic! But why share “dumb” ideas? Because SPOILER ALERT… they work! I think ideas that take no prep, require no lesson plan, and cost nothing are exactly the kind of thing we are looking for this school year. In this week’s episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I explain a super simple strategy that kids have declared as the GOAT- Greatest...

Want this school year to be your best UNO yet? Sometimes things like classroom management and behavior management cam bog us down. But what if I told you this year can totally be flipped over in a good way?! What if there was one simple way to increase participation, decrease disrespect, get 100% of students organized, and have SO much fun. And all you need for it is a deck of Uno cards? This is n...

Looking for ONE classroom idea that could make your spring awesome? You are in the right place. In this episode we will take a deck of Uno cards and show you how to: increase student motivation, decrease problematic behaviors, boost classroom camaraderie, and create SO much fun. Literally all you need to implement this super simple, but super effective idea is a deck of uno cards and a classroom o...

Last year was your classroom a tornado of disorganized, disrespectful, or disengaged students? Is your teacher heart currently a tsunami of frustration, fear, or  freaking stressed? If you said YES to any of that I hear you. And I have the exact strategy to solve it! In this episode of the This Teacher Life podcast I share a super simple classroom management hack that will make the start of this s...