Hallway Conversations

We are at the end of another semester, and at the end of another season of this podcast adventure. In this episode, we reflect together on our practices, on the things we are taking away from this year, the nature of teaching as “planting seeds,” and the importance of Sabbath for educators. We hope that this conversation encourages you all to wrap up your own academic years well, friends. With this episode, we are going on hiatus for the summer, but we plan to be back with you with new episodes in the fall. We hope you'll have time to rest, recreate, and re-create this summer! In this episode, Abby refers to a blog post by David Smith that gave her great ideas for end-of-term reflections for her students. You can read this post yourself here: https://christianscholars.com/reflections-on-how-to-end-a-semester/  Matt used the Romero Prayer as a closing blessing for this episode. If you aren't familiar with this one, you can read it–and the backstory for this prayer–here: http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/romero-prayer Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

After recording our last episode, we left the microphones running as we sometimes do, and had another amazing interaction full of wisdom from our pal, Erik Ringsby. We are including it here as a shorty bonus episode, and we hope it spurs more thinking about how to care well for your students! Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

This week's episode is a conversation with our good friend and colleague in the Education department, Professor Erik Ringsby. Erik joined our team last year and teaches a variety of courses in special education and learner diversity, and draws on a long career as a special ed teacher and instructional coach. He is a talented, thoughtful educator, and one of our favorite things about Erik is his deep passion for supporting ALL students to make learning come to life. We are confident that this episode will be a blessing and an encouragement to you to think deeply about ways your school can support all the kids you get to serve!  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

This episode was prompted by an email Dave sent to the rest of the crew–we'll let you listen to hear the details–but it has to do with finding lots of joy amidst some frustration. This got us thinking about the nature of joy, and we share some of the joyful memories we have from our growing up years as we begin. Then we shift to talking about finding joy in the work of teaching, even when it is challenging, demanding, and downright frustrating. How can we look for joy, and help our students learn to see joy as well? We hope this will be an encouragement for you too to choose joy, even when things are frustrating! In this episode we reference Dave's newsletter: Positivity. Passion. Purpose. You can read the post we discuss here: https://drdave.substack.com/p/joy-amidst-the-hard-stuff You can subscribe for free and it will come to your inbox every other Wednesday. Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

In this episode we have the opportunity to interview our new friend, Shaun Brooker, who serves as Head of School at Hamilton Christian School in Hamilton, New Zealand. It was a pleasure to meet Shaun in person at the recent Converge conference in Orlando, and we were delighted that Shaun was able to join us for the show, despite the time difference between the Waikato region in New Zealand and Northwest Iowa–he is 18 hours ahead of us! Shaun is a thoughtful, passionate leader, as you will find as you listen. In this wide-ranging conversation about Christian education, Shaun shares his vision for the Kingdom work we get to engage in as Christian educators. We hope you'll be blessed by this conversation, and we suspect this is not the last time we'll have Shaun on the show. At the end of the episode Dave asks Shaun about an important piece he has written entitled “The Letter,” which we hope everyone will read. You can find this piece here: The Letter. Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

Friends, we know it's been a bit since we've had a new episode. Never fear! We have more fun ideas still to come this spring, including some great interviews. In the meantime, we'd like to share Dave's side project: another podcast! This one is a STEM-oriented podcast supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation called It's Good to Be Smart! The idea is that science teachers (grades 5-10) could use the episodes in this podcast to support their teaching. Season 1 is all about matter–the building blocks of the universe. This episode is all about the Periodic Table of the Elements. We hope you enjoy it–and maybe consider sharing this podcast with a science teacher you know! It's Good to Be Smart! is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and more. You can also find on the web at https://goodtobesmart.podbean.com/ Dave has created instructional resources to support using It's Good to Be Smart! with students. You can access these materials at https://goodtobesmart.com/

Matt noticed that it was four years ago last week that we started this podcast adventure–and what a wonderful time it's been for us! We're so grateful to you all, dear listeners, for joining us on this journey. We hope it will continue to be a blessing for you. In honor of that milestone, we start things off with some reflections on what we have learned and what we love about this project. This week we are joined in the studio (aka, Abby's office with the creaky table) by our good friend, Darryl De Boer. Darryl brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his roles as Director of Education at Surrey Christian Schools, and Director of Teaching for Transformation at CACE. Our discussion this week is coming in response to our recent (successful!) accreditation process in the Education program at Dordt University. We wonder together about accountability and trust in Christian education. We hope that the discussion will be an encouragement for you to think about the right role of accountability in your own school context, and the important role of trust in those accountability processes. Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

In this episode we think about whether teaching is best pursued as a solo project, or whether it makes more sense in this day and age to look for ways teachers can collaborate in the work of teaching. We share some stories of our own experiences–in higher ed, and in our K-12 teaching–where we tried co-teaching. We explore the benefits and drawbacks, and try to paint a realistic picture of what a strong co-teaching approach might look like in practice. We hope this will encourage you to have more conversations about what collaborative teaching could look like in your own schools. Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

Welcome to a crossover episode with our good friend, Dr. Justin Bailey, who hosts the In All Things podcast. Justin reached out to us, because he wanted to interview Dave about his book, which is out now! We agreed, and what you have before you today is a special episode all about the book. Justin, Abby, and Matt ask Dave about his motivations for writing the book, the content, the approach, and really the heart of it all: developing an imagination for teaching “Christianly.”  Dave's book, Always Becoming, Never Arriving: Developing an Imagination for Teaching Christianly is available now. You can find it on Amazon and Bookshop.org! Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Always-Becoming-Never-Arriving-Imagination/dp/B0DR19KQWH/  Bookshop.org link: https://bookshop.org/p/books/always-becoming-never-arriving-developing-an-imagination-for-teaching-christianly-david-j-mulder/22146371?ean=9798385205066  If you've never listened to the In All Things podcast, we highly recommend it to you! You can find the show on all the major podcast apps, and right here on the web: https://justinbailey.podbean.com/  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

Christmas time is here! (Cue the “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!” music!) It's the end of the semester, and we take a little time to reflect on what we've done and what we've learned this semester. Matt prompts the discussion this week with a two-part question: 1) What gifts did we receive from our students this year? And 2) What gifts would we like to give to educators? We have a lot of great things we have found blessings from our students, from their reflective responses, to their self-knowledge, to their hospitality, welcoming nature, and idealism. We also have gifts we would love to give to our fellow educators, including bravery, collaboration, authentic professional development, and resources for mental health. Thanks, as always, for listening. We appreciate you so much! We hope that this Christmas season is a blessing for you amidst the blur of busyness, friends!  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

For those who have been with us from the beginning, you might remember how this podcast started with just Matt and Dave, and how we didn't tell each other the question we were going to bring in, and just stumbled our way through thinking on our feet about how we might answer that question. We are recapturing a bit of that feeling in this episode! We sat down at our microphones at our normally-scheduled recording hour…and looked at each other expectantly, waiting for someone to remind us what our topic was for this week's episode. We quickly realized that we never agreed on a topic! But we decided to go forward, and record anyway. We hope that this conversation gives you a further sense of who we really are behind our podcast personas! Matt gave us a little direction by sharing an Advent piece by Frederick Buechner to begin, and we launched into a ranging conversation about what gives us hope right now. We also talk about recommendation letters, the amazing students we get to teach, some recent adventures in pedagogy, things we are grateful for, and other playful shenanigans. Maybe this episode will be a good reminder to take some time to check in and connect with your colleagues! Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ In this episode, Dave mentions Andy Crouch's book, The Life We're Looking For, which is one of his favorites lately. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+life+we%27re+looking+for&hvadid=593689271884

In this episode we start off with some random check-in questions from Matt, inviting us to share some things about ourselves. (Be ready for some silliness, dear listeners!) This leads us into Dave sharing a story about teaching while not feeling well…and how he nearly passed out in class. The question Dave raises: how much should we let students see us as “real human beings?” We talk through various aspects of appropriate self-disclosure for teachers, the role of liking students and being liked by students in return, and strategies for giving students glimpses of who we really are beyond being “just the teacher.” We hope you'll laugh along with our banter, but also that this might spark some introspection and conversation with your colleagues about right relationships with students. Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

We start off this episode sharing about the different things we've been doing lately, with different conferences where we've been presenting lately. (It was marvelous for Abby and Matt to meet up with many listeners at CEA!) Dave's conference actually sparked the topic for this week's conversation: so many of the sessions at his EdTech conference dealt with AI in Education. We have questions, and maybe the beginnings of some answers. We discuss a whole range of ideas, from what AI is and what it currently can and cannot do, the potential impacts on teachers' pedagogy, and how to focus on having humans do the things that humans should do…while also imagining ways that we can have machines do things that machines are good at. These are murky waters, for sure, but we hope this somewhat-longer-than-normal hallway conversation will be encouraging, and might spark some more hallway conversations of your own about the role of AI in education. In this episode, we mentioned the fact that Dave recently had a chapter published in a monograph by the Association of Christian Schools International that is all about AI in Education. You can learn more about the book here: https://your.acsi.org/pdp-store/Product-Catalog/Product-Details?productid=%7B03BC9D7A-5D6C-EF11-A670-002248218222%7D&srsltid=AfmBOor-gBOI96z2BNH5J5x9hfa0p_as5MktUIpinVzf75ZYhOfXm4QP Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

This week we start off with a rant about Christmas decorations already being out in the stores (it's only the middle of October!) which turned into a just-for-fun check-in question about our favorite Halloween treats from our youth. The heart of our conversation today stemmed from an impromptu conversation Matt had with a campus visitor about the Education profession, and the prospective student was definitely not planning to become a teacher. Their conversation prompted our discussion: why aren't people coming into the profession today? We think around some of the narratives about the profession, and what parts are true, and what parts are…less true. Dave shares his take on why–and how–educators can work to elevate the profession and we brainstorm ideas about how those of us who teach can help encourage other people to join us in the joyful challenges and rewarding work we get to do as teachers. We have some specific words of encouragement for you all, listeners, to help encourage your own students to consider becoming teachers–we hope you'll have those conversations too! Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

We're (finally!) back in the studio (okay, Abby's office with a creaky table) to record again. We've missed this so much! We start by catching up about some of the events of our summer, and the things we have upcoming–lots of opportunities for us to meet up with Christian educators in different places. We love connecting with colleagues across North America, and around the world! And along these lines, our main conversation this week is about “connection” in schools–as in, what does it look like for people to be “connected” to their school community? Matt shared some quotes to get the ball rolling, and once we got started, we found we have both lots of ideas as well as plenty of questions about what being “connected” in a school community looks like in the flesh. We discuss the difference between “welcome” and “belonging,” and we wonder together about what it looks like when students (or faculty) are disconnected from their school community. We also wonder about the benefits of “close-knit community” and if there is a shadow-side to this, though it certainly sounds appealing. Throughout this conversation, we share examples and stories from our own experiences, both in schools and in broader communities. We hope, as always, that listening to us thinking out loud will be a spark for some hallway conversations of your own! Dave mentioned that he is going to be speaking at ACSI's Flourishing Schools Institute; this is going to be a pretty phenomenal conference! You can learn more here: https://www.acsi.org/flourishing-schools-institute  Matt and Abby will be at the Christian Educators Association Convention at the end of October, and if you are going to be there, be sure to connect with them there! More information about the convention here: https://www.ceateachers.org/  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

Our final episode for this season–a little time to reflect on Matt's question, “What does it look like to end well?” We shared some of the joys and sorrows we feel at the end of a term, ideas for how to end well, and some of the things we deeply believe about the rhythms of the school year. We also took some time to look back over this year and name some of the things we have learned. We recognize that we are all still works in progress and have not yet “arrived” as teachers and leaders. We hope you'll be encouraged by this conversation to wrap up this year well. A programming note: we are going on hiatus for the summer. The hallway is going to be a little quiet for the next few months! But we anticipate picking up again in August. We hope that you too will find time to rest, recharge, and recreate during your summer season. Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

This week we are delighted to have a long-time listener and friend of the podcast joining us for a conversation: master educator, Al Bandstra. Al teaches 6th grade at Sioux Center Christian School, and has written substantially about effective classroom management. His forthcoming book is about what he calls “infectious behaviors,” and this conversation is all about what Christian educators can do to address the challenges of individuals and groups that aren't behaving as we hope and expect they will. We share a variety of stories we've experienced, and Al shared with us from his ongoing research and exploration of ways he has found success to address challenging behaviors and broken relationships. If you have ever had a student–or group of students–that has been a challenge for you, we are confident that you'll find both stories of solidarity as well as words of encouragement here about classroom culture, appropriate authority for teachers, and even acknowledging our own humanity.  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

This week we are joined in the hallway by our friend and colleague, Gwen Marra. Dr. Marra teaches courses in Dordt's undergraduate Teacher Preparation Program and Master of Education Program related to early childhood education and literacy. Her academic focus is especially on supporting all learners in developing essential skills for literacy. The hallway crew keeps hearing about “the Science of Reading,” and we have a varied understanding of what this means. Since we wanted to learn more, we connected with our resident expert on all things literacy! Gwen shares from the deep well of her education and experience to help us understand better. We hope that by listening in you'll likewise be informed and better equipped to understand what research actually says about how people learn to read, and how we can help all students learn and succeed with literacy. Dr. Marra mentioned the Sold a Story podcast in this episode. You can listen to the whole podcast here: https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/  Dr. Marra also mentioned the book Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. You can find it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Fish-Tree-Lynda-Mullaly-Hunt/dp/0142426423  Dr. Marra mentioned several resources for teachers and parents, which you can access here: Reading Rockets: https://www.readingrockets.org/  International Dyslexia Association: https://dyslexiaida.org/  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

This week we are privileged to host our friend, Darryl De Boer, as a special guest. Darryl is a longtime leader in Christian schools, and currently serves as Director of Learning at Surrey Christian School in Surrey, British Columbia. Darryl is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education where he serves as the Director of Teaching for Transformation. Darryl is one of the co-creators of Teaching for Transformation (TfT), which is a framework being used by many Christian schools across North America to more intentionally ground their curriculum, instruction, and professional development to a Christ-centered biblical worldview. In this conversation, Darryl shares about the development of TfT, the core practices that are integral to TfT, and many other topics related to teaching and leading Christianly. Darryl's wisdom, thoughtfulness, and passion are on full display in our conversation, as is his way of encouraging and agitating (in the most positive sense!) to help schools become more intentional about taking seriously the integral nature of faith and learning. No matter your role in education, if you are part of a Christian school, we're confident you'll be encouraged and challenged by listening to this conversation! Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/ 

We start off today's episode by checking in about our spring break shenanigans; we were all out traveling, and found it a wonderful time to recharge–a good reminder for us (and hopefully for you too!) that we need to take breaks, get a change of scenery, and recharge. The main topic for our discussion today came from Dave's questions: “What is teacher leadership? And how do teachers function as leaders in school?” We discuss different ways that teachers can function as leaders–for good, or for ill–in school, even if they don't have a formal title. We hope that this conversation will prompt some valuable discussion in your own hallway about the ways you and your colleagues serve as leaders in your school. In today's episode, Abby mentions an excellent piece from Cult of Pedagogy entitled Find Your Marigold. We recommend you read it! You can access it here: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/marigolds/  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/  In the past few episodes, Matt has mentioned an upcoming webinar with Dr. Owen Webb about restorative practices. This webinar is free, and we urge you to join in and learn.  More information about the webinar is available here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1600343174138846?ref=newsfeed  You can register here: https://dordt-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NdZFsoTsSiuEAF58gvGfcA#/registration 

This week we are privileged to host our friend, Chad Dirkse, as a special guest. Chad is a longtime school leader in Christian schools, and currently serves as Head of School at Annapolis Area Christian School where he serves more than 870 students and 100 staff. Chad is an expert in management and has a wealth of wisdom to share about both recruiting and retaining really excellent faculty members, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to ask him a lot of questions. From Chad's high-level idea of “revering the profession” to specific advice to leaders for how to both recruit new faculty members as well as retain great teachers, we know you'll be blessed and encouraged, whether you are a school leader, a board member, or a teacher yourself.  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

We took the show on the road recently as we had the opportunity to provide some professional development workshops with our friends at Sioux Falls Christian School, and while we were there, they invited us to record an episode with their whole PreK-12 faculty. We had a great time, as usual! (Our apologies for the slightly less-than-optimal audio quality that comes with recording in a large room.) The theme of the professional development day was “empowered learning,” so we leaned into that as our theme for this episode as well. We start with a silly check-in question about songs we randomly find ourselves singing–you know you want to hear these! From there we share stories about our own teachers who empowered us as learners in our own school journeys. And, of course, as we usually do when we record live, we solicited questions from the crowd related to empowering learners. We hope that you will find encouragement and ideas for how you can empower you own students as you listen in! Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

In this episode we begin with a check-in about our favorite fashion choices from our high school days that we kind of wish would come around again. (You might be surprised…or maybe not at all!) From that silliness, we take a hard turn into a very serious topic–power in the classroom. Dave set the stage by sharing a quote from a book that got him thinking about the nature of power, how teachers use their power, and the way students respond. We think through our own growth as teachers and how we needed to assert power at some points in our teaching experiences. This got us talking about the way we grow as teachers throughout our careers, the difference between “power” and “authority,” and even how teachers can share power with students without diminishing their authority. We hope this episode will help you reflect on the power held by teachers, and ways to use your authority appropriately in light of your office as Christian educator. Dave brought up the book On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom by David I. Smith. We urge you to read this book if you haven't already: https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Teaching-Practicing-Faith-Classroom/dp/080287360X/  Abby brought up the book Hacking School Discipline by Nathan Maynard and Brad Weinstein. You can learn more here: https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-School-Discipline-Responsibility-Restorative/dp/1948212137  Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

Welcome to Season 8! We're excited to be back with you for another set of hallway conversations. We start off with a check-in about what sparked joy for us since the last time we've been recording, and we hope this is an encouragement for you all to practice check-ins with your students and/or colleagues as well. Matt brought the question for our discussion this week, asking us to think about how things have changed–for better, or for worse–since we began teaching. There are so many things we named from the “Good Old Days,” from technologies, to student engagement, to interactions with parents, and so many more. We hope that listening in to this conversation will prompt some reflection for you about the changing nature of our profession. Hallway Conversations is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. You can learn more about the good work CACE is doing at https://cace.org/

It's Christmastime! Thanks so much for listening in throughout 2023, friends, and we hope that this Christmas season will be full of peace, love, and joy for you. We hope that this short episode is a word of encouragement that will bless you as you close out 2023. We are taking a break for a few weeks, but will be back in the studio in late January with some new and exciting things to share with you! Look for new episodes around the beginning of February. In this episode, Dave mentions his newsletter, and a story about Advent devotionals he included there. If you would like to read (or subscribe) you can do that here: https://drdave.substack.com/p/doubt-at-christmas 

This week, kind of an old-school Hallway Conversation like we did back in the early days of the show: Dave springs a question about assessment on Abby and Matt, and we just think out loud together about what assessment really, and what it is “for.” In particular, a conversation Dave had with a friend who is a K-12 teacher sparked a wondering about “just how much time should we devote to assessing learning vs. actually teaching the content?” We hope the discussion might prompt some wondering of your own–and that you might have a hallway conversation with a colleague about your own assessment practices. Exciting news for us! We have an official sponsor: the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education! You can find out more about CACE and the good work they are doing at https://cace.org/

This week: three short pieces stitched together that we hope will prompt a little thanksgiving, and will give you a word of encouragement for the work you are called to do as an educator. This episode includes a section we snipped out of our previous episode in which we interviewed our friend, Lynn Swaner. (See episode 099 - it's a really good one!) It also includes two short pieces from Dave's now-defunct blog that we hope will give you a little boost. Also, it's been an insane couple of weeks between a few of us teaching an overloaded schedule this semester as well as some travel a couple of us needed to do. So…we hope (and plan!) to be back to record a full episode for you all soon! Original post from Dave's old blog: Keep Your Eye on the Donut: https://iteach-and-ilearn.blogspot.com/2016/11/keep-your-eye-on-donut.html And another post from Dave's blog: A Case of the Blah's (And Teaching Anyway): https://iteach-and-ilearn.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-case-of-blahs-and-teaching-anyway.html

It's our 100th episode!!! We're proud–and a little surprised, honestly–that we've made it to this milestone. Thanks to you loyal listeners for being with us throughout the journey to this point! Coincidentally, we had the joy of recording a live episode at the Christian Educators' Association Convention held in South Bend, Indiana in October 2023, which became a fun celebration for our 100th episode as well; it was great to connect with some fans of the show while we were there. We solicited a bunch of questions from the audience, and it was fun to think on our feet and interact with the crowd who joined us. It's wide-ranging conversation about a bunch of different issues in education today–from living out our calling, to teacher retention, to teacher preparation, to effective homework (Dave's favorite axe to grind)...there is a lot of ground we cover! We hope you enjoy listening in on this live session, because we sure enjoyed recording it! In this episode we reference the following, which we recommend to you: Steven Garber's powerful book, Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Visions-Vocation-Common-Grace-Good/dp/0830836667  Dave's newsletter: Positivity. Passion. Purpose. Which you can access here for free: https://drdave.substack.com/ 

This week was a treat for us: the opportunity to have our good friend, Lynn Swaner, joining us for a recording session while she was on our campus. Lynn serves as Chief Strategy and Innovation Office at the Association of Christian Schools International. She is one of the co-authors of the book Flourishing Together, which we read and discussed on the podcast in the spring of 2022 (see episodes 056 through 060 for our discussion of this excellent book.) On today's episode, Lynn shares from her wealth of experiences and the research she has conducted; we wind up with a wide-ranging conversation about flourishing, calling, weathering the challenges of education today, leadership, and imagining the future of education. Lynn a wise voice that Christian educators should be listening to, and we hope you'll be encouraged by this week's conversation.

This week is part two of our conversation with our co-host Abby De Groot along with our friends Rikki Brons and Gayle Doornbos as they share about their adventure this summer on pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We recommend that you go back and listen to our last episode before diving into part two of the conversation. In this part of the conversation, we focus on what pilgrimage is, what it is all about, and how pilgrimage might even be educational—an adventure in pedagogy. We discuss the difference between pilgrimage and “going for a walk,” the role of community in our pilgrimage through life, and the way Christian educators might benefit from thinking about teaching as a sort of pilgrimage–walking on the way and seeking to faithfully follow Jesus. We hope you'll be blessed and encouraged on your journey by listening in! If you are interested in learning more about traveling the Camino themselves, our friends recommend checking out Encounter: Travel for Transformation. You can find more information here: https://encounter-tft.com/ 

This week's episode is a special first part of a two-part episode. We have a couple of friends joining us today, Dr. Rikki Brons and Dr. Gayle Doornbos. Abby, Rikki, and Gayle adventured together this summer, going on a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. The Camino is an ancient pilgrimage route traveled by Christians for centuries, and this was no vacation: this was a spiritual and educational journey! In this episode, we hear a bit about what prompted this pilgrimage for them, how it worked, and what they learned. We hope you'll enjoy hearing about their adventures…and come back for part II in a couple weeks to find out more about the significance and influences they have found not only for their faith lives, but for their teaching as well.

So…we were a little punchy recording this episode, because it was Friday afternoon and it had been a long week. We hope you enjoy a little extra silliness and bantering back and forth! This episode is in response to a question from a listener; Mike asked us to share some of the podcasts we love (besides this one) and were happy to share. There are a wide range of different ideas here, but we think you'll find something to add to your list for listening–things that we think will bring you opportunities for learning, or laughter, or both. You can find any of the podcasts we mention in your favorite podcast platform, so feel free to go searching! Here is the list of podcasts we named in this episode: Revisionist History Stuff You Should Know The Ten Minute Bible Hour The Anthropocene Reviewed Everything Happens Freakonomics The Last Archive Up First In All Things Pantsuit Politics  What Should I Read Next 99 Percent Invisible 32 Thoughts No Laying Up In this episode, Dave's bi-weekly newsletter also came up as a topic of discussion. It is entitled “Positivity. Passion. Purpose.” and it's meant to encourage and support educators who need a boost of positivity, a jolt of passion, or a reminder of their purpose. He would love it if you would check it out, and you can subscribe for free: https://drdave.substack.com

Welcome to Season 7! It's been awhile since we've been able to get together around the microphones, but we are excited to dive into more conversations with you. Matt kicks off the new season by sharing a recent podcast episode that got him thinking deeply about the importance of reflection, and the surprising power of reflection for solidifying our understanding and learning. This prompted us to do a little shared reflection on the things we experienced and learned this summer, and we even get a little personal with the new things we are finding in this season of newness. These personal reflections further prompted us to reflect together about our development as teachers over the years and how seasons of newness often are opportunities for growth. We hope that listening in might prompt some reflection of your own, and some collegial conversations you might have about your personal and professional development. The podcast Matt referenced in this episode is called The Learner Lab, and the specific episode that got him thinking about the importance of reflection was this one, entitled “The Surprising Power of Reflection.” You can listen to it here: https://thelearnerlab.com/the-surprising-power-of-reflection-giada-di-stefano/ 

Greetings, loyal listeners! We are still in full summer mode, but don't worry--more new episodes coming your way soon. This week is a replay of a popular episode from about one year into this podcasting adventure; hopefully, you'll enjoy re-listening (or perhaps listening for the first time!)  And so, for today, one from the archives. Our main topic in this episode was sparked by a question from a listener; Loretta asks, “In the past few years, our school has embraced Project Based Learning as a preferred teaching method. What are your thoughts on PBL? And what do you think are some of the best things about PBL and maybe what are some of the downfalls of teaching in a PBL style?” This was a timely question, as Matt and Abby had visited a PBL school just the week before we recorded this episode! We think together about the similarities and differences between having students “do projects” and implementing “project-based learning.” We further explore some of the habits of mind that seem to be important for implementing PBL at a classroom level and at a school level. Expanding audiences, exhibitions of student work, student empowerment–we talk about it all!

This is a new episode, but perhaps a little different than most! We have had a terrible time getting the three of us to be in the same place at the same time with the mindset and wherewithal to record new episodes. (Never fear–new episodes are coming soon! Once we're all back from our summer travels, we'll get back into our normal routine.) :-) In the meantime, this one is made up of two elements: both a snippet from an earlier conversation that Dave had cut out during the editing process, as well as a solo recording Dave made of a piece that came from his old blog. We hope that both of these will offer encouragement for novice teachers…and their more experienced colleagues as well. If you're interested in reading the original piece from Dave's blog, you can find it here: https://iteach-and-ilearn.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-good-teacheror-great-teacher.html 

Greetings, loyal listeners! We are into full summer mode now, but don't worry--more new episodes coming your way soon. This week is a replay of a popular episode from about one year into this podcasting adventure; hopefully, you'll enjoy re-listening (or perhaps listening for the first time!)  And so, for today, one from the archives. In this episode, we begin by reflecting on our first year of podcasting. Listeners, we are SO grateful for you! And we want this show to be the sort of thing that encourages, challenges, and blesses you, so we would love to hear your feedback, questions, comments, and wonderings. You can always contact us at hallwayconvospod@gmail.com. After that opening reflection, Matt brings us a quote from Parker Palmer's book, The Courage to Teach, and shares a story of a recent interaction with a fellow educator who is grappling with the idea of the standardization of education–and wondering whether “teaching” is just being reduced to “technique.” We think through some of the challenges of developing as educators, and the difference between thinking of teaching as a science, as an art. After some disagreement about this, we settle on the idea that teaching is both an art and a science, and think through some of the ramifications for how that impacts our work as educators.

This episode was prompted by an email we had from Emma, a recent college graduate with a bunch of great questions, seeking our advice for how to navigate the beginnings of entering this profession. She had some great questions–thanks for asking them, Emma! We offer our on-the-spot advice to a variety of questions, from how to get to know the culture of the building, to getting how to build relationships with students, to what to do if you disagree with a seasoned colleague's approach. We hope that if you are new to the profession, or joining a new school, or if you have a new colleague coming aboard in your teaching team you'll find some encouragement in this episode.

Greetings, loyal listeners! We are into full summer mode now, but don't worry--more new episodes coming your way soon. We plan to work around our travel schedules and different pace of the summer months, and we will still have an episode for your listening pleasure every other week as has become our pattern. But we probably be alternating new episodes and replays throughout the summer--hopefully, you'll enjoy re-listening (or perhaps listening for the first time!) to some of our earlier episodes. And so, for today, one from the archives. In this episode, Dave kicks things off by sharing a story about how he has changed his mind about some things in education. We then have a robust conversation about the ways teachers probably should change their minds over time, which is a hallmark of learning, after all. We hope you'll enjoy and be blessed by this summer replay. Original episode including show notes here:  https://hallwayconvos.podbean.com/e/episode-024-changing-our-minds/ 

After our last episode where we interviewed two of our graduates who are right at the beginning of their careers, we thought it could be interesting to hear from some folks who are wrapping up long careers as professional educators. So we were delighted that our good friends, Kim and Ed Starkenburg, were willing to join us for this episode! Kim and Ed recently retired from teaching after 40+ years teaching. They have such great stories to share–from how they came into the profession, to how they have seen things change over their long careers, some of the joys and challenges they experienced, and the things they miss (and don't miss!) now that they have retired. There is a lot of collective wisdom here that they shared, and whether you are new to the profession, are an experienced educator, or just think back fondly on some of your own teachers, we know you'll be blessed by listening in. Blessings to you, dear listeners, as you wrap up this school year and transition into summer mode.

In this episode, we were blessed to be joined by two of our now-graduated students, Shanoah De Waard and Josh Schouten. These are two amazing people who are right at the beginning of their careers as professional educators. We were so delighted to have had the opportunity to teach these two, and even more delighted to have them join us on the show! It was wonderful for the three of us to get to visit with them, and hear their stories about their experiences in their teacher preparation program and student teaching, as well as what they are headed into as they begin their work as professional teachers. Whether you are relatively new to the profession, or an experienced veteran educator, hearing from Shanoah and Josh will inspire you and give you some ideas about how you can encourage and mentor colleagues who are just joining us in this vocation. We hope that as you listen in, you'll reflect on your own induction into teaching, and how you've grown in your understanding of the important work you do, serving kids through education.

This week, we are joined by our friend and colleague, Ross Douma, who serves as Director of Athletics at Dordt University. Ross is a longtime educator and coach in both faith-based and public schools, and has a wealth of insight and experience to share. We asked Ross to share some of his vision for a distinctively Christian approach to athletics, and he has plenty of wisdom to share. If you are a coach, parent of athletes, teacher of athletes, or an athlete yourself, we are sure there will be things in this episode to both encourage and challenge your thinking! From the way the emphasis on athletics has shifted over time, to the need for redemption of athletics in contemporary culture, to advice for parents for how to encourage kids, to reframing “extra-curricular” activities to “co-curricular,” we talk about it all!  In the episode, Ross references the Defender Way, which is a coaching philosophy that guides the athletics department at Dordt University. You should definitely read up on it here: https://www.dordt.edu/athletics  We also talk about Coaching for Transformation, and if you serve at a faith-based school, we highly recommend you look into this framework as a way of reimagining what athletics might look like in your school: https://www.coachingfortransformation.org/ 

Our discussion this week was sparked by a hallway conversation about all the grading we are doing these days. Abby shared a couple of resources (posted below) that she has shared with the future teachers we serve–some really good prompts! As we looked at these pieces, we saw many ways we are already implementing some of these strategies, and some strategies we might like to try in the future as well. We hope there are some great nudges here for you in ways to be more effective and efficient in getting feedback to your students, no matter the grade level or content area you teach. Check out this infographic full of ideas for efficient grading from Todd Finley: https://twitter.com/finleyt/status/1597809178827190274?s=20 This post from Jennifer Gonzalez at Cult of Pedagogy also has great ideas that might be an inspiration for you: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/cut-grading-time-in-half/  And, while we're on Cult of Pedagogy, here's an approach for writing better rubrics: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/single-point-rubric/ 

This week, we are joined with our good friend and colleague, Dr. Val Zonnefeld, who teaches in the Dordt University Department of Mathematics. Her expertise is in math education, and she teaches multiple courses for the future teachers in our program–both math content, and math methods. We start this episode by sharing our own “math stories”: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Val has extensive knowledge from the research in math education as well as a ton of practical experience from her years teaching math in middle school, high school, and college classrooms. Throughout our conversation, Val shares lots of wisdom and ideas for teachers and parents alike in helping the kids in their lives wherever they are with mathematics–whether they feel the math anxiety (which is very real!) or if they are high-achieving “mathletes.” We hope this episode is an encouragement for you! In the episode, Val mentions the book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, by Peter Liljedahl and recommends this one for teachers. You can find it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Thinking-Classrooms-Mathematics-Grades/dp/1544374836  Dave also brings up a fascinating tool called WolframAlpha, which is an A.I. computational knowledge engine. It is worth checking this one out, and you can access it for free here: https://www.wolframalpha.com/ 

Abby kicks things off for this week's conversation as it's “hiring season,” and she is serving on a hiring committee for teachers at her own kids' school. We also see our students, future teachers that they are, heading into interviews, and know that they are highly sought after! (You might not have heard, but there is a bit of a teacher shortage going on!) All joking aside, in this episode we discuss the challenges of the teaching profession today. In particular, we wonder how schools can acknowledge the hard work teachers do, facilitate ways to make that work more doable, and also attract new teachers to the teaching profession? We have lots of questions, and a few ideas for ways to schools to address the ongoing challenges of hiring and retaining great teachers. We would, as always, love to hear your feedback in response. You can always drop us a line at hallwayconvospod@gmail.com.

This week we are so grateful to have our friend and colleague from the Dordt University Social Work department, Dr. Tara Boer, in on our conversation about students' mental health. This is a passion area for Tara, and she has expertise from her background and experience as a therapist. She has lots of helpful advice and encouragement about how parents and teachers can help kids with their mental health concerns. In this episode we talk about the impacts of social media, different ways that anxiety manifests in students, trauma responses in kids, and kids' self perceptions. Tara shares a variety of strategies for parents and teachers who are looking for ways to help and support kids' mental health. From questions to ask kids, to strategies for journaling with kids, to partnerships with professionals…Dr. Boer has a wealth of wisdom to share! We hope this longer-than-normal episode will be a blessing for you and the kids in your life. You can get more information about Tara and more resources at her website: https://drtaraboer.com. We urge you to connect with her, and have her speak at your event. She is an incredible speaker and will bless and equip your school, church, or community group with her wisdom. In the episode, Dr. Boer recommended the book The Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegel and Tara Payne Bryson. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Brain-Child-Revolutionary-Strategies-Developing/dp/0553386697  

“For the shortest month…February is the LONGEST MONTH.” In this light, Dave brings the question for  this episode: “How can we beat the February doldrums?” We think out loud together, as usual, and share some of our strategies. Some are small things, like just noticing how the days are getting longer. Others are bigger strategies, like dress-up days, or including intriguing projects, or saving a high-interest mini-unit that brings you delight to break up this stretch. We also think about how we sometimes need “permission to play”--and encourage ourselves (and our students) to be a little silly, playful, and whimsical. (Like leaving signs around your classroom that say, “It's been 1000 days since the last bear attack on our campus.) We hope that this episode will get your creative juices flowing for how to spark a little joy and delight–for both you and your students alike.

Today's conversation was sparked by an assignment Abby gives in one of her courses–she has her students write a “reading biography” to reflect on their process of becoming a reader, how they feel about reading, and how their stories impact their reading habits even today. This has us thinking about our own reading biographies, and we shared some of our own stories, including Matt's love of hockey cards, Abby's secret hiding places (stay out of the dryer, kids!), and the time Dave got mugged on his way home from the public library. (So many reading adventures!) Along the way, we find some nuggets of wisdom for helping nudge students towards becoming more joyful readers. We hope this conversation might prompt some reflection for you about your own reading biography!

Welcome to Season 6! We are excited to dive into more conversations with you. We begin this episode with a little reflecting on the journey that has brought us to this point; we're so grateful to you, dear listener, for joining us on the journey. This episode is inspired by the fact that Dave has been working on writing a book(!!!) and we spend a little time celebrating that he has completed the manuscript, and is piloting it in his Introduction to Education class this spring. The title is Always Becoming, Never Arriving: Developing an Imagination for Teaching Christianly, and we use this as a springboard to start thinking about how a “teacher imagination” develops, and how it's a process of continuing to “become” a teacher. Also, Abby brings up the escaped hippos of notorious drug-lord, Pablo Escobar, and how they are causing all kinds of problems in Colombia. (Of course Abby would bring this up!) We hope this episode is delightful, encouraging, and thought-provoking for you in developing your own teacher imagination. If you're interested in Dave's book (thanks for that!) you'll have to wait for now–Dave is hoping to get it published, and we'll keep you posted about when and where you can get a copy.

It's a shorty solo episode from Dave this week, as the three of us haven't been able to get together long enough in the same room to record an episode in the past two weeks! In this episode, Dave shares an old post from his now-defunct blog about the importance of taking breaks. We hope it's an encouragement to you to embrace the change of pace that comes with Christmas break. We'll be back with new episodes in January! If you're interested in reading Dave's original post, you can find it here: https://iteach-and-ilearn.blogspot.com/2012/12/on-importance-of-taking-breaks.html 

Matt and Dave had a great time away in British Columbia recording our last episode with our friend Darren Spyksma, but it sure is good to be back with our normal trio–we definitely missed having Abby with us! After a little good-natured joking around, we turn much more serious, thinking about the Advent season we are now in. All three of us love Advent! Matt brought along an Advent prayer that we used to open our conversation today. Dave recently shared an Advent story in his email newsletter, which became a big part of our conversation today. Dave shares some of that story here, and if you're interested in reading more, you can read the full post–it is linked below. We hope this episode is a blessing for you, and encouragement to slow down as you move towards the manger this year. Dave's newsletter post, which is entitled “Advent is the Antidote” can be read in full here: https://drdave.substack.com/p/advent-is-the-antidote  If you're interested in subscribing to Dave's newsletter, you can do that here: https://drdave.substack.com/ It is all about encouraging teachers to embrace positivity, rekindle their passion, and strive towards living out their purpose. It also includes a healthy dose of Dave's playful approach towards his teaching practice. He would love it if you'd follow along.

Matt and Dave recently had the opportunity to travel to British Columbia for the InspirED Christian Educators' Conference, and while we definitely missed Abby, we loved having the opportunity to record a live episode while we were there. Regular listeners will notice a dip in audio quality–hazards of recording a live episode in a large room! (Thanks for listening anyway; we think there will be a good bit of wondering and curiosity for anyone who listens in.) Because we're used to being a trio now, we asked our good friend, Darren Spyksma to join in the fun. Darren serves at the Society of Christian Schools British Columbia. Darren has a wonderful rhythm of tweeting out an “Ed-thought of the day”: something that will challenge and/or encourage reflection on the part of Christian educators. We tackled a couple of his prompts live to try our normal thinking-out-loud of our hallway conversations. We also took questions from the audience as prompts for our conversation. In this episode our conversation ranges from the difference between compliance and learning, the beauty of a well-placed semicolon, the faith-formation aspects embedded in the curriculum, how to manage the burden of the ALWAYS MORE nature of teaching, and what to do with “Indiana Jones” teachers. Something here for everyone! We hope you'll enjoy this longer-than-normal episode with all the silliness and joy. You can follow our friend Darren Spyksma on Twitter: @dspyksma  In this episode, Darren mentions the book The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel as a motivator for his own Sabbath practices, and he recommended this one to us. You can learn more about it here: https://www.amazon.com/Sabbath-Classics-Abraham-Joshua-Heschel/dp/0374529752