Teachers Changing Teaching

Throughout the series, we will examine the role of technology in promoting rigor, the benefits and challenges of rigor, and the importance of differentiating instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners. We will also explore ways to assess and measure rigor in the classroom and how to use data to drive instruction.Whether you are a teacher looking to enhance your instructional practices or a parent interested in supporting your child's academic success, this podcast show is for you. Join us as we delve into the world of academic rigor and discover how it can transform the learning experience for students.

Today we discuss being a mentor in the classroom to prospective teacher candidates.

Our hosts had the opportunity to present at a conference at John Brown University and host a Q&A around their experiences hosting and producing a podcast for teachers. Here is the raw audio from the presentation. We hope you enjoy listening to the process we've gone through to create this podcast for teachers. It's been transformative.

In today's episode Natalie, Rachel, and Jamie talk about adding another mode to projects with students.

In a follow-up episode to “Thinkin' About Part 1,” Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel share their experience of moving away from the use of individual student devices in the classroom. What have they discovered? Focused work, more assignments submitted, easier grading, and the music of rustling papers. Today at school, consider this: What lies have you believed about yourself and your teaching? What are you good at? What are your boundaries? What's one thing you can assign on paper? 

Natalie sits down with Jamie to discuss leading the student council program at the school where she teaches. This section is geared towards those who do not have student council as an elective. Enjoy!

Today on the show Natalie shares her experience leading Student Council at her school. If you are in charge or helping with StuCo at your school this episode will help guide you. We hope you enjoy this 2 part series on StuCo.

In today's episode, the tables are turned as Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel ask upcoming teachers Val and Eden what excites them about teaching, what intimidates them most, what the purpose of school is, and what their personal teaching philosophy is. Val shares her thinking around classroom management, and Eden encourages teachers not to limit students' interests based on teacher expectations. The conversation is a refreshing call to remind all educators what the whole purpose of education is. When there are a million other voices telling you what to care about in your classroom, we invite you to listen to this conversation and ground yourself in what truly matters.Today at school, consider this: How can you create a safe space for students? What do you believe the purpose of education is? What is your greater purpose for teaching?  What still excites you about teaching?

In today's episode, Jamie asks Rachel and Natalie to identify something that she keeps “thinking about” as they teach. Rachel discusses her feelings about technology, specifically ChromeBooks, in the classroom.

In today's episode, the tables are turned as Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel ask upcoming teachers Val and Eden what excites them about teaching, what intimidates them most, what the purpose of school is, and what their personal teaching philosophy is. Val shares her thinking around classroom management, and Eden encourages teachers not to limit students' interests based on teacher expectations. The conversation is a refreshing call to remind all educators what the whole purpose of education is. When there are a million other voices telling you what to care about in your classroom, we invite you to listen to this conversation and ground yourself in what truly matters.Today at school, consider this: How can you create a safe space for students? What do you believe the purpose of education is? What is your greater purpose for teaching?  What still excites you about teaching?

In today's episode, Val Harder and Eden Hinton, preservice teachers and undergraduate students who are completing their teaching degrees, ask Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel their pressing questions as they consider setting up their own classrooms for the first time. The teachers discuss classroom management, grading, and the “why” behind teaching. They go on to talk about maintaining a work-life balance, engaging students in reading, and cultivating classroom culture. Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel share what keeps them in the classroom when there are so many challenges in the teaching profession. Today at school, consider this: What can you systematize to take back time and balance in your life? How can you best give and utilize feedback to support students? What's your “why”? What keeps you in the classroom when the days are difficult? 

In today's episode, Val Harder and Eden Hinton, preservice teachers and undergraduate students who are completing their teaching degrees, ask Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel their pressing questions as they consider setting up their own classrooms for the first time. The teachers discuss classroom management, grading, and the “why” behind teaching. They go on to talk about maintaining a work-life balance, engaging students in reading, and cultivating classroom culture. Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel share what keeps them in the classroom when there are so many challenges in the teaching profession. Today at school, consider this: What can you systematize to take back time and balance in your life? How can you best give and utilize feedback to support students? What's your “why”? What keeps you in the classroom when the days are difficult? 

In today's episode, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel analyze “The Mower” by Philip Larkin. The conversation starts by Natalie asking, “What do you notice?” The poem then leads to discussions about grief, nature, punctuation, imagery, and kindness. Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel also consider the best way to follow-up close readings and analysis in the classroom. In this impromptu analysis, the hope is that you would be inspired to tackle poetry with your students or on your own. Today at school, consider this: Read a poem. What do you notice? 

In this very special episode, the Teachers Changing Teaching  producer,  Russ,  makes a guest appearance! In the English World, there is often a sense of mystery, elusiveness, and aloofness surrounding poetry. Russ shares about an experience he had writing poetry in class. This leads to a conversation about the perceptions of poetry in school. Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel share about their own hesitations surrounding poetry and the poets that helped them move through those hang-ups. Today at school, consider this: What are your assumptions and fears around poetry? How can you replace those poetry fears with playfulness and courage? Who is your spark poet? 

 Based on our previous conversation about frontloading (Episode 9 - “Frontloading”), Rachel follows students' curiosity while introducing Romeo and Juliet. Her students came up with a list of intriguing and eclectic questions. The question today: So now what? In an on-the-spot lesson planning session, Jamie and Natalie share ideas for how to use students' questions in instruction. Along the way, they discuss the importance of having students categorize and of honoring students' curiosity. Today at school, consider this: How can you foster students' curiosity? How can you use students' questions to inspire your instruction? 

What's the easiest thing for three English teachers to talk about? Books.  In today's episode, Rachel asked what everyone has been reading, what's been inspiring, and what types of readers we are.  As those who want to encourage students to find their own reading identity, the three women discussed how they help students think about these items as well.    Today at School: Make a list of books that inspire you. Read those.

We've all been there: the moment where you realize you're overcomplicating what should be simple.  Too often in teaching, we spend so much time in the planning process that we actually end up doing most of the learning for our students.  In today's episode, Natalie explains what a “tape moment is,”  Rachel gives an example of a tape moment that occurred recently, and Jamie discusses the philosophical reasons for why teachers desire so much control in the classroom.Today at school, consider this: what would it look like if I really “went for it” with my class period, rather than my planning? If you've ever had a tape moment, what did you learn? What did your tape moment reveal about yourself? 

The Answer to: In today's episode, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel tackle the dreaded topic of assessment. Specifically, they wonder which form of assessment to use and how to philosophically align them with instruction. The conversation also quickly turned to a larger discussion about what our teaching and learning is helping us to understand about our students and if that translates to our assessments. The three also discuss the challenges with each form of assessment and how certain types of assessment seem inherently more merit-worthy in the ELA discipline.Today at school, consider this: What type of assessment would you like to grade? Be honest!

In today's episode, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel tackle the dreaded topic of assessment. Specifically, they wonder which form of assessment to use and how to philosophically align them with instruction. The conversation also quickly turned to a larger discussion about what our teaching and learning is helping us to understand about our students and if that translates to our assessments. The three also discuss the challenges with each form of assessment and how certain types of assessment seem inherently more merit-worthy in the ELA discipline.Today at school, consider this: How is your instruction philosophically aligned to your assessments? What are you trying to learn about students, and how does that affect your assessment? What are you TRULY wanting students to learn, and how is that represented in your assessment?

Now that the 2021/2022 year has begun, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel reflect on their first weeks back.  They each share what has been encouraging to them and what brings them joy during these exhausting first days. In the midst of fatigue, they all agree that getting to be with students is the very best thing.Today at school, consider this: What made you joyful after the first few weeks of school? What excites you about the upcoming school year? In what ways are you changing and growing more confident in your teaching?

After considering the many challenges and insecurities teachers face when teaching a novel, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel discuss how they tackle teaching a novel. Their conversation focuses on trusting your instincts, using a consistent method or means for students to track their understandings throughout the novel, and the importance of teaching what interests you as the educator. Today at school, consider this: What methods can you employ to help students track their understandings in a novel so that they do not become disoriented along the way? How can you use what interested you in a novel to inspire your lessons and daily interactions with students? 

On this episode, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel discuss the insecurities and questions teachers face when teaching a novel. Together they consider the challenges of how to decide what to teach in a novel, the pacing, and the balance of reading and pausing to do projects. As they discussed, they also address the underlying insecurities that come with teaching a novel: do I know enough? Am I enough?Today at school, consider this: What insecurities prevent you from trusting yourself as you teach a novel? When you read a novel that you are assigned to teach, what naturally interests or excites you?

After discussing the challenges of the first two weeks, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel share some of their approaches to the first few weeks of school. Natalie talks about the importance of sharing the purpose behind classroom expectations and holding students to those expectations. Rachel shares a community building activity that also serves to create classroom culture. Jamie encourages teachers that their classrooms can have a reset at any point in the year. Today at school, consider this: What is the “why” behind your expectations for students? What benefits could a mid-year reset bring to your classroom? 

Starting the school year can be a daunting task. Within a short amount of time, teachers are challenged with creating a classroom culture that sets the tone for the school year. Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel discuss why creating expectations and community in a classroom is such a daunting task. Their conversation discusses the importance of viewing classroom management as classroom leadership and the benefits of teachers seeing themselves as members of the classroom community. Today at school, consider this: How can viewing yourself as the classroom leader, instead of the classroom manager, change your approach to teaching? 

In this episode, Jamie expounds upon the idea of frontloading before reading a class text.  If reading is meant to be a learning, exploratory, and organic process, what is the purpose of frontloading before students read a text? Jamie discusses her philosophy of providing students with broad historical and contextual details and waiting to discuss other matters until they naturally come up in the text. Too frequently we have equated struggle with stupidity in our classrooms and have taken this responsibility and ownership away from students. How can we instead use frontloading to introduce rather than answer?Today at school, consider this: When you engage in frontloading, are you answering the very questions that the text seeks to address? What is too little or too much frontloading?

After considering the myriad of challenges facing teachers as they seek to promote an environment that encourages students to read, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel discuss solutions they've found helpful in their own teaching practices. Jamie considers the teacher's perspective and how to position content in the classroom, Natalie discusses her independent reading approach, and Rachel discusses close reading strategies she employs to help students in the classroom content.Today at school, consider this: Where are students actually starting in their reading process? How can I facilitate student understandings of texts rather than showcase my own understanding of texts as the teacher? How can I regularly include reading in my daily practice? 

On today's episode, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel consider the question, “how can I help students see themselves as readers?” Helping students create a reader identity, combatting pessimistic views towards reading, and bolstering engagement with classroom content are all challenges that teachers face in their classrooms. This conversation addresses these pressing concerns and seeks to bring light to what “reading” truly is.Today at school, consider this: When you discuss reading, are you considering it as only words printed on a page? How can you help foster the growth of reading identities in your classroom?

Teaching during the 2020-2021 school year was a challenge. As summer approaches, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel reflect on the year and consider how they would like to move forward. They discuss the obstacles of ever-changing schedules, teaching without their usual bag of tricks, and some of the issues in school systems which were highlighted by COVID. There are also takeaways and lessons from the year; mainly, that students want to be connected and want to know that teachers care.  Today at school, consider this: What was difficult about the 2020-2021 school year for you? What did you learn that you can take moving forward? How can you embrace the upcoming year with an open heart and a renewed commitment to your craft?

Today, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel consider solutions to the question, “How do I incorporate writing more regularly in my classroom?” They consider how to use standards, timing, student experiences, and the length of assignments to craft meaningful writing assignments. This conversation explores how regular writing routines, thoughtful unit planning, and modeling helps to build a classroom where students see themselves as writers who believe that their words and ideas have value.  Today at school, consider this: How can you broaden your definition of writing to engage more students? How can you invest in the community of writers already in your classroom? 

As teachers, we are surrounded with questions from students, colleagues, and ourselves (just to name a few sources). On today's podcast, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel take a moment to unpack the question, “How do I incorporate writing more regularly in my classroom?” What do we mean when we use the word “writing”? How do standards, content, and students' insecurities work together or in oppositions of one another? This conversation seeks to thoughtfully explore the many challenges and possibilities that come for teachers who want to be more intentional with writing in their classrooms. Today at school, consider this: When you say writing, what do you mean? Do you know? Do your students know? 

This week, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel discuss building community at school and simplifying the meaning making process. Natalie shares how her beliefs lead to joy, simplicity, and optimism in her classroom. Rachel shares a podcast project she created based on one of her values: community. Plus, why you might need a Mountain Poetry Phase.  Today at school, consider this: How can you support your students in meaning-making? How can you lead right where you are? Soundtracks, Songwriting, and Soundscapes: Producing the Podcast of Our Lives

One of the most challenging aspects of teaching in the first few years is navigating how to unit plan in a way that covers the standards, encourages creativity, and assesses student learning.  In this episode, Natalie and Rachel discuss how they use essential questions, standards, and assessment to guide their day-to-day lessons in a way that meaningfully guides students through their learning.  Today at school, consider this: How can you use essential questions as guardrails to guide all that you do in your classroom? 

Every story needs an introduction, right? In this episode, Jamie, Natalie, and Rachel tell their stories. They discuss what led them to the classroom, what makes them passionate about teaching, and what their vision is for Teachers Changing Teaching. Plus, how a COVID summer and time on Jamie's back porch inspired us to focus on our strengths. Today at school, consider this: How can you be the best version of yourself by leaning into your natural strengths?