Podcasts about common core standards

In this impactful episode where we dive into some of the biggest challenges teachers face today. Are schools truly responsible for student truancy? How can we support the diverse needs of our students while keeping lessons effective and engaging? We'll cover proven strategies for lesson planning, maintaining classroom discipline, and most importantly, building meaningful relationships with your students. You'll also learn practical tips on how to balance formative assessments with ongoing parent engagement to boost student performance. And for new teachers, we've got some great advice on why proactive communication with parents is crucial. Plus, we're sharing real stories and expert insights to help you make a lasting impact in your classroom. This episode is packed with valuable tools and resources designed to help you excel as an educator—don't miss it!00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview00:44 The Warning Bell: School Responsibility for Absenteeism01:36 Impact Platform: A Resource for Teachers02:02 Lawsuit Against NYC Public Schools03:29 Challenges Faced by Schools and Parents05:35 Personal Experiences as an Assistant Principal10:05 Teacher Toolbox: Properly Planned Effective Lessons13:53 Formative and Summative Assessments21:40 Engaging Parents for Better Student Outcomes22:02 Promoting Teacher Merchandise22:50 Proactive Parent Communication Tips24:07 Using Newsletters for Effective Communication28:14 The Importance of Setting Parameters30:01 Managing Classroom Behavior38:11 Exit Ticket and Final Thoughts

In this episode of 'New Teacher, Big Impact,' Darryl Williams Jr. dives deep into mastering student engagement with proven strategies tailored for today's tech-savvy classrooms. The episode examines how TikTok's rise has reshaped education and created new challenges for teachers in engaging students. From handling TikTok's influence on student behavior to applying creative solutions like storytelling, games, and lesson differentiation, this episode offers actionable advice. Darryl explores how educators can balance digital wellness with classroom engagement while maintaining positive energy and avoiding bland lessons. We also highlight the importance of ethical reward systems, setting clear expectations, and supporting every student's learning journey. Don't miss this opportunity to upgrade your teaching toolkit and attend our free workshop for more insights. Engage with us, share your experiences, and let's transform the way we connect with our students!00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview00:40 The Warning Bell: TikTok Lawsuits00:54 Impact: Professional Development for Teachers01:53 The TikTok Algorithm and Student Addiction04:14 School Districts' Financial Burden07:16 TikTok's Response to the Lawsuits09:33 Educators' Role in Digital Wellness12:10 Engaging Lessons: Teacher Toolbox23:41 Engaging Students with Storytelling25:12 Incorporating Videos for Diverse Learning26:18 Interactive Learning with Games28:00 The Power of Collaboration28:28 Differentiation: Tailoring Lessons for All31:23 New Teacher Quick Tip: Avoiding Pity Parties36:43 Rewarding Student Achievement44:10 Exit Ticket: Reflecting on Engagement Strategies

In this October episode, we are bringing you some spook-tacular writing activities that will engage your students while building key skills in narrative and persuasive writing. First, we dive into a Halloween-themed writing activity where students get creative by designing their own costumes, writing vivid descriptions, and crafting persuasive ads using ethos, logos, and pathos. This lesson is the perfect blend of creativity and structure, aligned with Common Core Standards, so your students have fun while honing essential writing techniques. Next, we explore the always-popular Choose Your Own Adventure stories. We'll show you how to guide your students in creating interactive, branching narratives that teach cause and effect, critical thinking, and technology skills using Google Slides. The best part? It's a project they can complete while learning essential writing and digital literacy skills. If you're looking to bring some Halloween fun into your ELA classroom while staying aligned with educational standards, this episode is packed with ideas for you! Mentioned in this episode: Halloween Costume Persuasive Ad Writing Activity Choose Your Own Adventure Story Template Bonus Halloween Stories for Middle School ELA: Duffy's Jacket Click Clack the Rattlebag The Monsters are Due on Maple Street Sorry, Wrong Number:  Don't forget to subscribe to Two Middle School ELA Teachers for more creative, standards-aligned activities to bring fun and learning together in your classroom.

List of 216 schools whose initial budgets are cut compared to last year's initial budgets https://onedrive.live.com/edit?id=BE64F542247E68E7!76061&resid=BE64F542247E68E7!76061&ithint=file,xlsx&authkey=!APxYIxA0MIKmTCg&wdo=2&cid=be64f542247e68e7&link_id=1&can_id=e162a5e988b2cf9c89a105c454340eee&DOE revises online guidance to require parent consent in response to our legal appeal https://classsizematters.org/in-response-to-our-legal-appeal-doe-will-now-require-parent-consent-before-assigning-students-to-online-classes/Daily News, NYC public schools revise remote learning policy after advocates ask state to intervene https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/07/05/nyc-public-schools-revise-remote-learning-policy-after-advocates-ask-state-to-intervene/?share=thwawgnhevfaoywnencrTom Loveless, Why Common Core failed, Brookings Institute, March 18, 2021 https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-common-core-failed/NYC's new algebra curriculum mandate divides educators https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2023/11/10/high-school-algebra-curriculum-mandate-divides-teachers/ Chalkbeat, Math instruction overhaul: NYC unveils new curriculum mandate for middle and high schools https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2024/06/24/nyc-schools-to-mandate-standardized-math-curriculum/ The 74, NYC Bets New, Uniform High School Math Curriculum Will Boost Student Test Scores https://www.the74million.org/article/nyc-bets-new-uniform-high-school-math-curriculum-will-boost-student-test-scores/

Melisa Nielsen at Waldorf Essentials inspires you to not be intimidated by common core standards. - Melisa breaks down each common core standard. - You may be surprised the Waldorf homeschooling curriculum goes above and beyond the common core standard requirements. - Charters. - Testing. - Tips for navigating state requirements. You can also find us on YouTube "Waldorf Essentials" Please share with your fellow parenting friends and homeschoolers. We are in this journey together. If you found this content helpful please consider making a donation to our non profit. Every child should have access to a whole education. While we work hard to keep our virtual school tuition and curriculum prices affordable, there will always be families that desire this education but can not afford it. It is our deepest desire to help those families. https://www.aurielslight.org Auriel's Light is a non profit and all donations are tax deductible. https://www.waldorfessentials.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waldorf_essentials/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaldorfEssentials/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/waldorfessentials/_created/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/WaldorfMelisa

Laura Bean, writing specialist, educational wellness consultant, and creator of Write to the Core curriculum, which integrates social-emotional learning with reading and writing joins Kristi and Kelly on this episode of Mindful Conversations with KAY. During this thoughtful interview, Laura shares more about her work which promotes self-reflection, empathy, compassion, and creativity while addressing Common Core Standards. Listen in as they discuss: How Laura's mindfulness practice developed The role of mindfulness in fostering a compassionate learning environment Using writing as a means of self-discovery Tips for teachers to integrate mindfulness within their curriculum The importance of supporting our students and helping them to stay regulated throughout the day Why we must do our own work and have our own personal practice Laura lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and teaches English Language Development and mindfulness to high school students. She shares powerful poems and writings from her students. Connect with Laura! Learn more: www.mindfulliteracy.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurabeanmindfulliteracy Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/laurabeanmindfulliteracy/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurabeanmindfulliteracy For further reading and learning opportunities: Amy Saltzman, https://stillquietplace.com/ Go With the Flow – Let Creativity Clear the Path: https://kiddingaroundyoga.com/go-with-the-flow-let-creativity-clear-the-path/ Compassion Through Yoga: https://kiddingaroundyoga.com/compassion-yoga-children-patanjali-sutra/ Yoga as a Social-Emotional Tool: https://kiddingaroundyoga.com/yoga-social-emotional-play-based-movement/ Bring yoga & mindfulness into your school with our EduKAY School Workshops. Learn more: https://kiddingaroundyoga.com/school-workshop/

It's final exam season! So we thought it would be a good time to get into a debate about tests. Should we continue using paper tests, or is it time to give tests on computers? Which way is easier? Which method is best for teaching and learning? Should we stick with paper or is it time to say: Let's Get Digital! Tune in as four educators share their thoughts on this debate!Resources Referenced in this EpisodeMore information Common Core Standards of Math Practice (including #5) can be found here.The study that Kathy mentions can be found at this link.Follow Julie Reulbach on Twitter: @jreulbach or at her Blog: ispeakmath.orgFollow Eli Luberoff on Twitter: @eluberoff or Email: eli@desmos.comFollow Kathy Henderson on Twitter: @kathyhen_Follow Patricia Vandenberg on Twitter: @VbergMath or at her Blog: patriciavandenberg.comListened to the episode? Now, it's your turn to share! Go to our Twitter: @DebateMathPod to share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out the video version of this podcast on our YouTube channel!Keep up with all the latest info by following @DebateMathPod or going to debatemath.com. Follow us @Rob_Baier & @cluzniak. And don't forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts!

Here is the rest of the podcast episode with Jennifer Choi. In this part of our conversation, we talk about truancy in schools, especially in NYC. Have you ever considered polling your community as to why students are missing days at school? Jenn and her partners released this survey last fall. They let it accumulate responses for a few weeks. They posted the results recently.She offers a free IEP Meeting Checklist and information about her survey. Links are listed below. Reach out to JennWebsite: Special Support ServicesSchool Refusal SurveyIEP Meeting ChecklistEmail: jenn@specialsupportservices.comToday's Sponsor:Dotterer Educational ConsultingWriting ChallengeMath ChallengeReach out to your host:Cheri Dottererinfo@cheridotterer.com ★ Support this podcast ★

Shannon and Mary read over and discuss the Speaking and Listening standards in Reading to develop a deeper understanding of how and why these standards exist and help the students grow in literacy.     They show how the standards develop in the depth of knowledge across the grade levels from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade.   They also share ideas of ways to embed Speaking and Listening standards practice in classroom routines and project-based learning.Episode Links for Resources:Common Core StandardsReading Rockets:   Speaking and Listening in Content Area LearningSpeaking and Listening standards UtahElementary Nest:   How to Fit in Daily Speaking and Listening ActivitiesEducation Week:  Helping English-Learners Meet the Common Core's Speaking and Listening StandardsThe CCSS Speaking and Listening Standards...in 20 days or Less!The Forgotten Strand in ELA:   Speaking and Listening9 Big Ideas Within the Speaking and Listening StandardsLet's Talk...About the Speaking and Listening StandardsListenwise:   A tool to build listening comprehensionTeaching the Common Core Speaking and Listening Standards:  Strategies and Digital Tools by Kristen Swanson *Amazon affiliate link*Teaching the Core Skills of Listening & Speaking (ASCD) by Erik Palmer   *Amazon affiliate link*COME JOIN THE CONVERSATION!Our WebsiteFacebookInstagramShannon's TpT StoreSupport the show

Think about your favorite teacher. What were they like? What made them your favorite? Now, imagine if your favorite teacher quit their job before you had them in your life. What would you have lost? Think about what future generations of students will lose if more teachers leave because teachers don't feel valued or trusted or fairly compensated. If things don't change, more teachers will leave because they are realizing that they can. In this episode, we hear from former teachers who left education and are happier for it.   Music:  Theme Song By Julian Saporiti  “Don't You Leave” by Crowander is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Happening for Lulu” by Kraus   is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Soldier's Story” by Blanket Music  is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Be Nice” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Fireworks” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Faster, Sons of Vengeance, Faster!” by Doctor Turtle is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Changing Moment (ID 1651)” by Lobo Loco is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. Transcript: A quick warning, this episode discusses sexual abuse. During the quarantine, I received an anonymous letter from a former student that had since graduated. After pleasantries, the note says “I'm writing you now to thank you for things that you never knew you did when I was your student.”  And then they go on to explain that though I would not have known this, they had been sexually abused by their father, and they had just found the strength to tell someone, cut ties, and start the healing process. They said that my class was a space that made them feel safe, heard, and respected. They wrote that I helped them quote “understand that there are good men, ones that deserve to be fathers.” end quote They were intentional in saying that they didn't know if I would figure out who they were, but regardless, they wanted to thank me and let me know that I played a part in helping them get through the abuse.  Every time I read this letter, it breaks me. I hate that this student had to go through this. I hate their father. I am humbled by the fact that I could be a source of support for this student, and I hope so badly that they can heal.  No kid should ever have to experience this, but they do, and because they do, they need adults, teachers, in their lives that can support them, even if those adults are unaware of that support. We need teachers who are themselves supported and happy and in a space that values them, so that they can be as wholly present as possible for students. But at this moment in time, many teachers, so of the people that students need most, don't want to teach anymore. And that fact is devastating. We're at the end of this series. We've explored a variety of things contributing to teachers leaving the profession - feelings of being devalued, a lack of autonomy, struggles with mental health. We've looked at why teachers might be treated the way they have been, from pop-cultural stereotypes to an odd historical inheritance …to having unclear expectations of what education is for. And we've even looked at some solutions and where they come from. All of this to make sense of why teachers might be leaving, and to draw attention to the fact that without authentic and relevant change that is not the burden of teachers, teachers will keep leaving.  Today, we will hear teachers who left education explain how their lives are now, and  we will explore some resources available to teachers who are looking to leave education. And from what I've heard through interviews and people reaching out to me because of this podcast, a vast majority of teachers that have left the classroom are much happier. So, if nothing from this season has convinced you that we need to do something to keep teachers in education and something real, maybe this episode will. I am not saying this as a threat, but from the perspective of a realist. Think of it as a natural consequence. Refuse to address and take genuine action to keep teachers, or they will find their way out of education because they can. And in this present moment, they will likely be happier for it.  This is the finale to Those Who Can't Teach Anymore, a 7-part podcast series exploring why teachers are leaving education and what can be done to stop the exodus. I'm Charles Fournier. Here is part 7: “Those Who Can't Teach Anymore” Camile Lofters reached out to me in the early stages of this project. Camile was a high school English and journalism teacher in south Florida. She left teaching after 15 years in the classroom , and she was one of those people that felt destined to be in the classroom. Camile Lofters: I feel like teaching was in my blood.  My mom was an early childhood education major and taught preschool, and, you know, lower elementary school. So I mean, I grew up watching her, and wanting to emulate her. So I would line up my stuffed animals and like, I had a little pointer, and I would teach them things. And when I graduated, I was so excited to start teaching that it was like everything to me. But like most of the people that shared their stories throughout this podcast, Camile left. And even though she is from Florida and most of the other folks I've spoken with are from Wyoming and the west, Camile's reasons for leaving were the same. She pointed to not being trusted or seen as an expert, to politicians that oversteps their role in education, to low pay, to being undervalued, and the list goes on. And like the other teachers, Camile still values education. Camile Lofters: Even though I did leave the profession, I still love teaching, and I still think it's one of the greatest professions. But as we all know, in our country, education system is a little broken, maybe it's a lot broken is a better way to say it. So, I feel like when the pandemic happened, it sort of broke everything wide open forever for a lot of people. I mean, it's not like it's just me.  We haven't addressed the pandemic much throughout this series. Not because the pandemic didn't have a significant impact on teachers deciding to leave, but because the reasons teachers are leaving didn't start with the pandemic.The pandemic forced teachers to reflect on what they're willing or not willing to accept. Camile reflected on whether she could teach for another two decades. Camile Lofters: And the answer used to be yes, I'm going to teach until I'm 60. And when it started to become like I don't know, and then it was like, definitely not. And I was like, this means I need to do something else. You know, if I'm feeling that way, it's not fair to myself, my family, but also I think to the students. They deserve to have teachers that are really excited to be there. And yes, I am a good teacher and I could go back and still I think do a good job, but I just feel like mentally I would be falling apart and that's not that's not really fair to anybody. You've heard this throughout the series. Many teachers are leaving because they know that they aren't doing their job as well as they want to, so they leave. The pandemic contributed to this. More teachers thought about what they could and couldn't do anymore. The pandemic made the job more difficult. Skepticism of teachers rose, student and parent behaviors became worse, everyone's mental health seemed to get worse, and more expectations were placed on teachers. Teachers know this, but when more is put on a teacher's plate, it's usually not taken off.  Camile felt this, and she also had a daughter in the middle of it all.  Camile Lofters: That 2020-2021 school year was just really, really difficult. And so then by the time my daughter was born, you know, in June 2021, I was like, No, this is this, I gotta find something else. So she started the process of looking for something that she could transition into. And she was looking for something that  would allow for more financial opportunities. On top of having a daughter, feeling all of the frustrations and stressors of teaching and the impact of the pandemic, Camile wanted to be paid better. Camile Lofters: Pay was a big part of it. It's really disheartening to work so hard for so long and never see an increase in your salary. I graduated from college with all my friends, we were all making about the same amount of money. And now most of them are making double, if not triple you. You know what I'm making. I worked really hard to be a good teacher and constantly doing professional development and looking for new strategies. And so I think it's disheartening to not have that come with any sort of raise and compensation. So I will say that that was definitely a factor when I realized that if you account for inflation, I had basically never gotten a raise, like ever. And her only prospect for a raise was to become an administrator, despite all of the extra work she'd done like designing curriculums.  Camile Lofters: And I hate when people say, “Well, you didn't go into teaching for the money.” Well, of course I didn't, but I'm a human being that needs to survive, I have a family and I would like to be able to provide for them. Pay matters, so Camile left teaching and transitioned into a new career where she feels better about the pay.  Camile Lofters: So, I've been making a little bit more money, not a ton, but a little bit, and it does matter to me, because there is the potential for me to make more money. In my job, I have the potential to earn more, And there's a lot of room for growth. And so that was very appealing to me, to actually be in a position where there could be more upward movement in my salary.  Camile acknowledges that she now has to pay her own health insurance which means her take home pay is about equal to what she was making as a teacher, but that doesn't matter to her.  Camile Lofters: I'm so much happier that it feels different. It feels like I'm making more money. And her transition out of education allows her to continue working with kids, which is something many teachers point to when deciding whether or not they will leave.  Camile Lofters:  I am the photography manager and sales representative for a school photography company, I was a yearbook teacher for eight years. So the company I work for, actually, I used to be like, a customer of theirs, like I was the teacher, and they were my photography company. And her transition to her new job has been pretty smooth.  Camile Lofters: And I love it. It's a great job for me. I use a lot of skills that I already had as a teacher. I already knew part of the business because I was a customer, so I already know the customers want, what they need, that sort of thing. Part of what made her transition smooth was her willingness to learn. The people that I have talked with that successfully left education did so with humility, knowing that they had a lot of great skills, but that they also had a lot to learn.  Camile Lofters: So learning the business side of things, I am literally always just sitting in my boss's office whenever possible, just like listening to him talk about the business, because it's just mind blowing to learn. Camile Lofters: And I'm still learning because obviously our company's since it's a school photography company, we follow the school year, and each phase of the school year brings something different. But yeah, I'm really excited about it. I think it's cool to always be learning something new.  So Camile left teaching, but she still gets to take part in the things that she enjoyed about teaching.  Camile Lofters: And I get to work with teenagers all day long at a really exciting time in their lives. They're doing, you know, they're seeing your pictures and their, or their school pictures. And they're usually pretty excited about that. So just making them feel good. You know, like, establishing a rapport with a teenager is hard for a lot of people. It's not hard for me. It's something I did all day long. So it's been really cool to use my teaching skills in a new way. But the things that are different about education are well worth it.  Camile Lofters: I have just a lot better work life balance, now. So my schedule is flexible. If I need to leave early one day, I can just schedule to have an early day or come later or you know, be closer or farther away from home. So that's really nice. I also get to actually speak to adults during the day, which is great. That's always nice. You know, really silly things like I can use the bathroom whenever I want to.    And the common rebuttal for why teachers shouldn't complain about their jobs, you know, summers off, Camile doesn't mind not having her summers off. Camile Lofters: There have been several people still to this day, who are like, “Oh, well, don't you miss having the summer off?” and different kinds of things like that. And I think at the end of the day, having a summer off is great, but if you feel like you're only living your life in those two months of summer vacation, and then the rest of the year, you're miserable, then like, what good is that? She has more financial opportunities and she feels happier. And contrary to any stereotypes, her leaving education doesn't mean that she hates kids or that she is anti-education. She has this to say to teachers who are struggling with that aspect of leaving education.  Camile Lofters: So I would just say that and that, if you are thinking about leaving the classroom, that doesn't make you a bad teacher. That it's normal to have those thoughts, and that's okay. Camile advocates for teachers as much as she can, and she feels like being outside of the classroom gives her some opportunities to be a little more vocal - especially in Florida where teachers have been egregiously attacked through politically charged legislation like the don't say gay bill, the stop woke act, the overall rejection of AP African American history, and sadly the list goes on.  She uses her social media platform to share her voice. Camile's sense of relief and happiness upon leaving education is not unique. This shouldn't be the case. And teachers aren't quitting to sit around, they are going into other careers, which may make it very difficult to lure them back to the classroom. If we want teachers to stay in education, education needs to be more appealing than the other options available to them. Jaye Wacker, who we heard from in the first episode, left teaching after being in the classroom for three decades. He is now a Senior Public Information Officer at the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information. Like Camile, Wacker feels like life is better.  Jaye Wacker: I work for a director, who is one of the themes in Administration and Information that she keeps hammering is work life balance. And I don't feel like teachers have work-life balance in the slightest. Well, yeah, it's balanced, but it's balanced one way you know it. And that's tragic. That's no way to live. It's no way to draw great people into the profession. There has to be a balance. There has to be a…there's something more than the paycheck. Wacker uses the portrait of a single day to explain how his life is different since he left teaching.  Jaye Wacker: Sundays, I was the worst person to be around, hard to be around. And whether I was working on my lesson plans for the week or trying to devise something, or even just putting it off, because I didn't want to deal with it. Waiting until Hannah was in bed Sunday night, and then sitting right there at the end of that dining room table, with my books, holding back the curtains and trying to figure out what's the best way to reach and meet the GVC.  As a reminder, the GVC, or Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum, is the effort to standardize education, and acts like a middle-man to the Common Core Standards. So, for Jaye, his quality of life on Sundays is better because he isn't having to use Sundays to prepare for the week. He doesn't get those Sunday Scaries anymore.  Jaye Wacker: I can do whatever, and then just go to work the next day. I go to work, and the sun's up. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've sat in the room and watch the sunrise.  And like Camile, losing out on summers wasn't a big deal, contrary to the cultural stereotype that teachers only work for the summer.  Jaye Wacker: I'm a firm believer that June, July and August are not the three best reasons to be a teacher. In fact, they're probably the three worst because people who think they're the three best, they're miserable nine months out of the year. And so I really kind of stressed about how am I going to deal with summer. And last year, I didn't even notice. I didn't even notice. And this year, the only thing I know is that, oh, my daughter's not in school anymore. And I just go to work and it's chill, and I work with good people. And I used to say teachers worked 12 months and nine. It's more.  Wacker misses some of the people, he misses the kids, he misses the conversations, he misses the books, but he doesn't miss how he felt. He still has some leftover traces of being a teacher ingrained in him. Jaye Wacker: If somebody's in my office, and we're just having a conversation. I feel a little bit of panic. I literally do. Because I have that feeling like I need to be doing something else. I don't miss the pressure. It is and it's gotten geometrically more pressurized in the last few years. I don't miss that a bit. I and that's part of what I couldn't take any more. I couldn't take the pressure anymore The pressure and stress Wacker was feeling was keeping him from the people that matter most to him. Now he gets to spend more quality time with them. Another aspect of why teachers left teaching was being trusted. For Stephanie Reese, the opportunity to make more money and  to feel  respected was huge in why she changed careers. We've heard from Stephanie several times over the course of this podcast. She was a PE teacher and she left teaching after eight years. She is now the general manager at Black Tooth Brewing Company in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Stephanie Reese: I have a fantastic boss, but I'm basically my own boss, because I'm here in Cheyenne. And they're up in Sheridan. So I'm trusted to make decisions. And I don't have anybody breathing down my back. And, you know, I think the trust is the biggest thing.   With that trust, comes a feeling of being valued, which equates to getting paid better.  Stephanie Reese: When my boss offered me stock in the company, like having a part of something, being a part of something because you earned it, and being promoted like that was definitely like, Oh, this is not education. And yeah, I mean, I'm definitely surprised each day. I'm like, wow, this is so much better than each day because you're just not enduring the shit that goes along with everything, like you can actually do your job. Right? So many more distractions when you teach or, like expectations, or having to juggle this, this and this, or do all of this without any support. And you're expected to do this. And so with this job, like, I can just do my job. It's a really good feeling. And if this isn't clear, Stephanie's quality of life is much better. Not only does she feel satisfied in her work, she is making more money than she did as a teacher. This has been a theme, many of the people that talk about a pay increase also express a feeling of being valued more in their new jobs. Stephanie explains that her job is not without stress, but it feels different.  Stephanie Reese:  I can tell, okay, all this work I'm putting in the stress is worth it, because we're making money. And so I love that aspect of it. Teaching in a lot of ways is you give and give and give and give and give and give a whole lot more. And then, oh, here's a $5 gift card to Starbucks. Thank you so much for all of what you do. Like that, to me in a nutshell is teaching.  There's no appreciation for it. Really, maybe superficial, but not individualized. Stephanie was adamant that teachers that are suffering and not enjoying their work need to reflect on what they want out of their life because change is possible, and it might not be worth waiting for the system to change around them.  Stephanie Reese: Life is too short, to waste time or thinking about, well, if this happens, then I'll be happy. You've had to figure that out now, because it's just way more important. The positive is driving it, especially me quitting it, it definitely was driven by wanting more positive in my life rather than negative, and it is worth it to change. So if you're scared, or if you feel like you need more help, there's so much out there so many people, especially nowadays who have been through the same thing. And as you've heard, people are transitioning into a variety of different careers - all resulting in better qualities of life. They transitioned into careers that fit them best. Stephanie manages a bar, Wacker works for the state, Camile works for an education adjacent company, and Ron Ruckman, who we heard from a few episodes back left teaching after 23 years to work in construction.  Ron Ruckman: My mental state has always been that way in the summer, like any mental state is so much better. I'm so much happier and so much less stressed. Because I go to work and we have fun and we joke around and we do our thing and we all we kind of work together and everybody respects each other and we know that each other can do the job, but I go to school and I always kind of feel like, there's always somebody watching me thinking like somebody is constantly evaluating every second of everything I do, which they're probably doing construction, but it doesn't feel like that for some reason. Why, I don't know?  Ron is happy not to have to manage the emotional baggage of teaching. He doesn't have to manage other people's emotional wellbeing in construction.  Ron Ruckman: It just builds. I don't have that with construction. You know? If so and so wacks their thumb, you're like, Well, that was dumb, move on, you know, or whatever. Or they got a rough family life, that's your deal, dude. We're gonna get back to work. Yeah, we got things to do. It's hard to make non-educators understand the level of relief people feel when they leave the profession. For Ron, it was the ability to not feel so emotionally overdrawn.  For my wife Jennie, who left teaching after 7 years to pursue her MBA and Pharmacy degrees, it's a matter of feeling valued and being fairly compensated for the work she does.  Jennica Fournier: When I told people, I just I can't do education anymore. I can't do the parents. I can't do the administrators and everything. People said, well, you know, patients can be really rude to pharmacists. And pharmacists don't have it easy either. And they work really long hours, and they're on their feet all day. And I just thought, yeah, that is all the same things that I'm going through, but I will get paid two to three times more than I would as a teacher. And that's significantly different. And I feel compensated, but not just like a monetary compensation. I would also get respect in the community. People would respect my opinions more. You know, if I ran for office as a pharmacist, I think that I would get respected more than running for office as a teacher. So I think you get more reward than you do. I guess you get more benefit compared to your risk. This goes back to the need to value educators. That means seeing them as human beings, not martyrs, not saints, not slobs. It's not allowing stereotypes to dictate how teachers are treated or viewed. For Jennie, she felt a clear difference in how she was treated outside of education.   Jennica Fournier: So some of the MBA events, just the networking that happened and the high level conversations that you were able to have with other people that didn't focus around children. I suppose the first time that I was at a networking event. I felt very much like respected and I felt interesting. That was kind of the moment where I was like, Wow, I'm outside of this upstanding member of society realm. I mean, as of as a pharmacist, do I still have to be a professional and live my life? In a, in a good way? Yes.  Jennie is happy to be away from the unrealistic expectations of being a teacher. These are the stereotypes that we discussed in an earlier episode.  Jennica Fournier: To be a good teacher, it means that like, I'm pure, and I'm thoughtful, and I'm helping and I'm a martyr. It's not like she's teaching to the highest level of her degree, and she has all the best training to be a teacher. I don't really feel like that's what people think of when they think of a teacher. Like she's teaching the top notch science, the highest level science that she can and the newest things. That's not what people remark about with their high school teachers. They remark about how friendly are they? And this shift out of education has done wonders for how she feels about herself.  Jennica Fournier: My self-esteem is incredibly higher than it was before. I get a lot of positive affirmation, and I get it from my peers and my teachers in this setting, and I feel very accomplished here.  I want to pause here for a moment. You might be thinking, Charles, this is starting to sound kind of repetitive. Well that's because it is, because I cannot stress enough that teachers are leaving their jobs, and when they leave, many of them are happier. When I asked former teachers what it would take for them to return to education, a few said they would consider returning if their new career didn't work out and education had tremendous reform. One said a quarter of a million dollar salary. And most said they would NEVER consider returning.  Shane Atkinson is one of the people who is much happier after quitting teaching. He is now working in government and he feels like he's valued and trusted. Shane is the person in the first episode that explained how education was like an abusive relationship. Being in a new career only highlights how glad he is to be out of teaching.  Shane Atkinson: Every morning, I start work at 9am. If I drive to work, it takes me three minutes. I ride my bike almost every single day. Takes me 20 minutes to ride my bike. So quality of life wise, I've been sleeping better than I have, in my entire adult life. I sleep so well, I wake up feeling refreshed, I wake up at the time that I would have had to be at work before. And I sit around, I read the news, I listen to some music, I drink coffee, just have these nice, leisurely mornings. For example, Shane compares what it's like being late at his new job versus what it was like to be late as a teacher.  Shane Atkinson: I was five minutes late, one day, probably two weeks into starting at this office. And I did not have a sense of doom. I didn't feel like my boss was there and you know, walk in and she's like, Hey, how's it going? No, no big deal whatsoever. I remember multiple times administration would be sitting by the door where teachers come in, basically keeping notes who's here two minutes late.  And in this new career, he feels like he is receiving what he needs to feel sustained and supported.  Shane Atkinson: The other thing where I work now is just incredibly supportive. My boss, my immediate supervisor, my head boss, they actually seem to value you as a human being. It's crazy, I didn't even realize that was a thing. And I'm sure it's probably not everywhere. But I just feel absolutely valued.  If I said, I had a really hard day today, and we have those hard days. And I just need some time. Great Take, take tomorrow, take a mental health day you've earned it, you know, would be the narrative. If I get off a very tough call, or a rough meeting, right, we deal with some pretty sensitive things, sometimes people even more so than education, but I can hang up for that call. And I can go for a while. I'm not ruled by the bell schedule. So, all of these former teachers left education, and are happy with their new careers. And I know this is a small sample of teachers - 5 teachers don't represent all teachers, but their stories and their experiences cover the gamut of what I've heard from teachers across the country. Based on my experience, a majority of teachers that have left education are happier. If we want to keep good teachers in education, teaching has to be more appealing than alternatives. Because right now, folks are willing to go back to school, jump into completely different fields, work in the service industry, work constructions, lose out on the retirement plans and insurance plans, in order to get away from being a teacher.  And those that don't like their work but remain in education, may have a variety of reasons for doing so. Shane speculates on why folks stay when they don't want to be there. Shane Atkinson:  I'm here because I have to be here because I need my health insurance. I'm here because I need a steady paycheck. I'm here because this is a big one. What else am I going to do? Who else? What experience? Do I have to go out and do something else? Right? And it's, it's actually really difficult. I read a lot about this when I left, because I had no clue what I was going to do.  That last piece of what Shane is getting at, the “I don't know what else I can do” is a big hurdle for lots of people. Many teachers have spent every year of their lives in school either as a student or as a teacher. Many don't know anything else, so transitioning might be terrifying. They may have also bought into the rhetoric that teachers aren't able to do anything else, “Those who can't do, teach,” which I think we've established is a ridiculous saying that should go the way of the dodo. And if you are among the folks that think teachers are only able to teach, and nothing else, you are gravely mistaken. And that assumption is tied to why teachers are treated poorly. The assumption that teachers are stuck could be contributing to why teachers aren't being valued. To make sense of this, here is a quick example. One of my favorite poems by Wallace Stevens has this line, “Death is the mother of beauty.” So without death, we might not recognize beauty. Now, when thinking about teachers, without the threat of teachers leaving, teachers might not be valued like they should be. It's a catch-22. When teachers quit, they are valued, but teachers are quitting because they aren't valued.  So, in order for teachers to be valued, it might require more teachers to leave the profession. And for folks who want to leave, but don't know how to make the transition, there are people who help teachers figure out how to transition out of education. Meet Daphne Gomez. Daphne is the Founder and CEO of the Teacher Career Coach, a company that helps teachers transition out of the classroom. Daphne Gomez: So if they don't make changes to how much we ask of teachers, how much we pay teachers, it's gonna continue to get worse. It's not worth it for people to be in a position where they're being beaten up. Daphne helps teachers leave education. She is not the reason teachers want to leave education. She is not responsible for teachers that are overworked, payed poorly, treated poorly, and devalued. She is someone who tells teachers that it's okay if they want better for themselves. Teachers are not limited with what they can do. And from what Daphne has seen, folks that are leaving are doing well.  Daphne Gomez: We have to lower class sizes, we have to be able to improve our funding for teachers salary, we have to make changes as far as that goes, because right now teachers are hearing stories of people who are leaving. I can say 85% of over 300 teachers that I surveyed just last week, have either matched their salary or increased their salary with whatever position they took after leaving the classroom following my resources.  Teachers have a lot of skills that can translate into new careers. This is a reality that non-educators need to be aware of. And teacher attrition will only get worse because teachers are seeing their former colleagues leave, make more money, and feel happier in their lives.  Teachers are tired of being beaten up, so they are leaving teaching because they are realizing that they can. I don't blame them. And there are times when I envy them - when I hear how happy they are or when another bad piece of legislation or policy is voted in, I think, “I could do something else” and feel pretty good about it.  As a former teacher, Daphne is well aware of the difficulty of being a teacher and the struggles of trying to leave the profession. Daphne Gomez: For me, when I started thinking about leaving the classroom, I was breaking down, sobbing on the way to work. I was going into the hospital, not every day or anything. But there are about three different times that I went to the doctor and he said, these are weird, stress related illnesses, it does something to your body.   But something about it did not work for me anymore. And when I started to tell my coworkers I am not going to a different school district, I'm just gonna find a different job and see if that helps me heal, everybody's first sentence out of their mouth was, “You can't leave. You're a good teacher. Children need good teachers.”  The people that said this to Daphne were not bad people.  I heard this when I stopped coaching. It's not that people are trying to guilt teachers into staying - it's that they want good teachers to stay, but they have nothing to offer except “you're good at this.” It goes back to that stereotype that a teacher should just continue the job because they are doing a good thing, but again, teachers should be treated like martyrs. And being good at something isn't enough of a reason to continue doing it. Daphne wants to change this view of leaving education.  Daphne Gomez: There's really never been that discussion of it's okay to walk away from it. Even if you're good. Even if you're happy. You can be the best teacher in the world and very, very happy. And then someone offers you something that's $10,000 more, and you absolutely can leave for it. But we've never had those discussions.  Daphne Gomez: I think that there is a system of emotional blackmail and gaslighting that's been going on in the education system for a really long time. And I think that they know that they can hold children above teachers' heads. They can use that year over year over year.  But as we heard from the teachers earlier in the episode, many of them left even though they liked to teach or they enjoyed the kids. None of them left and said, “I hate kids.” This is an easy way for people to demonize anyone that thinks of leaving and to guilt teachers into staying. This isn't a healthy way to keep teachers in education. This is that abusive relationship that Shane pointed out at the start of the series. Part of what has allowed this rhetoric and guilt to work for so long is the fact that teachers didn't think they had a choice. But they do have a choice. Part of what set Daphne on the path to create The Teacher Career Coach was to address the problems she had with leaving education. She reflected on her own experience in order to help others. She started by asking questions about her experience.  Daphne Gomez: Why was that so hard on me? Why did I feel this need to stay in a career where I was truly breaking down? And why was it such a hard decision for me to actually leave? And how can I help other people who are struggling with that? For Daphne, some of this starts with addressing the guilt teachers have when trying to decide to walk away.  Daphne Gomez: I've seen the guilt, where people are offered positions, and they've said, I can't do it. I want to stay one more year because my grade level team and I have a lot of work. And I think where a lot of this comes from is because we went into this position because we want to help others. Every single thing that you do in teaching impacts children that impact students, it is something that you're super passionate about. So every time that you sacrifice three hours of your own personal life after you're done working, that students leave, you're done working, quote unquote, done working, and then you sit down and you do something for three more hours.  Teachers care about their students, and so much is put on teachers' shoulders that it can be hard for them to make self-serving decisions. But being selfless is not often sustainable nor healthy.   Daphne Gomez: But then at some point, you reach this breaking point of I have to put myself first and that is not something that you have done in this position. I've heard of teachers, you know, staying in very extreme situations or the guilt getting so bad that they talked to therapists for five years and the therapists really were begging them you are not doing well mentally in this role. You have to leave and they would just push back and push back and say I can't leave. The students need me. I can't leave.  But they can, and they are, and for many of them, the decision is better for their mental health. Still, that doesn't make leaving easy.  Daphne Gomez: We're going to hurt our coworkers, we're going to potentially hurt students. And for people with huge hearts that go into this, to help other people that is, you know, the biggest hurdle to get over is knowing that your ACT may be selfish people may think of you differently, everything that you've done as a teacher for, let's say, you were in the classroom for 10 years, the second you decide you want to leave and become a project manager, everybody's gonna say, Oh, she's selfish. And that's hard for us to really deal with mentally. The ability to leave education might be getting easier though. The rhetoric around leaving this “forever career” is being challenged and teachers are calling out the stereotypes. More teachers are leaving because more teachers are realizing that they can leave. This means that the guilt of ‘doing it for the kids' isn't enough to keep teachers in. Culturally, we need to recognize that guilt is not a good teacher retention plan. Teachers are seeing successful examples of people leaving education all around them.  Daphne Gomez: The correlation between how people are talking about teaching, and that it's okay to leave teaching, and people actually leaving teaching in mass quantities cannot be ignored. I think that it was something that was supposed to be your forever career. The second you go into teaching, you are there for 30 years, there's not a career trajectory. And besides becoming an admin, This is going to be like what you do until you are retired. With the language around leaving education changing, mass amounts of teachers are hearing that it's okay to leave an unhealthy work environment and find work that will better serve their well-being. So there will be more openings and less teachers to fill those openings, which means that education will suffer. And hopefully nobody wants that, but that's where we are headed. Teachers are realizing that the burden of staying in education isn't theirs alone, and if education suffers, it is because of a larger failing of the community and government to value education and the those who work in education  So until the burden of keeping teachers in education gets picked up by non-educators, this will continue. And Daphne is trying to make it easier for folks to see their options, not by just challenging the rhetoric around leaving education, but by providing resources and services to help teachers leave. Daphne's company has created a variety of resources to help teachers adjust and market their skills for outside of education. They have developed a Podcast, Courses, and even a jobs board to help teachers find a good fit for a new career.  There is so much her company does to support teachers, and I asked her, based on her experience helping teachers transition out of education, what she has noticed teachers struggling with.  Daphne Gomez: It's not a valid one, but the self doubt, and even the lack of career preparedness isn't the right word for it. But I would say, the lack of experience with writing resumes and interviewing this is somewhat unique to teachers. They don't have the experience of working in corporations. So there's a lot of upskilling that needs to happen. Daphne wants teachers to have a growth mindset. There will be a learning curve in this transition, and she encourages teachers to remain humble. Yes, teaching is a difficult job, and teachers have a lot of skills that will translate well into other careers, but there will still need to be some learning, as Camile pointed out earlier in the episode. Daphne doesn't sugarcoat the reality that leaving education can be stressful but it's important to be honest and express a willingness to learn while highlighting how teaching translates into the role they're interviewing for.  The voices from earlier in this episode all had pretty clear paths to new careers. But there are teachers that just want out. Daphne warns against flailing and reaching for any opportunity, but she does emphasize that  this transition doesn't have to be a forever career.  Daphne Gomez: And then once you get your foot in the door at a company, if it's a large enough company, or something that you're really passionate about, after a few years, you can always use that as a stepping stone to pivot into a different department and get an internal promotion. It's so much more common outside of the classroom than people realize. They think that whatever this next career is, is going to be, you know, the end for them. But you're not picking your next forever career. You're picking your next starting point. When thinking about the former teachers we heard from at the start of this episode, many of them relied on some of the skills they had as teachers, but some of them leaned into the skills and interests that they had outside of education because they are dynamic human beings. Ron went into construction. Jennie leaned into her love of science, but the soft skills she developed as an educator has helped her tremendously with interacting with and explaining things to patients.  Like Daphne pointed out, the thought of leaving education leaves me with a sense of guilt. The thought of working in a different career feels a little intimidating, but I know that what I'm doing now is not sustainable.  It's been close to a year since I wrote the grant to start on this podcast, and in the development of the series people suggested that my conclusion should include a big reveal, like my declaration to leave education. That sounds cinematic, and if we've learned anything, it's that education is not a movie. I don't have any insight into what my future of teaching will look like. All I know is that I am hopeful that education can get better, but I know that unless something changes, what I'm doing now can't last.  So instead of a reveal or a declaration, I'll leave you with my advice if you want to keep people like me in the teaching profession. We need good teachers to want to stay in education, and it is not their sole responsibility to make education a place they want to stay. We need a cultural shift that values education and values educators. So, talk to teachers. Let them know you appreciate them. Listen to their stories and experiences, and don't rely on unrealistic stereotypes.  Push back on the anti-intellectualism that Ray Bradbury warned us of 75 years ago. Listen to experts. Make informed decisions based on facts and evidence. Come to terms with the fact that education should serve a diverse population of people, and if you are not okay with that, find an alternative to public education. And lastly, Vote for people who value education. Speak out against legislation that does not serve all students. And if that sounds too difficult, then know that more teachers will quit. Teaching vacancies will mount, class sizes will grow, the teachers that remain will get stretched even thinner, and rushed solutions will put unqualified people in front of your children. The diverse population of students in our country will lose out on opportunities and the education they deserve. And public education, as it was established in the US, to create a well informed populace so that we may have a thriving democracy, will suffer, which means democracy will suffer because it's far easier to take advantage of an uninformed, poorly educated populace than one that is well informed and willing to challenge and question and speak up. And it will happen not out of spite or teachers trying to prove a point. It will happen because it's a natural consequence of the current conditions people are in. So be an active part of the solution, not the problem. If need be, start small. Think about my motto from the road trip class from a few episodes back: Just try to not be an asshole. As always, thank you so much for listening. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, leave a review, and share episodes with everyone you can think of. Word of mouth has done wonders for getting this podcast to people who need to hear it. You can also follow us on instagram at those who cant teach anymore.  This episode was produced by me, Charles Fournier. It was edited by Melodie Edwards. Other editing help came from Noa Greenspan, Sarah-Ann Leverette, and Jennica Fournier. Our theme song is by Julian Saporiti. All other music can be found on our website. A special thanks to Camile Lofters, Jaye Wacker, Shane Atkinson, Jennica Fournier, Stephanie Reese, Ron Ruckman, and Daphne Gomez for sitting down to chat with me. If you want to follow Camile Lofters on instagram, you can find her at in literal color. If you are interested in Daphne Gomez's podcast or any of her resources, check out teacher career coach dot com. And As the season is coming to a close, I want to give a special thanks to my brother Cody and my nephews Finn and Ollie for traveling around Wyoming with me to collect interviews. To the Josie family for letting Jennie and I stay with them for a month and for setting up an office for me in their basement. To my Uncle Richard and Aunt Pattie who let me set up a workspace to produce the 4th episode while we stayed with them over the holidays. To Jennie for coming up with the name and logo for the podcast and for always being my sounding board. And to Fund for Teachers for providing me with the fellowship that got this project rolling.  Again - thank you for listening, and don't be afraid to advocate for teachers so that we can keep brilliant teachers in education.  

NANCY BORDINE, a retired nursing educator and now an author, will join us to discuss her work as a nurse, her love of quilting, and the release of her debut book, "What Do You See? - - Developing New Perspectives with Quilt Patterns". FROM HER WEBSITE: "Nancy's debut book, “What Do You See? - - Developing New Perspectives with Quilt Patterns” features diverse children interacting with inspirations for traditional quilt patterns as a springboard for fostering Empathy, Diversity Appreciation, and Inclusion Strategies with the included Learning Activities. Digital code in “WDYS?” allows parents/teachers/home schoolers to access lesson plans and materials specific to Common Core Standards for K-4 math and geometry." Nancy Bordine "... writes children's books that nurture Empathy, Diversity Appreciation, Critical Thinking Skills, and Racism Awareness. Her next project is an 1880's Young Adult Historical Fiction novel comparing and contrasting a year in the life of a Boston spinster saving souls teaching at a frontier boarding school, and the same year in the life of a Native American girl studying to become a Medicine Women who is captured and forced to attend the same boarding school. As a writer, Miss Nancy taps into her background of RN/Healthcare Educator, where she designed many learning programs, including Critical Thinking, and Diversity Awareness. www.missnancywrites.com

NANCY BORDINE, a retired nursing educator and now an author, will join us to discuss her work as a nurse, her love of quilting, and the release of her debut book, "What Do You See? - - Developing New Perspectives with Quilt Patterns". FROM HER WEBSITE: "Nancy's debut book, “What Do You See? - - Developing New Perspectives with Quilt Patterns” features diverse children interacting with inspirations for traditional quilt patterns as a springboard for fostering Empathy, Diversity Appreciation, and Inclusion Strategies with the included Learning Activities. Digital code in “WDYS?” allows parents/teachers/home schoolers to access lesson plans and materials specific to Common Core Standards for K-4 math and geometry." Nancy Bordine "... writes children's books that nurture Empathy, Diversity Appreciation, Critical Thinking Skills, and Racism Awareness. Her next project is an 1880's Young Adult Historical Fiction novel comparing and contrasting a year in the life of a Boston spinster saving souls teaching at a frontier boarding school, and the same year in the life of a Native American girl studying to become a Medicine Women who is captured and forced to attend the same boarding school. As a writer, Miss Nancy taps into her background of RN/Healthcare Educator, where she designed many learning programs, including Critical Thinking, and Diversity Awareness. www.missnancywrites.com

At this week's Round Table, Jack, Kenisha, Madeline, and Maya spoke with Max Eden, who heads the Conservative Ed Reform Network at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) think tank. While we are devoted to cross-partisanship, we don't get to be in deep dialogue with strong conservatives often enough and we really enjoyed our engagement with Max, talking about various aspects of education reform and, most importantly, the impact of schools on the humans who people grow up to be. Max really helped us understand polarization and the culture wars in education reform specifically, and that the debates of today weren't the debates we were having 10 years ago or even 5 years ago, when the focus was on fixing schools that serve higher need students through various modalities. All of that fell apart in 2015-6 in response to the Common Core Standards being poorly implemented and politically toxic. Foundations aligned with unions around the notion of institutional racism and that schools don't need policy change, they need cultural change. Max feels there's been a slow and steady build around DEI from 2016-20 which got ignited with the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and is now an inferno. He feels we have to view the current AP black studies controversy through this lens, and that a lot has gotten thrown into the curriculum inappropriately, including progressive causes that he feels are forced and wouldn't allow participants to voice their own opinions. Max feels many teachers today are misconstruing their role, and that they should be agents of government rather than agents of social change trying to change the world through youth. Max also shared his perceptions of how progressivism has impacted early childhood in detrimental ways, from lack of emphasis on phonemic awareness to inappropriate attention to gender identity. We also found it helpful to hear about Max's personal path, from being quite liberal in high school to becoming a conservative at Yale–a somewhat unusual trajectory catalyzed by his intrigue about counter arguments to common arguments he knew–and his commitment to shatter the notion that good people think one way. We closed with a fascinating conversation about whether or not schools should be values free and whether or not they CAN be. We'd love YOUR thoughts on this front. Thank you for listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/nextgenpolitics/message

What is joy and happiness? This topic inspired me after having a conversation with someone.Am I choosing joy based on my financial reality? Hear me out…. Maybe joy is choosing what my body would like. Joy doesn't always have to be about money. Money follows joy, joy does not follow money.Are you willing to up level your standard of joy?I talk about the different ways we can choose happiness by shifting our standards.IN THIS EPISODE, I TALK ABOUT:What is your standard of joy?How can you shift your standards? Are you lying to yourself with your standard of joy? What if joy is something your body wants?

We are witnessing a mass exodus of teachers from education. My wife, Jennie, is one of those teachers that left. She, like many educators, was tired of not being treated like a professional. Even for me, a high school English teacher, the job is getting harder. So I go in search of answers. In this episode, we hear from Jennie and two other former teachers about why they left teaching. From struggles with mental health, to low pay, to a lack of autonomy in the classroom - they give insight into why we are losing good teachers across the country. Music:  Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “Worky Work” by Andy G. Cohen is licensed under a CC BY license. “Roost” by Andy G. Cohen is licensed under a CC BY license. “Take it Back” by Crowander is licensed under a  CC BY-NC license “Machinery” by eddy is licensed under a CC BY-NC license “So Far So Close” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Patriotic Songs of America” by the New York Military Band and the American Quartet is licensed under a CC BY-NC license “Another Rainy Day” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC  BY license. “Everest” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC  BY license   Transcript: I was a Junior in high school when my English teacher, Ms. Dianne Panazzo assigned us to write a paper that explored our backgrounds. I wrote about a neighborhood game of capture the flag. In the middle of our game, we came across a soft-top, convertible. It was parked in the lumber yard of the hardware store at the end of our block. Our pursuit of the flag came to a standstill to look at this car. We lived in a small town in western New York – a place of rusted trucks and economy vehicles. One of the boys that lived across the street from us always wore camo and did reconnaissance missions into his neighbor's house. He was pretty sure the car belonged to a guy who was trying to shut down his dad's business. With the logic of 10-year-olds, we felt a sense of duty to retaliate against any encroachment on locally owned, businesses so we stacked lumber and bags of concrete on the car. Then, my camo-wearing neighbor climbed onto the hood of the car and threw a cinderblock into the windshield. There was this cinematic pause, as we gathered our senses, and then we destroyed that car. Lumber and tree branches went through the windows, the soft top was punctured – more cinderblocks made pieces of the car – it was a mess. When we were done, we finished our game of capture the flag and went home at curfew. Later, 2 police officers visited our door, looking for the vandals. Lawlessness that my oldest brother assured them that we had nothing to do with. My essay explored how this story was a metaphor for rock and roll. I know, but it was high school – I was trying to be edgy and profound. My teacher, Ms. Panazzo, applauded my writing and had me walk across the hall to Mr. Wacker's room. This was not because Wacker was more or less of an expert on writing or deviance. Panazzo sent students to Wacker as a way to celebrate and share writing. These were teachers who collaborated often, believed in the writing process, and took efforts to teach students how valuable their writing was. Sending a student to Wacker was a novel way to give kids a feeling of getting published. Wacker was on plan, crouched over a stack of papers, pen in hand, at his desk in the back of an empty, dimly-lit classroom. I had never interacted with him before. He had a reputation of being dynamic, kind, and willing to be outrageous – he's the guy that put on a foam ten-gallon hat and had a stick horse race in front of the school at a pep-rally. To Wacker, shame was for suckers. I told him that Panazzo had sent me. He had me sit in a chair to the side of his desk so he could listen to me read my essay. I read and Wacker nodded, gasped, said, “uh-huh,” now and again – all of the things that I wanted to hear as a young writer. He handed me praise balanced with some advice and sent me back to class. I was impressed by how willing he was to listen to me, to inspire and encourage me. A kid that wasn't his student, interrupting his planning time, to read an essay about young stupidity. That moment was pivotal in my desire to be a writer. And I'm not the only student that Panazzo sent to read to Wacker. My wife, Jennica – she goes by Jennie – had a similar experience. This is what made Wacker a great teacher and what inspires me in my teaching practice still. His willingness to take time for others, whether he knew them or not. But Wacker isn't a teacher anymore. 15 years and over a thousand students after our first meeting, Wacker quit. He told me it was a  matter of life or death. This is Those Who Can't Teach Anymore, a 7-part podcast series exploring why teachers are leaving education and what can be done to stop the exodus. My name is Charles Fournier. I am a high school English teacher. In the 10 years that I've been teaching, brilliant teachers have been leaving the profession, my wife included. And those numbers have only increased with Covid. So in order to root out why teachers are leaving and reflect on my own ambivalence towards teaching, I spent this summer traveling, researching, and interviewing teachers, parents, students, legislators, professors, and administrators to try to find out why good people are leaving education. This is a national problem. In February of 2022, the  National Education Association (NEA) reported that 55% of teachers are thinking about leaving the profession earlier than they had planned. And last spring, in my state of Wyoming, a University of Wyoming survey showed that 65% of surveyed Wyoming teachers would quit teaching if they could. Think of that…about two thirds of the teachers in your kids' school right now want to leave. That's an astonishing number. So I figured Wyoming would be a good place to start. If it's bad here, a state that is seen as a haven for having some of the highest teacher salaries in the past decade, we know it's bad. Maybe salaries aren't the only thing causing teachers to leave. This podcast will explore the reasons teachers leave. We will look at how low pay, ignored mental health, lack of respect and autonomy, and mandated education policy influence teachers' decisions to go. And how these things are not new…take a look at our education system's history. We've talked about reforms for generations. Or think about how teachers are depicted in movies or in political debates. The images of martyrs or slobs also make an impact. Things have been accumulating for a while. And we could see this crisis a long way off. I have wanted to write this podcast since my wife left teaching. And then two more of my favorite colleagues left education just one after the other. So today, I will be starting close to home to find out why teachers are leaving. But before we begin, a quick warning, this episode discusses miscarriage, abuse, and suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please call the national suicide hotline at 988. Here is part 1: “Fight, Flight, or Apathy” Jennica:   My first year was with you was a ton of fun. Jennie and I started teaching at the same school in a small agricultural town on the eastern border of Wyoming.  I taught English and she taught Chemistry and Biology. Jennica: Then you wanted to kind of get out of education for a little bit. So you went and got your Masters. I returned to school to get a Masters degree in Literature, and Jennie started teaching in a new district. She collaborated with the University in town, took kids on field trips into the community and had a wonderful time teaching. But after I earned my Masters, we moved again, and we got to teach together again in a new district.  This was what we'd talked about since our Freshman year in college – to teach in the same building together for the rest of our careers. And working together was amazing, but we didn't realize the toll teaching was taking. Jennica: We had gotten pregnant. And we felt like, oh, gosh, like, we're gonna double down on this career. And we're going to be teachers till we retire. And that felt awful. I felt defeated. Thinking of teaching for another 25-30 years made us very aware that we were more dissatisfied with teaching than we thought. We liked the idea of having kids but now it felt like we were stuck in this career. Then in October, we had a miscarriage. Jennie told me that she felt something wrong in class while she was teaching. She eyed the door and waited for someone to pass her room, so she didn't leave her students unattended. When a principal walked past, she asked him to cover her class, and she ran to the bathroom. Jennie said it was all so fast for her – it was almost a blur. And then she went back to teaching during the same class period in a fog. In another profession, it would have been easy to take the afternoon off, but here she would have had to plan for a sub, which included potentially explaining why she needed coverage on such short notice. She wasn't prepared at that time to do this for such a personal and confusing experience. She said it was surreal for her to brush herself off, put on a smile, and keep on with her lesson. She wasn't even completely sure if she had miscarried until it was confirmed that afternoon at the doctor's office. There are no standard ways to grieve. We went to the mountains and talked and thought and cried and we tried to answer why such things happen. Jennie's mom always tells us, “You know, everything happens for a reason.” So we were trying to find one. Jennica: It was sad to have our miscarriage but at the same time, it was like, well, the door's open again, and leaving this career, is something that I've been thinking about for a little bit. And so it just solidified that I should take advantage of this moment to do something that I wanted to do. When Jennie was still pregnant, our lives seemed laid out in front of us, and we had accepted that.  But our miscarriage gave us a moment to reflect, and we realized that the life we almost had – a life that included teaching for the rest of our careers – was not the life we wanted. We felt like if it wasn't our time to become parents, maybe we were supposed to be doing something else or taking another path. I had just gotten my Masters, so it was Jennie's turn to decide what she wanted her life to look like. Many of the reasons Jennie wanted to leave education had a lot to do with not feeling valued and trusted as a professional – all things that contributed to her own self-worth: Jennica: I didn't feel like I had a lot of autonomy. It was all guaranteed and viable curriculum. And I didn't have a lot of wiggle room. For those of you who don't know, a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum or GVC is an effort to ensure the same quality of curriculum is presented to all students. They are the culmination of efforts to standardize education, and they act like a middle-man to the Common Core Standards. Most states adopted the Common Core Standards, which if followed should already guarantee an equitable education, but the GVCs are used to map how those standards are reached. Jennica:  I felt like I was getting critiqued by people that should have been showing me what to do or helping me to grow. And I just didn't get a lot of affirmation that I needed. I got it in my reviews. I always got really great reviews from administrators, but I just didn't get it from my department. I didn't feel like I was an intelligent person. And I didn't feel like I was doing enough at any given time. Part of this feeling came from having to play the role of a disciplinarian, to uphold rules that she didn't see value in. Jennica: I would have appreciated the administrators focusing more on what the students were learning in my class versus how students were behaving.  And it's strange that I was expected to be a disciplinarian with absolutely no teeth. I don't even think I had the option of having kids have detention after school with me. I think I would have gotten in trouble for making them clean desks after they drew little wieners on the desks. I just felt like I had no control. If I were to send students to the office because of their behavior. It's like a mark against you. You know, you have teachers bragging that they've never sent students to the office. You can hear administrators talking about, “Well that teacher always sends me that student, they need to handle it on their own.” But there's really no way to handle it in your classroom.You know, you call home and the parents just as much of a jerk to you as the child is. And there's just, there's no respect for the teacher from any end. As I did interviews, I kept coming back to these questions: What is the role of teachers in education? How many hats do teachers really need to wear? Teachers are expected to do a lot and sometimes it feels like that includes being a parent. Most teachers have probably had this similar conversation with a parent. The parent says something like, “I don't know what to do with (insert student name). What should I do?”    This is a tough question. When I've tried to answer it, it's from the lens of a teacher, not a parent. Because if my answer was from what I would do as a parent, it might seem like I'm criticizing their parenting.   Jennica: I don't want to have to be the parent, I want to be the teacher. And I think that parents should let teachers be teachers, and that they should play the parent role. I'm an expert in my field. I have a degree in both chemistry and education, and I understand how people learn and I understand what needs to be taught. And parents aren't experts in that field. And I don't think that they need to think that they are experts or control that. Do I think that teachers should just go in without like it's the Wild West and just do whatever they want? No, but I think the oversight should not be parent driven. I think it needs to be expert driven. This would mean trusting teachers as experts in both their content and in the delivery of that content. That trust might start with getting rid of phrases like, Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.” Trusting  teachers to do their jobs recognizes that teachers “Can Do” that's why they “Can Teach.” If we continue to distrust teachers' capabilities to do their jobs, we might have to rely on a new phrase as teachers continue to leave, a phrase that Jennie came up with - Those who can't, teach…anymore.  Outside of education, most advisory boards of any field are typically made up of experts in those fields. Education boards and even education legislation aren't often like that. School boards are made up of non or former educators, and education legislation, at least in Wyoming, is rarely developed by educators. Questioning teacher expertise is a national issue. And the national issues are contributing to why teachers are leaving. Jennica: So the the micro environment that I was in played a part, but then when you went home and read the news, or you, you thought about the bigger picture when it comes to how teachers are viewed, that didn't help it didn't soothe me when I got home.  Hearing about school shootings is devastating and terrifying. Every story makes me think about what if it happened here? When Jennie taught with me, my first thought when going through my imaginary scenario was always, “Will she be safe? Could I prevent a shooter from making their way towards her end of the building?”  Jennica: Thinking about teachers having guns in the classroom, thinking about how I should protect students that weren't mine, they weren't my children, and how it was my job to sort of be selfless, you know, throw my body in front of them. I didn't really feel like that was my role. I'm really good at teaching people how to balance an equation. And I'm really good at inspiring kids and coaching them on what they're good at and encouraging them to keep going through hard problems. But I don't really think that my role as a teacher was to be a martyr for other people's children. So we had had a lockdown. That was a real lockdown. There was a shooting in the neighborhood near the school, and the shooter was still on the loose, so this is what caused the lockdown.  A lockdown requires classes to be buttoned down – doors shut, blinds down, students out of sight of any windows and silent. We practice these often. Once, during a teacher development day, we practiced with fake active shooters to hear what guns would sound like going off in the hallways. I remember sitting in a classroom with my brother – we also teach together – and thinking about the absurdity of having to have officers fire blanks from automatic rifles to prepare us for what could happen. So Jennie was caught in a real lockdown, meaning she had to get students behind a locked door.   Jennica: And I was just panicking about the students and they weren't really like on my side. They weren't coming into the classroom, they weren't staying quiet. And it was just a terrible experience. And I just didn't want to be trapped in that. That's not what I signed up for. I signed up to teach people things, not to save their lives. So after 7 years of teaching, she left. Jennica: When I got accepted into pharmacy school, I was expecting to wait like two weeks after my interview to find out but they pulled me into the dean's office. And they told me that I was accepted, and I just started crying right away because I knew I could quit teaching. I knew that I was going to escape an environment that I was very sad to be in every day. They cried because they thought I cried because I was getting into pharmacy school, but really I was crying because I was getting out of education. This transition out of teaching had a massive impact on her well-being. Jennica: My self-esteem is incredibly higher than it was before. You know, I used to be very depressed, and I was overweight when I was a teacher. And I just didn't really feel good about myself. And I wasn't getting a lot of  positive affirmation from my peers and other teachers. I really thought, like, maybe I'm just not very smart or capable. I'm sure that you remember the first time that I came home from that anatomy class and I came home with a list of anatomy, and I just bawled.   She worried that she wasn't smart enough. But, she studied, sometimes over the phone with me as she commuted to her classes, and she finished at the top of that class. And she's continued to be at the top of her pharmacy classes since. Jennica: I have a 4.0, in pharmacy school, and I have a lot of achievements. And it's something that I wasn't made to believe that I could do before. Of course, Jennie's decision to leave education makes me think more about my own longevity in this career. I know why Jennie quit, and I get it. I can't say that I haven't thought about leaving either – I have and I do. And I think about it more and more when the people that I admire and love leave or when the woes of America's problems are traced back to the education system – a system that is ironically hobbled then blamed for not meeting all of the expectations placed on it. Shane Atkinson taught in the same building Jennie and I taught in, and when he left teaching, he told me that he found a career that allowed him to merge his morals and values with his work.. He actually started his career teaching with one of the most noble reasons I've ever heard.  Shane met me for a drink in Fort Collins. I set up mics at a picnic bench, shaded by a low hanging tree – Shane rode up on his bike, ordered a beer, and told me about when he decided to become a teacher. Atkinson: It's gonna sound almost untrue how crazy it was.  Shane went to college for journalism – he thought of it as the 4th branch of government. While Shane was in college, his cousin, James, who was more like an older brother, taught middle school in the same town. During this time, James was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma after having battled colon cancer and liver cancer since he was 18. The Hodgkin's Lymphoma was fatal. Atkinson: When he passed away, we were just floored by the support from the school from the students. Students were coming into hospice. We had stacks and stacks of letters and cards that kids had written. A kid came in and played guitar when he was in his last days, played a song for him. We went to his classroom, saw where he taught, all of us together. His coworkers were telling us how he would schedule his chemo appointments super early in the morning, so he couldn't make it to his first class. So he was teaching just extremely ill, and I was honestly, you know, losing my brother. But one of the final thoughts that I had throughout all of that was that he made an impact, right? On all these kids. It was very clear looking at all the cards and going through all of that. He made an impact and he was taken too early. And you know, 25 years old, go forward in your life and think how many other kids might have impacted? So the last words I told him was I'm changing my major. I'm going to try to impact some of these kids that you didn't get the opportunity to.   And things went well in the beginning. Shane felt like he was reaching kids with important conversations – he even developed a new course called Human Genocide and Behavior. Then cultural shifts started to affect Shane's classroom in the 13 years between when he started teaching and when he left. Atkinson: And in that time period, there were immense changes in education, in our society, and politics in the way that people thought about each other and treated each other, and it started to come into my classroom. And it happened slowly. It's the frog in boiling water analogy. Because had my first year of teaching then even remotely close to my last, I would have been gone after a year. When I asked Shane about shifting cultural views about education, we started to talk about the purpose of education -  Why are we here? For Shane, he turns to the founding fathers: Atkinson: I think many of our founding fathers have been attributed to this quote, that a democracy is only as strong as its citizens are educated.  This idea can be seen in a 1786 letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to George Wythe. Jefferson wrote:  “I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness.” Jefferson and other founders made efforts to prioritize and secure educational opportunities for the general public. In so many words, they emphasized that a public needs to be educated so they can recognize their own rights and privileges and make sure the government is working for them. Of course, this so-called generalized public that the founding fathers were referencing was exclusive to white men but over the decades we've expanded that to all Americans. Shane held onto the idea that education was for helping develop good and active citizenry. Shane: So, I really do think that in the social sciences, it should be about creating good citizens, people who are informed people who can work together, even a spirit of bipartisanship, that you can have different viewpoints. We need to start with a certain set of facts that we can all agree on. But ultimately, there's a lot of room for differing opinions. I mean, we're all a product of the experiences that we have lived and those around us that influence us to think about certain things the way we do. And that's great, I think it's important to understand and notice and realize that, and then also realize that it's not necessarily always right. That there isn't always a right answer. But sometimes there are wrong answers. Part of creating good citizens in Shane's mind was to build quality relationships with students, which required some authenticity on his part. So if a student asked Shane his opinion on an issue, he felt like this opened up an opportunity to have an authentic, civilized conversation with his class. Shane: I almost felt like I had to be honest with them, but also demonstrate here's how I view this issue. But I'm just one person. And here's why I view it that way. And here are some of my experiences and biases. Identify your biases. Then you can also show that, “Look, I respect you. And I can earn your respect, although we disagree a lot with one another.”  And that's really what our country is lacking right now. I used to be able to have a conversation with kids about a current issue. And 100% explore both sides of that issue. If overwhelmingly, the class is on one side, the teacher's role at that point is not to reaffirm what they believe. It's to say there is another side to this issue.  This is part of the joy of teaching. Challenging students to have a metacognitive moment or a moment when they can reflect on why they think the way that they do. This level of critical thinking and conversation is where learning occurs. That used not be problematic in the first five years that I taught. It started becoming…and it happened like that…where if I said, even just in through the Socratic method or just getting kids to, to consider the other prospective, parents were coming in parent meetings, administration meetings where it was like, “Eid you say this to your class?” Yeah, we're talking about current issues that are happening in the world right now. How can you really teach kids to think of the world in which they live if you can't broach these subjects. Shane points out that censuring what teachers can broach in an academic arena is making everyone suffer. I know that feeling. I used to teach the President's State of the Union address every year to look at rhetoric in the speech, but I stopped because of constantly rising political tensions and recommendations from administrators to avoid politics.  For Shane, when he couldn't have important conversations in his classroom, that was suffering. Those limits hinder the effectiveness of a classroom, and they can take away from a teacher's joy of having an impact. This inevitably hurts kids..  Atkinson: I feel like you have three options. Fight, flight, or apathy. So you always hear about these teachers who are just like, I don't care, “Whatever. Here's a worksheet. Sure you want an A, I'll give you an A. You don't have to learn a dang thing.” I feel like those are your choices. One of those three paths.  And I was 37 at the time, and, if there's going to be a career change… Can I find something else to do that more aligns my beliefs, and at the very least, doesn't emotionally scar me? Everyone knows about the Sunday scaries. Or you come back from winter break, and you can't sleep the night before summer break. And there's just a sense of impending dread and doom. And I think that's because you're constantly in that, what do I do? Do I fight? Do I flight? Or do I become apathetic? Because what I'm doing is not aligning with what's best practice and what's best for students, what's best for society. They tell you all the time, this isn't just a job. This is more than a job. Which, to me, says that there's some sort of moral benefit. I mean, they're not paying you, that's for sure. So what do you gain from that? Well, it's the belief that you're making a difference.. And the administration will tell you that all the time. If you don't think you are, you don't think you can. Then what do you do? I am very familiar with the feeling of dread - once the theme for Sunday night football plays out, my gut drops. This cycle of feeling dread or feeling like you're making a difference all while deciding if you should be fighting the system, fleeing the system, or becoming apathetic to the system is one that several teachers brought up in their interviews. And it's a trend that Shane's wife noticed and was concerned about.    You get home from work, and you talk about what's going on in your life, how you're doing, how your day went. And I would just come home, just fuming, fuming. And she would say, she told me for years, “Leave or do something else. This is not good for you. This is not good for your mental state.” And then I would get an email from a kid that I had five years ago, checking in saying, “Hey, I just wanted to give you an update. You know, I'm on my way to grad school. I'm studying this thing. I still think about stuff I learned in your class.” And it's like, wow, and it brings you right back. And my wife said it's an abusive relationship. It's a domestic violence relationship. He can beat the crap out of you. And you are beaten down, emotionally scarred, and then it's a hug, an I love you, a nice gesture, and it sucks you right back in, just to get abused again. And my wife was in an abusive relationship when she was younger. And that's how she described it.  Shane left teaching after 13 years, and he now works in government. He rides his bike to work, and he said that he's excited to go to work, that he's never actually worked harder than he is at this moment.  Every Time I talk with Shane, I walk away feeling like it was time well spent. I end up being a little fired up about something. This is a big reason students loved him – even students who didn't see eye to eye with him. Shane made them think and talk and explore their ideas, and he wasn't willing to sacrifice his values for the letters of appreciation, though I'm pretty sure that those letters will still be finding their way to Shane. And this is what makes me worried for education. Good teachers are leaving. Teachers that make impacts on kids. Teachers that a person will write to years after graduation to catch up, to say thank you, or to invite them to a wedding. When these teachers, the ones reaching kids and making a lasting healthy impact are not willing to stay, we should worry. This is not something to dismiss. And it bothers me that when teacher concerns are brought forward, I've heard people  respond with statements like “Good Riddance,” “It could be worse,” or “At least you get the summers off.” This goes back to the idea of abuse that Shane spoke about earlier and even the martyrdom that Jennie talks about. When teachers speak out about the stress, burn out, or even threats and intimidation, it seems like they shouldn't complain because it could be worse. Just because I'm not dead doesn't mean a knife in the thigh is any better – just ask Portia. And if you didn't get that last reference to Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius Caesar, that's okay, We're not here for great Shakespeare jokes, we're here because Wacker, the teacher from the start of this episode and a man who would have chuckled and spit water out about that really lame joke, quit teaching. And he's adamant about saying that he quit – he took it very personally.  Jaye Wacker taught for a total of 31 years, 29 in one district, and he quit 2 months before he could retire. Wacker loved, and I mean LOVED teaching – especially when he felt like he had freedom in his classroom. Freedom to listen to stories from other students or to create lessons that he knew were effective.  Wacker: When you're not limited, you can teach. When you're not limited, you can push kids to reach a potential. There's things about what drove me out - limits. We had the best book room, and part of it came from IB. But we had an absolutely unbelievable book room. And little by little, we lost books. Wacker pointed to a few examples where books were removed from classes and the book room. The book that hurt the most was Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Toni Morrison is one of 3 Americans to have won the Nobel prize for literature. She is the only woman and the only person of color of those 3 winners. And, she is the only one of the three to have had her book removed from Wacker's shelves. And I'm incredibly bitter because kids desperately need The Bluest Eye. Yeah, it's a tough book. It has really tough content. And guess what, these are important issues in our contemporary society. And so we address them, we face them. And so it was just little by little, our, I hesitate to say freedoms, but in some ways, not freedom, the breadth of what we could teach became more and more limited. And that restriction, I guess, I've always chafed against restrictions like that. And I just hated that.  On top of the restrictions of books were the restrictions set in place by standardized inspired curriculum or the tests associated with that curriculum, which started to take precedence over things that Wacker knew allowed for engaging and authentic learning.   Wacker was working on sentence modeling with his students. It was an effective approach from a pivotal figure in grammar instruction named Constance Weaver -  not a standardized assessment company .  And suddenly, we were having these incredibly complex, beautiful sentences. And so then, when I have these students that are creating these things that…friggin art. I took what Weaver had, and then I Wackered it and ran with that. And what I was seeing out of that was amazing. And none of it worked on the GVC. I was teaching students to write brilliantly, and it wasn't going to work on the GVC. It was so frustrating because I think the sentences were the building block of thinking, not of writing, of thinking. And so then when they had those tools, and then that thinking and writing…everything exploded from there, but I dropped it because it didn't work on the GVC.  And then Wacker narrated this: He motioned to shooting himself in the chin. Wacker said this in jest, but the threat of suicide is present for teachers and it came up again and again in interviews. Several teachers mentioned having suicidal ideation when they woke up or when they were sitting in their cars before going into school. Many said they had to go to therapy or be placed on anti-depressants. This was also serious for Wacker and his wife Jenny - we both married a Jennie. He pointed to a spot just outside of his dining room, right behind where I was sitting, near a lazy boy recliner and the glass door entrance to his house before he said, Wacker: And I was standing right there when I told Jenny that, and I confessed that I was ready to kill myself. Because there's no way out. We need the salary. But I hate myself, and I hate what I'm doing. And I think that's when she took very seriously I needed to do something different. And she was a motivating force because I lacked the confidence in myself to believe I can do something different. But my identity was being a teacher. My whole sense of self was being a teacher, even more so than being a dad. And I suddenly was a complete and utter failure at who I thought I was, and you talk about crashing. Jeez-Oh. Tthat was a that was a rough night. Wacker is a good friend of mine. Hearing this breaks my heart. It's important to ask why teachers get to this point, and it's important to listen. For many, it had to do with not feeling valued or feeling smart in their roles. For Wacker, it had to do with what was lost over the years of teaching – over the shifts in policy and resources and ability to make an impact. When teaching is associated with terms like a calling or a vocation, it isn't a surprise that people attach their identity with the work. And separating from the work can be devastating.  Wacker: I left because I wasn't making a difference anymore. My last year in the classroom, I did a worksheet packet for To Kill a Mockingbird. And I've yet to forgive myself.  I was trying to find something in there, because this is what people do. They do these things. So it must be good teaching. And little by little, those packets just started sitting on the back window sill because I just couldn't bring myself to face them. They were the sort of thing I hated. But then I couldn't seem to address these other things that needed to be on these tests. And I just felt like a failure. I just I felt like a failure. I wasn't keeping up. I wasn't exciting. I wasn't…it just I wasn't turning kids on to English. I felt if anything, I was turning them off. So it's time to do something different.  I literally was becoming the teacher I despised. I hate myself for that. But I needed a job. I've had to come to grips with the fact that I love teaching. And by the time I quit, I didn't love myself as a teacher. Again, look in the mirror. I became what I didn't like, what I despised. I became that to a certain degree. And that that hurts.  I used to think ideally, my ideal retirement would be teach half time, where I could still get that fix of working with kids and literature and writing. I never thought I'd quit early.  When thinking about why teachers are leaving Wacker puts it simply – Teachers teach for the love of it, and many teachers are leaving because they don't love it anymore.  Wacker: And it's got to be love of kids first. For me with English, then its love of literature and writing, second. It's not love of curriculum. It's not love of administration. It's not love of standardized tests, it's not love of the almighty ACT. It's the love of learning and making a difference. But the love of learning and making a difference are hard to measure. Almost every teacher I spoke with, and even folks I still work with, know that we're teachers because of the kids. We love the kids – they're usually the best part of the job. It's the other stuff that weighs teachers down, that impacts their mental health, their willingness to fight rather than flee or become apathetic.  Note that Wacker said teachers teach for the love of it. Pay matters, without a doubt, but Wacker knew the pay wasn't his priority when he started teaching.  My cooperating teacher, Jeff Fong, the very first at the end of September. I'll never forget, because we went into the teachers lounge and his paycheck was in his mailbox. And he said, if you learn one thing, learn this. When you look at this check, the word that should come out of your mouth is suckers. Because I'd do it for free. The day you look at the check, and you say, it's not enough, it's time to go. The negativity that Wacker expresses is present across education, and as his co-teacher said, for many folks, that paycheck just isn't enough anymore.  Wacker said that teaching is the best profession when the conditions are right, but they weren't for him anymore. So after 3 decades, Wacker quit teaching. He has spent the last year working with the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information.  Before we finished the night with pizza and watching a tv show with his wife and daughter, Wacker left me with this as a final thought.  We gotta change things. We got to fix this. This is insane. This is utterly insane.  And I agree. Things need to change. They need to change in order to keep teachers, and they need to change in order to ensure that we have the best education we can have for students. What Jennie, Shane, and Wacker talk about isn't unique to our school, district, or state. These are the same concerns teachers across the country are having, and like Wacker said, We gotta fix this.  But to figure out where we need to go in education, we need to remember where we've been (from the good to the bad) and why a system to educate the public was built in the first place.  That will be next time on Those Who Can't Teach Anymore. Thank you for listening. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast and share episodes with everyone you can think of.  This episode was produced by me, Charles Fournier. It was edited by Melodie Edwards. Other editing help came from Noa Greenspan, Sarah-Ann Leverette, and Cody Fournier. Our theme song is by Julian Saporiti. All other music can be found on our website – create and name website. A special thanks to Jennica Fournier, Shane Atkinson, and Jaye Wacker for being inspiring teachers and taking time to sit down and chat with me. This podcast is funded in part by the Fund for Teachers Fellowship.

When I originally brought Kelly Hogan from Mathematically Enthused (TPT store follow link) onto the show, I wanted her to share tips on how to create the epic and elaborate escape rooms with Google Sites, And while we DID cover that, we covered SO MUCH MORE. We shared how we really feel about the common core standards (spoiler alert: they're sorely lacking), and we shared our soapboxes about financial literacy and real-world learning. Kelly shared practical tips for upper elementary teachers who want to bring more S.T.E.A.M. (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) into their math instructional block. Wanna catch our sessions, plus SO MANY OTHER good ones? Grab the Summit Power Back before it goes away (through August 17th LINKS TO LOVE Learn more from Kelly on her website Follow Kelly's store on TeachersPayTeachers Connect with Kelly on Instagram Connect with me on Instagram Join our free Facebook Group for Teachers Doing Differentiated Math

In this episode, Justin Wells, a deeper learning advocate and Executive Director of Envision Learning Partners, shares insights into how school districts are using innovative principles of deeper learning to design better performance assessments to measure student success. In addition, Wells encourages school leaders and classroom teachers to design capstone experiences and a portfolio defense system at various grade levels to help "build muscle" on the path to greater equity for all students. Twitter: @jusowells. Meet Justin Wells Justin Wells is the Executive Director of Envision Learning Partners, a team of coaches who help schools and districts develop performance assessment systems guided by the principles of equity and deeper learning. Before that, he taught high school English and led teacher teams in the design and implementation of multidisciplinary projects. He is co-author of the book Transforming Schools with Common Core Standards, Performance Assessment, and Project-Based Learning (with Bob Lenz and Sally Kingston). About Dr. Greg Goins As the Founder/Host of the Reimagine Schools Podcast, Dr. Greg Goins has emerged as one of the nation's leading voices on visionary leadership and the path to transforming our schools. He currently serves as the Director of the Educational Leadership Program at Georgetown College (KY) and previously spent 15 years as a school district superintendent in Illinois. Dr. Goins is a passionate keynote speaker and is available to speak at your next education conference or school PD day. To book Dr. Goins, please send inquiries to drgreggoins@gmail.com. Twitter: @DrGregGoins. Support for Reimagine Schools Podcast You can now click HERE to "buy a bourbon" for Dr. Goins to help support this podcast. Thanks for your support! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/greg-goins/support

Komal Shah is a former educator and the author of Raise Your Hand, A Call for Consciousness in Education. Komal's book is incredible and opens with many of the same revelations we had about our education system as we were recording Season 1 of the podcast (which you should go back and listen to if you missed!)In this conversation we talk about what consciousness is, how the foundation school as we know it needs to change, and the role consciousness plays in transforming learning environments to support the humans inside them.  For those of you who have followed the business-driven dictates of the last two decades "Reform" Era in education (think increased testing,  Common Core Standards, evaluations, etc-- lots of hype, little results) you'll be fascinated and inspired by Komal's lens on how 21st century business ideas could in fact help schools serve their clients better.  Follow Komal on social media @consultkomal and her website www.thekomalshah.com Sign up for a FREE T.E.A.C.H. Hub account where you can access all the resources we share each week! Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Tik Tok Visit our TPT Store Visit our website If you're enjoying the podcast, please rate and leave a review! It helps other people find us. :)

Get your notebooks and something to write with. Grab something to drink and snack on, because we're about to get real with your career, about your career, and about YOU. In this episode and next week's episode, we're going to look at your professional development and some paths that you consider, and the barriers and opportunities before you.Episode 61 will lay the groundwork and we will start peeling back layers. Episode 62 will do more exploratory work.We're not endorsing any particular employer, field, or industry. That's not what this episode is about. Guess what? Episode 62 won't be focused on that either.And before you can consider which career path to choose, which door of opportunity to walk through, you gotta get real with yourself.In this episode, we're looking at YOU because honestly, it's not so much about the organization as it is about YOU getting grounded in YOURself. YOU need to know what YOU want and need and what YOU want to learn and contribute before you select an organization to court or be courted by, or to create as your own. Because this is a heavy topic we are segmenting this conversation across Episodes 61 and 62. Episode 61 breaks down two career wells or "buckets" and three basic pathways.The most familiar and common pathway is as an employee. When you don't want to work for a specific company but want to work for various clients so that you have greater flexibility in how and where your knowledge and skills are used and applied you pursue one of two routes: - Entrepreneur - Freelancer In today's episode, we're exploring the ins and outs and some do's and don'ts of freelancing and entrepreneurship. We will address some traps and tricks, misnomers, misunderstandings, and more. Tune in for tips, suggestions, and lessons.How many freelancers and entrepreneurs do you know? How many did you grow up around? How many mentored you when you were a child? The greater your exposure the higher the probability you align your career along with one of those pathways. If you had limited exposure then you probably have more questions than answers. Our host, Natasha, shares her experiences, reflections, and counsel. And of course, like every episode, we're sharing some bold quotes spoken by some bold people. You have to listen in to hear them!Sneak Peek...In Episode 62 we will explore the employee pathway with greater intensity as some of you are looking at opportunities to change career paths but remain as employees. We will also look specifically at the skills, tools, and resources that you need. BUSINESS SHOUT-OUTS In today's episode, we devoted some time to shout out these businesses and professionals who made the decision to turn their interests, hobbies, passions, exciting challenges, ideas, into careers, businesses, investments in society:1. Set In SoulAuthor Tatiana Jerome creates empowering, uplifting, and healing journals to "heal and celebrate you inside and out". Her online store has over 47 journals to help you through your journey facing: depression, trauma, a breakup, cancer, and more. She has journals for adoptive children and parents, money management, self-acceptance, trying to conceive, and other areas of health and healing. Set In Soul also has other merchandise so visit their site today.https://setinsoul.comhttps://instagram.com/setinsoul2. Ty Allan JacksonAuthor, youth motivational speaker, 3x TEDx presenterHe has written several books for children and created educators' guides that are aligned with Common Core Standards to seamlessly incorporate his books in classrooms.In addition to books, his online store also sells t-shirts and hoodies, backpacks, and more.He has a Danny Dollar Academy, a financial literacy program for children.He's available for speaking engagements at schools, workshops, corporate events, graduations and more. Ty appears in Marvel's Hero Project on Disney +https://tyallanjackson.comhttps://instagram.com/ty_allan_jackson3. Rony DelgardeFounder and CEO of Global Paint Solutions & Global Paint For CharityAuthor, college lecturer, management consultant, creator of the P.A.I.N.T. success method, has been featured in various magazines and news outlets, including CNN. He and his team have earned numerous awards including 2017 Energy Globe Award.Did you know that most developing countries don't have paint? Global Paints is on a mission to change that. Listen to this episode and visit their website to see how you can help make that possible.https://globalpaints.orghttps://instagram.com/ronydelgardehttps://instagram.com/globalpaintToll-free: +1-855-853-7772SHOW INFORMATION:Company: Foreman & Associates, LLCWebsite: https://ForemanLLC.comIG: https://instagram.com/ForemanLLCFB: https://facebook.com/ForemanAndAssociatesTwitter: https://twitter.com/ForemanLLCPodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/ItAintSmallYouTube: https://youtube.com/user/ForemanAssociatesHOST: Natasha L. Foreman, CEO of Foreman & Associates, LLCWebsite: https://NatashaForeman.comIG: https://instagram.com/NatashaLForemanFB: https://facebook.com/NatashaLForemanTwitter: https://twitter.com/NatashaLForemanLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/NatashaLForemanTheme Song: “Higher Up” by Shane IversCopyright 2022. Foreman & Associates, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Resources:Gotham Gazette, In Mayoral Primary, Spending in Support of Adams More Than Combined Total for Garcia and Wiley on how Eric Adams campaign benefitted from millions spent by pro-charter school PACChalkbeat, NYC's budget deal pilots smaller class sizes, dedicates millions to COVID learning lossNYC DOE summary of their Academic Recovery PlanTom Loveless' book, Between the State and the Schoolhouse, Understanding the Failure of Common Core. [Use code BSSS21 to get 20% off when ordering from Harvard Education Press; offer expires 8/13/2021.]His blog is at https://tomloveless.com/.  You can also follow him at @tomloveless99

For many teachers, it's a challenge to help students go beyond the ordinary, featureless writing and vast amounts of copying that can come with informational texts. In reality, informational texts are engaging and masterfully crafted to guide the reader through the rich array of features incorporated into these texts. So, to be inspired by these features, to understand how they work, how to read them (improving comprehension!!) their purpose and how to recreate them, we begin the journey to reading like a writer.Sharon first explored this notion through the use of many of ERA publications' big books. These big books provided the perfect platform for reading like a writer as a class, to explore the features of these texts and the way the information was presented. Doing this shifted students away from low level (frequently copied) text only texts, to far more sophisticated informational texts loaded with features. The most significant outcome was students transforming what they had learned into an array of text features, rather than just slabs of text only. Copying text virtually became redundant.In this episode, Sharon and Phil talk about:Why? It improves the readership.It improves transformation of knowledge learned into sophisticated presentations of new understandings It improves comprehension of all overall text when the purpose of text features is apparentInformational texts are potentially rich resources for learning about the worldPhil and Sharon talk about this, as well as:What informational text features areTeaching with informational text activitiesWhat aspects of informational texts to teach, and whenAnd much more!Resources mentioned in this episode:ERA PUBLICATIONSEra Publications: Picture BooksTEACHIFIC Tally Charts: Non-Fiction Text FeaturesInfo Sheet: Features of Non-Fiction Texts - ExplanationsInfo Sheets: Writing TemplatesWriting Templates: Explanation TextsWriting Templates: Timeline 1Writing Templates - variousReading Like a Writer: BeginningsBOOKTOPIAA Seed is Sleepy by Dianna AstonDK Eyewitness Books: Ancient China by DK PublishingThe Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte GullianAMAZON‘Reading the Whole Page: Teaching and Assessing Text Features to Meet K-5 Common Core Standards' by Nicki Clausen Grace and Michelle KelleyCAPSTONELEAP: Little Books With Attitude non fiction for 5,6 year olds by Sharon Callen (12 Big Books and 36 matching little books)TEACHER'S TOOLKIT  FACEBOOK GROUPDo you have informational texts that have worked in your classroom to share? Please join our group and share here.Connect with us!Join our community on Facebook for exclusive resources, Q and A, discussions, insights and more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/teacherstoolkitforliteracyGot any questions? Feedback? Thoughts? Email Phil: phil@cuelearning.com.auThe Teacher's Tool Kit For Literacy is the free podcast for motivated teachers and school leaders who want the latest tips, tricks and tools to inspire their students and school community in literacy learning. Hear from literacy experts and founders of Cue Learning, Sharon and Phil Callen, and special guests.At Cue Learning, our literacy specialists draw on over 30 years of teaching and international consulting experience to deliver world-class learning solutions. We equip, empower and support teachers to become their authentic selves. To find out about upcoming events, and about how Cue can help you and your school, visit the Cue Learning website http://www.cuelearning.com.au/ and sign up to our newsletter https://cuelearning.com.au/contact/And you can get even more amazing teaching resources, right now, at Teachific https://www.teachific.com.au/.To make sure you don't miss any literacy learning tips and insights, please subscribe to our show on your favourite podcast player.Produced by Apiro Media https://apiropodcasts.com

With over 25 years experience in education, Stephanie Dua committed to developing better education opportunities and life outcomes for our children. As co-founder and president of HOMER, an early learning brand that builds personalized learning experiences for kids, she’s passionate about crafting products that support children - and parents - on the profoundly personal journey to reading. HOMER rejects a one-size-fits-all approach to learning. Instead, the learning app taps into a child’s unique passions, teaching them the skills they need to be confident readers who love to learn. Prior to founding HOMER, Stephanie served as CEO of the NYC Fund for Public Schools, raising more than $165 million to support literacy and teacher training efforts in the country’s largest school district, was Senior Advisor to the Common Core Standards effort and worked with the Robin Hood Foundation, helping build 50 award-winning new school libraries across New York. In a modern environment where parents are inundated with information, she seeks to simplify what and who matters most in helping your child reach their potential. She currently lives in Coconut Grove, FL with her husband and three daughters. Stephanie’s hero is her mother, and her values are alive in Stephanie today, and thriving further still in her daughters, Anya (16), Siona (14), and Isla (11). Meet My Guest: WEBSITE: LearnWithHomer.com INSTAGRAM: @learnwithhomer FACEBOOK: /learnwithhomer Press REUTERS: Learning in a pandemic: An online education executive shares tips BLOOMBERG: Education Tool HOMER Has Seen Explosion in Growth, Says Co-founder and President Stephanie Dua

Bob Lenz & Laureen Adams talk with me about PBLWorks, Project Based Learning, and Overcoming the COVID Slide. This is episode 321 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast. Bob Lenz: Bob became CEO of PBLWorks on June 1, 2015. Before taking the helm at PBLWorks, he was the co-founder of Envision Education and served as its CEO and Chief of Innovation until 2015. Under Bob’s leadership, Envision Education put into practice a highly successful redesign model that has opened a path to college and college retention for underserved urban students at Envision’s three Bay Area arts and technology high schools. He is recognized nationally as a leader in high school redesign, Project Based Learning, 21st century skills education, and performance assessment. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has recognized Bob as a Senior Deeper Learning Fellow. He is the author of Transforming Schools: Using Project-Based Learning, Performance Assessment and Common Core Standards, recently published by Jossey-Bass Wiley.  Bob was the first in his family to receive a four-year college degree, obtaining a BA from St. Mary’s College and an MA in education from San Francisco State University. When he is not spending time with his family in San Rafael, CA, he is stand-up paddling, riding his bike, and playing rugby.   Laureen Adams: Laureen is the Curriculum and Project Manager at PBLWorks. Laureen began her teaching career as a New York City Teaching Fellow where she worked at a South Bronx middle school teaching 7-8 English and Social Studies.  By her third year teaching, she became a founding teacher in a small school when the middle school building split.  It was there that she learned about Project Based Learning and began working with the leadership team to develop PBL curriculum for the English department.  After several years in New York, she moved to Oakland, CA and started working as a high school English teacher with Envision Schools. Laureen taught English (9-12) and served as a Lead Teacher.  Laureen received B.A.s in African/African American Studies and English from UC Davis. She earned a M.S. in English Education from Lehman College (CUNY). She also earned a Master of Arts in Education and a Ph.D in Education with an emphasis on Teaching, Learning, and Culture and an Africana Studies Certificate from Claremont Graduate University.  Lots to learn today. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to share and subscribe. Enjoy! Connect and Learn More: https://www.pblworks.org/ https://www.pblworks.org/for-families https://www.pblworks.org/author/bob-lenz https://www.pblworks.org/author/laureen-adams https://www.facebook.com/PBLWorks/ https://www.instagram.com/pblworks/ https://twitter.com/pblworks Length - 40:13

In this episode, I share:How the Author Visits Podcast can complement your core writing curriculum, andHow the Author Visits Podcast connects to and builds on Common Core writing standards.Thank you for listening to the show. You can connect with host Chrissie Wright on Instagram @chrissiemwright and on Twitter @chrissiemwright, and follow the show on Instagram @authorvisitspod.

Today on The Project, Laureen Adams and Stanley Richards are joined by the CEO of PBLWorks, Bob Lenz! CEO Bob Lenz joined PBLWorks five years ago. Before that, he was the co-founder of Envision Education, a charter school network which puts into practice a highly successful redesign model that opens a path to college for underserved urban students in three Bay Area high schools. Bob is recognized nationally as a leader in high school redesign, Project Based Learning, 21st-century skills education, and performance assessment. He is the author of Transforming Schools Using Project-Based Learning, Performance Assessment, and Common Core Standards, and most recently the eBook, This Teachable Moment: Engaging Our Kids in the Joy of Learning.   In their conversation today, Laureen, Stanley, and Bob discuss how this current pandemic is impacting the present and the future of education and Project Based Learning, and what educators can do to support their students during this time. Bob speaks about the importance of finding joy in the midst of these challenges, how parents can get their kids involved with PBL over the summer. He also shares his hopes and vision for the future of learning as we head into the unknowns of the new school year.   Key Takeaways: [:32] About today's episode with PBLWorks CEO, Bob Lenz! [1:07] Laureen and Stanley reflect on their careers and when they first met Bob Lenz. [2:25] Laureen and Stanley welcome Bob to The Project. [2:38] Bob shares what is currently top of mind for him and PBLWorks with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. [4:20] How this current pandemic is impacting the present and the future of Project Based Learning [7:16] Bob speaks about some of the PBL-friendly changes that might happen in education as a result of this pandemic as well as what educators should be rethinking. [10:27] Bob shares his top advice for teachers and leaders about how to support their students during this time. [12:28] How educators can support parents during the quarantine. [13:54] How parents can get their kids involved with PBL over the summer. [15:54] Laureen shares two PBL projects from the eBook she co-authored with Bob, This Teachable Moment. [18:00] Bob shares his hopes and vision as we wind down the school year, head into the summer, and prepare for the unknowns of the new school year.     Mentioned in This Episode: PBLWorks Bob Lenz | PBLWorks Envision Education Transforming Schools: Using Project-Based Learning, Performance Assessment, and Common Core Standards, by Bob Lenz, Justin Wells, and Sally Kingston This Teachable Moment: Engaging Our Kids in the Joy of Learning, by Bob Lenz and Laureen Adams   Twitter Quotes (for Social Media Use):   “The quality of the feedback and the ultimate plans that teachers are making for projects are higher quality than we had in-person!” — Bob Lenz   “I would encourage teachers and leaders to prioritize engagement and motivation to learn as the highest priority for students as they are having to shelter in place.” — Bob Lenz   “We're … hopeful that parents will really take … this idea that this … is a teachable moment … and, … armed with some of the content from our book, [This Teachable Moment], we hope that they'll use that to advocate for project-based learning for their learner.” — Bob Lenz   “This [pandemic] is a teachable moment and a turning point around education that heads us in a direction of project-based learning and having a high-quality project-based learning experience.” — Bob Lenz   “I am cautiously hopeful that this [pandemic] is going to be a… huge opportunity… to reset towards a future where engagement, … motivation, and cultural responsiveness is the order of the day, … [rather than] test-based accountability” — Bob Lenz

  LaMar Queen is a creative wizard bringing music and songs and aligning them to Common Core Standards. LaMar is the co-founder, and an artist, bringing smiles and learning to many. We talk about making learning fun with music, and how students can retain more information with creative instruction. As a musician, Danny was interested in asking about the production, motivation, and style of LaMar’s work. Learn more about LaMar’s work at his websitemusicnotesonline.com/about/ Starting with Math class, LaMar is changing the way we think about concepts from Slope-Intercept form, to English class, and more. Nicole Biscotti is an EduMatch author, and believes in the dignity and honor of teaching and leadership, learn more about Nicole at https://www.nicolebiscotti.com/. Nicole and Danny discuss ADHD education, conversations, and approaches to the classroom.   Shoutout to our friend, and intro visual creator Kristina Daugherty, who has some cool new DIY training videos at Local Girl Media  This episode of Inspiring Teachers is brought to you by AmpedUpLearning.com - Are you looking for new and engaging ways to get your students up and moving in the classroom? Get out of the Sit and Get rut of teaching by checking out AmpedUpLearning.com, a 2 teacher owned and operated company in Texas that is looking to gamify teaching with creative new activities for the classroom.  From their FRECK! resources and Escape Rooms for Social Studies and Science to SPEED Squares and task cards for Math and English they have TONS of teacher created resources...and don't forget to check out their apparel designed specifically for teachers.  Use code HAUGERHISTORY10 to save 10% on all items and follow them on social media @AmpedUpLearning for their monthly giveaways of Amazon giftcards, lessons and apparel. Start your podcast today with a free trial here from Podbean.com and support our show!  Hauger History Store on AmpedUpLearning!

The Born 2 Win podcast highlights individuals excelling at high levels in their purpose and calling. This podcast is for anyone looking to get ahead in life and willing to take ACTION and reach their full potential. Using our C.H.A.M.P.S. Mentoring Model of the 3E's Education, Empowerment, and Exposure.Today's guest Arne Starkey Duncan[1] is the former United States Secretary of Education from 2009 through December 2015.[2][3] While his tenure as Secretary was marked by varying degrees of opposition from both social conservatives and teachers unions, he nevertheless enjoyed strong support from the US president who appointed him, Barack Obama. Conservatives and some parents resisted Duncan's push for all U.S. states to adopt the Common Core Standards to determine what students had learned, and most US teachers unions disliked his emphasis on the use of data from student tests to evaluate teachers and schools.[4] Despite antagonism to the changes Duncan had introduced, Obama praised his work at the Department of Education by saying, "Arne has done more to bring our educational system – sometimes kicking and screaming – into the 21st century than anybody else."[5] -courtesy of WIKIPEDIADuncan and Emerson Collective will focus first on Chicago residents between the ages of 17 and 24 who are neither working nor in school, many of whom have criminal records and lack high school degrees. Their work will explore factors in schools, homes and communities that contribute to crime, joblessness and social breakdown. The immediate goal is to provide job opportunities for young people today in Chicago and to help forge a safer, surer path from home to school to work for at-risk kids.“A young person growing up in Chicago ought to be able to chart a clear roadmap toward a bright future,” Duncan said. “But for too many inner city kids, the path is marred by poverty, violence, broken social networks and schools that can’t keep up with the challenges in tough neighborhoods. The violence is a symptom of hopelessness and our priority is to give young people hope by getting them jobs.”Duncan emphasized that he will continue his work in education but is currently focused on disconnected youth because of the recent surge in violence in his hometown. A recent report put the total number of disconnected youth across the nation—defined as neither working nor in school—at nearly six million, or one in seven young people. Among young black men in Chicago, the rate climbs to a staggering 47 percent, according to a recent study.The work will tap into an inventive set of resources to address systemic barriers to opportunity, including dynamic partnerships with community-based organizations, investing in entrepreneurs who can bring a new era of innovation and job growth to neglected neighborhoods, and collaborating with local leadership to scale the best solutions that will directly benefit inner-city Chicago youth and families.Duncan and Emerson Collective bring to this effort a lifelong passion for helping low-income children and young people through better education, meaningful personal relationships and greater exposure to concrete work opportunities.Follow Arne. here!⬇️Web | https://www.chicagocred.org/Twitter | http://twitter.com/arneduncanFollow CHAMPS MENTORING Here!⬇️✅ Please like and subscribe to our Podcast from our pagewww.born2win.buzzsprout.com/✅ Please like and subscribe this page and our CHAMPS Youtube- https://youtube.com/champsmentoring✅ For business inquiries contact me at vsingleton@champsmentoring.com✅ Let's connect:Personal Facebook-https://facebook.com/vondalesCHAMPS Facebook-https://facebook.com/champsmentoringCHAMPS Twitter - https://twitter.com/champsmentoringCHAMPS Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/champsmentoringCHAMPS Youtube- https://youtube.com/champsmentoring

Today Emily Hanford joins Melissa and Lori to define the Science of Reading, addressing the current misinterpretation of the term and what it really means. She shares thoughts on teacher prep programs and where teachers get knowledge about what or how to teach, contemplates why teacher prep programs are not preparing teachers to teach kids how to read, and how curriculum plays a role in helping teachers who do not know the science of reading.

You know that you need to make your students give presentations. Being able to present is a lifeskill they need to have and it may even be part of your Common Core Standards. But oral presentations might inspire you with just as much dread as your students. Whether you are filled with trepidation knowing how anxiety-ridden some of your students will get at at the thought of standing in front of the class, exasperation at the monotonous subject matter that too often fills the speeches, or downright resentment as you watch the rest of the class tuning out the speaker from their desk, pleased to do the bare minimum as they skate by for the class period, oral presentations seem like a stale vestige of what education looks like. In this episode, Danielle and Nicole discuss how reframing the traditional oral presentation as a virtual summit breathes new life into this tired assignment. Though virtual summits are only now gaining traction in the online education and entrepreneurship communities, we think they have incredible potential for the classroom setting as well. From having students practice soft skills to increased critical thinking and options for demonstrating that they truly know their audience, we dig into why we believe that a class-wide virtual summit would be a great addition to your the projects your planning for your students this upcoming school year. In this episode, you'll hear: -How the typical oral presentations have the same pitfalls as essays -How to save class time by using making use of the Flipped Classroom concept -How using “Chat” makes for a more authentic way and engaging way for the “viewers” to participate -How student ownership and virtual summits go hand in hand Links mentioned The Total Teacher Summit! Get your free ticket

We have Jed back on today's show to talk about our current schooling in this country along with COMMON CORE and how it was placed in schools. It has never been more clear that we, the people, must unite to preserve our freedom. With the fight we had in CA fighting SB277, Oregon with SB442 and now SB895 and other medical mandates, with similar fights around the country against the systematic attempt to remove our medical choice and medical freedoms, I welcome you to listen in to Talia Like It Is. This is an becoming a global movement. Governments in Australia, Italy, and all over are following suit in the outrageous CDC schedule, and parents are fighting back. The idea is to take the “vaccine-choice” movement, the home birth/natural birth, home schooling/un-schooling and the “food-choice/anti-GMO” movement and blend them. It's all about INFORMED CONSENT with me, folks. Being properly informed and then making those decisions for your family how you see fit. Combining these movements is simply the next step in winning the fight to know what is going into our bodies and preserving that choice. I need more parents and soon-to-be parents to wake up and begin the research. Join me!  

Day 2 from this year’s Twitter Math Camp. Discussions on sessions attended included: Trends in the Math TwitterBloggerSphere Rewriting your curriculum to make the most of the Common Core Standards  

In episode 13, John Eynon stopped by for a follow up from the campaign trail. John is running for the Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction on the republican ticket. John is a constitutional republican and of the three republican candidates, the only candidate that 100% apposes Common Core Standards, the SBAC testing, and federal intrusion into education. Watch John debate his opponents this Thursday, May 8th at 7 pm, MST on your local PBS channel. John is also 100% in favor of homeschooling families and believes they should be free of government interference.  Share this with all of your friends and families and remember to support John on May 20th.

Episode 12, is a continuation of last weeks conversation with Mike and Tim, two homeschooling dads. We discuss homeschooling from the father's perspective; the challenges and rewards. We also discuss how they are navigating and responding to the Common Core Standards.

In episode 11, I discuss homeschooling with two homeschooling fathers; Michael and Tim. This is the first of two episodes where I discuss homeschooling from the father's perspective; the challenges and rewards. We also discuss how they are navigating the Common Core Standards.  

Late COW; Debate on Common Core Standards; Sabrina Sabbagh (formerly of Fox News) talks to us about her continuing journey

The Total Tutor, Jason The Public School Guy, and Peter Zucker Bronx Teacher will discuss the following topics: Common Core Standards Performance Assessment News Science Standards Creationism Climate Change

In this episode, we take a cursory look at what Common Core Standards (CCS) are. Areas addressed include: CCS was forced upon the states by the federal government and special interest groups. CCS will strip states of their constitutional authority over education.  Parents will no longer be able to control or influence what their child[ren] are being taught. CC will ultimately empower the federal government to control school curricula in violation of three federal status. Parents must understand how CC will end up narrowing the school curriculum and prepare their children for a centralized planned economy, otherwise known as socialism.   Education use to be for the purpose of becoming an educated citizen fully capable of functioning in a Republic.   Taxpayers need to know how CC leads to national testing that has huge financial repercussions for each state and local school district. Parents need to know how the student and family data tracking system will lead to the loss of personal privacy. Citizens need to understand how this new education direction will guide the next generation into a manage economy. Again, managed or centralized planed economies are the same things and it only happens in socialism and its variant forms.

This week Dr Gil Tippy interviews 3 special educators using an appropriate, developmental, sensory sensitive approach in public and private education settings for kids with neuro-developmental disorders of relating and communicating. The discussion ranges from the tremendous success of a couple of Vermont public school teachers in their use of the DIR/Floortime model, through our success at the Rebecca School in our Fairytale Literacy curriculum, and even touches on the complications of the Common Core Standards, and what it means for our children. Kathryn Byrne Grossarth is a Special Educator in a small public school in Wells, VT. She attended a conference in Vermont this past summer that Rae Leeper and I put on, explaining how to do a relationship based model in a public school setting. She has implemented DIR in her public school with tremendous success. She is using Rae's literacy suggestions and is finding that it is really working. She is working on creating curriculum and texts, and is passionate about the tremendous change she has seen in her kids, and herself in just the first four months of this school year.Barbara Festa is a Special Education Supervisor in Wells, VT. She did not attend the training, but Kathryn's enthusiasm has been so infectious that she began to use the model in her math curriculum, to great results. She sees that DIR/Floortime is directly in line with the Common Core Standards.Rae Leeper is the Education Supervisor at the Rebecca School, and did the training with me that inspired these two Vermont Special Educators. She has been at the Rebecca School from the very beginning, and instrumental in creating and supervising our classroom curriculum. 

The Total Tutor will discuss the following education news topics.: Common Core Standards, Opting Out to Standardized Testing, and Classroom Management being taught in college.

Restoring missing message icon on iPhone, highlighting forbidden words in Word, print drivers for old HP printers, personal cloud solutions (use RAID, be mindful of physical security), sending large files (Gmail versus Dropbox, plus other options), Profiles in IT (Sean O'Sullivan, co-founder MapInfo and inventor of cloud computing name), startup company Scan appears on Sharktank (no buyers, but great for exposure), Wolfram Alpha launches problem generator (arithmetic, number theory, algebra, calculus, linear algebra, statistics, follows Common Core Standards), helium-filled hard drives (reduced spin resistance leads to higher capacity, more plattens), and Snowden used social engineering (20 to 25 fellow workers gave him access as system administrator, most lost their assignments, beware). This show originally aired on Saturday, November 9, 2013, at 9:00 AM EST on WFED (1500 AM).

Jason The Public School Guy and Neil Haley will discuss the Common Core Standards, Teaching to the test, and much more.

In this episode, renowned education critic Alfie Kohn urges parents to question the prevailing assumptions driving U.S. education policy including the value of standardized tests, the Common Core Standards, the meaning of international rankings, and the need to have a common national curriculum. He suggests an action plan to turn back the policies that he believes are wrong for our children. Mr. Kohn also gives us a preview of his upcoming book, "The Myth of the Unspoiled Child" that challenges the idea that overindulgence and overparenting are creating a generation of entitled children.

The Total Tutor and Jason The Public School Guy will discuss the latest education news. Charter schools, and Private Schools teaching the Common Core Standards.

Dr Shellie Hipsky and Neil Haley will interview Dr. Joanna Leigh. She Explain what it was like at the finish line at the Boston Marathon on that fateful day. Also, The Total Tutor will interview Diana Motsinger  She will discuss the Common Core Standards and how they will assess them.

Today on the Total Education Celebrity Show, Host of the show Neil Haley The "Total Tutor" will interview three amazing guests!   Dr Shellie Hipsky and Neil Haley will interview Dr. Joanna Leigh. She Explain what it was like at the finish line at the Boston Marathon on that fateful day. Also, The Total Tutor will interview Diana Motsinger  She will discuss the Common Core Standards and how they will assess them.   HOST INFO: Neil Haley @TotalTutor www.totaltutor.net www.wearethechallenge.com

Leslie Eastman and Dawn Wildman, Coordinator of the California Tea Party Groups will be discussing the new Common Core education standards and why Americans should be concerned.   We also heard from Barry Jacobsen about Boston. This is Leslie's post. Please follow our friends: THE BOOKS OF AARON CLAREY (CAPTAIN CAPITALISM)   CUBANOS IN WISCONSIN BY SILVIO CANTO JR

The Total Tutor will interview Nicole from Carson-Dellosa. The topic will be Common Core Standards. Also, The Total Tutor will interview Bryan Vignery. The topic will be how to spend time with your children. Next, The Total Tutor will interview Jen from Kidzmet. The topic will be how to pick the right sport for your child. Last, the Total Tutor will interview Carol Jones. The topic will be how to teach communication to your teen-ager.           

JOE CRAWFORD OF PARTNERS4RESULTS IS JOINED BY MUNDELEIN IL SCHOOL DISTRICT DR.JODY WARE

The Total Tutor will interview Jen Lilienstein. She will discuss Flipped Classrooms. In addition, I will interview Ethan Allen. The topic will be how to do hands on science at home with your children. Last, I will interview Kerry Walters from Carson Dellosa. We will discuss the Common Core Standards.            

Teaching can be a lonely profession. Isolated in your own classroom pulling together your lesson plans. ClassConnect.com can give educators an opportunity to collaborate across the country, which is especially important with Common Core Standards being implemented.