Podcasts about National Writing Project

This special episode of NWP Radio features many of the educators behind Empowering Youth to Confront the Climate Crisis in English Language Arts, a co-published book from Teachers College Press and the National Writing Project. Recorded in three parts, you won't want to miss this comprehensive overview of this important book.00:00 - Introduction/Systems Thinking with Richard Beach and Fawn CanadyRichard Beach and Fawn Canady discuss chapter two of the book, focusing on how to engage students in critiquing and transforming systems impacting the climate crisis. Learn how students can use writing to examine how fossil fuel energy, capitalist economic structures, agriculture, transportation, urban design, and political systems need transformation to address our changing climate.26:52 - Critical Media Literacy with Jeff Share, Andrea Gambino, Amber Medina, and Noah Asher GoldenThis segment explores the intersection of critical media literacy and environmental justice/climate education. Our guests explain why climate change is not merely a scientific problem but an issue of priorities and narratives. Discover how educators can help students understand how dominant cultural stories contribute to our climate crisis and how we can change these narratives to create more sustainable and socially just futures.50:04 - Writing of All Kinds with Allen Webb and Rich NovackAllen Webb and Rich Novack share diverse writing approaches that empower students to engage with climate issues through creative expression, persuasive writing, research, and more. Learn practical strategies for incorporating climate-focused writing across the English language arts curriculum.Related ResourcesBook ResourcesBook Website: Climate Crisis ELAWebsite for Allen's Chapter on climate change and teaching writing: tinyurl.com/y9ebyc5mWebsite for previous book "Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents": climatechangeela.pbworks.comBeach, R. (2025). Adopting a languaging approach for teaching about the climate crisis in English language arts. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 24(1)Critical Media Literacy ResourcesKellner, D., & Share, J. (2019). The critical media literacy guide: Engaging media and transforming education. Brill/Sense PublishersClimate Crisis ELA: Critical Media Literacy and the Climate CrisisClimate Crisis ELA: Local Ecologies and Critical Media ProductionClimate Crisis ELA: Engaging Elementary Students in Inner-city LAClimate Crisis ELA: Challenging Climate Misinformation and DisinformationCML Framework ResourcesFree-to-use/share PDFs of the CML Framework:English: tinyurl.com/4v5ndatxGerman: tinyurl.com/yckctfp9Mandarin: tinyurl.com/mpfveh85Portuguese: tinyurl.com/mwrkf9szSpanish: tinyurl.com/2fdaz8upAdditional CML Framework Digital Downloadable Posters with Illustrations: drive.google.com/fileAdditional Websites & ResourcesEcomedia LiteracySubject to ClimateCritical Media ProjectBioneersLittle Justice LeadersJeff Share's WebsiteInquire 2 TransformClassroom Caffeine: Antonio LopezJohn Cabot University ArchiveOur Towns, Our Stories

This special episode of NWP Radio features many of the educators behind Empowering Youth to Confront the Climate Crisis in English Language Arts, a co-published book from Teachers College Press and the National Writing Project. Recorded in three parts, you won't want to miss this comprehensive overview of this important book. (https://shop.nwp.org/products/empowering-youth-to-confront-the-climate-crisis-in-english-language-arts) 00:00 – Introduction/Systems Thinking with Richard Beach and Fawn Canady Richard Beach and Fawn Canady discuss chapter two of the book, focusing on how to engage students in critiquing and transforming systems impacting the climate crisis. Learn how students can use writing to examine how fossil fuel energy, capitalist economic structures, agriculture, transportation, urban design, and political systems need transformation to address our changing climate. 26:52 – Critical Media Literacy with Jeff Share, Andrea Gambino, Amber Medina, and Noah Asher Golden This segment explores the intersection of critical media literacy and environmental justice/climate education. Our guests explain why climate change is not merely a scientific problem but an issue of priorities and narratives. Discover how educators can help students understand how dominant cultural stories contribute to our climate crisis and how we can change these narratives to create more sustainable and socially just futures. 50:04 – Writing of All Kinds with Allen Webb and Rich Novack Allen Webb and Rich Novack share diverse writing approaches that empower students to engage with climate issues through creative expression, persuasive writing, research, and more. Learn practical strategies for incorporating climate-focused writing across the English language arts curriculum. View all related resources at https://teach.nwp.org/empowering-youth-to-confront-the-climate-crisis-in-english-language-arts/

Tina Cane is the founder/director of Writers-in-the-Schools, RI, and, from 2016-2024, served as the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island where she lives with her husband and three children. In her capacity as poet laureate, Cane established her state's first youth poetry ambassador program in partnership with Rhode Island Center for the Book, and brought the Poetry-in-Motion program from the New York City Transit System to Rhode Island's state-wide buses. Cane is the author of The Fifth Thought, Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante, poems with art by Esther Solondz (Skillman Books, 2016), Once More With Feeling (Veliz Books 2017), Body of Work (Veliz Books, 2019), and Year of the Murder Hornet (Veliz Books, 2022). In 2016, Tina received the Fellowship Merit Award in Poetry from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. She was also a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Her debut novel-in-verse for young adults, Alma Presses Play (Penguin/Random House) was released in September 2021. Cane is also the creator/curator of the distance reading series, Poetry is Bread, and the editor of Poetry is Bread: The Anthology (forthcoming from Nirala Press, 2024). Her second verse novel for young readers, Are You Nobody Too? (Penguin/ Random House) was released in August 2024.Janelle Bence is a high-school English teacher with 24 years of experience teaching in Texas. Her favorite project is a Spoken Word event where freshmen support a local non-profit of their choosing. She is a longstanding member of the National Writing Project and enjoys collaborating with researchers to deepen her praxis. Currently, two projects she is working on are Transdisciplinary Civic Composing Collective (UT Austin) and Colorado State Sustainable Teaching and Learning (Colorado State University). Her writing is published in Civics for the World to Come: Committing to Democracy in Every Classroom (Mirra & Garcia, 2023) and Teaching for Equity, Justice, and Antiracism with Digital Literacy Practices (Edited By Meghan E. Barnes, Rick Marlatt).

Tina Cane is the founder/director of Writers-in-the-Schools, RI, and, from 2016-2024, served as the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island where she lives with her husband and three children. In her capacity as poet laureate, Cane established her state's first youth poetry ambassador program in partnership with Rhode Island Center for the Book, and brought the Poetry-in-Motion program from the New York City Transit System to Rhode Island's state-wide buses. Cane is the author of The Fifth Thought, Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante, poems with art by Esther Solondz (Skillman Books, 2016), Once More With Feeling (Veliz Books 2017), Body of Work (Veliz Books, 2019), and Year of the Murder Hornet (Veliz Books, 2022). In 2016, Tina received the Fellowship Merit Award in Poetry from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. She was also a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Her debut novel-in-verse for young adults, Alma Presses Play (Penguin/Random House) was released in September 2021. Cane is also the creator/curator of the distance reading series, Poetry is Bread, and the editor of Poetry is Bread: The Anthology (forthcoming from Nirala Press, 2024). Her second verse novel for young readers, Are You Nobody Too? (Penguin/ Random House) was released in August 2024. Janelle Bence is a high-school English teacher with 24 years of experience teaching in Texas. Her favorite project is a Spoken Word event where freshmen support a local non-profit of their choosing. She is a longstanding member of the National Writing Project and enjoys collaborating with researchers to deepen her praxis. Currently, two projects she is working on are Transdisciplinary Civic Composing Collective (UT Austin) and Colorado State Sustainable Teaching and Learning (Colorado State University). Her writing is published in Civics for the World to Come: Committing to Democracy in Every Classroom (Mirra & Garcia, 2023) and Teaching for Equity, Justice, and Antiracism with Digital Literacy Practices (Edited By Meghan E. Barnes, Rick Marlatt). About The Write Time The Write Time is a special series of NWP Radio, a podcast of the National Writing Project (NWP), where writing teachers from across the NWP Network interview young-adult and children's authors about their books, their composing processes, and writers' craft. You can view the archive at [https://teach.nwp.org/series/the-write-time/

This week, acclaimed writers Renée Watson and Jabari Asim talk about Watson's novel, skin & bones, as well as writing Black history and moving from writing for children to adults. This conversation originally took place May 19, 2024 and was recorded live at the American Writers Festival.AWM PODCAST NETWORK HOMEAbout skin & bones:From the acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a soulful and lyrical novel exploring sisterhood, motherhood, faith, love, and ultimately what gets passed down from one generation to the next.At 40, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life—between wine nights with her two best friends and her wedding just weeks away, she's happy in love and in friendship until a confession on her wedding day shifts her world.Unmoored and grieving a major loss, Lena finds herself trying to teach her daughter self-love while struggling to do so herself. Lena questions everything she's learned about dating, friendship, and motherhood, and through it all, she works tirelessly to bring the oft-forgotten Black history of Oregon to the masses, sidestepping her well-meaning co-workers that don't understand that their good intentions are often offensive and hurtful.Through Watson's poetic voice, skin & bones is a stirring exploration of who society makes space for and is ultimately a story of heartbreak and healing.RENÉE WATSON is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Over the past decade she has authored fifteen young adult books, which have collectively sold more than a million copies. She received a Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor for Piecing Me Together and high praise for 1619 Project: Born on the Water. Watson is on the Council of Writers for the National Writing Project and is a member of the Academy of American Poets' Education Advisory Council. She is also a writer-in-residence at The Solstice Low-Residency MFA Creative Writing Program. Renée splits her time between New York City and Portland, Oregon.JABARI ASIM is a writer and multidisciplinary artist. He directs the MFA program in creative writing at Emerson College, where he is also the Elma Lewis Distinguished Fellow in Social Justice. His nonfiction books include The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why; What Obama Means: For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future; Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice, and Life; and We Can't Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival. His books for children include Whose Toes Are Those? and Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis. His works of fiction include A Taste of Honey, Only the Strong, and Yonder.

EPISODE 418 - Andrea Heckner - Crime Thriller Books - Secrets in the Heartland SeriesI'm Andrea Heckner, and I am an author of Crime Thriller Books. I live in Wisconsin with my husband, David. We have three grown sons and three grandchildren.Here's my why for writing: I became an avid reader as a teenager and love to lose myself in a great story, but that is not where my story begins. My story begins with a young girl who struggled to learn to read due to having Dyslexia. Thanks to parents, educators and tutors who were dedicated to helping me to become literate, I was able to not only learn to read and write but to find a true passion in literacy.After starting as a Special Education Teacher, I realized how little I knew about teaching others to read and went back to school. Becoming a Reading Specialist and Literacy Coach allowed me to be able to help other children to become readers and writers. Participating in the National Writing Project helped me to not only become a stronger teacher of writing but also to develop my voice as a writer.Thanks for visiting; feel free to get in touch if you have questions about my books, and don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to be one of the first to get updates.Secrets in the Heartland SeriesThis series of Mystery/Thriller fiction books follows Detective Kass Minor and FBI Agent Robert Matthews as they work to solve crimes in and around the Springfield, Missouri, region of the United States.Book 1-The FarmHave you ever wondered how an ordinary person could know and interact with a serial killer and not know it until it was too late? The Farm, book one in The Murder in the Heartland series, centers on the disappearance of Kelsey Learner, a seemingly ordinary midwestern single mom. Parallel to the investigation into Kelsey's disappearance, a pair of serial killers are murdering in the area for what they perceive to be a higher good. Police have yet to connect their victims and, in some cases, even know they are missing. Is Kelsey their latest victim, or is it a coincidence that a serial killer couple is on the loose and Kelsey has vanished?Book 2- Dismantling the FarmFBI Agent Robert Matthews came from a long line of civil servants, but it was his grandfather's love of a 1930s movie about the FBI that had made being an agent Robert's dream. He had visions of car chases, gun fights, and media releases that featured his name. Instead, he got assigned to the Springfield, Missouri field office, where he spent his days doing paperwork, going out on investigative interviews, testifying in court, or practicing firearms use and defensive tactics. When he is assigned to look into the disappearance of a young man as a favor to a friend of the Assistant Director of the FBI, no one could have predicted how big the case would be.Book 3-Remembering the FarmThe third book in the Secrets in the Heartland series brings the reader back to answer some of their lingering questions. When two boys go missing in Springfield, Detective Kass Minor must move fast to try to bring them home safely. Working with a new partner who is no Mitch Leet, she has no idea what this investigation will reveal. Is Kelsey Learner still alive, or did she perish at the hands of the serial killers? Will learning the truth help Claire to move forward in her life?https://andreahecknerauthor.com/Support the show___https://livingthenextchapter.com/podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/

In today's episode I have the opportunity to visit with Suzanne Dailey once again. She was a guest on our podcast last year as well as a presenter at TLC 2023 in Orlando. Not only am I happy to have her on the show again, but she will return to present at TLC 2024 in New Orleans with a session titled "Strategies to Support Joyful Leadership". Suzanne Dailey is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District where she works with over 600 elementary teachers and 9,000 students. She is Nationally Board Certified, a fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a masters degree in reading. Suzanne is also the author of Teach Happier this School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration and Reflection and the host of the popular weekly podcast, Teach Happier.Today, Suzanne shares her thoughts and research on happiness, specifically how life is so much more than just happiness. Happiness, she says, is not an "either or" situation; it's an "and" situation. When you look at it that way, you can fully live life and experience all of it. We also discuss the crisis of happiness that is happening in schools right now and two specific practices everyone can do to become happier. Listen in as she gives us some practical advice and three Rs to implement daily.In this conversation you'll learn how paying attention to the things we are grateful for and how focusing on health and happiness can help us be a resource for other people. Suzanne also provides tips for coaches to persevere and be a service to others, as well as what you should and shouldn't do when you are coaching someone that is going through difficult times.Finally, learn about her recent research into which teachers are in need of the most support these days, and what you can do to be an effective coach.Interested in learning how System Support can make an impact on your district, click here.Want to learn more about what Instructional Coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching, click here. I'd love to hear your feedback about my weekly Coaching Conversations. Please consider leaving a rating or review and subscribing to our channel.

Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times Bestselling author. Her books have sold over one million copies.  Her young adult novel, Piecing Me Together, received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. Her children's picture books and novels for teens have received several awards and international recognition. Many of her books are inspired by her experiences growing up as a Black girl in the Pacific Northwest. Her poetry and fiction center around the experiences of Black girls and explore themes of home, identity, body image, and the intersections of race, class, and gender.One of Renée's passions is using the arts to help youth cope with trauma and discuss social issues. Her picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen is based on poetry workshops she facilitated with children in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Renée was a writer-in-residence for over twenty years teaching creative writing and theater in public schools and community centers throughout the nation. She founded I, Too Arts Collective, a nonprofit that was housed in the Harlem brownstone where Langston Hughes lived the last twenty years of his life. The organization hosted poetry workshops for youth and literary events for the community from 2016-2019.  Renée is on the Council of Writers for the National Writing Project and is a member of the Academy of American Poets' Education Advisory Council.Renée grew up in Portland, Oregon, and splits her time between Portland and New York City.This episode was produced by Brittani Brown of BarbaraJean Productions.Find out more at gloryedim.com

All Home Care Matters was honored to welcome Laurette Klier, Christine Droney, Elisa Bosley, and Paula Muller as guests to the show to discuss "Spirituality, Faith, & Care." About Laurette Klier - Founder of NANA'S Books: As the founder of NANA'S BOOKS, Laurette Klier brings a wealth of experience and expertise to elder care and compassionate communication. With a lifelong commitment to teaching and caregiving, Laurette holds undergraduate and master's degrees in speech communications and education from Boston College. A certified dementia practitioner and cognitive stimulation therapist, Laurette is dedicated to enhancing the lives of elders through innovative techniques and purposeful resources.  An Aetna fellow and teacher consultant for the National Writing Project, Laurette blends academic knowledge with hands-on caregiving experience. Her pioneering approach to re-imagining the culture of elder engagement has earned her a 2021 Maude's Award, a 2023 National Mature Media Award and a 2023 Service to Seniors Award from the National Society of Certified Senior Advisors.  About Christine Droney, LCSW, MSW, CT, MPH-C, NCTTP: Christine's journey began 3,217 miles away in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles, the war of the 1970s. Her parents bravely left everything they knew behind to pursue a life of peace and opportunity for their family in the United States. Christina has noticed the barriers to an individual's (and their family's) emotional, social, and cultural experiences while going through complex life events. These barriers contributed poorly to their mental health. After years of starting a family and raising children with a bleeding disorder, she was determined to embark on a path of being part of the solution to the problem. Christine's emphasis on whole-person wellness provides a holistic treatment to your psychological well-being. Therefore, she inherently invest in the best outcome for her clients. Christine is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Her desire to help others has pushed her to serve her community for over thirty years. She was inducted into the New Jersey Women's Hall of Fame in 2017 for her contributions to social services and volunteerism. She has made over 400 visits to the United States Senate, House of Representatives, and legislative offices advocating on behalf of patients for much-needed change. She has a passion for education issues, brain health, Men's, Women's, and LGTBQIA+ health, and has worked on several nonprofit boards.  About Elisa Bosley, Chaplain: Elisa has more than 40 years of experience leading non-denominational Christian worship services and Bible studies in both church and parachurch settings. She also has over 20+ years of experience interacting with older adults with dementia, a population she absolutely loves. (Her own father-in-law developed Alzheimer's disease in the early 2000s, and she and her husband were intimately involved with his journey until his death in 2012.) In 2016, she combined her spiritual-care experience with my dementia-care experience and became a licensed chaplain for elders with dementia. She serves at a long-term memory care community near her home in Boulder, Colorado. She is now caring for a parent living with dementia.  About Paula Muller, Ph.D.: Founder of CareLink360™, brings a wealth of experience in healthcare technology, including a background in Biomedical Engineering, EEG analysis in Switzerland, Ph.D., and Post-doc work with Parkinson patients. Her career spans tech and software development roles at companies like SiriusXM, Net-Scale Technologies, and Authentidate. Paula's vision for CareLink360™, inspired by her commitment to family bonds, aims to bring seniors and their loved ones closer together.

All Home Care Matters is helping to shine a light on the importance of the arts in the dementia space. We are honored to welcome three instrumental individuals who are helping to incorporate the arts into dementia care and the dementia space. The members of this esteemed panel of guests are Alexis Baker, MT-BC, CDP who is founder of Bridgetown Music Therapy, Laurette Klier founder of NANA'S Books, and Dr. Marc Rothman founder of Dementia Spring and the CEO of Lizzy Care. About Alexis Baker, MT-BC, CDP - Founder of Bridgetown Music Therapy: Alexis Baker is a board-certified music therapist of 10 years and owner of Bridgetown Music Therapy, which she founded in 2017. She is passionate about using music to make a difference in the lives of older adults, especially those living with dementia. About Laurette Klier - Founder of NANA'S Books: As the founder of NANA'S BOOKS, Laurette Klier brings a wealth of experience and expertise to elder care and compassionate communication. With a lifelong commitment to teaching and caregiving, Laurette holds undergraduate and master's degrees in speech communications and education from Boston College. A certified dementia practitioner and cognitive stimulation therapist, Laurette is dedicated to enhancing the lives of elders through innovative techniques and purposeful resources. An Aetna fellow and teacher consultant for the National Writing Project, Laurette blends academic knowledge with hands-on caregiving experience. Her pioneering approach to re-imagining the culture of elder engagement has earned her a 2021 Maude's Award, a 2023 National Mature Media Award and a 2023 Service to Seniors Award from the National Society of Certified Senior Advisors. About Dr. Marc Rothman CEO of Lizzy Care & Founder of Dementia Spring: Dr. Rothman is a physician executive with deep experience in home- and community-based services for older adults, physician practice management and clinical operations, value based care and Advanced Alternative Payment Models, regulatory affairs, quality improvement, and post-acute and long-term care. Dr. Rothman is the Chief Executive Officer of Lizzy Care, a new model of Dementia Care Management that provides the people, technology and resources needed to keep those with Alzheimer's and dementia safe and vibrant at home. Founded in 2022, Lizzy Care services clients in the New York, New Jersey and southern Connecticut area. Prior to Signify Dr. Rothman served as Senior Medical Officer at Aspire Healthcare where he led the nationwide provider network, the Aspire TeleHealth palliative care service line, as well as all centralized telephonic care services. Before Aspire he was the Chief Medical Officer of Kindred Healthcare, Inc., at that time the nation's largest provider of integrated post-acute care services with over 2,400 locations in 45 states. There he led the medical affairs division and held responsibility for physician engagement, quality, patient experience and pharmacy services. Kindred acquired Gentiva Health in 2015, and was then taken private and sold to the Humana/Welsh/TPG consortium in 2018. Prior to joining Kindred, Dr. Rothman directed post-acute medical services at the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center and practiced geriatric, post-acute and palliative medicine with the Permanente Medical Group. Dr. Rothman is the founder of the Dementia Spring Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that supports visual and performing artists who are portraying dementia and Alzheimer's disease in a new light through their work. He currently serves as a Director for the Mission Healthcare Corp. in Southern California, with the Vistria Group, and until recently was a Director for the Healthdrive Corp., which was acquired by Cressey and Co. in 2023.

Welcome to the Thursday edition of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies. Whether you're new to the show or a long-time listener, I'm so glad you're here for today's edition of “Highly Recommended.” This week, let's talk about some of the best summer PD options out there.  First things first, I've got to tell you about my personal favorite summer PD experience of all time, the one my husband still jokingly refers to as my “smoothie grant.” One summer, my school had money left from its PD budget, and invited teachers to apply for small, simple ways to produce something helpful to their work over the summer with a little bit of funding. I applied for a budget to go get a smoothie each morning in June and sit and read and design curriculum at my favorite beach cafe in Los Angeles for an hour or two. I still remember how fun it was to sit on the balcony after rollerblading the beach at sunrise, listening to the surfers walk by, drinking my apple pie smoothie as I reread the Odyssey and thought about how to rewrite the 9th-grade curriculum. It was the perfect way to add a regular bit of work to my summer and feel like it was fun to do. If your school has a budget for summer PD and what you really want to do is work on curriculum, consider getting creative with a grant like this.  Next on my list I want to mention the National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute series. These cool programs take place all over the United States, giving you a chance to travel to interesting places, dig deep into their culture, and collaborate with colleagues from across the country. This summer they'll have Grand Coulee Dam: The Intersection of Modernity and Indigenous Cultures in Spokane, Freedom Summer: 60 Years Later in Jackson, Shakespeare and Digital Storytelling in Decatur, and quite a few more.  My husband attended one of the institutes on civil rights years back and remembers it as being absolutely outstanding.  I consistently hear from people who have found the National Writer's Project summer workshops extremely impactful, so that's next. If you're interested in diving deep into the teaching of writing, I'd look up your closest National Writing Project site and see what they have on offer. If you're looking for online options, you might explore the on-demand workshops from Facing History & Ourselves, or the free online course available from the National Museum of the American Indian, “edX Course: Foundations for Transforming Teaching and Learning about Native Americans,” or of course, Camp Creative, the summer PD I run each June (topic to be revealed soon!)   Finally, I'll give a quick nod to the Exeter Humanities Institute, a weeklong workshop all about the discussion method, Harkness. I attended this institute after my first year of teaching, following a month-long experiment in each of my classes to use only Harkness as our method of discussion. I learned SO MUCH that week, and it really influenced me as a teacher on a fundamental level. I never used any other discussion method after that, because I just couldn't imagine NOT using Harkness. Look into the method before committing to a week to go deep with it, but if you find it's a good fit at your school, this week of PD will be an incredible boost to your ability to help your students shine through the method.  Of course, self-care, family time, and travel are all also great ways to renew your strength and creativity this summer as well. But if you're looking for a quality PD experience, these are some of my favorite options, so I highly recommend you follow the links in the show notes and check them out!   Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!    PD Links (as promised!): National Endowment for the Humanties Summer Institutes The National Writing Project The National Museum of the American Indian Online Courses Facing History and Ourselves On-Demand Learning The Exeter Humanities Institute  

Join us for a conversation with Cindy Urbanski, PhD, author of Getting Schooled on Resistance: An Exploration of Clashing Narratives in Urban School Reform. Urbanski has worked with writing and writers in some capacity for 30 years. Currently her projects consist of making space for stories in the world that have formerly been untold and/or underrepresented. Through her degree in K-12 Urban Literacy, work with the National Writing Project, her teaching at the 6-12 level as well as the undergraduate and graduate level, Urbanski has witnessed the power shift into the hands of the writer when they are encouraged and trusted to tell their stories with their words. Related Shows Untangling Middle School Reform: https://blubrry.com/nwpradio/30455704/untangling-urban-middle-school-reform/

All Home Care Matters was honored to welcome the founder of NANA'S Books, Laurette Klier as guest to the show.   About Laurette:   As the founder of NANA'S BOOKS, Laurette Klier brings a wealth of experience and expertise to elder care and compassionate communication. With a lifelong commitment to teaching and caregiving, Laurette holds undergraduate and master's degrees in speech communications and education from Boston College.   A certified dementia practitioner and cognitive stimulation therapist, Laurette is dedicated to enhancing the lives of elders through innovative techniques and purposeful resources. An Aetna fellow and teacher consultant for the National Writing Project, Laurette blends academic knowledge with hands-on caregiving experience. Her inspiring perspective on re-imagining the culture of engagement goes beyond cognitive stimulation, to soul and spirit-tending, connecting care partners in all phases of life.   About NANA'S Books:   NANA'S BOOKS® is a treasury of nostalgic companion books. Mindfully designed to support older adults living with brain changes and their communities of care, we honor the individual through dignified reading and compassionate sharing. NANA'S BOOKS pair vintage literature and art with sensitivity and intention to elicit fond reminiscence and eased conversation.   Grounded in faith and identity, our print and voice-enabled digital libraries affirm personhood and soothe the spirit. NANA'S BOOKS are for soul-tending.   Our adaptive formats, hyper legible fonts and considerate layouts make visiting comfortable by enabling readers to savor books and good company once again.

Our guests zero in on how to use teaching strategies we already know in new ways that yield better results. I see, I think, I wonder, and the six-word story are among the familiar strategies they leverage in effective new ways. They highlight the versatility of these strategies across different subjects and age groups. Follow on Twitter: @ISTEofficial @mrhooker @drjennparker @k_grunow @hickstro @jonHarper70bd @shellthief @hyphenatic @bamradionetwork #ISTE20 #ISTEturns40 #edchat #edtech #edtechchat Jennifer Parker, Ed.D. is a Faculty Development Coordinator at the University of Florida. With over 30 years in education, she spent her last 15 years as an Instructional Technology/School Data Consultant for Macomb Intermediate School District. She is an adjunct faculty for Central Michigan University's Master of Arts in Learning, Design, & Technology, an ISTE Recognized Program. She has collaborated on hundreds of educational websites and online courses, most notably as co-creator of the 21things4 sites. She is recognized as a leader in connecting standards to best practices in educational technology and has led many state initiatives. Kate Grunow has been in education for over a decade as a K-12 digital media specialist and English teacher. She currently serves 130,000 students and over 10,000 teachers in metro Detroit. She is one of the co-creators of the 21 Things 4 project and a presenter at local, state, and national conferences on topics such as blended learning, free technology tools, learning management platforms, and digital-age teaching and learning. She is the Schoology implementation lead for Macomb ISD where she has trained over 3,000 teachers on Schoology basics and tech best practices during COVID-19. Learn more about Kate at kategrunow.com Dr. Troy Hicks is a professor of English and education at Central Michigan University, where he serves as Chair of the Department of Teacher and Special Education. He also directs the Chippewa River Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, and collaborates with K–12 colleagues to explore how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms. Dr. Hicks speaks regularly at conferences, workshops, and webinars and has authored dozens of resources, including books, articles, chapters, blog posts, and other media broadly related to the teaching of literacy in our digital age.

Join us on an intimate journey with the remarkable Amy Perras, a high school English teacher turned writer, life coach, and podcast host. In this gripping episode of "Ain't Gonna Be No Stupid," Amy candidly shares her personal evolution, from her roots as a Chicago Area and National Writing Project fellow to becoming a beacon of strength for those seeking recovery from narcissistic abuse. Discover the inspiring story behind Amy's decision to quit drinking alcohol and how it fueled her passion for helping others find their purpose. As a certified life coach, Amy delves into the importance of clarity, authenticity, and aligning with one's values in order to soar with eagles and leave the ducks behind. Explore Amy's creative pursuits, from her first book, "Ain't Gonna Be No Stupid Woman," to her latest journals, "Gonna Chase Wisdom Instead," which uniquely connect chapters and verses of the Bible to each day and month of the year. Learn about her love for thrifting, ice skating, reading, theatre, swing and salsa dancing, and her dedication to serving on the prayer team at her Chicago church. As the creator of the trademarked phrase "Ain't Gonna Be No Stupid," Amy invites you to witness her authenticity on any podcast platform or YouTube under the same name. Uncover the power of purpose with Amy Perras, and gain insights into walking your path, breaking free, and embracing wisdom. Ready to embark on a journey of self-discovery? Tune in now at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aint-gonna-be-no-stupid/id1517316881 and watch the visual episodes on https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLONzreFg_0WnQVoM4PmX_IiBR5-5IfMBP&si=jFZBU3aJSyVyFnY . Don't miss the chance to be inspired and motivated by Amy's raw and relatable story. This is more than a podcast; it's a guide to living authentically and chasing wisdom. www.amyperras.com IG & Tik Tok@aintgonnabenostupid

Welcome to the first episode of the author spotlight series here at Spark Creativity! In this series, you'll hear from authors sharing their work directly into your classroom. Today we're hearing from Megan E. Freeman, reading from her book, Alone. Stay tuned throughout the year to hear from many more wonderful authors, including Matt de la Peña, Payal Doshi, and Nancy Tandon. Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week to teach poetry, and she has been a writer ever since. Her bestselling novel in verse, ALONE, won the Colorado Book Award, the Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont children's book awards, is an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and is included on over two dozen "best of" and state reading lists. Megan is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. My hope is that you'll play this episode to your students on an upcoming Friday, sharing the guiding sketchnotes handout featured below with them so they can jot down their key takeaways as they listen. Grab the sketchnotes handout here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ox4NNN9SZOG2oR1AQsHxyf0txLrrcR81gFP1sLbsIo0/copy  You can find the text of the first 60 pages of the book available free on Overdrive. If you'd like to project this episode on Youtube with an image of Megan and her book to give kids a visual as they listen, you can find it here.  Learn more about Megan E. Freeman Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week to teach poetry, and she has been a writer ever since. Her bestselling novel in verse, ALONE, won the Colorado Book Award, the Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont Children's Book Awards, is an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and is included on over two dozen "best of" and state reading lists. Megan is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, and her poetry chapbook, Lessons on Sleeping Alone, was published by Liquid Light Press. An award-winning teacher with decades of classroom experience, Megan taught multiple subjects across the arts and humanities to students K-16, and she is nationally recognized for presenting workshops and speaking to audiences across the country. She studied theater and dramatic literature for many years, earning degrees from Occidental College and the Ohio State University.  Megan is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Northern Colorado Writers, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Columbine Poets of Colorado, and Lighthouse Writers Workshop. She is an Impact on Education Award winner, a National Writing Project fellow , a Fund for Teachers fellow, and a member of the Colorado Poets Center. She used to live in northeast Los Angeles, central Ohio, northern Norway, and on Caribbean cruise ships. Now she divides her time between northern Colorado and the Texas Gulf Coast. Visit her website here.

This  past August, Maine Science Podcast host Kate Dickerson was a guest interviewer on  the National Writing Project's The Write Time podcast, and spoke with Meghan Wilson Duff about their children's' book, How Are You, Verity? (Illustrated by Taylor Barron). Meghan is on the faculty in the Psychology & Community Studies program at University of Maine at Machias. Our thanks to the National Writing Project and Tanya Baker & Bryan Crandall for letting us rebroadcast this episode.The conversation was recorded in August 2023, and aired on The Write Time in September. To learn more about Meghan and their book, check out their website: https://www.meghanwilsonduff.com/.To learn more about The National Writing Project, go to https://www.nwp.org/. Other episodes of The Write Time podcast are available in all the podcast places.  ~~~~~The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Discovery Museum. It was recorded at Discovery Studios, at the Maine Discovery Museum, in Bangor, ME. The Maine Science Podcast is hosted and executive produced by Kate Dickerson; edited and produced by Scott Loiselle.The Discover Maine theme was composed and performed by Nick Parker.To support the Maine Discovery Museum: https://www.mainediscoverymuseum.org/donate. Find us online:Maine Discovery MuseumMaine Science FestivalMaine Discovery Museum on social media: Facebook InstagramMaine Science Festival on social media: Facebook Twitter InstagramMaine Science Podcast on social media: Facebook Twitter Instagram © 2023 Maine Discovery Museum

My guest today is Dr. Steve Graham, who has, for over 40 years, studied how writing develops, how to teach it effectively, and how writing can be used to support reading and learning. We'll discuss some of his research around reading and writing reciprocity, and we'll learn about writing instructional practices that have the strongest evidence, as published in his lES practice guides, available on What Works Clearinghouse. Transcript & More about the show: https://www.jenniferserravallo.com/podcast ****Steve Graham's research involves typically developing writers and students with special needs in both elementary and secondary schools, with much of occurring in classrooms in urban schools.  Graham is the former editor of Exceptional Children, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Journal of Writing Research, Focus on Exceptional Children, and Journal of Educational Psychology. He is the co-author of the "Handbook of Writing Research," "Handbook of Learning Disabilities," "APA Handbook of Educational Psychology," "Writing Better," "Powerful Writing Strategies for all Students" and "Making the Writing Process Work." He is also the author of three influential Carnegie Corporation reports: Writing Next , Writing to Read , and Informing Writing.Graham has served as an advisor to a variety of organization, including UNESCO, National Institute of Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Zuckerberg Initiative, National Writing Project, Institute of Educational Sciences, the College Board, and the What Works Clearinghouse. He was the chair of the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guides for both elementary as well as secondary writing. Steve was a member of the National Research Conference committee on adolescent and adult literacy. He has provided background information for a wide variety of magazine, newspaper, television, and radio reports including National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, La Monde, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, National Public Radio, CBS Sunday Moring News, and NBC Today Show.He is the recipient of the Thorndike Career Award from Division 15 of the American Psychological Association, Sylvia Scribner Award from Division C of the American Educational Research Association, William S. Gray citation of merit from the International Literacy Association, John S. Nesbit Fellowship from the British Educational Research Association, Exemplary Research in Teaching and Teacher Education from Division K of the American Educational Research Award, Career Research Award from the International Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), the Kauffman-Hallahan Distinguished Researcher Award from the Division of Research (CEC), Jeannette Fleischner Career Leadership Award from the Division of Learning Disabilities (CEC), Samual A. Kirk Award from the Division of Learning Disabilities (CEC), Distinguished Researcher Award from the Special Education Special Interest Group of the American Education Research Association, J. Lee Weiderhot Lecture Award from the Council of Learning Disabilities, and the Don Johnston Literacy Lectureship Award for career contributions to literacy. He was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame for 2018.Graham is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, Division 15 of the American Psychological Association, as well as a fellow of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities.Special thanks to Alex Van Rose for audio editing this episode. Support the show

In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto is joined by distinguished guest Tricia Ebarvia. An experienced high school English teacher, Tricia is also the co-founder of #DisruptTexts and author of the masterpiece, "Get Free: Anti-Bias Literacy Instruction for Stronger Readers, Writers, and Thinkers." The interview explores this groundbreaking book that aims to liberate from socialization forms that perpetuate oppression. They discuss her intentional choice of artwork reflecting her cultural and ethnic experiences and our personal battles with language and cultural identity. A co-founder of #DisruptTexts, Tricia Ebarvia advocates for literacy instruction rooted in equity and liberation through critical literacy. Tricia taught high school English for 20 years and is currently the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at an independent school in Philadelphia. She is the co-founder of the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy (IREL), a National Writing Project educator, and the author of Get Free: Anti-Bias Literacy Instruction for Stronger Readers, Writers, and Thinkers (Corwin). Welcome to Our Classroom! Order your copy of Get Free!

Dr. Richard Mitchell has spent his 30 year professional career serving others in different capacities. He was an officer in the United States Army, a bicycle tour director with Cycle America, a teacher and school administrator.   After his many transitions, Richard has become a professional Life Coach serving high-achieving professionals who have found themselves burned out and unfulfilled in both their careers and their personal lives. He has made it his mission to help people get back to being fired up about their lives.   Rich is a fellow of The National Writing Project; he holds his Master's Degree from West Chester University and his doctorate from The University of Pennsylvania. He lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania with his three children.     Richard shared in this episode:     Biking Across America: Join Richard on an adventure, cycling through the USA at a thrilling 90 miles per day!   Pandemic Career Shift: Richard's inspiring journey from pandemic-driven career change to becoming a life coach for those feeling unfulfilled.   Fatigue vs. Burnout: Richard helps listeners distinguish between burnout and everyday fatigue.   Future Roadmap: Richard guides you in creating your future life roadmap—what will your life look like in three years?   Career Decisions: Gain wisdom from Richard on staying in your current career or pursuing a new path.   Passion Reignited: Learn expert techniques from Richard to reignite your love for your work.   Rediscovering Motivation: Richard encourages reconnecting with initial career inspiration.   Exit Strategies: Richard shares tips for gracefully leaving a career that no longer aligns with your dreams.   Writing for Growth: Explore higher-level thinking through writing with Richard's insights.   Life-Changing Question: Consider Richard's question: "What's your best-case scenario in three years if you follow your dreams?"   Authentic Living: Reflect on living authentically with Richard's actionable steps.   Lessons from Education: Richard shares invaluable lessons from his six-year Ivy League journey.   And much more…     Where to connect with Richard:      RichardMitchellCoaching.com              https://richardmitchellcoaching.com/     If you would like more insights on profit maximization for your business, visit www.ProfitHive.com.au  

Write Out, a program of the National Writing Project and the National Park Service, welcomes the poet-Ranger team of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument: Alabama State Poet Laureate Ashley Jones, Magic City Festival Earth Poet Nabila Lovelace, and Park Ranger Kat Gardiner. They share their work with youth and other community members exploring the intersections of poetry, prose, and place.Related links/resources:Podcast - Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 - Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)Magic City Poetry Festival“One-Way Ticket” by Langston Hughes (PDF)Junior Ranger Booklet (PDF)For more information, inspirations, and prompts for writing outside, visit http://writeout.nwp.org/.

Write Out, a program of the National Writing Project and the National Park Service, welcomes the poet-Ranger team of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument: Alabama State Poet Laureate Ashley Jones, Magic City Festival Earth Poet Nabila Lovelace, and Park Ranger Kat Gardiner. They share their work with youth and other community members exploring the intersections of poetry, prose and place. Related links/resources: Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument: https://www.nps.gov/bicr/index.htm Podcast - Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov): https://www.nps.gov/bicr/learn/photosmultimedia/podcast.htm The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 - Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov): https://www.nps.gov/bicr/learn/education/the-watsons-go-to-birmingham-1963.htm Ashley M Jones Poetry: https://ashleymjonespoetry.com/ Magic City Poetry Festival: https://www.magiccitypoetryfestival.org/ Nabila Lovelace: https://nabilalovelace.com/ “One-Way Ticket” by Langston Hughes: https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ows/seminars/tcentury/gmigration/Hughes_OneWayTicket.pdf Junior Ranger Booklet: https://writeout.nwp.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/BICR_Jr_Ranger_Book_2022_pages_with_bleeds.pdf For more inspirations and prompts for writing outside, visit http://writeout.nwp.org/

In this episode Suzanne Dailey dives into different tools and strategies that we can use to help stay a healthy mental space throughout the school year. Topics discussed:1. What do I need to do to know that I am getting in a good head space, a good heart space, conserving my limited energy, and maximizing the capacity that I have.2. We need to support one another when things are going really well and we need to acknowledge and support one another when we are collectively really tired. 3. We need to feel content, aligned, and balanced. 4. When our cup is empty it doesn't mean that we are doing life wrong. I firmly believe that means we're doing it right. 5. Happiness is an inside job. 6. Gratitude is the single practice that can permanently increase our happiness baseline. 7. Gratitude is consistent practice.8. Find three things that you are grateful for. 9. When we are looking to be grateful we are scanning around to look for things that are good and are right.10. Choose what you lean into and pay attention too!11. If we can show our 2nd graders what gratitude looks like imagine what it will look like to them when they are 18, 28, or 38.12. Have a gratitude journals with your students. 13. Things don't get easier we just learn to do hard better. 14. Small shifts, biggest gifts15. Have 2 degree shifts in our thoughts, goals, and actions.16. What is the energy that we are choosing to surround ourselves with.17. You have the influence on how much of someone's energy you get.  Leaves us 80 to 90 percent to choose. 18. There is power to intentional acts of kindness.19. If you perform an intentional act of kindness you feel better.  20 .If you are having a tough day and do a kind act it can truly help you. 21. Have students come up with an intentional act of kindness for your students. 22. Bid for connections.23. Podcast recommendations: Happiness Lab24. Book recommendation: Strive for Happiness by Rob Dunlop, Bold Gratitude by Lanie Rowell25. What did your summer self do to help you feel rested, rejuvinated, and calm? How can you bring that into your school self?  Book: Teach Happier This School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration and reflection:https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Happier-This-School-Year/dp/1416631666/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZBC2VSAWZMC4&keywords=Teach+Happier&qid=1692370889&sprefix=teach+happier%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1Podcast: Teach Happier:  https://suzannedailey.com/podcastBio:Suzanne Dailey is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District where she has the honor and joy of working with elementary teachers and students in 15 buildings. Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a Fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a Masters Degree in Reading. She is the author of Teach Happier this School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration & Reflection (ASCD, January 2023). She also writes for the Teach Better Team in her monthly blog series, "Teach Happier" and hosts the "Teach Happier" weekly podcast.  She is dedicated to nurturing and developing the whole child and teacher and loves sharing strategies at workshops and conferences. Suzanne lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with her husband, two children and English Bulldog. Connect:Twitter (X) : DaileySuzanneInstagram: @teachhappier

Suzanne Dailey is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District, where she has the honor and joy of working with over 500 elementary teachers and 8,000 students. She teaches model lessons, facilitates professional development sessions, and mentors teachers to be the best for the students in front of them.            Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a Masters Degree in Reading. She is dedicated to nurturing and developing the whole child and teacher and presents these topics at a local, state, and national level.         Suzanne is the author of Teach Happier this School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration & Reflection and the host of the popular weekly podcast, Teach Happier.       -Suzanne has spent 10 years as an instructional coach. She coaches over 500 educators in 15 elementary sites, currently. Prior to that, she was a 4th grade educator and a reading specialist. -”As an instructional coach I get to impact more students, by impacting their teachers. Knowing that there are really big ripple effects happening between fifteen buildings is a huge responsibility but also such a wonderful privilege and opportunity each day. No two days are the same but I feel the impact is more widespread.” -Professional Development and Personal Development - teachers need personal development. We need to affirm who we are, and what we need, as the person behind whatever our role is.  -Teachers are not superheroes, we are real humans who need to take care of our own selves and families at home, before we can really show up beautifully for kids.  -Approach tasks in the two pronged approach of personal development and professional development. -Adaptations have been so huge since March 2020 - look at that list, but look at the trends that will move us forward! -Science of Reading- small tweaks to make our instruction so much more impactful. Phonics explicitly and systematically - building readers!  -Knowing more, so we get to be a little bit better for the kids in front of us! -Student and teacher wellness- student and teacher readiness. -Small shifts, Big gifts - Teach Happier. -What is in your diet? - What podcasts are in your ears? What news feeds are in front of our faces? What can we control and navigate with small shifts? What is within our realm of influence? -How might we celebrate our brand new teachers in a similar way to our retirees? We all have fought through the year, how might we make everyone feel acknowledged? How do we overtly  honor and acknowledge teachers making it through their first year? -How do we get someone from, year one to year 30?  -Do your work and also, gather yourself beyond the role. -Every year is a huge journey! Honor that all the way through! -Conscious Acts of Kindness -”I don't know if I've done enough!” - Master Teacher - Goes to show no matter how great we are, no matter how impactful as teachers we are,  we carry so much with us as teachers. And that emotional lift, day in and day out, is a real thing. But I think it is finally being acknowledged and we are getting a little more space to share that.” -When we know we have each other, that is the key to gaining and retaining great educators!  - People, People, People - are we seeing the person behind the student, teacher, educators, or administrator? How can we flex? -Little shifts of language - as inclusive as possible - I can't wait to work together…we, us, let's - just softens every interaction.  -HAVE A WONDERFUL SCHOOL YEAR!   Connect with Suzanne: Twitter: @DaileySuzanne https://suzannedailey.com/ https://suzannedailey.com/podcast

In this episode, we're continuing our pattern of inquiry with active members of the HSD community. Our special guest is Leslie Patterson, PhD HSDP. Leslie Patterson taught English and language arts Texas middle and high schools for ten years before becoming a teacher educator, where she taught in Texas universities until she retired in 2005. As a Co-Director of the North Star of Texas Writing Project, Patterson integrates her support of K-12 literacy leaders with her interest in complex systems and literacy learning communities. She has consulted with teachers and school districts in Texas, California, Alaska, and Brazil. Her publications include numerous articles and books on language and literacy instruction, with a particular focus on writing instruction for adolescents and English learners, as well as human systems dynamics (HSD). In recent years, she has co-authored two books with Royce Holladay and Glenda Eoyang: “Radical Rules for Schools: Adaptive Action for Complex Change” and “Deep Learning Ecologies: An Invitation to Complex Teaching and Learning.” Her deep commitment and joy are to support educators as they work to make sense of complex challenges. Patterson's other publications include numerous articles and books on literacy instruction, particularly writing instruction for adolescents and English learners, as well as literacy policy and practice and human systems dynamics (HSD). Her deep commitment and joy is to support educators as they work to make sense of complex challenges. Patterson's recent publications, including “Radical Rules for Schools” and “Deep Learning Ecology,” combine her interests in writing instruction, support for multilingual students, professional learning, and school reform—all from a perspective that views teaching and learning as networks of complex adaptive systems. She is now a Co-Director of the North Star of Texas Writing Project, affiliated with the National Writing Project site, and an Associate with Human Systems Dynamics Institute. Patterson's recent publications, including “Radical Rules for Schools: Adaptive Action for Complex Change,” combine these interests in writing instruction, professional development, and school reform as a complex adaptive system. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hsdpatterns-possibilities/message

How long have “the reading wars” been a part of the national education discourse? What are the recurring themes? What can 4K-12 practitioners do to engage in a dialogue that leads to a better understanding of effective literacy instruction?In this episode, Paul Thomas shares his findings about the science of reading movement and how educators can navigate this conversation.Paul, a professor at Furman University, is the author of the policy brief The Science of Reading Movement: The never-ending debate and the need for a different approach to reading instruction (NEPC, 2022). He also wrote How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policy Makers, and People Who Care (IAP, 2020). Paul is a frequent writer at his blog, Radical Scholarship and on Twitter at @plthomasEdD. Special thanks to Mary Howard, Joy La Vay Taylor, Debra Crouch, and Mary Beth Nicklaus for engaging in and elevating this conversation. Full subscribers can join these conversations in real time. They also have access to the video archive and professional discussion guide here. Sign up today to fully engage in this community.Know someone who would benefit from Read by Example? Refer them to this space - see button below. Complimentary subscriptions can be earned with sign ups.Full TranscriptMatt Renwick (00:03):Welcome to Read by Example, where teachers are leaders and leaders know literacy. We are joined today by Dr. Paul Thomas. Paul is a professor of education at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and taught high school English in rural South Carolina before moving to teacher education. He is a former column editor for English Journal, National Council Teachers of English, current series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres and author of Teaching Writing as a Journey, Not a Destination: Essays Exploring What Teaching Writing Means, and the book, which I believe is in its second edition now, How to End the Reading Wars and Serve the Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policymakers, and People Who Care. NCTE named Paul the 2013 George Orwell Award winner. He co-edited the award-winning volume, Critical Media Literacy and Fake News in Post-Truth America. You can follow Paul's work at on Twitter at @plthomasedd and at Radical Scholarship at radicalscholarship.wordpress.com. Welcome, Paul.(01:26):Thank you very much. Nice to be here.(01:29):And we have a few who could join, if they could share too. Who you are, briefly just what you do. We'll start with Mary.Mary Howard (01:39):I am a literacy consultant and now doing Zoom, because I'm in Honolulu and I'd rather not get on a plane. This is year 51.Matt Renwick (01:57):Joy.Joy La Vay Taylor (01:59):Hi, I'm Joy La Vay Taylor, and I work for James Madison University with student teachers. Before that, I was literacy coach, reading recovery teacher and reading specialist.Matt Renwick (02:15):Deborah.Debra Crouch (02:17):Hi, I'm Deborah Crouch. I'm a literacy consultant as well and a co-author of Made For Learning with Brian Cambourne.Mary Beth Nicklaus (02:30):Hi, I'm Mary Beth Nicklaus, and I am with Eastern Harbor County Schools in Minnesota. And I'm a secondary level reading specialist. This is my 34th year.Matt Renwick (02:48):Welcome everyone. And I have a few questions for Paul, but we'll definitely save time for any questions that you might have. The first one for Paul is, you are consistently on point in your policy brief, which we will link in the newsletter, the Science of Reading Movement, which is a condensed version of your book on the topic. It's a nice summary, as well as what you post online on Twitter and on your blog. What motivates you to keep coming back to this topic of the science of reading movement?Paul Thomas (03:27):Oh, that's a really good question because most of my career, I'm really a composition writing person. And when I discovered Emily Hanford's Hard Words, early 2018, it really struck a chord, but I had no idea that it would get the momentum that it did. So I've always been a holistic literacy person, and I've always been skeptical of over focusing on things like grammar and phonics. And although I taught high school English at Furman, I have taught master's literacy program. So I've been working with early literacy teachers who are getting graduate degrees. And a former colleague of mine, Nita Schmidt, who moved from Furman to Iowa and now she's retired, she's brilliant, she was an early literacy people, and she, she brought me in at N C T E.(04:33):And so I had had this kind of transition to being, what I would say, a literacy generalist where I understand kind of K-16 literacy, or birth to grave literacy. My focus I feel like is public work. Like, how do I talk to the public? How do I help people understand education? And this movement just kind of intersected with that public work. And throughout 2018, 2019, I found myself blogging maybe too much, but I had quite a number of blogs on this, and I said, "I've got enough for a book. I did see how it was developing in a direction that regretfully has come true. That early kind of messaging has now become policy. So in the last, I guess that's what, five years now, I have shifted very much into being a policy person, which I think was the rightful place for me to go.(05:44):I do think trying to work on public narratives, how we talk about critical discourse analysis is a big thing for me. It's a central part of my upper level reading and writing course. At Furman, that's a requirement at Furman, they have to have an upper level writing and research course. So I think it was just kind of a perfect storm for me because I do feel like it's really important for scholarly work to have a real world place. And this felt way more engaging. It felt way more productive than my composition work. Although my book before this was on writing. I'm still, I teach first year writing. I care very much about writing. But reading is very central to sort of how we think about education in the United States. So it seemed like kind of a natural development for me.Matt Renwick (06:47):Yeah, your policy brief is very practical, very useful. It was easy to read, but you covered the, the essential topics of it and really gave, for me anyway, it gave me some nice talking points. Right now in Wisconsin, we're dealing with it, right this very week, up for discussion, so to speak. How might educators and parents best use this resource to effectively advocate for more reasonable policies? What can we do with this to, to make some kind of a difference, or at least try to influence policymakers?Paul Thomas (07:29):So first I would like to say I really am very proud of the policy brief. And I think a huge part of that was the N E P C staff itself. They did not make this easy . I had to a 6,000 word policy brief. I probably wrote 15 to 20,000 words and three or four drafts, and I was kind of taken to task three or four or five times before it even went to peer review. And I think they should be commended for that. The editorial group at N E P C weren't literacy people, so they were constantly going, "What do you mean by this? Uh, is this real?" And the the fun part was being challenged on using the simple view of reading.(08:22):One person said to me, "Paul, nobody uses that. That's silly. That's a silly term." And I had to say, "No, it's a technical term. It's a real term." So I do appreciate that opportunity, and I will say any PC believes in practical. So it had to build to what do people do. I do feel really good about the policy implications at the end. I've been working indirectly with Diane Stephens, who is Professor Emeritus from the University of South Carolina. She taught several other places. Diane has really perfected taking actual legislation and copy editing it, . It's amazing, "Here is where you're off base, but here is how to reform that." So I think what we have to do is, it kind of parallels the book banning and the anti C R T movement.(09:23):It seems almost silly to have to argue for access to books. It seems silly to have to say you shouldn't ban books. So I think it seems kind of pointless for a lot of reasonable people to argue for teacher autonomy and serving the needs of all students. And very simply put, that's kind of what the policy brief boiled down to. We really targeted, "there's no such thing as one size fits all instructional practices." So there should not be any one size fits all mandates in policy and legislation. We really kind of honed in on, "it's not the place of legislators to ban or mandate anything that goes against what is a reasonable approach to day-to-day classroom practices." So I think what can people do is I think is, kind of target these simple messages.(10:37):I've been trying to work better about clarifying that I'm advocating for teacher autonomy. I'm advocating for meeting the needs of every individual child. I am not an advocate for reading recovery. I'm not an advocate for balanced literacy. I'm not an advocate for National Council Teachers of English. I'm not an advocate for International Literacy Association. I'm not being trivial here. I don't advocate for labels and organizations, even though I love N C T E, for example. It's been my home for a long time, and I respect N C T E, but I think what we have to advocate for are key principles. And I've called this challenge out many times, you know, on social media. If someone says they don't agree with me or that I'm wrong, I say, so you're saying that there should not be teacher autonomy, so you're saying we shouldn't serve the individual needs of every student, and I really think we have to call people on the carpet about that.(11:47):I also think it's really important, and it might be too much for most people, I just don't believe in misinformation. I get called out that I'm advocating for X when I simply say Y isn't true . This is a really good example to me, is the attack on Lucy Calkins, I think is just unfair. It's not accurate. Lucy Calkins Units of Study and Fountas and Pinnell work are in one in four schools in the country. It's 25% of the reading programs, I just tweeted out today. You know, their programs are not the dominant programs in New Mexico. And New Mexico has the lowest NAEP fourth grade reading scores and the highest percentage of children below basic. So creating a bad guy is a trick of storytelling.(13:00):And regretfully the science of reading movement, I mean, Sold a Story. I mean, it's about storytelling, and they're manufacturing the crisis. They're manufacturing the bad guy. I really just don't like misinformation. And again, I don't like the way balance literacy is defined. It doesn't mean that I endorse balanced literacy, even though I don't have any actual problem with the concept of balanced literacy. I'm really a critical literacy person. Do I like whole language people and their philosophies? Yes, there are a lot of my friends. Do I find balanced literacy ideas compelling? Yes, of course I do. I am a holistic person. So I think we have to, I have to keep sort of simple messaging on the key concepts that we support.(13:55):But we also have to say, actually what you're saying isn't true. Your definition isn't true. Your cause of the problem isn't true. Your solution isn't true. Over and over the national reading panel is just misrepresented. I use Diane Stephen's work. The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics was no more effective than balanced literacy or whole language. Almost every single credible study says the exact same thing. The major study out of England said systematic phonics no more effective than balanced literacy. We need balance in England, over and over. That's the truth. And then you've got the science of rooting people saying, it's the Emily Hanford mantra, that it's simple and it's settled, and neither one of those are true.Matt Renwick (14:48):That leads into my next question, Paul, is this towards, especially phonics instructions, kind of this reason why kids are failing to read because they don't have enough of it, or we need more of it to ensure that they can read. And then picking on some of these targets, whether it's a person or it's a program or approach, are these strawmen for maybe avoiding bigger issues that we do need to address, such as poverty or teaching and learning conditions? Or is there some reasonableness to what some people might be advocating for in the sor movement? Where do you see that falling?Paul Thomas (15:33):Really nice job there. I appreciate that. Because that's two other kind of key points that we need to hit on. So, the part of my book and the policy brief that I'm most proud of is the historical perspective. In the 1940s, draftees performed very poorly on literacy tests, and Eleanor Roosevelt and the government shouted reading crisis. And John Dewey in progressivism was blamed. The woman I did my dissertation on, Lula Brandt ,did an analysis and found out that most draftees went to traditional schools and had traditional instruction, like phonics instruction, had skills instruction. And there's Elementary English, which became Language Arts, had a special issue on it, very similar to Reading Research Quarterly, having two special issues on it in the 2020s.(16:33):There was one article, , and they literally say this false attack on progressivism is to avoid the truth. The problem with literacy in the United States is poverty. You know, that was the 1940s. Then it recurs, the Johnny Can't Read in the fifties and sixties, same thing. It's phonics, it's lack of phonics. And people are like, "no, the people who are doing poorly are impoverished." And then it recycles into the sixties, into the 1990s, and then around No Child Left Behind is this same thing. So I think two other messages that we really have to make sure we make clear is, and I refer to Martin Luther King toward the end of his life in 1967, he said, "We would find that instead of reforming education to erase poverty, that if we erase poverty, education would improve."(17:30):And there is nothing truer. If children had universal healthcare, if they had no food deserts, if they had steady homes, if their parents had steady well-paying jobs, if there were books in their homes, the NAEP scores would go up. And that's doing nothing in the schools. Now, I'm not saying don't do anything in schools. I actually think this is the other thing that drives me crazy. I've been accused of being a protector of the status quo. And people who know me would laugh, they should talk to some of the people I've worked for. I think I entered education in 1984. I start year 40 in the fall. And when I started education, I was a reformer.(18:23):That's why I want, I wanted to do school better than it had been done to me. And then when I was in my doctoral program in the 1990s, I found out there were the reconstructionist. There was a whole movement in the early 20th century to reform schools. And so I want things to be different. I want school to be different. And you said it just a second ago. So we've got to address the lives, the homes, and the communities of children. I mean, we have to do that. And this constantly pointing at teachers and saying they don't know what they're doing and that schools are failing is a distraction. But simultaneous to that teaching and learning conditions, I just cannot say that often enough. There's been research for decades that marginalized students are more likely to have beginning and uncertified teachers.(19:25):That's a simple thing to address. We should guarantee that no child who is performing below what we believe they should be, instead of using third grade test scores to retain students, why don't we use third grade test scores to ensure children to have experienced certified teachers and low student-teacher ratios in fourth grade? That's a much better policy. And I would 100% endorse the use of standardized testing for that. But we are not going to do those things. I mean that's what's kind of criminal about this. Special needs children...we're overly concerned about dyslexic students. I am not saying that we should not be, absolutely, we should be concerned with dyslexic students. But special needs students are really highly likely to have beginning and new teachers, special needs students are really highly likely to have uncertified teachers.(20:31):Those are things that could be addressed. Now I think that would solve a lot of problems, systemic forces outside of the school. And then, I agree, this is a national education policy center thing. Instead of accountability reform, we need equity reform. So inside schools, I would say no grade retention. We should not be stratifying students. We should not be gatekeeping students into courses. But the biggest thing to me in school is a teacher assignment. The dirty little secret about education, nobody wants to talk about...if you teach long enough when someone retires, you get the good kids. And I think that's one of those little dirty secrets that we don't talk about. Beginning teachers too often... administration sits down, the remaining teachers get to pick their courses for next year, and the leftovers go to the new person. That is a terrible policy. It's a terrible way to treat children. And these are things we could address. We never talk about them, and we don't do them. So I think as you were implying, I think a lot of this is about ways to avoid doing the hard stuff.Matt Renwick (21:53):Yeah, for sure. You hit on a lot of topics there with that. There were couple of questions and, and I won't bring it up here just because it could, who knows where it would to go. But the money aspect too. You noted on Twitter, that a lot of these arguments and blaming are actually creating a space, a void, in which then certain individuals, publishers, organizations can sell their programs, trainings to solve the problem that they created in the first place. But that's a whole nother topic almost, I think.Paul Thomas (22:38):I could interject there real quick. Sure. I think people don't understand. I just had a conversation with a producer of a major news series yesterday morning. Instead of chasing the right reading program, we should reevaluate that. We use reading programs. It's much simpler than that. At W S R A, I think it was 2019, it was right before covid, teachers taught me a lesson. The problem that they had with units of study was not units of study, it was how it was implemented. And we too often hold teachers accountable for implementing a program instead of serving the needs of students. And I think that's a really important distinction. And it would also, I think it would address the money issue. We do, I think we do spend too much money on educational materials, and then we feel obligated to holding teachers accountable because of that investment.Matt Renwick (23:41):Yeah. Too much money and resources is not enough. And the ultimate research, which is teachers and students as well is, how can we structure students to be resources for each other? I'd like to open it up to other people who have questions here, or Paul, if you have anything you'd like to share that to come to mind. I'll open the floor up.Mary Howard (24:06):Okay. I was just gonna come back to, and I appreciate this so much because it led me back to what you wrote. One of the best things about this is that it's so specific to suggestions for decision makers and policy makers. And so one of the, and I loved every one of them, but one of the things that I kept coming back to is at the very end, two that really keep, are really in my head. One is be wary of overstatements and oversimplifications within media and public advocacy. Acknowledging concerns raised but remaining skeptical of simplistic claims about causes and solutions. And one of the challenges is that there are so many, the policy makers, the people who are making these decisions, they want oversimplification. They want to know, all I have to do is write a check and there's nothing else I have to do.(25:11):And if, because they don't have a background in education, that sounds really, really compelling. And then the other one is just a couple down from that, which is so important. Recognize student-centered as an important, research supported guiding principle, but also acknowledge the reality that translating research-based principles into classroom practices is challenging. So not only do they want those over simplifications, but they want to be able to take the research and say, here's what the research says, which is complicated research. And so we're gonna do this. You know, it brings me back to RtI where the solution was the walk-to-intervention model. So they know the importance of supporting children, but they're going to find the easiest possible, not just the one that they can write a check for, but the one that's going to be the easiest possible to implement.(26:09):So, you know, those just loom really large in my mind, and I don't know how we undo. Let me just say one more thing. I remember so many times walking out of a session where someone, usually someone with a really big name, said something really absurdly ridiculous. Like, time for reading, independent reading doesn't matter. And does it in such a compelling way that people I really admire walk out of that session and say, "Oh my God, I never thought about that before." And that's been happening with the science of reading too. "Oh my God, I never knew that." And so it's really smart, lovely, wonderful people. But for some reason, , it's coming across not as what is being said. I don't know. It's a really weird thing to me.Paul Thomas (27:11):Yeah. One advantage of my career being pretty eclectic is I've taught some graduate level leadership courses, and I used to use Howard Gardner's book Leading Minds. He's known for multiple intelligences, but I don't think that's his best work actually. In Leading Minds, he directly says all the research shows that leadership functions on black and white statements. And there's very little you can do about that. So there's an ethical obligation if you're going to compel the public, you're going to have to be relatively simple. So to me, I think the line is between simple and simplistic. And the challenge we have, and again, the conversation I had yesterday morning, really, really drove this home to me, is we're in a bind because our message is not simple. And the sor people are, it's become a cult of personality because they're doing the simple and settled.(28:12):And it is very compelling. I, like you Mary, know some very lovely people who have bought it. I knew some, and I still know, I know some lovely people, bright, who bought Teach for America. I know some lovely and bright people who bought charter schools. And those have now passed, and we know they didn't work. Teach for America has really dramatically fallen off. And some of the best people I know in education went through Teach for America. So it's not the people. The simplistic message, that you just had to demand more of students, it's that soft bigotry of low expectations. And if you just demand more, and if you just work harder, these kids will succeed. And then those poor people who did that, and those children didn't succeed. They were devastated.(29:07):So we do have a problem. Our message is not simple. But that's the only message that works. And also I think, another point of yours Mary, is the idea of evidence. I think I said this the other day, but the most important evidence is the child in front of you. The first five or 10 years of my teaching, the best thing that happened to me was humility. I had missionary zeal. I came in thinking I knew what I was doing. I kind of had my butt kicked at the National Writing Project. I'll shout out to Brenda Davenport. She almost literally kicked my butt. She saw something in me. She did respect me, but she took me in a room and she let me have it. And it was an awakening for me.(30:00):I softened, I backed up off of my certainty, and I learned to work from the ground up. Research and theory... I love theory. I love philosophy. These things are important, but they're for you back here. I mean, they sit somewhere back here. But it's the actual child in front of you. So I've learned, Furman has really taught me a lesson too. I mean, for the last 21 years, my college first year writing students are a different type of human than what I taught in rural South Carolina in high school. So I try to work from the student and instead of imposing Paul's beliefs about writing, Paul's beliefs about learning. You know, one simple thing is we we're always told that, that you have to give students credit for class participation.(31:04):I know a lot of professors still put that on their syllabus, and there's a percentage for it. Well, Furman has taught me that students can participate by being completely quiet in the room. And I had to listen to that, which is kind of ironic. And , I don't say that anymore. I don't say, "You have to speak in class, you have to participate this specific way." So I think one of our messages, I think has to be that, evidence is not simplistic. And the most important piece of evidence is the child in front of you.Matt Renwick (31:41):Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Mary.Debra Crouch (31:45):Can I ask a question, Paul? How do you simplify in a way, I guess, how do you talk to student-centered in a way that keeps it understandable for people who don't come at this from "Look at the child and recognize what children are bringing" and that sort of thing. How do we talk to that? Because I agree with you. I think that piece is huge.Paul Thomas (32:12):Yeah. And teacher education, that's one thing I do is I talk about artifacts of learning. I talk about things like, I really think music teachers, art teachers, coaches, that I think the average person understands that. So, there was a piece in Phi Delta Kappan many, many years ago, somewhere in the 1990s. And the guy said, what if we had two football teams line up every Friday night and take a multiple choice test to decide the football game? Parents would revolt, my hometown, the entire town would revolt. So, you know, in art class, we have a child actually draw an artifact of learning, and then we work from there. Until the child does a drawing or a clay sculpture, we don't have any way to teach them. We have children play instruments, we have children sing, we have children play the sport.(33:13):So I think putting it in terms of behaviors, having students do the thing, and I think that's where my holistic urge is. I was a soccer coach, I coached for quite a few years. And I love scrimmage. I was a big fan of scrimmaging. So you could end the moment, you could teach, of course we did some skills, but to be perfectly honest, that's not that effective. If people practice the same thing over and over incorrectly, they're not actually learning. They're getting worse. They're building the wrong tools. So, the joke of my teaching high school was I graded about 4,000 essays a year for 18 years. Wow. And I graded about 6,000 journals on top of that. So my joke was, it was volume, volume, volume.(34:07):Until a kid wrote a paper, I did not know what they needed, Until a player lined up as a centerback and played and played a soccer match, I did not know what he needed. So I do think we have to talk in terms of sort of holistic behaviors that we're trying to teach children to do. And then our job to me is mentoring. It is coaching. I love the word coach. I think the right kind of coaching, not the stereotypical United States coach that screams and cusses, but the kind of coach that goes, "Look, you did it this way, now do it this way." Like, here is why. One thing I loved about soccer is it's conceptual. You don't run plays and it's not very structured, the type the clock runs, and it's these concepts. So it's these holistic behaviors at the conceptual level, what should you be doing? But the key element is why are you doing this? I hope that answered your question, I feel like I did.Matt Renwick (35:12):Yeah. Thanks Deborah. Thanks, Paul. Joy, did you want to throw that question out of how did we engage in this? I think Paul spoke to that previously. Was there anything else that you wanted to follow up on though, Joy regarding how to engage in conversation around this time?Joy La Vay Taylor (35:35):The article that you put out, Paul, was really helpful, Mary and I will follow it a little bit better.Paul Thomas (35:51):A lot of this movement is public, so I think a lot of it is on social media. And there is a problem. I do think Twitter is not a good place for discussion. I haven't had good luck with it. I've had a few people try to. I had one person a couple times lately, very kindly say, would you mind, you know, let's have a discussion about this blog post. I don't. There's just not enough room. There is no chance for nuance. I joke and say the best way to deal with social media discussions is don't do it. But a more practical one is, are you dealing with a serious person? So probably six months ago, a woman who is an s o r person engaged with me.(36:42):She was patient, she was kind, she was clear. I did two or three tweets with her. I realized she was a serious person. We had a very long Twitter discussion. She didn't change her mind. I did not mute her. I did not block her. Everything was fine. The key was not that we agreed with each other. The key was that she was a serious person. And that's the hard part. I often check the Twitter bios. If there's four followers, probably not serious. If they've got the little hashtag, #amplify, probably not serious. Way too much of the science of reading movement is driven by the exact thing that Hanford is attacking. If it is in fact a problem that Lucy Caulkins has made money, which is an odd thing to accuse somebody of in the United States, then the science of reading, people who are driven by market intentions are just as guilty.(37:56):My home state and the most recent budget, 15 million for LETRS training, were a very small state. Can you imagine how much state money, tax money is being earmarked for LETRS training? I don't trust advocates of LETRS anymore than I trust anyone. I mean, we learned that the tobacco industry said cigarettes were okay. They had a market interest. So I do think we have to navigate public discussions with serious people. I do not mute people instantly. I generally give everybody one or two tweets. I give you a chance. Then it's it, and it's just little things, right? Are they selling something? Do they have almost no followers? I've got people out there. I know I muted them, so I didn't block them, but they can still do it. They say, don't listen to Paul Thomas. He works for reading recovery. That's just a blatant lie. There was an organization that blogged and said, don't listen to me because I'm not a teacher. I start year 40 in the fall. I've been a literacy teacher for 40 years, over five decades since the eighties. It's just a blatant lie. So lying means you're not a serious person. If if you're trying to sell something, you're probably not a serious person. So I just think navigating that space, we're looking for serious people and then we can engage.Matt Renwick (39:34):I had the pleasure of watching Paul have a panel discussion with other serious people. It was a research panel at the Wisconsin State Reading Association Conference. He was talking with a researcher at UW-Madison, a principal out of California, and they did not all agree. I think we talked about this later, Paul. You did not all agree on the same issues, but you all were respectful the way you talked. "I hear what you're saying. Here's where I'm coming from." It was very, it was just a good conversation. And I learned a lot. And I think, I thought it was a really good model for, for what this could be, but unfortunately, often is not.Paul Thomas (40:16):Right. And I really don't think we have to all agree. Like, there are people I love that I don't agree with everything about them. And that's not what we're looking for.Mary Howard (40:29):Yeah. And in a conversation like that, you have the opportunity to have a fluid coming back and forth. That's impossible. But one of the things that I looked for on Twitter, and I've only been recently really trying to dig into it, there are just certain catchphrases that people use over and over. And that to me is a dead giveaway because it's almost like they came out with a s o r attack list of these are the things you want to say. It really is problematic that you can't. There's a big difference to being able to look at someone in the face, for example, and listen to what they're saying and then come back and respond to that than it is. It's almost like the Twitter social media is a ping pong ball, and it's really easy to get caught up in it, you know, especially when emotions are involved.Paul Thomas (41:32):That's why I say the, the s o r movement is too similar to the anti CRT movement. They're both too often ideological. So when you're ideological it's very simplistic and narrow. So you do have recurring things to say that are just, they're just imposed onto the situation. They're not drawn from the situation. Someone I blocked, I mean, I muted. I didn't see them, but I saw the response. And apparently somebody on Twitter just in the last couple of days, said that they listened to Emily Hanford. Cause she's an expert. I'm not. And the interesting thing there is not only have I taught literacy for 40 years, I taught journalism for 13 years, and I've published journalism for the last 20. I have a level of expertise in both journalism and education. That's where you can tell somebody's not serious. This is not a serious comment. That is just a blanket imposed statement. And so I think that is the ideological problem. It's not everybody who's in the science of reading movement by any stretch. But there is a faction that is just, it's just an ideologue. And it's the same thing. You know, woke , woke by DeSantis, woke by too many Republicans, uh, c r t, these have just been catchphrases. They're not, again, they're not serious people. They're not credible people.Matt Renwick (43:00):This conversation's been great as always. Any closing thoughts or takeaways from anyone in the group that you'd wanna share out before we close things out?Joy La Vay Taylor (43:15):I'm such a novice, I feel like, at Twitter for sure. I was so focused on being in the classroom, working with teachers that I was so shocked when this whole s o r thing just seemed to slam in. And I hadn't, I didn't have time to be on Twitter. I shouldn't say I have time now, but I thank you so much all for all this information that you put out. And Mary, I love Mary and Matt is great. I don't know you too, but I'm sure you two are great too. .(44:15):Because I thought that all the information that you gave about politics and the movement of reading was so helpful for me. It just gave me a background. I kind of came in with balanced literacy when it was just kind of called balanced literacy. So all of that was helpful. But is is then, if we think about the purpose of being on Twitter to share information like you do, so is that the best way to think about it as a vehicle for getting truth out there?Paul Thomas (45:00):Yeah. I would say, I would say two things. One historically we have told teachers not to be political, which is a political demand, by the way. And we also keep classroom teachers way too busy. If you keep people with their head down, they don't see what's happening to them. So I do not expect teachers to sacrifice themselves. I don't expect K-12 teachers to speak out. Absolutely, that is not an expectation. If you do find the opportunity, I think you said it perfectly. Most of my work that I do on social media is to teach, it's an extension of my teaching. I cite, my blogs are heavily cited. I cite, I link to peer review journal articles on Twitter. So I think you have to perform on social media, not to change people's minds that you're speaking to, but to leave a trail for other people to learn.(46:03):I am rarely actually speaking to the individual I'm responding to. I am leaving a trail for other people to learn from. Nobody's asking K-12 teachers to sacrifice themselves. Nobody's asking K-12 teachers to lose their jobs. As a matter of fact, I don't want you to lose your job. I'm relatively safe. I'm even at a private university. If I were in Florida and I was at a public university, I would be toast. But my university is incredibly supportive. I'm a white guy, I'm tenured, I'm old. Let us do it, you know, let us take the brunt of the damage. But if you do engage, it's not to change people's minds, it's to teach.Matt Renwick (46:54):Well said Paul. And your policy brief, half the brief is citations. I mean, it's just so well resourced. And I remember Peter Aach speaking about your work too, and just said you were meticulous. I think that's one of the first people he brought up about how to be become more knowledgeable about this topic and stay engaged. So thank you Paul Thomas. Thank you everyone for being here. This has been great. We wish you all a good rest of the year if you're still going. Otherwise, we hope you are enjoying your summer break. Thank you.Paul Thomas (47:27):Thank you. A pleasure.Matt Renwick (47:28):Thank you. Get full access to Read by Example at readbyexample.substack.com/subscribe

How is digital literacy related to social justice? Today on the show I have the honour of sitting down with a leading thinker in education, Dr. Kristen Hawley Turner. Dr. Kristen Hawley Turner is a professor of education at Drew University and she is the director of the Drew Writing Project, which is a chapter of The National Writing Project. In this conversation we explore the terrain of digital literacy, its links to social justice, and how teachers must reimagine what our essential job descriptions are if we are going to meet the needs of the learners in our classrooms. As we are both parents, Kristen and I also get into our roles with our children and what can be done in the home to augment and reinforce critical digital literacy to help our young people thrive. I think you will find yourself nodding along in agreement as you listen to Dr. Hawley Turner explains her work and thinking in this conversation that I am so delighted to share with you. For Full Shownotes (and all the links to things mentioned), visit: https://cohort21.com/teachingtomorrow/2023/05/16/episode79/

This episode features Dr. Tom Meyer and Maya Projansky and their work with the Institute for Leadership in the Teaching of Writing, a program offered under the auspices of the Hudson Valley Writing Project. Dr. Meyer is a full professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz and co-founder of the Hudson Valley Writing Project. Maya Projansky taught 5th grade for 20 years at the Earth School in New York City. After completing the Leadership program as a participant, she joined Dr. Meyer as a co-facilitator of the year-long program. Together they have worked with cohorts of teachers who engage in writing about their professional beliefs, values, and concerns. Structured in three segments, the Institute program invites teachers to reflect on themselves as writers, as learners, and as leaders.   For additional information about the Hudson Valley Writing Project and the programs offered under its auspices, visit https://www.newpaltz.edu/hvwp.  The Hudson Valley Writing Project is part of the National Writing Project which as centers throughout the Unites States. To learn more about NWP and locate a program near you, visit https://www.nwp.org/ https://www.nwp.org. 

In this episode, Jim sits down with Suzanne Dailey to discuss designing ways to help anyone working in schools to incorporate small shifts. These small shifts, practiced over time, will make a positive impact in school and at home. Suzanne Dailey is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District where she has the honor and joy of working with elementary teachers and students in 15 buildings. Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a Fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a Masters Degree in Reading. She is the author of Teach Happier this School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration & Reflection. Suzanne will be featured as a breakout presenter at the 2023 Teaching Learning Coaching conference in Orlando, FL. Learn more about Suzanne Dailey by visiting https://suzannedailey.com/Register to attend the 2023 TLC Conference by visiting https://www.instructionalcoaching.com/tlc2023/

Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. He has published two books on writing, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo, and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide. He's also published All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories, and Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story. His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton's New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and Best Small Fictions. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer's Digest, and The Writer. He serves on the National Writing Project's Writer's Council, Lit Camp's Advisory Council, and Aspen Words' Creative Council. He's also the co-host of the podcast Write-minded.

Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. He has published two books on writing, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo, and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide. He's also published All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories, and Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story. His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton's New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and Best Small Fictions. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer's Digest, and The Writer. He serves on the National Writing Project's Writer's Council, Lit Camp's Advisory Council, and Aspen Words' Creative Council. He's also the co-host of the podcast Write-minded.

Drew Hawkins talks with Grant Faulkner about his new book, "The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story." Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton's New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and Best Small Fictions. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer's Digest, and The Writer. He serves on the National Writing Project's Writer's Council, Lit Camp's Advisory Council, and Aspen Words' Creative Council. He's also the co-host of the podcast Write-minded. WA "Drew" Hawkins is a writer and journalist in New Orleans. You can find his work in The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Scalawag Magazine, HAD, No Contact, Rejection Letters, and in other places on the internet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SHOW TOPIC25 Years of the SV Graduation Project: An Interview with Ms. Natalie GreenSPECIAL GUESTMs. Natalie Green, English teacher and Graduation Project CoordinatorNatalie Green is in her 18th year teaching at Seneca Valley Senior High School. She has a Bachelor of Science in Education from Slippery Rock University with teaching certification in secondary English, as well as a Master of Education in School Leadership from the University of Pittsburgh. Mrs. Green is a fellow of the National Writing Project and a member of Carlow University's Madwomen in the Attic writing workshop. At Seneca Valley, she serves on the English Curriculum Committee and the Graduation Project Coordination Team.IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEWThe components of the Graduation Project.The different pathways students can choose within the project.Types of Graduation Projects that have been done in the past.How mentors are involved with the Graduation Project.Student requirements of the Graduation Project.Benefits of the Graduation Project.

Dr. Sarah J. McCarthey is known for her work in the areas of writing and writing instruction within the context of education policy and global education. Sarah's work has been funded by the National Writing Project, the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, the National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has won multiple awards for her teaching and research throughout her career, including the Career Teaching Award, Distinguished Senior Scholar, and the Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sarah has served as co-editor of Research in the Teaching of English alongside former Classroom Caffeine guest Mark Dressman. Dr. McCarthey is currently the Sheila M. Miller Professor and Department Head of Curriculum and Instruction at University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana. To cite this episode: Persohn, L. (Host). (2022, Dec. 6). A conversation with Sarah McCarthey. (Season 3, No. 13) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classroom Caffeine Podcast series. https://www.classroomcaffeine.com/guests. DOI: 10.5240/7DA4-4529-AB30-2445-16A5-6 

Dr. Yohuru Williams is a distinguished University Chair, Professor of History, and the founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas. He received his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1998 and is the author and editor of several books including Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement and Black Power/White Politics: Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Panthers in New Haven.Dr. Williams has appeared on a variety of local and national radio and television programs, most notably CNN, BET, History Channel, Huff Post, Matter of Fact Listening Tour with Soledad O'Brien, and NPR. His scholarly articles have appeared in the American Bar Association's Insights on Law and Society, The Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, The Black Scholar, and The Journal of Black Studies.Joe Anson has been working in education since 2000. After spending 18+ years in the throes of junior-high language arts in Spanish Fork, Utah, he now works in teacher education at Bellevue University in Nebraska. His involvement with the National Writing Project began in the Central Utah Writing Project's inaugural year (2009), where he was heavily involved until he and his amazing wife packed up their five kids and moved a thousand miles away. He hopes to become more involved in the Nebraska Writing Project when he is not observing student teachers and designing curriculum such as the new class he is excited to teach: Teaching Adolescent Literature and Social Justice. He is an avid baseball fan and enjoys charring mammal flesh over open flames and dabbling in poetry.

Dr. Yohuru Williams is a distinguished University Chair, Professor of History, and the founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas. He received his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1998 and is the author and editor of several books including Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement and Black Power/White Politics: Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Panthers in New Haven. Dr. Williams has appeared on a variety of local and national radio and television programs, most notably CNN, BET, History Channel, Huff Post, Matter of Fact Listening Tour with Soledad O'Brien, and NPR. His scholarly articles have appeared in the American Bar Association's Insights on Law and Society, The Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, The Black Scholar, and The Journal of Black Studies. Joe Anson has been working in education since 2000. After spending 18+ years in the throes of junior-high language arts in Spanish Fork, Utah, he now works in teacher education at Bellevue University in Nebraska. His involvement with the National Writing Project began in the Central Utah Writing Project's inaugural year (2009), where he was heavily involved until he and his amazing wife packed up their five kids and moved a thousand miles away. He hopes to become more involved in the Nebraska Writing Project when he is not observing student teachers and designing curriculum such as the new class he is excited to teach: Teaching Adolescent Literature and Social Justice. He is an avid baseball fan and enjoys charring mammal flesh over open flames and dabbling in poetry.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Mayra Cuevas is the author of the teen novels Does My Body Offend You? and Salty, Bitter, Sweet. Her short story Resilient was published as part of the anthology FORESHADOW. Mayra is an award-winning producer for CNN and co-founder of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival. She keeps her sanity by practicing Buddhist meditation. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, her two stepsons, their fluffy cat and a very loud Chihuahua. Marie Marquardt is author of YA novels Does My Body Offend You? (with Mayra Cuevas), Dream Things True, The Radius of Us, and Flight Season. Her books have earned many awards and commendations, including BEA Buzz Books, Books all Young Georgians Should Read, and the CLASP Américas Commendation, and they have been shortlisted for several state book awards, including the South Carolina Young Adult Book Award and the Missouri Gateway Readers Award. Marie also has published articles and co-authored two non-fiction books about Latin American immigration to the U.S. South, and has been interviewed about her research, writing, and advocacy on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and BBC America, among many other media outlets. She lives in a busy household in Decatur, Georgia with her spouse, four kids, several chickens, a dog, and a bearded dragon. Bryn Orum is the co-director of the Greater Madison Writing Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her current role she coordinates programs for youth and educators including Rise Up & Write, Youth Press Corps, and the National Writing Project's College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP). Previously, Bryn co-founded and taught high school English at Clark Street Community School, a public charter dedicated to deep engagement through personalized, democratic, and place-based education, in Middleton, WI. Bryn studied Literacy and English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her BA and MS. Much of her work in education has focused on equitable and innovative environments.

Author Dennis Conrad shares his love of history, coln-collecting and story-telling in his latest book, Two-Cent Piece, the first of the In God We Trust children's book series. Dennis has published numerous titles, is a retired professor of speech communications, a certified teacher of English as a Foreign Language, a world traveler, a weekly blogger, and a Fellow of the National Writing Project. https://dennisconradauthor.com/ https://elklakepublishinginc.com/dennis-conrad/ Two Cent Piece https://amzn.to/3Bz9FoV —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Support our previous guest https://nis.media/featured-causes/ —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Find a Good Read https://nis.media/authors/ —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the New Monthly “Now I See Bible Study” https://nis.media/now-i-see-bible-study/ We will be discussing this in our Private Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/nowisee Also make sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcast https://apple.co/39wvoDJ —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Production and audio editing is handled by Headset Radio https://headsetradio.com/

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Tanya Baker, the director of national programs at the National Writing Project. In this role, Dr. Baker builds and manages national programs that connect educators to work together on areas of interest and problems of practice.  We discuss current problems of practice and strategize ways to rejuvenate teachers and teaching. Dr. Baker also shares a number of resources for personal and professional growth. Referenced in this podcast: https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fread.amazon.com%2Fkp%2Fembed%3Fasin%3DB000QCSAB8%26preview%3Dnewtab%26linkCode%3Dkpe%26ref_%3Dcm_sw_r_kb_dp_R3K7301WKABZ82KH4WEM&data=05%7C01%7CRJackson%40govst.edu%7C8e75f965c4c740ff01c608da89dedf46%7Cb86dab28987f4cada951ce05b68601ab%7C0%7C0%7C637973887578125077%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=9NDTP3cnZJgw3Lp49HVDLuUhKUWYme1p%2BIty3a39aeI%3D&reserved=0 (Gawande, Atul (2008). Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance.) https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2F032504919X%2Fref%3Dcm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_7P1BSCN1MBD69T7ZGPF4&data=05%7C01%7CRJackson%40govst.edu%7C8e75f965c4c740ff01c608da89dedf46%7Cb86dab28987f4cada951ce05b68601ab%7C0%7C0%7C637973887578125077%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=YQamOd%2BGtu%2Bs7SDI2AdA480we4gEWYBdtn%2Bdlk6sTdY%3D&reserved=0 (Rami, Meenoo (2014). Thrive: 5 Ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching.) https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fread.amazon.com%2Fkp%2Fembed%3Fasin%3DB00YHM2H80%26preview%3Dnewtab%26linkCode%3Dkpe%26ref_%3Dcm_sw_r_kb_dp_SV2TP2XBHFCRR05DKXYC&data=05%7C01%7CRJackson%40govst.edu%7C8e75f965c4c740ff01c608da89dedf46%7Cb86dab28987f4cada951ce05b68601ab%7C0%7C0%7C637973887578125077%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4HFsKJhTT0TrVY5ycbPucAK2CloEeIcymtzjN22v%2BWw%3D&reserved=0 (Baker-Doyle,) https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fread.amazon.com%2Fkp%2Fembed%3Fasin%3DB00YHM2H80%26preview%3Dnewtab%26linkCode%3Dkpe%26ref_%3Dcm_sw_r_kb_dp_SV2TP2XBHFCRR05DKXYC&data=05%7C01%7CRJackson%40govst.edu%7C8e75f965c4c740ff01c608da89dedf46%7Cb86dab28987f4cada951ce05b68601ab%7C0%7C0%7C637973887578125077%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4HFsKJhTT0TrVY5ycbPucAK2CloEeIcymtzjN22v%2BWw%3D&reserved=0 ( Kira J., Wasley, Patricia A., Lieberman, Ann, McDonald, Joseph (2011). ) https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fread.amazon.com%2Fkp%2Fembed%3Fasin%3DB00YHM2H80%26preview%3Dnewtab%26linkCode%3Dkpe%26ref_%3Dcm_sw_r_kb_dp_SV2TP2XBHFCRR05DKXYC&data=05%7C01%7CRJackson%40govst.edu%7C8e75f965c4c740ff01c608da89dedf46%7Cb86dab28987f4cada951ce05b68601ab%7C0%7C0%7C637973887578125077%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4HFsKJhTT0TrVY5ycbPucAK2CloEeIcymtzjN22v%2BWw%3D&reserved=0 (The Networked Teacher: How New Teachers Build Social Networks for ) https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fread.amazon.com%2Fkp%2Fembed%3Fasin%3DB00YHM2H80%26preview%3Dnewtab%26linkCode%3Dkpe%26ref_%3Dcm_sw_r_kb_dp_SV2TP2XBHFCRR05DKXYC&data=05%7C01%7CRJackson%40govst.edu%7C8e75f965c4c740ff01c608da89dedf46%7Cb86dab28987f4cada951ce05b68601ab%7C0%7C0%7C637973887578125077%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4HFsKJhTT0TrVY5ycbPucAK2CloEeIcymtzjN22v%2BWw%3D&reserved=0 (Professional Support.)

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Mayra Cuevas is the author of the teen novels Does My Body Offend You? and Salty, Bitter, Sweet. Her short story Resilient was published as part of the anthology FORESHADOW. Mayra is an award-winning producer for CNN and co-founder of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival. She keeps her sanity by practicing Buddhist meditation. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, her two stepsons, their fluffy cat and a very loud Chihuahua.Marie Marquardt is author of YA novels Does My Body Offend You? (with Mayra Cuevas), Dream Things True, The Radius of Us, and Flight Season. Her books have earned many awards and commendations, including BEA Buzz Books, Books all Young Georgians Should Read, and the CLASP Américas Commendation, and they have been shortlisted for several state book awards, including the South Carolina Young Adult Book Award and the Missouri Gateway Readers Award. Marie also has published articles and co-authored two non-fiction books about Latin American immigration to the U.S. South, and has been interviewed about her research, writing, and advocacy on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and BBC America, among many other media outlets. She lives in a busy household in Decatur, Georgia with her spouse, four kids, several chickens, a dog, and a bearded dragon.Bryn Orum is the co-director of the Greater Madison Writing Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her current role she coordinates programs for youth and educators including Rise Up & Write, Youth Press Corps, and the National Writing Project's College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP). Previously, Bryn co-founded and taught high school English at Clark Street Community School, a public charter dedicated to deep engagement through personalized, democratic, and place-based education, in Middleton, WI. Bryn studied Literacy and English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her BA and MS. Much of her work in education has focused on equitable and innovative environments.

In this seventh episode of the Stanford d.school spotlight; Lisa Kay Solomon gives a peek of the thoughts around her upcoming book about her recent innovative civics exercises with learners. Are our systems designed for short term rewards and is the design of civics and business at odds with the future? The conversation features a broad range of topics from design, futures, civics, the importance of agency to extra high-quality civics education. Futures thinking, practices, and mindsets are teachable and learnable. How might we think differently about the image of the future that we could bring to life, to be a shaper as opposed to a reactor. It might seem hard, but we can start small. Lisa Kay Solomon is a futures and design educator, author, and social entrepreneur focused on helping people develop the leadership skills to become active, compassionate agents of positive change. With nearly over 20 years of design, scenario-planning, and leadership work, Lisa's work focuses on the question: How do we help leaders and learners of all ages not just prepare for the future, but help them develop the mindsets, skillsets and practices required to shape more sustainable, inclusive, robust futures? Named to the Thinkers50 2022 Radar List, Lisa co-authored the bestselling books Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change, and Design A Better Business: New Tools, Skills, and Mindset and Strategy for Innovation, which has been translated into over a dozen languages. Lisa created the popular LinkedIn Learning Courses Leading Like a Futurist and Redesigning How We Work for 2021, and has written extensively on helping leaders productively navigate ambiguity through teachable and learnable practices.Currently a Designer in Residence and Lecturer at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, Lisa teaches a variety of futures-oriented classes, including one of the d.school's most popular courses, Inventing the Future, which exposes students to practices of applied imagination, strategic foresight, immersive world building, and creativity. Lisa's course design utilizes immersive experiences like participating in 50 year future utopia and dystopia debates on emerging technology in order to move beyond questions of “can we build it?” to "should we build it?” As one student commented after the class, “I used to think that thinking about the future was a gene intrinsic to talent, and now I think I have the skills and tools to shape it myself." In 2021, she launched The Futures Series at the Stanford d.school, which brought diverse futures thinkers from around the world to share and democratize future-shaping practices. Guests included Dr. Lonny Brooks and Ahmed Best on Afrofutures, Meredith Hutchison and Aisha Bain on Ancestral Intelligence, Leah Zaidi on WorldBuilding, Minister Faust on Science Fiction and Pro-social competitions, and Riel Miller on UNESCO's Future Literacy, among others. She also initiated experiential professional development programs such as “Afro-Rithms in Classrooms” with the National Writing Project, and workshops focused on building futures literacies such as building empathy for the future and navigating time scales and polarities.Lisa is passionate about connecting her work between boardrooms to classrooms, bringing her work with executives and leaders at multinational companies to leaders and educators in K12 schools. She recently launched a new podcast called New View EDU, co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Schools, to help school leaders shift their posture and priorities to infuse K12 education with imagination, social and emotional wellbeing, and creative agency for the future. Named one of ixDA's Women of Design 2020, Lisa is also the founder and driving force beyond Vote by Design, Building America's Teammates, and #AllVoteNoPlay, a national initiative which transforms Election Day as a day “off” from official collegiate athletic activities into a day “on” for civic engagement. Working closely with college coaches, civic educational leaders and student leaders, the experiential programs reached tens of thousands of young voters, coaches, and administrators in relevant, accessible, meaningful civic learning and action. Lisa's work in the civics arena is focused on helping next generation voters grow in their own sense of power and agency over the futures they want to inhabit. Through creating design-driven, agency-oriented programs with a bias toward changemaking action, Lisa aims to empower young people to create a more just and inclusive world.Hosted by The Learning Future's very own Louka Parry, indulge your cortex in some modern thinking at the forefront of educational design with our amazing guest.Transcription upon request - e-mail hello@thelearningfuture.com

Gilly Segal grew up in Florida, and graduated from Hebrew University, and finally decided to call Decatur, Georgia home. By day, she's the chief legal officer of an advertising agency. By night, she is a caped crusader! No, just kidding (she wishes). Her real not-so-secret identity is author. She's been writing in one form or another since she wrote her first young adult novel–a Sunfire YA romance fanfic–typed out on an electric typewriter. Although she will confess it was titled CLAUDIA, she will neither confirm nor deny that any copies still exist. Whatever you do, don't ask her mom if it's in those boxes stored in the closet of her childhood room. Kimberly Jones is an American author and filmmaker, known for the New York Times bestselling young adult novel, I'm Not Dying With You Tonight and for the viral video “How Can We Win” published during the George Floyd protest. The book, co-authored with Gilly Segal, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award in 2020. That same year, a seven-minute video featuring Kim using a Monopoly analogy to explain the history of racism and its impact on Black Americans went viral, being shared by Trevor Noah, LeBron James, Madonna, and more. Charline Barger has taught middle and high school English for ten years and transitioned from a brick and mortar to a virtual setting two years ago. This year, she has had the pleasure of teaching creative writing for the first time. Charline has been a National Writing Project teacher-consultant for four years. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and picture books for as long as she can remember and aspires to write YA literature. She lives in Pace, FL with her boyfriend, three children, and a host of animals. When she is not teaching, Charline spends her time watching movies with her kids, reading the latest young adult novels, and chipping away at piles of manuscript drafts.

This summer, teachers are invited to join together with scholars, artists, and authors to strengthen writing and multimodal composing practices in a virtual, open institute co-sponsored by three MIchigan Writing Project sites. This NWP Radio show invited facilitators to describe how they will support participants in coming together to create brave spaces in writing instruction that centers writing and composing models at the intersections of queer, BIPOC, and feminist voices; that center intersectionality; and develop a community of folx to support these efforts and to stay committed with and alongside each other. Join us for this interview to learn more and find out how to get involved; registration is open until June 15, 2022. About Our Guests Rae Oviatt, Ph.D., has nearly two decades of experience in education, community organizing, and research. She was a middle and high school English teacher and teacher of multilingual and bilingual English language learners across urban contexts in Atlanta, Bangkok, Indianapolis, and Lansing. She is the incoming Vice Chair for NCTE's Genders and Sexualities Equity Alliance, and the 2018 recipient of NCTE's ELATE Graduate Research Award. Her work with the National Writing Project dates back nearly a decade, and she is a teacher-consultant for the Red Cedar Writing Project. She is currently Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University. Dr. Oviatt's current inquiry examines the liberatory potential for centering Queer of Color literacies and epistemologies in writing and multimodal composing with youth and educators across school and community organizations. Ileana Jiménez is a leader in the feminism-in-schools movement and is the founder of feministteacher.com and creator of the #HSfeminism and #K12feminism hashtags. An English teacher-activist for 25 years, she has taught high school and graduate students, as well as emerging and established teachers critical feminist pedagogies, curricula, and activism. In 2011, she received a Distinguished Fulbright to interview queer youth in Mexico City. Globally, she has presented workshops for teachers in Argentina, Australia, Greece, India, Mexico, and the UK. She has published in Gender in an era of post-truth populism: Pedagogies, challenges and strategies (2022); Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism (volume 1, 2016); Radical Teacher (vol. 106, 2016); One Teacher in Ten in the New Millennium: LGBT Educators Speak Out About What's Gotten Better... and What Hasn't (Beacon, 2015); SLUT: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence (2015); The Feminist Utopia Project: Fifty-Seven Visions of a Wildly Better Future (2015); and Youth Sexualities: Public Feelings and Contemporary Cultural Politics (2018). She received her B.A. in English Literature at Smith College, and an M.A. in English Literature at Middlebury College. She can be found on Twitter and Instagram @feministteacher.

Gilly Segal grew up in Florida, and graduated from Hebrew University, and finally decided to call Decatur, Georgia home. By day, she's the chief legal officer of an advertising agency. By night, she is a caped crusader! No, just kidding (she wishes). Her real not-so-secret identity is author. She's been writing in one form or another since she wrote her first young adult novel–a Sunfire YA romance fanfic–typed out on an electric typewriter. Although she will confess it was titled CLAUDIA, she will neither confirm nor deny that any copies still exist. Whatever you do, don't ask her mom if it's in those boxes stored in the closet of her childhood room.Kimberly Jones is an American author and filmmaker, known for the New York Times bestselling young adult novel, I'm Not Dying With You Tonight and for the viral video "How Can We Win" published during the George Floyd protest. The book, co-authored with Gilly Segal, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award in 2020. That same year, a seven-minute video featuring Kim using a Monopoly analogy to explain the history of racism and its impact on Black Americans went viral, being shared by Trevor Noah, LeBron James, Madonna, and more.Charline Barger has taught middle and high school English for ten years and transitioned from a brick and mortar to a virtual setting two years ago. This year, she has had the pleasure of teaching creative writing for the first time. Charline has been a National Writing Project teacher-consultant for four years. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and picture books for as long as she can remember and aspires to write YA literature. She lives in Pace, FL with her boyfriend, three children, and a host of animals. When she is not teaching, Charline spends her time watching movies with her kids, reading the latest young adult novels, and chipping away at piles of manuscript drafts.

Former teacher Laura Purdie Salas believes reading small picture books and poems can have a huge impact on your life. She has written more than 130 books for kids, including Lion of the Sky: Haiku for All Seasons (Kirkus Best Books and Parents Magazine Best Books of the Year), the Can Be… series (Bank Street Best Books, IRA Teachers' Choice), and Bookspeak!: Poems About Books (Minnesota Book Award, NCTE Notable). Laura shares inspiration and practical tips with educators about poetry, nonfiction, and more. Lisa Lapina is currently teaching first grade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended Bloomsburg University where she earned a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education in 2011. Following BU, Lisa attended the University of Pennsylvania graduating in 2013 with a master's degree in Reading, Writing, and Literacy. She moved to Maryland in 2013 and taught first grade for five years. She moved back to Pennsylvania in 2018 and taught first grade in Upper Darby, PA before moving to The School District of Philadelphia in 2020. She taught kindergarten in 2020 and looped with her students to first grade in 2021. It's been a joy for her to spend a second year with this class. Lisa is grateful for all of the ways that the National Writing Project has positively influenced her career as an educator!

Former teacher Laura Purdie Salas believes reading small picture books and poems can have a huge impact on your life. She has written more than 130 books for kids, including Lion of the Sky: Haiku for All Seasons (Kirkus Best Books and Parents Magazine Best Books of the Year), the Can Be… series (Bank Street Best Books, IRA Teachers' Choice), and Bookspeak!: Poems About Books (Minnesota Book Award, NCTE Notable). Laura shares inspiration and practical tips with educators about poetry, nonfiction, and more.Lisa Lapina is currently teaching first grade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended Bloomsburg University where she earned a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education in 2011. Following BU, Lisa attended the University of Pennsylvania graduating in 2013 with a master's degree in Reading, Writing, and Literacy. She moved to Maryland in 2013 and taught first grade for five years. She moved back to Pennsylvania in 2018 and taught first grade in Upper Darby, PA before moving to The School District of Philadelphia in 2020. She taught kindergarten in 2020 and looped with her students to first grade in 2021. It's been a joy for her to spend a second year with this class. Lisa is grateful for all of the ways that the National Writing Project has positively influenced her career as an educator!

This episode focuses on how stepping off the stage to learn alongside our students can be equal parts rewarding and scary. In our interview with Dr. Troy Hicks, he shares some of the thinking that goes into this style of teaching- workshopping writing, teacher as coach, teaching online. We dig into the challenges and successes that Troy's worked through and worked on over his teaching career. Ashley discusses her perspective as a former student in Troy's classes, and they compare notes to see if her experiences matched the goals he'd set for his course. Links:Chippewa River Writing ProjectNational Writing ProjectPrimary Sources ProgramDr. Corey Drakes' Episode

In this episode, I chat with Suzanne Dailey, a proud instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District, the 3rd largest in Pennsylvania. Here she has the honor and joy of working with elementary teachers and students in 15 buildings. Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a Fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a Masters Degree in Reading. She is dedicated to nurturing and developing the whole child and teacher. Suzanne lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with her husband, two children, and English Bulldog. During our chat, Suzanne shares a much needed and timely concept of teaching happier by infusing joy into classrooms. She discusses the need for modifying traditional approaches to professional development by leveraging teacher voice and choice to focus on their individual needs and learning styles. Suzanne acknowledges the struggle of infusing the human element into remote teaching but also stresses the importance of teachers and leaders to show up in the best way we can for those we serve and to continue showing them love, compassion, and support. Enjoy. Twitter: @DaileySuzanne / #CBSDPD / #CBDLP --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thecounternarrative/support

3 FUN STRATEGIES FOR NOTE TAKING an award winning post on Edutopia. We'll talk about it with its author Andrea Marshbank, a 2nd year teacher of English and already a consultant for The National Writing Project. Thank you Smartbrief for this great selection as this month's winning blogger

3 FUN STRATEGIES FOR NOTE TAKING an award winning post on Edutopia. We'll talk about it with its author Andrea Marshbank, a 2nd year teacher of English and already a consultant for The National Writing Project. Thank you Smartbrief for this great selection as this month's winning blogger