Podcasts about teaching quality

In this episode of the Just Schools Podcast, Jon Eckert interviews Stephen Carter, founder of the Seed Tree Group and director of the entrepreneurial program at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. They explore how constraints breed creativity and how fostering an entrepreneurial mindset transforms education. Carter works with schools across the country to help them start similar entrepreneurship programs that focus on transforming student and teacher engagement rather than just adding new programs or tools. The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Each week, we'll talk to catalytic educators who are doing amazing work. Be encouraged. Books Mentioned: Teaching the Entrepreneurial Mindset: Innovative Education for K-12 Schools by Stephen Carter The Seed Tree: Money Management and Wealth Building Lessons for Teens by Stephen Carter The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey   Connect with us: Baylor MA in School Leadership EdD in K-12 Educational Leadership Jon Eckert LinkedIn X: @eckertjon Center for School Leadership at Baylor University: @baylorcsl       Jon Eckert: All right, Stephen, welcome to the Just Schools podcast. Really excited to have you on. We've been wanting to have you on for quite a while as I think you're leading some of the most interesting work in schools right now. So tell us a little bit about your background and what got you to the point that you're at right now in your career. Stephen Carter: Jon, thank you. I'm pleased to be on this podcast, and love following your work and what you're doing as well. Really, the journey was a journey through Christian education. I started in 10th grade in Christian education, graduated from a Christian school, went to a Christian college, started teaching at a Christian school, landed at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio when I was 24 years old. So that means they took on a teacher who had no idea what he was doing, and they took a risk, right? And I cut my teeth on those early years as an English teacher. And I made a discovery early on, which was if you say yes to things, you will get a lot of awesome opportunities. I should also point out, Jon, you'll get some not so awesome opportunities, i.e., let's start a debate team at the school. Let's coach cross country. Let's get involved with the fine arts, different aspects of writing, critical reviews for plays. I said yes to everything. And that meant that 11 years ago when Dean Nicholas, who at the time was our principal, came to me and said, "Stephen, we've got this idea for this coffee shop for students. You should help run it," of course my answer was yes, never mind the fact that we are about to welcome our second child and we had all kinds of irons in the fire. The answer was yes. What I didn't know, Jon, is that would completely change my life. I talk a lot about transformation. That was the defining moment of transformation, when it was here's an English teacher who in my mind had no business starting an entrepreneurship program, stepping into this space, discovering a passion that came alive through student engagement, and now 11 years later, just to borrow one of your favorite words, flourishing, a flourishing program that has now enabled me to help impact schools around the nation as they start programs that enable students to thrive and then flourish through just meaningful engagement. So it's been a journey of discovering what it means to truly engage students around the entrepreneurial mindset. Jon Eckert: Well, and I'm curious, and I've never asked you this but did you have an entrepreneurial bent prior to taking this on? It feels like to just jump into what you've done and saying yes as a form of being somewhat entrepreneurial, but did you have that in your background at all? Stephen Carter: Well, Jon, I did, but I had repressed it because I thought you had to repress that to be a teacher, right? Jon Eckert: Oh, right, yeah. Stephen Carter: Because if you're a teacher, you're the academic. You're the person who contains the knowledge. You can't have an entrepreneurial bent. I had a lawn mowing business when I was in school, a babysitting business. I would go door to door passing out flyers to do anything around a house to get some money. I even sold my lawn mowing business when I went to college, not for much money, but the point was I had just repressed it. And when I stepped into this space, it just all came flooding back and it took me on a journey of discovery into what does a renewed mindset really mean? I talk a lot about Romans 12:2 when Paul says, "Don't conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." I experienced it that first year starting an entrepreneurship program in real-time, and then I saw students do that as well and it's just been a journey ever since. Jon Eckert: Well, I think it's fascinating and maybe a sad commentary on our profession that it feels like you have to set aside that entrepreneurial mindset to be a teacher. And so I've worked with a group that was the Center for Teaching Quality, now it's Mira Education, but they wrote a book a number of years ago called Teacherpreneurs, and how do we get educators to think more in a more entrepreneurial way about this really human task that we do with students. And so I think that's why I've had such an affinity for your work. You're literally working on entrepreneurship with kids. But I think even just in the way you've built out what you've done at CHCA and now working with schools all over the country, I've seen that mindset in you as I know you've had to overcome some challenges. So what were some of the biggest hurdles for you getting to where you're at now? Because I think there are a lot of schools out there looking at entrepreneurial programs, and obviously there are going to be different challenges, but I would imagine there would be some similar obstacles people might have to get over. So what were two or three of the biggest challenges you had getting this going? Stephen Carter: Hindsight is a beautiful thing. I can look back on it and say they were formative, and I would almost call them constraints more than challenges. And the principle that I now realize I operate out of is that constraints breed creativity. So now I seek them out, Jon. I'm like, "Yes, give me a constraint." So for me, there were a couple big ones. Budget was huge. I'm remembering this. I document this in the book. I went to Dean Nicholas early on. This was a motif in the story. I go asking for money and I leave with very little money or none. That's a constraint. Here's what I've told him multiple times. "If I had gotten the money for the program that I asked for, it wouldn't have grown like it did." The constraint was budget. Another constraint, time. Time is the number one thing. You talk to school leaders all the time. Time is the biggest constraint. Our teachers are strapped. There's no bandwidth. There's no time. And I would just say the beauty of this is it helps us understand how to better manage our time so that we begin investing it. And I think the third, this is one I don't talk about a lot, but it was getting over the sense of being almost hypocritical in a space where I didn't have an MBA. I wasn't an entrepreneur technically at the time, and I felt like an imposter. And I'm in a school, like many schools listening, of business leaders where the parents own businesses and they have MBAs and they have these degrees. And I just decided in that moment, I would own it and ask for advice and ask for help and what should I be reading? Who should I be talking to? And it opened up more doors than I ever possibly imagined. Jon Eckert: So you mentioned the book, and it's a great book teaching the entrepreneurial mindset, innovative education for K-12 schools. I love it that you built... Because the SeedTree Group is your... That's your group, right? So you've published it that way. Again, it's a great blueprint for it. But I have to have you share a little bit, I don't know if I have the name quite right, but was it the Leaning Eagle Coffee Cart? Wasn't that- Stephen Carter: The Leaning Eagle Coffee Bar. Jon Eckert: Can you give a... That story just makes me laugh every time I hear it. Can you just give us a little bit- Stephen Carter: Oh, my goodness. Well, so we're- Jon Eckert: ... the genesis of the... Yeah, go ahead. Stephen Carter: So Jon, you're referencing our flagship business. And when we launched this whole program in Cincinnati, we started with a rolling coffee cart and three little rolling carts and we're not... This was Jason Oden was a teacher at the time who was instrumental in this. And we built the permanent location and we were going through some naming pieces. Well, the school was going through one of these big rebranding campaigns and had hired all the consultants and all the things. And they had just released this big idea, and it was, "Hey, at CHCA, students lean in." And so I remember, I'm sitting there as a teacher, we're in the big assembly room, and every teacher turns and you just get this look of like, "Oh, here we go. Where are we going to have to implement this? Oh, another one of these branding campaigns." So I remember the discussion then went into the naming of the coffee bar, and our mascot is the eagle. So it was this tongue in cheek approach of, "Hey, we're the Leaning Eagle because we lean in and take a sip at the coffee bar." And it was really funny for the first two or three years, then the school changes its branding campaign. So now it's like, "Why is the Eagle leaning?" So we have the old school people who remember the why, and it's rooted in that. Jon Eckert: Yes. Well, and speaking of constraints breeding creativity, didn't your cart get shut down due to health concerns? Wasn't that- Stephen Carter: Oh, Jon, you're getting- Jon Eckert: That right? Stephen Carter: ... all of our dirty laundry out there. And yeah, you're absolutely right. Oh my gosh, those early years, it's so much funny. That's why I tell schools when I work with them. I'm like, "Look, we've been doing this 11 years. I can start you at year seven because you're going to overcome a lot of what we learned the hard way." And I'm telling, this is embarrassing, Jon, but I guess we'll just put it out there. We didn't know we needed a health license. No one told us. We're just selling coffee. We didn't know. And so we've got the student there and he's serving coffee. Well, here comes the health inspector, walks up to him and says, "Hey, where do you wash hands?" And this is probably not the best kid to answer that question. Let's face it, Jon, this is the one kid where you're like, "Please don't ask him anything." So this kid says, "Why would we need to wash hands?" And it's like, "Are you kidding me right now?" I'm teaching an English class and I get called down and it's like, "Why is this conversation even happening? Couldn't you have had a better answer than why do we need to wash hands?" We did not get shut down. But I will tell you this, we had a hand sink in no time, a license at a record pace, and we learned a lot of lessons along the way. Jon Eckert: So I love it. Page 188 and 189, they have people saying, you walk into CHCA now, we should talk a little bit about where you're at now with the teaching kitchen and the greenhouse and all those pieces, and people are like, "Well, we don't have that. We don't have the resources for that. But you can do this with $150 and an innovative idea. And I think that's what the Leaning Eagle was. And then that blew up into these things. And then you've had a number of businesses. I remember the... Was it a smoothie business that you're like, "Hey, we didn't have it placed right. We didn't..." And the kids learn so much from that failure about what does work and what doesn't work. And so you want some of that because as an entrepreneur, you have to try things. And the benefit of risk-taking isn't that you're going to be successful. It's learning from that. And so I feel like you have built that in well. And I want to know how you have built what you've built at CHCA, but then give schools what they need where they have the constraints that are going to be real, but they learn the lessons that you learned in those first seven years because I feel like those are super valuable for you and for the students that you've been leading with. So talk a little bit about what you've built and some of the ways you've built it, even how you got the pizza ovens. I think that's an amazing story where you found state money that allowed you to buy pizza ovens. So I would love to hear a little bit about the current state at CHCA. Stephen Carter: So currently when you step into our school on our campus where we are PK-12, over a thousand students, right around 1,200, several campuses, you're going to see a fully fledged program, six full-time faculty members running it, six on-campus businesses, 15 elective courses, a certificate track. It's fully baked, but you're seeing the product of what we learned along the way. Because I will tell you this, as we've already illustrated, when we started, we were living that entrepreneurial mindset. And by that, I mean that famous saying of we had jumped off the cliff and we were building the plane on our way down in real-time with students. And that's the beauty of it, is the students were experiencing all of these different aspects and having an awesome time. We now have to seek out failure. I hate to say it that way because early on, failure is easy. Now, we have to create it because learning from that is so pivotal. It's one of our four attributes we teach. We built these businesses and then we discovered we needed curriculum and we needed learnings. And so all of this was built along the way as we were going. And we discovered there's four attributes that truly embody the entrepreneurial mindset. And that is truly understanding a directed growth mindset, tethered to mission, vision and values, understanding the why and the purpose and the compass of direction, then developing grit. And that's the goal-setting piece that's been instrumental in all of our business. I'll give you a little anecdote here. You mentioned our pizza oven business. That started because we had a goal. We wanted to build this teaching kitchen. We had no money. And I'll second your point, Jon. People walk in our campus and they say, "Wow." Well, you should have seen it when we were building these things. It was nothing, okay? So we're building this, we don't even have enough money for the drywall. So we were going to build it without drywall. It was going to be an extra $20,000. And we had a senior at the time who now is at a three Michelin star restaurant who said, "No, we're going to do that drywall, Mr. Carter." And I'm like, "Oh, really?" He's like, "We're going to start a business using that pizza oven and we're going to sell pizzas until we have enough money to finish building that drywall." And that's how it started. It was a goal. And that pizza business is still an operation. And so it's teaching these attributes through the experience of these hands-on businesses. And I'll end this point on this note. What we discovered in hindsight is it's not a business as much as it is a laboratory, and it's a laboratory to experience in real-time problem-solving via systems. Hey, we're out of cups at the coffee bar. That's an awesome problem. Why? Because it means something failed in our system, which means we need to address that failure, which means we need a better system so that we can replicate the success in the future. That's the learning. You're going to have kids graduating with this program. I don't care if they start a coffee bar. Frankly, I don't think they should. You lose a lot of money unless you open 15 of them. Don't start a coffee bar, listeners, okay? At your school, it's fine. But you've got kids leaving who know how to solve problems and create systems to prevent future problems, I guarantee you every business owner in the country would hire that kid on the spot. Jon Eckert: Yeah, that's well said. I think sometimes we get caught up in the product and where we get to and we miss the whole point of it, which is the learning that goes on and the problem solving, which is so key. And so you having to seek out opportunities for failure, that's a great place to be in. But I do think it's important that we don't miss that, that kids need a chance to try some things that as adults, we're like, "Ugh." And you have been doing it for 12 years. That's probably not going to work but at some level, you need to let them learn that lesson or better yet, prove you wrong. Because that's what entrepreneurs do. They see something, they see a hole, they figure out a way to solve the problem. And then in doing that, they're solving all kinds of problems. So I love the mindset that you're teaching because I think that's what's so integral. What opportunities do you have do you see for schools who want to partner with you? I know you're with 25 schools now. You want to get to 50 schools in fairly short order. What opportunities do you see for that? Because I think there's been a huge interest as I've heard people talk about you and to you about the opportunities they have. Stephen Carter: So when I talk to heads of school, typically I hear problems. I used to hear problems around enrollment and things have changed to where there's not a lot of that anymore but engagement is huge. And it's teacher engagement, student engagement, and parent engagement. And here's what I'm really seeing as a massive opportunity. Parents are now coming to school saying, "We want this. We want this. We want this." But they don't exactly know what they want, just that they want this. And the same often at schools. And schools have the problem of we've got a lot of programs, a lot of great programs, and often you can get program fatigue. It's like, well, we're going to launch this other program. Well, does it have a long shelf life? Is it just going to be another maker space idea that turns into a storage room? So for me, the opportunity is transformation over tools, or I could even put it as skills over content. We are at a defining point in education when it comes to shifting to meaningful real-world skill building for our students. Think about what Malcolm Gladwell said last summer on stage at an event. He said that collaboration is the skill of the 21st century. We've been doing collaboration in schools for as long as we can remember, but when you collaborate with a group of students to build a brand new venture on the campus that is still going to be there 10 years later, you're collaborating around a legacy. You're collaborating in real-time to learn leadership skills, effective communication, all these core skills, even emotional intelligence. So I'll answer your question like this. The opportunity is parents want this kind of programming. Students are engaged by this kind of programming. And here's something really cool. Donors come alive with this programming. When I work with private, I mostly work with private Christian K-12 schools around the nation, and here's what I'll tell them. 60% of our program here in Cincinnati, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, 60% is funded by donors who are alumni parents that had stopped giving to the school. That to me, we're not talking about robbing, giving to other programs. We're talking about new interest. So the opportunity is low barrier to entry with massive ROI around engagement and true transformation. One of the big areas of this business, it's not just starting a program. It's training teachers to then engage the students through the program toward a certificate that demonstrates key learnings in the entrepreneurial mindset. So it's student-facing and teacher-facing with the mindset to transform the entire school culture. So Jon, I am pumped. Jon Eckert: Yeah, and I feel that for you. I should say full disclosure here, I'm on the Cincinnati Hills board because I love what Dean Nicholas is doing as head, and I love the entrepreneurial program. And we went and studied your school as part of a book project we were doing several years ago. I walked away thinking this was some of the most interesting work that I've seen in schools, particularly because of the engagement piece. And I think your point about donors getting excited about it and people seeing the value in it, it's when you see kids truly engaged and doing meaningful work together in this collaborative way, not this cheesy artificial collaboration that happens in schools where we give kid, "Now, this is your role and this is your role," and you lead the discussion. It's like this is real money and you now have six businesses that are flourishing. That's really powerful. I wanted to circle back and then we'll do our lightning round. I wanted to circle back to this initial thing, you saying yes to so many things. We have a lot of people who are educators, and some of them are in their first four or five years of teaching. And I'm always citing this David Brooks quote, "A life of commitment requires saying thousands of no's for the sake of a few precious yeses." And I really worry about people saying yes too often. I'm a people pleaser. I say yes too often all the time, and I don't treat my yeses as precious enough. But I wonder, your comment, constraints breed creativity, is there a way to balance those yeses with that constraints breeding creativity mindset? Do you see any through line there? Because I think you cannot be saying yes to everything anymore- Stephen Carter: Right, right. Jon Eckert: ... because I know you can't manage that. So how do you see those two things in tension, constraints breeding creativity and saying yes to cool opportunities? Stephen Carter: Oh my goodness, this is the best question I've heard this month. This is awesome, and I'll answer it with a little bit of Greek mythology. There's a character in Greek mythology who's considered the god of opportunity, and his defining characteristic is he has a lock of hair in the front of his head and the rest of his head is bald. And the idea is he's got winged feet, he comes running by, and if you want to grab onto opportunity, you got to be ready to grab that lock of hair or all you get is the bald back of his head. So for me, it's not just about like, "Oh, when opportunity comes, I'm going to get up off my seat and open the door and I'll begrudgingly... I'll put my coffee cup down and go." No, I'm already outside the door and I'm going to see him running down the street. And in that moment, I'm going to decide if that is an opportunity that is within my why and my vision and my mission. And to me, that's why we always start with a directed growth mindset. If you come into our greenhouse, you're going to see these tomato plants, Jon, that are 20, 30 feet tall. You don't get to be a 25-foot tall tomato plant unless you do some pruning, and you've got to prune those leaves and you've got to prune those suckers. And that means you have to know where you're going and why. So I would answer your question by saying I would never chase opportunity until I knew where I was going and why, and that is what we're teaching to our students in real-time. Jon Eckert: Love that. That's so needed for all of us, not just our K-12 students. So we always wrap up with a lightning round just to get quick, short burst answers. These are the ones I'm the worst at always. But what would be the best advice you've ever received as an entrepreneur, as an educator, or just as a human being? Stephen Carter: Kaizen, the Japanese word for continuous improvement. Never stop learning or improving. Best advice I ever got. In fact, I even have temporary tattoos I pass out that say kaizen on them. Jon Eckert: I love that. Love that. What's the worst advice you've ever received as a teacher or entrepreneur? Stephen Carter: Probably I would say every single idea has validity for you. And that led into chasing opportunities I shouldn't have chased. Jon Eckert: Yes, good bit of wisdom there. Best book you've read in the last year? This could be education-related, business-related, or just being a human being. Stephen Carter: I read 52 books a year, and there's one of those that I reread every single year, every year. And that is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I'm telling you, this book has changed every part of my life. Jon Eckert: All right, that's been popular for quite a while, so... Stephen Carter: Yes, it has. Jon Eckert: It's good. Stephen Carter: It's old-school. Jon Eckert: Yes. But hey, when there's wisdom, there's wisdom. So that's great. All right. And then what would you say your greatest hope? If you were to distill down your greatest hope for what's ahead in education into a sentence, what would you say it is? Stephen Carter: This is the time for education to experience true transformation, and we as educators get to be part of that leading toward impact. And to me, impact is refusing to stay in the same place but committing to the same path. Jon Eckert: That's well said. That's a great place to wrap things up. So if you're interested in knowing more about Stephen, his work is out there. He's part of the SeedTree Group, and he has written the book Teaching the Entrepreneurial Mindset. He's put out a number of other pieces. I've heard him speak. He's great. You can always hear the energy and the passion in what he's sharing. But it's a blessing to have you on, and I'm so grateful for the work you're doing in schools at Cincinnati Hills and now all over the place. So thanks for being with us. Stephen Carter: Thank you, Jon. Appreciate what you're doing and appreciate the opportunity.  

Jon Eckert is a Professor of Educational Leadership at Baylor University. He taught and coached intermediate and middle school students outside of Chicago and Nashville for 12 years. After completing his doctorate at Vanderbilt University, he was selected as a Teaching Ambassador Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education, where he worked in both the Bush and Obama administrations on teaching quality issues. Dr. Eckert has conducted research for the U.S. Department of Education, the Carnegie Foundation, the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, and the Center for Teaching Quality.In this episode, we discuss Jon's newest book, “Just Teaching: Feedback, Engagement, and Well-being for Each Student,” the threats to effective education in today's digital climate and teaching strategies to address digital distraction and disengagement to bring out students' best.• • •Supported by JOMO(campus), Season 4 explores the landscape of students, smartphones and social media, asking global experts to explain the hard truths about the mental health decline among youth on campuses worldwide and inspire us with evidence-based strategies that will turn the tide. Get more JOMO at jomocast.com.Book a JOMO(campus) discovery call at jomocampus.com Check out the new JOMO Goods shop at www.jomogoods.com Music by Thomas J. Inge Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New research from the University of Newcastle has found that early career teachers deliver the same quality of teaching as their more experienced colleagues. In fact, when the researchers in this study looked at lessons delivered by teachers with experience ranging from less than one year in the classroom to more than 24 years, they found no statistically significant differences in teaching quality. In today's episode we're joined by the lead researcher on this project and Director of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, Laureate Professor Jenny Gore. You may remember that Jenny has been a guest on a previous podcast episode and has written several articles for Teacher. In today's episode though, she joins me to talk all about this study on the relationship between years of experience and quality teaching, why they decided to do this research in the first place, and how the findings are both surprising and counterintuitive. Host: Rebecca Vukovic Guest: Professor Jenny Gore Sponsor: Teacher Jobs

Barnett Berry is a Research Professor at the University of South Carolina, and serves as Senior Director for Policy & Innovation. His work in the 1990s with the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future led to his founding of the Center for Teaching Quality in 1999, a non-profit that focused on igniting teacher leadership to transform public education for more equitable outcomes for students.  He is author of over 150 peer review articles, book chapters, and trade journal publications focused on teaching policy, teacher leadership, and systemic change in education. His two books, TEACHING 2030 and Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead But Don't Leave, frame a bold vision for the profession's future. In 2021, he was honored with the James A. Kelly Award for Advancing Accomplished Teaching by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Join us for this important conversation about educating the whole child, creating deeper learning systems, and supporting teachers as agents of change.   IN THIS EPISODE, WE DISCUSS: Three reasons why some school reforms have failed How we can reform schools without burdening teachers The benefits of collaboration and teaching as teams Using technology and community to reorganize people and schooling What we need before we can achieve whole child education   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Send Barnett an email at barnettberry@sc.edu and connect with him Twitter Check out Barnett's books, Teaching  2030 and Teacherpreneurs: Innovation Teachers Who Lead But Don't Leave Learn more about Rebel Educator, explore our professional development opportunities for educators and students, and check out our project library Visit us at UP Academy to learn more about our personalized and inclusive learning environment Connect with Tanya and UP Academy on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram and learn more about her journey here   Check out my book Rebel Educator: Create Classrooms Where Impact and Imagination Meet: amzn.to/3AcwlfF   Enjoying the show? Leave us a rating and review and help more people find us! bit.ly/RebelEducatorApplePodcasts   We'd love it if you could take a few minutes to fill out this survey to let us know how we can bring you the best possible content:  forms.gle/JcKHf9DHTZnYUmQr6    Interested in being on the Rebel Educator podcast? Fill out this form and we'll reach out to you if we think you'd be a great fit for an upcoming episode. forms.gle/zXR2KGPK3WEmbrRZ6    Want to learn more about opening your own UP Academy? Check out the Rebel Educator Accelerator: www.rebeleducator.com/courses/the-accelerator   MORE ABOUT THE REBEL EDUCATOR PODCAST: In each episode of the Rebel Educator podcast, I deconstruct world-class educators, students, and thought leaders in education to extract the tactics, tools, and routines that you can use as teachers and parents. Join me as we discuss how to shift the classroom, the learning environment, the mindset, and the pedagogy, to resist tradition, reignite wonder, and re-imagine the future of education. This podcast is dedicated to all of the educators who work thankless hours to make our next generation the best it can be.  It was designed to begin conversations on how we can redesign education for the future of work and the success of our students.  It is meant for teachers, students, administrators, homeschoolers and anyone who interacts with and teaches youth.

During the talk Professor Berry discusses his drivers, teachers as the most significant asset at schools, moving beyond test scores, the joy of learning, innovation within the classroom and school districts, community schools, the Magnolia Agriscience Community Center (MACC), and scaling up successful models.Professor Berry's work in the 1990s with the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future led to his founding of the Center for Teaching Quality in 1999, a non-profit that focused on igniting teacher leadership to transform public education for more equitable outcomes for students. Professor Berry is author of over 150 peer review articles, book chapters, and trade journal publications focused on teaching policy, teacher leadership, and systemic change in education. His two books, TEACHING 2030 and Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead But Don't Leave, frame a bold vision for the profession's future. Professor Berry also serves as a Senior Research Fellow for the Learning Policy Institute, which seeks to advance evidence-based policies that support empowering and equitable learning for each and every child. In 2021, he was honored with the James A. Kelly Award for Advancing Accomplished Teaching by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Peter Sommerville and I discuss the online teaching quality: a strange mix of data and student satisfaction that determines how many classes online teachers get and even how much they are paid.Inside Online Language Teaching: Conversations About the Future That Became the PresentGet 10% off a 120 TESOL course with Train the Teacher. Use this link and the discount code: TTi10Visit TEFL ConsultantsFor more podcasts, videos and blogs, visit our website Support the podcast – buy us a coffee!Develop yourself! Find more about our teacher training courses Watch as well as listen on our YouTube channel

Special guest Val Brown graces the mic as Ken and Dee chop it up over the idea of a...C: Culture or Civil War - the time that we are in, overly exposed by Jan6 by why aren't we recognizing this by denying the opportunity to talk about what's happening.P: Privilege - The exposure to the fact that it is Privilege that affords people the escape clause to not have to talk about difficult conversations. T:  Terrorism - Is it right to equate acts of politically motivated means to attack or coercion to something that many people cannot see themselves associated with? How can all of this lead to our Collective Liberation? Val Brown is a professional development facilitator for a national non-profit. Her role primarily includes designing, facilitating, and evaluating anti-bias professional development for educators across the country.In December 2016, Val founded #ClearTheAir.  #ClearTheAir is a body of educators who believe that community, learning, and dialogue are essential to personal and professional growth. Val believes education is a vehicle for social change and encourages educators to engage in public discourse about critical topics because it allows them to learn with and from others.For 14 years prior to joining her current organization, Val worked in the public K-12 education and higher education sector as a teacher, instructional coach, district administrator, and professional learning specialist. Her other professional interests include instructional coaching, teacher leadership, and educator pathways.Val received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Florida and holds an M.Ed. from Florida Atlantic University and an M.A. from the University of Central Florida in Multicultural Education and Education Leadership, respectively. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Curriculum, Teaching, and Teacher Education at the University of Florida. Support from the good folks at the Center for Teaching Quality and #EduColor were influential in her finding her voice.She is also a wife and mother. You can read about her family's antics on Twitter.

TER #158 - Teacher Leadership and Teaching Quality with Barnett Berry - 25 Oct 2020 by Teachers' Education Review

TER #158 - Teacher Leadership and Teaching Quality with Barnett Berry - 25 Oct 2020 by Teachers' Education Review Want to learn about teaching and education in Australia?

This week's guest is talking golf fitness. Kaitlyn Pimentel, Golf Digest Top 50 Golf Fitness Trainer, shares the need for client fitness accountability with co-hosts Bradford Skupaka, PGA, Director of Teaching Quality at GOLFTEC, and Holly Champion, PGA, Colorado PGA Player Development Director.

http://www.leanblog.org/352 Joining me for Episode #352 of the podcast is Frederick Southwick, M.D. He is a Professor of Medicine and is also Director of Patient Care Quality and Safety in the Division of Hospitalist Medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Fred is the author of many books including Critically Ill: A 5-Point Plan to Cure Healthcare Delivery. In the podcast, Fred will talk about why he shifted from infectious diseases to focusing on hospital medicine and healthcare improvement. This was driven partially by two very personal episodes with problems in the healthcare system that his then-wife and he both suffered from. Fred was appointed as a Harvard University Advanced Leadership fellow, where he studied business and public health. Fred was exposed to Lean through MIT Prof. Steven Spear and they have published an article together, where they call for "all academic physicians caring for patients to focus on systems and quality improvement." In the episode, Fred reflects on how he personally shifted from blaming doctors to looking at systems as the primary driver of quality and safety problems. He also teaches Lean to medical students and has two public classes on "Fixing Healthcare" (including one with a deeper focus on Lean) through Coursera. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. 

Keri Randolph, former Assistant Superintendent for Innovation in Hamilton County, shares her own reluctant journey into the classroom and tries to find out why so few people are taking that path. Asking why no one wants to teach anymore to the following experts: Pete Fishman, Vice President for Strategy Deans for Impact @psfishman Kate Walsh, President of National Council on Teacher Quality @nctqkate Tiffanie Robinson, President and CEO of Lamp Post @LampPostBldgs Barnett Barry, Founder and CEO for Center for Teaching Quality @teachingquality Rickteyzia, Aspiring Teacher and Lasell College Graduate Carole Basile , Dean of Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State Teachers College @asueducation Lance Huffman, former principal Mariel Novas, former community organizer Shanna Peeples, 2015 National Teacher of the Year and author of Think Like Socrates The dread color-coded sheets. They always started arriving around January. The Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources would prepare weekly updates on anticipated job openings at schools in the district and distribute them to the district leadership team. Green meant a school was fully staffed; yellow meant more than 50% of openings had been filled; and red meant more than 50% of openings had not been filled. During my first January in the district, I was shocked to see the abundant red lines and numbers of anticipated openings. Over the next few months, the red lines increased with more than 300 teachers needed to fill openings for the following school year. Our conversations as a leadership team were rarely about quality or effective teachers, but rather a growing lack of certified candidates. Through these conversations, I learned that, some classrooms in our highest poverty schools went without a permanent teacher for months or even a year in high needs areas like math and science. But, we were starting to experience shortages across the board except in our most affluent schools. We moved back the hiring season so that it started in December in hopes of signing teacher early before they could be recruited away. We partnered with our local university to improve teacher preparation and strengthen the student-teaching experience. We started a mentoring pilot to support new teachers in hopes they would stay, but through all of this, I saw a bigger problem. Not enough people wanted to teach in our schools. See below for some references and additional resources to accompany the content in the podcast. The Situation: Framing the Issue. Do we really have a teacher shortage? a. 2017-18 Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide List from the Office of Postsecondary Education at the US Department of Education. Urban, rural, high poverty and low-achieving schools have the biggest staffing problems. b. Some schools and districts (for example, South Carolina) are looking to teacher exchange programs to fill vacancies. c. Retention is a huge issue, but it is outside of the scope of this podcast. We plan to release an episode solely on retention soon. d. We have a national shortage of minority teachers. Teaching is local, and so are shortages. a. Teaching is more local than most professions. Teachers are more likely to teach near where they grew up and receive their training locally, as well. Read more about Deans for Impact on Peter Fishman’s blog, 13 Miles: The Inherent Localism of Teaching. b. Check data from your state here. Shortages can vary within states, within communities and even within districts. Teacher preparation programs are lacking in numbers and quality. a. Declining enrollment in teacher preparation in some parts of the country raise concerns that local supply won’t meet local demand. More on the data included in the podcast from the Learning Policy Institute. b. Teacher preparation program- the quality debate. The National Council on Teaching Quality reviews and ranks teacher preparation programs including traditional and alternative certification programs, though, there’s debate over how to measure the quality of teacher preparation programs. Here’s the link to the Third Way survey, Teaching: The Next Generation, Kate Walsh mentions in the podcast. Here’s the list of alternative teacher preparation programs in Texas. There’s a lot about teaching in many communities that isn’t attractive. a. North Carolina salary schedule referenced in podcast, and blog article on the high numbers of North Carolina who work additional jobs outside of the regular school day. b. The OECD 2017 Education at a Glance report released in September found that the US pays our teachers on average less than 60% of the salaries of similarly educated professionals- the “lowest relative earnings across all OECD countries with data” and the report also noted that US teachers work longer hours than their international counterparts, and this makes the profession “increasingly unattractive to young students.” c. More on Tiffanie Robinson and Lamp Post. d. More on the Center for Teaching Quality’s Barnett Berry. De-professionalization and the Low and High Roads a. The 2017 American Federation of Teachers and Badass Teachers Union Teacher Worklife Survey report decreasing teacher morale and mental health. b. National Education Policy Center’s 2015 brief, Reversing the Deprofessionalization of Teaching c. For more on de-professionalization of the teaching profession: i. Darling-Hammond, L. (2007). Images of teaching: Cultivating a moral profession. In Arcilla, et al (Eds.), A life in classrooms (pp. 16-33). New York: Teachers College Press. ii. Mehta, J. (2013). The allure of order: High hopes, dashed expectations, and the troubled quest to remake American schooling. Oxford University Press. d. Marc Tucker, President and CEO of the National Center of Education and Economy, writes extensively on the education labor market and has been a leader in the standards movement in the United States. He led the writing of America’s Choice: High Skills or Low Wages, informed the high road, low road discussion in the podcast. Reimagining the Teacher Workforce and the Profession a. Read more about Dr. Carole Basile and the work at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University to reimagine teacher preparation and the teaching profession. This blog offers more information on some of the work Dr. Basile discussed. b. More on the The Behavioural Insights Team in the UK and their work can be found on their website. The work referenced in the podcast on what motivates the talented young people to join the teaching profession was from personal communications with members of the BIT team during a visit to Chattanooga in the spring of 2016. c. For more on the value and importance of diverse teams, check out this article. There wasn’t time to go international in the podcast, but it is important to note that there are bright spots internationally with high-performing education systems and a professionalized teacher workforce. Finland is one of the most often cited and striking examples, partly because of the success of Finnish reforms but also because of the fairly rapid professionalization of teaching with key policy changes about 40 years ago. Teacher training shifted to Finland’s university system from a teacher college model. Rigorous entrance standards raised the bar for those entering the profession, and teacher preparation programs were designed to be high quality and challenging. By elevating teacher training to the university system, the profession became prestigious and more equal in clout with doctors and lawyers. This high road approach has been accompanied by policy changes to support professionalization such as government funded training for teachers and protected time for teachers to plan, collaborate and hone their craft. It is no surprise that Finland does not have teacher pipeline or teacher shortage problems. In the United States, we do not have the federalized system that supported Finland’s transformation, but one can imagine that there are states and communities who could mimic Finland’s professionalization strategy. Since teaching a local labor market and most teachers are trained locally, states or local communities could work with higher education to raise the bar on teacher candidates. I think it will take policy to make changes, because there is little impetus for higher education to raise standards and admit less students to their programs. The pressure will have to come from the state government as the teacher certification entity and/or from districts who demand higher quality candidates. References: Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). Steady work: How countries build successful systems. In The flat world of education. (pp.164-172). New York: Teachers College Press. Schwartz, R.B. & J. Mehta. (2011). Finland: Superb teachers- how to get them, how to use them. In M.S. Tucker (Ed.) Surpassing Shanghai. (pp. 51-78). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This is the third conversation I've had since the beginning of the podcast with Jon Eckert. In this podcast I ask Jon about what John Hattie calls "Collective Teacher Efficacy" and how it is the factor that has the greatest impact on student learning. Likewise, I ask Jon about what he calls "Catalytic" leadership in his book Leading Together. Jon's Bio: As a Professor of Education at Wheaton College, Jon’s research includes teaching effectiveness, teacher preparation, teacher evaluation, and teacher compensation. In addition to his work at Wheaton he is a Research Consultant for the Center for Teaching Quality and he has also consulted with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching and the U.S. Department of Education. You can find his recent research on Collective Leadership in his new book, “Leading Together: Teachers and Administrators Improving Student Outcomes.”

Interview Notes, Resources, & LinksGet the book, Leading Together: Teachers and Administrators Improving Student OutcomesAbout Dr. Jonathan EckertDr. Jonathan Eckert is associate professor of education at Wheaton, and previously served as a Teaching Ambassador Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education under the Bush and Obama administrations. He works in teacher education at Wheaton, and with schools across the country to improve policies and teaching practice through the Center for Teaching Quality. He's the author of two books.

Jon and I have had prior conversations on Collective Leadership, and I’ve become more convinced that building the professional and leadership capacity of educators within our schools and profession who enjoy doing hard and innovative work together is the primary way to improve our schools, educational opportunities for students, and the enjoyment of our work. I recently wrote a bit about this in a blog entitled, Building Engaged Schools: Educators Crave It! where I argue for a rebuilding of our profession from within schools. I’ve become more convinced of this necessity as Jon has written a final piece for the Center for Teaching Quality on the Teacher Shortage. His blog and the series will provide a fair understanding of the complexity of the problem, Teacher Shortage Reality: Numbers and Names. This is why as you listen to the podcast I ask Jon about Collective Leadership and Strategic Compensation as they are intertwined in his research, expertise, and work with schools. I his first book he states, Educators spend too much time down in the weeds worrying: Who is a leader? Who is not a leader? Is a leader defined by a position? Many times these conversations are driven by contracts and collective bargaining language that separates teachers and administrators. These can be important questions, but they are not the questions that will actually improve education. One of the primary attributes of great schools leaders—both administrators and teachers—is the fact that they don’t define, they do. They get things done. Therefore, I asked Jon two questions about Collective Leadership and the connection with Strategic Compensation: In your research what are seeing that supports this comment, and how are you helping school leaders re-think how they build their faculties and even how we think about the Education profession? I talk with a lot of people who want to solve the teacher shortage or low quality faculties by creating fancy salary structures. What are you learning about Strategic Compensation as you work with districts and schools as they seek to create high quality faculties? Jon's Bio: As a Professor of Education at Wheaton College, Jon’s research includes teaching effectiveness, teacher preparation, teacher evaluation, and teacher compensation. In addition to his work at Wheaton he is a Research Consultant for the Center for Teaching Quality and he has also consulted with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching and the U.S. Department of Education. You can find his recent research on Collective Leadership in his new book, “Leading Together: Teachers and Administrators Improving Student Outcomes.”

Jon is currently a Professor of Education at Wheaton College, works with the Center for Teaching Quality, and  is the author of two books "The Novice Advantage" and "Leading Together" that begin to layout his research on crafting greater professional capacity for our profession, schools, and students.

Larry Ferlazzo, a well-known teacher-author, podcaster, and blogger from the Sacramento City Schools, talks with Val Brown about Writing to Influence Parents. This podcast is part of the Center for Teaching Quality microcredential series.

This episode features Barnett Berry, CEO and Founder of Center for Teaching Quality. Take a listen to learn about the link between teacher leadership and micro-credentials and the value they can provide students and educators.

Missy Callaway of Jefferson County Public Schools chats with Barnett Berry, CEO and Founder of the Center for Teaching Quality. 

www.timwarfieldmusic.com/ Topics Include: Authenticity Central PA Friends of Jazz Wynton Marsalis Listening and participating The Jazz Renaissance Record companies and marketing Teaching Quality of the hang Subsidized jazz Creating new venues

Though ESSA has replaced NCLB, concerns remain about the devil in the details. In this segment, we take a closer look. Follow: @larryferlazzo @mpolikoff @BarnettCTQ @Bamradionetwork Barnett Berry is founder, CEO, and partner at the Center for Teaching Quality in Carrboro, NC. He is the lead author of Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead But Don’t Leave and TEACHING 2030: What We Must Do For Our Students and Our Public Schools… Now and in the Future. Morgan Polikoff is an associate professor of education at the USC Rossier School of Education. He studies the design, implementation, and effects of standards, assessment, and accountability policies.

"DON'T BE MEAN" THE ONLY CLASS RULE YOU'LL EVER NEED Thanks to Smartbrief and Smartblogs, we have award winning education blogger,  author of the Digressive Discourse blog for the Center for Teaching Quality, AZ educator Sandy Merz

Join us as we talk about the blending of the roles of teacher and administrator. What are the benefits and challenges? Follow: @intoy2014 @mr_abud @BarnettCTQ @bamradionetwork Barnett Berry is founder, CEO, and partner at the Center for Teaching Quality in Carrboro, NC. He is the lead author of Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead But Don’t Leave (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and TEACHING 2030: What We Must Do For Our Students and Our Public Schools… Now and in the Future (Teachers College Press, 2010).

Join us as we talk about the blending of the roles of teacher and administrator. What are the benefits and challenges? Follow: @intoy2014 @mr_abud @BarnettCTQ @bamradionetwork Barnett Berry is founder, CEO, and partner at the Center for Teaching Quality in Carrboro, NC. He is the lead author of Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead But Don’t Leave (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and TEACHING 2030: What We Must Do For Our Students and Our Public Schools… Now and in the Future (Teachers College Press, 2010).

[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/18strong/99_99__Six_key_positions_to_playing_your_best_golf_with_Nick_CLearwater.mp3" title="LISTEN HERE!" artist="18strong podcast: nick clearwater-Golftec" social="true" social_twitter="true" social_facebook="true" social_gplus="true" social_linkedin="true" social_pinterest="true" ] Nick Clearwater, the Senior Director of Teaching Quality at GolfTEC, and one of the coolest guys I know in the golf world, returns to the show this week to discuss something BIG that could absolutely change your game! With GolfTEC being the worlds largest collector of data on the golf swing over the past 20 years, they have taken some of that data and come up with direct correlations to show you 6 things that the best golfers in the world do compared to the high handicapper.  In this episode, Nick is going to break down each of these movements, so you can start changing your game today! The post 99: The Six Key Positions to Playing Your Best Golf with Nick Clearwater appeared first on 18STRONG.

NCTQ STATE BY STATE TEACHER STATE POLICIES Sandi Jacobs ( no relation), Sr. VP for State/District Policy at The National Center  on Teacher Quality on their new state policy dashboard Presented by Triumph Learning

There are few people who know teachers and the art of teaching as well as Barnett Berry. He’s the founder and CEO of the Center for Teaching Quality, a national nonprofit that advances a high-quality public education system for all students, driven by the bold ideas and expert practices of teachers. Barnett’s two books, Teaching 2030 and Teacherpreneurs, frame his bold vision for the teaching profession’s future. But is it too bold? Perhaps downright impossible? A few weeks ago, The Center for Teaching Quality put out a new paper commissioned by the Ford Foundation, all about the concept of “deeper learning.” Barnett stopped by EdSurge to share some of the papers’ findings, but we wanted more. Barnett and his team make the argument in the paper that if we want to achieve deeper learning in the classroom, we need to do a better job developing teacher leaders. But does that mean they have to leave the classroom to become administrators? And where does technology play a role in all of this?

THE "TEACHER POWERED SCHOOLS" INITIATIVE The Center for Teaching Quality brings us Boston elementary educator  Taryn Snyder and Pittsburgh midle school teacher Nick Tutolo on this new initiative from CTQ and Education Evolving.. Presented by MIMIO

Brianna Crowley #Teacherpreneur w/ @teachingquality, 2013 @ASCD Emerging Leader, English Teacher, TechCoach, NBCT  http://about.me/brianna.crowley   Subscribe on iTunes In this episode you will learn: Her hybrid role as a classroom teacher and a Teacherpreneur for The Center for Teaching Quality Why she became a teacher and how she became a master teacher by connecting with others Her lesson that fell flat and how it crushed her at the time What the public fails to realize about teaching Why Mindset by Carol Dweck and Quiet by Susan Cain are valuable professional-development reads How we should be interesting people for our students Why Elana Aguilar's The Art of Coaching was the best PD that she attended What a comment code can do to benefit student writing The ever-evolving, always-collaborating nature of great teachers     The post #64 Brianna Crowley — ASCD Emerging Leader appeared first on Talks with Teachers.

REACHING RELUCTANT LEARNERS THE CENTER FOR TEACHING QUALITY  Our guests are  Nancy Barile, a National Board Certified Teacher of English Language Arts at Revere High School in Massachusetts and a blogger with the Center for Teaching Quality. She's joined by her former student Eddie Scofield, now an education major at Salem State University. Presented by PEARSON RESEARCH AND INNOVATION www.pearson.research.com @pearsonnortham

THE TEACHER COLLABORATORY THE CENTER FOR TEACHING QUALITY, CTQ  presents  'BECOMING A TEACHER ADVOCATE" You'll hear Jessica Cuthbertson, a National Board Certified Teacher from Colorado talk about why all should be involved in promoting quality education?...for all www.teaching quality.org   @teachingquality @jcuthy Presented by PEARSON RESEARCH AND INNOVATION @pearsonnortham   @www.researchnetwork.pearson.com

Ali Wright and Angela Gunther  Recently, Kentucky teacher leaders, led by Ali Wright and Angela Gunther, posed a challenge: rethink professional learning and restructure the school day to improve learning for students and teachers. Along with the Center for Teaching Quality, they analyzed current teacher schedules and conducted an intensive three-day chat discussing teacher needs and opportunities for reallocating time.  http://www.teachingquality.org/teachertime Teacher Time Info Graphic   The post #58 Teacher Time with Ali Wright and Angela Gunter appeared first on Talks with Teachers.

Regretfully, school policies are too often counterproductive. What's an educator to do? Our guests offer some guidance. Follow @AnthonyCody @arielsacks @lnazareno @bodymindchild @bamradionetwork Lori Nazereno currently serves as Teahcer-in-Residence at the Center for Teaching Quality supporting teachers who want to start teacher-powered schools. Ariel Sacks teaches eighth grade English at a middle school in Brooklyn, NY. She has published articles about her work in Edweek Teacher Magazine and is a co-author of the new book Teaching 2030. Anthony Cody worked in the high poverty schools in Oakland for 24 years and writes the popular Education Week blog, Living in Dialogue.

TEACHERPRENEUR  ROB KREITE, A MIDDLE SCHOOL LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHER IN TAMPA AND A CTQ TEACHERPRENEUR IS OUR GUEST. COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY.

People underrate the power of their ability to really jump-start something in a community. It seems so big, but it doesn't have to be. Communicating with people in a way that resonates and gets them to take that next step and whatever action that may be is really the key. This week Beth talks with Abigail Quesinberry, Social Media Strategist with the Center for Teaching Quality in Carrboro, NC about collaborating to create social media content that builds your power-base.

A Teacher-Leader That Listens for Student Wisdom Your support is appreciated. Provide a review for Talks with Teachers on iTunes José Luis Vilson is a math educator for a middle school in the Inwood / Washington Heights neighborhood of New York, NY. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in mathematics education from the City College of New York. He’s also a committed writer, activist, web designer, and father. He currently serves as a board member on the Board of Directors for the Center for Teaching Quality and the president emeritus of the Latino Alumni Network of Syracuse University. He writes regularly for Edutopia and TransformED / Future of Teaching, and has contributed to The New York Times, CNN.com, Education Week, Huffington Post, and El Diario / La Prensa NY. He has also been featured at PBS, Mashable, Idealist, Chalkbeat NY, TakePart, Manhattan Times, and the National Journal. In this episode you will learn: how teacher leadership can help you be better in and out of the classroom how to move from survival mode to thriving as a teacher how to make a collage of mentors to help you better your teaching why Renee Moore's ability to speak truth to power has made her a teacher leader why rote lessons fall flat what to do when the students are totally lost why process time for students is crucial how more planning time can help teachers how he hears where each student's wisdom lies why the middle school is such an interesting time in a student's life ways to have a variety of assessments that highlights student strengths rather than point out their weaknesses the importance of having students reflect in all classes how EdCamp and Twitter can be a great means to professional development and gateways to niche communities the debate between tradition and progressive approaches in math Books he recommends -- Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children and his This is Not a Test. Connect with Jose at: The Jose Vilson blog @TheJVL on Twitter         The post This is Not a Test with Jose Vilson appeared first on Talks with Teachers.

THE CENTER FOR TEACHING QUALITY presents  TEACHER POWERED SCHOOLS Teacher Leader Lori Nazzareno on designing a Teacher Powered School Presented by KNOWLEDGE WORKS  www.knowledgeworks,org @worldoflearning

SMARTBRIEF presents Center for Teaching Quality 'Teacher -in-Residence' Jennifer Barnett Jen is this month's winner of SmartBrief's Editoral Content Award www.smartbrief.com  @sbeducation

JULIE HILTZ, MEDIA SPECIALIST WITH HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY FL PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND TEACHERPRENEUR ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA MOVEMENT FOR EDUCATOR

              Julie Hiltz is a media specialist at Lutz Elementary in Hillsborough County, Florida, and a National Board Certified Teacher with 12 years of experience. She is also a 2013-14 Center for Teaching Quality Teacherpreneur, who is spending half of her workweek this school year engaging colleagues across the state in teacher evaluation and Common Core reforms.       To win a copy of Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead But Don't Leave  take two simple steps:   1. Share your idea of what #teachingis on Twitter in 140 characters or less 2. Record your #teachingis tweet with Talks with Teachers by clicking on the voicemail option on our homepage.   In this episode Julie and I discuss:   the role of a media specialist how technology is changing literacy her connection with the Center for Teaching Quality the Teacherpreneur fellowship her #teachingis campaign   "We have to keep our best teachers in the classroom. There needs to be a lattice rather than a ladder." -- Julie Hiltz   The post #24 #Teachingis Campaign with Julie Hiltz appeared first on Talks with Teachers.

      Renee Moore English teacher -- Cleveland, Mississippi  2001 Mississippi Teacher of the Year  Resource of the Week: Brian's Post on Edutopia                            Rate Talks with Teachers on iTunes Talks with Teachers 4-Week     Talks with Teachers has developed a new way to help you. Sure we’ve got this podcast that’s great to listen to. Sure there are valuable lessons on our website for all levels that can help your teaching. But the one thing that has been lacking is COMMUNITY. We have a loyal following of listeners, Tweeters, and contributing teachers that have all interacted with us. Yet, we have not allowed you to interact with each other.  That’s where the Talks with Teachers 4-Week Challenge comes in. We want you to do something small each day to grow as a teacher. We’ve got readings, videos, fun, little projects lined up to foster your love of teaching. And best of all, there will be a community forum for you to share your success and encourage others to find purpose and joy in teaching.    Segment I – Background and Inspiration   Tell your story. Where are you from and how long have you been teaching? What classes have you taught?  – Renee teacher English full time at Mississippi Delta Community College. She initially was a journalist in her hometown of Detroit but when she moved to Mississippi to return to her husband's home state she switched careers and began teaching English. She taught English and journalism for over 26 years before she switched to the community college setting.   Who has helped you in your journey to become a master teacher?  – Mrs. Dorothy Grennell was a veteran English teacher, who taught for 46 years. Renee took over her position when she retired. Mrs. Grennell took her under her wing because her house was across the street from the school. Renee would visit her after school and could cry.  Dorothy gave her the materials that she accumulated over 46 years of teaching. Renee has also been a part of many teaching networks of her career such as the National Writing Project, the Bread Loaf Teaching Network, and the Center for Teaching Quality.  It is important for other teachers to know that we all have had setbacks in the classroom. Identify an instance in which you struggled as a teacher and explain what you learned from that experience. – She taught at a small school and had students that would often loop -- she would have them in 9th grade and later on in 11th or 12th grade. She had a grammar lesson that she had taught to students when they were in her class previously and now that they were being asked to recall that content, it went incredibly bad, so bad that she felt compelled to write about it in her teaching journal. That lesson turned in to an action-research project that lasted 10 years all because she questioned why students struggled with grammar. It became a major paper, a website, one of the most fantastic learning experiences she's ever done and chapters in books that she would eventually write. Sometimes the things that pose the greatest problems become the greatest learning experiences for teachers.    Why are the language arts and literacy important? –Even though the label on our content is English, she considers herself a teacher of communication. To be able to communicate is the most fundamental human skill of all. What is one thing that you love about the classroom?   – Renee averaged 100-150 kids a day and if you multiply that by 25 years you see the impact she had on student lives'. Most of all, she loved learning new things. It happened even the day this interview was recorded.   Segment II — Digging into the Teacher Bag of Goodies What book do you recommend to a teacher striving to improve his or her craft? Renee likes The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of ...

Curtis Chandler ELA teacher, 2011 Kansas Teacher of the Year (Wamgeo Middle School -- Wamego, KS)  Resource of the Week: Twitter Chats  #aplitchat #elachat  #apbiochat #engchat    Segment I – Background and Inspiration Tell your story. Where are you from and how long have you been teaching? What classes have you taught?  – Curtis has taught for 17 years, just outside of Topeka, Kansas. He is at Wamego Middle School but he is someone that moved a lot as a child because his father was in the military. Curtis was not a stellar student but he had a few teachers that encouraged him, put books in his hands, and allowed him to learn through creative activities.   Who has helped you in your journey to become a master teacher?  – He has been helped by a lot of talented professionals, like the Center for Teaching Quality. Yet, his first set of models were his parents. His mom was a teacher and his dad was military. He spent a lot of time overseas and his parents dragged him to every museum, attraction, cultural center to learn. His wife, a special education teacher, reminds him that some students may have exceptions but all students are exceptional. Finally, parenting has taught him a lot about teaching and teaching has taught him a lot about parenting.  It is important for other teachers to know that we all have had setbacks in the classroom. Identify an instance in which you struggled as a teacher and explain what you learned from that experience. – His first year of teaching was a real struggle. He was working with struggling reader at a school near a military base. He assumed that a year with any kid would be long enough to fix their issues. He learned that education is a progressive act. It does not occur is a single year. He learned to desire constant improvement from himself and from his students.  Why is literacy important? – Literacy is constantly involving and changing. Many of his students are doing all sorts of discourse on their own, many times collaborative. Our focus needs to evolve. We can't think about preparing students for THE future, but THEIR future, which is increasingly technological, collaborative and highly literate.  What is one thing that you love about the classroom?  – When students take control of their own learning.  Segment II — Digging into the Teacher Bag of Goodies    What book do you recommend to a developing teacher?  -- He tends to recommend the book that he is reading at the moment. The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Learning. With the emergence of all this ground-breaking stuff -- like social media -- we need to harness the power of human creativity. This is a book that can help you  consider how reform that focuses on “skill-and-drill” standardized tests and college education as status or mere vocational training. In the book, Gee laments that we have lost the true meaning of education in the service of personal enlightenment and broader social good.   What is one thing a teacher can do outside the classroom that can pay off inside the classroom? -- He gave a series of lectures and workshops about the un-classroom. Learning takes place as much outside the classroom as much as it does inside. Educators need to stay in touch with the learning process. One way to do this is to continuously force yourself to learn to do something new. It is hard to do this. We get reminded of the frustration of trying something difficult because that is what our students may be going through.    Is there an internet resource that you can recommend which will help teachers grow professionally? – Curtis tries to read as much as possible in his own discipline. Also, Twitter allows him to participate in conversations about education. It forces him to think more and say less.

In this segment we speak with two teachers who work at high poverty schools about how we might reduce teacher attrition in high-poverty schools. Follow: @BarnettCTQ @IlanaGaron @larryferlazzo @bamradionetwork Barnett Berry is founder, CEO, and partner at the Center for Teaching Quality in Carrboro, NC. He is the lead author of Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead But Don’t Leave. Ilana Garon teaches high school English at a public school in the Bronx. She is also the author of "Why Do Only White People Get Abducted by Aliens?": Teaching Lessons from the Bronx.

 Ariel Sacks   8th grade ELA teacher at Brooklyn Prospect Charter School (NY)    Segment I – Background and Inspiration   Tell your story. Where are you from and how long have you been teaching? What classes have you taught?    – Ariel has been teaching for 10 years. She is currently at Brooklyn Prospect Charter School where she teaches 8th grade English. Before that she taught at two NYC DOE schools both of which were high-needs schools that served 100% poverty populations.   Who has helped you in your journey to become a master teacher?   – She had unbelievable training at Bank Street College. In particular, Madeline Ray, who was her mentor, also served as a prolonged influence, mentoring her for an additional two years when she began her teaching career.       It is important for other teachers to know that we all have had setbacks in the classroom. Identify an instance in which you struggled as a teacher and explain what you learned from that experience.   – In Ariel's first year she asked her students read the entire novel through before discussing it. When the due date arrived, it quickly became clear that 50% of the students had not read. She had lost many of her students in that moment but gave the students amnesty. She divided the class between those who had read and those who did not. The ones that finished had amazing discussions about the text and those that did not read saw this, overheard this and were inspired to read. This method was still a powerful model in her eyes, she just had to build the systems and structures to support all students.     Why teach English and the language arts?   – She believes that English is all about how to communicate with people -- how to listen, speak persuasively, and how to write coherently. Then there is the artistic elements of beauty, wonder, sadness, which helps us to understand our place in the world.      What is one thing that you love about the classroom?   –  A teacher can create structures and routines but it the dynamic of a classroom is unpredictable. Every class, every day, every year is different.   Segment II — Digging into the Teacher Bag of Goodies   What book do you recommend to a developing teacher? -- Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student-Centered Approach. This is the book that she wishes she had when she started out teaching. It is a progressive, yet practical approach to teaching literature to adolescents.   Also Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word it offers writing assignments that embraces the diversity of the classroom to bring out student voices. She has used just about everything in that book.     What is one thing a teacher can do outside the classroom that can pay off inside the classroom?   – Ariel believes that teachers should get acquainted with the neighborhood where students live is valuable. Walking a mile in her students shoes can create a lot of opportunities for greater understanding and empathy for their background.     Is there an internet resource that you can recommend which will help teachers grow professionally?   –  Her best interactions with other teachers happen through Center for Teaching Quality. She has recently become interested in #Engchat on Twitter.       What can a teacher can do to make students better writers?   – Pair students and have the partner read the draft. This is because writing is in the ear. Often we don't hear our own weakness until is is read to us and the reader will pick up on it and the writer will hear it as well.       What novel or poem do you love to teach and why?    Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a P...

MSM 241: Common Core - Calculate, Visualize and Code. Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education. Jokes You Can Use: Eileen Award: Twitter: Brian Brushwood, Joy Kirr, Amber Gress Advisory: Point of View From the Twitterverse: RT @barbarawmadden: #rechat You want to pick up on some cool metaphors...Watch ONE episode of Duck Dynasty. :) #rechat #mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. Resources: Mural.ly Visually organize documents. https://beta.mural.ly/ Calculators Use can use the site or install it on your blog/website. Available: Scientific Graphing Programming Equation Solver http://web2.0calc.com/ Web Spotlight: 11 kinds of people I've noticed and how to decide who you want to be Posted by Vicki Davis The poo-poo-ers The look-through-ers The get-round-to-ers The froo-froo-ers The pontificators The never-follow-through-ers The preener seeners The jump-in-to-ers The I-know-everything-because-I'm-rich-er The slackers The do-ers http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2013/04/11-kinds-of-people-ive-noticed-and-how.html WOW Math Need help with Algebra 1 & 2 or AP Calculus AB? This website can help you. Why the name WOWmath? Well, I have found that many students, parents, and teachers say "WOW!" when they see all the resources I offer on this website. So, I hope that this site will make you say "WOW" as it helps you in your math class. http://wowmath.org/ 10 Apps For More Organized Project-Based Learning There are a variety of ways to support students in project-based learning, including organized digital learning spaces that support creative thinking, collaboration, and ultimately project management. Below are 10 apps for more organized project-based learning. http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/10-apps-for-more-organized-project-based-learning/ News: Today, School is a Little Less Interesting There is a growing percentage of America’s teachers, who have never taught in classrooms without the intimidation of high-stakes testing. Every year, there are fewer teachers who have known the experience of confidently entering their classrooms with creativity, passion and the freedom to replace their textbooks with learning experiences that are unique, personal, powerful and authentic. We must kill high-stakes testing before we do not have anyone left, who remembers how to be a teacher-philosopher. http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=4123 Common Core: friend or foe? Common Core – a unifying force or another educational policy hoop to jump through? I, for one, will continue to champion the Common Core. Here’s why. As I work to implement the Common Core this year, I have had many opportunities to collaborate. I have worked with my peers, both in-building and across the country through virtual networks, such as the Center for Teaching Quality’s Collaboratory. I wonder, have we been underestimating our students’ abilities all along? But the standards have become a catalyst for discussions that need to happen in all corners of education. It doesn’t matter who created the Common Core; it matters who is implementing the standards in the classroom every day. That would be teachers like me. http://www.ednewscolorado.org/voices/voices-common-core-friend-or-foe iPad App/idea:

The president and CEO of the advocacy organization Center for Teaching Quality lays out a roadmap for reforming our education system and improving the school environment for "teacherpreneurs."