Podcasts about Wide Open Spaces

Send us an email @ info@parentcoachesunleashed.com In this special one-year anniversary episode of Parent Coaches Unleashed, Carrie & Jessica dive deep into the journeys of moms who have reinvented themselves after years of parenting. With Mother's Day around the corner, the episode shines a light on moms who made bold pivots—leaving careers, embracing new passions, and figuring out how to balance their own evolution while raising teens and young adults.You'll meet three inspiring guests:Ilise Litwin, a University of Florida graduate and Therapeutic Recreational Specialist known as the Fiery Redhead, has a diverse background in mental health, podcasting, writing, and motivational speaking. Her extensive experience across various populations equipped clients with coping skills. She hosts the "Wide Open Spaces with Ilise" podcast, authored "Wanderlust Within," and delivers impactful motivational talks.South Florida artist, mother, and entrepreneur Kelly Merkur, who holds a BFA in Fiber Art/Textile Design, returned to her creative passions through painting after raising her daughters and working as a textile designer. Her vibrant, layered pieces, driven by color, texture, and experimentation, bring her joy and aim to emotionally resonate with viewers.Michele Baron, an Integrated Health Coach with a Master's in Speech-Language Pathology, helps clients make lifestyle shifts, improve nutrition, and transform unhealthy habits for optimal health through support and understanding of the mind-body-food connection. As a mother who personally helped her daughter with digestive issues, Michele deeply understands the far-reaching impact of chronic illnesses on individuals and families.TakeawaysPassions change—and that's okayVulnerability is powerfulFamily conversations matterTimestamps00:00 Reinventing Life After Motherhood05:42 Career Transition to Coaching & Podcasting15:24 Pursue Meaningful Work Passionately17:11 Holistic Health and Skincare Coach22:39 Daily Social Media Routine30:28 Organic Creativity Rediscovery36:52 Balancing Motherhood and Career Dreams39:15 Flexible Parenting and Modern Work Dynamics46:45 Single Mom: Rec Therapist Journey50:25 "Evolving Mental Health Podcast Journey"57:54 "Embracing Self-Validation for Influence"01:02:39 Listening to a Frustrated Child01:08:17 Overcoming Fear for Family Pride01:09:42 Midlife Passion and Renewal

Evan and Amanda the history behind "Wide Open Spaces" by The Chicks. Listen now to learn how the group's album just took off to outsell all other country acts that year.Find us on Instagram and Threads @worstpodonmarsFind us on Facebook @ The Worst Podcast on MarsSend us an email: worstpodonmars@gmail.com

Ahsan is joined by Jordan and Tom to discuss our draw with Brighton at the weekend. All the talking points covered including Doku, defending and where is Jack Grealish? *This is the first 15 minutes of the show. For the full episode, and all our other content on the 93:20 player, you can join below - for less than the price of a pint of beer each month.* ninetythreetwenty.com/9320-player/about-9320-player/ SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER! A FREE WEEKLY UPDATE WITH NEW CONTENT GUARANTEED AND A WHOLE LOT MORE. CLICK THE LINK BELOW AND ENTER YOUR EMAIL IN THE BOX. ninetythreetwenty.com/the-9320-newsletter/

Susan Gibson has a wealth of knowledge in her decades-long songwriting career. She penned "Wide Open Spaces" which was recorded and made into a mega-hit by The Chicks in 1998. She now travels around in her cargo van performing at venues, house concerts, and songwriter festivals. All the while, she educates other writers and judges song competitions. Though she spends lots of time on the road, Texas is home for most of the year, and she spends time in the summer at a family cabin in Montana. Though this is the shortest episode of MCRS to date, it contains some of the best advice for young songwriters that I've ever heard surrounding a healthy mindset, the definition of success, and longevity. This conversation takes place at the 2024 Grand Mesa Songwriter Festival in Cedaredge, CO. If you enjoy the podcast, please let others know, subscribe, or write a review! IF YOU'D LIKE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST IN A MONETARY WAY, I'M NOW ON PATREON! Please note: new Patreon members get to pick a cover song for me to record especially for them! www.patreon.com/andysydow Guest Links: https://www.susangibson.com/ Episode Music: Original music by Andy Sydow Contact me: middleclassrockstar@gmail.com (or) andysydowmusic@gmail.com

Betsy answers all of your design questions!

Nasya Miller, a transition clarity coach and founder of Wide Open Spaces, brings years of experience helping people navigate major life changes with intention and purpose. Her unique approach combines practical frameworks with deep emotional intelligence, helping clients move from confusion to clarity during life's most pivotal moments.Key Takeaways:• The four crucial stages of transition and how to identify where you are in the process• Why rushing through change creates more suffering and how to embrace the "in-between"• The critical role of community support in accelerating transformation• How to use periods of neuroplasticity to create lasting positive change• Practical tools for staying grounded when everything feels uncertain• The difference between chosen transitions and unexpected changes• Why grieving is essential for creating new possibilities• How to mine transitions for their hidden gifts• The power of slowing down to speed up your growth• Ways to build trust in yourself during periods of uncertaintyWhether you're contemplating a career change, processing a major life transition, or simply feeling called to make a change, this episode provides both practical wisdom and spiritual perspective for navigating transitions with grace. While many of us haven't been taught how to move through periods of change effectively, Nasya and Raj's conversation demonstrates how these challenging times can become gateways to deeper self-trust and alignment when approached with awareness and support. This episode offers a powerful reminder that it's not just about getting to the other side of a transition, but about who we become in the process.Connect with Nasya:Website: wideopenspaces.co60-day Transition Clarity Coaching programFree 15-minute connection calls availableConnect with Raj:Newsletter – Sign up here: https://www.rajjana.com/staygrounded/Website: http://www.rajjana.com/Instagram: @raj_janaiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/rs/podcast/stay-grounded-with-raj-jana/id1318038490Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/22Hrw6VWfnUSI45lw8LJBPYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@raj_janaLegal Disclaimer: The information and opinions discussed in this podcast are for educational and entertainment purposes only. The host and guests are not medical or mental health professionals, and their advice should not be a substitute for seeking professional help. Any action taken based on the information presented is strictly at your own risk. The podcast host and their guests shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss, damage, or injury caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by information shared in this podcast. Consult your physician before making any changes to your mental health treatment or lifestyle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How have you filled the Wide Open Spaces in your World this past year? It is always healthy to take a look back at the year to identify what you have accomplished and what got let behind. Creating a SMART Goal list, is a coping mechanism that can be used by all. Let's end this year together by filling the Wide Open Spaces within you, with Positive and Healthy things. It is never too late to make good choices in your life. Wishing all of you Happy Holidays and a Healthy New Year. #SelfInventory #WideOpenSpaces #Goals #NewYear #GoodChoices #MentalHealthPodcast #RoadBlocks #NewYearNewYou 

Dallas is a dynamic, fast-evolving city whose diversified economy and business friendly policies make it an attractive place for investors and companies. Longtime Dallas developers Lucy Billingsley and Lucy Burns offer insights into the city's future.Share these insights from this week's episode: Dallas offers plentiful industrial and multifamily real estate opportunities thanks to its rapid growth and economic diversification.Investors and businesses benefit from Dallas' pro-business policies and relatively low tax burdens.Demand for convenience and amenities is driving the trend toward master-planned communities that offer live-work-play environments.Dallas's growth hinges on continuing infrastructure investment, including transportation and public services to support its expanding population.

Hooray for Episode No. 137 being out and available to all of you fine listeners and viewers!I'm stoked to share that Carley Martin Verbeck and I were able to sit down together and chat about all things Carley and her band, Scotch Hollow. Her husband Mark and I perused portions of his journey that led to the two of them meeting/ultimately forming the band back in Episode No. 116, so to have the other half of the duo join me was a blast.Carley -- beyond being a wife and Scotch Hollow's frontwoman -- is also a daughter and a sister and a mom. We talked about growing up, family, education, careers, gigging, recording, ebbing and flowing with Scotch Hollow's pulse, and plenty more. We also had a peek at a few of Carley's favorite albums over the years, and those were these:Lullabies of Birdland (1955), Ella FitzgeraldBig Mama Thornton's In Europe (1966)Wide Open Spaces (1998), Dixie ChicksClutch's The Elephant Riders (1998)Please join us and please check out Scotch Hollow over on their Web site, or on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Apple Music, and/or Spotify.Thank you to both of the Verbecks, and thank you for your support of both the podcast as well as local music, however it is that you choose to express said supports.Cheers.copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the audio samples contained within this episode. They are clips from a single by Parcels called, "Tideuprightnow," which they released in 2018 c/o Because.

Happy watching, reading, and listening this week! Margery:Watch: Emily in Paris NetflixRead: Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon by Leonard MarcusListen: Fly and Wide Open Spaces by The Chicks Elizabeth:Watch: Emily in Paris and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Read: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore Listen: Dr Zach Bush https://zachbushmd.com/appearances-2022/ https://intelligenceofnature.com/ Schuler Shoes – Fall footwear is here. Yay! Check out special pricing on kid's shoes happening right now. Meet the fit experts who will help you find the right shoe for you and for your children. We always find the best brands at Schuler Shoes: Birkenstock, Haflinger, Hoka, Sorel and so many more. Get on your feet and go where life takes you! https://www.schulershoes.com/Pour Moi Climate Smart Skincare –– This is the skin care regimen we both use and love. It's affordable luxury skincare from France. Use code 20Fall for an extra 20% off with a 100% money-back guarantee. https://shop.pourmoiskincare.com/Connect with Us!Our Website: https://www.besttothenest.com/. On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/besttothenest?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1088997968155776/Best to the Nest is our podcast all about creating strong, comfortable, beautiful nests that prepare us to fly. We are the podcast that brings you home.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Happy watching, reading, and listening this week!  Margery: Watch: Emily in Paris Netflix Read: Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon by Leonard Marcus Listen: Fly and Wide Open Spaces by The Chicks  Elizabeth: Watch: Emily in Paris and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice  Read: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore  Listen: Dr Zach Bush https://zachbushmd.com/appearances-2022/ https://intelligenceofnature.com/ Schuler Shoes – Fall footwear is here. Yay! Check out special pricing on kid's shoes happening right now. Meet the fit experts who will help you find the right shoe for you and for your children. We always find the best brands at Schuler Shoes: Birkenstock, Haflinger, Hoka, Sorel and so many more. Get on your feet and go where life takes you! https://www.schulershoes.com/ Pour Moi Climate Smart Skincare –– This is the skin care regimen we both use and love. It's affordable luxury skincare from France. Use code 20Fall for an extra 20% off with a 100% money-back guarantee. https://shop.pourmoiskincare.com/ Connect with Us! Our Website: https://www.besttothenest.com/.  On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/besttothenest?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1088997968155776/ Best to the Nest is our podcast all about creating strong, comfortable, beautiful nests that prepare us to fly. We are the podcast that brings you home.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sleep better and Stress Less— with Abide, a Christian meditation app that provides a biblically grounded place to experience peace and progress in your relationship with Christ. We hope this biblical sleep meditation, narrated by Chloë Elmore, helps your body relax and your mind rest on the truth found in scripture. Tonight, know that you are supported. God is pleased with you and has brought you to wide-open spaces where you are safe. Where you are free. For our premium ad-free content, your trusted friend for better sleep is right here: https://abide.com/peaceDiscover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us

Teaching from August 25, 2024 by Doug Moister

Wisconsin's Midday News has your Now at Noon headlines on Day Two of the DNC. Director of Public Space Initiatives from Milwaukee Downtown Bid Erica Green talks about what's on deck for the remainder of Milwaukee Downtown Employee Appreciation Week. WTMJ's John Mercure reports live from the Democratic National Convention with the sights and sounds from Day Two and the impact of who/when is speaking. Tech Expert Mike Dobuski talks about a new hybrid, luxury supercar, a new car company from Croatia, and a digital recreation of a deceased actor in “Alien: Romulus”.

Twenty-five years ago, Kristi was brutally attacked in an ordeal that forever changed her perspective on personal safety. This week, she bravely revisits that horrifying night, when a man feigned familiarity to gain her trust, only to launch a violent assault while she was driving through what she believed to be a safe neighborhood. He left her for dead, and fled before police arrived. He then went on to attack two more women before he was caught, seven months later. Kristi says the ordeal, which is still vivid today, inspired her to launch the hugely successful K9s4COPS, a non-profit which places trained dogs with law enforcement agencies and in schools across the United States.  In this episode we learn about the incredible work K9s4COPS is doing every day, and how we can support it.  https://www.K9s4COPS.org STORIES00:00 - Start00:11 - Trigger Warning00:19 - Kristi's story00:43 - 24/25  years ago, a man approaches my car 01:43 - He walks away. In my mind that was closure01:53 - He comes up again, says he's in a bind, can you give me a ride to my car?02:29 - Is he going to think I'm a snob? 02:43 - So I agreed to give him a ride03:02 - I realized there was nobody around on the unlit county road03:51 - He hit me with such force it shattered the window. We went down into a ditch.03:59 - Next thing you know, I was fighting for my life04:04 - I was thinking: "Of all the stupid choices I could have made".04:25 - Mentally, I was in my home town04:40 - He wanted to rape me and kill me04:56 - His eyes were just the devil. 05:24 - There's blood everywhere, some from the windscreen05:43 - I'm fighting for my life06:15 - Just scream 06:30 - He had attacked two other women. I can't scream, nobody's going to hear me07:05 - A woman driving behind calls the police07:42 - I'm glad I didn't have my gun.07:55 - I'm not anti-gun, I'm anti-gun in the wrong hands08:28 - Situational awareness is important09:33 - I find the door handle09:55 - I've got to get good scratches in for when they take the DNA when I'm dead10:20 - I fractured my arm, but I took off running11:10 - A cop arriving sees a bloody nude woman, and the suspect escaped12:20 - A girl arrives, she's trying to stop the bleeding13:04 - When do those dogs get here, who will find him?13:40 - They caught him 7 months later after he'd attacked two other women13:53 - If they'd only had a dog? 14:45 - The legacy of K9s4COPS.org15:30 - Supplementing our law enforcement agencies15:56 - The politicians can take the credit17:03 - God puts you in certain situations, where you don't realize your story can help someone17:25 - How to connect with Kristi and Alissa at K9s4COPS.org  

Travis Currah and Sheldon Jones preview Week 9 of the 2024 CFL season!   00:00 - Open 04:08 - BC Lions @ Winnipeg Blue Bombers 15:24 - Montreal Alouettes @ Hamilton Tiger-Cats 26:24 - Edmonton Elks @ Saskatchewan Roughriders 43:13 - Toronto Argonauts @ Calgary Stampeders 56:49 - CFL Fantasy / Predictions   SUBSCRIBE on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp1-WTbs82THRNHc-RQbCVA    Get your 2 and Out merch: https://2-and-out-cfl.myspreadshop.ca/    Join our CFL Fantasy league! https://gamezone.cfl.ca/fantasy/leagues/join?league_code=78AYUJ9C    Join 2 and Out for CFL Pick 'Em! https://gamezone.cfl.ca/pickem/api/share/league/eyJ0IjoiMTc1MCIsImxvY2FsZSI6ImVuIiwidXNlcklkIjo5NzMxLCJsZWFndWVJZCI6MzMzN30= 

Try VIIA Hemp! https://bit.ly/viiaerotic and use code EROTIC!Please support our show and get discounts on our favorite brands by using our sponsors' links here!EroticStoriesPodcast.comAdvertising/Collabs/Stories: sensualroleplayasmr@gmail.comIf you enjoy this podcast, remember to leave a review on your favourite listening platform.See you next week.Mia x

So Excited to announce my first Podcast Interview with Gretchen AKA G-Rex from the Popular Podcast: Sh!t that Goes on in Our Heads. G-Rex and I discuss Pride Month and our youth of today. We both acknowledge that more needs to be done for our youth when it comes to Sexual Orientation, Pronouns etc and how hard it is to be a kid today. G-Rex also shares her story and how her Podcast has become a source of expertise and inspiration for many when dealing with Mental Health. We both found a strong connection with each other and we hope to collaborate again in the future. G-Rex and her Co-host Dirty Skittles have reached the Spotify top 250 Podcast list. I was honored to be able to have G-Rex spend some time with Wide Open Spaces and "Sh!t that Goes on in Our Head" is a MUST PODCAST LISTEN. Thank you G-Rex

Send us a Text Message.You're probably wondering, what is that? Is it a song? Yes it is, but that's not what this episode is about. the song Wide Open Spaces by the dixi chicks: – which funny enough is a song about women who leave home to pursue their dreams, which involves giving yourself permission to making some mistakes along the way. Great message btw...In our everyday lives wide open spaces are significant - they are there to serve a purpose. Support the Show.

Kami Bakken is a river guide and outdoor advocate, and she currently serves as the Director of the Freeflow Foundation and Director of Ambassador and Grant Programs for Rivers for Change. A native of Minnesota, Kami headed West for college at Colorado State University, where she earned a degree in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources. Since graduating in 2018, she has been fully focused on helping others explore and appreciate the mountains and rivers of the American West, while also advocating for their protection and conservation. - Kami and I met in 2023 when she was the facilitator on my Green River Freeflow Institute workshop through Dinosaur National Monument and the Gates of Lodore. During our weeks of preparation for the course and our five days on the river, I was so impressed by her expertise in outdoor education and river travel, and perhaps more importantly, by her ability to connect with a wide range of people in a sometimes-intense wilderness setting. She's humble yet confident, earnest yet hilarious, and I credit her with so much of the success of that workshop. - When I was in my late 20s and deep in a traditional career in the real estate business, I dreamed of having a life and career like Kami's– one that combined adventure and wide-open spaces with purpose-driven work. So I wanted to chat with her in depth to learn more about how she has made it all happen. If, like I was, you are interested in learning the realities of following a non-traditional but deeply fulfilling career in the outdoors, then you'll definitely learn a lot from Kami. - We met up a few weeks ago at my house in the Springs and had a wide-ranging and funny conversation about her life, career, adventures, and crazy misadventures. We talked about what drew her to Colorado for college, and some of the challenges of adjusting to such a new place and environment where she didn't know anyone. We discussed some of her wild experiences traveling in the West and internationally– including a few run-ins with cult-like groups– and how she took the leap to become a sea kayaking guide and eventually a western river guide. We talk a lot about her commitment to pushing outside of her comfort zone, overcoming fear and discomfort, and why she's drawn to conservation work. We also discuss the financial realities of seasonal work, how her non-profit work compliments her guiding work, her career plans for the future, and her roles with the Freeflow Institute and Foundation. - And it's worth noting that Kami and I will be heading out on the river again this summer for another Freeflow workshop, this time on Oregon's Wild & Scenic Rogue River– August 15th through 20th. As of this recording, there are still a few spots left, so you can follow the link in the episode notes to learn more about the workshop and apply. As of this moment, you can use the secret code “ED200” to get $200 off of the tuition. - A huge thanks to Kami for agreeing to let me ask her a bunch of weird questions, and more importantly, for all of her leadership and support on our river trips. Enjoy! --- Kami on Instagram and LinkedIn Freeflow Institute Freeflow Foundation Upcoming 2024 Freeflow Program on the Rogue River Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/kami-bakken/ --- TOPICS DISCUSSED 4:00 - Where Kami is from 5:00 - Why Kami went to Colorado State, and how her family felt about that decision 9:00 - How her early experience in Colorado led her to WWOOF (and apparently a couple of cults) 15:30 - Kami's return to CSU, and her entry into the world of outdoor recreation 19:30 - Kami's travel adventures post-graduation 22:00 - Kami's time with Protect Our Winters 24:15 - Kami's transition to professional guiding 27:45 - Where Kami's desire for connection and impact led her career next 31:45 - What Kami's friends from college were doing while she was raft guiding, and whether or not she has ever questioned her career path 33:30 - Exploring the difference between contentment and happiness, and some more details about the outdoor education and rafting nonprofit that Kami worked for 37:15 - Kami's transition to the Freeflow Foundation 44:00 - Discussing the Freeflow Foundation 45:45 - Balancing safety with growth driven by risk 50:00 - The trip that Ed and Kami did together on the Green River 54:45 - What makes for a good outdoor guide, and what makes for a bad one 59:00 - Who Kami admires  1:03:00 - Kami's next steps 1:05:45 - What worries Kami 1:09:00 - Kami's book recommendations 1:10:30 - Kami's advice for those who want to try a new lifestyle or career --- ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE: Mountain & Prairie - All Episodes Mountain & Prairie Shop Mountain & Prairie on Instagram Upcoming Events About Ed Roberson Support Mountain & Prairie Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts

Do you have Nature Deficit Disorder? Let's sit down and talk about how Nature can be a form of Therapy. Isn't it about time that you allow Mother Nature to take care of you? Let's go out and Explore all of the Wide Open Spaces in Your World together. Listen and Evolve with me, The Fiery Redhead.

Exploring the Wide Open Spaces in your world, includes traveling. Not traveling to avoid life but to enjoy life. My Podcast discusses how we can fill our lives with positive coping mechanisms. For the next 7 months, I will be sharing my travels with you and how it has impacted my Wide Open Spaces. I hope that I give you some helpful information on traveling to these destinations as well. Let's travel together. #virginvoyages #scarletladycruise #squidink #cruising #mentalhealthtravel #travel #wideopenspaces #mentalhealth #virgincruiseline #podbean #podcaster

Being who you are, being who God created you to be, is the most free way to live. So how do we live in the wide open space God offers? Listen in. Living in God's wide open spaces means there is no condemnation in Christ. God certainly convicts and corrects, but He never assaults your identity. If the Lord has set you free, you are free indeed. It is a grace to accept the fearful and wonderful way God designed you, not to wish you were more like someone else, not to feel confined by the belief that there's only one way to live your life.  Friend, our God takes us away from tight spots and places us in wide-open, green pastures. We no longer need to feel as if we must contort ourselves to fit and conform to someone else's standards or life or expectations of what we “should” be doing.  We no longer need to play the comparison game. We no longer need to feel the shame of legalism. We are free to run, dance, live, and rest in the grace of the wide open spaces of God's provision and goodness.  In this episode, we'll unpack how our God is a God of wide open spaces. So, how is this grace, and what do we even mean? Mentioned in the podcast  The FCC requires that I tell you that I'm an Amazon Affiliate, which means I earn a bit of commission on each sale. But don't worry, there's no added cost to you! #194: What I Want You To Know: Grace and truth #195: What I Want You To Know: It all counts Four Years of Podcasting Giveaway Lauren Gaines Twyla Franz Amber Palmer Katie Scott Mandy Pallock Marnie Hammar Kirk Freeman Jen Babakhan Yohonna Smith Here's how to connect with Jill Website  GraceInRealLifePodcast.com  Instagram  Subscribe to Jill's weekly “the good + the grace” email   

This week we're returning to a simpler time known as the late 90s, but not for post-grunge or nu metal. This week we're going country with The (Dixie) Chicks and their 1998 album Wide Open Spaces. In this episode we discuss the bechdel test, fire escapes, breakups, personal space, misery, mysteries, the Muckle, power, Die Hard, rabies, and so much more! Hatepod.com | TW: @AlbumHatePod | IG: @hatePod | hatePodMail@gmail.com  Episode Outline: Top of the show "Do you hate it?" Personal History History of Artist  General Thoughts  Song by Song - What do they mean!?! How Did it Do Reviews Post Episode "Do you hate it?"

Welcome to this new Series, under Wide Open Spaces with Ilise. This Series will be lighthearted, fun and will let you know how powerful you actually are. Listen and Evolve with me and I will help you find your SuperPowers.  I do not own the sounds from the sound button in this podcast. You are a Badass by Jen Sincero a Talking Button with Five Nuggets of In-Your-Face Inspiration

pWotD Episode 2427: The Chicks Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.With 419,934 views on Sunday, 24 December 2023 our article of the day is The Chicks.The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. Since 1995, the band has consisted of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and Emily Strayer (vocals, guitar, banjo, Dobro). Maguire and Strayer, both née Erwin, founded the band in 1989 in Dallas, Texas, with bassist Laura Lynch and vocalist and guitarist Robin Lynn Macy. They performed bluegrass and country music, busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits and small venues for six years without attracting a major label. In 1992, Macy left and Lynch became the lead vocalist. Upon signing with Monument Records Nashville in 1997 and replacing Lynch with Maines, the Dixie Chicks achieved success with their albums Wide Open Spaces (1998) and Fly (1999). After Monument closed its Nashville branch, the Dixie Chicks moved to Columbia Records for Home (2002). These albums achieved multi-platinum sales in the United States, Canada, and Australia, along with several charting singles on the American Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. "There's Your Trouble", "Wide Open Spaces", "You Were Mine", "Cowboy Take Me Away", "Without You", and a cover of Bruce Robison's "Travelin' Soldier" reached number one. The Dixie Chicks also reached number one on the Adult Contemporary chart with their 2002 cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide".Days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Maines told a London audience that the Dixie Chicks did not endorse the war and were ashamed of US President George W. Bush being from Texas. The remarks triggered boycotts in the US and a backlash from fans. After a hiatus, the Dixie Chicks released Taking the Long Way in 2006, an album informed by the backlash. "Not Ready to Make Nice" became their biggest crossover single, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100. After another hiatus, Maguire and Strayer released an album in 2009 as the Court Yard Hounds. The Dixie Chicks reunited to tour in the 2010s. In 2020, they removed "Dixie" from their name, citing negative connotations, and released their first album in 14 years, Gaslighter.The Chicks have won 13 Grammy Awards, including five in 2007 for Taking the Long Way, which received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and its single "Not Ready to Make Nice", which received the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. By July 2020, with 33 million certified albums sold and sales of 27.9 million albums in the US, the Chicks had become the best-selling all-woman band and best-selling country group in the US during the Nielsen SoundScan era (1991–present).This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:58 UTC on Monday, 25 December 2023.For the full current version of the article, see The Chicks on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Aria Neural.

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Holiday time can be so overwhelming and chaotic. I want to set you up for success this Holiday Season by learning how to cope with Positive/Negative Stressors. Take a listen and you might be able to relate to a lot of the stressors that I go through and well stress that everyone goes through. Let's make this Holiday Season Bright and Merry in every sense of the word. Happy Holidays from me to you at Wide Open Spaces with Ilise.

The benefits of travel and exploration are many, but these activities can have a profound impact on the environment. Oliver Winter, CEO & Founder of a&o Hostels, shares tips for how to travel more responsibly and discusses how a&o Hostels is helping travellers reduce their environmental impact. He also shares insights into how climate-conscious travellers are shaping the travel industry and offers advice for others in the industry looking to implement greener practices. Resources discussed in this episode:a&o Hostelsa&o Hostels Facebooka&o Hostels Instagrama&o Hostels TikToka&o Hostels LinkedIn Oliver Winter LinkedInGreen Sign CertificationHow to Avoid a Climate Disaster book by Bill GatesSouth Pole (carbon credits)Host: Jennifer Hetzel Have an idea for an episode? You can reach Jennifer at jrhetz@gmail.comLike the show? Do us a favor and rate / review the show on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts from.You can always reach us at EpicallyGeeky.comYou can also find us on FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram.You can find us on iTunes here: https://apple.co/2RV2Iq2You can find us on Google Podcast: http://bit.ly/3aDGWn6You can find us on Spotify here: https://spoti.fi/2vxR7nuYou can find us on Pandora here: https://bit.ly/3bQmRKKYou can find us on Amazon Music here: https://amzn.to/3rORGEVYou can find us on Audible here: https://adbl.co/38JYvAmYou can find us on YouTube here: http://bit.ly/2Fz524tMusic by: Peter Emerson Jazz

Welcome to the VOUS Church Podcast.   Today Pastor Manouchka Charles concludes our collection of talks, I Hate You But It's Killing Me, in this message “Wide Open Spaces.”   Like a tunnel, unforgiveness will leave us trapped in offense. The truth is, pain was never meant to be our final destination, but merely a place to pass through on our way to healing. There is light at the end of the tunnel!   Next Sunday, we reflect on God's faithfulness as we celebrate 8 years of VOUS Church. You don't want to miss it! Discover service times and viewing options at vouschurch.com/visit.

Singer-songwriter Susan Gibson was born in Minnesota but spent most of her formative years in Amarillo, Texas. Growing up, she and her family would often drive between Amarillo and Missoula, Montana, where she drew comfort and inspiration from the wide open spaces along their route.  Ultimately, Gibson took to music and the continuum of movement through those scenic vistas would become an essential muse that, in the early 1990s, would end up on a cassette tape of her early songs. “I didn't start writing songs to become a professional songwriter at all,” Gibson recently told me on the latest episode of The Load Out music podcast.  Recorded way back in 1992, that cassette tape had a gem that, not-so-ironically, was called “Wide Open Spaces.” The song ended up on a demo tape for Gibson's former Amarillo-based band, The Groobees, which they sent to legendary music producer Lloyd Maines in hopes he would produce a record for them. Maines connected with the lyrics of “Wide Open Spaces,” a tale of a daughter leaving home. But he thought it would be an ideal match for the voice of his daughter Natalie, who had just joined a little country outfit called The Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks). And the rest, as they say, is history. The Chicks released the album Wide Open Spaces in 1998 and the title track went on to become a smash hit around the world and one of the most impactful country songs of the past 50 years. But Gibson has no remorse about one of her songs turning into a hit for another artist. She not only adores The Chicks as a band, but is grateful that her inspiration remains so appreciated. “I'm proud that I captured something at 24-years-old that still feels true to me today,” she said. “That idea of being a tumbleweed is really attractive to me. I lean into that part of the job…I love kind of a gypsy-ish lifestyle.” Gibson is realistic about the song, playfully calling it her “lightning strike lottery ticket,” but it's important to understand the context of just how big “Wide Open Spaces” became. Not only was it named the Country Music Association Single of the Year in 1999, but it won Gibson the American Songwriter Professional Country Songwriter of the Year award in early 2000, along with a BMI award the previous year. Despite the acclaim, however, Gibson has remained grounded and committed to her craft—writing, playing, singing. She is highly respected across the industry as a songwriter which is on display throughout her catalogue of seven albums and a variety of singles.  Her last full-length record—2019's The Hard Stuff—dug deep into her personal journey. It examined Gibson's battle with alcoholism (she's been sober since 2010), and we spoke at length about the signals she received that led her to finally giving up the bottle.  “I had all of the stuff that you are imaging happened when you have a drinking problem,” she said. “The lying, cheating, stealing, blaming other people for your own mistakes. It makes good relationships incredibly hard when you are an alcoholic.” A hand injury suffered in a 2010 car accident turned the light on, leading her to realize that—without her physical talents—she had no music.  “It's the best thing that's ever happened to me,” she said. “Getting sober has changed my life profoundly.” Thus, today Gibson is clear-eyed, loving the craft of playing music every single day; being thankful for moments in time like writing “Wide Open Spaces,” and the experiences that drove her to follow an artist's path.  Enjoy an amazing conversation with a terrific songwriter and wonderful person, Susan Gibson, on the latest Load Out music podcast.

Sponsored by www.BetterHelp.com/TheBarnhttps://wadebowen.com/Wade Bowen is a captivating country singer-songwriter who has made a significant impact on the Texas country music scene and beyond. With his powerful vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and authentic approach to storytelling, Bowen has earned a loyal following and widespread acclaim for his contributions to the genre.Hailing from Waco, Texas, Bowen's musical journey began in the late 1990s when he formed a band and started performing in local venues. His breakthrough came with the release of his debut album "Try Not to Listen" in 2002, which showcased his songwriting prowess and his ability to connect with listeners on a deep emotional level. Since then, Bowen has continued to release a string of successful albums, including "Lost Hotel" (2006), "The Given" (2012), and "Solid Ground" (2018), each showcasing his growth as an artist and his unwavering dedication to his craft.What sets Bowen apart is his distinctive blend of traditional country music with rock and Americana influences. His music resonates with fans of all ages, drawing them in with his honest and relatable lyrics. Whether he's singing about love, heartbreak, or the trials and triumphs of everyday life, Bowen's songs strike a chord, evoking a range of emotions and creating a connection that transcends the music itself.As a live performer, Bowen is known for his high-energy shows and his ability to engage and connect with his audience. His charismatic stage presence and genuine interactions make every concert feel like an intimate gathering among friends. Whether he's performing at small venues or headlining major festivals, Bowen's dynamic performances leave a lasting impression and have earned him a reputation as a must-see live act.Beyond his musical talent, Bowen is also known for his philanthropic efforts and his commitment to giving back to his community. He has actively supported various charitable organizations and has used his platform to raise awareness and funds for important causes.Wade Bowen's contributions to country music have solidified his status as a respected and influential artist. With his authentic storytelling, heartfelt performances, and genuine connection with fans, Bowen continues to captivate audiences and leave a lasting impact on the country music landscape. As he continues to evolve and push boundaries within the genre, his legacy as a talented singer-songwriter and performer only grows stronger with each passing year.Texas Country Music, Texas Country, Red Dirt Music, Texas Music, Texas Pride, Texas Born, Texas Raised, Country Music, Country Rock, Honky Tonk, Outlaw Country, Texas Singer, Texas Songwriter, Texas Guitarist, Lone Star State, Authentic Country, Texas Sound, Dancehall, Fiddle, Steel Guitar, Two-Stepping, Texas Radio, Texas Music Scene, Singer-Songwriter, Texas Legends, Texas Charm, Roadhouse, Barbecue, Whiskey, Boots, Cowboys, Rodeo, Lone Star Beer, Texas Hill Country, Small Towns, Wide Open Spaces, Texas Sunsets, Bluebonnets, Southern Hospitality, Texas Tradition, Southern Roots, Texas Spirit, Independent Artists, Grit and Soul, Texas Swagger, Backroads, Front Porch, Texas Pride, Genuine Country, Texas Legends, Texas Twang, Wade Bowen, Randy Rogers, Wade and Randy,This episode is sponsored by www.betterhelp.com/TheBarn and presented to you by The Barn Media Group.

Five years ago, on Mother's Day, Katie was sitting in prison, far from her kids. She couldn't hug them, she couldn't kiss them. It was at that moment she decided she would completely change her life so she could be with them again. But changing her life required a lot of help that didn't exist in prison. Then one day, she opened a book in the prison library and a brochure fell out. It was for a place called Benevolence Farm, and they could help her change her life. If you want to help Benevolence Farm continue helping formerly incarcerated women in North Carolina, you can shop the Farm's products here or make a donation to their programs here. _____________ Listener support makes our independent podcast possible. Consider joining TTFA Premium to get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more. Our Substack is a great way to connect with us and other listeners (and get more Terrible in your inbox). Join the club here. The episode transcript can be found here. Shop Our Sponsors:  Hiya: Receive 50% off your first order by visiting hiyahealth.com/TERRIBLE. Squarespace: Go to Squarespace.com/TTFA and use code TTFA to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Rothy's  Osea  Our Social Media: TTFA on Instagram TTFA on Facebook Nora on Instagram Nora on Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Love of La Mesa RV assists with our Weekly To Do on RV ownership.  The many Classes of RV's for weekend getaways, vacations or living on the road.  Author, Hiker and Arizona/burger lover Roger Naylor talks about the places to consider traveling in an RV throughout Arizona.   Original broadcast archive page with expanded content: https://rosieonthehouse.com/podcast/open-home-hour-live-listener-call-ins-texts-emails-weekly-to-do-rv-homeownership/

Amy is the fourth generation to call Wyoming home and the third generation to graduate from the University of Wyoming. Wyoming is Amy's home. She also holds a Master of Tourism Management degree from Colorado State University and completed two internships with the Walt Disney College Program as an undergrad, one where she earned not only her “ears” but a Ducktorate Degree as well. She embraces the opportunity to share all that Wyoming has to offer with others. From its iconic national parks, amazing scenery, incredible outdoor experiences, fascinating history, and Western Hospitality, to her, Wyoming truly is like no other place on earth, and someplace everyone should experience! In her spare time, she likes to hike, kayak, check out breweries, and dabble with photography. She also writes a column for a local newspaper called Wandering Amylessly, where she shares about life lessons she learns through travel. On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Amy Larsen about how her team is collaborating with neighboring states to develop innovative travel products and promote lesser-known destinations. Amy also shares her outside-the-box thinking in developing winter products for group tours in Wyoming. What You Will Learn in this Episode: Amy shares the story of how she ended up working in destination marketing via a Disney internship program How Amy helps create buzz around a bucket list destination like Yellowstone National Park and tempt visitors to explore other parts of Wyoming Creative ways that Amy and her team have overcome the challenge of attracting motorcoach tours to small historic destinations with small restaurants by partnering with caterers and other service providers Exciting future plans for the Wyoming Office of Tourism, including winter itineraries and creating fun outdoor experiences for visitors The coopetitions that Amy is particularly proud of, including the Western Migration tour collaboration with Nebraska and the tours they created with Colorado Amy's thoughts on how the role of DMOs is evolving and how they can support visitors and local communities Showcasing Wyoming In the most recent episode of Destination on the Left, guest Amy emphasized the many natural attractions that draw tourists to Wyoming, such as Yellowstone National Park, which has over half the world's thermal features within its boundaries and the iconic American symbols like the Tetons and Devil's Tower. She also shares how her team capitalizes on visitors' enthusiasm for those locations to showcase the rest of the state. Creating Unforgettable Experiences Amy spoke about the rich history of small towns in Wyoming, including the Outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Wild Bunch, early pioneers, and mountain men who lived in the Rocky Mountain region. She shares why the challenge for small towns is attracting tourists, particularly in the motorcoach industry, as they may not have big enough restaurants to feed all the visitors expected. To address this, Amy suggests being creative and finding caterers in these communities who can put on dinners for visitors, such as holding a dinner for 50 people in the branding room at the fairgrounds in Torrington, which showcases every brand from Goshen County and featuring a multigenerational rancher who shared his story. Amy emphasizes the importance of finding the person who wants to tell the story and getting small towns to realize their potential and be creative in showcasing their history to visitors. Inter-State Coopetition On the podcast, Amy also shares a couple of exciting examples of coopetition, including partnerships with Nebraska and Colorado to develop itineraries that showcase the historical places of the states. By combining their resources, they were able to create unique experiences that bring more business to all three states. It's so exciting to see how these collaborations are creating new opportunities for group tours and expanding the travel industry in unique ways. Resources: Website: https://travelwyoming.com/ LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-larsen-b0034856/ LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wyoming-office-of-tourism/ We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!: https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/  

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. 1906 Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Montana @Batchelorshow #Montana: Why not shoot down the balloon over the wide-open spaces of Montana? #DevinNunes #TruthSocial #FriendsofHistoryDebatingSociety https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-balloon-surveillance-montana-beijing-biden-administration-xi-jinping-antony-blinken-11675461302

In this episode: Suspected Chinese spy balloon found over northern U.S. Smaller, Cheaper Flow Batteries Throw Out Decades-Old Designs Frontier rolls out 5Gbps fiber internet across the US FCC Threatens to Disconnect Twilio for Illegal Robocalls Google Fi says hackers accessed customers' information Report: Apple is planning both a foldable screen and a kickstand for the iPad ChatGPT creator rolls out 'imperfect' tool to help teachers spot potential cheating Break Microsoft blames router IP address change for global outage Hacker finds bug that allowed anyone to bypass Facebook 2FA Elon Musk pushes forward with Twitter payments vision Electric vehicle "spontaneously combusts" on California freeway. Oh you know the brand Surgeon General says 13 is 'too early' to join social media Netflix lists rules and exemptions to prevent account sharing outside household Walmart throws shade at Amazon over new $150 minimum for free grocery delievery Weird and Wacky: Missing Tiny, Deadly Radioactive Capsule Spurs Nationwide Search in… Missing radioactive capsule found in Western Australia Seeking a Needle in a Haystack, Australians Find Lost Radioactive D... Clever Hacker Finds the Perfect Way to Creatively Vandalize London's Knightrider Court Sleep Company Will Pay You to Eat Cheese Late at Night Fashion of the Future: Sweaters Made From Human Hair This Seinfeld/Pulp Fiction deepfake is a little too good Tech Rec: Sanjay - Asteroid Launcher Adam - Personal Values Assessment Tech Talk Y’all is a production of Edgewise.Media --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/techtalkyall/message

Openness is an umbrella value for transparency, vulnerability and so much more. ‘Openness' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But it's a value that encompasses so much of what we believe in: transparency, vulnerability, personal connection, communication, authenticity — all things that are essential to Week of the Website. In this episode of “No Surprises,” Kelsey and Mallory open up about openness. They share advice for other business owners, why they believe in passing along the secret Squarespace sauce with clients, the beauty of being vulnerable, and the delicate alchemy of building teams. You'll also find out why Mallory is Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Kelsey is Beaker, and hear a beautiful song/human allegory about a dump truck.You can find us at weekofthewebsite.comFollow us on Instagram @weekofthewebsiteWatch the full episode on our YouTube Channel

Imagine that you are hiring a new English teacher. None of the people who apply have any of the qualifications to teach English. No teaching degree. No English degree. No experience in the classroom. Would you hire any of them? Probably not. Now here is the irony. Many of the people making curricular and legislative decisions about education don't have the qualifications to be hired within education. This is a problem. In this episode, we hear how standardization, high-stakes testing, and policy decisions made by non-educators may be contributing to teachers' decisions to leave education. Music:  Theme Song By Julian Saporiti  “So Stark (You're a Skyscraper” by Matt LeGroulx is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Cat and Mouse” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC  BY license. “Space (Outro)” by Andy Cohen is licensed under a CC  BY license.   “Home Fire” by Nul Tiel Records is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Press Conference” by Blanket Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Things Change” by HoliznaCC0 is in the Public Domain.  “Living Life” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Boulevard St Germain” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license.  “Hungaria” by Latche Swing is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Business Getaway ” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC  BY license. Transcript: I used to listen to the Dixie Chicks's song “Wide Open Spaces” before wrestling matches because I would get too wound up. It helped me slow down my breathing and relax.  In junior high and high school, I was fixated on winning and losing. I'd get a pit in my stomach, psyche myself up and out, all to my detriment. I was terrified of failing, of being a disappointment or an embarrassment.  Then I went to college. I walked-on to the University of Wyoming's wrestling team. During my meeting with Steve Suder, the head coach, he told me, “You know, you'll be walking into a room with a bunch of state champs. Are you worried about that?” I told him, “No, I'm not” because those were the guys  that I wanted to be wrestling against. I was a two-time state placer and I had nothing to lose. Suder said, “Good,” and then told me that he never won state either, but he ended up being an All-American for the University of Wyoming, so there was hope for me.  During our conversation, in between adjusting this chewed up yellow cushion he used as a back support, he told me that I was like the pretty girl's funny friend at a party. I'm not someone he noticed right off the bat, but once he got to know me, he was happy to have me around. He meant this in the best way possible, and I didn't mind.  I made the team, worked my butt off, won some matches, and lost more than I won. And I hate losing, but it felt different. I was excited to be wrestling, not nervous. Suder made it clear that his expectations were low, but he was happy to have me. I focused on gaining experience and the process and growing as a wrestler and a person. And I got to wrestle a guy named Brent Metcalf, who is the only person I wrestled that had a documentary made about him. When someone asked Metcalf why he didn't celebrate wins, he said, “I don't want to give my opponent the satisfaction of watching me celebrate, which would make it look like a big deal that I beat him.” This dude is a monster.  It was an extraordinarily humbling match. I had no control of my own body - his fingers were in my mouth at one point, but I learned what it was like to wrestle the best. It was eye-opening.  My tenure as a collegiate wrestler only lasted that year,but I remained in contact with Coach Suder off and on until his passing in 2019. And I had changed. My priorities shifted from valuing product to process.    When I became an assistant high school wrestling coach, the head coach had also wrestled for Coach Suder, and so we continued his tradition of emphasizing process. And what I noticed is that the wrestlers felt less pressure. They only tried being better today than they were yesterday. And when they have that mindset, success, though not guaranteed, is more likely. They are wrestling to compete and to score points. And even if they don't have success, they do the best they can do at that moment, and that's always worth being proud of.  In education, we focus on the product, on assessment. There is an obsession with passing or failing and we seem to have forgotten the value of process, which is where many teachers live. So today, we are going to look at how a structure of education that values standardized assessments could be contributing to teachers deciding to leave the profession, and because some of the frustrations with standardized assessment is a federal issue, which is too much to address here, we'll explore a possible solution to the high stakes assessment issue in Wyoming, which would hopefully keep teachers in education.  This is Those Who Can't Teach Anymore, a 7-part podcast series exploring why teachers are leaving education and what can be done to stop the exodus. I'm Charles Fournier. Here is part 5: “Education has a Tourist Problem” Mark Perkins: I do think that for a lot of teachers who are leaving, and this is speculative, but I think it's reasonable to assume that if you alleviated some of the assessment requirements within their schools, their satisfaction would increase. I don't think that that's a jump.  This is Mark Perkins, he is an Assistant Professor of Education Research Methods at the University of Wyoming and he is talking about the survey results he gathered about teacher attrition in Wyoming. So many teachers, both teachers leaving and teachers staying, reported that they were not happy with assessments. As we've heard from teachers that left teaching, there wasn't one thing that pushed them out of teaching. It was the layering of factors. And if we want to keep more teachers from leaving, it would be worth trying to address some of the most consistent factors. Aside from overall well-being and feeling supported, assessment is one the most consistent teacher frustrations. Now before we get into what specifically teachers don't like about assessment, I think it's important to think about why education currently has assessments, and this goes back to what we talked about last episode: the purpose of education and needing to be able to measure success for whatever that purpose is. Simply put, we need to reflect on what we want kids to know and how we can measure what they know. Mark explains. Mark Perkins: And so what does school success really look like? That sounds like an interesting, easy question. It's like, Well, kids know how to do math. Well, okay. What does that look like? Well, they can add, subtract, divide. All right. So what? When you start drilling into the actual requirements to exist and inhabit the world, the factors become much more latent than what we measure. But we fixated ourselves purely on content. During our conversation, Mark explained that there are a ton of other things that we want for students: self-awareness, identity development, civic consciousness, the ability to have some gumption and as Mark phrased it, drag a horse through the mud. But none of those qualities are easy to measure, which means it's more difficult to measure a teacher's overall effectiveness. This brings us back to the focus on content.  Mark Perkins: But all of the focus has been on reading math, science and somewhat government. How does a teacher who navigates let's call it the multivariate universe of being an educator. How do you evaluate teaching for the holistic aspects of the job? While we don't?  It would be difficult to assess students and teachers in the Multivariate Universe of education, as Mark puts it, so we assess a few content areas, and only a few things in those content areas. Many mission statements want to acknowledge the whole student, but we only assess a fraction of the student.  For example, I have a grant application unit for my sophomores. They do research and write a grant to receive hypothetical funding that they can use to address a real problem within our community. I don't limit students on what kinds of problems they want to address, so students have looked at drug use or homelessness or access to sports or social justice issues.  When students submit their grant applications, we go through a selection process. Students read each other's grants anonymously and identify ones that meet all of the grant requirements and would, in their minds, best serve our community. By the end of the process, all of my classes vote on the one grant that should receive the hypothetical funding. Every year I've done this, the grants that make the final vote, the ones that all of my students have pushed forward, are philanthropic and genuinely kind. And I tell my students this, usually as I tear up, that this project gives me hope for the future because through their research, writing, discussions, and voting, they prove that they are empathetic humans. I learn much more about what my students can do through this project than any standardized assessment that I've been required to administer. And this is a frustration echoed by teacher after teacher. If the thing that is used to reflect a district's success is a bubble-sheet test, that can feel pretty disheartening. Because from the teachers' perspective, the results of those tests, the results that are reported in the paper and raise community questions like, “What are they even teaching kids in school?” those tests lack validity. They're not the best way to measure whether the kids are alright, and Mark has questions about how well these tests show what kids know and how well they predict the future success of students, which is often how standardized tests are used. Several teachers pointed to the frustration that rather than getting students ready for life beyond high school or to be a life-long learner, they are forced to think that the be-all-end-all was the ACT or SAT.  So engaging and authentic instruction gets replaced with teaching to a test. From Mark's research and work in assessment, he sees that those assessments might not be worth the time we are putting towards them. Mark Perkins: And I have a suspicion that the predictive validity of these tests is not that good. And my suspicion comes from a very large body of literature that has looked at ACT/SAT versus high school grade point average and college level English math and general college grade point average. And yet, we invest an amount of time, pressure and money on these measures. What this means is that a grade point average, though imperfect in its own right, is a better predictor of future student success, whether they are college or career bound, than a standardized assessment. So what a teacher measures in their classroom is a better indicator of future success than what a standardized assessment shows.  And if this isn't enough, the amount students are tested is tremendous. This saps their energy and the energy of teachers who have to say, “I know this is the 573rd test, but you've got this.”  Mark Perkins: We need to simplify and make assessment parsimonious. We do need to assess, but we certainly only need to take our temperature one time and evening, maybe two, when we have a cold because we know that it's going to say the same number every time. Measuring is not teaching. I want to reiterate what Mark just said - measuring is not teaching. I also want to clarify something about assessment. Teachers use informal assessments all of the time. And these are different than the high-stakes standardized assessments.  Good teaching makes use of valid and authentic assessments often. When I was writing this episode, I got talking with my wife, Jennie,  about assessment, because this is what you do when you marry another teacher. When she taught Advanced Biology, she created these elaborate group tests that students would get excited about. She used assessment as a learning tool. Her thought is that you don't know what you know until you need to apply your knowledge.  This is why I like the writing process because it's an act of creating and synthesizing. It's a great form of learning.  So the right assessment can be an informative learning tool, but the high stakes, fill-in-the-bubble, standardized assessments that teachers are frustrated with are not that. Mark explains that in order for those standardized assessments to be more valid, there should be some adjustments.  Mark Perkins: I think that we could more wisely use measurement, and education. I think one of the first problems with high stakes testing, is the fact that the majority of these tests have no impact on students. Now. You don't have to be draconian about it .But we make intelligent decisions based off of test scores. And we provide students with logical and rational incentives.  From the teacher's perspective, it's hard to convince students that the tests matter because students don't see how they are relevant to their lives. I try to give students some perspective before tests, like “No it doesn't impact your grade, but  if you go through and randomly click answers to finish early, the people who care about these tests will think you're not learning anything, and then they will change curriculum and make you guys only learn from a textbook. Do you want that?” They usually shake their heads no, but that doesn't mean they care any more about the test. Many teachers struggle to care about the tests as well. They don't like the kind of standardization the tests force that does not allow for freedom in the classroom. Shane Atkinson, who we heard from in the first episode, left teaching after 13 years, and part of his decision to leave had to do with a lack of autonomy, some of which is tied to standardization. He pointed out that there are some districts that are so standardized, their days are mapped out in a binder. Shane Atkinson: This is what you do, then you do this, here's the question you should ask, have them fill out this worksheet. Day two… I think that's been done under the guise of equity. You don't want a kid in this classroom at this school to get a much different or better education than a teacher in the classroom next door. And I get that. So the idea is, well, to keep it equitable, they should be doing the same thing in both of those classrooms during that period of their US History class. Again, you're making decisions based on a minority and applying them to everybody, even if you're doing good work. That does everybody a disservice.  The hope is that every kid will receive the same quality of education, so teachers are expected to stick to a curriculum, and in some instances, stick to a script. Much of the push towards national standardization came from the George W Bush Administration's, 2001, No Child Left Behind Act. Jaye Wacker, whose voice we heard in the first episode and who quit teaching after 31 years, felt like the No Child Left Behind Act did a lot to undermine public trust in education. And it did it through standards.  Jaye Wacker: No Child Left Behind set impossible targets. And basically year after year after year, it undermined public confidence in education. So then we needed the standards we needed to prove that we're doing something and yeah, I get it and I agree with it. You know, let's prove what we're doing. But this homogenization that we've talked about _____ High School in their curriculum, the most diverse curriculum in the state, and their kids are outperforming all these homogenized curriculums.  Part of the impossible targets from the No Child Left Behind Act included a 100% proficiency rate for all students by 2014 - this meant that all students would be able to perform at grade level by 2014. This sounds nice, it is great rhetoric because of course no one wants to leave any kids behind, but this goal disregards so many variables. Many students are below grade level because of severe physical and or learning disabilities, and some will never make it to grade level. This doesn't mean an effort to get all students to proficient is a bad goal, it's a great goal, but not reaching this goal made it look like schools were failing. But the Act made it so schools were destined to fail. Though this Act has since been replaced, along with the unrealistic proficiency rates, its negative impact on the view of education is still present. Wacker also pointed to the reality that homogenized education doesn't necessarily produce the best results. This is a pretty common view of standards. A teacher who wanted to remain anonymous said. "On a societal level, I think standards are the worst thing about education, and that's a wide-open race... In my opinion, standards have lead to a homogenization that is stunting our growth, and solve problems that don't exist. I don't want education to be the same everywhere; I want to be a local restaurant, not a McDonald's." For a more scientific point of view, my wife, Jennie, who left teaching after 7 years compares standardization to evolution. Jennica Fournier: So I think that standards homogenize things. So I don't know if your high school teacher was too afraid to teach you about evolution. But in general, we evolve best as a species if we have a really diverse gene pool. Basically if our education system was a gene pool, we'd be fucked.   So from an evolutionary perspective, species that are standardized or homogenous, don't survive adversity very well. Diversity is necessary for survival, and this includes diversity of curriculum. Jennie explained that we might struggle as a country to solve problems when everyone has been exposed to the same standardized curriculums. Jennie points out that there would be benefits to having students prioritize local issues. Jennica Fournier: So essentially we need kids to have a set of skills that match their environment at a local level in order to solve problems at their local level versus everyone in the US only knowing how to solve a generic set of problems. So many teachers see standards as an impossible bar to be reached that stifles their ability to be creative in their classrooms. Another part to the frustration with standardization and standardized assessments comes from the preparation required to take them and the pressure associated with the results. This is preparation and pressure that Mark, who discussed assessment earlier in this episode, says might be unnecessary. Molly Waterworth, who we heard from in a previous episode and who left teaching after 8 years, explains how frustrating that process of preparation was.  Molly Waterworth: ACT/SAT prep, hated that. Totally hated it. And I never really figured out a way to do it super meaningfully. It just felt really meaningless because I just couldn't connect it to anything relevant. I just have to say to the kids, “I'm doing this so that you know the format of the test, and that's why we're doing this.” It's not fun. There's no way to have a discussion about whether or not somebody answered the correct question on ACT/SAT practice. My biggest motivator and the thing that brought me the most joy in teaching English was discussion and parsing through complexity and finding our collective way through something big and doing ACT/SAT prep just didn't ring that bell. Having to teach towards a test that doesn't seem valuable, or to work towards standards for the sake of standards can leave teachers feeling powerless. I don't know that anyone likes to feel powerless, to feel like their hands are tied behind their backs. Several teachers decided to leave education for jobs that gave them more autonomy, where they didn't feel like they were jumping through hoops.   I personally have never been a fan of doing things just because. If I am required to give a test, I want to know that it matters. I do the same for my students, I want all of their work to feel relevant beyond the classroom. Most teachers are the same. They want to know that what they are doing is relevant, and many don't feel like the layers of standardized tests are relevant.Students, like most other humans, want to feel like what they do matters.  At least that's what Anjel Garcia wanted from her education.  Anjel Garcia: Kids just don't have any respect or like reason to care about school, and I think that connects back to they don't know what they are doing there.  Anjel took my college-level English class and graduated last year. She is a phenomenal artist - I have one of her paintings hanging in my classroom - and she is going to college for art. For Anjel, she thinks school should help students find a direction for their lives.  Anjel Garcia: I think it's to find a passion and to find something that you want to pursue in life. But we're at the point where you're only doing it so that you can cram and learn that information, and then forget it the day after the test. They're not actually doing it in a way that's teaching kids how to find interests. Which is something that many teachers enjoy. Engaging students in the joy of learning to find their interests is such a gratifying part of the job. And helping students identify interests means teachers would be able to individualize education for students. As we heard last episode, this is what many students want in their education - individualization. So a shift in the mission and a deprioritization of standardized assessment could create a structure that ends up valuing individualization. If we don't make this shift, we will continue with a structure that devalues individualization and does not promote the joy of learning. This is what that feels like to Anjel. Anjel Garcia: It's kind of extreme…with the prison system, they treat everyone the same way. They treat them like animals. They aren't treated in a way that rehabilitates them to be better people or to be prepared in the world, and I think that sort of connects to school.  Students shouldn't feel like this, and teachers often feel powerless when it comes to assessment. To ease student pushback they rely on the district, state, or national mandate. The “Sorry guys, we have to do this.” So a shift to prioritizing the joy of learning will be a positive shift not only for keeping teachers but for making education something that students find joy and value in.  Still, despite teacher frustrations and the possible lack of validity of standardization and standardized tests, they are present because there has been a historic problem with equity in education in the United States. This is why Marguerite Herman sees value in standardization. Marguerite has a master's degree in education, has some experience teaching, and served two terms as a School Board Trustee. And she agrees that there are some downsides to the standards, but she was pretty adamant that they are necessary.  Marguerite Herman: To standardize things, you lose a lot, but you also have these assurances that again… I use the term bean counter. I don't want to be dismissive of that responsibility - bean counters have to answer themselves to others. I've known Marguerite since I was in Kindergarden - she used to help with religious ed when I was little, and I went to high school with her kids. When she was on the school board, I could always count on her to attend events I put on for my students - author visits or student projects. Marguerite is involved and someone I knew would be well-informed and honest with me about her role on the School Board and about education policy.  When I told her that teachers are frustrated with standardization and assessments, she acknowledged teacher frustration but defended assessments because they offer quality assurance and a way to make educational funding decisions, even if the standardized assessments are imperfect.   Marguerite Herman: You know, with funding comes accountability. And to some extent, people want a number, especially legislators who are not educators. They want to know, what's your competence here, what's whatever you're proficient in. Anytime you index a number, there's just a lot of data that's lost because you're reducing, you're obscuring, a lot of nuance. You don't get any nuance, frankly. It's imperfect, but you need something, and I'm not challenging that.  Marguerite explains that something is needed to ensure that all students are benefiting from their public education. And her job as a Trustee on the School Board was to ensure that.  Marguerite Herman: Well, once again, the statute kind of lays it out. At the school board, we are elected as trustees, and let me just dwell a moment on the word trustee, which is that you have undivided loyalty to a beneficiary. That word was picked. It's not like a delegate and something like a representative. You don't represent a sub constituency. You represent every child in this district - they are the beneficiaries. So everything you do, you should have in your mind, “I am using all the possessions, the assets of our district, to provide for the educational benefit of every child.”  I want to pause on this definition for a moment because there has been some divisiveness on school boards across the country. Marguerite's definition is succinct -  Trustees serve their beneficiaries, so Board Members serve kids. This means the tribalism that has moved into school boards across the country should get left at the door. School boards serve students and no one else. And when I say students, I mean all students across the religious, racial, sexual, gendered, intellectual, and political spectrums. This is no small feat to serve such a diverse spectrum of students, but that should be the goal despite what interest groups think or who is in the capital. And this is why Marguerite is adamant that even if our current system is imperfect, we need something. I agree, we need something, but I don't think what we have currently is that something. And Marguerite explains that the data  that the legislators  want don't come from what a teacher sees.  Marguerite Herman: The feds want their numbers, and the legislature wants its numbers. “This is the teacher's honest opinion of the learning that went on” and said, “Yeah, that's fine. But you know, show me the test score, show me the performance I want to see”. And so, you know, we dance to a lot of different bean counters.  So the people that want to track progress, as Mark pointed out earlier in this episode and Marguerite reiterates here, don't necessarily want to hear what a teacher has to say about a student's success - even though a teacher is an expert and is highly aware of their students' capabilities. And even though, as we heard Mark explain earlier, a student's gpa, made up of teacher grades, is often a better indicator of a student's future success than the results of a standardized assessment. But teachers aren't trusted. The feds, the legislature, whoever it is that is running quality assurance wants an easily read progress report that covers a few content areas.  Remember the idealism about the purpose of education from last episode - it often fizzles at the feet of a standardized structure that takes the word of a test over that of a teacher, the human who actually knows the kid. Idealism and authentic learning and genuine human growth are harder to measure than the few content areas that can be measured on a bubble sheet. Still,  I know Marguerite is right - the assessments and the standards are a way to document, in an easily measurable way, that an effort is being made to assure an equitable education for all. That does not mean the way we assess nor the assessments themselves are valid, good for kids, or good for teachers. So let's change them! Let's make our purpose of education, our assessments, our measurements good for kids and good for teachers! Right? It should be easy! We know that kids want to feel like what they do matters, that they want curriculums that are more individualized. Right? So we need to talk with someone who understands how these things work, and how changes could be made to the current system. Here's Chris Rothfuss. Chris has been a college professor, he has run a college summer program for high school students, and he is the father of kids in the public school system. He is also the Senate Minority Floor Leader in the Wyoming State Senate and a member of the Joint Education Committee. Chris was one of two Wyoming legislators to get back to me, and the only one who agreed to meet with me.  Chris Rothfuss: The intent of that Accountability Act, as it ended up looking, was to figure out which districts and specifically which schools were struggling, and then provide them with the resources, a system of supports, to build them up and make them better.  The Wyoming Accountability in Education Act was adopted in 2013. It took over federal accountability requirements established by the No Child Left Behind Act and preceded by the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA. ESSA requires states to give annual statewide tests in reading/language arts and math to every student in third through eighth grade and once when they are in high school, and in science at least once in each of grades 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12. So the Wyoming Accountability Act, through the Legislature and Wyoming Department of Education, interprets federal requirements and sets goals for student and school achievement. So what assessments are used, how students are assessed, and how many assessments are given beyond the federal requirement is dictated by the state. And Chris acknowledges that there might be an issue with assessments.  Chris Rothfuss: We may be overtesting. If there were a way that we could do sampled testing if we could be a little more thoughtful about how we're doing it, if we're not using it as a direct educational instrument, then we don't need every student tested, we really just need a statistical representative sample.  But at this point, testing for a statistical representative sample is not how assessments are being used. Federally we have to test every student in most grades at least once a year, but many students are tested much more than this. Even so, I like the idea of shifting to a statistical representation especially if it means less tests. Statistical representative sample testing is already used at the federal level by the National Center for Educational Statistics - an entity of the US Department of Education. The National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP tests, also known as the Nation's Report Card, are given every two years to randomly selected fourth and eighth graders to test English and Math. So we already have a model for using these statistical representative sample tests, and it might be worth seriously considering how to do this - to quit overtesting. Chris calls the amount of tests part of the unintended consequences of standardization.  Chris Rothfuss: So we in Wyoming adopted some world class standards. The unintended consequence, though, as you set that as your mission, teach all of these students all of these standards, is that you've only got so much time in a day. And you've got more standards than you're capable of teaching in a school year. So when that becomes your priority, and you know, you're going to be tested on your knowledge of those standards, and you know, you're expected to improve your knowledge of those standards. As you're thinking through our well, what are we going to do with each of our days, you don't think head to the mountains? I think about heading to the mountains on a daily basis, but that doesn't mean we get to go to them. These unintended consequences of standards and assessments are a reality. The individualization of instruction and the exploration that teachers talked about last episode are often a casualty of an overwhelming amount of standards that must be covered. But a move towards individualization, and less emphasis on standardized assessments is possible. But it will require a legislature that is informed and understands what adjustments should be made in education. Chris Rothfuss: I don't think there's necessarily a misconception that the folks that are making decisions about education, don't understand education. That's regrettably probably accurate. Chris points out that many of the people with the power to make policy decisions about education think they are qualified to make decisions about education because they once went through the education system. Many of these people want to run education like a business, like a factory. They use words like stakeholders and incentivize, and they want annual progress reports. These are people that don't necessarily acknowledge or make decisions about education based on best practices. Chris Rothfuss: I spent the first I don't know how many years of my time in the legislature trying to ensure that our Wyoming education model did not utilize that pay for teacher performance. Because the literature makes it very clear that that is the wrong approach. Best Practices make it very clear that that's the wrong approach. But policymakers so often choose that approach because they don't take the time to really understand why it's an awful approach.  Folks like legislators disregarding best practice or research-based practice is a foundational aspect of why teachers are leaving education. Teachers are experts in their field, but education has a tourist problem. You know, those people who are close enough to education to feel like they are a part of the system, but the actual educators, the educational locals if you will, don't see it the same way.  And  teachers are tired of being dismissed or treated like they aren't experts. The educational tourists assume that their time as students makes them an expert in education - policy is put into motion by folks who aren't informed enough about education to be making decisions.  This is so frustrating as an educator. Nothing irritates me more than a non-educator, upon finding out I'm a teacher, starts telling me how I should do things. It's almost as bad as sitting next to an arm-chair quarterback trying to explain how Josh Allen should be throwing the ball differently.  Chris is aware of this frustration of having unqualified people making decisions about education, and he is at a loss as well. Chris Rothfuss: Education is certainly not a business. But at the same time, imagine you were a business and you were hiring for the job. Instead of electing for the job, you would immediately eliminate the entire slate. And this would be true of so many of the things so many of the positions, so many elected officials. If it were a list of applicants and you were the hiring officer, you'd just be like not qualified, not qualified, not qualified. How did we get to the point where our elected officials And the folks that we put in charge could never even get a job at the institution they're being put in charge of. Think about that. Many of the people in positions to make policy decisions about education do not have the qualifications to be hired within the education system. Why do we accept this?  When the people in charge of the institution aren't involved in the institution, they aren't informed enough to be making decisions that are in the best interest of those people, the students and teachers and administrators, that are in that institution daily. This results in bad policy or policy fueled by animosity towards education or animosity towards any federal institution.  Chris Rothfuss: We've moved away from having a supportive team of pro-education legislators on the education committee that was struggling and working to do what was best for K-12 public education and really working hard to now over the last few years, embracing this mentality that our public schools are failing, and that somehow, for profit, religious charter schools from out of state will solve our problems, or decreasing funding will solve our problems, or belittling teachers and calling them out. Maybe holding them responsible for tiny actions or making them post everything that they're doing every single day online for parents to nitpick is somehow going to help. We haven't really in the legislature seen anything that I would call a strong positive pro education proposal in probably the last four years, But what we have seen are policies that attack educators or education as a whole, and this is exhausting as a teacher. For many this adds to the feeling of being disrespected. If our elected officials, people who are seen as community leaders, are attacking education from an uninformed platform, it perpetuates a devaluing of education, thus a devaluing of teachers. And teachers are tired of it, and it's contributing to why they are quitting.   Chris Rothfuss: We have some of the least informed policy makers shouting the loudest about their beliefs in education, that they're entirely unqualified to bring forward and promote. And yet, by being the loudest voice in the room and an angry voice, it's just easy to generate a mob mentality of support behind you, and to advance what is effectively bad policy and bad legislation, so we're seeing that.  And what's scary is that these poorly informed policymakers are in positions to make policy change, to make lasting impacts on education that will further ostracize teachers, hurt students, and likely make more teachers leave the profession.  Marguerite gave an example of a policymaker putting a footnote in a budget bill that tried to reject teaching Next Generation Science standards, which, as Marguerite put it Marguerite Herman: Which is like modern science. We hear about evolution, you know? I think we kind of got that one settled. Let's question gravity, shall we? Okay. I'm making fun of it, but it was, teachers had no idea it was awful. That's what happens when the legislature, which is politics, let's face it, folks, gets into the curriculum, they do not have the expertise. And then Pollock's politics doesn't always produce the greatest results, let's just say. Chris had examples of bad bills too. Chris Rothfuss: Teachers Not in Legislature In fact, when we hear when we when we bring legislation when we got some horrible bill that's coming before us in the legislature, like the horrible bill we had last year that would have required everything that teachers were doing, be posted on the web. Awful bill, bad premise, and certainly awful motivation. As far as I can tell, the only motivation is, you know, we don't know which books to burn if we don't have a full list.  So that awful bill, we didn't have a lot of teachers come up and provide public testimony against that bill, you think the whole classroom would be full, right up until you realize that no, all of those teachers were teaching at that moment in time, and would have had to take time off from teaching to come provide testimony against that lousy bill. So we don't hear the chorus of voices from the expert educators, we hear the chorus of voices from the folks that have the free time to come and yell at us. This is a great irony. Teachers who would have strong opinions about such a bill and who would be impacted by the bill, are not able to advocate in person because they are doing their jobs. And at a moment when substitutes are in short supply, leaving school to attend the legislative session is even more difficult.   Still, teacher advocacy was something that both Chris and Marguerite pointed to in terms of making a difference in policy. Policy includes curriculum choices and assessment choices. But for a teacher to speak up about assessment or curriculum requires a level of vulnerability that many teachers don't feel comfortable with.  Chris Rothfuss: Well, it's certainly understandable that when the teaching community has its strong supportive views for diversity of educational materials that are and that view is effectively contrary to a school board that again, is usually not expert, or particularly proficient in pedagogy or or education. It's going to be disconcerting for the teachers to step up and advocate because again, they're in fear for the protection and preservation of their job, and it's a flaw with our system.  I have felt this constantly over the last eight months as I've interviewed folks, researched, written, and produced this podcast. I don't know who I might offend or upset - Wyoming has a mighty small population And I don't know what impact this series could have on my job. It's a risk, but dammit, I'm tired of seeing teachers at the end of their tethers. I'm tired of being a teacher at the end of my tether. Something has to change. We need to fix this.  We need to listen to the experts, to teachers who know what they're doing, who know what good assessment looks like, who know what engagement looks like, who know the power of relationships, and who know that teachers are stretched thin. And Chris says, teacher voices could make an impact.  Chris Rothfuss: And public testimony does make a difference. And believe me if those 250 educators were able to show up and weren't obligated to be teaching at that point in time. That'd be very compelling. Beyond speaking up in legislative sessions, part of the solution to retaining teachers, might require some reflection on the roles of everyone in the multivariate universe of education. So my question to both Chris and Marguerite was if teachers should have more of a role on school boards. I asked this because many teachers point to the reality that school boards are made up of non-teachers. Not many other professional boards are run by people outside of the particular field. Marguerite was adamant that teachers should not be on school boards - she explained that's not how the statute is written. And Chris worked through the question in a very diplomatic manner, but he acknowledges a problem with people getting on school boards who are there for the wrong reasons.  Chris Rothfuss: This gets back to the question of who should govern whom and how. You'll have some people on an average school board, typical school board, that know something about education, hopefully. And then you've got people that are just mad about education. And then you've got people that are pointedly trying to slant education towards specific interest groups interests, that might be fully counter to K-12. Chris sees value in teacher expertise, but like Marguerite, he points to the possible conflict of interest with having teachers on the board.   Chris Rothfuss: It is hard to have someone on a governing body that is in the role that the body is governing as a voting member, although that can be dealt with, you can have some votes that they're there for, like the policy decisions they are included in, but maybe not the personnel decisions, there's a lot of possibilities there. So I'm one that certainly is concerned that we do not have anywhere near enough expertise on our school boards. There's no obligations for qualifications. So a lot of the problems we have stem from that lack of expertise. And ideally you want to balance.  Having some balance is a step towards a system that will retain teachers. In order to keep teachers in education, it will be important that teachers have a voice in education policy and decision making. Teachers shouldn't be a scapegoat when things go wrong, nor should they be excluded or put in positions where they exclude themselves from decision making positions because they fear retaliation or because they are so busy that they can't make room for something else.  We need to reimagine and consider the roles of everyone tied to the education process because right now, the teachers working with kids and engaging in the education process are often left out of the conversation. Dylan Bear, a teacher we heard from a few episodes ago, had the best analogy for how we should think about everyone's role in education.  Dylan Bear: Imagine, a fence, you know, like a round pen for a horse. The respect has to come from all angles for someone to learn. And you have to have the community showing respect of the education system, you have to have parents showing respect, you have to have the students show respect to the teacher showing respect for that. And so this ring of respect has to be there, of the education system. Or else if one of those falls out, like have a parent, dad or mom say, I'm not dealing with my kid at school, I call the principals and then once that happened, that kid got out of the pen because now he goes the path of least resistance to leave the education system.  The key image that Dylan is presenting here is the ring of respect that requires everyone associated with education to have a role, and trusting each other to cover their role. And for Dylan, even though he points to an analogy of a horse pen, he says this could take place anywhere.   Dylan Bear: And it doesn't have to be four walls and bricks and the fence at the school. I think that's such a weird way to learn. I love going to the mountains and going on trails where now you're vulnerable, and you want people to respect you and trust you. You look at the different environments for education, so different. But yeah, trying to get what needs to change to me is you have to have communities that value teachers that don't want to use that negative language. You have to have kids who value it. So education has to be a collective of support with and around kids. To gain that support and trust and collectivity we need to have a clear purpose of education - this echoes last episode. Right now, we base the purpose of education on how we evaluate students or how we can cover a tremendous amount of material. An unintended consequence of having so much material to cover is that education might feel like a grind to students. A grind without a sense of purpose makes it difficult for students to care. So to shift what is happening in the classroom and to create a structure in which roles are clear and supportive of one another in education, Chris thinks legislators should start by listening to teacher concerns. Chris Rothfuss: So when we hear from our teachers, what their real concerns are right now, and when they come back to me as a legislator and say, mental health is the problem for both students and teachers. We should listen. And we should adjust because at the end of the day we're not these rulers that are supposed to be at a distance and making proclamations. Our job is to listen and to learn from folks that know what they're talking about. And then try to put in place policies that affect change that enable everyone to do what they want to do and are trying to accomplish. And particularly in the public education system, we have that constitutional obligation to provide this high quality education for all.  For Chris, the role of legislators is to seek out experts to inform their decisions about policy that will impact those experts. So, for policy about education, legislators ought to speak to educators. And to do so in a way that is welcoming and doesn't just put more work on teacher plates. Chris also pointed out that to help mental health, which would contribute to keeping teachers, he thinks there should be a push to shift our priorities away from developing workers, which ideally means a shift away from high stakes assessment.   Chris Rothfuss: Honestly, if our first priority was joy in learning. As job number one, just imagine how much more we would learn. And that's the message that comes if we want to set it at the legislative level, we want to set it at the school district level. It does come from the policy leaders setting what is the mission? And right now our mission is develop workers. Chris explained that the role of legislators is to set the education mission, which could be seen as a purpose of education. And he thinks, especially at this present moment of teacher attrition and teachers and students both struggling with mental health, that the mission should prioritize the joy of learning. And if that mission is set, evaluative practices and accountability models can be adjusted. This will then dictate how school boards will work to achieve the new mission's objectives. It's a top-down shift, but if the top (legislators) consult the bottom (teachers and students) then it's more of a down-top-down shift? Whatever it is, it might help. Chris said that he would even be willing to take a drop in proficiency if we have happy kids and happy teachers.  Chris Rothfuss: My absolute ideal is to heavily prioritize joy in the classroom, and to focus our efforts, our resources, our activities, and our prioritization towards building joy in the classroom, with the expectation that with that joy, you would be addressing mental health issues, both for the teachers and for the students. And I'd love to see where that takes us. And what that means is ratcheting back this prioritization to build robots and the prioritization of score high on tests. And I'll take a 10% less proficient happy group. I will. At the end of the day, they can learn a little more math later. And if they're happy about education, then I think they'll have an opportunity to learn a little more about math later.  This mission would also shift the roles of us, the collective us, parents, teachers, administrators, legislators, community members, everyone, to not think of our K-12 experience as the only time we should be learning. If there was an assumption that learning was a lifelong process, Chris believes that we might have a cultural shift that results in valuing and enjoying learning, which would have a major impact on how teachers are viewed.  Chris Rothfuss: We think that you have an education phase in life. We've built a system around the idea that you have an education phase, phase one. Phase two and beyond never get any more education. Avoid, if possible. I would love a system where everyone just kind of keeps going back to school.  The move towards life-long learners that Chris is proposing would be a conceptual shift, but it could be supported concretely by a move away from overtesting or overemphasis on testing. Because our current system requires testing, this might mean we reimagine what testing looks like all together. Could it be a conversation? Something more authentic than a bubble sheet? Federal regulations have some flexibility there. Either way, the amount of attention given to Summative or End of Course testing is focusing on a product and not the process. Focusing only on the product is not creating a culture that loves learning - it's kind of the opposite. It's creating anxiety and pressure around learning. So if we can lessen the stress by drastically cutting back the amount and pressure of assessments, maybe we can focus on process and create a joy of learning.  So, by shifting priorities away from high stakes testing, we can stop structuring education in a way that prepares only for tests. This might mean loosening the grip on what curriculum can look like or what courses can be offered. For example, I once taught a course at the University of Wyoming called the history of Swing Dancing. We looked at the correlation of historic events and their impact on popular culture. When the class ended, a group of girls continued their final project and created a club on campus called Real Women Real Bodies. This class encouraged students to continue learning beyond the restrictions of the semester.  When I proposed to create this class for the high school setting in my district, it was declined because it didn't fit within the Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. So a shift might allow us to create new, novel courses that might inspire students to continue learning and growing well beyond the course. Such a shift will likely reinvigorate teachers who almost all have unique expertise and would love to incorporate such things into a course.  So, as Chris pointed out, to adopt a new educational direction, it must start with a shift in mission at the legislative level - hopefully fueled by teacher input. And I think it can happen, especially in a state like Wyoming that wants to be a national leader in education - it even says so in the Wyoming Accountability Act.   So creating a mission that prioritizes the joy of learning by focusing on process over product could happen.  Then how the decision is implemented should trickle down. Hopefully, this would result in teachers wanting to stay in education. And if all of this happens, if we can make that allegorical ring of respect and support that Dylan mentioned,  just imagine how much better the education will be for our students. Students will ideally feel that joy of learning and feel like what they do in school has purpose because that's what many of them want from school.  This is idealistic. But when making changes, we need to strive for idealism and not be guided by fear. Because what we have now is not working. Many people are aware of this and are already taking steps to make changes that will hopefully make education better and help keep teachers in education. Next episode, we're going to take a look at what people are doing to help keep teachers in education. This includes Task Forces, Mentoring Programs, Fellowships, and more. That will be next time on Those Who Can't Teach Anymore. Thank you for listening. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, leave a review, and share episodes with everyone you can think of. This episode was produced by me, Charles Fournier. It was edited by Melodie Edwards. Other editing help came from Noa Greenspan, Sarah-Ann Leverette, and Jennica Fournier. Our theme song is by Julian Saporiti. All other music can be found on our website. A special thanks to Anjel Garcia, Mark Perkins, Shane Atkinson, Jaye Wacker, Jennica Fournier, Marguerite Herman, Chris Rothfuss, and Dylan Bear for taking time to sit down and chat with me. If you are interested in seeing Mark Perkins' full report, “Teacher Attrition in Wyoming: Factors to Consider” you can find the link in the transcript for this episode and on our instagram page @thosewhocantteachanymore.  This podcast is funded in part by the Fund for Teachers Fellowship.

25 years ago, on January 27, the band then known as the Dixie Chicks released their major label debut, Wide Open Spaces. Author and music historian Marissa R. Moss joins us to discuss the legacy of the album and the pioneering trio for our 1998 album anniversaries series, Silver Liner Notes.

5 - If we lose Title 42, we will lose more than a 747 plane's worth of people daily as the gates will be wide open. 510 - Democrats are willingly letting illegal immigrants in and rather than treating the immigration problems, they would rather cater to the ones that come in. Just playing straight politics on this issue.  520 - Representative Amen Brown joins us once again to discuss his big announcement tomorrow, and his fight to better the city one day at a time. He discusses law enforcement at all levels, the minutiae of Philadelphia politics(especially on a notorious day in the city), and his view for a brighter tomorrow for Philadelphia.  550 - Did you know unvaccinated drivers are the worst? What a ludacris article.

Frances B. Ashforth is an artist who specializes in drawing, printmaking, and painting. While much of her work is tied to the landscapes and rivers of the American West, she is also well known for her depictions of salt flats and coastal weather in more tropical locales. If there are two threads that bind all of Francie's work, they are her deep reverence for natural landscapes and her desire to protect them. Over the years, she has collaborated with many highly regarded conservationists to combine writing and art– first, in her “Water + Words” project, and most recently, when she created all of the art for Dylan Tomine's excellent book Headwaters. - Francie was born and raised on the east coast, into a family of artists and athletes who cultivated her obsessions with art and perpetual physical activity. Even though a childhood accident confined her to a body brace for nearly six years, Francie always pursued her passions with full enthusiasm and vigor, working hard to keep a positive attitude in the face of such a serious physical setback. But her commitment to creativity never waivered– after studying art and architecture in college, she worked professionally as both an architectural illustrator and art director for more than a decade. Eventually, Francie left her day job to focus on her own artistic endeavors, as well as her all-important role as a mother to young children. Today, Francie's work has been shown in venues from New York City to San Francisco, and she has a loyal following among galleries and collectors across the country. - Francie and I met through past podcast guest Dylan Tomine, when I had the pleasure of interviewing both of them at a live event in Brooklyn earlier this year. I was immediately impressed with Francies' art, her obsession with fly fishing and books, and her long-term commitment to melding art and conservation. So I was so thrilled when she agreed to join me on the podcast, and we managed to cover a lot. We discussed her childhood and her family's influence, and her early career that combined art and architecture. We talked about the specifics of her art, including her influences and her preferred mediums, and we talked in detail about her “Water + Words” project. We talk a lot about the book Headwaters, as well as her own love of books and reading. Francie offers a long list of excellent book recommendations, so be sure to check the episode notes for links to all of those and everything else we discuss. - Huge thanks to Francie for all she does for conservation and for taking the time to chat with me. Hope you enjoy! https://francesbashforth.com/ https://www.instagram.com/frances.ashforth/ Water + Words Headwaters: The Adventures, Obsession and Evolution of a Fly Fisherman TOPICS DISCUSSED: 3:40 – Francie discusses her childhood 5:30 – Francie talks about her family's creative streak 8:30 – Francie discusses an accident that impacted her childhood 19:00 – Francie talks about her college education and early career in architecture 26:15 – Francie explains her transition from professional drafting to focusing on her own art 28:55 – Francie describes her art 32:30 – Francie talks about her Water and Word Project 37:15 – Francie explains her process of adapting existing words into new, complementary art 42:45 – Francie talks about how she became involved with Dylan Tomine, Headwaters and Patagonia Books 49:15 – Francie discusses reading and the books that make up her personal “bibliography” 1:00:30 – Francie talks about what is giving her hope these days ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE: Mountain & Prairie - All Episodes Mountain & Prairie Shop Mountain & Prairie on Instagram Upcoming Events About Ed Roberson Support Mountain & Prairie Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts

Greg and Eric chat with Megan Plete Postol, an award-winning Outdoor Writer. Megan has written for outdoor publications like Meat Eater, Wide Open Spaces, and brands like the National Deer Alliance and our friends at GoWild. Most recently, Megan started doing some freelance writing for Okayest Hunter. Naturally, getting her on our podcast made sense to learn more. She hails from New York and does most of her hunting and tracking up there. Hear how Megan got her start as a Journalist and then applied her skillset directly to her outdoor and hunting passions. Of course, it wouldn't be an Okayest Hunter podcast without sharing some Okayest Hunter movements. Tune in to the full episode for stories and more as we take a call as well! Check out our friends: Spartan Forge - https://www.spartanforge.ai/ use code: OHP for 25% off! GoWild - https://timetogowild.com/ - get $10 for just signing up, use CODE OHP for 10% off, and follow Okayest Hunter! Vector Arrows: https://vectorcustomshop.com/ - CODE OHP for 10% Off Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/ - CODE OHP for 20% Off accessories Don't forget to share your Okayest Hunter stories with us! https://www.okayesthunter.com/pages/okayest-hunter-moments Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices