Stay ConnectedAcross the Hall: ELA Strategies from One Door Away
Across the Hall is a podcast for ELA teachers seeking tips and examples on how to bring the latest tech tools and strategies into their classrooms. Join hosts Cade Somers and Michelle Shelton, ELA colleagues themselves, as they seek to share actual classroom experiences along with the expertise of special guests from the world of education and ed tech.
Cade & Michelle return to the subject of standards-based grading to discuss their first-hand experiences with transitioning to traditional grading this school year. This episode is a follow-up to the ATH duo's interview with Khristie Goodwin in episode 15. Find out about how they have laid the groundwork for SBG at the secondary level with their students and parents, tackled early challenges, distinguished academics from behaviors, tracked progress, determined scoring practices, and corroborated effective scoring through calibration.
Many educators are finding that standards-based assessment is the way to go in order to best meet students' needs, guide instruction, & track growth. In this first segment of a two-parter on SBG, Cade & Michelle interview Khristie Goodwin, curriculum coordinator and special education coordinator at Oxford City Schools, where the ATH cohosts are piloting SBG in their high school. Tune in to learn more about why schools & teachers should consider SBG. They also discuss providing effective feedback, creating high quality assessments, developing dependable proficiency scales, and more. Come grapple grading with us!
View the show notes at www.acrossthehallpodcast.com.
A new school year is starting, summer PD is ending, and you're likely riding right down the middle of a wave of excitement and anticipation mixed with anxiety and denial. But one thing you know you want accomplished this year in your classroom is to find greater relevance for your students. Michelle and Cade discuss their thoughts and others' in this episode aimed to help ELA teachers redefine what's relevant in their classrooms. Instructional content, key skills, and targeted tasks all become topics of conversation as the ATH hosts review some high-interest summertime Tweets.
To view the show notes, visit http://www.acrossthehallpodcast.com.
Been thinking about how you'll improve your classroom this fall? Think culture. Tune in to this episode to cultivate your classroom culture, led by the ideas of Joy Kirr, Genius Hour "evangelist" and author of Shift Learning: How to Implement Gradual Changes for Massive Impact in Your Classroom. Learn ways to shift how you arrange your classroom for maximum impact, build relationships with your students, transfer ownership of learning from teacher to student, communicate with parents, garner greater collaboration, and place emphasis on learning over grade-getting.
Check out the show notes at www.acrossthehallpodcast.com
You know your students like tech. You know they need tech. But you also know that to get the most out of tech, you should use it with purpose. Join the ATH hosts as they welcome author, ShakeUpLearning.com blogger, speaker, Google Teacher Tribe podcaster, and Google tools expert Kasey Bell for a discussion about managing tech in the classroom and carefully matching tech to specific learning targets. In their interview follow-up segment, Cade and Michelle finish out the episode adding their own flavor to some of Kasey's fantastic ideas.
For the show notes, visit http://www.acrossthehallpodcast.com/.
Don't like the way your school does PD? Heard others whining about what they wish their school's PD offered? Then we're hosting a PD Party, and you're invited. No, not a pity party -- a P - D - Party. You know, as in professional development. Join the ATH hosts as they interview Rich Czyz, author of The Four O'Clock Faculty, to learn proven ways to make professional learning practical and even a little bit fun (the ideas he gives are actually VERY fun, but we understand if you don't fully fess up to your friends the fun PD can be). And don't miss the follow-up segment. It features a pop-up-PD-style discussion with Cade and Michelle and two of their colleagues, Mark Fuller and Lauren Phifer.
For more, visit our show notes at www.acrossthehallpodcast.com.
Take a little trip with Cade and Michelle, as well as some of their students, through this episode featuring John Spencer, author of the books Launch, Empower, and Making Learning Flow. Spencer discusses ideas about getting students to tap into creativity and answers some of the hosts practical questions about using design thinking in the classroom. Cade's and Michelle's students also get involved, offering commentary and interviewing IDEO Teachers Guild fellow Theresa Shadrix. Join this creative cruise and find out how you can make your classroom space one where students are encouraged to take risks and come up with practical solutions for real problems they or others face in the world around them.
Visit our show notes at www.acrossthehallpodcast.com.
What's more exciting than grammar? Believe us, we know what you're thinking: Nothing! Okay, sometimes we have to wrestle with writing more than we'd like. In this episode, the ATH hosts interview Sin and Syntax author Constance Hale to discuss creative ways to stoke the fading embers of grammar instruction so that students can revive their writing and take greater pride in their craft.
Learn how to pump up your students' passion for verbs, word choice, vocabulary, structure, style, and even punctuation in ATH's first episode of 2018.
For the show notes, visit http://www.acrossthehallpodcast.com/2018/01/31/ath-9-wrestling-writing/.
Straight off a stint in the Caribbean the pirate himself, Dave Burgess, The New York Times bestselling author of Teach Like a Pirate and president of Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., joins Cade and Michelle in a laugh-laden, energy-enriched episode all about taking teachers' traditional classrooms off life support and re-envisioning them through their non-patched piratey eyes. Dave discusses the pirate's pedagogical life and describes how every teacher can embrace it to increase and maintain student engagement. This episode also features a discussion of the PIRATE acronym, tips on how to cultivate a pirate-like school culture, and Cade and Michelle's own Teach Like a Pirate-inspired hooks.
To view the full show notes, visit www.acrossthehallpodcast.com.
Is your love for teaching writing waning because your students just don't seem to be into your traditional approach? Guest Angela Stockman, author of Make Writing, discusses the research-based strategies she developed to get students up & moving, tinkering & building to -- yes, you know it's coming -- write. Discover along with the ATH hosts how to rev up your resistant students' writing using some design thinking strategies that are sure to stir up the latent love of writing your students have within.
Check out the show notes here: http://acrossthehall.edublogs.org/2017/10/13/ath-7-revving-up-writing/
Let's discuss class discussion so we can get students engaged, talking, & learning. This episode offers specifics about a multifaceted class discussion program both Cade & Michelle have started using. It's about getting students making connections, asking probing questions, listening to peers, expanding discussion, & celebrating learning milestones -- all in a variety of discussion formats, including digital and in-class. And the best part of all: students self-regulate by tracking their discussion contributions and evaluating them weekly. See www.acrossthehallpodcast.com for Mission: Engage Discussion program overview, student log, and self-evaluation rubric.
Check out the show notes here: http://acrossthehall.edublogs.org/2017/09/30/ath-6-crafting-communication/
Trying to integrate reading more digital texts into your classroom routine? In this episode, the ATH hosts discuss their favorite digital annotation tools. So if you're a fan of Google Keep, Google Docs, Kami, ThinkPort, or Book Snaps, or if you'd like to learn more about making the switch from paper to screen, there's something here for you.
Check out the show notes here: http://acrossthehall.edublogs.org/2017/09/05/coming-soon-ath-5-dealing-with-digital-texts/
Want to learn more about makerspaces? Have the makerspace stuff, but not the conceptual framework that drives what to do with it? In this episode, the ATH hosts welcome educator, innovator, and design thinker Dan Ryder to explain his shift to having the maker mindset.
Dan explains what design thinking is all about, then gives examples of how to get started with design thinking and making in the ELA classroom. Dan, author of Intention: Critical Thinking in the Classroom," fields questions and makes clear a topic with which many educators are grappling in order to redesign the way their classrooms work.
Check out the show notes here: http://acrossthehall.edublogs.org/2017/08/22/ath-4-maker-mindset/
The #CommonLitCraze continues!
After having some technical trouble initiating an interview with CommonLit.org content development director Anna Hodges, we decided to break into two episodes our podcast on this quickly-rising-in-popularity ELA-centered website. And it was worth it because one week could not give CommonLit all the credit it's due.
In this episode, Anna discusses all teachers need to know about getting started with CommonLit in the ELA classroom.
Check out the show notes here: http://acrossthehall.edublogs.org/2017/08/02/ath-3-commonlit-craze-part-two/
The CommonLit Craze starts here.
If you've not heard of or used CommonLit yet, you can't pass up this episode! With a huge selection of grade-appropriate texts and questions to help students master every literary standard, CommonLit, a free resource for teachers, is becoming every teacher's best friend for differentiating assignments based on reading level, skill-based need, and student interest.
Listen as Cade and Michelle discuss key features and suggested how-tos of CommonLit in the classroom!
Check out the show notes here: http://acrossthehall.edublogs.org/2017/07/22/episode-2-commonlit-craze/
Looking for a fun way to enhance student voice in your classroom? What you need is Flipgrid.
Whether you're new to Flipgrid or you've already caught Flipgrid Fever, join Cade and Michelle as they interview Joey Taralson, head of engagement at Flipgrid. Joey details what Flipgrid is all about, answers a few questions, and previews what's in store for Flipgrid's future. A staple of Across the Hall, the hosts wrap up the episode by recommending some ways they'd incorporate this great tech tool in the ELA classroom.
Check out the show notes here: http://acrossthehall.edublogs.org/2017/07/17/ath-1-flipgrid-fever/
Before the textbook. Before a binder. Even before Google.
Every teacher’s first resource is a nearby colleague. Join the Across the Hall hosts Cade Somers and Michelle Shelton in their first episode as they discuss what led to them starting a podcast designed to help teachers put into practice the tools they hear about through professional development and their PLNs.
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