James Sturtevant Hacking Engagement

Latest Episodes:

92-Flavor Tomorrow's Lesson with an International Perspective...Courtesy of Brad Gosche and the Columbus Council on World Affairs Feb 10, 2018

Show notes

I'll bet you've heard your students complain about where they live...the community where you teach them by the way. I did my share of whining when I was a teen. I felt like little New Concord, Ohio was nowhere. And yet, there's virtually no nowhere anymore! We all live and function in a global economy. If your students don't believe it, have them conduct a simple inventory of what they're wearing and carrying. Ask them to record where all of their possessions are manufactured. I'll bet they're not lugging around to much Made in the USA.
Unfortunately, some in our nation would like be isolated. This is a fool's errand. Students, on the other hand, who embrace the international nature of modern existence will prosper. Teachers, therefore, have an obligation to help students pursue and master this paradigm. To help in this quest, today's episode will feature the urbane Brad Gosche. Brad is the Vice-President of Education and Communication at the Columbus Council on World Affairs.
Here's the council's two-fold mission:
To be the leading nonpartisan, globally-focused organization in the Columbus Region. The Council fosters a community that is well-informed about critical international issues as they affect the world, nation and the local region, and whose citizens utilize this insight to make effective decisions in our global society.
This episode will not only inspire you to include a global perspective in your curriculum, it will also provide two outstanding activities you can employ tomorrow. The first is Geert Hofstede's country comparison model. The second is taking your kids on a wonderful Trip to Mintana. Please listen to this powerful episode for descriptions of and solid ideas about how to use each.

91-Can your Students Spot a Fascist? Starring Scott Elliott Feb 03, 2018

Show notes

If you've taught a humanities class, you've probably recognized how frequently Adolf Hitler comes up. Unfortunately, many kid's understanding of Hitler and Fascism doesn't expand much past the Holocaust.
Scott Elliott teaches 9th Grade World History with me. Right before Christmas Break, we were yakking about how we could teach Fascism, our first unit in January, in a more engaging and impactful way. Scott found a wonderful resource which formed the backbone of the assignment. The article is by Laurence W. Britt and is entitled Fascism Anyone. The assignment we created challenged kids to rate WWII leaders on the 14 Characteristics Britt articulates and also to apply them to current leaders with authoritarian traits.
Please give a listen and if you like what you hear, migrate to my show notes for outstanding links.

90-CYOA (Choose Your Own Assessment)...staring Louis Soper, Will Koppmann, and Mae Reasner Jan 27, 2018

Show notes

Louis Soper is a middle school social studies teacher in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Louis has done a remarkable job of empowering his kids to demonstrate their learning. He refers to this process as CYOA, or Choose Your Own Assessment. To help in this endeavor, Louis deputized two of his outstanding students Will Koppmann and Mae Reasner.
Student-led learning is a powerful tide in American education. Wax up your board and hop along for the ride!

89-If your Kids have Grown Tired of Kahoot, Please try Quizlet Live...Starring Jennifer Ladd Jan 20, 2018

Show notes

I was exposed to Kahoot a few years back. I loved it immediately. It's been a huge hit at our school. Unfortunately, there can be too much of a good thing. Many of our kids are tired of Kahoot. Kahoot also has foundational flaws. Invariably, there are students who emerge as virtually unbeatable in Kahoot. Guessing quickly in Kahoot also can pay huge dividends, so many kids mindlessly respond without investing much thought. I still like Kahoot...but I was thrilled to find an alternative.
And here, dear reader, is where Quizlet Live makes a dramatic entrance. I became exposed to this wonderful platform a few months ago. I knew instantly that it was a massive upgrade from Kahoot. Quizlet Live creates a beautiful competition between randomly selected teams of students. On your SmartBoard, students monitor a fascinating horse race unfold. Your students will be enthralled!
I have a wonderful guest to help tell the story of Quizlet Live. Jennifer Ladd is an elementary teacher at Scotch Elementary in suburban Detroit. Jennifer and I got to know one another through interacting during a Twitter chat. From the moment we started interacting, I knew she had the potential to be a marvelous guest. I was not disappointed!

88-Make your Math Class Enchanting...Starring Denis Sheeran Jan 14, 2018

Show notes

I remember trudging to Math class in high school...AND I MEAN TRUDGING. I had zero confidence, zero interest, and I could not fathom any relevance in what I was being asked to do. If you're a Math teacher, these adolescent frustrations may sound familiar. Guess what...I get the "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" question in history class too. Think about it. It's a fair question. Maybe, educators need to get better at answering it.
Today's episode will help you. Denis Sheeran is the Director of Student Achievement at Weehawken Township School District, which is in New Jersey. He's going to help all of us answer that important student question!

87-The New Year's Resolution Ice-Breaker Game Jan 08, 2018

Show notes

Yes...I know it's January 8th, but it's not too late to lay the New Year's Resolution Ice-Breaker Game on your students. This goal-setting opportunity affords teachers a wonderful chance to:
deputize students in their resolution quest
enlighten kids about their lives outside the classroom
make themselves more approachable
gives teachers a needed boost in obtaining their goals
helps kids get to know one another
encourages students to set goals
challenges kids to make their goals public, which gives goals more umph
This is an exceedingly easy activity to set-up. All you need is a class roster copy for each student and a Padlet Labeled New Year's Resolutions. Pass out a roster to each student and provide each with the Padlet link. I gave my students the following directions:
For the next minute, create some resolutions for this year. Please keep the resolutions to yourself and any resolution you publish in this activity must be school-appropriate.
Next, choose one resolution you're willing to share. Post it on the Padlet, but DO NOT attach your name!
Read each post on the Padlet. Try to match some of the resolutions with your classmates on the roster I provided.

86-A NewYear's Resolution that will Transform your Interactions with Kids Jan 01, 2018

Show notes

Heard enough? Unfortunately, many adults think that this crop of teenagers are the harbingers of the apocalypse. They are not. The world will go on. Hopefully the previous quotes demonstrate that adults from different times and climbs have felt similar anxiety about their youth. Harry Truman was right; there is truly nothing new in the World.
Episode Template
The Problem:
Teachers can get fed-up with contemporary youth.
The Solution:
Learn to accept that many student-teacher annoyances are out of your control.
What you can do Tomorrow:
Make a list of all the things about contemporary youth that you find distasteful.
Eliminate everything on the list that is out of your control.
Your New Year's resolution is to focus your energy to help students improve in areas where you have influence and to accept aspects of their nature's that you can't control.
Learning to focus in this way will help your students and take a huge burden off your shoulders. HAVE A MARVELOUS 2018 AND THANKS FOR LISTENING!

85-Stella got her Groove Back by Becoming Google Certified...Starring Stella Pollard Dec 18, 2017

Show notes

A 30-year teaching gig is no walk in the park. It's hard to imagine anyone doing the same thing for 30 years, but that's exactly what many teachers do. Please don't interpret this statement as negative towards this noble profession. It certainly was not intended that way...it's just human nature to get restless regardless of how much you love a job. I love teaching. I love my students. However, I've gone through seasons in my career when I felt stymied. Such feelings were my primary motivation to write my books and create this podcast.
For some teachers, migrating to administration fulfills their goal-oriented natures, but admin is certainly not for everyone. The rest of us mere teachers must generate our own tactics for battling complacency. This episode offers an idea...become Google certified.
To talk about this fascinating option is the effervescent Stell Pollard. Stella is a 4th grade Science teacher from Frankfurt, Kentucky. After her rookie year in the classroom, Stella felt like she needed to up her instructional game. She pursued Google certification as a result of this professional restlessness. In the process, she's transformed her classroom and opened professional doors for herself. Stella is going places! She is not only on a mission to create the best possible learning environment for her kids, but she's also on hero's quest to help colleagues do the same.

84-Send your Kids on a Hero's Journey with Storybird...Starring Samantha Hart and Merrick Kasper Dec 11, 2017

Show notes

Episode 83 was a real treat for me. I yakked with Elontra Hall about something near and dear...storytelling. I'm so committed to enhancing this skill in the classroom, that I just couldn't quit with one episode. What makes this episode so special, is I bring back the original sources. Samantha Hart and Merrick Kasper are here to explore storytelling from their perspective. What's interesting, however, is that these two brilliant young folks don't address teachers using stories, but instead kids using stories to peer teach.
My students used the hero's journey template to enlighten their peers. Of course my buddies the Hyperdocs Girls have an outstanding hero's journey template ready and waiting for you to copy and transform.
In addition to a peer teaching storytelling activity, these young ladies will also introduce you to a neat tool called Storybird. Storybird empowers kids to take a story and transform it into a beautiful and enchanting picture book. It's remarkably easy to use and a highly recommend it.
My kids were meandering through a unit on India. We needed to grasp the impact of two remarkable individuals...Siddhartha Gautama and Ashoka. Here's how we did it:
Students paired up...one took Gautama and one took Ashoka.
Each student then applied their subject to the hero's journey template. Here's my rendition which I created for this assignment.
Students made each page of their Storybird a phase in the hero's journey.
Kids then enlightened their partner by presenting their Storybird.

83-A Bard from Detroit Mesmerizes his British Students...Starring Elontra Hall Dec 04, 2017

Show notes

April Domine, my former superintendent, once made a power suggestion. She encouraged me to read a book by Daniel H. Pink called A Whole New Mind. It was an amazing recommendation. The crux of the book is that the right side of the brain is going to be the star of the future. The subtext of the title says it all: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. As I read this excellent book, I felt Daniel was verbalizing everything I’ve always felt about the learning process. And to top it off, he is a fellow Buckeye!
Daniel devotes an entire chapter to the power of story. In the opening part of the chapter, he refers to earlier parts of the book. One reference is fact-based. He challenges the reader to recall some important specific data point from one of the opening chapters. No doubt, most of the readers struggled to recall a specific statistic...I certainly did. He then asks readers to recall a fascinating comparison between the legendary John Henry, The Steel Driving Man, and Gary Kasperov, the chess champion defeated by the IBM computer in 1997. Both John Henry and Gary Kasperov demonstrated the limitations of even the most skilled and determined human in the face of advancing technology. When Daniel referred to these rich narratives, the feelings I had when I first read them, the moral, and many of the details, immediately surfaced on my hard-drive.
Here is what Daniel Pink has to say:
Our difficulty retrieving that isolated factoid, and our relative ease summoning the sad saga of Gary Kasperov, aren’t signs of flaccid intelligence or impending Alzheimer’s. They merely demonstrate how our minds work. Stories are easier to remember because, in many ways, stories are how we remember.
And here is where my guest Elontra Hall makes a grand entrance. Elontra is from Detroit, but he lives and teaches in the UK. The story about his migration is fascinating and will be explored in this episode. He and I became friends on Twitter and I instantly loved his vibe. I prompted him to be a guest. He agreed as long as he could talk about storytelling. I was totally down with that condition!

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

James Sturtevant Hacking Engagement

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected