Teach Me, Teacher

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#225 Supporting Students Through Grief and Trauma with Krista St-Germain Aug 23, 2021

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Hello everyone! As school doors re-open, close, and vacillate under the pressure of the pandemic, one inescapable fact is that our children are feeling anxiety, grief, and trauma on higher levels than we've seen, possibly in our lifetime. Because of this, it has never been more important for educators to be mindful of the lives students are currently living, and how we can help improve their mental states. To guide on in this act of compassion, I have brought on Krista St-Germain. She is a mom, grief expert, and life coach for widowed moms and host of the Widowed Moms Podcast. When her husband was killed by a drunk driver in 2016, Krista's life was completely and unexpectedly flipped upside down. After therapy helped her unfurl from the fetal position, Krista discovered Life Coaching, Post Traumatic Growth and learned the tools she needed to move forward and create a future she could get excited about. Now she coaches and teaches other widows so they can love life again, too. In this episode we discuss: What grief is and how it manifests differently Nuances with trauma The role schools play in supporting students who are experiencing trauma or grief The myths around grief This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and by their new book Teaching Writing in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo. Everyone's turning to groups in this unique school year so they can teach more efficiently and spread the learning further. Jen shows you how to make the most of small groups. She gives you seven different options that help meet any students' needs. Like strategy groups, guided writing, writing clubs, and more. She provides writing progressions to help you decide which students to group and why. There's even video that demonstrates Jen's teaching in a variety of classrooms. If you don't have Teaching Writing in Small Groups, head on over to Heinemann.com to read a sample chapter. Find out what you're missing and order yourself a copy today. Planbook has been the established leader in online lesson planning since 2010, offering collaborative lesson sharing, flexible administrator access, and even student view tools for just $15 a year. Using Planbook, educators can build customized school years, classes, and lessons 100% online, directly inputting class materials and up-to-date standards from all over the world. Enter code "TeachMe" (one word, no space) at sign up to join over 800,000 Planbook teachers today and get your first year for only $5!

#224 Textured Teaching (Lorena Germán pt.2) Aug 16, 2021

Show notes

Hello everyone! Today we are seeing more and more people discuss education. While this is good in many ways, it is also leading to multiple groups accidentally—and in some cases, purposefully—misusing terms embedded inside of quality pedagogy. Words and phrases such as equity and social emotional learning are now feared and demonized in many circles. Other circles simply want to know what it's all about. If you missed part one of this talk, click here. Lorena Germán is the author of the upcoming book Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices. Lorena Germán is a Dominican American educator focused on anti-racist and antibias work in education. She's a cofounder of the groups #DisruptTexts, and Multicultural Classroom. She is the director of pedagogy at EduColor and is also the chair of National Council of Teachers of English's Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. In this discussion, we cover Social justice, and what it looks like in the classroom The power of narratives Facts about how education has and continues to fail many communities ENJOY! (PS: I believe the last 10 minutes of Lorena's closing thoughts are some of the best of the show. Don't miss it!) This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and by their new book Teaching Writing in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo. Everyone's turning to groups in this unique school year so they can teach more efficiently and spread the learning further. Jen shows you how to make the most of small groups. She gives you seven different options that help meet any students' needs. Like strategy groups, guided writing, writing clubs, and more. She provides writing progressions to help you decide which students to group and why. There's even video that demonstrates Jen's teaching in a variety of classrooms. If you don't have Teaching Writing in Small Groups, head on over to Heinemann.com to read a sample chapter. Find out what you're missing and order yourself a copy today. Planbook has been the established leader in online lesson planning since 2010, offering collaborative lesson sharing, flexible administrator access, and even student view tools for just $15 a year. Using Planbook, educators can build customized school years, classes, and lessons 100% online, directly inputting class materials and up-to-date standards from all over the world. Enter code "TeachMe" (one word, no space) at sign up to join over 800,000 Planbook teachers today and get your first year for only $5!

#223 Culturally Sustaining Practice with Lorena Germán (pt.1) Aug 09, 2021

Show notes

Hello everyone! Welcome to season 6 of the podcast! Today we are seeing more and more people discuss education. While this is good in many ways, it is also leading to multiple groups accidentally—and in some cases, purposefully—misusing terms embedded inside of quality pedagogy. Words and phrases such as equity and social emotional learning are now feared and demonized in many circles. Other circles simply want to know what it's all about. Luckily, we are speaking with and diving in deep with none other than Lorena Germán, author of the upcoming book Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices. Lorena Germán is a Dominican American educator focused on anti-racist and antibias work in education. She's a cofounder of the groups #DisruptTexts, and Multicultural Classroom. She is the director of pedagogy at EduColor and is also the chair of National Council of Teachers of English's Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. In this discussion, we cover What culturally sustaining practice is The molasses of terms being thrown irresponsibly and methodically CRT and the misinformation around it The power of narratives and the disrupting of them ENJOY! This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and by their new book Teaching Writing in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo. Everyone's turning to groups in this unique school year so they can teach more efficiently and spread the learning further. Jen shows you how to make the most of small groups. She gives you seven different options that help meet any students' needs. Like strategy groups, guided writing, writing clubs, and more. She provides writing progressions to help you decide which students to group and why. There's even video that demonstrates Jen's teaching in a variety of classrooms. If you don't have Teaching Writing in Small Groups, head on over to Heinemann.com to read a sample chapter. Find out what you're missing and order yourself a copy today. Planbook has been the established leader in online lesson planning since 2010, offering collaborative lesson sharing, flexible administrator access, and even student view tools for just $15 a year. Using Planbook, educators can build customized school years, classes, and lessons 100% online, directly inputting class materials and up-to-date standards from all over the world. Enter code "TeachMe" (one word, no space) at sign up to join over 800,000 Planbook teachers today and get your first year for only $5!

Moving Forward Together — Season 6 Intro Aug 02, 2021

Show notes

Hello everyone! Welcome to the season 6 intro episode. Today, I'm going to discuss the new theme music (per tradition), and dive into some of the ideas that are shaping this season to be the biggest and most relevant yet. I touch on: Going back to the basics of the podcast, while at the same time pushing forward Bringing the community closer together Combating the war against public education And much, much more. This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and by their new book Teaching Writing in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo. Everyone's turning to groups in this unique school year so they can teach more efficiently and spread the learning further. Jen shows you how to make the most of small groups. She gives you seven different options that help meet any students' needs. Like strategy groups, guided writing, writing clubs, and more. She provides writing progressions to help you decide which students to group and why. There's even video that demonstrates Jen's teaching in a variety of classrooms. If you don't have Teaching Writing in Small Groups, head on over to Heinemann.com to read a sample chapter. Find out what you're missing and order yourself a copy today. Planbook has been the established leader in online lesson planning since 2010, offering collaborative lesson sharing, flexible administrator access, and even student view tools for just $15 a year. Using Planbook, educators can build customized school years, classes, and lessons 100% online, directly inputting class materials and up-to-date standards from all over the world. Enter code "TeachMe" (one word, no space) at sign up to join over 800,000 Planbook teachers today and get your first year for only $5!

#222 How to Begin the Year in Reading and Writing Workshop — Craft & Draft Jul 26, 2021

Show notes

Hello everyone! This episode is an introduction to my second podcast, Craft & Draft! This is pulled from episode 40 of that show (our most popular episode to date) all about starting the year in reading and writing workshop. If you are en English teacher and want more topics directly focused on reading and writing, go check out the show if you enjoy this one! Here is the blurb for the episode: It's now time to think about next year. A huge question a — How should I set up my workshop? Pam explains the principles that she uses to set up her first day of workshop. She wants her students to read and write on the first day of school. She shares her first day's lesson that will get her students excited about the year and models workshop expectations for her students. Jacob will have new students this next year, so he will change up how he begins the year. He shares how he likes to utilize texts that will elicit great responses from his students. He likes to get students into authentic writing as soon as possible using the Craft & Draft Books. Join Jacob and Pam as they respond to a request from a listener. If you have a question or a topic you want them to address, Jacob and Pam invites you to submit questions or topics on the Craft & Draft website. This episode is sponsored by Heinemann and their book, Leading Literate Lives. What stories make you who you are? How have your experiences shaped you as a learner? Who are you as a reader and writer? Exploring your history as a learner can help you reflect on your teaching practices and make instructional decisions that positively impact student learning. In Leading Literate Lives, Stephanie outlines a framework for reading and writing that makes a direct connection between reflection and classroom practice. In each chapter you will find concrete ideas, tools, and activities for reading and writing to help move you from teacher reflection to instruction. For every specific reflection Stephanie will show you how to put the same idea into practice in your classroom, with the goal of helping you and your students: build and cultivate habits that make reading and writing a priority make space and create opportunities in your lives and classrooms to do what real readers and writers do explore and embrace your reading and writing identities find and create thriving communities filled with inspiration and support, where the reading and writing lives of every member are shared and celebrated. Fueled with the understandings that come from leading a literate life, you can learn to embrace reflective practices that bring greater intention and joy to your classrooms and schools.

#221 Critical Race Talk with Calvin Robinson Jul 19, 2021

Show notes

Hello everyone, and welcome to a special 2 part episode of Teach Me, Teacher. The intro you are hearing (reading) now is exactly the same on both episodes titled, Critical Race Talk. This is due to the nature and ties of the conversations you will hear, and also the reasoning behind why I am putting out this content at all on this podcast. To start, I believe in discourse and the dismantling of echo chambers. While anyone with time on their hands or a history with Teach Me, Teacher can verify my political and social leanings tend to be towards what Americans call "the left," — I do not deny this— I do not subscribe to any one ideology or framework. As an educator and academic, I pride the search for truth above all else, even when such truth may challenge my own beliefs about the world and its institutions. Essentially, I consider myself politically homeless. I do not find my political identity within strict party lines, rather, I listen to as many good intentioned sides and sources as I can, and decide how I will act accordingly. With that said, Teach Me, Teacher is first and foremost a "best practices" podcast. It is designed from the ground up to be a no-nonsense approach to professional development for educators— and its success and reach, I believe, is because of my commitment to this vision of what PD can be for teachers and administrators. However, best practices cannot be achieved without addressing the larger issues surrounding education and our communities. Teaching does not happen in a vacuum. Indeed, it touches nearly every aspect of life—how many professions can say that? — and with such a burden, comes the responsibility to contend with more than just academics. The sterilization of teaching into just being about standards, mastery, and skills, ignores the vast amounts nuanced factors that make such important aspects of teaching possible in the first place. In other words, what we believe directly affects how we act and teach. To ignore the human aspect of teaching in this way is to ignore what teaching is entirely. The following podcast, and its counterpart, which are both named the same, minus the guest involved, primarily deal with the controversial topic of Critical Race Theory and its association with public schools. Both episodes touch on various other factors and examine the issue through different lenses, but I believe they both offer nuance to the discussion that simply isn't happening in most circles today. These episodes are not meant to be set up as combatants, which is why they are separated. Rather, I am presenting them as different lenses on the same subject. As the interviewer, I tried to be as non-biased as possible. I tied similar questions to each interview, but I also allowed for each guest to bring their own unique expertise to the discussion. I constructed each discussion around each guests' unique platform and what they talk about. Whether this is an effective way to address this issue, will ultimately be up to you, the listener. I'm sure there are faults I cannot see, and lines of questioning I did not capitalize on, but these discussions are real discussions between people who care about education. The only editing present are quality adjustments and deletions of technical problems caused by recording over Zoom. Everything else has been untouched. As a quick side note: the only edit I would like to add here is about the data I talked about with Robinson in terms of pass rates based on race. It can be easily misunderstood because of how I said it, so I want to clarify that when I discuss the differing percentages student groups in Texas must hit to be considered proficient, I am referring to their groups as a whole, not individual pass rates. Moving on, I was upfront to each guest about the nature of how I would release these, so there is no gotcha imbedded into the release of these episodes. I respect both Professor Jarvis Givens and Calvin Robinson greatly.

#220 Critical Race Talk with Professor Jarvis Givens Jul 19, 2021

Show notes

#219 Reflecting on a Year of Covid-Era Teaching LIVE Jul 12, 2021

Show notes

Hello everyone! On July 2nd, I hosted a LIVE discussion on the Teach Me, Teacher Facebook page, where we asked the question: What have we learned from a year of Covid-era teaching? To help answer this question, I took LIVE comments, questions, and topic elections from the audience and reflected with the community! Among other things discussed, we hit on: Grades Technology Parents Teacher appreciation Divides in the community Positive takeaways from Covid-era teaching If you missed this live, you can catch the video on the page. Make sure to LIKE the page, so you do not miss any of the upcoming live discussions and events! This episode is sponsored by Heinemann and their book, Leading Literate Lives. What stories make you who you are? How have your experiences shaped you as a learner? Who are you as a reader and writer? Exploring your history as a learner can help you reflect on your teaching practices and make instructional decisions that positively impact student learning. In Leading Literate Lives, Stephanie outlines a framework for reading and writing that makes a direct connection between reflection and classroom practice. In each chapter you will find concrete ideas, tools, and activities for reading and writing to help move you from teacher reflection to instruction. For every specific reflection Stephanie will show you how to put the same idea into practice in your classroom, with the goal of helping you and your students: build and cultivate habits that make reading and writing a priority make space and create opportunities in your lives and classrooms to do what real readers and writers do explore and embrace your reading and writing identities find and create thriving communities filled with inspiration and support, where the reading and writing lives of every member are shared and celebrated. Fueled with the understandings that come from leading a literate life, you can learn to embrace reflective practices that bring greater intention and joy to your classrooms and schools.

#218 Reading – Writing Workshop Q&A with Jacob Chastain Jul 05, 2021

Show notes

Hello everyone! I cannot express how excited, pumped, and inspired I am right now for next year, and I want you to join me and my AMAZING guests in our quest to bring some positivity into the teaching world. …but today is a little different. Today, I AM THE GUEST OF THE SHOW! Yes, you read that correctly! A few weeks ago, I received an email from a listener of the podcast who asked me tons of questions about reading and writing workshop. I usually answer these in email, but I had the idea to record a Q&A with her instead, where I let her ask me questions for about TWO HOURS. Luckily, she agreed! If this all sounds familiar to you, it's because PART of this discussion was released last year as a SUMMER BLAST episode (7 and 8). However, what was never released was the last hour of our talk. Only Patreon supporters got part 2. So, if you have heard us discuss reading, you can skip to about the halfway point and listen to the rest. If you never heard the original episodes in the first place, then you have a whole 2 hour discussion around reading and writing workshop to listen to! Enjoy! This episode is sponsored by Heinemann and their book, Leading Literate Lives. What stories make you who you are? How have your experiences shaped you as a learner? Who are you as a reader and writer? Exploring your history as a learner can help you reflect on your teaching practices and make instructional decisions that positively impact student learning. In Leading Literate Lives, Stephanie outlines a framework for reading and writing that makes a direct connection between reflection and classroom practice. In each chapter you will find concrete ideas, tools, and activities for reading and writing to help move you from teacher reflection to instruction. For every specific reflection Stephanie will show you how to put the same idea into practice in your classroom, with the goal of helping you and your students: build and cultivate habits that make reading and writing a priority make space and create opportunities in your lives and classrooms to do what real readers and writers do explore and embrace your reading and writing identities find and create thriving communities filled with inspiration and support, where the reading and writing lives of every member are shared and celebrated. Fueled with the understandings that come from leading a literate life, you can learn to embrace reflective practices that bring greater intention and joy to your classrooms and schools.

#217 Unbreakable with Brittany Sinitch (Season 5 Finale) Jun 28, 2021

Show notes

Hello everyone! It feels like yesterday I was hyping up the start of season 5 of the Teach Me, Teacher podcast, and now I'm here closing it out. Where did the time go!? We've featured some AMAZING minds this year, including (but not limited to), Eric Weinstein, Amen Rahh, Maddie Fairchild, Jen Jones, and Susan Barnes. It's hard to believe all the great talks we have had on the show this season, and over the last 5 years. And yet I am completely excited for today's guest—Brittany Sinitch, otherwise known as @fivefootoneteacher on Instagram. Brittany is an ex-high school teacher from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who now teaches middle school, and is the founder of the Unbreakable organization. In this discussion, we discuss her Instagram life and how she manages the balance of being real on the platform, her insights into engaging students and her transition to middle school, and then how living with trauma is a constant battle between choosing light over darkness. You do not want to miss this closer to the podcast—I believe everyone needs to here Brittany's words as we close out a year unlike any other. This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and their professional book, Start Here, Start Now: A Guide to Antibias and Antiracist Work in Your School Community by Liz Kleinrock. Most of us want to help cultivate an antibias and antiracist classroom and school community, but we don't know how or where to start. This book helps us set ourselves up for success and prepare for the mistakes we'll make along the way. Start Here, Start Now addresses the challenges that educators committed to antibias and antiracism face every day. Liz provides concrete strategies to overcome some of the barriers that prevent us from engaging in this work and includes lessons and activities we can start using in our classrooms right away. This book will help break habits that hold us back from this work, as well as build positive, sustainable teaching for the future. Start Here, Start Now is available as a book, ebook, and audiobook. To learn more and download a sample, visit Heinemann.com.

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