Teaching Learning Leading K-12

Latest Episodes:

Mike Kenny - MathFactLab: Helping to Make Math Easier to Learn - 799 Nov 17, 2025

Show notes

Mike Kenny - MathFactLab: Helping to Make Math Easier to Learn. This is episode 799 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Mike Kenny taught 5th grade for 19 years: 4 in England and 15 in VT.

Mike is the designer of MathFactLab. MathFactLab is based on the idea that pattern recognition makes math easier to learn.

Each year, Mike found that many of his students came to fifth grade lacking basic math fact fluency. Frustrated that the math fact materials commercially available did not match what research recommended, he gradually came to the conclusion that he ought to try creating his own math fact program. MathFactLab is the result of several years of effort, much research, a great heap of advice, many drafts, and lots of trial and error in Mike’s classroom and beyond.

Mike has degrees from the University of Notre Dame, the College of William and Mary, and the Vermont Mathematics Initiative (at UVM).

Our focus today is Mike’s MathFactLab: Helping to Make Math Easier to Learn.

So much to learn and think about!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

You could help support this podcast by Buying Me A Coffee. Not really buying me something to drink but clicking on the link on my home page at https://stevenmiletto.com for Buy Me a Coffee or by going to this link Buy Me a Coffee.

This would allow you to donate to help the show address the costs associated with producing the podcast from upgrading gear to the fees associated with producing the show. That would be cool. Thanks for thinking about it.

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Connect & Learn More:

mike@mathfactlab.com

http://www.mathfactlab.com

https://www.instagram.com/mathfactlab/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/people/Math-Fact-Lab/100087028068411/

https://www.youtube.com/@mathfactlab

Length - 34:08

Steve talks with Will and Josh from the HiTech Podcast about Artificial Intelligence - 798 Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

Steve talks with Will and Josh from the HiTech Podcast about Artificial Intelligence. This is episode 798 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Will and Josh talked with me on their show The HiTech Podcast. Our focus was artificial intelligence. This was a blast! What an awesome conversation! We talk about uses for it in our podcasting world and what our experiences have been. We share stories, thoughts, and ideas.

And we definitely had a great time.

Check it out!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

See the links below for connecting with Will and Josh.

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Connect & Learn More:

https://hitechpod.us

HiTech Podcast | #hitechhijinx (@hitechpodcast) / X

https://www.youtube.com/@hitechpodcast

Length - 01:00:52

Andrew Marotta - Educator, Author, Speaker, Leader, and Former NCAA Basketball Official - The Surviving & Thriving Movement - 797 Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

Andrew Marotta - Educator, Author, Speaker, Leader, and Former NCAA Basketball Official - The Surviving & Thriving Movement. This is episode 797 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Andrew Marotta is the Director of Academic Services & communications in Port Jervis, NY. He was Principal & AP for the last 20 years in the great small city of Port Jervis. He took on a new challenge in the 23-24 school year moving to this director position giving him some more flexibility to travel and present nationally as an inspirational speaker. He is a husband, father, adjunct professor of school leadership, former Division 1 men’s college basketball official, speaker, & author.

Andrew is also the leader of the Surviving & Thriving movement. Andrew is an energizing & impactful speaker, author, and school leader. He lives the words on his logo & strives to positively #IMPACT all he meets. A master storyteller, Andrew engages his audiences and fellow leaders with authentic and heartfelt stories, memorable props, and collaborative, fun, &, thought-provoking activities.

Additionally, Andrew officiated Men’s Division 1 college basketball at the highest level for almost 20 years. ACC, A-10, CAA, Patriot, IVY, MAAC, & the NEC were the conferences he worked on all the while being a school Principal. This was quite challenging & Andrew survived & thrived through it all. Being relentless, showing presence, confidence, and an understanding of people & pressure in the spotlight are all things he learned and brings to his audience while speaking to them on leadership & perseverance.

He is a highly sought-after motivational speaker and the author of 5 leadership books, most recently completing a collaborative, inspirational book entitled HATS: Heartfelt Acts for Teachers, Students, & Staff.

He is married for 22 years to his high school sweetheart Jennifer & is blessed with three wonderful kids: Claire, Matthew & Tessa!

So much to learn and think about!

Great conversation!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Connect & Learn More:

https://andrewmarotta.com/

https://www.facebook.com/andrew.marotta.735#

https://www.instagram.com/marottaandrew/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC21PBGcsk_ttdMLoglQLFEQ/videos?view_as=subscriber

https://x.com/andrewmarotta21

Education Leadership and Beyond Podcast

https://andrewmarotta.com/latest-blog/

https://andrewmarotta.com/book/

Length - 54:17

Formative Assessment, Part 2: Mini-Whiteboards and Stickies as Formative Assessment Tools - 796 Oct 27, 2025

Show notes

Formative Assessment, Part 2: Mini-Whiteboards and Stickies as Formative Assessment Tools. This is episode 796 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Mini-Whiteboards and stickies make awesome formative assessment tools for helping you understand what the students get about your content and what they don't.

Formative Assessment is for determining what your students know and don't know. It is purposefully placed in your lesson plans. The type of formative assessment chosen is also determined ahead of time and placed in your lessons. The data gathered is used to make adjustments to your instruction. Additionally, the assessments are not graded.

Help your students be successful. Use formative assessment to make a difference.

Time to get some mini-whiteboards (you can even make your own) and some stickies.

So much to learn.

Have fun!

Check out my Pinterest board on Formative Assessment for ideas and instructions on how to use different formative assessment tools. (See below for the link.)

Great tools for you to use.

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Check out my Pinterest board - Formative Assessment for more ideas:

www.pinterest.com/smiletto/formative-assessment

Length - 13:38

Formative Assessment, Part 1: What, Why, and Resources - 795 Oct 23, 2025

Show notes

Formative Assessment, Part 1: What, Why, and Resources. This is episode 795 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Help your students be successful. Use formative assessment to make a difference.

So much to learn.

Check out my Pinterest board on Formative Assessment for ideas and instructions on how to use different formative assessment tools. (See below for the link.)

Great tools for you to use.

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Learn More - www.pinterest.com/smiletto/formative-assessment

Length - 15:22

Barbara R. Blackburn - Rigor and Assessment in the Classroom: Strategies and Tools, Second Edition Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

Barbara R. Blackburn - Rigor and Assessment in the Classroom: Strategies and Tools. Second Edition. This is episode 794 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Ranked in the Top 20 Global Gurus in Education, Barbara has dedicated her life to raising the level of rigor and motivation for professional educators and students alike. What differentiates Barbara’s over 30 books are her easily executable concrete examples based on decades of experience as a teacher, professor, and consultant. Barbara’s dedication to education was inspired in her early years by her parents, Bob and Rose. Her father’s doctorate and lifetime career as a professor taught her the importance of professional training. Her mother’s career as school secretary shaped Barbara’s appreciation of the effort all staff play in the education of every child.

Barbara has taught early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students and has served as an educational consultant for three publishing companies. She holds a master’s degree in school administration and was certified as both a teacher and a school principal in North Carolina. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Teaching from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2006, she received the award for Outstanding Junior Professor at Winthrop University. She left her position at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to write and speak full-time.

In addition to speaking at state, national, and international conferences, she also regularly presents virtual and on-site workshops for teachers and administrators in elementary, middle, and high schools. Her workshops are lively and engaging and filled with practical information. Here are a few of her most popular topics:

Rigorous Schools and Classrooms: Leading the Way

Rigorous Assessments

Rigor and Differentiation in the Classroom

Rigor for Students with Special Needs

Motivation + Engagement + Rigor = Student Success

Research-Based Engaging Instruction Leads to Higher Achievement

High Expectations and Increased Support Lead to Success

Scaffolding for Success: Helping Learners Meet Rigorous Expectations Across the Curriculum

Rigor Is Not a Four-letter Word: Strategies for Success, 4th Edition

And today we are talking about Barbara’s latest - Rigor and Assessment in the Classroom: Strategies and Tools, 2nd Edition.

Excellent book!

Incredible tools for using in your classroom!

Great conversation!

So much to learn and think about!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Connect & Learn More:

https://www.barbarablackburnonline.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbarablackburnonline/

https://www.facebook.com/Barbarablackburneducation/

https://www.instagram.com/barbararblackburn/

https://twitter.com/BarbBlackburn

https://www.routledge.com/Rigor-and-Assessment-in-the-Classroom-Strategies-and-Tools/Blackburn/p/book/9781032857541

Length - 42:36

Amy M. Pollack - The Still Further Adventures of Jelly Bean - 793 Oct 17, 2025

Show notes

Amy M. Pollack - The Still Further Adventures of Jelly Bean. This is episode 793 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Amy Meislin Pollack was a teacher for over four decades, raised three children, and loves to play with her seven grandchildren. From her own childhood to the classroom and as a parent and grandparent, she is perfectly positioned to pen her coming-of-age book series.

The Adventures of Jelly Bean, followed by The Further Adventures of Jelly Bean, first came into being when the author's fourth-grade teacher used to ask her to get up in front of the class and tell the stories about this character she would make up as she went along.

Several years later she started writing these stories down, and would work on them periodically in any free time she had during her teaching career and raising her three children. Now retired from a 40-year career in teaching - spanning a wide range of subjects and grade levels - she has embarked on a lively writing career.

The silver lining of the Covid pandemic for Pollack was that she was more or less forced, after approximately 60 years, to finish her Jelly Bean books.

Her books are about a young girl whose life is always changing and how she adapts to these changes. She tries to work out relationships with her friends, her parents, her older brothers, her uncle. Her parents do not want her best friend, who is of mixed race, to visit. Another friend is anorexic. One brother drops out of school. A grandparent dies.

Pollack earned a BA in English from Goucher College in Baltimore and received her Master’s in English from University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. She was certified as a secondary education and reading specialist for grades K-12 and earned a special education teaching degree from New Jersey City University, allowing her to teach disabled students.

For six years she was a professor of writing, and a teacher in the tutoring center at Montclair State University in NJ. She lives in central New Jersey with her husband and their dog named Bunny.

Our focus today is Amy’s latest book The Still Further Adventures of Jelly Bean.

Jelly Bean is an awesome series!

Excellent characters! Great stories!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Connect & Learn More:

Amy Meislin Pollack – The Author of The Adventures of Jelly Bean

(29) Amy Pollack | LinkedIn

AdventuresOfJellyBean (@AdvOfJellyBean) / X

Author Amy Meislin Pollack | Facebook

Amy Pollack (@jellybeanthebookseries) • Instagram photos and videos

https://www.stevenmiletto.com/amy-m-pollack-coming-of-age-book-series-by-a-retired-teacher-and-grandparent-the-adventures-of-j/

Amazon links

Length - 33:50

Lindsay Whorton - A New School Leadership Architecture: A Four-Level Framework for Reimagining Roles - 792 Oct 13, 2025

Show notes

Lindsay Whorton - A New School Leadership Architecture: A Four-Level Framework for Reimagining Roles. This is episode 792 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Dr. Lindsay Whorton is proud to be a founding member of The Holdsworth Center. She helped design the Center’s programming and has served as president since 2019.

Under Lindsay’s leadership, Holdsworth has grown from serving seven public school districts through its initial offering – the Holdsworth Partnership – to serving more than 1,900 leaders in 89 public school districts across several programs, all designed to build a bench of stronger superintendents and principals for Texas public schools.

Lindsay’s story with Holdsworth began in 2015, when Charles Butt, Chairman of H-E-B, tapped her to work with an organizing board designing the center’s first programs. At the time, Lindsay was working as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Washington D.C. She officially joined The Holdsworth Center team shortly after its launch in January 2017.

In her role as managing director of district support, Lindsay helped create and evolve Holdsworth’s model for supporting partner districts to develop aspiring leaders, place them in leadership roles and support them as they progress along their leadership journey.

Lindsay’s dive into education research began in 2009, when she was named a Rhodes Scholar and went on to earn a master’s degree in comparative social policy and a doctorate in social policy from Oxford University. During her time at Oxford, Lindsay spent a year at the University of Helsinki, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She visited schools and classrooms to understand Finland’s world-renowned teacher education system. In 2016, Routledge published her book Teachers Unions and Education Reform in Comparative Contexts, which examined the impact of teachers’ unions on performance-related pay reform in Finland, Switzerland, Texas and Florida.

A native of Independence, Missouri, Lindsay earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and English from Drake University in Iowa, where she served as a captain of the women’s basketball team. Lindsay helped lead the underdog team to a Cinderella finish in 2007 by winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship and was named the tournament’s outstanding player and a First-Team Academic All-American.

Our focus today is ... Lindsay’s new book- A New School Leadership Architecture: A Four-Level Framework for Re-imagining Roles

So much to learn and think about!

Great conversation!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Connect & Learn More:

https://holdsworthcenter.org/

https://holdsworthcenter.org/board/dr-lindsay-whorton/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-holdsworth-center/

https://www.facebook.com/HoldsworthCenter

https://www.instagram.com/holdsworthcenter/

https://x.com/holdsworthcentr?lang=en

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGDTTGYM

Length - 50:28

Danny Kofke - Where to Spend, Where to Save: A Teacher's Guide to Managing Your Finances - 791 Oct 10, 2025

Show notes

Danny Kofke - Where to Spend, Where to Save: A Teacher's Guide to Managing Your Finances. This is episode 791 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

After being a teacher for 18 years, Danny Kofke stepped out of the classroom to join the Southern Education Retirement Consortium and help change the way teachers and classified staff save for retirement. Danny’s love of teaching and personal finance led him to write 6 personal finance books including the recently released Where to Spend, Where to Save: A Teacher’s Guide to Managing Your Finances.

Danny’s everyday approach to handling money has led him to be interviewed on numerous shows including Fox & Friends, The CBS Early Show, CNN’s Newsroom, The 700 Club, and The Clark Howard Show. He has also been interviewed on hundreds of podcasts and featured in a number of publications such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Money Magazine, and Yahoo.com. He wants to show others if this former educator can do well financially, they can too!

Our focus today is Danny’s latest book - Where to Spend, Where to Save: A Teacher's Guide to Managing Your Finances

Danny provides great advice and suggests practical techniques and strategies to help the reader save money! His writing is reader friendly. Love this book!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Connect & Learn More:

dkofke@cpa4schools.com

https://sercsolutions.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannykofke/

https://www.solutiontree.com/where-to-spend-where-to-save.html

https://teachinglearningleadingk12.podbean.com/e/episode-63-ava-kofke-the-financial-angel/

https://www.stevenmiletto.com/danny-kofke-can-i-borrow-400-how-to-never-have-to-ask-this-question-again-win-the-game-of-financial-freedom-311/

https://www.stevenmiletto.com/kevin-benson-danny-kofke-southern-education-retirement-consortium-financial-planning-for-retire/

Length - 39:44

Ralph R. "Rick" Steinke - Vital Mission: A Jake Fortina Series Love Story - 790 Oct 06, 2025

Show notes

Ralph R. "Rick" Steinke - Vital Mission: A Jake Fortina Series Love Story. This is episode 790 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

Ralph Richard “Rick” Steinke is the award-winning author of a memoir, Next Mission: US Defense Attaché to France (to be republished in 2026). He is also an award-winning author of the Major Jake Fortina series, which includes Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat (2022), Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy (2023), and Change of Mission: A Jake Fortina Series Novel (2024). All Jake Fortina books have received awards, individually and as a series.

Steinke has spent a lifetime in US national security roles, including twenty-eight years in the US Army and fourteen in the Department of Defense. His official duties have taken him from the US Military Academy at West Point to over thirty countries on the Eurasian landmass, including Afghanistan and Ukraine. Steinke holds master’s degrees in West European studies and diplomacy from Indiana and Norwich Universities, respectively, as well as post-graduation certificates in national and international security affairs from Harvard and Stanford Universities. His passions include faith, family, fly fishing, and travel.

Our focus today is Rick’s book - Vital Mission: A Jake Fortina Series Love Story.

Excellent story!

Incredible talk!

Jake is AWESOME!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for sharing!

Before you go...

Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!

You are AWESOME!

Connect & Learn More:

https://ricksteinke.com/

fortunatiquatro@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralph-rick-steinke-8071376/

https://www.facebook.com/people/Rick-Steinke-Author-2/61553494599866/

Length - 50:02