Unpacking Education & Tech Talk For Teachers

Latest Episodes:

Leveraging Virtual Field Trips to Engage Students in Authentic Learning Jun 09, 2021

Show notes

As teachers, we provide rich learning experiences for our students every day within the walls of our traditional classrooms. But when we are able to break down those walls and connect with resources beyond our normal learning spaces, we can bring a new level of magic into the learning experience that can inspire and enrich our students at an even higher level. Research has shown that when we can provide real-world learning—like field trips and guest speakers—to our students, they gain academically as well as socially and emotionally. Even with limited budgets and full calendars, we can leverage technology to take our students on journeys and to meet people beyond our classroom doors. In this episode, we explore virtual field trips, to help you design learning experiences that honor student voice and choice, along with practical logistical and pedagogical tips to make it successful. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Conversations About Leadership During a Pandemic: Successes, Unsung Heroes, and Lessons Learned with Dr. Dan Bittman Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

Our guest today knows a thing or two about steadfastly leading a school district through a year of unprecedented obstacles. We are joined by Dr. Dan Bittman, Superintendent of Independent School District 728 in Minnesota. In this episode, we celebrate the leaders who rose from every corner of our educational communities: students, parents, teachers, and building and district administrators. We discuss how the pandemic has provided unprecedented opportunities to come together to support one another, learn flexibility and practice adaptability, and extend grace and receive it for ourselves. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Teacher Insights with Kaia Tomokiyo: Creativity and Choice Starting in Kindergarten May 26, 2021

Show notes

Welcome back to Teacher Insights at Tech Talk For Teachers! This week, we meet with Kaia Tomokiyo, a Kindergarten teacher from Renton Unified School District in Renton, Washington. A national board certified teacher with 10 years' experience, Kaia engages students in their learning process through creativity, choice, and voice. Join us as we talk with Kaia to learn strategies to provide choice for our youngest learners as they begin the quest to build their identities. We explore how to create experiences students enjoy, to nurture their strengths, while also encouraging challenge in a safe environment to empower learners. Visit AVID Open Access for the resources mentioned in this week's podcast.

Accelerating Learning with Culturally Responsive Teaching May 12, 2021

Show notes

Each student who enters the classroom should feel that they have every opportunity to become successful. Students of color often come to school with experiences that some teachers are unfamiliar with—whether it is language, customs, or beliefs. As teachers, we have the opportunity to embrace these new experiences and learn how to include them in our classroom systems and structures to ensure the success of every child. In this podcast episode, we are joined by Dr. Winston Benjamin, a Social Studies and English Language Arts facilitator in the Renton School District in Washington. He shares his expertise in culturally responsive teaching to begin a conversation about how we as teachers must challenge our beliefs, examine our own biases, and reflect on how we need to evaluate the structures and systems in our classrooms to support all students, celebrating their experience and applying it to their learning process. Visit AVID Open Access for the resources mentioned in this week's podcast.

Accelerating Learning with AVID to Empower Students and Educators Through Agency May 05, 2021

Show notes

While the past year resulted in disruption in schooling, as we look forward can we shift the focus of the national dialogue from learning loss to accelerating learning? The pandemic highlighted and widened the opportunity gaps that many students across the country face every day. For more than 40 years, AVID Center has proven that acceleration with social-emotional and academic supports can reduce the opportunity gaps for students traditionally underserved by K-12 school. Join us as we talk with Dr. Lynn Kepp, Vice President of Executive Communication and Project Management Office at AVID Center from San Diego, California. Together, we discuss accelerating learning rather than learning loss and how we might better support students to be partners in learning by developing student agency. Visit AVID Open Access for the resources mentioned in this week's podcast.

Digging Deeper into Project-Based Learning Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

As teachers, a metaphor that often resonates with us is the teacher as gardener. While we can't force a plant to grow, we can water it, provide light, add any extra nutrients that are needed, and speak gently to it to encourage growth. And sometimes, we need to support these young plants with a stake for a little while, until they’re strong enough to stand on their own. Project-based learning (PBL) is a nutrient-rich soil that provides ripe growing conditions for our students. We’ve spent time exploring PBL during our last two episodes. Given PBL's complexity and richness, we believe a closer look at three critical questions about PBL will help teachers as you consider implementation during distance or hybrid learning. Visit AVID Open Access for the resources mentioned in this week's podcast.

Teacher Insights with Annie Tremonte Mar 10, 2021

Show notes

Meet Annie Tremonte, a digital learning coach and ELA/social studies facilitator in the Renton School District in Washington. Annie joins our Digital Learning Specialists to share her experiences with project-based learning and how she has learned to embrace the complexity, the messiness of the creation process, and the ambiguity of the end result to create relevant learning experiences where her students get to see how their learning can impact the world around them. We explore how to bring PBL into the classroom without having to rehaul the entire curriculum, including easy starting points and implementation tips to provide students voice and choice throughout the PBL process. Visit AVID Open Access for practical, easy-to-use strategies to include in your virtual, blended, or hybrid classroom.

Engage Students with Project-Based Learning Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

Let's unpack PBLWorks' definition of project-based learning to identify strategies to bring this dynamic, student-centered approach into your classroom in ways that will work for face-to-face, remote, and hybrid learning. Join our Digital Learning Specialists as they review eight essential design elements of PBL that help teachers and students unpack complex problems and explore possible solutions. We’ll talk about how teachers can work hand-in-hand with students to define project scope, while providing guardrails, so that students have opportunities to engage in real-world problem-solving. Visit AVID Open Access for the resources mentioned in this week's podcast.

Teacher Insights with Julie Beaver Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

Welcome back to Teacher Insights at Tech Talk for Teachers. With this series, we celebrate teachers and the important role that you play in our lives and community. We learn about what is happening in virtual and hybrid classrooms across the country—what is working and what's challenging. This week, we meet with Julie Beaver, a middle school and high school math and world language teacher from Zimmerman Middle/High School in Zimmerman, Minnesota. Julie shares her experience bringing blended learning to the classroom pre-pandemic and creating an environment where she felt comfortable failing and being vulnerable with her students to engage them and inspire them to remain resilient through challenge. Visit AVID Open Access for practical, easy-to-use strategies to include in your virtual, blended, or hybrid classroom.

Create an Engaged Learner Journey with the Hybrid Model Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

Today, we are focused on exploring how to efficiently and effectively plan for hybrid learning. Many school districts are being asked to pivot their delivery systems on short notice to adapt to new infection rates in their area. This essentially means that teachers must be ready to flex between face-to-face instruction, a hybrid model, and fully remote learning at any time. While this makes a lot of sense from a health and planning perspective, it can very quickly become difficult to manage for teachers. Let's review six ways to structure and plan for hybrid learning. We’ll take a look at how to use these methods to manage the workload while offering rich learning experiences for students. Visit AVID Open Access for the resources mentioned in this week's podcast.

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