Two Teachers Podcast

In this episode, I am honored and humbled to be joined by 3 professors from the University Wisconsin Stevens Point to discuss and opportunity that is incredible important to me. Their passion and excitement is infectious. In previous episodes we have touched upon the increasing diversity and adding perspectives of those in our classroom and as the resident social studies teacher. That is my, my life goal. To be sure all people are heard. Amber, Stacy and Jackie provide incredible insight and resources to deliver just that. Check out their bios. Where To Start? The first step "would be to look at your social studies curriculum and see where you think you can bring in additional voices. And I would start small thinking about one unit, whether you're a third grade teacher teaching immigration and you've historically taken the perspective of the lens of European immigration and of 1800s into the 20th century or you're looking at that in a more sophisticated middle school or high school level. Start thinking about what voices are underrepresented. Then look for a text. There's amazing texts that tell the Ellis Island story and they tell multiple voices within that experience. Even now we have a much richer alternate experiences to immigration documented through text. We have access to those people through live interviews we have that we can record for our students. We have access to video. So when we talk about text sets and creating these dimensional resources, we are really looking at text broadly, including visual images, video, multimedia poetry, songs, you name it. The more genres that you can touch, perhaps the more voices you will be able to incorporate. You could even have students interview their parents or interview other community members, and bring that in to get more authentic voices represented in our classroom. Diversity - Know What You Have Get to know your students who are in your classroom. Know them inside and out. Know their backgrounds. Give them that opportunity to share their story, to bring in their experiences, and then look for how to enrich that by asking, what are my students missing? What lens haven't they been exposed to? What are the diverse voices we can bring to them? Picture Books and Where to Find Them I read the book The Journey about a Syrian refugees experience to my eighth graders. Even the nostalgia and the novelty of reading a picture book is effective. What are the resources? What are the approaches to infuse that, especially if you don't have those people to interview or those unique perspectives in the classroom to be the voice on others behalf? Illustrated texts draw the reader in and help them experience it in a different way. That ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes through someone else's narrative. Certainly a Google search is not a bad place to start when you're talking about a theme, a topic or a text. There's a lot of resources that teachers are sharing in this mode and we can see other people's evaluation of texts and whether it's representative, authentic voice. Dreamers by Yuyi Morales is a favorite of my students who have used this as a research text too. Please support TwoTeachersPodcast by purchasing these picture books now from Amazon.com. There is no additional cost to you. Thank you. Evaluation of Diverse Texts TeachingBooks.net has some questions that guide instructors in selecting texts that are authentic, texts that represent a community of voice while doing its best to avoid tokenism. Teachers might evaluate a text and talk about the pros and cons of using that text. For example, if you find something problematic, like does it turn a viewpoint of a marginalized person into a victim? There are some things like that to be careful about when we're selecting texts. This sometimes happens around the topic of the Holocaust and many other topics.

When students write, their audience is typically just the assessor(teacher). If we want to give them meaning in their writing, we have to give them an authentic audience. On this episode we explore R.A.F.T. and specifically the use of blogging in student demonstration of their learning. We will then reintroduce the new and improved Fan.School(see Episode 33). Authentic Audiences

Lindy and I have begun a long desired journey to provide a book club to the parents of our students who struggle to navigate the complication and challenges of the adolescent journey. We have chosen to read with our parents(of our students) two books. These books are by Rosalind Wiseman. Queen Bees and Wannabees was the basis for the movie Mean Girls and the companion book for navigating the male world is called Masterminds and Wingmen. Both are incredibly insightful for parents but have an even more incredible implications for educators world of all grade levels. We will briefly discuss a few take ways and will often acknowledge that the real lessons is in the book. Read along or just listen for some gems.

In this episode, Lindy joins us to discuss quick adaptations to everyday practices to increase engagement. We will run through a number of strategies that will not cost more time or money to improve the attention of your students. We like many of you find ourselves leveraging the same tasks throughout the years an are always looking to change it up and grad that attention of the students. What is engagement? Lindy describes engagement in 3 categories: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive. Behavioral is student behave in class, they don't act up, the bring their materials to class. Its their behavior in that class. Then there is emotional engagement. They feel connected to the school community. They are happy to be there. They act positively. When you are giving your lesson they are alert and are emotionally invested in what you are saying. And finally there is cognitive engagement. This is their intellectual engagement. They want to learn and think more deeply about the subject. They ask challenging question. Together this is big picture engagement. this is a long term disposition to learn. What happens to engagement over the years? Over an educational career it is normal for engagement to wain. Think of the complexity and specificity of the learning. Think about the general practice of a kindergarten teacher vs. a high school teacher. Exceptions aside the amount of reading increase, the expectation of compliance raises and the length of the learning tasks widens. In 2nd grade the instruction is designed to be quick, fast paced and interactive. With each passing year those opportunities lessens. Emotionally school continues to be described as enjoyable by the younger the students. Change your practice to engage the kids. You can try writing on novel surfaces. Beyond the whiteboard or Smartboard try writing on the windows or floor. They excitement alone is a great a

On this episode I have identified 4 issues(my problems) I am having in my classroom right now(Classroom Management). I will share with you my plan for managing and hopefully improving my classroom with some researched and solid solutions. How did we get here? We have reached the midpoint of the 2020-21 school year. It has been truly exhausting. Teachers are battling the ins and outs of learning modes in this pandemic world. We’ve implemented new procedures to keep us healthy and strained our eyes on the countless hours of screen time.  Know and Acknowledge your "Problems" What cannot be lost is the routine that I practice every February. I take some time to receive feedback from my colleagues and my students in my class but specifically regarding classroom management. Then I intentionally reflect on the shortcomings of my practice. I analyze how it affects the students I have right now. I find it easy to slide into the way I know what works. I've been doing this for a long time. The reality is that each group of students, each new year brings its new challenges. I get into routines that may not be the best of practices. I lose sight of some of the great things that I've done over the last few years. This year also brings it special challenges as I try to divide the problems that I have because we're in a pandemic with the normal challenges that I would face in a typical year. I believe that this is truly important to separate the two. High Expectations Regardless of Circumstances This year is special. I am trying to divide the Covid problems and the normal challenges I would face in a typical year. This is absolutely important. Many months ago I heard someone suggest we drop the language that suggests our kids just can’t and won’t do as well this year because of the pandemic. I’m guilty of this mantra more than once and that is far too many. We must continue to have high expectations no matter the extrinsic circumstances. I know I’ve seen what I call covid learning apathy in my own class. Some students “checked out” during the pandemic in the spring and may have struggled to check back in. Students developed bad habits during emergency virtual learning(out of our control) and have continued those habits. As we all know, unfortunately, some students might have been barely hanging on to start with. And in reality they may have plenty of justified reasons, but nonetheless. I believe that the problems I'm struggling with are certainly manifesting because of the pandemic world. Students in my world are in person, cohorted and near similar people all day. This certainly has exacerbated the issues I might have seen to be minor in previous years. The behaviors wouldn't have existed because they were able to move about the building or have a different partner next to them. Unfortunately, those realities don't exist in what I still consider to be the fortunate, in-person world that I'm teaching. Problem 1: Student work completion So one of the classroom management problems that has been really frustrating for me is student work completion. This isn't a new issue in my class. Students have not turned in needed practice. Untimely completion has been an issue as well. To be upfront, I don't take off points for late work. The grade for the students in my classroom is standard based and thus based on the assessment performance. This change brings along a whole host of needed practices in order to encourage them to still do some practice. They might say that it doesn't count towards their grade. I've certainly overcome this. I have seen the students rise above the "it doesn't count" language and see the value in the practice. Assignment Notebook I have doubled down on the utilization of an assignment notebook or some other tool that the students might use. This can be electronic or on paper. Typically, my eighth graders come to me and the assignment notebook is something that has worked for them a...

This week we are joined by Brandon. He is Principal and Teaching and Learning Specialist extraordinaire. We hear from Brandon who is full of tips for managing the madness of the virtual classroom now and whenever. "Not to be lost is that this is still a human business no matter what the platform is."Brandon Buchman Background: The district Brandon serves is 1:1 Chromebooks and has implemented the common learning management of Canvas. They primarily use Zoom. He manages approximately 25 teachers who serve about 300 students in the virtual only world. Additional hurdle is the collaboration with in school principals because the district allows students to move in and out of the virtual classroom at the start of each quarter. Teacher Needs The immediacy of needs has changed. The shift in urgency has made the learning demands of the educators to function daily. Providing professional development has become a issue of timeliness. For example, teachers taking attendance or facilitating class discussions has become something to relearn. Regardless of virtual or in person the what and the why have not changed. We want our kids to come to school and love to come to school. We thus have emphasized relationships. Trying to put the work in the front end to reap results in the end. Much of the PD has been around building connection to the kids virtually. Understanding capacity is very important. Each teacher needs to come from their own point a to point b. Maybe mastering the Zoom is the only thing to earn. Eventually these skills become expectations and we can add to the skill set. This progression allows students to get what they need. Teachers Supporting Students Engagement and making learning be fun is important. So many resources(often free) has made our job easier. Attendance Pear Deck templates or waiting room templates that people can grab and use are the little things that go a long way. Teachers have used music pre-lesson to have some fun. Dance parties are optional and can be super cool. It can be another way to take attendance and build engagement. Behavior Management - Virtual Style How do we manage this engagement when you are not in the same space. Non-verbal cues, soft conversation, proximity control are not options like they are in the in person world. So what are we to do? Zoom features can be your friend. You could send the student to the waiting room where you can chat them up to redirect their behavior. This sends the needed message before the "return" to class. Chat feature can be moderated to speak to specific students. Allow them to change their name can be turned on and off. Ultimately a problem solving process needs to be established. We can engage the student and then the family to make the environment more successful. Meetings with all stakeholders are essentially. We've even gone as far as calling the student directly to engage them. GoogleVoice numbers can be very helpful for privacy purposes. Home visits can be a game changer too. DO NOT FORGET to Celebrate the Positives Try creating a Flipgrid thank you. Brandon had the students create a message of thanks for the teachers and then created the same for teachers to students. What will Stick from Virtual Learning Assessment should be the biggest change. How do was assess what students can know and do that they just can't look up on Google. Assessment has to be more authentic to assure they are showing the understanding. You could have your students create podcasts. Having students create TedTalks for example way create that accountability. Offering choice needs to be nonnegotiable. The ownership success can really be quite engaging. We have seen students thrive. This could lead to systematic changes where a virtual platform might be an options. Some kids, for whatever reason, in person is just not their fit. Not to be lost is that this is still a human business no matter what the platform is.

Today we take a long overdue visit with Jayna who is a long time and exceptional English Learners teacher. She hails from the twin cities and has taught students of 39 different languages and cultural background. She has taught in immersion programs in many countries as well. She joins us to discuss what we could do for our EL students now in the pandemic but also every day in any year. Equity Issues Across the Board Luke and I have discussed this before, but the pandemic has exacerbated the shortcomings of education. Its not our fault, but its true. The pandemic has highlighted a few things. The first hurdle is the communication piece with families especially those who do not have an English speaking adult at home. Scrambling to translate the district website is a good start. However the student loses the practice with the academic language since the practice can not be daily in the classroom. Technological Literacy The families of English learners can often be new to our education system and certainly new (like all of us) to the virtual world we might be teaching in. We are more easily able to address the needs of those with more common language through something like a language line. However it has not been possible to push in to these households during this time to help them with the tech like setting up a hot spot or navigating tools. Now we are in person and are pushing to teach the students about setting up these tools so we are prepared if we go back to virtual. What needs to stick? After the pandemic we cannot just abandon some of these things we've seen. Teachers have had an opportunity to present the curriculum at their level and pace. With EL students there can be pressure in front of peers. In the virtual world they could pause and reflect and then respond. Flipgrid is an example of a way this have been expanded. Learning became more visual which is a common connection among other languages. Things like subtitles in YouTube can be super helpful. Kids can even turn on the translating feature in a GoogleMeet. Seesaw offers some really impressive assistance. The family app automatically translates messages from teacher into native languages. What is good for some students is good for all students.Episode 40 Use Their Native Language They are literate in their native language and sometimes this is forgotten. Provide them with background books to front load content. RazzKids offers some great options. Subtitles could be used in their language too. Provide Audio Direction Audio directions became the norm in virtual learning. This needs to stay. This allows the learners to review what was said on their own time and pace. Some different software can translate the audio. Screencasts can be great for parents to provide that same opportunity. Another app that has been incredible is TalkingPoints. It does not have to be downloaded by the family. It will send a text message in the language that you have selected. They can reply from their cell phone in their native language and it will translate for the teacher. New Kid New Experience Create a warm and welcoming environment. Learn their name and learn it correctly. If possible ask a parent to record their name so it can be practiced. Learn some background about their country or culture to connect with them. So important is to consider their cultural norms. Invite the EL teacher in to prep the class. Give the student the curriculum at their language level. Focus on the "Can Do" and Not the Can't Do English Learners come with many can't dos because of the language barrier. Work to promote bilingualism. They are emerging English learners. You can do this by offering things link sentence starters or even share something they know in their native language. Book Recommendation Someone NewI'm New HereButterfly Yellow

Here we sit usually setting up our classroom for the coming year. If you are like us, you might be in limbo with what is to come this year. Today's episode seeks to discuss things we can do NOW even though we are approaching the unkNOWn. We are both in two different places with our plan to return to school. I am beginning with a soft start to ease the students into the protocols of the new world. I will then be providing instruction for all in-person learners. About a third of my normal amount of students will be learning virtually under the instruction of a virtual-only teacher. Luke is in a hybrid situation where he plans and provides virtual instruction and sees the kids once a week in person in a block like schedule. He is instructing students who are in that hybrid and those who have chosen all virtual learning. Regardless of our approach we are entering a world not like the spring. Our instruction, rather than being an emergency, will be more like the experience we would provide in every other year. As we often do, the focus will be on social emotional needs first and curriculum second. No matter what model you are flowing in and out of, we discuss somethings that you can do now. Health First Curriculum has to be secondary in classroom. Health and wellness and student relationship is really number one. To tackle the biggest issue we suggest blue light glasses or, even better, a blue light filter extension. This is not new science but it one of those things that is easy to say that it is not that big of a deal. I've attended so many professional development sessions that mention the detrimental effects of screen time on the eyes and thus the brain. The effects of blue light research is relatively new. In my research to understand this phenomenon I learned quite a bit about it. It, like other colors in the visible spectrum, is good for you. However much like fluorescent bulbs digital screens emit more of the blue light portion of the spectrum. (Harvard article) In our hybrid or all digital world we naturally will be using an inordinate amount of screen time. We are limiting the distribution of paper and will likely be communicating with our students (and them with each other) on a screen. We need to be conscience of potentially limiting our screen use and also lessening the exposure to blue light. Blue light glasses or a blue light filter extension on your computer could be the solution. Blue light glasses might be the answer. You might also use an extension on Google Chrome. (see suggestions here) Social Emotional Needs We need to be sure that the "getting to know you" part of the school year is not lost in the virtual start. I begin the year with a written dialogue with my students. Inside their name tent there is an opportunity to converse with me over the first three days (see template here). This has been invaluable and I would fear losing this. This personal dialogue can be easily replicated over the computer. Flipgrid is perfect for this opportunity and should be at the top of your list. Padlet, too, could be a forum to have students get to know one another when taking turns on a Zoom just would be too chaotic. Not lost as well would be an activity from TwoTeachersPodcast Episode 1: Teacher 2.0. This could be easily replicated in the digital world. Again, Padlet would be a great place for this. An additional step I took this year was to create a word cloud with the things the students want in a teacher. Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed. Remote learning 101 has all of your answers too. Matt Miller from Ditch that Textbook created this free online course for teachers. You can find that here. And much like everything produced by Matt Miller, this course is teaching gold. Digitize your Classroom This could be a bitmoji classroom but Luke and I enjoy a digital syllabus. What we don't want lost is replicating the classroom experience and a hub for resources.

On this episode we address how to grade within the inequity of virtual learning and how to set yourself up to be fair. We stumble upon the solution. It is not about the grade(letter, percentage or otherwise) its about the feedback. All students (essentially) are in this same boat. There will forever be an asterisk on this 4th term grade. Can you get evidence? If not, how can you assign a grade based on the body of work the students have already produced. In the end feedback is king.

We are devastated in this virtual learning world that we do not get to bring closure and celebrate success with our students in our physical classroom. With things so up in the air, we do not know if we will have this chance for months to come. Obviously there are some significant milestones like promotions and graduations, but we are talking about the little things too. Join us in the episode as we brainstorm on how to replicate this farewell in the virtual world. No Closure Makes Us Sad We emphasize so often the connection with the students. We also know that it takes 180 days to make some of these connections. Selfishly we feel like we missed an opportunity to build relationships and maybe have less concern about the academics. In that last month, last week or last day, there are so many opportunities to celebrate that friednship or growth of the students(as a person or academics). So how do we send them off? Brainstorming the "End" How does this look and feel for the students for virtual learning? What do we do to complete the journey? How replicate the milestone of promotion? We apologize because we do not have the million dollar answer on what to do about graduation, but we do offer some ideas to help. End of the Year Party? Many classrooms end with a celebration. As much as I wanted to take the curriculum to the last day, I have learned, that this is clerically impossible. Classrooms need to be shutdown, lockers need to be cleaned, students need to connect one last time. Often these parties may just be a reward day filled with outside time, a field trip, visiting teachers, etc. This is not going to happen this year... What about next year though? Bring the students back to their previous year's teacher for one last day. This doesn't have to be in August or September. It could be in December, but put it on the calender. Send them back for some time to visit, meet and connect. Virtual learning idea: Virtual Yearbook Signing Feasibility is obviously a concern. If you are a k-5 building, then this will work for all students except the former 5 graders, now 6th graders. This applies to the now 9th graders as well. Could they be bussed? It might be worth it. The also inevitably leaves out those we have sent on to college. Plan a party for them too. Colleges start late and end in early December for that first semester. Put a "Senior Return" day on the calender to celebrate those graduates one more time. In all likliehood colleges may not physically return to campus untill January 2021. This gives us even more time to connect with our "former" students. Personalized Thank Yous If you are like us, the last days are spent saying thank you to some students and connecting personally with them to talk about how they changed your life. Send them a letter thank you or a Flipgrid. Luke and I are working on another "Thank You Notes." Think of the surprise when they receive a letter in the mail. Think of the personalization of a video to connect with them. This will be worth the investment of time and money and in a many ways is therapeutic for you too.