Two Teachers Podcast

On Episode 26 we share an argument for why listening to podcasts for professional development is the BEST way to receive Professional Development. We then share a couple of our favorite professional development podcasts for you to check out too. As educators ourselves, our goal is to provide some PD to other teachers in a timely manner through a platform that allows our listeners the power to select topics they are interested in either learning more about or gaining fresh ideas in. This is why we felt that creating an episode advocating for podcasts as a source of PD is so beneficial and should be recognized by all our school districts as PD hours.

Podcasting is easy! Reaching a global reach and doing it with quality, a website, graphics, etc. is hard. When you ask you students podcast, you give them an authentic audience. All they need is a mic and a phone. Many to all of our students have these in their locker and can start today. What and where you go with this is up to you. Listen to this episode to unlock the secrets of using this accessible tool in your classroom. Thank you to The Audacity to Podcast for all the insight and knowledge. We couldn't have done this without you. Click the link provided to do some research on your own. Good Luck!

On this episode, Luke sits down to interview author and international keynote speaker, Brian Mendler! Brian travels the world teaching educators how to handle "that student" in class. We have come up with 6 common "Hard to Handle" classroom situations and asked Brian to describe how he feels a teacher should best defuse the situations while mending the student-teacher rapport. If you've never heard Brian speak, buckle up because he speaks his truth and makes it very clear that we, as educators, need to embrace these situations rather than remove "that student" from class. Here we go! You can follow Brian on twitter: @BrianMendler and visit his website https://www.brianmendler.com and listen to his podcast "The Brian Mendler Show" on iTunes!

On this episode Tom has the privilege of speaking with one of the most intelligent and kind individuals he knows... His nephew, and current high school student, Evan. Evan leads this episode by discussing his research on the changes, or needed changes, in education for his AP English class. Thank you Evan for the insightful discussion and your take on what a good education really is.

On Episode 22: Give and Take we discuss the non-negotiables of feedback and then transition our conversation into how we can receive feedback from our stakeholders rather than what we spend most of our time doing, giving feedback. We discuss the use of Padlet.com as a way to collect feedback from our students. The format allows for a forum type discussion where students can discuss their needs. One thing we realized is when students are not trained to provide feedback we need to be sure we illicit good feedback with sentence stems and prompts. Example of using Padlet to gather feedback from students.

On the episode we dive into a an essential and easy way to differentiate your instruction. This time you are differentiating the environment: classroom, physical space, rules, seating, procedures, etc. We discuss some of our takeaways from Episode 2 on seating arrangements. We talk about purposeful use of other parts of your building for instruction. We provide ideas on the benefit of recording your instruction to "change" the students environment for learning.

Part 3 of our differentiated instruction series covers the differentiation of the product. We discuss "choice assessments," rubrics, R.A.F.T. Model and #TwoMinuteReviews. Who are we to tell a student how they should show us what they know? We share some of our ideas in order to help educators feel more confident in putting the onus back on their students to create their demonstration of knowledge & skill. Also, for Social Studies Teachers, please check out www.HistoryDilemas.com for some awesome content!

On this episode we continue our 2nd of 4 parts where dive deeper into the parts of differentiated instruction. This week its all about differentiating the process of learning. We will feature a description of High Floor; Low Ceiling Assignments like the 2-4-8-10. We will discuss how centers and infographics can be that differentiation of the process.

Differentiation! The often misused and overused buzz word of your field. Join us in this episode, the first of 4 episodes, as we dive into the 4(maybe 5) parts of differentiation Today we cover Content. We define content as the curriculum, standards and essential facts that we teach. We share way to give choice to the students who wish to advance their learning and resources to assist in understanding.

On this episode we record live with my students as I share my passion for podcasting in hopes of modeling and mentoring my learning to inspire theirs. We are joined my Nicole McCloy as she also shared how she inspires a purpose to learn to drive everyday tasks that take us there. She shares her Veterans Day Activity to discover our purpose as well as her feel good Friday videos often featuring Inky Johnson. ...And don't forget to follow Nicole for more great ideas and collaborative opportunities on twitter @realmrsmccloy