Hallway Conversations

This week, kind of an old-school Hallway Conversation like we did back in the early days of the show: Dave springs a question about assessment on Abby and Matt, and we just think out loud together about what assessment really, and what it is “for.” In particular, a conversation Dave had with a friend who is a K-12 teacher sparked a wondering about “just how much time should we devote to assessing learning vs. actually teaching the content?” We hope the discussion might prompt some wondering of your own–and that you might have a hallway conversation with a colleague about your own assessment practices.

• Exciting news for us! We have an official sponsor: the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education! You can find out more about CACE and the good work they are doing at https://cace.org/

This week: three short pieces stitched together that we hope will prompt a little thanksgiving, and will give you a word of encouragement for the work you are called to do as an educator. This episode includes a section we snipped out of our previous episode in which we interviewed our friend, Lynn Swaner. (See episode 099 - it’s a really good one!) It also includes two short pieces from Dave’s now-defunct blog that we hope will give you a little boost. Also, it’s been an insane couple of weeks between a few of us teaching an overloaded schedule this semester as well as some travel a couple of us needed to do. So…we hope (and plan!) to be back to record a full episode for you all soon!

• Original post from Dave’s old blog: Keep Your Eye on the Donut: https://iteach-and-ilearn.blogspot.com/2016/11/keep-your-eye-on-donut.html
• And another post from Dave’s blog: A Case of the Blah’s (And Teaching Anyway): https://iteach-and-ilearn.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-case-of-blahs-and-teaching-anyway.html

It’s our 100th episode!!! We’re proud–and a little surprised, honestly–that we’ve made it to this milestone. Thanks to you loyal listeners for being with us throughout the journey to this point! Coincidentally, we had the joy of recording a live episode at the Christian Educators’ Association Convention held in South Bend, Indiana in October 2023, which became a fun celebration for our 100th episode as well; it was great to connect with some fans of the show while we were there. We solicited a bunch of questions from the audience, and it was fun to think on our feet and interact with the crowd who joined us. It’s wide-ranging conversation about a bunch of different issues in education today–from living out our calling, to teacher retention, to teacher preparation, to effective homework (Dave’s favorite axe to grind)...there is a lot of ground we cover! We hope you enjoy listening in on this live session, because we sure enjoyed recording it!

In this episode we reference the following, which we recommend to you:

• Steven Garber’s powerful book, Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Visions-Vocation-Common-Grace-Good/dp/0830836667
• Dave’s newsletter: Positivity. Passion. Purpose. Which you can access here for free: https://drdave.substack.com/

This week was a treat for us: the opportunity to have our good friend, Lynn Swaner, joining us for a recording session while she was on our campus. Lynn serves as Chief Strategy and Innovation Office at the Association of Christian Schools International. She is one of the co-authors of the book Flourishing Together, which we read and discussed on the podcast in the spring of 2022 (see episodes 056 through 060 for our discussion of this excellent book.)

On today's episode, Lynn shares from her wealth of experiences and the research she has conducted; we wind up with a wide-ranging conversation about flourishing, calling, weathering the challenges of education today, leadership, and imagining the future of education. Lynn a wise voice that Christian educators should be listening to, and we hope you’ll be encouraged by this week’s conversation.

This week is part two of our conversation with our co-host Abby De Groot along with our friends Rikki Brons and Gayle Doornbos as they share about their adventure this summer on pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We recommend that you go back and listen to our last episode before diving into part two of the conversation. In this part of the conversation, we focus on what pilgrimage is, what it is all about, and how pilgrimage might even be educational—an adventure in pedagogy. We discuss the difference between pilgrimage and “going for a walk,” the role of community in our pilgrimage through life, and the way Christian educators might benefit from thinking about teaching as a sort of pilgrimage–walking on the way and seeking to faithfully follow Jesus. We hope you’ll be blessed and encouraged on your journey by listening in!

• If you are interested in learning more about traveling the Camino themselves, our friends recommend checking out Encounter: Travel for Transformation. You can find more information here: https://encounter-tft.com/

This week’s episode is a special first part of a two-part episode. We have a couple of friends joining us today, Dr. Rikki Brons and Dr. Gayle Doornbos. Abby, Rikki, and Gayle adventured together this summer, going on a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. The Camino is an ancient pilgrimage route traveled by Christians for centuries, and this was no vacation: this was a spiritual and educational journey! In this episode, we hear a bit about what prompted this pilgrimage for them, how it worked, and what they learned. We hope you’ll enjoy hearing about their adventures…and come back for part II in a couple weeks to find out more about the significance and influences they have found not only for their faith lives, but for their teaching as well.

So…we were a little punchy recording this episode, because it was Friday afternoon and it had been a long week. We hope you enjoy a little extra silliness and bantering back and forth! This episode is in response to a question from a listener; Mike asked us to share some of the podcasts we love (besides this one) and were happy to share. There are a wide range of different ideas here, but we think you’ll find something to add to your list for listening–things that we think will bring you opportunities for learning, or laughter, or both. You can find any of the podcasts we mention in your favorite podcast platform, so feel free to go searching! Here is the list of podcasts we named in this episode:

• Revisionist History
• Stuff You Should Know
• The Ten Minute Bible Hour
• The Anthropocene Reviewed
• Everything Happens
• Freakonomics
• The Last Archive
• Up First
• In All Things
• Pantsuit Politics
• What Should I Read Next
• 99 Percent Invisible
• 32 Thoughts
• No Laying Up

In this episode, Dave’s bi-weekly newsletter also came up as a topic of discussion. It is entitled “Positivity. Passion. Purpose.” and it’s meant to encourage and support educators who need a boost of positivity, a jolt of passion, or a reminder of their purpose. He would love it if you would check it out, and you can subscribe for free: https://drdave.substack.com

Welcome to Season 7! It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to get together around the microphones, but we are excited to dive into more conversations with you. Matt kicks off the new season by sharing a recent podcast episode that got him thinking deeply about the importance of reflection, and the surprising power of reflection for solidifying our understanding and learning. This prompted us to do a little shared reflection on the things we experienced and learned this summer, and we even get a little personal with the new things we are finding in this season of newness. These personal reflections further prompted us to reflect together about our development as teachers over the years and how seasons of newness often are opportunities for growth. We hope that listening in might prompt some reflection of your own, and some collegial conversations you might have about your personal and professional development.

• The podcast Matt referenced in this episode is called The Learner Lab, and the specific episode that got him thinking about the importance of reflection was this one, entitled “The Surprising Power of Reflection.” You can listen to it here: https://thelearnerlab.com/the-surprising-power-of-reflection-giada-di-stefano/

Greetings, loyal listeners! We are still in full summer mode, but don't worry--more new episodes coming your way soon. This week is a replay of a popular episode from about one year into this podcasting adventure; hopefully, you'll enjoy re-listening (or perhaps listening for the first time!) 

And so, for today, one from the archives. Our main topic in this episode was sparked by a question from a listener; Loretta asks, “In the past few years, our school has embraced Project Based Learning as a preferred teaching method. What are your thoughts on PBL? And what do you think are some of the best things about PBL and maybe what are some of the downfalls of teaching in a PBL style?” This was a timely question, as Matt and Abby had visited a PBL school just the week before we recorded this episode! We think together about the similarities and differences between having students “do projects” and implementing “project-based learning.” We further explore some of the habits of mind that seem to be important for implementing PBL at a classroom level and at a school level. Expanding audiences, exhibitions of student work, student empowerment–we talk about it all!

This is a new episode, but perhaps a little different than most! We have had a terrible time getting the three of us to be in the same place at the same time with the mindset and wherewithal to record new episodes. (Never fear–new episodes are coming soon! Once we’re all back from our summer travels, we’ll get back into our normal routine.) :-) In the meantime, this one is made up of two elements: both a snippet from an earlier conversation that Dave had cut out during the editing process, as well as a solo recording Dave made of a piece that came from his old blog. We hope that both of these will offer encouragement for novice teachers…and their more experienced colleagues as well.

• If you’re interested in reading the original piece from Dave’s blog, you can find it here: https://iteach-and-ilearn.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-good-teacheror-great-teacher.html