Teachers Talking Teaching

Lisa Plank, high school social sciences and government teacher, joins Traci & Tracey today to talk about how she discovered her passion for history and teaching. Lisa shares how her life growing up overseas and a couple of years in the Peace Core led to her passion for other cultures and learning. She also talks with us about her journey private to public schools and from small town, rural school to urban/suburban, large school.

Tracey and Traci continue their conversation with Lisa Plank, high school history and government teacher, and dig into talk about teaching controversial, timely topics in today's high school classrooms. Lisa shares how she teaching media literacy and multiple perspectives in her classes in order to bring in current events. She is also researching and designing a new course about indigenous cultures involving literacy and history. Join us to hear from this dynamic educator!

Tracey & Traci talk to Dawn from Refactored Media about the process and planning that goes into making the Teachers Talking Teaching podcast.

Brenden Gallagher, high school language arts, film and media teacher, continues his talk with Traci and Tracey today. Brenden helps us understand what project-based learning can be - how to allow for learning, failure, goal-setting and trust. We talk about the "messiness" of projects and how Brenden puts processes and structures in place to scaffold student learning. He also works to create authentic audiences for student film projects and build in a natural feedback and reflection loop. We also have an honest conversation about the mental health of teachers and how to do this job we love but find balance.

Traci & Tracey had the joy of learning about high school language arts and film teacher Brenden Gallagher's origin story in today's episode of Teachers Talking Teaching. Join us to hear about how he worked in the film industry before deciding to become a teacher and educate kids about film writing, directing and producing. He shares his experiences learning to balance work and home and teaching the things you love and enjoy. We also chat about how to hook kids and teach them the art AND the craft of film and writing. Brenden also talks about the future of his program in his school as they merge the theater and film program for a new accreditation with benefits for students' career prep.

This week Traci & Tracey continue learning from Jason Tyler about his joy of working with students to produce a high school musical. Jason's program was selected to showcase their fall musical at a state thespian conference and he shares how that process worked out. He also talks about the process he goes through to put together a season of shows and learning experiences that will benefit students the most and also about how he works with administration to select performances. Jason shares the importance of teamwork in the theater world too.

Today Traci & Tracey talk to Jason Tyler, high school Language Arts, Theatre, and Film teacher. Hear about Jason's journey through college to find the right fit of majors and following an unconventional path to gaining a teaching license. Jason talks about how he explored his passions and grew a theatre program at his current high school.

Traci & Tracey continue their conversation with Stacy Ruffer, high school English and Computer Science teacher, this week. Stacy shares how he keeps his own passion for English alive by being part of a teacher book club and continuing his own learning of computer science by challenging himself to learn a new coding language. The discussion explores motivating students with coding events, getting kids real-life, job-related experience, and building relationships with kids. We also dive into a conversation about ChatGPT's usefulness in the classroom as a tool in both the English and Computer Science classrooms.

Join us as we listen to Stacy Ruffer, English and Computer Science high school teacher, share about his journey to become a teacher and merge his love of these two subjects with his love of working with kids.

Amy Otteman-Freeman joins the podcast today to share her teaching origin story from growing up surrounded by educators in a small community during her own high school education to becoming an English educator in high school. Amy's joy for learning and for working with kids is evident as she talks with Traci & Tracey in this episode.

In today's episode, we return to the literacy conversations that we started earlier in this season with Amy Otteman-Freeman, a high school English teacher. Traci & Tracey talk with Amy about how she combines her love of history and literature in her high school English classes. Amy also shares her special love for British literature and how gets kids to be inspired by it too. Listen today to see how she works to make students better readers, better writers, and better humans. Sin & Syntax: How to Create Wicked Good Prose https://www.amazon.com/Sin-Syntax-Craft-Wicked-Prose/dp/0385346891/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2SD5WQW7ZWBW5&keywords=sin+and+syntax&qid=1675625234&sprefix=sin+and+syntax%2Caps%2C244&sr=8-1

Jo Dixon sits down with Traci & Tracey to talk about the challenges and joys of teaching physical education. This year Jo has taken on the challenge of being a district facilitator for PE and health. Hear how she has designed and carried out professional development for her teachers in her district in meaningful ways. Jo talks about the current focus on teaching students movement for life and health skills. She also shares the science behind using PE to address the social/emotional needs of kids, especially post-pandemic.

On this episode of Teachers Talking Teaching, Traci & Tracey talk with Andrew Shumate, a new teacher to the profession, tell us about his journey to becoming a classroom teacher. Andrew shares how working in a science museum also contributed to his love of helping kids find joy in learning. You'll be inspired by Andrew's passion as he shares his teaching origin story.

This week as we continue our conversation with Andrew Shumate, in his fourth year as a new teacher, share about how he inspires his students through his love of science. Andrew talks about how his masters degree program and understanding of inquiry-based science learning has spread to other subjects in his fourth grade classroom. Hear how new teachers can inspire experienced teachers with their new learning, understanding of kids, and passion for content.

Tracey & Traci talk to Jo Dixon about how she entered the profession of teaching and coaching. Find out how Jo decided that teaching PE and health were her passion that she wanted to share with children through classroom teaching and athletic coaching.

In episode 14, Traci & Tracey continue the conversations around the science of reading. We also continue our conversation with Carla Hewitt as she shares what her role as an elementary literacy interventionist entails. She shares her best tips and tricks for gathering data, determining needs, and devising a plan for our struggling early readers and how to work with classroom teachers. Carla also shares her experiences as a professional development leader, specifically around LETRS training. https://www.lexialearning.com/letrs https://www.95percentgroup.com/

Join us as we talk to Carla Hewitt and continue our conversations about literacy. Carla shares her origin story and what led her to become a literacy interventionist and also become a teacher of teachers.

Join Traci & Tracey as they talk with Tami Wolff about inspiring middle schoolers to love reading and writing in her middle school classroom. Learn about her process of "PDER-ing" (planning, doing, evaluating and refining) and how she sets up the physical environment helps her build a comfortable and reflective space for both her and her students. She works to give her students real-life experiences that require them to reflect and defend their developing awareness of the world and their place in it.

Learn about how middle school English teacher Tami Wolff spent time learning her craft by experiencing schools all over the world. In this week's episode, we learn about Tami's teaching origin story from the Pacific islands to Alaska to Colorado.

Tracey and Traci talk about what teaching literacy is like in the upper elementary levels. We discuss the role of the read aloud, even with older students who can read themselves. The conversation also shifts to what do kids do in their independent reading time to deepen their understanding of the texts they are reading and become skeptical readers and consumers of text. Video chapters ====================================== 00:00 - Intro 04:20 - First Chapter Fridays 05:33 - First Cat in Space Ate Pizza https://www.thefirstcatinspace.com/ 05:55 - Independent Reading using work of Kylene Beers & Robert Probst "Disruptive Thinking" by Beers & Probst & BHH (Book, Head, Heart) Reading https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-tools/articles/disrupting-thinking.html 09:10 - Notice & Note Signposts "Reading Nonfiction" by Beers & Probst https://www.heinemann.com/products/e05080.aspx "Notice & Note" by Beers & Probst https://www.heinemann.com/products/e04693.aspx