Episodes

In this episode, we speak with Niles North High School Summer Reading Program leads ELA teacher Katie Gillies and librarian Beverly Zbinden. While summer reading may help reduce the potential student summer learning slide, Gi...

Earlier in the second season of this podcast, we had as a guest Bo Stjerne Thomsen of LEGO Education discussing the importance of play in creative learning. In this episode, we continue our look at creativity in learning by d...

When students ask where are they EVER going to use the Math they are learning in middle and high school, there is usually something deeper going on; And that is a disconnect in, disinterest, and lack of curiosity in learning ...

The other day, I was speaking with a colleague with whom I co-moderated a LinkedIn Live event, a year or two ago, on supporting multilingual students. She told me that, recently, someone reached out to her from across the cou...

As one of our next guest on the podcast, Daniel Argentar says, students need to know something to learn something. Students need to be able to read and write to be able to internalize scientific information. In this episode, ...

AI can really help teachers plan more engaging lessons in a time conscious manner. In this episode, we speak about how AI can help teachers to plan engaging lessons with North Carolina based science teacher Paul Cancellieri. ...

How to Teach Using Play Based Learning In this episode, we chat with Bo Stjerne Thomsen - Director of Education for LEGO Education and former VP with the LEGO Foundation - about how teachers can integrate physical objects (ma...

Parents should always have the right to decide what books their student can read. But school system wide book bans are bad for children. So says our next guest on the Have a Life Teaching Podcast, former ALA librarian of the ...

While oral language development is a process that occurs naturally, over time, the written word is a complex human produced system that, therefore, requires a systematic approach to decipher - or read. So says this week's gue...

Effective coteaching has so many benefits for students, particularly in terms of inclusion for students with special needs and for bilingual learners. So say today's guests on the podcast - Belinda Karge and Matt Rhoads - who...

Too often, at best, students are compliant with school directives and, at worst, actively defiant much like inmates in a minimum security prison. So says, today's guest, Aaron Hansen - author of the book "Heroes Within" - on ...

In some schools, curriculum is prescribed. In other places, teachers put together their own learning materials. In either case, how do we know that what we are providing students, in terms of materials and content, will promo...

Too often, we think of early primary learners as empty recepticles to be filled. However, this is when creativity and ingenuity is most unfettered and/or non self-conscious. How then can we draw out what early primary student...

How and Why Still Teach the Holocaust? After all, it has been 80 years since the liberation of the concentration camps and end of WWII. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is very simple. Look at the world around us wh...

Knowing research can help us to determine if what others may be telling us to do in our teaching is in the best interest of us and our students. So says, Nathaniel Hansford, a teacher in Canada and author of the book "The Sci...

In this episode, we chat with John Arthur, former Utah teacher of the year, current 6th grade teacher in Salt Lake City, and author of the new book "The Digital Projects Playbook." Join us here as we discuss not only the bene...

Leadership within 21st Century schools should be different from what those of us in Generation X or before experienced of our school leaders says my next podcast guest, David Gaston. Gaston is founder and CEO of Gaston Educat...

Urban schools are vitially important for ensuring the strength of our overall economy as well as the growth of democracy says Michael Casserly, former executive director and current senior consultant of the Council of Great C...

In this episode, we are joined by Leslie Hayes, Vice-President of Education at the New York Historical Society. Hayes discusses how even the simplest item - a Dunkin Doughnuts Coffee Cup for example - can unleash deep and eng...

For too long, schools have been designed using either a top down or bottom up approach; top down where administration makes all system decisions or bottom up where leadership is responsive to parent needs and wishes. However,...

Did you know that two out of every three students will experience a traumatic event before they reach the age of 16? Trying to be clearheaded during a crisis is difficult. As such, schools must therefore be prepared to addres...

Did you know that November is Children's Grief Awareness Month? Or, that 1/12 U.S. children will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18? Grief is a normal part of life, and schools must find ways to support stu...

Dr. Paola Sztaijn is Dean of Education at North Carolina State University and co-author of the book - Activating Math Talk: 11 Purposeful Techniques for Your Elementary Students. In this episode, Paola and I discuss the four ...

Given the contentious nature of this election season and the accompanying polarization, humanities teachers could be forgiven for not wanting to teach the election process. Yet, if we onlt teach the past, including hard pasts...