EduTip 32: Don't put kids in Charlie Bucket situations.
Although most teachers understand that not all students have the same home life, sometimes we forget how big those differences can really be, and how humiliating it can be for a student to be asked to publicly share details about their lives outside of school. In this EduTip we'll talk about some situations where this comes up, and what you can do to prevent it from happening. ------------------- Thanks to Studyo for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.
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253: Fully Seen and Fully Known: Teaching that Affirms Disability
Most special education efforts have focused on giving students with disabilities better access to the curriculum — but access alone isn’t enough. In this episode, I talk with Amy Tondreau and Laurie Rabinowitz, authors of the book Sustaining Cultural and Disability Identities in the Literacy Classroom, about disability-sustaining pedagogy, a framework that helps students embrace disability as a cultural identity. We explore practical ways teachers can make their classrooms more inclusive, empowering, and identity-affirming for disabled students. Thanks to Alpaca and the School Me Podcast for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and find links to related resources, visit cultofpedagogy.com/disability-sustaining.
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EduTip 31: Be the first dork.
If you want to have the kind of classroom where students do more than just sit and listen, it's likely that your plans may include activities that require some social risk-taking. One way to help your students get more comfortable taking these small social risks is for you to be the first dork, the first one to do the thing that no one else wants to do because they’re afraid of looking weird or being vulnerable. ------------------- Thanks to Studyo for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.
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252: Where Discipline Reform Has Gone Wrong (in Some Schools)
While the shift to restorative practices should be improving student behavior, that's not happening in every school. Some teachers say the discipline systems at their schools have completely broken down, creating an environment where students do whatever they want with no consequences. This has made teachers feel frustrated, angry, unsupported, and in some cases, unsafe. What has gone wrong? In this episode, I have an in-depth conversation about this issue with restorative justice educator bink jones and trauma-informed educator Alex Shevrin Venet. Both educators are well aware that restorative practices are getting a bad rap for all the wrong reasons, they unequivocally validate the frustrations teachers are experiencing, and they explain what they think is going wrong in schools that aren't seeing good results from this framework. They offer a path forward for educators who are desperate for a healthy, respectful, productive climate in their schools. Thanks to ExploreLearning and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and find links to related resources, visit cultofpedagogy.com/discipline-reform.
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EduTip 30: Do something after formative assessments.
If I give my students an exit slip to check their grasp of a particular skill, and a third of them don’t do well, just moving forward with my original teaching plan is a missed opportunity. Ideally, my next steps should involve some kind of targeted response. Let's talk about what that looks like. ------------------- Thanks to Studyo for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.
Teaching strategies, classroom management, education reform, educational technology -- if it has something to do with teaching, we're talking about it. Jennifer Gonzalez interviews educators, students, administrators and parents about the psychological and social dynamics of school, trade secrets, and other juicy things you'll never learn in a textbook. For more fantastic resources for teachers, visit http://www.cultofpedagogy.com.