The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast

Not long ago, if you wanted to record and distribute music, publish a book, produce a film, sell your art, or reach an audience with your voice, you had to hope a large corporation would make that happen. But those days are over: A special group of technology tools now makes it possible for our students -- and us -- to pursue our talents and passions to the fullest extent possible, just like the pros. I call this collection the Passion Tools, and in this episode, I'm going to tell you all about them. http://www.teachersguidetotech.com

Are you preparing for a teaching job interview? In this episode, I talk to five experienced administrators about the things prospective teachers should and should NOT do in interviews. Many thanks to Chris Nordmann, Penny Sturtevant, Herbert O'Neil, George Couros, and Joe Collins for providing us with these great insights.

After teaching elementary school for years without revealing that she was gay, Jessica Lifshitz finally decided it was time to come out at school when she got engaged. This is her story. 

Helping students improve their writing skills is no longer solely reserved for English language arts teachers; educators in all content areas are expected to help students develop their abilities to write effectively. Fulfilling this goal isn't as hard as it might seem; these seven strategies (plus one bonus) are easy to implement, won't consume a lot of instructional time, and deliver big results.

This year, Starr Sackstein made a drastic change in her high school English and journalism classes: After years of feeling as if students cared more about their grades than they did about learning, she decided to stop giving grades altogether. In this interview, Starr talks to me about how she runs a no-grades classroom in a school that still requires traditional grading. She shares her strategies for helping students learn to self-reflect, describes how her teaching workload has changed, and talks about how throwing out grades has improved students' learning.

How important are nonverbals when it comes to your effectiveness as a teacher? In this episode, I talk with Teaching for Success CEO Jack Shrawder about the specific non-verbal behaviors that make teachers less effective and how you can adjust your voice, posture and other non-verbals to give yourself more presence and confidence in the classroom. 

For some teachers, it has become a habit to send the majority of discipline problems elsewhere: Either we write up an office referral, threaten to call parents, or even enlist a more intimidating colleague to deal with a problematic student. When we do this, we are giving our power away, limiting the respect our students have for us and missing an opportunity to model assertive, skillful problem solving. In this episode, I'll share some ideas for breaking this habit and reclaiming control of your classroom management.

Sometimes the simplest techniques are the most effective. Think-Pair-Share is a humble but powerful teaching strategy that's due for some attention. In this episode, I talk about the benefits of Think-Pair-Share, plus some tips for making it work better for you.

How important is the relationship you build with your students, and how can you make that relationship better? James Sturtevant, author of the book You've Gotta Connect, joins me to talk about why the teacher-student relationship is more significant to student learning than even socioeconomic status, the specific things teachers can do to build a strong, trusting relationship with students, and why sarcasm will always bite you in the butt. A must-listen for teachers interested in improving classroom management.

What are the most productive ways for teachers to talk to their students about the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the incidents that have occured in its aftermath? In this episode, I talk to José Vilson, a teacher and writer whose work focuses on issues of race, culture, privilege, and education, about how teachers can approach this topic in their classrooms -- and the inner work they'll need to do beforehand.