Collaboration is great as long as you have high-quality projects for students to work on. In this episode, we'll explore five unique ideas for collaborative projects that can be adapted for any subject area, along with suggestions for adding criticality and opportunities for student agency to each one.  ------------------- Thanks to CoderZ and Hapara for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

Stopping while you read a text out loud might be necessary in order to explain, dissect, or analyze something, but those interruptions can really mess up a listener's experience of the text. Next time, start with a smooth first read, then start over and get into the instruction. ---------- You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips. ------------------- Thanks to Edulastic for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

Critical thinking is something usually reserved only for advanced classes, but if we want our students to receive an equitable education, they all need regular practice in thinking critically. In this episode, Tangible Equity author Colin Seale shares three easy strategies for infusing critical thinking into any lesson. ------------------- Thanks to CoderZ and Pear Deck for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

If too many of your classroom plans go off the rails, you might need to add more norm-setting, where you clarify expectations in detail before starting an activity. It's a step some of us skip, but the time you spend on it will pay off later.  ---------- You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips. ------------------- Thanks to Edulastic for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

Language shapes so much of who we are, but not all students feel they can bring their whole selves into the classroom. Even the most well-meaning teachers can unwittingly do more harm than good. In this episode, educator Andrea Castellano answers some common questions about students who code-switch between languages and dialects and shares research-based practices that will help multilingual students flourish. ------------------- Thanks to CoderZ and Edulastic for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

We spend a LOT of time with students, and quite a bit of that time is not used for direct instruction. This "downtime" offers plenty of tiny opportunities for teaching, assessment, and relationship building—we just have to recognize them. You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips. ------------------- Thanks to Pear Deck for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

We've covered a lot of differentiation strategies over the years, and here's one you may not have heard of: backward chaining. It allows students to start a task a few steps ahead, allowing them to experience a sense of completion that might otherwise be out of reach. My guest Melanie Meehan explains how it works.  ------------------- Thanks to Pear Deck and Spinndle for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

Adding an unexpected ingredient to a lesson makes students more likely to remember the thing they were supposed to learn. You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips. ------------------- Thanks to Pear Deck for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

Whether or not you're involved in athletics, all teachers will have transgender students in their classrooms, and understanding the issues that impact them will make you a better teacher for these vulnerable students. In this episode, I talk with former college athlete and sports policy scholar Katie Lever about the reasons trans athletes should be included in women's sports.  ------------------- Thanks to Pear Deck and Spinndle for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

Teachers are leaving the classroom in larger numbers than ever, and many are breaking contracts mid-year just to get out. What can school leaders do to stop this? What makes one school lose teachers in the double digits, while others manage to hold on to almost everyone? In this episode, we'll hear the stories of four teachers who left their jobs in the past year. Then we'll hear the words of hundreds of teachers who stayed, and what administrators in those schools did differently. ------------------- Thanks to Listenwise and Spinndle for sponsoring this episode. -------------------