Our guests and Episode 124 of Class Dismissed spent a lot of time thinking about what makes a teacher great. As a director of English language programs in the United States and overseas, Paul Morin had the opportunity to observe a lot of teachers. During that time he began seeing three commonalities amongst the educators he thought were the most effective.  Morin wrote about those in a recent post on Medium and he went more in-depth about them in the "Bright Idea" segment of our latest episode. Good teachers watch their students faces Good teachers check for understanding Good teachers deviate from the lesson plan when necessary To hear our full interview with Paul Morin listen to the latest episode of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcast app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019

We've seen wellness and mindfulness rooms for students, but this public school decided to create one for their teachers. For more than 30 years Debbi Rakowsky attended to the health and happiness of students. She served as the district social worker of the Three Village School District on Long Island, New York. However, over the past ten years, Rakowsky started to notice a shift amongst the staff.  Teachers and faculty would frequently come to her and vent about the stresses that are involved in education. "A lot that has to do with the complex parent and family needs and the high stake job demands," says Rakowsky. "For me, when I started in the district school was a very safe place for people to go. And one of the things that happens a lot with teachers these days is they go through this rehearsed trauma. Where the first day of school we're learning about what you do if an armed shooter comes into your school and how do you protect your students." Rokowsky had dedicated her life to helping kids, but she wanted to do something for the adults that keep the school running. She began piloting a "Winter Wellness Series." Rokowsky says the cold winter months in New York are difficult because you leave for school in the dark and you come home in the dark. So she took a faculty room and repurposed it by making it more "Zen" and she brought in practitioners every Wednesday. "And the staff just went wild for it," says Rakowsky. After that, she began to think big. What if she could make a permanent place just for teachers and school staff to decompress? A place that was off-limits to students. Not a teacher's lounge, but a place where staff could come in think and breath without distractions. "I've had people walk in they literally cry. They say I can't believe that this is in our school," says Rakowsky. Rakowsky wrote a proposal and handed off to administrators and she says they didn't even blink. "They said let's do this!" The district moved Rakowsky to the high school and they gave her a classroom that wasn't in use. She applied for grants and they began to furnish the room. "When you walk into that room, you do not feel like you're in a school," says Rakowsky. There is a faux wood floor, window treatments, and the lights are different than the normal school lights. Rokowsky also added a water feature, massage chairs, and a meditation area. "I've had people walk in they literally cry. They say I can't believe that this is in our school," says Rakowsky. For Rakowsky and the staff, it's more than a room. She also offers several programs for teachers, she offers workshops on managing anxiety, she has lunch and learns with practitioners, and they offer free short term counseling. To learn more about program listen to Episode 123 of the Class Dismissed on your favorite podcast app or iTunes. If you have questions for Rakowsky, she can be contacted at drakowsk@3villagecsd.org All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019

What if we could use data to determine the best rapper? “Who’s the best rap artist?” This a question that one of Peter Nilsson’s high school students wanted to answer. For most high schoolers, it’s subjective. Is it Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, or someone else? Students could debate the topic until they’re blue in the face. But what if those students could prove who’s the best? What if they could come up with a qualitative answer? What if they could use computers to analyze rap lyrics and determine which rapper has the most significant use of internal rhyme? In Nilsson’s class at Deerfield Academy, they did just that. Creating Knowledge Nilsson an English teacher by trade but he has also helped students dive into the world of the digital humanities. In his class, students learned how to use computers to parse through massive amounts of text and answer questions that may otherwise seem unanswerable. Nilsson calls it distant reading. And his students didn’t stop their research with rap. They analyzed how Harvey Weinstein was covered in the New York Times, before and after the MeToo movement. They also examined news coverage of their favorite sports teams. “Part of the way that we designed the class was so that they would be able to pursue these topics of interest. And enable them to see these topics of interest from a new perspective,” said Nilsson. “They start to realize that they are creating knowledge.” To learn how Nilsson is executing and teaching distant reading, listen to Episode 122 of the Class Dismissed on your favorite podcast app or iTunes. Nilsson offers multiple examples and directs us to resources for getting started with distant learning in your classroom. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019

The "math person" myth Far too frequently educators hear students say "I'm not a math person." Often, children and even adults convince themselves that they're "built" for other subjects like history or the arts. But Dr. Jo Boaler is on a mission to prove that the idea of a "math person" is a myth. Boaler is a Professor of Mathematics Education at Stanford University and the faculty director of youcubed.org. She believes (and science backs her up) that we all have the potential to be great at math. So what are we doing wrong? When asked what we're doing wrong right now with math education, Boaler says, "Where do I start?" Credit: YouCubed.Org Boaler believes an emphasis on speed can be devastating in the classroom. She says it's particularly damaging when little kids are expected to memorize and regurgitate lots of math facts. "At that point, when they're given those timed tests, many of them develop math anxiety, and from that point onwards, it's downhill for them," says Boaler. Boaler also believes math teachers should not call on the first student that raises their hand with the answer to a math equation. She says it reinforces a misconception that you have to be fast with numbers to be good at math. "If I was to ask an adult to do a calculation, an area of the brain would light up that is seeing fingers,"  Dr. Jo Boaler "I like to share the stories of lots of math mathematicians who will openly talk about how slow they are with math," Boaler says some mathematicians thought they were stupid in school because speed was valued. It's ok to count with fingers Boaler also talks about the importance of visual thinking when working with numbers. She says everytime you think about math; there are five pathways in the brain that light up. Two of them are visual. "If I was to ask an adult to do a calculation, an area of the brain would light up that is seeing fingers," even if you're not physically looking at your fingers, says Boaler. "For adults, how well they know they're fingers, predicts how well they'll do on calculation tests." In Episode 121 of Class Dismissed we learn more about the tools Boaler offers educators through www.youcubed.org listen to the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019

How do you navigate "fake news" with your students?Let's face it. We live in a politically divided country. President Donald Trump often describes news stories as "fake news." He's listed the New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN as the "enemy of the people," and he's on record saying that 80% of media is fake news. So what responsibility do teachers have to reconcile these comments with students? And how do educators wade into the political turmoil without getting complaints from politically charged parents? The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017 Tackle fake news without being political"Lots of educators are afraid of having that talk," says Jaquelyn Whiting. "And I understand why they're afraid of having that talk." "I begin every conversation about media literacy by saying, while we are in the room together, we are not going to use the term 'fake news'," Whiting is the co-author of News Literacy: The Keys to Combating Fake News. She's also a library media specialist at Wilton High School in Connecticut. Whiting has made it her mission to inform students and in some cases colleagues on how to identify media bias "I begin every conversation about media literacy by saying, while we are in the room together, we are not going to use the term 'fake news',"  Whiting says she'll feel successful as an educator if she can remove the term from the students' vocabulary. "When that term is invoked. It tends to be invoked with the intention of shutting down dialogue." Whiting asks her students to think about three things when evaluating news. Information - What's happening Misinformation - When someone tries to convey to you what's happening and they make an unintentional mistake. You know the mistake was unintentional when they come back and write a retraction or clarification to correct the error. Disinformation - When someone tries to convey incorrect information to you for their own personal gain. Whiting says dividing news into these three categories allow her and her students have a quality conversation about how we understand the world. "We can start to differently about the choices that journalist are making when they choose to print or not print something,' says Whiting. Whiting says that the political climate is what it is and we have to learn to operate in it productively. In Episode 120 of Class Dismissed we talk in-depth with Whiting about how to help students become media literate by identifying native advertising, influencers, and media bias. To learn more listen to Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019

Most educators will agree that school is more than just teaching academics. It’s about teaching life lessons that prepare our children for the future.  In fact, we all make thousands of decisions a day. So shouldn't we begin teaching the psychology of decision making to our students? Our guest on Episode 119 of Class Dismissed is a former high school English teacher and the Senior Educational Content Designer for the Alliance for Decision Education. Jillian Hardgrove says they're trying to help students recognize the need to make a decision, as well as develop skillful processes that are involved in making a decision. "We have the attitude that it's better to learn these things when you're young and you have the opportunities to practice them, rather than waiting for something negative to happen," says Hardgrove. Hardgrove and her colleagues at the Alliance for Decision Education offer a few different programs and resources to educators. HabitWise When students dream about their careers and life goals, it’s important they understand how habits can turn their dreams into reality or simply get in the way. HabitWise helps middle and high school students achieve their goals by teaching them how to create and track beneficial habits and crush problematic habits. Mindful Choices Mindful Choices is a Social and Emotional Learning program that helps students manage stress and anxiety, increase self-control, and sustain attention. To learn more about Decision Education listen to Episode 119 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019

Softening the blow for new teachers In Episode 118 of Class Dismissed we talk with Chase Mielke about ways new teachers can keep their flame for educating ignited. After a decade of reflection Mielke compiled a list of what he calls his five "Passion Stokers" for educators. Find a positive tribeCurate the good, don't hoard the badForgiveOwn your present and futureCraft your calling Mielke, who has been teaching for over a decade in Michigan is quick to acknowledge that many teachers will fight burnout at some point and he believes much of that burnout will come from something other than students. "The main cause I think stems from a lot of conflicts and perceptions that a are adult-driven rather than student-driven," says Milke. Mielke says a lack of autonomy or respect, colleague conflict, and struggles connecting with parents are leading causes of teacher burnout. Practice what you preach Mielke, who authored "The Burnout Cure: Learning to Love Teaching Again", says there was a time in his life that he considered quitting teaching himself. He had been teaching for 8 years but he says he felt so bogged down by extra stuff. Ironically, he was teaching a positive psychology class and he decided to double down on what he was teaching. In a way, he was counseling himself when he was writing the "The Burnout Cure." "It was like, what were that things that have help me? What were the things that I've talked about a lot. And how do I put those in language that any teacher could use to help them reestablish their love." Much of Mielke's notoriety in the education community stems from a blog and video he produced back in 2014. The high school teacher and instructional coach found himself unable to sleep one night and wrote: "What students really need to hear." The post has been read around 4 million times and the corresponding video (below) has been watched almost a million times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O7v4EJjx-g To hear Mielke talk in depth about each of his five "passion stokers", listen to Episode 118 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019

Cybersecurity Incidents Strike Often A recent report highlighted on EdSurge says a new cybersecurity incident strikes K-12 schools nearly every three days. Now more than ever, school districts are reliant on using computers and servers to store student and employee data and burden of securing that data is a massive undertaking for educators. For most districts, the challenge of protecting data is a chief responsibility for the director of technology. The person charged with guarding that data has to plan for attacks in several forms, which include but are not limited to. Denial of Service AttacksPhishing ScamsRansomware How to "mitigate" the problem? "The key is not complete containment. That is not possible," says SchoolStatus CEO Russ Davis. "The gold standard is mitigation." Davis has been working with school districts for over a decade and he says there are steps districts can take to reduce risk to a reasonable amount. Davis believes that districts need to have policies and plans in place to prevent extreme damage from cyberattack. "What happens when there is a breach? What do we do?" Davis says these are the types of conversations districts should be having. Don't store student's social security information Dane Conrad, who is the technical on-boarding specialist at SchoolStatus spent the past few decades serving as the Director of Technology for large school districts. Conrad says they quit storing student's social security numbers in their SIS (Student Information Systems). Conrad says criminals would love to have students social security numbers because those socials often go unchecked for foul play. "If somebody steals my identity and they use my social security number. Typically I'll fumble upon it. So I'll see information being accessed on my credit card or my debit card," says Conrad. "But for a student, they are not necessarily in that environment." Conrad says criminals could use that number for years before anyone realizes the damage. Superintendents should ask their director of technology if they're storing student socials anywhere on their servers. If so, find out why? Is it a necessity? Educate about Phishing One of the most common ways districts are compromised comes from phishing attempts. This is typically when a fraudulent email tricks employees into handing over sensitive information. Often employees may be tricked into handing over their login credentials. Conrad says it's critical for districts to educate their staff about what a phishing attempt may look like. He also recommends using a resource like knowbe4.com. He says they offer literature you can share with employees and they'll even run phishing attempts to test the system and see where you may have vulnerabilities. How to combat Denial Of Service Attacks A Denial of Service AKA DDOS attack occurs when multiple systems flood bandwidth or web servers. As a result, your schools network could be temporaily shutdown. Davis says having a quality ISP (Internet Service Provider) can help prevent this. He says that good ISPs offer intrusion prevention and detection systems. He also suggests that districts should tighten up their firewall. Frequent Backups to protect against Ransomware A district unprepared for a ransomware attack can be devastating. Ransomware can infect a computer system or server and block access to crucial data and files. The ransomware may quietly go through and encrypt a server until a ransom is paid. So what do you do if one of your servers is encrypted with ransomware? Davis says fixing it may make it worse. "First of all, mitigate the risk by disconnecting that device from the network." It's important to isolate the risk and contain it before it infects the entire network. Davis says one of the challenges is that most people don't have any kind of detection mechanism. They don't find out there's an issue until employees start letting th...

What is Inquiry-Based Learning? In Episode 116 we talk with Inquiry-Based Learning expert Trevor MacKenzie. MacKenzie has authored two books on the topic and just returned from an Australian Tour in which he was spreading the word about Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL). For MacKenzie, IBL is all about getting the students to have a more active roll in the class and exploring students questions and curiosities as entry points into the curriculum. "Sometimes that teacher is in the front of the room and leading the way so to speak," says MacKenzie. "Sometimes that teacher is that guide along the ride. Someone who facilitating and supporting learnings." Makenzie, who trains educators around the globe on how to implement IBL says they're trying to do is give the classroom experience over to the students. He says students should be able to take ownership of what they're learning. Where does an educator begin? Makenzie pushes for a gradual release of responsibility from the teacher to the student. "I always start my unit design with a big overarching 'Un-Googleable' question and I make that question front and center in my classroom," says MacKenzie. He's even built an info graphic where he models IBL like a swim coach teaching someone to swim. He even hangs the picture in the classroom for his students to see and he encourages teachers to download and print the picture for their own classrooms. MacKenzie is also really big on provocation. He shows students a lot of videos tied to their curriculum to spark interest and curiosity, but he's ultimately determining wha questions his students have around the curriculum. Want to learn more? Mackenzie has authored two books on the topic. He says if you teach middle school or high school "Dive into Inquiry" is for you. If you teach younger students you may want to read "Inquiry Mindset." To hear our full conversation about Inquiry-Based Learning with Trevor MacKenzie, listen to Episode 116 on your favorite podcasting app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019

"The start of something big" When most students attend a university to get a medical, nursing, or pharmacy degree, they typically participate in a residency program. So it should come as no surprise to hear that Universities around the country are now testing similar programs for teachers. Over the next several years, Dr. Ben Burnett, of Williams Carey University, will be piloting a teacher residency program in South Mississippi. Dr. Ben Burnett. Dean, School of Education, William Carey University "Doesn't it make sense that somebody taking care of our children would go out and do a residency within the school building and see what that's like?" says Burnett. Burnett knows that a teacher residency program won't just better prepare future teachers; he believes it will improve teacher retention. He says the nation is down 35% in undergraduate teacher education over the last decade. But this year WCU is experiencing a 25% spike. "We're hoping to be on the start of something big." With the teacher shortage the way it is in Mississippi and throughout the country. Burnett is optimistic that better training could help combat the national teacher shortage. "Even if we don't produce more teachers, which I hope we'll do. We'll have better retention," says Burnett. When do undergrads move to the classroom? Students can apply for the residency once they've completed two years of course work. The undergraduates at WCU are integrated into two participating school districts on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The program at WCU is in conjunction with the Mississippi Department of Education and funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The residency offers two major selling points for students. Students get their foot in the door at a solid school districtThe grant from the Kellogg foundation covers their tuition for two years "That will also help the longevity of the teachers," says Burnett. " If you have a lot of outstanding student loans, it's difficult to pay those back on a teachers salary." Burnett says students lined up to enroll in the program and they had somewhere between 200 and 300 applications. Is the program sustainable? Burnett knows the grant money may not be available forever, but he's optimistic that the program is sustainable, with or without having the cost of tuition covered. He says that educating with residency programs allows for local school districts to "grow their own." As Dean of the School of Education at WCU, Burnett is putting serious thought into educating all teacher undergraduates with some form of a residency program. "I think the future of teacher education needs to be less inside our buildings and more inside of a school," says Burnett. To learn more about the structure of the residency program, listen to Episode 115 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on your favorite podcast app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2019