

TeachLab Presents The Homework Machine
MIT Teaching Systems Lab
Most education technologies are invited into schools, but generative AI crashed the party, and started rearranging the furniture. "The Homework Machine" is a mini series exploring the impact of AI on K12 education.
TeachLab is a podcast that investigates the art and craft of teaching. There are 3.5 million K-12 teachers in America, and we want to explore how they can become even better at what they do. Hosted by Justin Reich, MIT Professor and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab.
TeachLab is a podcast that investigates the art and craft of teaching. There are 3.5 million K-12 teachers in America, and we want to explore how they can become even better at what they do. Hosted by Justin Reich, MIT Professor and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 13, 2020 • 36min
Geoffrey Canada
Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone joins Justin Reich to discuss fighting intergenerational poverty for inner-city children, the approach Harlem Children’s Zone is taking, and how you have to address the entire context of the child, not just their academics.Baby College in HarlemHarlem Education PipelineEquity mindset in HarlemBalancing academics with life servicesJob Description/TeachingCreating a Learning Environment in Harlem About Our Guest: Geoffrey CanadaHaving worked with the Harlem Children’s Zone® for more than 30 years, Geoffrey Canada is renowned around the world for his pioneering work helping children and families in Harlem, and as a thought leader and passionate advocate for education reform.From 1990 to 2014, Mr. Canada served as the President and Chief Executive Officer for the Harlem Children’s Zone, which The New York Times called “one of the most ambitious social-policy experiments of our time.” In 2011, Mr. Canada was named to the TIME 100 list of most influential people in the world and, in March 2014, was named one of Fortune’s 50 greatest leaders in the world. As of July 1, 2014, Mr. Canada stepped down as CEO, handing the reins to COO Anne Williams-Isom. He continues to serve as President of the HCZ and Promise Academy Boards, and a board member of the XQ Institute. Additional Resources for Teachers and other Listenershttps://hcz.org/ - Learn more about the Harlem Children’s Zonehttps://xqsuperschool.org/ - Learn more about the XQ Institutehttps://youtu.be/vY2l2xfDBcE - Geoffrey Canada on TED Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/geoffrey-canada/transcript Join our next course on edX!Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyEdited by Kate EllisRecorded and Mixed by Garrett BeazleyFilmed by Daymian Meija Follow Us On:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Feb 6, 2020 • 26min
Milly Arbaje-Thomas
Milly Arbaje-Thomas joins Justin Reich to discuss the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), a voluntary school integration program in Boston, Massachusetts. They’ll focus on METCO’s mission, its underlying values, and Milly’s personal experience with the program as a former METCO parent and as its current CEO.Milly’s personal experience with METCOMETCO’s current workRestorative JusticeTeacher Diversity About Our Guest: Milly Arbaje-ThomasMilly Arbaje-Thomas is the CEO of METCO, which is a voluntary school integration program here in Boston. Prior, Milly managed neighborhood antipoverty programs at Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) for 15 years. As Deputy Director of ABCD Field Operations she provided leadership to 14 neighborhood sites and is credited with transforming those sites into integrated, full-service case management organizations serving the low-income community. Additional Resources for Teachers and other Listenershttps://metcoinc.org/ - Learn more about METCOhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I65Ru4ZM9c - WGBH segment on METCO fundinghttps://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/18/metco-students-outperforming-those-bps-charter-schools/W4jpFqnOSFxbdvsJu30jXN/story.html - Recent article about METCO performance Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/milly-arbaje-thomas/transcript Join our next course on edX!Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyEdited by Kate EllisRecorded and Mixed by Garrett BeazleyFilmed by Denez McAdoo Follow Us On:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Jan 30, 2020 • 30min
Dr. Ilana Horn
Dr. Ilana Horn joins Justin Reich to discuss finding the strengths in every student, listening more closely to student thinking, and finding ways to shift curriculum from “school math” to the kind of math that’s both more engaging to students and closer to what real mathematicians do. Dr. Horn offers a slew of concrete strategies for teachers and teacher educators, from roster audits, to “becoming invisible” to mediated field experiences.Making math interesting for kidsAddressing context variables in mathAsset Framing your studentsMathematics vs. “School Math” valuesWorking with in-service teachers About Our Guest: Dr. Ilana HornIlana Seidel Horn is Professor of Mathematics Education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, where her research and teaching center on ways to make authentic mathematics accessible to students, particularly those who have historically been disenfranchised by our educational system. She is the author of Motivated: Designing Math Classrooms Where Students Want to Join In and Strength in Numbers: Collaborative Learning in Secondary Mathematics. Additional Resources for Teachers and other ListenersMotivated: Designing Math Classrooms Where Students Want to Join In - Read Dr. Ilana Horn’s Bookhttp://ilanahorn.com/#bio - Learn more about Dr. Horn’s workAn Asset-Orientation is Everything - Watch Dr. Ilana Horn’s lecture Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/ilana-horn/transcript Join our next course on edX!Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyEdited by Kate EllisRecorded and Mixed by Garrett BeazleyFilmed by Denez McAdoo Follow Us On:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Jan 23, 2020 • 26min
José Luis Vilson
José Luis Vilson joins Justin Reich to discuss how to connect with your students, what it means to be a teacher of color, and the mission of EduColor, a movement and organization that Vilson co-founded to elevate the voices of public school advocates of color on educational equity and justice.José tells us about how he connects with students early in the school yearTeacher advocacy work as a person of colorHow to scaffold questions with your students with three tiersGuiding step by stepSurfacing opinions and observationsEncouraging students to discover the underlying questionNavigating how to co-teachTeaching in an unfamiliar environmentMission of EduColor About Our Guest: Jose VilsonJosé Luis Vilson is a full-time math teacher, writer, speaker, and activist in New York City, NY. He is the author of This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education. He has spoken about education, math, and race for a number of organizations and publications, including the New York Times, The Guardian, TED, El Diario / La Prensa and The Atlantic. He's a National Board Certified teacher, a Math for America Master Teacher, and the executive director of EduColor, an organization dedicated to race and social justice issues in education. Additional Resources for Teachers and other ListenersThis is Not a Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education - Read Jose Vilson’s book published in 2014https://thejosevilson.com/ - Learn more about Vilson’s work https://www.educolor.org/ - Learn more about EDUCOLOR No conversation about education without teacher voice | TED-Ed - Check out José Vilson’s presentation for TED-Ed Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/jose-luis-vilson/transcript Join our next course on edX!Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyEdited by Kate EllisRecorded and Mixed by Garrett BeazleyFilmed by Daymian Meija Follow Us On:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Jan 16, 2020 • 28min
Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum
In TeachLab’s first episode, our host Justin Reich has a powerful conversation with renowned author, psychologist and educator Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum. Dr. Tatum shares some of the stories that inspired her bestselling book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race and offers tips for addressing the ongoing challenges of racial issues in classrooms and schools.Dr. Tatum encourages teachers to take the first step in tackling racism by talking about it, because “if we can’t talk about it, we can’t fix it”.Dr. Tatum says that all of us can take a leadership role in making institutions more sensitive towards inclusivity by using her ABCs of leadershipAffirming IdentityBuilding CommunityCultivating LeadershipDr. Tatum tells us that there is value in sitting together with those of a shared identity, and it’s not necessarily a problem “So I often say, let's worry less about who's sitting where during the break times, and think about what's happening inside the classroom. Are there opportunities inside the classroom to help kids navigate those differences?”She shares stories of how ignoring identity and engaging in color blindness is not helpful. “One father said it really bothered him when teachers said they treated all the kids the same. His response to that was always, 'The same as what?'" About Our Guest: Dr. Beverly Daniel TatumDr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, president emerita of Spelman College, is a developmental psychologist, administrator and educator who has conducted research and written several books on the topic of racism, including the recently published 20th anniversary edition of her bestselling book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race. A thought-leader in higher education, she was the 2013 recipient of the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award and the 2014 recipient of the American Psychological Association Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology. Dr. Tatum holds a B.A. degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, a M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from University of Michigan, and a M.A. in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary. About Our Host: Justin ReichJustin Reich is an educational researcher passionate about the future of learning in a networked world. He is an Assistant Professor in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, where Justin and his team design, implement, and research the future of teacher learning. Justin’s writings have appeared in Science, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Educational Researcher, the Washington Post, Inside Higher Ed, the Christian Science Monitor, Education Week, and other publications. Justin's favorite hobbies are spending time outside hiking, climbing, and boating with his wife and two school-aged daughters. He has a new book on education technology forthcoming this fall from Harvard University Press. Additional ResourcesWhy Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race – Read Dr. Tatum’s book updated and reissued in 2017.ROPES – This blog post describes a protocol for collaboratively creating shared rules and expectations for the classroom. It could also be used to kick off challenging conversations with educators.“White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” – Dr. Tatum recommended teachers read Dr. Robin DiAngelo; this article provides pointers based on her book.Is My Skin Brown Because I Drank Chocolate Milk? – Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s presentation at TEDxStanford about how people talk (or don’t) about race and how to approach the conversation with young children. Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/dr-beverly-daniel-tatum/transcript Join our next course on edX!Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Produced by Jesse Dukes and Garrett BeazleyEdited by Aimee CorriganRecorded and Mixed by Garrett BeazleyFilmed by Denez McAdoo Follow Us On:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Dec 16, 2019 • 51sec
TeachLab Podcast Teaser
Introducing TeachLab with Justin Reich, a new podcast where we investigate the art and craft of teaching. Coming to you in January. Subscribe now!