Better Teaching: Only Stuff That Works

Frank Rodriguez, an educator and co-author of Digital Captives, explores how screens reshaped classrooms and student life. He discusses technology replacing instruction, pandemic habits that lingered, weakened attention and reading, widening gaps for struggling learners, and the loss of conversation and connection. The conversation considers practical ways schools can restore human-centered teaching while using digital tools with greater purpose.

“It’s just the culture” gets a serious challenge as Gene Tavernetti explores how schools really change. The conversation covers daily decisions, behavior before beliefs, focused instructional routines, consistent coaching, shared walkthrough expectations, and the shift from isolated classrooms to a collective identity. It also examines why leadership follow-through is essential to protecting new commitments.

Instructional coaches can quickly become the school’s catch-all problem solvers, leaving little time for actual coaching. This conversation explores how undefined roles, emergency requests, and class coverage quietly dismantle coaching programs. It also examines protecting classroom time, setting clear expectations, and weighing immediate convenience against lasting improvement.

Summary In this episode of Better Teaching, Gene Tavernetti challenges the belief that effective coaching must be spontaneous and unscripted. He explains why a well-designed coaching script does not make a feedback conversation rigid or inauthentic—it gives the coach a reliable structure for specific, courageous, and useful feedback. Gene connects coaching scripts to classroom-management routines, surgical checklists, crisis-response training, and his own experiences as a counselor, principal, and coach. The practical takeaway is simple: prepare the sequence, transitions, and language of a feedback conversation so you can be fully present when the conversation begins. Chapters 0:00 — Welcome to Better Teaching0:45 — The coaching trap: unplanned and unscripted feedback2:57 — Why educators distrust scripts3:57 — Scripts, checklists, and professional responsiveness4:49 — How preparation helps coaches face fear6:25 — Using scripts in high-stakes conversations8:01 — What happens when a coach goes off script8:47 — A practical standard for scripting feedback conversations9:37 — Resources and closing Show Notes **Host:** Gene Tavernetti**Featured idea:** Script coaching conversations with the same intentionality teachers bring to well-planned lessons.**Gene’s books:** *Teach Fast, Focus Adaptable Structure Teaching* and *Maximizing the Impact of Coaching Cycles***Website:** TESS Consulting Group**BlueSky:** @gtavarnetti**X/Twitter:** @gtavarnetti**BE Podcast Network:** bepodcastnetwork.com About Better Teaching Better Teaching is hosted by Gene Tavernetti and focuses on practical ideas for teachers, instructional coaches, administrators, and everyone who supports better work in classrooms—no clichés, no buzzwords, only stuff that works. Added/created/modified by Codex on 2026.09.14 17:27 PT on ombee This podcast sponsored by:The Bell Ringer, a weekly newsletter providing news, tools, and resources on the science of learning, written by education reporter Holly Korbey. Subscribe here. 

Faith Howard, an adolescent-literacy leader and creator of Literacy Lab, discusses replacing ineffective study halls with focused intervention for grades 6–12. She explores teacher-led instruction, decoding, morphology, vocabulary, grade-level novels, and making structured literacy teen-friendly. The conversation also covers practical support for secondary teachers, coaching, and building sustainable schoolwide literacy capacity.

SummaryWhat should every new teacher know before they are asked to improvise, differentiate, or innovate? Gene Tavernetti argues that one of the most important foundations is fluency in explicit instruction—not just hearing about it in professional development, but learning to design it, deliver it, practice it, and receive feedback until the work becomes automatic.Gene explains why that fluency matters in real classrooms: it reduces the number of decisions teachers have to make, gives them a reliable baseline for accommodations and modifications, helps schools eliminate instructional variables before moving students into intervention, sharpens their ability to evaluate purchased or AI-generated materials, and creates a common language for collaboration. The goal is not to make every lesson look the same; it is to give teachers a strong instructional foundation from which they can adapt intelligently.Chapters0:00 — Better Teaching introduction0:41 — What new teachers need to know1:52 — Why training and coaching matter3:10 — Reason 1: Build fluency and automaticity5:19 — Reason 2: Create a baseline for accommodations6:22 — Reason 3: Eliminate instructional variables8:02 — Reason 4: Evaluate curriculum and AI-generated lessons10:08 — Reason 5: Build a common professional language12:31 — Explicit instruction is a foundation, not a restriction14:55 — Better Teaching outroShow NotesGene Tavernetti helps educators strengthen explicit instruction, lesson design, and instructional coaching.Gene’s website: tesscg.comGene’s books include Teach Fast, Focus, Adaptable Structured Teaching and Maximizing the Impact of Coaching Cycles.Follow Gene on Bluesky and X: @gtavernetti This podcast sponsored by:The Bell Ringer, a weekly newsletter providing news, tools, and resources on the science of learning, written by education reporter Holly Korbey. Subscribe here. 

Summary Glenn Whitman is a distinguished educator who has worked with schools around the world to support schools and teachers bringing evidence practices to their classrooms. In this episode Glenn talks about his own school’s journey to becoming an evidence-based teaching institution, his continued role in that journey, and how his school supports schools around the world who also want to become evidence-based through The Center for Transformative Teaching. Episode Links Website: Home - The Center for Transformative Teaching and LearningGlenn's Email: [email protected] This podcast sponsored by:The Bell Ringer, a weekly newsletter providing news, tools, and resources on the science of learning, written by education reporter Holly Korbey. Subscribe here. 

SummaryKate Meyers and Nicole Davis, AKA Two Maine Teachers and authors the EduProtocol Field Guide: AI Literacy Edition, discuss AI, AI in schools, AI for teachers, and AI for literacy for students.Show NotesLinkedIn: two-maine-teachersFacebook: FacebookWebsite: twomaineteachers.comBook: The EduProtocol Field Guide AI Literacy Edition This podcast sponsored by:The Bell Ringer, a weekly newsletter providing news, tools, and resources on the science of learning, written by education reporter Holly Korbey. Subscribe here. 

In this episode, I talk about how to get a faster and more effective start to coaching this year.  This podcast sponsored by:The Bell Ringer, a weekly newsletter providing news, tools, and resources on the science of learning, written by education reporter Holly Korbey. Subscribe here. 

Everyone says one of the most effective ways to teach new content is by using explicit instruction. But fewer teachers than you might think can deliver an effective explicit instruction lesson. Dr. Tavernetti wrote Teach FAST to help remedy that situation and help guide teachers to more effective explicit instruction lesson.In this episode Gene lists and explains the differences between this book and other books on explicit instruction.Andrew Bixler, a friend and colleague of Gene Tavernetti, turns the tables and interviews Gene about his book Teach FAST: Focused Adaptable Structured Teaching.Get Teach FAST here. This podcast sponsored by:The Bell Ringer, a weekly newsletter providing news, tools, and resources on the science of learning, written by education reporter Holly Korbey. Subscribe here.