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Take the LEAP Creating A Classroom Of Courageous and Empowered Learners By: Laura McDonell
Listen Having courage means doing something when the answer of how it will turn out is unknown. It is Not Always Easy to Be Courageous Courage is not something that comes naturally to everyone. And even when it is a familiar value, it is not always easy to practice courage...
I Never Thought About That What If My Assumptions were Wrong By: Laura McDonell
Listen The Student Perspective Seeing things from the student’s perspective is challenging. After watching one of Dr. Kevin Leichtman’s videos, I realized that there might be a few things regarding education that I have never thought about. Understanding motivations behind student actions is a priority. The Perfect Ten offered me...
The Guts to be Not Good by: Laura McDonell
Listen How Starting Before your Ready is the Key to Success Three years ago, my middle son Luke decided that he wanted to play hockey. He taught himself how to skate on our pond and was determined to try a new sport. Luke decided he was willing to start at...
Find the Ones Who Haven’t Given Up by: Laura McDonell
Listen One of my favorite movie scenes is the final scene in the movie Tomorrowland. The movie stars scientist Frank Walker, played by George Clooney, who at the end instructs Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), as well as several other kids in Tomorrowland, to go out and find the people who...
Create More Space by Laura McDonnell
Discovering Ways to Empower and Connect in the Classroom What is the best way to set up your classroom? What is the best use of space in the classroom? And, how can we continue creating spaces for students to thrive? Because each teacher is different, each makeup of students is...
Space for Not Yet - by Laura McDonnell
Listen A delay is not a denial. (Vernon Wright) Embrace the Not Yet Space One of the most challenging things is not being where we want to be. It is difficult to realize that there is space between where we are and where we want to go. I choose to...
The Comparison Trap by Laura McDonell
Listen It doesn’t happen all at once. But you notice it all at once. Little by little, changes take place. One minute you are ecstatic about your students’ work, and cannot believe the creativity and risks you have taken over the past year. And then, after only a few weeks...
It’s Not Just About Books by Laura McDonell
Listen Understanding What’s Involved in Learning What if someone who had a lot of professional knowledge in an area said something you disagreed with? What if the path you were on was ready to take a turn, and you had not seen it coming? A Life-Changing Podcast Last week I...
“Fine” is A Terrible Word by Laura McDonell
Being Honest Does Not Necessarily Mean You are Negative It is okay, to be honest. It is okay, to be honest, but it is not okay, to be honest and unwilling to look for a way to move forward. While it is true that the more positive we are, the...
What does it Mean to Seek The Next Level? by Laura McDonell
Listen How Observation and Choosing the Struggle Allow us to Become Fearless Identifying the Next Level What does the next level look like? Our family loves to play Pacman. My sons and my husband are very good at playing the game, so their next levels look quite different from mine....
Stepping Into my Students’ Shoes by Laura McDonell
How Running 100 miles in Six Days makes me a Better Teacher Step into my shoes and walk the life I am living, and if you get as far as I am, maybe you will see how strong I am. (Anonymous) As a teacher, I often think about how to...
Reformation: Identifying Sources of Inspiration
Listen One of the purposes of this series of articles was to talk about schools, leaders, administrators, philosophers of education, technologists, architects, and teachers who were visibly succeeding in education and making an impact. But our eleven schools are notably only a small sampling. Since beginning this series, we’ve heard...
Reformation: Creating or Redefining Your Purpose Statements
Listen In our last article, we shared some of the mission statements, vision statements, and value lists for some of the top schools in the world. As we looked through these statements, we were really inspired to work on our own statements. Many, if not all, schools and districts have...
Reformation: Defining Your Purpose
Listen Have you ever asked a student, “Why are you here?” when they seem to be floundering in school? We want them to find a reason for attending school that is their own, something that will drive them forward when they are worn out or have lost their will to...
Checking in on Mental Health
Listen We have written a lot about mental health in the last 6 months since the world seems to have gotten turned upside down, but that’s just how important of a topic it is! While most of this seems to have started with the COVID-19 pandemic back in March, the...
Reformation: Technology
Listen Perhaps the first and most obvious way schools are changing right now is in the area of technology. We are using it in ways we definitely never could have predicted!And that is very frustrating for so many teachers and students. However, when the pandemic dies down and we find...
The Reformation Age of Education
Listen We’ve known for some time that education was in need of a major overhaul. Many teachers and administrators have been ready for it for a long time. Some districts, a few states, and the occasional national leader have stepped up and championed the cause for change. But largely, our...
Answering "Why" in Professional Development
Listen Years ago, I was in a professional development meeting that tackled the topic of adding “essential questions” to each of our planned lessons. There was instruction on the language we should use, the structure of the questions themselves, and how to tie each question to state standards. Yet I...
Education Podcasts, Part 2: What We Have Learned from Them
Listen We wanted to share some of what we have learned recently from the education podcasts we have been listening to. Principal Center Radio Douglas Fisher - The Distance Learning Playbook (Jul 31) Douglas Fisher’s has some great, practical tips on distance learning! He suggests that teachers should integrate synchronous...
The New Hope of New London
Listen 2020… right?!? What a bizarre year. We thought now would be a good moment to ponder some amazing schools, districts, and communities that have lived through their share of trying times and come out on the other side in a way that can provide some inspiration for us as...
How to Be an Approachable Leader
Listen We’ve all had an administrator say that their door is always open, only to find out it was just something they said. Their door is literally closed nearly every time you walk through the office. Perhaps their door is always open, but they are never in there, so what...
Multicultural Fun for the Early Elementary Classroom
Listen It’s never been more apparent that we need to be both accepting and welcoming to students from all cultures and backgrounds than it is now in our society. Children need to see themselves reflected in the things we do - in our literature, in our lessons, in the ways...
Teacher Reflections After Returning to School
Listen For many teachers, administrators, and school employees around the world, August has meant returning to campus for the first time in 4 or 5 months. Some are teaching to cameras in empty classrooms while others are trying to figure out how to teach with masks covering the expressions of...
How to Create, Record, & Close a Lesson in Google Meets
Listen With so many schools going either 100% virtual or offering some sort of hybrid option, teachers are having to become tech gurus overnight and learn to rely on programs that had previously been just something that “those young teachers were using” or things to tinker with to check the...
Careers That Fit Well with Education Experience
Listen There are quite a few educators currently out of employment due to the financial repercussions of the pandemic. There are others who are okay for this year but may be facing a similar fate in the near future. There are many others who have lost wages, or for whom...
Your Most Marketable Skills, Part 2
Listen Leadership and Management, Data, Technology, and Social Skills Educators are being released from districts around the U.S. due to financial difficulties. Some teachers are having to find more conducive work environments due to districts either doing virtual, in-class learning, or some combination that just doesn’t work for them. Others...
Your Most Marketable Skills, Part 1
Listen Communication, Instruction, and Complex Thinking Skills Educators in some parts of the U.S. have started seeing the economic repercussions of the pandemic. Some places have started to shed staff as budgets crumble and belts tighten.In other places, teachers are finding returning to teaching in the fall in either virtual...
Teaching Culturally Responsive Literature: Part 5, Asian American Literature
Listen A year ago, Hollywood was all abuzz with the release of Crazy Rich Asians. It was the first all-Asian cast movie to be released from a major studio in over 25 years. How is it that a cultural subpopulation of over 21,000,000 has received such little attention in modern...
Teaching Culturally Responsive Literature: Part 4, Literature Dealing with Low Socio-Economics
Listen Regardless of your political preferences or perspectives, it is undeniable that we are entering into a time of great economic distress. More and more of our students are going to be dealing with poverty, hunger, and housing insecurity. The financial difficulty often leads to additional stresses at home, including...
Non-Education Careers That Fit Well with Education Experience
Listen Whether you’ve been ousted from your position as the result of downsizing, you’re choosing a different path because of issues with the setup of the next school year, or you’re just looking for a way to add income to your salary each month, there are many non-education jobs that...
Teaching CTE Courses Virtually
Listen How do cosmetology students get the experience cutting hair or doing manicures, especially when teacher modeling and feedback is the major component of instruction? In Ag classes, the animals still have to be fed and cared for, and many students’ animals are housed at the school’s ag barn. Health...
How Do I Do a Science Lab Virtually?
Listen Doing a lab with a room full of kids can be unnerving in the best of conditions, whether they are 6, 12, or 16. You have balance explicit directions, chemicals, and scalpels with immaturity, ADHD, and power struggles (and that may just be your PLC). How in the world...
Teaching Culturally Responsive Literature: Part 3, Hispanic/Latinx Literature
Listen Students of Latin heritage cannot be placed into a box, though they are often stereotyped. While there are 20 countries in Central and South America, many teachers just assume that Hispanic students are of Mexican descent. Trouble with the English language is often quite incorrectly associated with an...
Teaching Culturally Responsive Literature: Part 2, African American Literature
Listen Many teachers and administrators are grappling with how to address the social concerns that the recent events in our country have brought up. The truth is that the protests and riots have only brought to the forefront issues that our students carry with them into our classrooms every day. ...
Adapted Physical Education
Listen For many, the Life Skills hallway on a school campus is a place of joy. Administrators can be found high-fiving and dancing with the students as a reprieve from their burdensome load. General education students often enjoy volunteering and assisting. Visitors can be greeted by peels of laughter and...
Making Legal Change
Listen This is the final article in our series for educators who want to advocate for changes in their community, state, and national government in regard to education. This article gives tips on how to affect changes to the law - either by introducing something new or by amending laws...
Approaching the Board
Listen In our last few articles, we’ve discussed the reasons and ways you can (and should) advocate for change within the school system. In this article, we want to specifically talk about working with your district’s school board in creating and advocating change. Let’s begin by talking about who the...
Presenting Ideas for Change Mindfully and Effectively
Listen It is always wise to know your audience, but this rings particularly true when you are addressing an administrator who is in a supervisory role to you. It’s safe to say that every campus has its clicks. Within those groups, there are teachers who have a closer personal relationship...
Be the Change
Listen If you’ve ever walked into a break room at lunchtime, you know that all of the educational experts are sitting in that room talking about the problems and solutions of day-to-day classroom life. And yet, it seems as though the experts are never the people making the decisions! Teachers...
How to Advocate for Change: A General Guide for Teachers and Paraprofessionals
Listen Present the Facts Once you are prepared, don’t just show up at your principal’s door or a board meeting without an appointment. After all that work, you need your administrator to listen to you and give you their undivided attention for 20 to 30 minutes. Arrive on time for...
How to Advocate for Change: A General Guide for Teachers and Paraprofessionals
Listen So far in this series, we’ve talked about narrowing your focus to one specific need or complaint, gathering others to help you make a change, and identifying the decision-maker(s) you should address in asking for changes.Today we’ll focus on something many teachers overlook or skip: doing your homework. We’re...
How to Advocate for Change: A General Guide for Teachers and Paraprofessionals
Listen In our last post, we talked about the need for educators, as the only experts in the field currently, to step up and share information about what they and their students need especially in this time of pandemic and unrest. On the whole, teachers do not like that they...
How to Advocate for Change: A General Guide for Teachers and Paraprofessionals
Listen We’ve already established that the experts on what is going on with you and your students in crisis learning, remote learning, and the changes coming to education in the near future are teachers and the students themselves. Yet many teachers feel (as they always have in education) completely powerless....
For Retirees: Finding Closure Amidst the Pandemic
Listen After years in education, decades spent saving up for retirement, and countless hours invested in colleagues and students, this year may be anticlimactic for retiring teachers. Some are even being pushed into retirement earlier than they’d like because of the possibility of an unsure environment of physical safety in...
The Necessity of Time Off for Educators -For Building Administrators
Listen Countless educators made the sudden switch from face-to-face learning to crisis remote learning this year and have been working 10 to 12 hour days just to stay on top of things for months. Now that the school year has come to a close, many of those educators are exhausted,...
District Toolkit Needs Learning In 2020-2021
Listen States and local districts across the United States are preparing to pivot away from crisis learning and toward something a little more stable and workable for the 2020-2021 school year. As educators and former educators ourselves, we can see the daunting tasks district and building administrators are facing that...
What Do Schools Need to Do to Prepare for the Fall? Part 2
Listen In our previous article in this series, we addressed the fact that schools need to prepare plans A, B, & C as well as a hybrid of the three and the fact that teachers will need continued support. Consider Accessibility for Both Students and Teachers The last three months...
What Do Schools Need to Do to Prepare for the Fall? Part 1
Listen We only have three months to get ready for whatever school is going to look like in the fall. With so many unknowns, we are all having to plan for several different scenarios. One of the big lessons learned from the experiences this spring is that we have to...
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students - In the General Education Classroom
Listen Most students who are born with serious hearing impairments are identified as infants or when they are very young. By the time they enter the general education classroom, they’ve got an I.E.P with accommodations., assistance as needed, and a support system in place. However, if you’re teaching a student...
How Administrators Can Help Prepare Teachers for Blended Learning, Pt. 2
Listen Remember, one positive that can come out of this bleak and trying time is a fundamental shift in the structure of formal education across the board. Now is the time to move forward into what we all know is the right way to teach. Here are a few more...