Instruction Episodes

In this episode, I am joined by Erik Francis, author of the new book Inquiring Minds Want to Learn. In our conversation, we discuss not only how to use questioning as a form of assessment but, perhaps more importantly, as a t...

Assessment of student learning is critical if we are to get a true sense of what students know and can do before, during, and after teaching. Join me and my next guest, Nicole Dimich, as we discuss her book - Design in Five. ...

Join me and my guest Gretchen Bridgers and I as we discuss her latest book - Always a Lesson. In it, and in our conversation, Gretchen discusses the four building blocks of teaching that must be considered, in order, for teac...

Increasingly, financial literacy standards are being adopted across school districts and states. Join me and my guest Tevan Asaturi, Founder and CEO of Money Mastery University, as we discuss the need to teach financial liter...

In this episoode of the Have a Life Teaching podcast, Adam Andre - museum participation facilitator at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool - and I discuss how and why we should not shy away from teaching students ab...

In this episode, we speak with Maria Nielsen - former school principal, current education consultant, and author of the new Solution Tree book - 15 Day Challenge: Simplify and Energize Your PLC at Work. We discuss how to writ...

In an earlier episode, we spoke with Alice Vigors about her work in creating cross-content thinking classrooms. In this episiode, we speak with Professor Peter Liljedahl, of Simon Fraser University, about how to create thinki...

Earlier this week, we chatted with Ryan Steuer and Andrew Larson about the mechanics of embedding PBL within our teaching practice. This week, we speak with Carolyn Brown, Acting VP of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose...

In this episode, join me and my guests Ryan Steuer and Andrew Larson - authors of PBL Simplified and Life's a Project - as we discuss the ins/outs of teaching through a project based learning model. In this episode, we discus...

New teachers coming into the profession often struggle in knowing what to do/learn first. Indeed, as my next guests say, for most new teachers, the goal is simply surviving day to day and to make it into their second yearof t...

As Darlene Prott - Founder and CEO of NJ Teacher 2 Teacher says, we may think students should be able to read once they pass third grade but we may want to think again especially if we are supporting multi-lingual learners. S...

In this episode, Jose Bowen - DEI education consultant and former President of Goucher College - and I discuss his new book Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning. Indeed, in his book and in our ch...

Educators can't do well by their students if they are not whole themselves. Sometimes, the best course of action is to know when enough is enough and change course to new jobs in the education field or outside of it. In this ...

In this episode, Megan Conklin - founder of Conklin Educational Perspectives and Trainer at the Washington Education Association - discusses her work in designing and facilitating substitute teacher team training programs and...

In this episode of the Have a Life Teaching Podcast, Jo Boaler, Stanford Math education professor and author of ther new book "Math- ish", and I discuss how to make Math instruction more accessible to students in K12 schools....

When we teach students how to write, we often do so by teaching certain writing "moves" - introducing a topic, expanding on it, and summation, etc. We also should be teaching the communication moves that go along with public ...

In this episode, the authors of the Formative Assessment Handbook, Marine Freiburn and Sandy Brunet, and I discuss how to craft learning intentions that then allow teachers to align assessment and student engagement to those ...

Maker spaces are anywhere and everywhere where students are taking knowledge and creating something physical that adds on to that knowledge in new ways. Students' cognitive skills are developed in the process. Yes, schools ca...

No one needs to be told that many teachers are leaving the profession these days for a variety of reasons. However, there are ways to make teaching more sustainable. Join my guest Paul Emerich France and I as we discuss how t...

The rigor of any lesson begins with the learning objective and what we are asking students to know and be able to do. However, far too often, we do not ask our students to engage in heavy cognitive lift. Join me and my guest,...

Are you preparing your students for your past or their future? If you are banning the use of technology in the classroom then it is your past that you are prioritizing. Listen in to Jeff Utecht and I as we discuss how to use ...

Having guest speakers can really make learning come alive for students. However, to maximize the benefits that can come from these living community resources, guest speaker engagements need to be well planned. Join Samantha S...

Inclusive Classrooms are places of joy and creativity. Join me and my guest Mariah Rankine-Landers, author of the new book "How to Create Lessons that Love Your Students", as we discuss how to create culturally responsive cla...

In this episode, join Melissa Morrison of Teaching to Tranform and I as we discuss why it is more important than ever, in the age of AI, to help our students develop critical thinking skills through their writing. We also dis...