Episodes

Making Social Studies Come Alive Through Inquiry In this week’s Podcast episode, I sit down with Charisse Smith Ph.D. —CEO of Sankofa Educational Consulting and former K–6 Social Studies Supervisor in Trenton Public Schools ,...

Cutting Through the Noise with Priority Standards Teachers are asked to do everything — personalization, differentiation, voice and choice, standards-based instruction… but rarely is anything taken off the plate. In this epis...

In this Have a Life Teaching Podcast episode, we speak with Maureen Chapman and James Simons of Core Creative Partners about their new book, Leaders of the Class . We explore how motivation, perseverance, communication, and c...

Host Dr. John Schembari brings together three leading K–12 podcasters from the U.S. and Australia to explore why they podcast, how they amplify teacher voices, and what keeps them inspired. They discuss balancing practical cl...

In this episode of the Have a Life Teaching Podcast. we welcome Dr. Carmen Bell Ross—founder and CEO of SP Grace—and her daughter, Sierra Ross, a Harvard University student, for a powerful mother-daughter conversation on help...

John talks with Mickey Evans and Erin Sanchez about place-based learning , a pedagogy of connectedness that roots instruction in students’ local communities, cultures, and environments. They share design principles for creati...

In this episode, Dr. John Schembari speaks with Nicholas Bradford - Founder at National Center for Restorative Justice - about how restorative justice can transform school culture by balancing accountability, relationship bui...

Guest: Dr. Tim Shanahan , literacy researcher, author of Leveled Reading, Leveled Lives , and founder of the UIC Center for Literacy. Episode Summary: Dr. Shanahan joins John to discuss why students must engage with grade-lev...

“If students can’t read to learn, they can’t learn through reading.” In this episode of the podcast, I talk with Gwen Pauloski, author of Making Deep Sense of Informational Text: A Framework for Strengthening Comprehension in...

In this inaugural episode, education podcasters sit down to reflect on the art and purpose of podcasting in education. From the challenges of balancing storytelling with scholarship to the power of teacher voice in shaping pu...

In this episode of The Have a Life Teaching Podcast , host Dr. John Schembari talks with Illinois educators Paige Timmerman and Courtney Hake , co-authors of Their Stories, Their Voices . Together, they explore how teachers c...

In this episode of the Have a Life Teaching Podcast , I had the privilege of sitting down with David Richards, CEO of Changemaker Education, to discuss the revolutionary world of micro schools. As a leader in the micro school...

Poetry isn’t just “beautiful prose” — it’s a doorway into critical thinking, voice, and perspective. In this episode, I sit down with Jewellyn Forrest, national writing consultant and co-founder of Autonomy Learning, to explo...

Too often, I see learning objectives on the board that say “Students will think about…” — but how do we actually know what students are thinking? This week on the Podcast, I sit down with returning guest Alice Vigors, author ...

When Teachers Believe—in Themselves and Each Other—Students Thrive This week on the podcast, we sit down with Jenni Donohoo and Glenn Forbes to discuss their new book, Collective Impact: Overcoming the Twelve Enemies of Teach...

In this episode, we are joined by Shannon McLeod from Thrive with Outdoor Learning for an inspiring and insightful conversation about the power of taking learning outside the classroom. We cover the how, why, when, and what o...

Our kids are drowning in math failure — and it starts shockingly early. By grade 3, too many students already believe: “I’m just not a math person.” The culprit? Timed tests that reward speed over thinking, worksheets that ki...

Are we grading what really matters? In most cases, no. In this episode, we sit-down with Karin Hess, Jonathan Vander Els and Brian Stack - authors of the book Elevating Competency-Based Learning in a PLC at Work - to discuss ...

We hope you have enjoyed season two. We will be back with brand new episodes and a third season in August 2025. In the meantime, please feel free to catch up on any of our past episodes. Music - Aylex

In this episode, I talk with educator and author Susan Midlarsky about her book The Art of Learning Math: A Manual for Success . We explore how math can be more than numbers—how it can help students see patterns in life, solv...

In this episode of the podcast, we chat with a pioneer in the AI space - Dr. Ken Kahn. Ken walks us through the amazing ways we can increase student creativity through the use of high-powered AI chat bots, not reduce it. We d...

Drama critic George Jean-Nathan once said that "Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." Although 47% of all young people eligible to cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election did so, 53% did not. Ho...

In this episode of the podcast, we speak with authors Jenn David-Lang, the Main Idea, and Kim Marshall, the Marshall Memo, about their work in curating the "best of" resources available to educators - particularly leaders wor...

In this latest episode of the Have a Life Teaching Podcast, we chat with education researcher John Hattie - professor at the University of Melbourne. We discuss, despite evidence suggesting it is ineffective, the continued pr...