July 11, 2025 • 31 mins
Shannon and Mary look back over Season 7 and reflect on what really matters for our reading students. "The right things for our learners" emerged as the unofficial theme of our seventh season. This phrase encapsulates what each of us strives for – cutting through the noise to identify the most impactful practices for the unique students in front of us.
The conversations with our guests this season revealed a common thread: the need to simplify and focus on what's most important. In this episode, Shannon and Mary share some of their key takeaways from the discussions with the podcast guests over the course of the season. They also provide details about the professional learning they've done over the past year, changes they've made in their own teaching practices, and new resources they're using with their students.
We want to hear from YOU in Season 8! If you're interested in joining us as a guest to discuss real classroom experiences, email us at team@readingteacherslounge.com or reach out through our social media handle @ReadingTeachersLounge
LINKS FOR RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
- Magic School AI
- Chat GPT (Mary uses for decodables)
- Dyslexia GA DOE resources
- Season 7 overall link
- SWI resouces
- Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide *Amazon affiliate link
- All About Spelling
- Spelling for Life by Lyn Stone *Amazon affiliate link
- Bonus Episodes access through your podcast app
- Bonus episodes access through Patreon
- Free Rubrics Guide created by us
- Finding Good Books Guide created by us
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shannon Betts (00:02):
Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge.
Come join the conversation withother curious teachers as they
discover teaching strategies andresources to reach all of their
learners.
I'm Shannon.
Mary Saghafi (00:13):
And I'm Mary, and together we bring an honest and
experienced point of view to thetopics we cover to shed light
on best practices.
Whether you're a new teacherseeking guidance, a seasoned pro
looking for fresh ideas or acurious parent, our community
offers something for everyone.
So grab your favorite cup ofcoffee or tea and cozy up in the
virtual lounge with us andeavesdrop on our professional
(00:35):
conversations.
Shannon Betts (00:37):
Listen, learn and immediately add to your bag of
teaching tricks.
Find what works for yourstudents with us in the Reading
Teachers Lounge.
Mary Saghafi (00:47):
Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge.
Shannon, we have made it.
This is our final episode ofseason seven.
We have episode 18, our seasonfinale.
Shannon Betts (00:59):
This has been a season of, like it doesn't.
You know, we always like recordthe opener and we're like we
have all these plans and then,like you know, god laughs while
you make plans, or something Forsure.
So anyway, that's what'shappened this whole season.
So I'm eager to just sort ofunpack it all with you and
(01:19):
review what's happened over thecourse of this season and to
kind of talk about what's nextas well.
Mary Saghafi (01:26):
Yeah, even so, I will just start by sharing, like
, even though I feel like behindthe scenes it's been a bit
rocky for us, but I really am soproud of the content that we
have in this season and I thinkthat our listeners have gotten
some really good advice from alot of the guests that we've had
.
I think our topics are just Idon't know so interesting and
(01:51):
relevant for what's going on inthe field.
Absolutely, and I was justwondering do you want to start
by maybe sharing a treasuredguest that we had or some of
your favorites?
I have to say I was looking andI'm having a hard time choosing
, to be perfectly honest, it'shard Like I've got the season
seven episodes from our websitepulled up.
Shannon Betts (02:13):
By the way, that's one of the things we did
this season is that weredesigned our website, and so
if y'all haven't checked thatout, definitely go visit our
website because it has a nicenew professional look.
Yeah, and I'm looking throughall of this as a group.
(02:48):
I really like the first coupleepisodes we improving my
teaching practice around.
Mary Saghafi (02:50):
You're talking about season seven, episode four
.
Word knowledge with Adam andHeidi.
Shannon Betts (02:56):
From drop in knowledge with Heidi yes, and
then spelling that sticks withRachel as well, exactly yep, so
I would say that that definitelyled.
Mary Saghafi (03:06):
Yeah, I would say that those are some areas that
kind of sparked right.
And we love catching up withRachel as well, our fellow
Atlantan, yeah, but she's, she'sso good about giving specific
strategies.
I didn't mention her handle,but it's mindful teacher Rachel.
And that is episode five.
(03:26):
Spelling, that sticks, but Ihave to say the one there's
actually the two at the verybeginning.
Karen Gross is just such alovely human and she talks a lot
about you know what thepandemic did for teachers and
how, how difficult it is toexperience stress and trauma and
(03:47):
what that means.
But then she gave such goodadvice about how to mend and
just accept what has been andhow that has kind of like
changed your perception in theworld and how to you know kind
of keep moving forward.
Shannon Betts (04:04):
That like wabi-sabi my takeaway from that
episode.
My favorite one was the paperclips and like where she had us
actually like link those paperclips and how that was showing
that.
That was like creating neurallinks in our minds and unpacking
trauma, which was just so coolso good.
Mary Saghafi (04:20):
And then the book equity.
Shannon Betts (04:21):
I didn't realize um, yeah, that was early on in
the season.
That was just episode three,but we had those great people
from Scholastic.
Mary Saghafi (04:29):
Yeah.
So Marty and Judy came on fromReach Out and Read and I loved
how we can support the communityand still get high quality
books into young hands, families, and make sure that they're
supporting literacy at an earlyage.
So I thought that was reallyhelpful as well and that
(04:52):
perspective is going todefinitely stick with me,
especially because I work somuch with parents, making sure
that you know I'm providing themwith.
You know they're constantlyasking what, what should I do,
what can I do, and I think thatthose are some great actions
that that group is workingtowards for getting the quality
books into students' hands andtraining physicians there.
Shannon Betts (05:15):
Yeah, that was a cool episode.
Yeah, a bucket list.
I wanted to always meet DrShanahan and so I was so glad to
talk to him for our 13thepisode and I really connected
him with the way that I'veconnected with wiley levens when
we've had him online, um on theair of just like okay, like we
get it, you know, like we, wekind of approach things in a
(05:37):
similar way and like a both andway, um, like wiley has said,
like exploring the nuances, umamong the extremes, um within
you know, the literacy communityright now, and I really
appreciate that they like umtimothy, just like, like drilled
down of, like okay, let's cutthe noise and like let's just
(05:58):
focus on these things.
And I really appreciatedtalking to him and I I was
surprised by how much I reallyreally enjoyed even though
executive functioning is yourthing like I really loved that
episode with our most recentguest.
Mary Saghafi (06:13):
Yeah, with Doug Fisher and Matt Schroeder.
Yeah, I totally agree, and Ithink actually you know,
piggybacking on what you saidabout talking with Dr Tim
Shanahan.
I think cutting through thenoise is so overwhelming
sometimes because teachers arepulled in so many directions and
so voices like Tim Shanahan'sis so helpful to me.
(06:36):
I really love reading his blogposts on Sunday mornings.
I think that he really givesgreat insight and has so much
experience.
And then again, I would saymaybe my favorite episode was
the executive functioningdemands, because I think that
(06:56):
both Dr Doug Fisher and Dr MattStrader, I think that they have
a really good sense of theempathy that's appropriate for
our students and how to reallywork within their you know, with
their, with students strengthsand making sure that we are
providing scaffolding and thenslowly taking away scaffolding
(07:19):
so that students are reallyprepared to take learning on
themselves right.
Shannon Betts (07:26):
Yeah, so like, even though our, our season was
seemingly about a lot ofdifferent topics, they were
actually all related becausethey all, like, layer upon each
other Student engagement, layersupon data-driven instruction,
you know, layers upon you know,catering and understanding the
(07:49):
needs, the language demands ofthe students and the executive
functioning demands of thestudents, like, I mean, the
episode with Dr Shanahan wascalled the Right Things for Our
Learners, but that couldhonestly be the theme of the
season the Right Things for OurLearn learners and so I hope
that listeners can see thatlayering effect and that we're
(08:11):
not trying to like, add morenoise.
We're not trying to tell morethings to do.
We're just kind of trying toshow how these things are
connected.
You're basically, you know,using data to see what the kids
needs and you're meeting themwhere they are to provide those
needs.
Mary Saghafi (08:25):
Yeah, and I think that another way that I've sort
of described it in a lot of theepisodes too is like what are
the behaviors that teachersshould be either doing, or what
are the behaviors that you'relooking for within your students
, and to show their learning isactivated Exactly and showing
that those students feel surethat they are doing the right
thing, that they know how tomove forward and that that
(08:47):
foundation is solid so that theycan move on to more complex
tasks and handle that work.
And to do that you really haveto provide a safe learning
environment.
It has to be a place where theteacher feels confident in their
ability to teach what isexpected.
And I guess that was one of thereflection points that I kind
(09:11):
of had.
So I'm going to switch gearsjust a smidgen, because it was
something that I was reflectingon just from the beginning of
the year.
So this year we chatted abouthow the dyslexia bill in Georgia
was rolled out just this year,and so what that meant is that
they were assessing students inthe primary grades to see if
they should be, if they would beflagged as having dyslexic
(09:35):
traits.
Not giving any diagnoses, notdoing that, but just noticing to
see if any of those traits arehindering their literacy
progress.
And so what I saw was that inthe majority of the schools that
I'm working with there is a lotof great progress.
There are a lot of readingcoaches that are really helping
(09:57):
support with quality resources.
I'm seeing teachers with a lotmore ability and skills to teach
phonics appropriately with theright dose.
But not just that, but reallybuilding that knowledge and
vocabulary and weaving a reallystrong literacy block together.
(10:17):
So I've seen that tremendously.
I've also seen some schoolswhere there is just not the same
sense of organization andclarity for the teachers and I
want to really emphasize I neverbelieve that it is a lack of
desire on the part of theteachers.
I really, truly feel like allteachers just want to be able to
(10:39):
serve the kids.
Shannon Betts (10:40):
They have great the best of intentions.
Mary Saghafi (10:43):
Of course.
But when you are restrictedwith resources or you're
restricted by, you know, theobligations that the district is
putting on you or that theschool itself is putting on you,
it can be really frustrating,and so I definitely have seen
that part as well.
But I see that it's more oflike schools having difficulty
(11:05):
combining curriculum andresources and training for
teachers, rather than a lack ofdesire.
But sometimes I think that thatgets misplaced upon the student
, and I've still seen that in anumber of instances this year
too.
So it's a little disheartening.
But I do see, overwhelmingly,I've seen a lot of progress,
especially in the last fiveyears, since the rollout has
(11:28):
sort of begun here in Georgia.
Shannon Betts (11:31):
And that's why in season eight we do want to have
an episode about curriculum,right?
Mary Saghafi (11:35):
Right.
Well, that's the thing is thatwe're noticing that.
So I think you know, overall,the whole arch of the season is,
you know, teachers have a lotof expectations and things have
changed quickly.
You know, like we have accessto AI, we have access to so many
technology tools we have accessto and so much information can
(11:59):
be really overwhelming, and it'salso overwhelming for our
students.
So being able to like be astraight shooter like Tim
Shanahan or Matt Strader, Ithought, did such a great job of
that too just really cuttingthrough and being like this is
the priority.
Shannon Betts (12:14):
This is what you really need to focus on, or
these are the top five thingsyou need to focus on, and what
I'm doing as we haveconversations with our guests
and then I apply it to my ownteaching practice is I'm
learning from all of them.
I'm reading primary sourcesfrom books you know,
professional books.
I'm taking some professionalclasses.
I'm getting a lot of that input, you know, and consuming a lot
(12:37):
of new knowledge and input, andthen I have to take time to just
process and reflect Right,feeling overwhelmed about all
the demands of your students,looking for more resources and
strategies to help your readers.
Mary Saghafi (12:52):
Come join our Patreon community, where we'll
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Depending on your level ofsupport, you can meet with us
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Shannon Betts (13:08):
Watch us model effective strategies and
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Reference the resource libraryto find curated sources for our
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Learn from and participate inour deep dive topics where we
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teaching writing and so muchmore.
Mary Saghafi (13:30):
You'll have the confidence and tools to know
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Feel better about your teachingtoday by checking out the
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Shannon Betts (13:48):
We're here to help you and your students.
Yeah, and think about thestudent and then look at all of
the input through the lens ofthe students that I'm currently
working with and then it thenext right moves appear.
It's like I just have to liketake it in pause and then like
(14:09):
filter it through the lens of mycurrent students.
I can't think about my classlike a couple years ago.
I have to think about, likewhere I am in this season of my
life and the current studentsthat I'm working with, and then
I'm able to like choose the bestchanges to apply for my
students or just tweaks andadjustments to make.
Mary Saghafi (14:28):
Yeah, I think that that's a really good point, and
I can recall really wanting todo that when I was teaching as
well, and also feeling kind ofjust overwhelmed by the whole
thing.
I didn't have enough processingtime.
It was something that wasreally challenging for me in the
classroom.
But additionally, I think thatyou kind of hone your craft too,
(14:50):
as you, you know, read theseprimary resources.
You could understand and relateto them in different ways.
So I hope that us sharing thisknowledge with our listeners is
allowing them that time to kindof like percolate You're right,
there's not enough percolationtime.
Shannon Betts (15:06):
I mean, I think that's why some of my best
teaching ideas happen in theshower, and I know I'm not the
only one who's over seven.
So, many colleagues are likeyes and I think that's because,
like when, there's no sound, youknow.
So like some days when my brainwas feeling like too full, I
would have to even turn offmusic.
I would even have to turn offpodcasts and things like that in
(15:28):
the commute, because that wasanother time before and after
school where those things couldjust sort of percolate under the
surface back in my subconsciousand then get sorted and
synthesized as needed.
Mary Saghafi (15:43):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Well, I will say that the otherbig thing, I think, that you
and I both took on this year waslearning from Pete Bowers and
diving into morphology andtrying to not feel uncomfortable
about the morphology aspectbecause and specifically like
the technique calledstructure-word inquiry, which is
(16:06):
an approach of really analyzing, an inquiry based analyzing of
the structure of English withstudents.
And I was going to say I thinkthe part that was most
intimidating for me is thisinquiry based where you're
searching for through words andit's almost like incidental
(16:26):
learning, because you want it tobe a word that is meaningful in
context for what you'reteaching at that time and you
want to teach students how theprocess of analyzing words works
, and I think that that was.
Shannon Betts (16:41):
We had a little like push and shove with him,
like I did privately too in someof my trainings with him,
because we've been so focused onlike structured, explicit
instruction that like I was like, but I need a scope and
sequence, like where's the scopeand sequence, like what am I
(17:02):
supposed to do?
And like, really I appreciatethat structured inquiry pulled
me back from that a little bit,because then the episode we had
with Nancy Young resonated somuch more.
Mary Saghafi (17:14):
I was gonna say that too.
Shannon Betts (17:16):
Yeah, where it's like okay, maybe like not every
student needs this amount ofstructured literacy and we might
be leaving some students behindby not providing enough inquiry
.
Mary Saghafi (17:27):
Well, and it's again.
It's once you recognize thatyour students are sure, how are
you able to pull away so thatthey can take off on their own?
How can you give them thatlaunching pad without
handholding too much?
Shannon Betts (17:45):
And it's so interesting Right, so that then
they can be engaged and be moreof the drivers of their own
learning Right.
Mary Saghafi (17:51):
So I have a new student and I think that his
family would be okay with mesharing a little bit of
information about this.
He has a diagnosis of ADHD andhe's going into second grade,
but he has this very bad habitof just guessing immediately,
and we know that that's a commontrait for children who, you
know, have a first letter thesame, or is it just a guess?
Shannon Betts (18:13):
that makes sense in context, or it's just a guess
?
Mary Saghafi (18:18):
A lot of times it's just a guess, because it's
always consistent that way.
But his motivation level, Iwould say, is the piece that is
actually the number one thingthat I want to work on with him.
Okay, because he's a supersmart kid, things often come
really easy to him and, as weoften talk about, when you hit
(18:39):
this part where school starts toget a little bit harder because
you can't just immediately know, because of your experience or
background knowledge or howeverit is, I think our last session,
when I was chatting with him, Iwould say I would be pointing
to the word and his eyes wouldcome up and look up at the
ceiling which is also verycommon when I work with students
(19:00):
and I would see him look at thefirst letter.
Sometimes my students will lookat the word for a couple
seconds and glance up.
I know that that's processingtime.
This was not that.
This was let me look at thefirst couple letters and guess a
totally random word, and so Iwould say I need you to focus on
(19:22):
the letters.
If you don't know it, yourfirst thing that you need to do
is sound it out or tap it out,whichever is more comfortable,
and that was all I said and wewould work on it, and then I
would say it again, and then wewould work on it and we would do
a little more independent, notindependent reading, but guided
reading and again.
So you know, like working onmotivation, working on
(19:45):
strategies like this.
Shannon Betts (19:47):
So much of it is like noticing these small
behaviors, like we were talkingabout before before I had
students do that all the timethey would look at my forehead
oh yes, looking and reading, andI would have.
I would like kind of put myhand like a visor, you know,
like over my eyes and be likeare the words on my forehead?
Are the words on?
Mary Saghafi (20:04):
my forehead.
Shannon Betts (20:04):
Like look down, look at the words, look at the
letters, and then I like howPete added to that, not just
sounding it out but spelling itout, and then that sort of like
bypasses like a different partof the brain, and so they're
paying attention just to theorder of the letters, not
necessarily like getting lost insymphonic sounds.
Mary Saghafi (20:22):
I'm so glad you mentioned that because that was
something that I did work onwith him yesterday and actually
two students like that and I'vebeen implementing that strategy.
It's kind of become secondnature to me, but that is a
really important skill wherethey really need to name the
letters, especially if that's aweakness.
Even some of our older readersmight not have the alphabetical.
Shannon Betts (20:47):
I'm helping.
That really helps with BDreversals as well.
Mary Saghafi (20:50):
Oh, definitely, yep, definitely.
Oh, I love chatting with youabout our students Me too.
Shannon Betts (20:56):
Let's have a podcast where we talk about this
regularly.
So, yeah, this school year forme, you know, this was the first
year I wasn't in a schoolsetting and I did tutoring, and
I appreciate all your support.
Listening to our private bonusepisodes, that's pretty much you
(21:19):
could hear sort of my journeythrough learning how to be a
more effective tutor one-on-one,because it is a different
ballgame than working with smallgroups, as either push in or
pull out in the school setting,because you have to keep the
kids engaged for the whole hourand you have to change up
activities and understand thepace and keep you know Anyway.
So I really, really enjoy itthough, and I love how closely
(21:41):
you can feel the impact of thework that you do with the
students one-on-one, so I'vereally enjoyed that.
Mary Saghafi (21:48):
Me too.
No, I'm happy for you and Ifeel like my practice has been,
you know, evolving for quite along time.
But I feel like the one thingI'm like working on this year
and next year for sure, it'sboundaries and self-care,
because I feel like I have notalways made that a priority for
(22:09):
myself and for my family.
And as a teacher, you know that, like you're giving a lot of
your energy and empathy and yourdesire to help people and that
can drain you fairly quickly andI have a yes person by nature
(22:30):
and I want to help and it isgenuine.
And then later on I feel theimpact and it was like, was like
, oh, I forgot to put up thatslow down sign and you get burnt
out and overextended yeah but Iam.
I am really trying to use anumber of strategies this year,
and this summer has definitelybeen more successful on that
(22:52):
front.
Shannon Betts (22:53):
Good, I'm proud of myself for that one thing I'm
going to work, um, probably notthis summer.
I think I'm gonna wait for thewinter to work on it, when I
kind of I get quieter in my life, you know, and kind of
hibernate.
But, um, because of the techdebacle of january when my
computer crashed and we lost allthose episodes, um, and then we
had to kind of pause the seasonum, which we explained kind of
(23:15):
behind the scenes, definitelymore to our Patreon subscribers
and also our email subscribers.
So, if you're not on thoselists, get on those lists, even
the free ones, just so you cankind of, you know, find out a
little more of like why wedisappear sometimes or what's
going to happen next.
But anyway, because of that,that motivated me to definitely
(23:35):
do a digital declutter, likethis past year I've been like
decluttering my whole housebecause we merged the bedroom.
You know, we split the bedroomsand then like move the master
bedroom and did all kinds ofdifferent things and that just
caused a lot of clutter as wemoved the rooms.
So I've been dealing with thatall year.
And then now I've got to tacklethe digital part and I have to
have much better systems inplace so that my backups are
(23:59):
running and we don't lose anyfuture episodes, and also that I
can, you know, find documentsfaster and they're not just in
like the lost of the mace of myfolders and things like that in
the cloud.
I mean it's just, it's a realmess and I think it's going to
take me months to clean it up.
I'm going to try to find someAI or tech tools, that kind of
(24:20):
streamline that I would love tohear about any that listeners
might know of, but that's goingto be one of the personal goals
for me.
Mary Saghafi (24:30):
Nice.
In line with that, I actuallyhave tried this summer to
utilize AI more.
I actually have used it, likemore recently, for building
lesson plans and then explicitlyworking to you know kind of
draw out some strategies thatwould be best practices for my
(24:51):
students, so that I can thenshare those with parents a
little bit more, rather thanjust conversation wise or
sometimes I'll have parents comein and I'll model for them.
But what I really want to do ismake sure that it is documented
, because if it's documentedthen we can share it more widely
with others and parents havethat same language and parents
(25:12):
really want to be able to comeinto the school and speak the
jargon that teachers often do,so that it's efficient and they
are ensuring that they'respeaking the same language, and
that's often something that'sintimidating, I think, for
parents.
So I've been using AI for thatand I've also been using it for
decodable passages, so I've beenable to kind of change around
(25:34):
some passages and one of thethings that I thought was just
great yesterday so I was doing adecodable passage and I was
combining some themes and so itwas mostly about soccer and it
generated a story and I was ableto change the names in the
story to familiar andpersonalize.
The story created a quickprintout for me and I was able
(25:55):
to use it and the student reallybenefited from it, and that's
something that would take me alot longer to do on my own, and
so within a couple of minutes Iwas able to generate that.
I do want to caution that asyou go through it, you want to
be really carefully readingthrough, because it is not a
perfect system.
So the 80-20 rule is reallyimportant.
(26:17):
80% of it should be right ontarget and then you likely will
want to correct about 20% of itand make sure that you review,
so don't just copy paste.
Nope, yeah, oh.
The other thing that's beenhelpful for me too is reviewing
programs.
So I often have a generaloutline of a program that we're
(26:38):
talking about or a program thata school is using, but I can ask
it to teach me a little bitabout the main points of a
program so that when I go into aschool and learn about what the
practices are looking like inthe school, I can say this is
going to be really important andstrong in the lesson to support
the needs of this learner.
So that's been kind of helpfultoo.
Shannon Betts (26:58):
Well, that is cool.
So, like, like wonders, likeyou could say Like wonders,
right, exactly what?
Mary Saghafi (27:04):
does a wonders literacy block look like in a
second grade classroom?
Explain it to you know a parentof an eight-year-old or
something like that?
Cool yeah, definitely.
Shannon Betts (27:19):
Well, I'm excited for next season too.
We've already started thissummer planning for next season.
So we've got exciting things instore and we appreciate all of
you just for sticking with us,especially when we're on like
our big hiatus.
And then I know like what we'vedone since we kind of got back
on air is that we've beenreleasing episodes really
quickly and it's taking longerfor teachers to kind of catch up
(27:42):
with them because they're longepisodes.
They have a lot of meat to them.
So hopefully, after thisepisode airs, you know, there'll
be a couple months off wherepeople get caught up.
Get caught up and we're alsocheck out our our website over
the summer, because what we'realso going to be releasing is
(28:02):
themed playlist that we curatefor you guys, because certain
topics kind of keep coming upand we want y'all to be able to
see like how the episodes acrossthe seasons are connected, and
so we'll be adding those to ourwebsite and some other things to
our website now that it's beenredesigned.
Mary Saghafi (28:19):
Yeah, no, I'm really looking forward to our
next season eight, which is, youknow, we're really moving along
with this podcast.
It's just so nice to have ourlisteners, you know, come back
and join us.
I think, too, we have somereally great quality content,
and it would be really wonderfulif you could share this with a
(28:41):
colleague or another thoughtpartner and really discuss in
your own teacher's lounge someof these themes and topics that
we've discussed.
We also would love for someteachers to reach out to us
personally and chat with us alittle bit.
We may have some otheropportunities in the next season
for teachers to I'll just sayit, not like you're teasing it,
(29:05):
I'm just going to say it.
Shannon Betts (29:06):
Okay, I'm just going to say it out loud we want
real teachers to come into theReading Teachers Out to join us.
So we're still going to behaving some expert guests, but
we're also going to be havingconversations, like we've had in
our Patreon off air where we'vehad teachers join us on our
Zooms and we talk about we justsaid, wonders.
You know how are you using theWonders curriculum in your
(29:26):
classroom or what are somenon-negotiables that are going
on in your district.
You know that feel like you'rehemming in and how can we kind
of help you see how that is partof best practices and kind of
weave it into like what youalready you know, have
experience doing?
And we're going to not call outany specific curriculum or
anything like that.
(29:47):
But we do want to talk aboutwhat are the real life demands
that are happening in the fieldwith teachers at different grade
levels.
So if any of you guys areinterested, you can go ahead and
email us about that atreadingteacherslounge at
gmailcom or team atreadingteachersloungecom is our
official email address, and thenwe're also on our social media
(30:09):
and in our newsletter.
So be following us there ifyou're not, and be a subscriber.
If you're not yet, you can findout about that on our website
and our social media handles areat Reading Teachers Lounge, you
know, across the platforms.
But anyway, we're going to beputting out a survey, you know,
asking for signups for anybodywho's interested to come in and
(30:32):
be a Literacy Soul Sister withus.
Mary Saghafi (30:34):
I think that this will definitely make a big
difference in the lives of ourteachers who are listening right
now.
I think it's always importantto hear from lots of voices, and
so I love hearing from ourexperts who come on, but I think
that you know, in real life weneed to hear what's happening in
the classroom, so we're excitedto share with our listeners
(30:59):
those conversations.
Shannon Betts (31:01):
One last thought about this season.
We had a lot more dudes in theRing Teacher's Lounge, so we had
like literacy soul sisters andbrothers.
So I really liked that.
Mary Saghafi (31:09):
That's true.
Yes, we want to make sure thatwe're as inclusive as possible.
Great, I think that I'vecovered most of the points that
I wanted to chat about today.
Shannon Betts (31:22):
How about you?
I think so.
Let's give the gift of ashorter episode here at the end,
go find one of the otherepisodes that we've mentioned
that you haven't listened to yet.
After you're done with this one, thanks, for tuning in.
Mary Saghafi (31:36):
Thanks for joining us.
Have a great one.
Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge.
Come join the conversation withother curious teachers as they
discover teaching strategies andresources to reach all of their
learners.
I'm Shannon.
Mary Saghafi (00:13):
And I'm Mary, and together we bring an honest and
experienced point of view to thetopics we cover to shed light
on best practices.
Whether you're a new teacherseeking guidance, a seasoned pro
looking for fresh ideas or acurious parent, our community
offers something for everyone.
So grab your favorite cup ofcoffee or tea and cozy up in the
virtual lounge with us andeavesdrop on our professional
(00:35):
conversations.
Shannon Betts (00:37):
Listen, learn and immediately add to your bag of
teaching tricks.
Find what works for yourstudents with us in the Reading
Teachers Lounge.
Mary Saghafi (00:47):
Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge.
Shannon, we have made it.
This is our final episode ofseason seven.
We have episode 18, our seasonfinale.
Shannon Betts (00:59):
This has been a season of, like it doesn't.
You know, we always like recordthe opener and we're like we
have all these plans and then,like you know, god laughs while
you make plans, or something Forsure.
So anyway, that's what'shappened this whole season.
So I'm eager to just sort ofunpack it all with you and
(01:19):
review what's happened over thecourse of this season and to
kind of talk about what's nextas well.
Mary Saghafi (01:26):
Yeah, even so, I will just start by sharing, like
, even though I feel like behindthe scenes it's been a bit
rocky for us, but I really am soproud of the content that we
have in this season and I thinkthat our listeners have gotten
some really good advice from alot of the guests that we've had
.
I think our topics are just Idon't know so interesting and
(01:51):
relevant for what's going on inthe field.
Absolutely, and I was justwondering do you want to start
by maybe sharing a treasuredguest that we had or some of
your favorites?
I have to say I was looking andI'm having a hard time choosing
, to be perfectly honest, it'shard Like I've got the season
seven episodes from our websitepulled up.
Shannon Betts (02:13):
By the way, that's one of the things we did
this season is that weredesigned our website, and so
if y'all haven't checked thatout, definitely go visit our
website because it has a nicenew professional look.
Yeah, and I'm looking throughall of this as a group.
(02:48):
I really like the first coupleepisodes we improving my
teaching practice around.
Mary Saghafi (02:50):
You're talking about season seven, episode four
.
Word knowledge with Adam andHeidi.
Shannon Betts (02:56):
From drop in knowledge with Heidi yes, and
then spelling that sticks withRachel as well, exactly yep, so
I would say that that definitelyled.
Mary Saghafi (03:06):
Yeah, I would say that those are some areas that
kind of sparked right.
And we love catching up withRachel as well, our fellow
Atlantan, yeah, but she's, she'sso good about giving specific
strategies.
I didn't mention her handle,but it's mindful teacher Rachel.
And that is episode five.
(03:26):
Spelling, that sticks, but Ihave to say the one there's
actually the two at the verybeginning.
Karen Gross is just such alovely human and she talks a lot
about you know what thepandemic did for teachers and
how, how difficult it is toexperience stress and trauma and
(03:47):
what that means.
But then she gave such goodadvice about how to mend and
just accept what has been andhow that has kind of like
changed your perception in theworld and how to you know kind
of keep moving forward.
Shannon Betts (04:04):
That like wabi-sabi my takeaway from that
episode.
My favorite one was the paperclips and like where she had us
actually like link those paperclips and how that was showing
that.
That was like creating neurallinks in our minds and unpacking
trauma, which was just so coolso good.
Mary Saghafi (04:20):
And then the book equity.
Shannon Betts (04:21):
I didn't realize um, yeah, that was early on in
the season.
That was just episode three,but we had those great people
from Scholastic.
Mary Saghafi (04:29):
Yeah.
So Marty and Judy came on fromReach Out and Read and I loved
how we can support the communityand still get high quality
books into young hands, families, and make sure that they're
supporting literacy at an earlyage.
So I thought that was reallyhelpful as well and that
(04:52):
perspective is going todefinitely stick with me,
especially because I work somuch with parents, making sure
that you know I'm providing themwith.
You know they're constantlyasking what, what should I do,
what can I do, and I think thatthose are some great actions
that that group is workingtowards for getting the quality
books into students' hands andtraining physicians there.
Shannon Betts (05:15):
Yeah, that was a cool episode.
Yeah, a bucket list.
I wanted to always meet DrShanahan and so I was so glad to
talk to him for our 13thepisode and I really connected
him with the way that I'veconnected with wiley levens when
we've had him online, um on theair of just like okay, like we
get it, you know, like we, wekind of approach things in a
(05:37):
similar way and like a both andway, um, like wiley has said,
like exploring the nuances, umamong the extremes, um within
you know, the literacy communityright now, and I really
appreciate that they like umtimothy, just like, like drilled
down of, like okay, let's cutthe noise and like let's just
(05:58):
focus on these things.
And I really appreciatedtalking to him and I I was
surprised by how much I reallyreally enjoyed even though
executive functioning is yourthing like I really loved that
episode with our most recentguest.
Mary Saghafi (06:13):
Yeah, with Doug Fisher and Matt Schroeder.
Yeah, I totally agree, and Ithink actually you know,
piggybacking on what you saidabout talking with Dr Tim
Shanahan.
I think cutting through thenoise is so overwhelming
sometimes because teachers arepulled in so many directions and
so voices like Tim Shanahan'sis so helpful to me.
(06:36):
I really love reading his blogposts on Sunday mornings.
I think that he really givesgreat insight and has so much
experience.
And then again, I would saymaybe my favorite episode was
the executive functioningdemands, because I think that
(06:56):
both Dr Doug Fisher and Dr MattStrader, I think that they have
a really good sense of theempathy that's appropriate for
our students and how to reallywork within their you know, with
their, with students strengthsand making sure that we are
providing scaffolding and thenslowly taking away scaffolding
(07:19):
so that students are reallyprepared to take learning on
themselves right.
Shannon Betts (07:26):
Yeah, so like, even though our, our season was
seemingly about a lot ofdifferent topics, they were
actually all related becausethey all, like, layer upon each
other Student engagement, layersupon data-driven instruction,
you know, layers upon you know,catering and understanding the
(07:49):
needs, the language demands ofthe students and the executive
functioning demands of thestudents, like, I mean, the
episode with Dr Shanahan wascalled the Right Things for Our
Learners, but that couldhonestly be the theme of the
season the Right Things for OurLearn learners and so I hope
that listeners can see thatlayering effect and that we're
(08:11):
not trying to like, add morenoise.
We're not trying to tell morethings to do.
We're just kind of trying toshow how these things are
connected.
You're basically, you know,using data to see what the kids
needs and you're meeting themwhere they are to provide those
needs.
Mary Saghafi (08:25):
Yeah, and I think that another way that I've sort
of described it in a lot of theepisodes too is like what are
the behaviors that teachersshould be either doing, or what
are the behaviors that you'relooking for within your students
, and to show their learning isactivated Exactly and showing
that those students feel surethat they are doing the right
thing, that they know how tomove forward and that that
(08:47):
foundation is solid so that theycan move on to more complex
tasks and handle that work.
And to do that you really haveto provide a safe learning
environment.
It has to be a place where theteacher feels confident in their
ability to teach what isexpected.
And I guess that was one of thereflection points that I kind
(09:11):
of had.
So I'm going to switch gearsjust a smidgen, because it was
something that I was reflectingon just from the beginning of
the year.
So this year we chatted abouthow the dyslexia bill in Georgia
was rolled out just this year,and so what that meant is that
they were assessing students inthe primary grades to see if
they should be, if they would beflagged as having dyslexic
(09:35):
traits.
Not giving any diagnoses, notdoing that, but just noticing to
see if any of those traits arehindering their literacy
progress.
And so what I saw was that inthe majority of the schools that
I'm working with there is a lotof great progress.
There are a lot of readingcoaches that are really helping
(09:57):
support with quality resources.
I'm seeing teachers with a lotmore ability and skills to teach
phonics appropriately with theright dose.
But not just that, but reallybuilding that knowledge and
vocabulary and weaving a reallystrong literacy block together.
(10:17):
So I've seen that tremendously.
I've also seen some schoolswhere there is just not the same
sense of organization andclarity for the teachers and I
want to really emphasize I neverbelieve that it is a lack of
desire on the part of theteachers.
I really, truly feel like allteachers just want to be able to
(10:39):
serve the kids.
Shannon Betts (10:40):
They have great the best of intentions.
Mary Saghafi (10:43):
Of course.
But when you are restrictedwith resources or you're
restricted by, you know, theobligations that the district is
putting on you or that theschool itself is putting on you,
it can be really frustrating,and so I definitely have seen
that part as well.
But I see that it's more oflike schools having difficulty
(11:05):
combining curriculum andresources and training for
teachers, rather than a lack ofdesire.
But sometimes I think that thatgets misplaced upon the student
, and I've still seen that in anumber of instances this year
too.
So it's a little disheartening.
But I do see, overwhelmingly,I've seen a lot of progress,
especially in the last fiveyears, since the rollout has
(11:28):
sort of begun here in Georgia.
Shannon Betts (11:31):
And that's why in season eight we do want to have
an episode about curriculum,right?
Mary Saghafi (11:35):
Right.
Well, that's the thing is thatwe're noticing that.
So I think you know, overall,the whole arch of the season is,
you know, teachers have a lotof expectations and things have
changed quickly.
You know, like we have accessto AI, we have access to so many
technology tools we have accessto and so much information can
(11:59):
be really overwhelming, and it'salso overwhelming for our
students.
So being able to like be astraight shooter like Tim
Shanahan or Matt Strader, Ithought, did such a great job of
that too just really cuttingthrough and being like this is
the priority.
Shannon Betts (12:14):
This is what you really need to focus on, or
these are the top five thingsyou need to focus on, and what
I'm doing as we haveconversations with our guests
and then I apply it to my ownteaching practice is I'm
learning from all of them.
I'm reading primary sourcesfrom books you know,
professional books.
I'm taking some professionalclasses.
I'm getting a lot of that input, you know, and consuming a lot
(12:37):
of new knowledge and input, andthen I have to take time to just
process and reflect Right,feeling overwhelmed about all
the demands of your students,looking for more resources and
strategies to help your readers.
Mary Saghafi (12:52):
Come join our Patreon community, where we'll
support you in implementing allthe best practice pieces in your
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Depending on your level ofsupport, you can meet with us
bi-weekly or monthly forassistance with all aspects of
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Shannon Betts (13:08):
Watch us model effective strategies and
techniques.
Reference the resource libraryto find curated sources for our
favorite activities.
Learn from and participate inour deep dive topics where we
share specifics about ourinstruction, such as classroom
management, assessment,introducing sight words,
teaching writing and so muchmore.
Mary Saghafi (13:30):
You'll have the confidence and tools to know
that you're working smarter, notharder, to meet your students'
needs.
Feel better about your teachingtoday by checking out the
various levels of supportoffered through wwwpatreoncom
backslash reading teacherslounge.
Shannon Betts (13:48):
We're here to help you and your students.
Yeah, and think about thestudent and then look at all of
the input through the lens ofthe students that I'm currently
working with and then it thenext right moves appear.
It's like I just have to liketake it in pause and then like
(14:09):
filter it through the lens of mycurrent students.
I can't think about my classlike a couple years ago.
I have to think about, likewhere I am in this season of my
life and the current studentsthat I'm working with, and then
I'm able to like choose the bestchanges to apply for my
students or just tweaks andadjustments to make.
Mary Saghafi (14:28):
Yeah, I think that that's a really good point, and
I can recall really wanting todo that when I was teaching as
well, and also feeling kind ofjust overwhelmed by the whole
thing.
I didn't have enough processingtime.
It was something that wasreally challenging for me in the
classroom.
But additionally, I think thatyou kind of hone your craft too,
(14:50):
as you, you know, read theseprimary resources.
You could understand and relateto them in different ways.
So I hope that us sharing thisknowledge with our listeners is
allowing them that time to kindof like percolate You're right,
there's not enough percolationtime.
Shannon Betts (15:06):
I mean, I think that's why some of my best
teaching ideas happen in theshower, and I know I'm not the
only one who's over seven.
So, many colleagues are likeyes and I think that's because,
like when, there's no sound, youknow.
So like some days when my brainwas feeling like too full, I
would have to even turn offmusic.
I would even have to turn offpodcasts and things like that in
(15:28):
the commute, because that wasanother time before and after
school where those things couldjust sort of percolate under the
surface back in my subconsciousand then get sorted and
synthesized as needed.
Mary Saghafi (15:43):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Well, I will say that the otherbig thing, I think, that you
and I both took on this year waslearning from Pete Bowers and
diving into morphology andtrying to not feel uncomfortable
about the morphology aspectbecause and specifically like
the technique calledstructure-word inquiry, which is
(16:06):
an approach of really analyzing, an inquiry based analyzing of
the structure of English withstudents.
And I was going to say I thinkthe part that was most
intimidating for me is thisinquiry based where you're
searching for through words andit's almost like incidental
(16:26):
learning, because you want it tobe a word that is meaningful in
context for what you'reteaching at that time and you
want to teach students how theprocess of analyzing words works
, and I think that that was.
Shannon Betts (16:41):
We had a little like push and shove with him,
like I did privately too in someof my trainings with him,
because we've been so focused onlike structured, explicit
instruction that like I was like, but I need a scope and
sequence, like where's the scopeand sequence, like what am I
(17:02):
supposed to do?
And like, really I appreciatethat structured inquiry pulled
me back from that a little bit,because then the episode we had
with Nancy Young resonated somuch more.
Mary Saghafi (17:14):
I was gonna say that too.
Shannon Betts (17:16):
Yeah, where it's like okay, maybe like not every
student needs this amount ofstructured literacy and we might
be leaving some students behindby not providing enough inquiry
.
Mary Saghafi (17:27):
Well, and it's again.
It's once you recognize thatyour students are sure, how are
you able to pull away so thatthey can take off on their own?
How can you give them thatlaunching pad without
handholding too much?
Shannon Betts (17:45):
And it's so interesting Right, so that then
they can be engaged and be moreof the drivers of their own
learning Right.
Mary Saghafi (17:51):
So I have a new student and I think that his
family would be okay with mesharing a little bit of
information about this.
He has a diagnosis of ADHD andhe's going into second grade,
but he has this very bad habitof just guessing immediately,
and we know that that's a commontrait for children who, you
know, have a first letter thesame, or is it just a guess?
Shannon Betts (18:13):
that makes sense in context, or it's just a guess
?
Mary Saghafi (18:18):
A lot of times it's just a guess, because it's
always consistent that way.
But his motivation level, Iwould say, is the piece that is
actually the number one thingthat I want to work on with him.
Okay, because he's a supersmart kid, things often come
really easy to him and, as weoften talk about, when you hit
(18:39):
this part where school starts toget a little bit harder because
you can't just immediately know, because of your experience or
background knowledge or howeverit is, I think our last session,
when I was chatting with him, Iwould say I would be pointing
to the word and his eyes wouldcome up and look up at the
ceiling which is also verycommon when I work with students
(19:00):
and I would see him look at thefirst letter.
Sometimes my students will lookat the word for a couple
seconds and glance up.
I know that that's processingtime.
This was not that.
This was let me look at thefirst couple letters and guess a
totally random word, and so Iwould say I need you to focus on
(19:22):
the letters.
If you don't know it, yourfirst thing that you need to do
is sound it out or tap it out,whichever is more comfortable,
and that was all I said and wewould work on it, and then I
would say it again, and then wewould work on it and we would do
a little more independent, notindependent reading, but guided
reading and again.
So you know, like working onmotivation, working on
(19:45):
strategies like this.
Shannon Betts (19:47):
So much of it is like noticing these small
behaviors, like we were talkingabout before before I had
students do that all the timethey would look at my forehead
oh yes, looking and reading, andI would have.
I would like kind of put myhand like a visor, you know,
like over my eyes and be likeare the words on my forehead?
Are the words on?
Mary Saghafi (20:04):
my forehead.
Shannon Betts (20:04):
Like look down, look at the words, look at the
letters, and then I like howPete added to that, not just
sounding it out but spelling itout, and then that sort of like
bypasses like a different partof the brain, and so they're
paying attention just to theorder of the letters, not
necessarily like getting lost insymphonic sounds.
Mary Saghafi (20:22):
I'm so glad you mentioned that because that was
something that I did work onwith him yesterday and actually
two students like that and I'vebeen implementing that strategy.
It's kind of become secondnature to me, but that is a
really important skill wherethey really need to name the
letters, especially if that's aweakness.
Even some of our older readersmight not have the alphabetical.
Shannon Betts (20:47):
I'm helping.
That really helps with BDreversals as well.
Mary Saghafi (20:50):
Oh, definitely, yep, definitely.
Oh, I love chatting with youabout our students Me too.
Shannon Betts (20:56):
Let's have a podcast where we talk about this
regularly.
So, yeah, this school year forme, you know, this was the first
year I wasn't in a schoolsetting and I did tutoring, and
I appreciate all your support.
Listening to our private bonusepisodes, that's pretty much you
(21:19):
could hear sort of my journeythrough learning how to be a
more effective tutor one-on-one,because it is a different
ballgame than working with smallgroups, as either push in or
pull out in the school setting,because you have to keep the
kids engaged for the whole hourand you have to change up
activities and understand thepace and keep you know Anyway.
So I really, really enjoy itthough, and I love how closely
(21:41):
you can feel the impact of thework that you do with the
students one-on-one, so I'vereally enjoyed that.
Mary Saghafi (21:48):
Me too.
No, I'm happy for you and Ifeel like my practice has been,
you know, evolving for quite along time.
But I feel like the one thingI'm like working on this year
and next year for sure, it'sboundaries and self-care,
because I feel like I have notalways made that a priority for
(22:09):
myself and for my family.
And as a teacher, you know that, like you're giving a lot of
your energy and empathy and yourdesire to help people and that
can drain you fairly quickly andI have a yes person by nature
(22:30):
and I want to help and it isgenuine.
And then later on I feel theimpact and it was like, was like
, oh, I forgot to put up thatslow down sign and you get burnt
out and overextended yeah but Iam.
I am really trying to use anumber of strategies this year,
and this summer has definitelybeen more successful on that
(22:52):
front.
Shannon Betts (22:53):
Good, I'm proud of myself for that one thing I'm
going to work, um, probably notthis summer.
I think I'm gonna wait for thewinter to work on it, when I
kind of I get quieter in my life, you know, and kind of
hibernate.
But, um, because of the techdebacle of january when my
computer crashed and we lost allthose episodes, um, and then we
had to kind of pause the seasonum, which we explained kind of
(23:15):
behind the scenes, definitelymore to our Patreon subscribers
and also our email subscribers.
So, if you're not on thoselists, get on those lists, even
the free ones, just so you cankind of, you know, find out a
little more of like why wedisappear sometimes or what's
going to happen next.
But anyway, because of that,that motivated me to definitely
(23:35):
do a digital declutter, likethis past year I've been like
decluttering my whole housebecause we merged the bedroom.
You know, we split the bedroomsand then like move the master
bedroom and did all kinds ofdifferent things and that just
caused a lot of clutter as wemoved the rooms.
So I've been dealing with thatall year.
And then now I've got to tacklethe digital part and I have to
have much better systems inplace so that my backups are
(23:59):
running and we don't lose anyfuture episodes, and also that I
can, you know, find documentsfaster and they're not just in
like the lost of the mace of myfolders and things like that in
the cloud.
I mean it's just, it's a realmess and I think it's going to
take me months to clean it up.
I'm going to try to find someAI or tech tools, that kind of
(24:20):
streamline that I would love tohear about any that listeners
might know of, but that's goingto be one of the personal goals
for me.
Mary Saghafi (24:30):
Nice.
In line with that, I actuallyhave tried this summer to
utilize AI more.
I actually have used it, likemore recently, for building
lesson plans and then explicitlyworking to you know kind of
draw out some strategies thatwould be best practices for my
(24:51):
students, so that I can thenshare those with parents a
little bit more, rather thanjust conversation wise or
sometimes I'll have parents comein and I'll model for them.
But what I really want to do ismake sure that it is documented
, because if it's documentedthen we can share it more widely
with others and parents havethat same language and parents
(25:12):
really want to be able to comeinto the school and speak the
jargon that teachers often do,so that it's efficient and they
are ensuring that they'respeaking the same language, and
that's often something that'sintimidating, I think, for
parents.
So I've been using AI for thatand I've also been using it for
decodable passages, so I've beenable to kind of change around
(25:34):
some passages and one of thethings that I thought was just
great yesterday so I was doing adecodable passage and I was
combining some themes and so itwas mostly about soccer and it
generated a story and I was ableto change the names in the
story to familiar andpersonalize.
The story created a quickprintout for me and I was able
(25:55):
to use it and the student reallybenefited from it, and that's
something that would take me alot longer to do on my own, and
so within a couple of minutes Iwas able to generate that.
I do want to caution that asyou go through it, you want to
be really carefully readingthrough, because it is not a
perfect system.
So the 80-20 rule is reallyimportant.
(26:17):
80% of it should be right ontarget and then you likely will
want to correct about 20% of itand make sure that you review,
so don't just copy paste.
Nope, yeah, oh.
The other thing that's beenhelpful for me too is reviewing
programs.
So I often have a generaloutline of a program that we're
(26:38):
talking about or a program thata school is using, but I can ask
it to teach me a little bitabout the main points of a
program so that when I go into aschool and learn about what the
practices are looking like inthe school, I can say this is
going to be really important andstrong in the lesson to support
the needs of this learner.
So that's been kind of helpfultoo.
Shannon Betts (26:58):
Well, that is cool.
So, like, like wonders, likeyou could say Like wonders,
right, exactly what?
Mary Saghafi (27:04):
does a wonders literacy block look like in a
second grade classroom?
Explain it to you know a parentof an eight-year-old or
something like that?
Cool yeah, definitely.
Shannon Betts (27:19):
Well, I'm excited for next season too.
We've already started thissummer planning for next season.
So we've got exciting things instore and we appreciate all of
you just for sticking with us,especially when we're on like
our big hiatus.
And then I know like what we'vedone since we kind of got back
on air is that we've beenreleasing episodes really
quickly and it's taking longerfor teachers to kind of catch up
(27:42):
with them because they're longepisodes.
They have a lot of meat to them.
So hopefully, after thisepisode airs, you know, there'll
be a couple months off wherepeople get caught up.
Get caught up and we're alsocheck out our our website over
the summer, because what we'realso going to be releasing is
(28:02):
themed playlist that we curatefor you guys, because certain
topics kind of keep coming upand we want y'all to be able to
see like how the episodes acrossthe seasons are connected, and
so we'll be adding those to ourwebsite and some other things to
our website now that it's beenredesigned.
Mary Saghafi (28:19):
Yeah, no, I'm really looking forward to our
next season eight, which is, youknow, we're really moving along
with this podcast.
It's just so nice to have ourlisteners, you know, come back
and join us.
I think, too, we have somereally great quality content,
and it would be really wonderfulif you could share this with a
(28:41):
colleague or another thoughtpartner and really discuss in
your own teacher's lounge someof these themes and topics that
we've discussed.
We also would love for someteachers to reach out to us
personally and chat with us alittle bit.
We may have some otheropportunities in the next season
for teachers to I'll just sayit, not like you're teasing it,
(29:05):
I'm just going to say it.
Shannon Betts (29:06):
Okay, I'm just going to say it out loud we want
real teachers to come into theReading Teachers Out to join us.
So we're still going to behaving some expert guests, but
we're also going to be havingconversations, like we've had in
our Patreon off air where we'vehad teachers join us on our
Zooms and we talk about we justsaid, wonders.
You know how are you using theWonders curriculum in your
(29:26):
classroom or what are somenon-negotiables that are going
on in your district.
You know that feel like you'rehemming in and how can we kind
of help you see how that is partof best practices and kind of
weave it into like what youalready you know, have
experience doing?
And we're going to not call outany specific curriculum or
anything like that.
(29:47):
But we do want to talk aboutwhat are the real life demands
that are happening in the fieldwith teachers at different grade
levels.
So if any of you guys areinterested, you can go ahead and
email us about that atreadingteacherslounge at
gmailcom or team atreadingteachersloungecom is our
official email address, and thenwe're also on our social media
(30:09):
and in our newsletter.
So be following us there ifyou're not, and be a subscriber.
If you're not yet, you can findout about that on our website
and our social media handles areat Reading Teachers Lounge, you
know, across the platforms.
But anyway, we're going to beputting out a survey, you know,
asking for signups for anybodywho's interested to come in and
(30:32):
be a Literacy Soul Sister withus.
Mary Saghafi (30:34):
I think that this will definitely make a big
difference in the lives of ourteachers who are listening right
now.
I think it's always importantto hear from lots of voices, and
so I love hearing from ourexperts who come on, but I think
that you know, in real life weneed to hear what's happening in
the classroom, so we're excitedto share with our listeners
(30:59):
those conversations.
Shannon Betts (31:01):
One last thought about this season.
We had a lot more dudes in theRing Teacher's Lounge, so we had
like literacy soul sisters andbrothers.
So I really liked that.
Mary Saghafi (31:09):
That's true.
Yes, we want to make sure thatwe're as inclusive as possible.
Great, I think that I'vecovered most of the points that
I wanted to chat about today.
Shannon Betts (31:22):
How about you?
I think so.
Let's give the gift of ashorter episode here at the end,
go find one of the otherepisodes that we've mentioned
that you haven't listened to yet.
After you're done with this one, thanks, for tuning in.
Mary Saghafi (31:36):
Thanks for joining us.
Have a great one.
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