The Best Teacher Podcast

Today on the show we bring you an interview with Neil Cooperman, a math teacher from New Jersey with over 50 years of experience. Neil is one of the most experienced teachers I’ve ever spoken to, but it is clear from our conversation that his passion for education hasn’t dimmed, and the wisdom he has gained over his many years of classroom service holds value for us all.

Listen as he shares stories of his career’s brightest m...

Today I bring you a conversation that I recorded with Ashley Sawyer back in February. Ashley is a 3rd grade teacher at Saigon South International School* in Vietnam, and I just had a blast talking with her. We talk about some of the effects of Covid learning loss, the joys of a multicultural classroom, how to set proper priorities and boundaries as a teacher, facilitating “togetherness” in our learning environment, and more! You wo...

Today on the 10th episode of the Best teacher podcast, I speak with Kimberly Phinney, a national award-winning AP English teacher and English department head in Tampa, Florida with some amazing stories to tell.

From battling an auto-immune disease to grieving the loss of her first student, we cover so much ground in this interview but there is a common thread woven through it all—and that is the culture of care, of putting people o...

Today on the show I speak with Shveta Kapur—a teacher and teacher trainer in India with over 17 years of experience. It is obvious from this conversation just how important Shveta’s individual students are to her, and we talk a lot about how to lead with empathy, patience, and encouragement in the classroom. Unfortunately, there is a bit of audio distortion in this episode due to network issues on our call, but we’ve worked hard to...

Today on the show I speak with Jen Van Belle - an international teacher extraordinaire that who has taught in a number of cross-cultural contexts around the world and is now located in Silicon Valley. We get to hear her awesome journey in international classrooms, glean ideas from her well-organized learning station approach, and get one of the best tips for achieving good work life balance as a teacher that I’ve ever heard. You’re...

In this episode we have the honor of speaking with Dr. Colleen Kelley, an accomplished professor, scientist, high school teacher, and entrepreneur. We discussed so much in this interview, including a technique called purposeful daydreaming, the importance of taking a moment to pause and reflect while we teach, and how something as simple as pancakes can transform a class into a hive of active learning. We'll also talk some about Co...

In this episode, you'll be listening in on my wonderful chat with Michelle Solberg, an elementary school teacher and counselor with over 42 years of experience. That wealth of experience shines here because I feel like every sentence that Michelle shares is full of gold for the classroom teacher. When listening to Michelle, I couldn't help but think of one of my personal all time heroes, Fred Rogers from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, w...

Tune into my conversation with Sheryl Place, a language teacher with over 38 years of classroom experience in the state of Florida, who now works as an edtech specialist. As you can imagine, she has a lot to share with us!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Grid Pals from Flipgrid (https://info.flip.com/blog/tips/gridpals.html)
• Anki web, flashcard software (https://apps.ankiweb.net/)
• Book Widgets (https://www.bookwidgets...

Peter Hostrawser has been a teacher for over 20 years in the Chicago area, where he teaches business and broadcast journalism. He is also co-host of the Disrupt Education Podcast. This conversation is jam packed with practical wisdom from Peter's experienced viewpoint, including the importance of encouraging and modeling failure for our students, connecting with them individually, and a new tool that can help students start to buil...

Stephen Guerriero taught for 20-years as a social studies teacher in the Boston area. We speak about many different things, including how important it is to bring your own personality and humor into class, how to best use audio in your classroom—including for assignments and for feedback—and an amazing story that illustrates the power that one teacher can have on a student's life. If you enjoy this episode half as much as I enjoyed...

In this episode I speak with Rachel Meinburg one of my own colleagues here at ICSN on the outskirts of Bangkok. She’s a secondary science teacher who’s been teaching here for many years. We speak about her flipped classroom approach, her strategies for receiving great classroom feedback from her students as well as many other things, including a great story about dissecting frogs. You won’t want to miss it! 

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