The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast
The Thoughtful Teacher podcast shares the stories of educators who have implemented innovative or creative solutions within their space. These stories and commentaries empower educators by sharing a world of ideas that can enhance pedagogical choices and decrease the isolation many teachers experience. We introduce listeners to school-based educators, thinkers, and researchers who have powerful ideas and innovations that makes teaching and learning more meaningful for your students. We also occasionally offer commentary on practice and policy to help navigate the complexity of our profession.
Episodes
Does the communication in your classroom or school promote dignity? This is a problem that that the organization UNITE is working to solve. In this episode Karren Minalga discusses the Dignity Index and shares how educators can create a classroom climate that promotes dignity and helps build a classroom culture that promotes belonging, connection, and achievement.
Links:
Dr. Donna Hicks (mentioned i...
Policy researcher Weade' James shares research that she and her colleagues at the Center for American Progress conducted regarding new teacher induction programs. In this episode we discuss the findings of her research and what supports new and experienced teachers should receive from induction programs.
Cheryl Randle is an instructional specialist helping teachers and administrators support students. In this conversation she shares how she approaches finding the clues to help teachers motivate students.
No student ever was successful without developing self-regulation skills, which is harder than ever for students to develop. In this conversation, Danielle Larsen shares how she teaches yoga in the classroom specifically to promote and develop self-regulation within students. We discuss how she approaches her work and Danielle shares some tips for teachers.
Rise Yoga-Danielle Larsen's website
In the second part of our series on building communities of practice around social emotional learning through the Social Emotional Learning Alliance, we share a conversation with Megan Lyons and Beth Rice. Megan and Beth joined with a group of educators in North Carolina to form the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for North Carolina or SEL 4NC. In this episode they share the work that the Alliance is conducting i...
Jim Vetter the executive director of the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States-SEL4US- shares how this collection of state alliances supports classroom teachers and schools to develop and promote strong social emotional learning initiatives. This is the first of a two part series featuring the work of educators within SEL 4US.
Links
https://sel4us.org/ Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the US w...
Does your school's detention program do little to teach students how to make better choices in the future? Many do because detention is not used as a learning opportunity. In this episode Leslie Trundy shares how talking students on a hike as an alternative to after school detention actually works as a teaching opportunity and changes detention from punishment to community building.
Links
Aspen Institute Senior Fellow Laura Schifter shares about her work at This Is Planet Ed-part of the Aspen Institute's Energy and Environment Program. This Is Planet Ed an initiative to unlock the power of education as a force for climate solutions to empower the rising generation to lead a sustainable and resilient future. In this conversation we discuss why learning about climate action should be part of the conten...
It's happened to all of us we have to teach grammar and our teeth clench because we hate it. Almost all teachers have some writing instruction, but the grammar lessons remind us of all the red ink on our own papers when we were in school-so we find work arounds and avoid. In this episode Patty McGee, co-author of the new book Not Your Granny's Grammar, shares that it doesn't have to be like that.
Links
School-based nature educator Kyra Stephenson shares how she developed the nature-based learning program at her school in New York and shares stories about how this program promotes learning with her students.
Links from episode
Children & Nature Network Resources for Schools
Nature Mind Solutions website
Rochester Ecology Partners website-partner organization mentioned in episode
Christina Cipriano led a research team that studied over 250 social emotional learning programs worldwide again demonstrating that SEL is effective and essential to promote positive outcomes for all students. In this conversation we discuss why SEL is so important and how your school should approach developing daily, quality SEL interventions for students and why every teacher must intentionally work to promote SEL ...
Anne Podolsky of the Learning Policy Institute shares the latest research trends in effective teacher professional learning. Some of the findings-particularly on learning environments for experienced teachers may be surprising. What is not surprising is that the collegial professional learning environment of a school has a huge effect on student academic and social emotional learning.
Links discussed in convers...
National Teacher of the Year for 2024-2025 Missy Testerman uses her position to advocate for the teaching profession. In this conversation, she shares how even in times of stress and upheaval there is great joy and positivity in the education profession.
Links
She taught, she founded schools, she was published widely, she demonstrated that women and girls could achieve academically at the same levels as men and boys. She became one of the most famous women of her time in the 19th century. Yet, almost none of us have ever heard of Catharine Beecher (even those who know of her famous younger sister). In this episode biographer R. Lee Wilson shares the story of one of the mo...
At both the local and national levels PBS stations are facing serious challenges. Yet, they keep providing some of the most helpful and robust resources for educators. In this conversation local PBS educator Robyn Stringfellow shares how PBS stations support the work of teachers-and will continue to do so in the future!
Links
WTCI TV Chattanooga-the local PBS station we discuss
Every interaction with every student is important, but how we structure (and yes, even plan) our conversations have an enormous impact on how students learn and achieve. In this conversation Erika Bare and Tiffany Burns, authors of Connecting Through Conversation: A Playbook for Talking with Students, share their strategies building connecting relationships with students.
English teacher and author Matthew R. Kay shares how to build the classroom ecosystem for having meaningful conversations in the classroom, especially conversations about race in America. In this conversation he shares several interventions he uses and discusses how to craft great questions that lead to quality conversations in the classroom.
Matthew Hawn used to be a social studies teacher until he was fired. He had his day in court and won, but instead of being reinstated the school board appealed. In this conversation, Matt shares his story, his thoughts on teaching controversial issues and how the community and particularly his former students have reacted. Despite many setbacks, he continues to be optimistic about the future and his desire to return...
Have you ever noticed that tree-lined streets and neighborhoods with lots of trees seem appealing? Have you ever thought that your school or the area around campus could use more trees? Well, it turns out that trees do more than just make things look nice: having a lot of trees on campus and near a school actually improves achievement (yes for real!). In this episode of The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast Albert Garcia s...
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