Melissa welcomes Megan Daly, a former fourth-grade teacher and author of the children's book "My Teacher Doesn't Like Me." Megan shares her experience with a student who felt she didn't like him, leading to the book's creation.
In this episode, Melissa speaks with Janet Singer Applefield, author of Becoming Janet. She is a child survivor of the Holocaust, author, notable speaker, and change agent. Janet spoke about her years of hiding in plain sight, how she helped get the MA Genocide Bill passed, the story of her book getting written, and her resilience through it all.
In this episode, Melissa speaks with Hayes Greenfield, the founder of Creative Sound Play, an interconnected, play-based, generative learning system for Pre-K educators. Hayes shares about his book, Creative Sound Play for Young Learners: A Teacher’s Guide to Enhancing Transition Times, Classroom Communities, SEL, and Executive Function Skill. The concepts discussed can be applied to elementary and middle school as well.
Is your classroom filled with self-driven, collaborative learners? Do you wish your students were more confident and independent? In this episode, Melissa talks again with Paul Solarz who has created am amazing book, Optimized Learning, that helps teachers reach these ideals. Have a classroom where students have purpose and a clear sense of direction.
In this minisode season finale, Melissa continues to share one of her favorite articles about voice and choice by Alfie Kohn. Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide. In addition, she talks about a time management concept that can be applied to the classroom and she looks back at the episodes of the fifth season.
Candace Fleming is an author of many fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. Among other things, Melissa and Candace talk about the research process, the power of nonfiction and how teachers can help students get more specific in their research.
In this minisode, Melissa shares from one of her favorite articles about voice and choice. Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide by Alfie Kohn lays out the rationale for voice and choice as well as what it looks like in practice. In this minisode, Melissa highlights the rationale and she will highlight what it looks like in practice in her next minisode.
Jane Reynolds, sister of author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, chats about her work in helping teachers tap into their creativity so they can model it for their students. Her teacher education work with her brothers, Peter and Paul, is revolutionary including their soon to be Teacher Learning and Creativity Center in Dedham, MA.
In this minisode, Melissa talks about the importance of read alouds and silent reading time. She shares some reading successes in her classroom and encourages teachers to reflect on how far their students have come.
In this guest blogpost, Jen Hawkins talks about student vital actions focusing primarily in the math classroom, although these vital actions can be applied to any classroom.
Aly Marie Moniz, Pilates instructor extraordinaire, explains why teaching is an artistic skill. Make sure to check out podcast episode 87 The Teacher As Pilates Instructor with Aly as well.
You don't have to be a professional actor to read dynamically to your class. This blog post accompanies Episode 86 where I share tips to make your read alouds more entertaining for your students. Adjusting your pace and/or volume, for example, can make your reading more captivating.
Math consultant Jen Hawkins shares her thoughts on productive struggle and student independence in math class. Jen was my guest in Episode 85: Zooming In on Math Teacher Talk.
This blogpost is chock full of math games that were discussed in Episode 81: Meaningful Math Games with Ann Elise Record and Dr. Nicki Newton.
Dr. Claire Honeycutt, college professor and homeschooler, writes about psychology based strategies that apply to working with students in this guest blog post.
In episode 76, Melissa chats with educator/author Miriam Plotinsky. In this guest blog post, Miriam shares some of her published work in her area of expertise.
Melissa breaks down Lt. Pete Mitchell as a teacher in Top Gun Maverick. Pete, known as Maverick, has his students doing and practicing and he limits his lecture time. He scaffolds skills and works on building a team. He also assesses them along the way. This reluctant teacher crushes it.
Actors react to their scene partners in different ways. As teachers we have so many ways to react when students are confused and struggling. Focus on empathy and a culture of taking responsibility for our learning.
Elizabeth Peterson, guest on episode 72 of The Teacher As was kind enough to share more in this guest blog post about the power of creativity and the arts integrated with social-emotional learning.
Melissa chats with Jon Ryan, founder of the acapella group Ball in the House. Ryan discusses the group's origins, evolution, and educational outreach. Ball in the House teaches K-12, emphasizing performance, songwriting, and music history.