Melissa chats with Caroline Starr Rose, a middle grade and picture book author, discusses her journey from teaching to writing. She shares her experience of writing "May B," a historical fiction verse novel, which took 12 years to publish. Rose emphasized the importance of persistence and the impact of positive teacher encouragement.
Melissa Milner talks with Erika Bare and Tiffany Burns who have collaborated on a book titled "Connecting Through Conversation: A Playbook for Talking with Students." Erica, a superintendent, and Tiffany, a university administrator, share their extensive experience in education and their mission to help students feel cared for and connected. They discuss practical strategies for building relationships, such as listening well, treating students with dignity, and fostering trust.
In this episode, Melissa shares the process of planning for her afterschool drama club. She talks about one main resource that she is pulling from, dramanotebook,com created by Janea Dahl.
Melissa talks to Dr. Aditya Nagrath, founder of Elephant Learning, who discusses his company's program, which has helped over 175,000 students learn a year's worth of math in three months with 30 minutes of weekly use. He emphasized the importance of teaching math as a language and gamification to reduce math anxiety.
Melissa discusses her experience with the WIDA course on developing language for learning in mathematics, which aligns well with her district's Illustrative Mathematics (IM) curriculum. She highlights the importance of math discourse and the role of teachers as guides rather than leaders.
Melissa discusses the benefits and logistics of podcasting with students, highlighting its role in enhancing speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in anticipation of her Podcasting with Students workshop at the Reynolds TLC Center in May, 2025. She details the various types of student-created content emphasizing the importance of student voice and choice in content creation.
Lana Montero, a K-8 math coach with 12 years of experience, discusses her transition from the classroom to coaching, emphasizing the importance of feedback and collaboration. She emphasizes the role of coaching as a supportive, collaborative effort to help teachers improve.
In this episode, Melissa chats with Glenn Kirschbaum, a documentary filmmaker. Glenn discusses the challenges and rewards of documentary filmmaking, including the success of his Gene Wilder documentary, which was supported by Mel Brooks and Alan Alda. Glenn highlights the importance of staying relevant and connecting with audiences, especially young people, through compelling storytelling.
Melissa chats with Janea Dahl, the creator of Drama Notebook, a resource for drama teachers with over 1,500 lesson plans, royalty-free scripts, and tutorial videos. Janea founded Drama Notebook to provide high-quality, flexible resources for drama teachers, who often work in isolation. The site aims to make drama accessible and affordable for educators. Janea emphasizes the importance of creativity, cooperation, and confidence-building in drama education.
Brad Duquette shares about his company, Major Choice. Major Choice’s mission is to help young people, especially those on the autism spectrum, figure out their post-school paths.
Enjoy this guest blogpost by author educators Erika Bare and Tiffany Burns about connecting with students.
In this guest blogpost, Janea Dahl, the creator of Drama Notebook, shares ways to incorporate drama into the elementary classroom. Janea emphasizes the importance of creativity, cooperation, and confidence-building in drama education.
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.
Brad and Tricia, co-founders of Major Choice, discuss their mission to help young people, especially those on the autism spectrum, figure out their post-school paths. They highlighted their program which includes self-exploration, career exploration, and outreach. They emphasized the importance of live mentoring and skill-building