Teaching Thought 104

Teaching Thought #104

Feed your own PD. If you’re waiting around for the district service center to hire someone to come in and fire us all up, well, you’re missing the point of PD. Courus was great last year, but really, how long did his impact last? Did it inspire administration to adopt the gradual release model? I doubt it.

How often did you plan a lesson with the ideas Couros illustrated in mind?

He was hilarious. He was on point. He was relevant. I was drinking the Kool Aid too, but PD like that (the one shot a year method) just doesn’t work.

How well does teaching one concept to your class just once a year work for you?

So that means if you aren’t growing on your own, you’re standing still. And if you’re standing still, you’re going to get left behind. Or worse, become average. Don’t do that.

So I’m going to offer my three favorite forms of professional development here. First, podcasts.

For two years now we’ve run the “Podcast Club.” We meet once a week from July through August. One of us will suggest a podcast. We will share it, and have a week to listen to it, take notes, think about how it applies to our buildings and what we teach. Speculate as to how the ideas could make us better educators and improve the culture of our buildings. Then we meet and share what we came up with.

It is so much fun. There is just something about being surrounded by other like-minded educators that inspires me and makes me want to be a much better teacher. I don’t usually get that from the run-of-the-mill PD we often get.

Here are some of the best podcast series. Then I’ll have links to the best episodes of each series.

First and foremost, Entreleadership. I even got a few of my seniors hooked on this podcast last year. One of my seniors even texted me and said, “I need a good podcast to listen to. Send me some suggestions. But don’t tell anyone!” Oh, the fear of nerding out!

Entreleadership is essentially a business / leadership podcast, but it’s the most relevant education podcast I’ve come across in a long time. I’ve been listening for five years now, and it’s worth your time.

The best recent episodes of Entreleadership are below.

Unstoppable Cultures – This is gold if you’re serious about having a great culture in your classroom (and who doesn’t want that?).

Wisdom for Your Work Life – This was the first podcast we listened to this year for the podcast club.

Alan Mulally – Live from Summit – Mulally was CEO for Ford who helped turn the franchise around after the disaster of 2008. So many lessons here for working with people and leading your students.

Learning to Lead – this is one of my all time favorite episodes by a young entrepreneur who started her own cleaning business. Amazing lessons here.

Another excellent podcast series I’ve become addicted to recently thanks to Kelly Weets’ suggestion is The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez. There is so much gold here. Give it a listen and you’ll be a better, more effective teacher in about ten minutes. Yes. It’s that good.

Here are some of my favorite episodes so far –

The Principal’s Pet: A Cautionary Tale – You just have to listen to this one.

Frickin’ Packets – Near and dear to my heart. Are we helping kids learn or keeping them busy? Are those two things mutually exclusive?

How to Stop Killing the Love of Reading – I’ve already talked about this one in a previous teaching thought.

How to Deal with Student Grammar Errors – this one is especially relevant to us in the English department. I loved every word of this podcast.

Finally, this podcast, Live Inspired by John O’Leary, is just a feel-good, thank God I’m a live type of pick me. I listen to this at least once a week. The others I listed here, I listen to once a day.

Here are some of my favorite episodes from Live Inspired –

Sally Hogshead – Outside of her unfortunate last name, I’m a big fan of Sally’s. I first learned about here from Entreleadership. Then I bought her book. It’s amazing. Well worth the listen.

Nurse Roy – The ultimate inspirational story here. Don’t think we can change the lives of kids? If nurse Roy can, we sure can.

Charlie Plumb – This was the basis for my Honors Speech last year. You’ll never forget this story.

Brian Buffini – O’Leary’s very first podcast. Buffini, another person I learned about from Entreleadersdhip, is amazing. I assigned this one to my College Comp I class because it was so remarkable.