We Just Want to TEACH

If this is your first year of teaching, welcome to the most demanding and unpredictable school term most seasoned veterans have experienced. The most important thing you can do to maximize your effectiveness is to be willing to ask for help — here’s how. Follow on Twitter: @sgthomas1973 @bamradionetwork @jonHarper70bd Rachel Taylor is a first year fourth-grade teacher in Gwinnett County, GA. She is a first-year teacher during concurrent learning. She loves hiking, camping, creating, and roller skating. She is from the small town of Dublin, Georgia and has a small family, but the educational community has always been her family, as her mom taught me and hundreds of others for 27 years.

This term many of us will walk into classrooms where we will be expected to teach students who have the most diverse academic and social-emotional needs in recent history. The need for more individualized teaching has moved from desirable to critical this school year. So what practical teaching strategies can we use to meet each of our students where they are? In this episode, we talk with four teachers who have deep experience with differentiating instruction in classrooms with 20, 30 kids, or more. Follow on Twitter: @sgthomas1973 @ideasforteacher @peter_santoro @MrHabegger @DrBioTom @jonHarper70bd @bamradionetwork Jake Habegger is an 8th grade US History Teacher in Franklin, Tennessee. His goal in education is to invigorate student learning by meeting them where they are through the use of technology. Peter Santoro has been teaching high school mathematics for 12 years. In addition to two sections of Introductory Calculus, Peter also teaches one section of Geometry and two sections of Mathematics Research Honors. In addition, he is the coach of the Garden City High School Math Team (Mathletes). Dr. Thomas Mennella has been an instructor in higher education for over ten years. Starting as a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and then moving on to an Assistant Professorship at Delaware State University (DSU), Tom is now an Associate Professor at Bay Path University, a private liberal arts institution in western Massachusetts. Dan Jones earned a BS in Middle Grades Education from Ashland University and a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American College of Education. Dan is an FLGI Master Teacher whose professional interests include e-learning and technology, as well as Project-Based Learning. Dan teaches history at a public school in Ohio.

COVID-19 surprised us again with another uncertain school term.  As we turn on a dime to meet the evolving needs of our students, those who teach English language learners have some unique hurdles to surmount. In this episode, we invite two ELL teachers to share the game plan and practical strategies for another year of pandemic teaching and learning. Follow on Twitter: @AggieAshley @Larryferlazzo @sgthomas1973 @ @bamradionetwork @jonHarper70bd Larry Ferlazzo teaches English, Social Studies and International Baccalaureate classes to English Language Learners and mainstream students at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. This is his 18th year at Burbank! He has written 12 books: The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox (with co-author Katie Hull Sypnieski) Navigating The Common Core With English Language Learners (with co-author Katie Hull Sypnieski); Building A Community Of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies To Help Students Thrive In School and Beyond; Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching; Self-Driven Learning: Teaching Strategies For Student Motivation; The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide (with co-author Katie Hull Sypnieski); Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges; English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work; and Building Parent Engagement In Schools (with co-author Lorie Hammond). Ashley Eberhart is in her 11th year of teaching as a Spanish Teacher at Round Rock High School in Round Rock, Texas.  She currently serves as the Vice President for the Texas Foreign Language Association and the Austin Area Chairperson for the Texas A&M Hispanic Network.  Ashley has presented from the campus level all the way to the national level on various topics such as SEL classroom strategies, building relationships in the virtual space, and implementing authentic resources for World Languages to advance interpretive proficiency.  When she's not in teacher mode, she spends time with her husband and her teenage son and enjoys cooking, baking, traveling, blogging, and helping out in the Texas BBQ Community.

We don't like the term "learning loss," and we see learning recovery as a pig with lipstick. But we know learning recovery mandates are coming our way. In this premiere episode of We Just Want to Teach, we begin our search for practical strategies for teaching a classroom full of students with widely different subject knowledge and unique emotional needs. Follow on Twitter: @heymrsbond @RitaWirtz @sgthomas1973 @bamradionetwork @jonHarper70bd Chanea Bond is a North Texas English and literacy teacher, scholar, and activist. Her areas of interest and advocacy include diversifying literacy curriculum to better represent the lived experience of her students and their communities. Rita Wirtz holds a BA in English and Speech, a master’s degree in reading from Arizona State University (ASU), and an administrative services credential (K–12) through California State University–Sacramento (CSUS). She was a California language arts and reading specialist who has instructed at all levels including K-12 classrooms, labs, and clinics. She has written a number of reading instruction books for parents and teachers including Reading Champs: Teaching Reading Made Easy and her memoir, Stories From a Teacher’s Heart: Memories of Love, Life and Family and Reading Champions! Second Edition, Teaching Reading Made Easy.