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This podcast is for any teacher who is seeking for ways to enrich the learning in their classroom without breaking the bank. We will explore the simple steps on how to turn the traditional learning experience into one founded on practices of the PYP in 10 to 20 minute episodes. The PYP is part of the International Baccalaureate program, which focuses on developing the whole child by allowing students to create their own meaning from learning. If you’re not a PYP teacher, don’t worry. We’ll be sharing ideas that can be applied to your learning setting, because good practice can be used anywhere. https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/podcast
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Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the fifteenth episode in our well-being series. As we come to the end of this series, we have spent time sitting with some heavy, but very real parts of learning and teaching. We have explored worry, fear, panic, anxiety, stress, burnout, boreout, and trauma. We have looked closely at what they can look like in our classrooms, and how easily they can be missed, misunderstood, or mislabeled. If we are honest, there may have bee...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the fourteenth episode in our well-being series. I’ve been waiting to talk about our next topic for awhile, because it is quite heavy. But I would be remiss to skip it, because it makes me feel uncomfortable. If you haven’t guessed, it is trauma informed teaching. We have already gone in deep on all of the areas that make us feel uncertain. Why not explore trauma too? I know this is deep, but it'...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the thirteenth episode in our well-being series. Today, we are continuing our exploration of boreout, this time from the learner’s perspective. If teachers can experience boreout, is it possible that our learners can too? In a PYP classroom, this can be easy to miss because everything might look like it’s working. The tasks are getting done, the room is lively and orderly, and expectations are being met. But when we look a li...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the twelfth episode in our well-being series. As I am writing this episode, I can’t help but to reflect on my last year in Brussels. I met so many people who had worked at the same job and complained of burnout and boreout. This is not a criticism of them, but rather that system that they work in that could bring it about. These were highly paid people in supposed interesting professions, but they were bored ...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the eleventh episode in our well-being series. I have been curious about learner burnout as I watch my five-year old niece. She is a neurodivergent thinker who has ADHD, but also struggles with speech delay. For most of her life, she has been unable to articulate herself and her needs. I have personally witnessed her frustration to be understood. I was reminded of these issues related to learner burnout as I ...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the tenth episode in our well-being series. Fatigue is the silent pandemic of modern life that happens when repeated stressors, small or large, grind us down over time. It’s the constant, everyday pressures that compound until you wake up one day unable to face them anymore. This is called Burnout. In this episode, we will discuss the signs of teacher burnout and how we can prevent it, so we can remain whole. Let's do t...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the ninth episode in our well-being series. So far, we’ve looked at fear, worry, panic, and anxiety. These are internal experiences of threat; the ways our mind and body respond when we anticipate danger, whether real or imagined. They’re signals that the nervous system is on high alert, scanning for what could go wrong. But there’s another side to mental health and well-being. Instead of being driven by inner thre...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the eighth episode in our well-being series. We have already unpacked all the ways that anxiety can manifest itself. I don’t know about you, but it made me slightly anxious just talking about it! No pun intended. Now, we are going to examine the anxiety disorders that may be afflicting many of our colleagues, familiies, and learners within our learning community. For a written blog post and othe...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the seventh episode in our well-being series. This week, we are going to explore the big kahuna of well-being, which is anxiety. As I was researching this condition, it was interesting to see the contrasting points of view. Some stated that worry, fear, and panic were on a spectrum of anxiety. While others stated that they were related, but not the same thing. Naturally I went to a credible sourc...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the sixth episode in our well-being series. It’s been interesting going through this well-being series, because it has really stretched my thinking about how we are supporting our own mental health and that of our learners. As I was unpacking panic, it really hit home to me. Although I don’t have regular panic attacks, I do experience acute moments of panic that cause me to worry and to become fearful. ...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to our podcast and the fifth episode in our well-being series. In this episode, we are going to lean into panic and how it can impact our well-being. We’ve all experienced those moments of panic and our brain temporarily shuts down. According to our friend Mo Gawdat, it’s because we believe a threat is imminent and there’s no time to act. This makes sense when we lean into what we know about panic attacks. Let's take some time to d...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to our podcast and the fourth episode in our well-being series. In the last episode, we examined the power of fear in our lives. We are all struck with fear many times in our lives and there is no shame attached to it. In fact, we might have to worry if everything is perfect all of the time. Fear is a natural response to tension in our lives, real or imagined, that can take over our rational thinking. Many of us can be controlled by fear ...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to our podcast and the third episode in our well-being series. This is the most vulnerable I have been in some time. Fear is our mind’s early warning system. It shows up when we sense a threat (whether real or imagined) and while it can protect us, it can also quietly hold us back. Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, offers a powerful reminder: fear is natural, and it is something we all experience. Her message is not to wait unt...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back, my friends, to Confession 153. This episode is framed by this quote by Mo Gawdat, "Worrying is praying for what you don’t want." Mo frames worry as a form of negative visualization. Rather than focusing our energy on what we want to grow, worry channels our attention toward fear and imagined threats. When we do this consistently, we reinforce anxiety. We lose our sense of clarity. We become less joyful and less present. Mo reminds us that while pain...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back, my friends, to Confession 152. Today’s episode marks the beginning of a brand-new series on something that’s been quietly knocking at the door of my consciousness for a while now: well-being. If I’m honest, I used to push that topic aside. It just didn’t feel academic enough; too soft, too personal, too invisible in our talk about developing unit planners and learner agency. But some recent events stopped me in my tracks. A couple of weeks ago, I was all fire...
Send us Fan Mail Hello my PYP family, this is Lu Gerlach from thinkchat. Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher as we explore confession number 151, which is a challenge for our essential specialist and supporting teachers. Over the past episodes in our specialist and supporting teacher series, we have explored some power topics, including The learner profile attributesInternational mindednessConceptual understandingNow, in the thirteenth episode of this series, it’s time to...
Send us Fan Mail Hi friends, it’s Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and today is a BIG one. Episode 150. One hundred and fifty episodes. It's the longest episode to date. Can you believe it? Because honestly, I’m sitting here with a cup of tea and a full heart wondering how we got here. What started as a passion project for me with a microphone and a head full of ideas has become a place of connection. This learner-centered community has kept me going, so a big thank you. It’s through yo...
Send us Fan Mail Hey friends. Welcome back. It’s been a minute or two since we last connected, but here we are—episode twelve of our specialist and supporting teachers series. And this one? It’s a big one. Today, we’re diving into what I believe is the beating heart of deep learning in the IB: conceptual understanding—and more importantly, how it shows up in your space. This is the question I hear all the time: "Lu, I’m a PE teacher." "I support EAL learners." "I’m in ...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the eleventh episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series. Today, we are focusing on how we can further explore international mindedness in our practice. This requires some deeper thinking and collaboration to make it happen. In the last episode, we explored how to unpack international mindedness through local and global contexts and projecting across time. I am hoping that this episode will equally excite you to move forward with ma...
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the tenth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series. Today, we are focusing on bringing about more international mindedness in your classrooms with authenticity. There are so many possibilities of exploration with the focus of international mindedness. One of the most common might be to embody an international mindset by exploring new ideas, meeting new people, being open to new experiences, and traveling. Although this is op...
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In the bustling tapestry of education, the classroom becomes a microcosm of a school's expectations, pulsating with the promise of growth and discovery. As I embarked on a journey of exploration, unraveling the secrets of effective classroom management, I stumbled upon a hidden treasure trove of wisdom nestled within the digital realm at https://writinguniverse.com/free-essay-examples/hurricane/. It unveiled a profound insight into how we can manifest the expectations of a school within the very fabric of the classroom. Like a hurricane gathering strength, the classroom becomes a tempest of possibilities, where students are not just passive recipients of knowledge but active participants in their own education. Within these walls, the expectations of a school come alive through intentional design, collaborative learning, and a culture of respect. The physical environment breathes with purpose, with displays of student work adorning the walls like vibrant tapestries of achievement. Teac