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This podcast is all about helping educators and students become better sensemakers and innovators. Each week, we interview experts to uncover the concepts and patterns that help us organize our world. We hope this podcast will inspire our listeners to design creative solutions to complex problems and accelerate innovation in today’s schools.
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To say we’re living through a moment of education polarization would be a mild understatement. Considering the digital echo chambers we all find ourselves in, I believe it’s more important than ever to engage with people who may move in different circles and have different perspectives, but share some foundational beliefs about democracy, wisdom, and advancing the public good. My guest this week is Dr. Ashley Rogers Berner—and she was the perfect person for just such an exchange. As the direc...
One of the best things about attending conferences is the conversations, connections, and collaborations that emerge after the sessions are over. Last year, I was lucky to meet Dr. Andrea Gambino at NCTE 2023 in Columbus. Andrea earned her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA in 2023 and is an active co-organizer of the annual Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas. Her research and practice draws on her experiences implementing critical media literacy as a tool for advancing self, social...
The emergence of ChatGPT has sent shockwaves through many secondary and post-secondary English departments. There’s no shortage of doomsaying and prognosticating about the future of writing instruction, even the discipline itself, in the wake of the large language model revolution. Luckily for us, my guest today is Dr. J Palmeri—Professor of English and Director of the Writing Program at Georgetown University. J’s work exploring the past, present, and future of multimodal composition is some ...
For anyone who’s been tuned into Conceptually Speaking for a while, you know I love finding new approaches, perspectives, and frames to tackle complex issues. Despite the fact that’s a staple on the show, my guest for this episode, Dr. Sheena Mason, takes things to the next level. Dr. Mason is an author, professor, and creator of the theory of racelenss. A theory that, in her words, is a creative and forward-thinking approach that helps people stop the underlying causes and effects of racism—...
Complaining about the theory-practice divide in education feels a bit cliche, but there’s a reason why it’s a constant source of conversation and consternation in classrooms, conferences, and academic journals. As someone with their feet firmly planted in both worlds, I’m always excited to connect with other educators who can bridge that divide—and my guest today is an exceptional example of just such a person. Shawna Coppola is a literacy specialist, educator, and author of the recently rele...
According to the late Octavia Butler, ”God is Change and in the end, God prevails.” Though Butler passed in 2006, her words resonate deeper than ever. And while she’s no longer able to chart out fantastical journeys across the stars, the philosophy that structures her work is one of the principle inspirations for adrienne marie brown’s book, Emergent Strategy. I won’t try to define the scope of Emergent Strategy in my introduction, but at its essence, it’s an orientation, stance, framework, a...
What if I told you there’s a magical place where young people spend hours upon hours discussing, sharing, creating, and theorizing about their favorite books? What if I told you that place was TikTok? Or, more specifically, a corner of TikTok known as BookTok. Well, that’s what this week’s episode is all about. My guest this week is Dr. Sarah Jerasa, Assistant Professor of Literacy at Clemson University in the Department of Education and Human Development. In addition to being a friend of the...
This week I’m lucky enough to be in dialogue with two educators and authors whose work I’ve admired for quite some time. Rebekah O’Dell is a classroom teacher and author of Writing with Mentors and Beyond Literary Analysis and Matthew Johnson a high school English teacher and author of Flash Feedback. In addition to being dynamic teachers and insightful authors, they also design powerful professional learning experiences for fellow educators. In fact, this summer they, alongside friend of the...
There’s no shortage of authors, consultants, and coaches discussing the importance of culture when it comes to learning, especially literacy learning. However, I can’t think of any that brings the same level of depth, nuance, and accessibility to that work as this week's guest. Nawal Qarooni is a literacy coach, writer, specialist in family literacy, and author of the forthcoming book Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Exalting Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care. N...
This week on Conceptually Speaking, I had the pleasure of chatting with fellow teacher and friend of the show, Garreth Heidt. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of crossing paths with Garret on Twitter, he teaches sophomore English as well as an innovation and social entrepreneurship class called NOVA lab at Perkiomen Valley High School. I met him in the days of teacher Twitter yore before COVID, culture wars, and Elon Musk took the shine off the place. As you’ll be able to tell by...
Lately, it feels like the world is both literally and figuratively on fire. As a mere English teacher researcher and content creator, there are times when feel kind of powerless in the throes of political upheaval, culture wars, and social unrest. I’ve always believed English class is a place where students can cultivate the wisdom and discernment needed to create a more just, liberatory future, but I always wish I could do more. Luckily, last summer I stumbled upon the work of Dr. Mark Brach...
How often do you find yourself wanting to hit pause in your curriculum? To slow down and notice more deeply? Read more closely? Maybe even engage in some playful fun? Like most teachers, there are times when I find myself sprinting through the next novel or text set, slipping back into the grips of covering material instead of exploring it. Luckily, my guest today is Brett Vogelsinger, a 9th-grade English Teacher in Doylestown PA author of Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems To Elevate Student...
As melodramatic as it may seem, I’ll never forget the first time I encountered The New London Group’s A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. After an evening of mindless scrolling in the summer of 2016, I clicked on a fortuitous Facebook post from a fellow English teacher. As I read I became increasingly enraptured. It felt inspiring. It felt fresh. It felt innovative. I assumed it was cutting-edge research. Then I saw the publication date. 1996. Reading that publicati...
According to cognitive linguist and philosopher George Lakoff, “The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.” And that is what today’s episode is all about. On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Matthew Slocombe, a secondary school teacher specializing in educational design and technology and a doctoral student and researcher at the Center for Educational Neuroscience. Matt’s research interests relate to the development of children’s r...
When you reflect back on your most recent professional learning in-service days, what springs to mind? Rich educational experiences filled with meaningful learning? Or cringey icebreakers, one-size-fits-all lectures, and flavor-of-the-month fluff? Based on the research shared in this episode, the vast majority of teachers lean towards the latter. This is a problem that Chris McNutt and Nick Covington, former teachers and current directors of the educational non-profit Human Restoration Projec...
Picture this: A group of passionate fans is huddled around their devices. Their favorite outlet has just dropped the latest response to a hotly contested article that has divided their community. As the group reads through, they debate, discuss, inquire, and post in their chosen social network. They make reference to other similar works, cite compelling evidence, and have different perspectives on the future direction of their community. Now, what kind of community did you have in mind ...
What comes to mind when you hear the word YouTube? Depending on your age and level of “online-ness” it might be anything from cat videos, to videogame steams, to TedTalks. But what about sociology? Philosophy? Cultural studies and critical theory? What if I told you were are enthusiasts, graduate students, and tenured professors producing accessible and insightful video essays with all the intellectual heft of a published journal article? And that they’re getting hundreds of thousands of view...
Have you ever shot off an angry email or text message and immediately regret it? Or have you ever wondered why it’s better to hash out disagreements in person instead of by email? Despite its ubiquitous nature, written communication is the lifeblood of complex modern institutions. Seriously. How we communicate in print can make or break an organization’s culture and productivity. So, in an effort to better understand the power of the written word, this week, Julia and I dig deep into th...
Joseph Jones and TJ Vari are authors, speakers, and district administrators who have written four books together. Their most recent publication, Retention for a Change: Motivate, Inspire, and Energize Your School Culture, details targeted strategies for motivating, inspiring, and energizing educators in a variety of settings.Virtual Masterclass on Compassionate FeedbackTechnical Tip: Praise Practice--A Model for Specific Praise Support the Show.
Graham Fletcher has served in education as a classroom teacher, math instructional lead, and currently as a math specialist. His work with the math progressions and problem-based lessons has led him to present throughout North America and beyond.Graham is continually advocating for best practice in elementary mathematics by seeking new and innovative ways to support students and teachers in their development of conceptual understanding. He is the author of Building Fact Fluency: A Toolk...
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