The Educational Triage Podcast

Dunbar’s Number and Education

Dunbar’s Number
This week Philip takes us through Robin Dunbar’s anthropological proposition that humans can maintain effective and deep relationships with only a finite number of people.  Is his number reliable?  What are the implications?  How feasible would it be to reset education using this number?  
We discuss these issues in education as well as others as they apply to the question of Dunbar’s Number.  
LINKS
Medium.com
https://medium.com/@social_archi/dunbars-number-1a8d75b94576#:~:text=It%20is%20attributed%20to%20British
The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/05/robin-dunbar-explains-circles-friendship-dunbars-number/618931/
Dunbar’s Number Explained-YouTube
https://youtu.be/zZF6vXMGBOw
Big Think article against:
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/dunbars-number/#:~:text=Since%201992%2C%20people%20have%20been,both%20professional%20and%20popular%20culture.
#AlternativeEducation  #AltEd  #AlternativeEducationPodcast #AltEdPodcast #Education
#Teaching  #Teachers #AlternativeEducationTeachers  #AltEdTeachers #AltEdTeaching
#AlternativeEducationTeaching #AlternativeEducationTraining #TeacherSupport 
  #EducationasHierarchy #EducationalHierarchy #EducationasContainment #ContainmentversusAttainmentinEducation 
#EducationalSupport  #EducationalTraining #EducationalInnovation #TeacherInnovation
#NetworkinginEducation #CareerinEducation  #EducationalAdvancement 
#Educationalissues #RobinDunbar #DunbarsNumber #DunbarsNumberandEducation #ClassSize
#EffectofSchoolSizeandEducation #EffectofClassSizeandLearning

[Revist] Growth Mindset in the Alternative Setting

This episode was originally published on August 7, 2022.  
We hope you enjoy it while we are on hiatus - planning for even better content for all of you! 
 
 
Teaching Growth Mindset in the Alternative Schools
 
We … need to remember that effort is a means to an end to the goal of learning and improving. Too often nowadays, praise is given to students who are putting forth effort, but not learning, in order to make them feel good in the moment: “Great effort! You tried your best!” It’s good that the students tried, but it’s not good that they’re not learning. The growth-mindset approach helps children feel good in the short and long terms, by helping them thrive on challenges and setbacks on their way to learning. When they’re stuck, teachers can appreciate their work so far, but add: “Let’s talk about what you’ve tried, and what you can try next.”
 
Around 2006 Dr. Carol Dweck from Stanford University discovered something.  It was magical and profound.  She and her colleagues began realizing that the brain is malleable and ever-changing - that it isn’t always in a static state, and that it can grow - and be taught to grow.  
 
This was wonderful news.  But there are those who guffaw at such research - they point out the flaws, rather than the actual findings.  This means that we must fail and celebrate those fails - because we learn with each one and we grow with the renewed opportunity that these failed, these experiences provide.  
 
So, how do we parlay that into the classroom?  How can we build this system into our students?  How can we take these students who have built walls around themselves both in the Alternative and Mainstream buildings, and plant those seeds that will germinate and award them with successes in their futures?  
 
What is Growth MIndset? 8 steps to develop one
 
What is Growth Mindset
 
Growth MIndset for Kids
 
Growth Mindset - Hammersmith Academy
 
Growth Minset - INfinity
 
What having a "Growth MIndset" Actually Means
 
How to Teach Growth Mindset to Kids
 
EdWeek:  Carol Dweck Revisits the Growth Mindset
 
EdWeek: Carol Dweck on Nurturing Students Growth Mindsets Through Protest and Pandemic
 

Revisit - Credit Recovery

This episode was originally published on March 20, 2022.  
We hope you enjoy it while we are on hiatus - planning for even better content for all of you! 
 
Credit Recovery is popular these days after the pandemic.  Districts and schools are working hard to help students recover their credits lost during that time.   
 
The question is how should we have credit recovery in the schools? What works best? Online, Hybrid? Face-to-Face?  Many options are there, but districts are going for the most efficient and worrying about any consequences later - after the damage is done.  
 
Are students truly learning from these programs? OR are they worse off, lacking the actual skills they should have learned?  And falling further behind? 
 
Are students placed in these programs because they lack the skills to have been placed in the classes in the first place? And falling further behind? 
 
Join us as we try to figure this out. 
Some reading:
 
Issue Brief: Credit Recovery
 
Getting Back on Track Comparing the Effects of Online and Face-to-Face Credit Recovery in Algebra I
Credit Recovery: Are Face-to-Face Classes Better Than Online?
 
Comparative effectiveness and student choice for online and face-to-face classwork
 
Online Learning as a Remedy for Course Failure: An Assessment of Credit Recovery as an Intervention to Earn Credits and Graduate from High School
 
Online Credit Recovery: Benefits and Challenges

Becoming the Mentor/Guide/Facilitator Teacher

Becoming the  Mentor/Guide/Facilitator Teacher
This week we delve into changing the landscape that many teachers and community members believe is the “proper way” to teach.  The field has been changing for years, but some still proffer the information in the same manner and expect great results, despite having a completely different audience.  
 
What would it take for you to be a mentor-teacher? A guiding teacher? A teacher who facilitates learning? Can you be all in the same package? 
 
How do you create autonomy with your students? How do you create a cycle of collaboration? Where is the circle of learning and teaching?  Do you allow them to collaborate with the information?  This is such a wide-open area of training and development that it takes us a wee longer than usual…however, you may be glued to your listening devices!  
 
#Breathingwhileteaching #Mentorteaching #TeacherasGuide ##Lightingthefireofknowledge #Studentascollaborator #Studentengagement #teachingfordeeperlearning #shiftingfromdirectinstruction #teachingforinclusion #ActiveLearning #Collaborationwithinformation #teachingselfadocacy #breatkingtheteachingmodle #teacherasactivelistener #recognizingboundariesinteaching #teachingselfawareness #sympathyversusempathy #cohabitatingwithlearning #reflectiveteaching #Shiftingyourmindset #teachinggrowthmindset #growthmindset #Teacherandstudentrelationship #Classroomasfertilesoilforlearning

Student-Centered Learning and Why It Is Vital in Education

Student-Centered Learning and Why It Is Vital in Education
 
A Student-Centered Classroom is an educational environment where the learning experiences and activities are primarily designed to cater to the student's individual needs, interests, and abilities. In a student-centered classroom, the teacher is a facilitator or guide rather than a sole disseminator of information. The focus shifts from traditional teacher-directed instruction to a more interactive and collaborative approach where students actively participate in their own learning process.
#IndividualizedLearning #ActiveLearningCollaboration #StudentChoice #FlexibleAssessment #FeedbackandReflection #TeacherasGuide #InquiryBasedLearning #StudentWellBeing #IntegrationofTechnology #EducationalPodcast #AlternativeEducation #AltEdPodcast #TeachinginAlternativeEducation #BestPracticesinTeaching #TeacherasLearner #Teacherisbiggestlearner #TeachingStrategies #Approachestoteaching #EvolutionaryPlayintheClassroom #StructuredPlayversusFreePlay #ProblemswithStructuredPlay #NeedsforSocializationforchildren #ImportanceofFreePlay #Lookingforvarietyinteaching #StudentEngagement #TeacherEngagement #FreePlay

Dr. Rosemarie Allen and How To Stem the School To Prison Pipeline

Juvenile incarceration is problematic; especially when the prisons are teeming with one demographic. So, this week we turn to an expert - Dr. Rosemarie Allen from the Metropolitan University of Denver. Dr. Allen teaches Early Childhood Education and addresses issues of equity. We are led on a journey where she teaches us about post-Civil War era practices to the Compromise of 1877 and Jim Crowe. We look at the Perry Preschool Project, Abecedera Project, Head Start, and bias in the early years' classrooms which begins the struggle for many students and families in education and their communities. There is so much taught today, and so much learning. Please join us as we venture down a path of humility and growth. If you listen you'll see what I am telling you.
 
#PerryPreschoolProject #OperationHeadStart #addressinggenerationalpoverty #EffectsofJimCrowonEducation #EffectsofExclusionaryBenefitsonEducation #EffectsofRedliningonEducation #AlternativeEducation #AlternativeEducationPodcast #EducationalPodcast #Dr.RosemarieAllen #EarlyChildhoodEducationandEquity #AbecedarianProject #InherentbiasinEducation #InherentBiasintheClassroom #CommunityBasedApproachesinEducation

Should We Have a Federal School Board?

Several weeks ago Tara Garcia Mathewson said something about having a national board of education.  It made sense concerning the circumstances we were discussing, but then we dove deeper into the issue.  What would it entail?  How would it really benefit the students? The community? The teachers?  The schools?  Or is it about dominion?  
 
Nationalizing the board certification of teachers so we have wonderful teachers sounds wonderful - but it is a great deal of work - and with the expense of needing at least one full year of non-employment for student teaching, is it really reasonable?  Rationale? Feasible?  Who has that sort of time and money?    Will the pay begin to reflect the professional level of the staff?  
 
How about equity in the classroom?  How about who is hired and where?  Teaching salaries?  Are the laws lateral? 
 
So many questions - think of yourself living in a particular state - your community is a culture in itself - can the federal government really understand the needs of the community and the students?  Or is this a one-size-fits-all? 
 
Our heads spin! 
 
Join us! 
 
#AltEdPodcast #AlternativeEducationIssues #AltEdIssues #AlternativeEducationPocast #EducationalPodcast #StatesRights #RightsinEducation #EducationalIssues #NationalBoardofEducation #Equity #StudentEquity #CommunityEquityinEducation #CommunitiesandEducation #LocalControlofEducation #FederalControlofEducation #StudentRights #NationalTeacherCertification #NationalCurriculum #NationalStandards #NationalTeacherSalaryScale #EquityinTeachingonaNationalLevel #WhoisServedinNationalEducation #EducationRights

Equity and Online Learning - oh! the irony!

Equity and Online Learning - oh the irony! 
More and more districts, programs, and communities are turning to online learning platforms, such as Odysseyware, GradPoint, Edgenuity, and others to fill a need. The need is for teachers who are qualified in whatever area since retention seems to be an issue of late.  But are these platforms viable and good enough to replace educators, classrooms, and the school experience?  Will the students engaged in these systems be able to outperform their peers? Districts and others believe they will engage the students and have them do as well as their peers in the classrooms they’re banking on it.    
 
This week we look at the rationalizations, purposes, advantages, disadvantages, and outcomes from the teacher and student perspective.  We know that educating children goes above and beyond the checkbook, but as most students in alternative education are from communities in need of resources - are we throwing them in and demanding they comply and do what we want as we want?  Or are we working with them to guide them and help them with whatever remediation they require, while also enhancing their school/community experience?  Are we helping them create a better future? Or are we happy creating levels of frustration, failure, and loss of hope?  
 
Join us.
 
#AlternativeEducationPodcast #AltEdPodcast #EducationalPodcast #TeachingPodcast #IssuesinEducation #IssuesinAlternativeEducation #EquityinEducation #EquityinAlternativeEducation #OnlinePlatformsandEquity #OnlinePlatformsinEducation #TeacherReplacements #TeachingwithEquity #TeacherControl #StudentControl #PunitiveEducationalPractices #ForceFedEducation #QualityofEducation #QualityofTeaching #StudentEngagement #ActiveStudentEngagement #StudentNeeds #TeachersasGuides #ConnectingwithStudents #NuancedCurriculum #Teaching

30 Insights for New Teachers to Thrive with Curt Richards

This week I have the opportunity to meet Curt Richards (curtrichards202@gmail.com), the author of 30 Insights for New Teachers to Thrive.  The book is available on GoodReads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.  It’s available in e-book, hardback, and paperback. 
 
This is a wonderful discussion because it rejuvenates what I had allowed to collect dust in a corner - the Why and How of teaching.  It is universal.    Not only is this a great listen for newer teachers, or those working their way into the profession, but for veterans, administrators, and parents, as well.  
 
I would even suggest those who buy this use it as a starting point for the week or day, and work on the insights as an exercise to better hone your practice - for none of us is perfect - and if we determine we’ve reached the end of our learning - well, then, we should just go ahead and retire.  
 
I cannot tell you how refreshing this was.  Curt is down-home honest and eager - even at 40 years in the field.  
 
Join us. 
 
#AltEd  #EducationalPodcast #alternativeeducationpodcast #30waysfornewteacherstothrive #CurtRichards #NoviceTeachers #TeachingInsights #Teacherlearning #Studentteacherrelationships #TeacherPlanning #CounteringTeacherBurnout
#Teacheretoughts #foradaministrators #BetterTeaching #BetterLearning #TeacherExercise #TeacherMeditation

Integrating Alternative Education Principles and Practices into Teacher Training Programs

Integrating Alternative Education Principles and Practices into Teacher Training Programs
Fresh-faced, idealistic, eager, and gung-ho, fresh bodies enter into the #schoolyear as #teachers - some for the first time, and others making the transition.   What have they brought with them that will help them long-term in their quest to educate the young minds that will scamper into their learning zones?
 
Sure, they may have learned about social justice, about discipline and classroom management, and what standards are, but how well did they connect with their pupils?  How well WILL they connect with their pupils?  Do they have the facility to operate on different levels with different structures for different learning styles all at once?  
 
What did THEY learn in school before they began their vocational fulfillment as teachers?  
This week we delve into why learning more in terms of #alternativeeducation techniques, pedagogies, practices, and curricula that will help teachers - even those dodgy old ones - to connect and succeed with students and begin to alleviate the #learninggaps. 
 
#AlternativeEducation #Education #AlternativeEducationTraining #TeacherTraining #AlternativeEducationTeacherTraining #AlternativeEducationPedagogies #AlternativeEducationTeacher #AlternativeEducationStyles #AlternativeEducationPhilosophies #AlternativeEducationPodcast #EducationPodcast