Welcome back to #vted Reads! Now, I recorded this episode back in September out in San Antonio, at the School Reform Initiative's Fall 2018 meeting. Author Terra Lynch was kind enough to chat with me about her book for the podcast between sessions. Recording spaces were kind of hard to come by at the conference, so we did our best to find a place without ceilings that were too high, or too echoey, or filled with other participants. We did our best, and hope you enjoy this powerful conversation about protocols, and how you can use them with students in creating democratic classroom situations. Sidenote: Emily Hoyler has written an amazing introduction to protocols, if you'd like a refresher.

Now, on with the show.

Jeanie: I’m Jeanie Phillips and welcome to #vted Reads! We’re here to talk books for educators, by educators, and with educators. Today, I’m in San Antonio for the School Reform Initiative's Fall Meeting. This annual conference is focused on creating brave spaces to surface inequity and examine our biases and assumptions so that we can ensure our teaching practices help all students learn.  I’m here with Terra Lynch. We’ll be talking about her book, Protocols in the Classroom. She’s written this book with co-authors; David Allen, Tina Blythe and Alan Dichter. Terra is not just an author, she's also an educator who has a wealth of experience in using protocols with students. 

Thanks for joining me, Terra. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Terra: Hi. Thanks for having me. My name is Terra Lynch. I am a learning specialist. I’m a teacher and I’m a dyslexic advocate. And I'm also an author now.

Jeanie: Congratulations on your book. It just came out a month or so ago?    

Terra: It came out at the end of the summer, yes.

Jeanie: Excellent. It was perfect timing for me because I teach Collaborative Practices. I teach people how to use protocols. We often encourage people to use protocols with students. This book is really a roadmap for that.       https://twitter.com/seanhirtenVT/status/1050153859652481025

Terra: That’s good to hear. Another hat that I wear is working with teachers and coaching, so often what comes up when I’m working with adults is "that sounds like I can use in the classroom." Over time, during the debrief, I add a step and do uses. What are some uses with adults? What are some uses with children? That led to, why don’t we have a book about using protocols in the classroom?                 

Jeanie: Excellent. I’m really glad that it exists. I’ve pointed a lot of people to it. I want to start the conversation by just asking why?  Why bother with protocols with students? Terra: Okay, great question. I was thinking: is it the same answer as using protocols with adults? And to a certain extent it is. It’s a way to focus the conversation. It’s a way to frame ideas to be using time efficiently. To help children with expressive of language. I find that having the ordered steps and the clarity of the formatting even, can help students who might otherwise struggle to know what the expectations are for time, for their role. What’s coming next? How long might this take? I find it sort of provides a scaffold for kids in the classroom. It also builds a lot of habits that they can use in other areas of life. That’s a nice part about using protocols with kids.          

Jeanie: Let’s just back up for a minute. For people who aren’t familiar with protocols, when we say protocol, what do you mean, specifically?     

Terra: Not a straitjacket. laughs I think there’s a real misunderstanding that a protocol is a series of steps that you must do for the sake of the protocol. For me, it’s really not so much about the steps as much as the group that you’re working with. How might this particular protocol -- or way of talking about an idea, or discussing an idea, or delving into different ideas -- how might this series of steps provide supp...