Overthrowing Education: Recent Episodes
Batsheva Frankel Education Podcast Network
The Areté Institute presents an edgy and entertaining educational podcast for teachers, students, parents, administrators and anyone else who cares about the state of education. While it is playful and fun, we also address the revolutionary changes that are happening and need to happen to create more meaningful and engaging education. We’ll celebrate students, educators, and schools who are getting it right and give tools and guidance for inspiring everyone else. Each episode starts with a fauxmercial - a commercial parody for fake educational products we wish were real. And every interview ends with the guest playing The 5-Minute Game Show which is written specifically for the topic and guest of each episode. Who knew that revolutionizing schools could be so fun?
This is the first totally new episode in about 10 months. What could get me to put aside my other work to make sure this episode gets out? Only something as important as the death of critical thinking in our education system and how it has especially played out this school year of 2023-24 would make me drop everything to make sure to get this out.
Please open your mind and heart while listening to this episode.
I want to thank Distant Cousins, one of my favorite bands, for their incredible music that opens and closes my show. Give them a listen!
Want to get in touch with me?
IG: @batsheva.frankel
X: @batshevafrankel
website: batshevafrankel.com
In this encore of the 4th episode in the series on AI in education, my guest, Matt Miller and I discuss the issues we need to consider as well as some very practical ideas for using ChatGPT and other really cool AI in our classes. Matt has been digging deep into this subject and brings so much wisdom and insight into our conversation.
Matt shares some great resources to explore in the links below. And he also plays a fun version of The 5-Minute Game Show called “ChatGPT, Google or Me?”
I’d like to thank my awesome guest Matt Miller and my fauxmercial helpers including my award-winning Voice Actor friend, Eli Schiff as the announcer and Jakey Schiff, Yossie and Tuvia Frankel.
This is a great time to buy any burned-out or otherwise deserving teacher friend or colleague some Overthrowing Education Swag. Or buy some for yourself. You totally deserve it!
Links and Resources:
ChatGPT, Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence in Education
Tons of great resources and classes: DitchThatTextbook.com
Get on Matt’s email list to get all kinds of amazing resources: DitchThatTextbook.com/join
Classroom videos to use in class TODAY: Teachflix
This project provides you with research-based teaching practices you can use in class tomorrow to save time AND teach better: EfficienTEACH.com
This encore episode is a favorite of mine, but maybe I'm just partial. Here is the description from the original version:
Is it possible that Robots/AI will replace teachers someday? II first examined this question in an episode in early 2020. My guests said no, but my son, 14 at the time, predicted much of what we are seeing now with the explosion of growth in Artificial Intelligence. So, I brought my son, now almost 18, back on the show to give his reflections on his past predictions and update us again. Is it inevitable that teachers will become obsolete? What can we do to make sure that we, as real live educators, are irreplaceable?
What do you think? What do your students think? Let me know on the platform formerly known as Twitter @overthrowinged.
I want to thank Tuvia for indulging me and coming back on with his updated reflections, and a special shout out to the amazing voice over artist Eli Schiff for playing the male teacher and Robo-Helper on the fauxmercial. I also want to thank all the teachers who originally let me know what tasks they dread that they would love to outsource to a robot which were reflected in Robo-Helper
Make someone’s day with cool Overthrowing Education swag!
This encore episode is the second part of my early exploration of AI in education. Here is the description of this episode from January, 2023:
If you haven’t yet listened to the first in this AI in Education series, episode 89, you might want to do that first. It’s not essential but it does give some background that feeds this episode’s discussion. In that episode, I mention some excellent essays by super prolific author and culture writer Stephen Marche. And now Stephen is my special guest on the show today. He is a font of information and a lot of fun to talk with. Among many other aspects, we discussed some great things we can do with AI in our lessons, along with other potential benefits. Additionally, we addressed how AI will affect homework, tests, and essays in many subjects. We also get into the scary potential for increasing inequity in the education system. And I asked a really important question on many educators’ minds – Can AI write lesson plans for us?
Speaking of AI writing things for us, I decided to see what would happen when I asked ChatGPT to write my fauxmercial. And I really did give it the first and second prompt that were described in today’s fauxmercial, and those really were the responses it gave me. The rest of it I wrote and performed along with Yossie Frankel as the announcer, Tuvia Frankel as the first AI response and Robin Glickstein as the second AI response. After sort of co-writing with ChatGPT, I was really happy to co-write The 5-Minute Game Show with an actual person – Eve Hirschman. It was a lot more fun. Spoiler: Stephen aced his game show.
I believe that educators everywhere should be hearing what Stephen has to say, so please share this episode with every educator you know.
@stephenmarche on the platform formerly known as Twitter
Find Stephen’s essays, novels, non-fiction books, appearances and more at www.stephenmarche.com
This episode was orginally recorded in November of 2022, just as we were hearing about ChatGPT and AI in education. Many of us were wondering what will happen to the way we teach and the way students learn. This is the first part of my exploration about AI in Education. My views on it, my concerns, my hopes have all changed many times over the last year and 1/2. It's interesting to go back and see how far we've come.
Here is my original description of the episode:
There has been an explosion of handwringing among educators and academics, and cheers from students about the strides and easy accessibility of Artificial Intelligence that will probably change the entire nature of how we educate. What can we expect? How do we adapt? Can anything good come out of this? This is just the first in a series of examinations of this incredibly important topic that will certainly affect every aspect of education at least from middle school through higher education. On this episode it’s just me and AI. We even had fun playing The 5-Minute Game Show! Well, at least I did. I can’t speak for my friendly AI.
I want to especially thank Tuvia Frankel for clueing me in to the importance of dealing with this issue right away, and for writing the fauxmercial!
Resources and Links:
Various great essays on AI by Stephen Marche in The Atlantic
The End of High-School English by Daniel Herman in The Atlantic
The Brilliance and Weirdness of ChatGPT by Kevin Roose in The New York Times
I've been taking a break from publishing new episodes since mid-August, and now I have a special announcement!
My awesome guest on this encore episode is educator, author, and lovely, charming human being Lindsay Portnoy who joins me today to talk about why playing games, and playing in general are the best way to learn and how to incorporate games and play into any subject or grade. Lindsay has so many inspiring and wise approaches to education and we really geek out together on this favorite topic for both of us. As for the 5-Minute game show, Lindsay racks up lots of imaginary points as she slays it!
Thank you so much to Lyndsay Portnoy and also to Yossie Frankel, the deep voice that joined me on the Edu-game-arama fauxmercial.
Resources:
www.lindsayportnoy.com
Game On? Brain On!
Designed to Learn
The episode that Lindsay mentions that has the singing game show, featuring the amazing voice of Barbara Heller: Kevin Stoller: Why Kids Hate Math and How to Fix it.
The episode with Micaela Blie’s hilarious story about the Oregon Trail game she played with her students: Jon Cassie: Game-Based Learning
Batsheva’s workshop on Deeper Learning Games (and other workshops): https://www.newlensed.com/workshops
What is a fauxmerical? It's a commercial parody with fake educational products we wish were real. They come towards the beginning of every episode.
What is an encore? It means I've played it before, in this case 12/22.
What is 12/22? A year I was relieved was almost over, until experiencing 12/23, that is. This last year was so awful that I'm nostalgic about 2022. Go figure. Anyway, now, I really need to laugh. I hope you enjoys these as much as we enjoyed making them.
Special thanks to all the voice artists who contributed to not only these fauxmercials, but all of them from the last 4 years.
Jump into the Overthrowing Education archives with me in this encore episode!
On this episode, Zaynab Baalbaki joins me. She is a passionate educator who is truly working on and supporting others in overthrowing education and creating amazing and equitable learning spaces joins. She talks about an incredible public school, Escuela Verde, where she worked in and I also talk about Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning, another example of education at its best. We also discuss how more traditional schools and districts can start slowly to incorporate elements of both these and other transformative schools into their learning spaces.
Don’t forget to listen to The 5-Minute Game Show at the end of the interview, not only because it’s fun, but also because we drop more good ideas and some cool facts about Wisconsin.
Lastly, astute listeners will notice that the fauxmercial in this episode is related to the one from the previous episode. I had so much fun with Jake Miller from the last episode, I asked him to help me again with the fauxmercial for this episode.
Special thanks to my guest Zaynab Baalbaki, and my terrific voice actors who joined me on today’s fauxmercial, Jake Miller who hosts the Educational Duct Tape podcast and Tuvia Frankel who is always a good sport.
Links and Resources:
Contact: zbaalbaki@gmail.com
Twitter: @zbaalbaki
Escuela Verde
Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning
Teacher Powered | Ambassador
Wisconsin Resource Center for Charter Schools | Charter School Consultant
Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education | JEDI Committee
Jump into the Overthrowing Education archives with me in this encore episode!
In this episode, veteran educator and podcast host Charles Williams and I have a great conversation about the work we need to do to create true equity in education and the importance of challenging our current narratives. We also talk about problematic intrinsic biases that we all have and how to change them. Even though the topics we discuss are serious and important, along with all the practical ideas, we do get very silly (and not just on The 5-Minute Game Show, although he slays his food themed game show!).
Special thanks to Charles and to my fauxmercial helpers Yossie Frankel and the wonderfully talented Linda Korn for writing and singing the original Paradigm Shifters jingle that I borrowed.
Important Links and Resources:
CW Consulting Service
The Counter Narrative Podcast
Inside the Principal's Office Podcast
Twitter: @_cwconsulting
School Rubric Team
Code Breaker
Jump into the Overthrowing Education archives with me in this encore episode!
Long-time educator Jared Magee, from the very cool The Winchendon School, shares what Impact Learning is, why it’s important, and how to make it happen for all educators. Jared and I discuss ways to take what he has learned from his experiences there and mine working for another non-traditional school, Arete Preparatory Academy , and apply them to other, more traditional school situations.
Special thanks to guest Jared Magee, and also Yossie Frankel for joining me on today’s fauxmercial!
Check out all of things we spoke about on this episode:
The school's website The Winchendon School
A (literal) product of ColLABs The Little Elf Cutter from Mr. Bryan Perla Prose's (Jared’s podcast) Official Website Prose
@Mr.JaredMagee¸ @winchendon_brooklyn
@MrJaredMagee
Even before the extreme challenges of pandemic teaching, my guest, Amber Harper of The Burned-In Teacher Podcast was a valuable resource for helping with the very real problem of teacher burn-out that affects most teachers even multiple times in a career. But now, with everything educators have been through trying to teach in 2020, Amber’s Burned-In Teacher approach is a true remedy where she gives solid tools and advice on what to do when you’re feeling burnt-out. And then Amber plays a fun The 5-Minute Game Show, where the clues are Haikus.
Thank you so much to my wonderful guest, Amber Harper, and to my fauxmercial actors Dr. Shindale Seale, who has been an In the Trenches guest on past episodes, and of course, my husband, Yossie Frankel
Links for Amber:
www.burnedinteacher.com
www.burnedinteacher.com/burnoutquiz
Twitter, IG @burnedinteacher
Facebook: facebook.com/burnedinteacher
support@burnedinteacher.com
Shows we love that we mentioned:
The Great British Baking Show
Sugar Rush
The Kids Baking Championship
Project Runway
Nailed It
Jump into the Overthrowing Education archives with me in this encore episode!
This episode explores why kids hate math and what we can do about it featuring a conversation with John Bianchette of Mathnasium from January 2020 with a recent additional talk to reflect the radical changes that have taken place since then.
In the Trenches, I trace my journey from hating math as a student and defining myself as “I’m not a math person” in adulthood to finally realizing that I actually enjoy math because of the math teachers at Areté Preparatory Academy. I’ll share some of their tips and tools that transform students, too.
Also, The 5-Minute Game Show features a musical parody game you won’t want to miss. It features amazing voice impressionist and artist Barbara Heller.
Today’s Fauxmercial, Math-o-matic, features Yossie, Tuvia and me.
www.mathnasium.com
https://www.mathnasium.com/mathnasium-at-home
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-bianchette-52404a40/
https://www.facebook.com/mathnasium
https://twitter.com/mathnasium
https://www.instagram.com/mathnasium/
Jump into the Overthrowing Education archives with me in this encore episode!
Engaging educator, author and speaker Antero Garcia discusses how cell phones and games can be used effectively in a class, as well as other important issues surrounding cell use, games and technology. And then Antero nails The 5-Minute Game Show! The fauxmerical parody, “TAC vs. Worksheet” starts us off and we finish with students from St. Mary’s High School in Owen Sound, Ontario sharing the ideas they came up with after analyzing an “anti-cell phone for teens” article on the In the Trenches segment.
Special thanks to Antero, Anna, Max, Eamon, Rachel and Laura Honegger
Big thanks to the fauxmercial stars, Ben Elterman as TAC and Spencer Krull as Worksheet. And the fauxmercial music used is called Kat and Tanner by Twin Musicom which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Jump into the Overthrowing Education archives with me in this encore episode!
Blended Learning expert, Catlin Tucker converses with me about the why’s and how’s of Blended Learning. Then we play The 5-Minute Game Show Flippin’ Fictional Schools. Our In The Trenches segment features some food for thought from Rabbi Doctor Reb Mimi Feigelson. Then we honor a few teachers in Teacher Shout Outs.
More special thanks to Catlin Tucker, Reb Mimi, our announcer, Yossie Frankel and Distant Cousins for our theme song.
Our Fauxmercial sponsor is “Blend It” - and special thanks to Linda Korn - composer, vocalist and musical director of the spot, and Amy Ritz and Karen Holender for the wonderful vocals!
Jump into the Overthrowing Education archives with me in this encore episode! We start with a conversation filled with practical tools about games and gamification with educator, author and expert Jon Cassie of Game Level Learn and Qulia: The School for Deeper Learning. Then play along as Jon is subjected to The Five Minute Game Show where he has to determine whether the unusual games describes are Fact or Fantasy. Special Thanks to our guests Jon Cassie and Micaela Blie (and check out a great interview with her on our episode, “From Blah to Hazzah”).
Our Edu-Gamerama Fauxmercial actors are , Yossie Frankel (Also our announcer) and Batsheva Frankel.
And thanks to the wonderful band Distant Cousins for our theme song, Raise it Up.
This is kind of a bittersweet episode for me. I was blessed to get the job of my dreams, and I couldn’t be happier, but it means I’ll be wrapping things up for this podcast. After 4 amazing years, this will be my last new episode. I’m going to give everyone a chance to catch up by rereleasing older episodes.
I’ve been thinking about what I would want to say in this last episode. What are some magical words of wisdom I can leave you with? Then I decided that the best way to end this run is to chat with the person who helped me start the podcast and continued to sponsor and support it for the last 4 years, Jim Hahn. In this conversation we talk about our “origin story”, how education has changed for better and for worse during this time, how long it takes a bowl of Cheetos to burn and a lot more.
I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity to chat with over 120 incredible educators, students, and parents in these last 4 years. I’ve learned so much from all of them, and I’ve made some friendships that I truly cherish. I’ve also given away a lot of mugs!! I’ve been embraced by the “edupodster” community who are just the best, and I feel grateful that this show is part of the Education Podcast Network. I’m so thankful for all the talented voice actors who’ve helped me with my fauxmercials including Eli Schiff, Barbara Heller, Jill Moray, Spencer Krull, Ben Elterman, Karen Hollender, most of the Bookstein family, and my family Rivi, Tuvia and my awesome husband, announcer, and the builder of my recording booth, Yossie Frankel. And also those that helped write and produce some of the fauxmercials like Joshua Silverstein, Ben Talsma, Noah King and Eve Hirschman. And for my musical helpers Linda Leah Korn, Robby Helperin, Casey Arillaga and Barbara Heller, and for my theme music – Raise it Up, I thank the wonderful Distant Cousins.
I really want to thank you, the listeners for sharing this continuing journey in bettering education for our students!
Please stay in touch with me at Batsheva@overthrowingeducation.com I’d love to hear from you. And this is a great time to get your Overthrowing Education swag. Who knows, maybe one day those mugs will become a collector’s item.
In this episode, my guest, Crystal Frommert, and I have a great conversation about something that challenges new and veteran teachers alike: How to have better conversations with our students’ parents and/or guardians in order to make connections and ensure collaboration that will really enhance our work with their kids.
I love learning new things from my guests, and I certainly got some tips and ideas from Crystal that I wish I had known earlier. But it’s never too late!
And if you love Ted Lasso as much as Crystal and I do, you’ll have a blast playing my Ted Lasso themed The 5-Minute Game Show!
I want to thank my special guest, Crystal Frommert and my fauxmercial helper today, Yossie Frankel.
Please make sure to subscribe to and review Overthrowing Education if you haven’t already.
Links and Resources:
www.crystalfrommert.com
When Calling Parents Isn’t Your Calling
Find Crystal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and now Threads
You can now find me on BlueSky @BatshevaFrankel
Teaching Like Ted Lasso Podcast
Lots of great essays from Crystal on Edutopia
After a long, tough school year, I figured we could all use a good laugh. In this encore interview in Episode 45 from April of 2021, I interview the one and only Mr. D, Joe Dombrowski the educator and comedian who performs around the country and whose videos have gone viral. We talk about the importance of using humor when teaching, and how to do it, even if you don’t think you’re funny. I also share a taste of how I recently used humor to connect with students. This is the perfect summer episode: Learn a little something and laugh a lot.
I want to thank my special guest, Joe Dombrowski, and my fellow education podcasters who helped with my fauxmercial today: Charles Williams, Host of The Counter Narrative Podcast, and Shane Lawrence of The Ed Podcast and Unprofessional Development, and of course, Yossie Frankel.
I can watch this a million times and still laugh: https://youtu.be/RwnBAHtc1D0
Joe’s first appearance on Ellen: https://youtu.be/SqoJMbLRNjc
See more of Joe’s great video’s and listen to his podcast: https://www.mrdtimes3.com/
Find Joe on Twitter: @MrDtimes3
My guest today, passionate educator and prolific author Connie Hamilton, is returning for her 3rd time. Her first visit was in Episode 53: Asking and Getting Students to Ask Great Questions, one of the most episodes so far. Another popular visit was in Episode 53 when I had Connie and Starr Sackstein talking about hacking homework.
Today, however, I chatted with Connie about her new book Hacking Group Work. She shares wisdom and really practical ideas and tools for all teachers. I’m a veteran educator of over 25 years, and you can hear in the interview that I learned a lot from her!
Connie also shares her smarts on the 5-Minute Game Show! It’s a great one to play along with and yell out answers to in your car, or wherever you listen.
I want to give special thanks to Connie Hamilton and the super talented Eli Schiff for helping me with the Great Group Dynamics fauxmercial.
If you haven’t already, please subscribe and rate and review this podcast to help others find it so that we can all make education as great as possible and actually change what’s possible!
Links and Resources:
Twitter: @conniehamilton
website: conniehamilton.org
What happens when a veteran teacher working as a professional learning consultant during the last 4 years returns to the classroom? What’s happening in the classroom now that was different than a few years ago? Spoiler Alert: A lot.
I share my journey back into classroom teaching, at a time when so many teachers can’t wait to get out (and who can blame them?). So, while I confess a bunch of stuff, I also rant (and who can blame me?).
Also, in today’s fauxmercial – A film noir detective parody – I actually play both roles. Check it out!
For transformative professional learning check out New Lens Ed.
Welcome to the 100th episode of Overthrowing Education!
On today’s episode, I have the awesome privilege of chatting with 5 inspiring high school students – Pauline, Drizzle, Ella, Fahmi, and Katie and their equally inspiring teacher, Stacie Oliver. We mostly talk undgrading. Obviously, this is a topic I am passionate about, and I noticed in the Edu Twittersphere a teacher, Stacie, who was posting about her journey with her students about ungrading. I was impressed not only by Stacie, but also with her students whose work and reflections she sometimes posted.
I realized that with all of my episodes, and there are lots of good ones, about going gradeless and ungrading, they were mostly from the teacher’s point of view. So, I reached out to Stacie to see if I could have her and her students on to tell us about their adventures in ungrading. And also play The 5-Minute Game Show, of course!
I’d love to do this for 100 more episodes, at least and continue bringing passionate, creative and inspiring voices of educators and students, so please subscribe if you haven’t yet, and tell friends and colleagues to as well. And if you find yourself wanting an OE mug, t-shirt or tote bag here’s the Swag Shop.
Check out John Atkinson’s clever and funny cartoons including the ones that I used for The 5-Minute Game Show.
I want to thank my special guests Katie, Fahmi, Ella, Drizzle, Pauline and Stacie Oliver. Also, I’d like to thank the wonderful Barbara Heller who sang all the songs on the UnGradist Hits fauxmercial.
As I get ready for my 100th episode celebration, I thought it would be great to look back at my very first episode from August of 2019. I featured educator of excellence Jesse Stommel and we discussed Ungrading (of course!).
My show was so different in the beginning, and I've streamlined it quite a bit since my earlier episodes. I originally had a feature called In the Trenches, and my guest on this episode was Leora Smith.
I also had something I called Tirades, Tips and Tools. I don't think this 2-minute segment lasted more than 2-3 episodes. It was a good idea, but kind of redundant.
I initiated my first fauxmercial which is called Grades-Be-Gone and of course, Jesse and I played the first The 5-Minute Game Show based on Two Truths and a Lie.
Even though the show has grown quite a bit 98 episodes after this one, I think that for the most part, it holds up. What do you think?
It is the 99th episode of Overthrowing Education and today’s topic is one I’ve haven’t addressed on the show yet, so I’ve brought on Sharon Duncan, who works extensively with gifted students and their families. And I also bring back innovative educator Jim Hahn, the founder of Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning and Arete Preparatory Academy before that. Last time Jim joined me with the co-founder of Qualia, Jon Cassie on episode 77. And of course, Qualia is also the sponsor of this show. When a school sponsors a podcast called Overthrowing Education that tells you a lot about how amazing that school is.
In our conversation, Sharon defines the various kinds of gifted students, and she also helps us understand how to best help them in our classes and schools. Jim continues to share some amazing ways to engage not only gifted students, but also curious students. And actually, these are things we can do to awaken curiosity in all of our students.
And that’s about it. I’d like to thank my guests today, Sharon Duncan and Jim Hahn, and my fauxmercial helping family Yossie and Tuvia Frankel.
My guest today is Lindsay Lyons. We talk about what a culturally responsive sustaining classroom is, as well as why and how to make it happen, especially through PBL. She shares a lot of practical ideas and resources. Then Lindsay knocks it out of the park playing a literature focused The 5-Minute Game Show.
I want to thank my guest today, Lindsay Lyons, and for help with the fauxmercial - Shane Lawrence, who is now on the podcast Unprofessional Development, and also Shane’s daughter.
Resources and links:
Lindsay's
Website
YouTube
https://extras.lindsaybethlyons.com/overthrowsurvey https://extras.lindsaybethlyons.com/overthrowcircle
https://extras.lindsaybethlyons.com/overthrowplanne
My guest today is Adam Bellow the co-founder of the very cool Breakout EDU. We talk Game-based and play-based learning in general and a lot about the magic of escape rooms. It’s a fun episode with some practical ideas, as well.
Also, in this episode I give a sort of overview of a game for humanities classes call Battle of the Big Ideas. For more information see below.
It’s not too early to be thinking about end of the year gifts for your colleagues or yourself for making it through this school year and Overthrowing Education swag is the perfect gift!
Resources and Links:
Breakout Edu
Find out more about Battle of the Big Ideas and how you can adapt and use it in curriculum: DM me @overthrowinged or @BatshevaFrankel or send an email to Batsheva@overthrowingeducation.com
Is it possible that Robots/AI will replace teachers someday? II first examined this question in an episode in early 2020. My guests said no, but my son, 14 at the time, predicted much of what we are seeing now with the explosion of growth in Artificial Intelligence. So, I brought my son, now almost 18, back on the show to give his reflections on his past predictions and update us again. Is it inevitable that teachers will become obsolete? What can we do to make sure that we, as real live educators, are irreplaceable?
What do you think? What do your students think? Let me know on Twitter @overthrowinged.
I want to thank Tuvia for indulging me and coming back on with his updated reflections, and a special shout out to the amazing voice over artist Eli Schiff for playing the male teacher and Robo-Helper on the fauxmercial. I also want to thank all the teachers who originally let me know what tasks they dread that they would love to outsource to a robot which were reflected in Robo-Helper
Make someone’s day with cool Overthrowing Education swag!
In this episode, I speak with Barbara Smith, a long-time forward-thinking educator and prolific writer. We talk about her upcoming book, The Gatekeepers: Why School Systems Should Rethink Resisting Change. We discuss who the gatekeepers are that keep us from moving education forward and creating a better system. Of course, that includes the U.S. and other countries' obsession with standardized tests, ranking schools and students, and a whole more. This conversation got me riled up, in a good way, to continue the work so many educators like you are doing to overthrow education. And bonus: we talked about the connection between a certain TV franchise and its connection to better education!
Also, this episode’s fauxmercial was borrowed from Episode 60 with Zaynab Baalbaki about creating transformative schools, because this episode is really about overcoming the challenges to create transformative education. Once again, the awesome Jake Miller joined me in this fauxmercial flashback.
I want to thank my special guest, Barbara Smith, and my fauxmercial helper, Jake Miller.
I also want to remind you to please rate and review this podcast so others can find it.
And of course, if you share it with your colleagues, friends, and some of those gatekeepers, we can help make some really positive changes in education. Of course, it couldn’t hurt to get some Overthrowing Education swag to really make your point!
Links and Resources:
For all of Barbara’s books and resources: www.z-pd.ca
Contact information: zpdschoolandcurriculumdesign@gmail.com
or
Barbaraj.smith@utoronto.ca
In the 4th episode in this series on AI in education, my guest, Matt Miller and I discuss the issues we need to consider as well as some very practical ideas for using ChatGPT and other cool AI in our classes. Matt has been digging deep into this subject and brings so much wisdom and insight into our conversation.
Matt shares some great resources to explore in the links below. And he also plays a fun version of The 5-Minute Game Show called “ChatGPT, Google or Me?”
I’d like to thank my awesome guest Matt Miller and my fauxmercial helpers including my award-winning Voice Actor friend, Eli Schiff as the announcer and Jakey Schiff, Yossie and Tuvia Frankel.
This is a great time to buy any burned-out or otherwise deserving teacher friend or colleague some Overthrowing Education Swag. Or buy some for yourself. You totally deserve it!
Links and Resources:
ChatGPT, Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence in Education
Tons of great resources and classes: DitchThatTextbook.com
Get on Matt’s email list to get all kinds of amazing resources: DitchThatTextbook.com/join
Classroom videos to use in class TODAY: Teachflix
This project provides you with research-based teaching practices you can use in class tomorrow to save time AND teach better: EfficienTEACH.com
This episode is important for parents and educators to listen to. In it, my special guest – a teenage boy - and I dig deep into the ever increasing problem of teens and pre-teens being influenced by toxic people and dangerous messages online.
The most popular is Andrew Tate whose sexist and misogynistic views are couched between advice that many teen boys find empowering. How do we deal with his and other toxic influencers' bile as educators and/or parents?
Special thanks to my very special guest, Tuvia, and my awesome fauxmercial voice actor, Jake Miller.
Here are just some of the many articles to check out:
BBC Andrew Tate: How schools are tackling his influence
Andrew Tate: 'I fear online influencer radicalised my son'
TES Magazine How to respond to boys inspired by Andrew Tate
Education Week Misogynist Influencer Andrew Tate Has Captured Boys’ Attention. What Teachers Need to Know
Votes for Schools MISOGYNY & ANDREW TATE Part of our Classroom Conversations Series
The Guardian Vulnerable boys are drawn in’: schools fear spread of Andrew Tate’s misogyny
‘We see misogyny every day’: how Andrew Tate’s twisted ideology infiltrated British schools
NY Post UK schools grappling with teens brainwashed by Andrew Tate: report
Independent School holds Andrew Tate assemblies over fears of ‘toxic misogynist’s influence on children’
Edit CM Andrew Tate and His Boys: An Educators Guide
After 2 more philosophical looks at AI in education, I wanted to bring in some super practical ways to incorporate ChatGPT and other AI sites into your lessons and schools as a whole. My guest is Ben Talsma who you might remember from Episode 28 which is all about making meaningful PBL units. Recently I saw that Ben is sharing some very meaningful, practical weird and wonderful ways to incorporate AI into all kinds of lessons, including, but not limited to PBL units.
Did you ever wish you could talk to me about something you heard on the show? Have a question? Want to share an idea? Or just let me know that you totally aced The 5-Minute Game Show? You can! Go to the Overthrowing Education website scroll down and record a message to me. I can even respond!
I just want to give special thanks to Ben Talsma. And don’t forget to get your Overthrowing Education swag.
Links and Resources:
Twitter: @BenTalsma.
To find great stuff that Ben has created for teachers, including awesome PBL units and tons of free resources, can be found at www.blueappleteacher.org.
This is really cool and helpful: The Sentient Syllabus Project
ATLIS Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools: ATLIS: Artificial Intelligence in Edu (padlet.com)
AI - A Discussion for Education - Google Slides
More to come soon!!
If you haven’t yet listened to the first in this AI in Education series, episode 89, you might want to do that first. It’s not essential but it does give some background that feeds this episode’s discussion. In that episode, I mention some excellent essays by super prolific author and columnist Stephen Marche. And now Stephen is my special guest on the show today. He is a font of information and a lot of fun to talk with. Among many other aspects, we discussed some great things we can do with AI in our lessons, along with other potential benefits. Additionally, we addressed how AI will affect homework, tests, and essays in many subjects. We also get into the scary potential for increasing inequity in the education system. And I asked a really important question on many educators’ minds – Can AI write lesson plans for us? Speaking of AI writing things for us, I decided to see what would happen when I asked ChatGPT to write my fauxmercial. And I really did give it the first and second prompt that were described in today’s fauxmercial, and those really were the responses it gave me. The rest of it I wrote and performed along with Yossie Frankel as the announcer, Tuvia Frankel as the first AI response and Robin Glickstein as the second AI response.
After sort of co-writing with ChatGPT, I was really happy to co-write The 5-Minute Game Show with an actual person – Eve Hirschman. It was a lot more fun. Spoiler: Stephen aced his game show.
I believe that educators everywhere should be hearing what Stephen has to say, so please share this episode with every educator you know.
@stephenmarche on Twitter
Find Stephen’s essays, novels, non-fiction books, appearances and more at www.stephenmarche.com
I am so ready for some huge, great changes, to education. How about you? How are we going to make this happen? How can we provide a super high quality education for every student? My guest today, Dr. Lacrecia Terrance, has been working toward this goal for a long time. In our conversation she shares a lot of practical experience with how PBL and the concepts of unschooling can genuinely create a better and more equitable education experience. We do talk a little educational philosophy, but there are also practical ideas and tools, as well.
After our chat, Lacrecia crushes an NFL/PBL hybrid The 5-Minute Game Show!
I want to thank Dr. Lacrecia Terrance and re-thank Shane Lawrence who is now a co-host on the Unprofessional Development podcast for joining me on the fauxmercial.
Follow Dr. Terrance’s journey on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram @TheEduProject
Visit the EduProject website
Email lterrance@theeduproject.org
PBL Works
In September of 2022, Fauxsie awards were given out at a fake, but very fun awards ceremony honoring the talented people who have helped me create the commercial parodies - fauxmercials - that come at the beginning of each episode. As a little gift this holiday season, I present some of the award-winning performances that listeners voted on.
These are the commercials you won't mind sitting through.
There has been an explosion of handwringing among educators and academics, and cheers from students about the strides and easy accessibility of Artificial Intelligence that will probably change the entire nature of how we educate. What can we expect? How do we adapt? Can anything good come out of this? This is just the first in a series of examinations of this incredibly important topic that will certainly affect every aspect of education at least from middle school through higher education. On this episode it’s just me and AI. We even had fun playing The 5-Minute Game Show! Well, at least I did. I can’t speak for my friendly AI.
I want to especially thank Tuvia Frankel for clueing me in to the importance of dealing with this issue right away, and for writing the fauxmercial!
Resources and Links:
Various great essays on AI by Stephen March in The Atlantic
The End of High-School English by Daniel Herman in The Atlantic
The Brilliance and Weirdness of ChatGPT by Kevin Roose in The New York Times
Today, I’m continuing a hot topic in education right now -homework. My guests in this episode are incredible educators Starr Sackstein and Connie Hamilton who co-authored the excellent book, Hacking Homework. We have a great conversation that explores homework issues including giving practical ideas for how to do it right, if you have to do it all. And we also have a lot of fun!
When I asked parents and teachers on Twitter, “How do you feel about homework?” I received almost 500 answers, along with a healthy discussion. And while people had a variety of passionate opinions, most were respectful of each other. In addition to a lively Twitter discussion, one teacher, Alex Giorgianni, reached out to me with an amazing assignment he’s and his colleagues, Mike Rinyu and Maryann Hilton gave their sophomore World History/English 2 and Junior US History/English 3 classes when they were studying propaganda in the US. It was called “The War on Homework” – you can find the assignment on their episode page on the Overthrowing Education website. Also, you can see the incredible results of Flagler Palm Coast HS students here.
I want to give special thanks to my guests Connie Hamilton and Starr Sackstein, my fauxmercial helpers Yossie and Tuvia Frankel, and Alex Giorgianni and the students of Flagler Palm Coast HS for sharing their work with us.
Links and Resources
For Connie:
Twitter: @conniehamilton
website: conniehamilton.org
For Starr:
Chief Operating Officer at Mastery Portfolio
Chat with Starr: sign up for a time
Starr's TEDx Talk A Recovering Perfectionist's Journey to Give up Grades
Amazon Author page
Starr's website
Twitter @MsSackstein
Starr on LinkedIn
Starr on Facebook
My guests on this episode, Noah King and Peter Littig have podcast called The Math Club that I really love. I would never have guessed that I would enjoy a podcast about math, but I really love it. The show is a funny, clever and down to earth mode of explaining interesting math concepts . . . that I mostly understand.
Pete, Noah and I discuss how to make math approachable and fun to learn, and also fun to teach. We discuss a lot of really practical ideas and resources for that K-college math teachers as well as for other subjects wanting to try something cross curricular can use to make math relevant and meaningful to all students -even the ones who think, “I’m not a math person.”
Also, when I asked the guys if they wanted to write a fauxmercial with me, all I had was a title idea, Revenge of the Math People. Noah took that idea and ran with it - he wrote the script and produced it. He also designed a movie poster to go with it!
I want to thank my guests today, Peter Littig and Noah King, with a special thanks to all the Revenge of the Math people players: Noah, for writing and producing, and voice acting along with Eli Schiff, Tuvia Frankel, Yossie Frankel, Barbara Heller, Peter Littig, and me, and of course the amazing Math People kids -Mrs. Martinez's 3rd grade students from Marylin Avenue Elementary School.
Please don’t forget to recommend this episode, and the whole podcast to people you know would benefit from and/or enjoy it!
Looking for a great gift for you or your favorite educators? Check out the Overthrowing Education Swag shop.
Links and Resources:
email: mathclubpodcast@gmail.com
Twitter: @MathClubPodcast
The Math Club can be found on Spotify, Apple, and Audible, and we're hosted on Libsyn.
My guest on this episode is awesome educator and author Elizabeth Jorgensen who I initially met on a social media platform that rhymes with bitter (which is basically how many of us feel about it right now). We discuss Process Based Assessment, moving away from grades, and of course, why and how to make a homework-less teaching practice.
Recently, I reached out to educators to get there take on homework and I got an incredible response- very diverse and passionate. Elizabeth reached out to me to share an essay she wrote (see link below) that I really loved. She is also the author of Hacking Student Learning Habits: 9 Ways to Foster Resilient Learners and Assess the Process not the Outcome, among many other books.
I’d like to thank my guest, Elizabeth Jorgensen and my Almighty Mouse fauxmercial helpers, Yossie and Tuvia Frankel.
Links and Resources:
The Essay I reference
https://twitter.com/LyzaJo
https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.jorgensen1
https://www.instagram.com/lyzajoelle/
website: www.lizjorgensen.weebly.com
Gwen Jorgensen: USA's First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete(Meyer & Meyer Sport)
Sijo: Korea's Poetry Form (Parkyoung)
Hacking Student Learning Habits (Times 10 Publications)
Go: Gwen, Go: A Family's Journey to Olympic Gold(Meyer & Meyer Sport)
- SIJO: Korean Poetry (Edited by Lucy Park and Elizabeth Jorgensen) sold at Amazon. Also, complimentary copies of this book are available for educators who teach sijo in classes in the USA. Send an email to sejongculturalsociety@gmail.com
- My latest project is a Young Adult/Middle Grade nonfiction biography: Gwen Jorgensen: USA's First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete. My co-author and I are offering no-fee author talks to school groups, classrooms and sport teams. We also have a free educator guide for anyone who teaches this book. Send an email to elizabeth.jorgensen@gmail.com
On this episode, I reflect on the past - sharing ideas, musings, anecdotes, subtle hints, honest confessions, and a look at how reflection moved education forward for all of us.
Special thanks to Barbara Heller and Yossie Frankel, my fauxmercial helpers.
Newlensed.com
Lenses of Questioning Course
DISCOVER Assessments
Overthrowing Education merch
My guest today is longtime educator and author Jason Ablin. We talk about creating gender equality in education – what does it mean? What would it look like? And how to get it. Then Jason performs well with a music/literature mashup on The 5-Minute Game Show.
I did indeed pilfer today’s fauxmercial from an earlier episode on implicit bias and micro aggressions. But it could still apply here.
Speaking of fauxmercials, we held our first Fauxsie Awards Show honoring all the great talent that has helped me over the years with the commercial parodies near the beginning of every episode. We had a blast and I’ll share parts of it at a later date.
I want to give special thanks to Jason Ablin and an encore thanks to my fauxmercial helpers Jill Moray, Tzofiya Bookstein, Spencer Krull and Tuvia Frankel.
If you like what you hear, please subscribe on your platform of choice, and tell friends and colleagues to check it out. And perhaps get some Overthrowing Education swag while you’re at it.
Jason’s Book: The Gender Equation in Schools: How to Create Equity and Fairness for All Students
Website: Ablin Educational Services, LLC.
Blog: Educating Gender
Twitter: @jasonablin
In this episode, I have a great conversation with Alfonso Mendoza, also known as Fonz, of the website and podcast My EdTech Life. He is an Instructional Technologist and Google Innovator who shares a huge range of insights, ideas, effective pedagogy and of course, a slew of powerful tech tools. We also discuss his ideas of the future of education technology, and I hope his vision pans out, because it would be truly incredible.
Don’t forget check out the Overthrowing Education swag!
Alfonso can be reached at @myedtechlife on all socials
My special guest today is educator and author Jacki Edry. I learned so much from Jacki about neurodivergence in many forms. She has experience with neurodivergence as an educator, a mother, and through an experience she herself had.
Jacki has great insights into how teachers and parents can help our neurodivergent students and children, to understand them, and give them the tools to really succeed. We packed a lot in this discussion!
Also, I have a favor to ask, which I do from time to time, in addition to the usual pleas of make sure to subscribe and leave a review (although, please do those things!). It really makes a difference when you share an episode of Overthrowing Education with a friend or colleague. Whether it’s this one (that I think every educator would benefit from) or another episode that really resonated with you, or an episode you think someone else would connect with or it would be helpful to. If you’re listening to this podcast, it’s probably because you really care about making education much, much better. The more we can share what good education could and should be, the faster we can make it happen. So, this week, please tell at least one person about this or another episode or the show in general. Students and parents will thank you for it.
Don’t forget about the Overthrowing Education swag. Get a great gift for an educator, including yourself.
I’d like to thank my guest today, Jacki Edry and my fauxmercial voice actors, Spencer Krull and Ben Elterman.
Links and Resources:
Book: "Moving Forward: Reflections on Autism, Neurodiversity, Brain Surgery, and Faith" on Amazon
Website and blog on jackisbooks.com
LinkedIn: Jacki Edry
Facebook: @jackisbooks
My special guest today is educator and author Jacki Edry. I learned so much from Jacki about neurodivergence in many forms. She has experience with neurodivergence as an educator, a mother, and through an experience she herself had.
Jacki has great insights into how teachers and parents can help our neurodivergent students and children, to understand them, and give them the tools to really succeed. We packed a lot in this discussion!
Also, I have a favor to ask, which I do from time to time, in addition to the usual pleas of make sure to subscribe and leave a review (although, please do those things!). It really makes a difference when you share an episode of Overthrowing Education with a friend or colleague. Whether it’s this one (that I think every educator would benefit from) or another episode that really resonated with you, or an episode you think someone else would connect with or it would be helpful to. If you’re listening to this podcast, it’s probably because you really care about making education much, much better. The more we can share what good education could and should be, the faster we can make it happen. So, this week, please tell at least one person about this or another episode or the show in general. Students and parents will thank you for it.
Don’t forget about the Overthrowing Education swag. Get a great gift for an educator, including yourself.
I’d like to thank my guest today, Jacki Edry and my fauxmercial voice actors, Spencer Krull and Ben Elterman.
Links and Resources:
Book: "Moving Forward: Reflections on Autism, Neurodiversity, Brain Surgery, and Faith" on Amazon
Website and blog on jackisbooks.com
LinkedIn: Jacki Edry
Facebook: @jackisbooks
Remember mix-tapes? This is formative assessment is about curating music. I share two ways to use published music and songs for quick check-ins.
Need help getting started? Wanna share something cool your students have done? Any questions? DM me on Twitter @BatshevaFrankel or drop me a line at Batsheva@OverthrowingEducation.com
My guest is Starr Sackstein, who is returning for a third time! We are both extremely passionate about going gradeless and its very important companion - creative and authentic assessments. Our conversation is all about practicality. I have lots of episodes about going gradeless – all good, check them out, one of them also features Starr. Some focus on the philosophy behind going gradeless and some that are more like “how-to” do it? This discussion is more in the latter category. But we add that extra important piece mentioned above, creative and authentic assessments. It’s really hard to give feedback only and not a grade with traditional tests and quizzes. It won’t work. So, we also talk practically about assessments, as well. The fauxmercial on this episode, a parody of an old Discover card commercial, will make much more sense after you listen to the episode.
I’d like to thank my awesome guest, Starr Sackstein.
Get your Overthrowing Education swag so you can show where you stand and that you care about education. Want to get the conversation started? Try an OE shirt, hoodie, mug (of course!), tote bag, and a lot more. It’ll do the trick!
Links and Resources:
MsSackstein.com
mssackstein@gmail.com
Twitter: @MsSackstein
Starr Sackstein on LinkedIn and Facebook
masteryportfolio.com
Twitter: @masteryforall
Mastery Portfolio on Facebook and LinkedIn
Learn more about DISCOVER assessments
Episode 80: Micaela Blei: The Pedagogy of Story Framing
Overthrowing Education’s 3rd anniversary is this month, and one way I wanted to celebrate was by replaying an early interview I loved with incredible educator and award-winning storyteller, Micaela Blei. She joined me for a great conversation about how to use story frames to bring learning alive, engage students and provide deeper learning. We also talk about all the amazing ways we can use storytelling in our teaching. The fauxmercial parody, “Story Surprise” starts us off and after her interviewed, Micaela plays a hilarious, and very challenging version of The 5-Minute Game Show.
Special thanks to Micaela and my fauxmercial cast - the incredible Holender family actors Sophie, Benji and Karen, as well as Yossie Frankel and Eve Hirschman for helping write The 5-Minute Game Show.
Links and Resources:
Find Micaela at https://micaelablei.com/ and on Twitter @mblei
Vote for the Fauxsies! Get your ballot.
Shop for Overthrowing Education swag
My guest is a fellow edupodster. Christopher J. Nesi is from House of Ed Tech, among others, and he’s an ed tech tool maven. In this episode, you’ll hear all about the awesome things he does in our discussion, which ranges from why podcasting is great for teachers and students to sharing some great tech tools and how to use them, and to giving some bold predictions of the future of tech education, as well as technology in general.
And speaking of the future - in the very near future, on Aug. 18th, 2022 you can watch the Fauxsie Awards. Aug 18th, happens to be the 3rd anniversary of this podcast. To celebrate, I am honoring the commercial parodies that come near the beginning of each episode and the talented people who helped me make them. We are having a live, online streaming ceremony, where you can meet some of the voices behind your favorite Overthrowing Education fauxmercials. And don’t forget to vote. Everyone who does can enter the raffle for great OE swag, and more prizes. You have until Aug. 10th to vote. The competition is heating up, so make sure to get your ballot in.
And On July 26th at , I’m giving a free on line workshop to humanities teachers about a game frame I co-created called Battle of the Big Ideas. This fantasy football meets big ideas game frame can be easily adapted to your curricula and student needs. It’s a fun and creative way for students to dig deep into the content while developing the skills they need. This is not a badges or leveling up thing; it’s a sophisticated game frame which means that you take the basic frame work of the Battle of the Big Ideas game play, and have total freedom to create the perfect game for your content and students. Come join me at 4 pm PT on July 26th, for this free workshop! Register here.
I want to thank my warm and wise guest, Chris Nesi.
And special thanks to my husband, Yossie Frankel, who put on his star trek hoodie and socks to help write most of the script for the Star Tek fauxmercial, and he provided all of the male voices, possibly with some help from his star trek shot glass!
Links and Resources:
https://twitter.com/mrnesi
https://instagram.com/houseofedtech
https://chrisnesi.com/linkedin
https://thepodjournal.com
In the last episode, I interviewed Jim Hahn and Jon Cassie, the founders of Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning to find out what their secret sauces to success are and how they can be added to other schools and classrooms. I thought it was important to also hear from some students at Qualia, Jiyen, Diego, and Ella. I asked each of them similar questions, as you’ll hear, and I think their answers are very telling and informative for educators and parents.
Also, I want to let you know about a great opportunity: I’m giving a free online workshop on a game frame for humanities classes called Battle of the Big Ideas which is like combining fantasy football (or other sports) with philosophy and big ideas. I’ve given this workshop at ISTE and other conferences for the last couple of years, and I wanted to share it with you. It's a unique way to help your students dig deep, think critically and creatively, and enjoy learning, in any humanities subject. The workshop is on July 26th at 4pm PDT. Get more information and register here.
Lastly, don’t forget to vote for your favorite fauxmercial (the commercial parodies near the beginning of almost every episode) for the Fauxsies Awards. The battle is heating up. We’re announcing the winners in August to celebrate Overthrowing Educations 3-year anniversary! Fill out your ballot!
My special thanks to my guests Ella, Jiyen and Diego. And my fauxmercial helpers (which, full disclosure, was taken from another episode), Yossie and Tuvia Frankel.
Jiyen’s Podcast Unknown Knowns
In this episode, Jim Hahn and Jon Cassie from Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning and The Arete Institute, are not only my wonderful guests, but they also the sponsors this podcast.
Jim and Jon chat with me about the many lessons and approaches more traditional style -schools, and actually all schools, can learn from Qualia and from its predecessor Arete Preparatory Academy.
Of course, we talk about some of my favorite topics such as going gradeless and authentic, creative assessments, but there is even more practical wisdom they that share - things we can start doing right away.
I want to thank my guests Jim Hahn and Jon Cassie as well as my fauxmercial helpers Yossie and Tuvia Frankel.
Links and Resources:
Serving students in grades 4 through 12, Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning offers online and in-person courses for highly curious students looking to explore and expand their passions in an intellectually stimulating environment.
Jon’s Podcasts:
www.gamelevelearn.com
www.manywindows.net
For this series, on each mini-episode, I share one quick idea that can be applied to any subject. Some of them you may have already mastered, or maybe just tried once, or hadn’t even thought about yet.
Today’s DISCOVER assessment idea is based on roving or on the street reporters. It's a fun formative assessment that can help students express deeper understandings.
Need help getting started? Wanna share something cool your students have done? Any questions? DM me on Twitter @BatshevaFrankel or IG @Batsheva.Frankel
See New Lens Ed. for more information about great assessments.
My guest, Jess Fuller tells us about RESCHOOL, the creators of the amazing game Revolve as well as other education-changing tools.
I love game-based learning – I don’t really video games, and I definitely don’t mean badges and leveling up. I mean learning content, deriving meaning, or assessing for understanding through playing or creating games. But can games actually have an impact on bigger changes in education? And if so, how? Jess and I discuss all of these questions, among other important issues.
Then play along with Jess on The 5-Minute Game Show as she knocks it out of the park!
In our chat, I mention a game-frame approach that I’ve been using and teaching to humanities teachers called Battle of Big Ideas. I designed this flexible and fun “philosophy meets fantasy football” type game to help students dig deeper into literature and history, finding connections and relevance as they create and build teams based on big ideas. It’s great for grades 7th -12th.
I’ll be giving a free interactive Battle of the Big Ideas workshop session on July 26th at 4 pm PT. If you teach a humanities class or if you’re just curious and want to see what it’s all about, sign up here.
I’d like to thank my wonderful guest, Jessica Fuller and re-thank my fauxmercial helpers, Jake Miller and Tuvia Frankel.
And speaking of fauxmercials, don’t forget to vote! You don’t have to fill out every category, just the ones you want. Here’s your ballot.
Resources:
RESCHOOL website: www.reschoolcolorado.org
Link to RESCHOOL’s newsletter https://www.reschoolcolorado.org/newsletter/
Twitter handle: @ReSchool_CO.
The REVOLVE site: www.revolvethegame.com
Jessica Fuller’s contact information:
LinkedIn profile link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-fuller-b8244b11/
Email: jfuller@reschoolcolorado.org
Sign up for the FREE Battle of the Big Ideas workshop on July 26th, 2022 at 4 pm PT
Get your Overthrowing Education merch here.
This episode’s topic couldn’t be timelier. I have a really enlightening conversation with my guest, Carter Weinstein, who as a high school senior wrote a book to help teens dealing with anxiety, and also to help parents and teachers understand what it’s like for teens to experience anxiety. I thought this would be a a helpful way to honor Mental Health month. We talk about his book and also what factors in education are causing or exacerbating so many mental health issues for students, and what we can do to fix them.
Carter also does a great job playing The 5-Minute Game Show.
Please remember to vote for your favorite Fauxmercials with this ballot.
Contact and Resources:
Conquering Fear: One Teen's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety
Website: www.carterweinsteinbook.com
Instagram: @carterweinsteinbook
Facebook: Conquering Fear: One Teen's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety
I want to thank Carter Weinstein. And thank you all for listening and caring about education. Please rate and subscribe to this podcast so others can find it!
Since every episode starts with a fauxmercial - a commercial parody about fake educational products we wish were real - So New Lens Ed. and The Arete Institute are honoring these made-up commercials with a real awards show- The Fauxsies. Vote for all your favorites in different categories and enter the raffle to win some great prizes! You can find the ballot here:
https://tinyurl.com/FauxsieAwardBallot
Or Overthrowing Education
The Fauxsies will be broadcast live in August of 2022.
My special guest is an educational tech expert, IT superstar and STEAM teacher, Yossie Frankel (and he’s also my husband!). I finally get to record a conversation about one of the most important changes we should make in education: Cross-curricular subject blending. Yossie and I chat about why it’s so important and how to do it seamlessly (including PBL). And find out about what Yossie calls, “The Westly Crusher Effect”, my new acronym for all subject blending, and how Yossie’s augmented reality prediction is similar to a Korean Drama plot. Then we play the 5-Minute Game Show that combines fake educational products, puns and famous 80’s movies.
Lastly, we make a special announcement – The Fauxsy Awards- a tribute to Overthrowing Education’s commercial parodies will be held in August. Listen for more details on how to vote.
My special thanks to Yossie for this episode and all the wonderful ways he makes my life better (It’s our 18th wedding anniversary this week!).
Links and resources:
PBL Works
Catlin Tucker, Blended Learning expert
Looking to learn more about how to incorporate and integrate cross-curricular learning, great tech tools and/or PBL with customized workshops, courses, or coaching? NewLensEd.
Overthrowing Education swag
In honor of May being Mental Health Awareness Month, I invited longtime educator and author, Deborah Farmer Kris as my guest to offer organic and meaningful ways to integrate SEL through cultivating awe, generating play-based learning and other seamless paths.
This is also a great episode for parents, so please pass it on!
And you won’t want to miss Deborah’s victorious The 5-Minute Game Show.
My special thanks to Deborah Farmer Kris for being my guest and to Yossie Frankel for once again lending his awesome announcer voice for the Edu-Play-Arama fauxmercial.
Don’t forget to check out the Overthrowing Education merch!
Resources and Links:
Parenthood365
I Love You All the Time
You Have Feelings All the Time
Mindshift
PBS Kids
Hadley Hooper’s Illustrated Picture Books
Free Spirit Press
Michelle Borba - Thrivers
In this episode, the tables are turned. I was a guest on Shane Lawrence’s The Ed Podcast and we talked about so many important ways that we can begin to really overthrow education for the better including inquiry and game-based learning, authentic creative assessments and why I compare traditional education to a rotary phone and what it’s going to take to upgrade to a smart phone (metaphorically speaking).
When Shane interviewed me, it was at the beginning of 2020 and it aired on March 5th of 2020 (Cue ominous music). Needless to say, much has changed since then. You know many about the big changes, but I also update you on what’s up with me.
Lastly, I’ve got a really fun and exciting announcement coming up in May about the fauxmercials. So, stay tuned!
I want to especially thank Shane Lawrence for lending me this episode and his voice for the fauxmercial! And also thank Yossie Frankel for lending his voice as well.
Links and Resources:
The Ed Podcast
Shane’s Twitter: @theedpodcast
New Lens Ed. – See my workshop, courses and more.
My Twitter @BatshevaFrankel
Lenses of Questioning Self-Paced Course
Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning
Jacob Johnson, aka Grade Slayer shares his continuing journey on going gradeless and gives help for any teacher who wants to start. This is my fourth episode that deals specifically with going gradeless or ungrading and each episode adds a different dimension which brings more to the conversation- one of the most important conversations in education right now. And of course, at the end of our discussion, Jacob is subjected to The 5-Minute Game Show.
The fauxmercial is a parody of those old record compilations commercials, and the incredibly talented Barbara Heller was kind enough to record the songs for me. And she actually recorded longer versions and even made-up some verses. Unfortunately, the fauxmercial was already getting long so I had to edit them down. However, Barb has such a stellar voice that I knew I had to put the long, unedited version at the end of the podcast.
My special thanks to Jacob Johnson and to my fauxmercial helpers, Barbara Heller, Yossie Frankel and writer and Assistant Producer, Eve Hirschman.
Don’t forget to check out the Overthrowing Education swag on the website.
Links and Resources:
Jacob on Twitter
Ungrading blog post by Susan D. Blum
Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) by Susan D. Blum
Can Skateboarding Save Our Schools? TedX talk by Dr. Tae
On this episode I welcome back amazing educator and author, Matt Miller. After this episode, check out his appearance way back on episode 10. He is truly one of the best resources for teachers out there, and he again shares some of his wisdom, techniques, and tech tools to take your teaching to the next level no matter where you are in your career or what you’re teaching. Check the links below for great resources!
Please share this podcast with every educator and parent you know! And don’t forget to order your Overthrowing Education swag.
I’d like to give special thanks to Matt Miller for joining me again, and to Rabbi Yonah Bookstein and Yossie Frankel for lending their voices to the Levelevator fauxmercial.
Links and Resources:
Ditch That Textbook site
Ditch That Textbook courses
Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit
My guest blog for Matt, 10 Amazing Assessment Ideas
Matt’s books
Shane Lawrence, veteran educator, and the long-time host of The Ed Podcast shares some wisdom he has learned and gained from all of the educators on his podcast over hundreds of episodes as well as his students. It covers both bigger picture and lot of practical ideas. Because Shane teaches, among other things, film studies and film production we talk about ways to incorporate filmmaking into any subject, and after our interview, I share more ways to use video making in your class. Also, you won’t want to miss the film-themed The 5-Minute Game Show written by associate producer, Eve Hirschman, because Shane totally nails it!
Links and Contact Information:
Shane's Twitter and Instagram: @theedpodcast
Shane's Email: theedpodcast@gmail.com
The Ed Podcast
Episode 134 on The Ed Podcast with Batsheva
Batsheva@newlensed.com
New Lens Ed.
Shop for Overthrowing Education swag
For this series, on each mini-episode, I share one quick idea that can be applied to any subject. Some of them you may have already mastered, or maybe just tried once, or hadn’t even thought about yet.
Today’s DISCOVER assessment idea is a riff on a really fun improv game called Sports Announcers.
Need help getting started? Wanna share something cool your students have done? Any questions? DM me on Twitter @BatshevaFrankel or IG @Batsheva.Frankel
See New Lens Ed. for more information about great assessments.
On this episode I have an incredibly insightful and super practical conversation with veteran educator and author Katie White. Perhaps if every educator put student-self assessment in the easy to implement way Katie describes, we would raise the level of learning %100, as well as raising the level of joy in learning for students.
I want to welcome back my new associate producer, Eve Hirschman to the show. If you are a long-time listener or you’ve dug back into older episodes, which I highly recommend, you might remember that Eve wrote and co-wrote some of the early fauxmercials and game shows. I was finally able to coax her back to take on even more behind the scenes work along with writing. In fact, in this episode, she wrote the Right Track fauxmercial and The 5-Minute Game.
Links and Resources:
Contact Katie:
Twitter: @KatieWhite426
Instagram: @softedgedlearning
Email: k.white@sasktel.net
Website: www.kwhiteconsulting.com
Books available on Amazon:
Softening the Edges: Assessment Practices that Honor K-12 Teacher and Learners
Unlocked: Assessment as the Key to Everyday Creativity in the Classroom
Student Self-Assessment: Data Notebooks, Portfolios and Other Tools to Advance Learning
Katie’s new book: Concise Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Assessment and Grading by Nicole Dimich, Cassandra Erkens, Jadi Miller, Tom Schimmer and Katie White (released April 2022, available for pre-order)
Overthrowing Education Swag Shop
Find out more about Batsheva’s Lenses of Questioning online - at your own pace- course.
My guest, Barbara Heller, and I discuss how to integrate mindful meditation into your class routine to help your students feel centered, more focused and open up their channels to creativity, which can benefit all subjects. Barbara is not only a thoughtful and passionate educator but also a published author, voice over artist, award winning film writer, director, playwright, and songwriter who also writes an original and evolving curriculum infusing mindfulness and creativity called “Meditate and Create.” In addition, she hosts a podcast called See One Beautiful Soul about what she calls the real F word- forgiveness.
Barb has been a regular voice actor on many of my fauxmercial, and the one on this episode is extra special because Barbara conceived of it, co-wrote it, does the two main voices – the young teen and the announcer - and she wrote and sang so beautifully the Forgive- Ness jingle. Lastly, you’ll hear some of the many voice impressions Barb does when we play a very unusual version of The 5-Minute Game Show.
Links and Resources
www.BarbHeller.com
Barb’s original guided mindful meditations
And feel free to email her at info@BarbHeller.com for the worksheets that go along with the meditations or hire her to do a Live Zoom Meditate and Create session for you and your students or try a 1:1 Coaching.
See One Beautiful Soul: The podcast about Seeing the Good in Ourselves and Each Other!
Overthrowing Education Swag
My guest is educational leader Matthew Woods, host of the podcast Leading Out of the Woods. Our discussion covers a lot of different important and timely issues – including how to address and ease teacher and educational leader burn-out, and how to cultivate and also be strong leaders.
We also play a very wacky, and very different kind of The 5-Minute Game Show. And Matthew definitely earns his Overthrowing Education mug.
You don’t even have to be subjected to my game show to get your own Overthrowing Mug (or T-shirt, tote bag or hoodie). Check out lots of goodies.
My special thanks to Matthew Woods, whose books we spoke of are ready and available, so check the links for everything in the show notes or on the OE website. And to the wonderfully talented voice actors Eli Schiff and Barbara Heller.
Links and Resources
Matthew's podcast: Leading Out the Woods
Author of the Children's Book series, "I Wanna Be..."
Website: leadingoutthewoods.com
As educators and parents, we need to listen more to what students are voicing about education. While I hope to have more students share their thoughts, I’m starting with my guest on this episode, 17-year-old student, Kayhan Ali, who shares important ideas about what’s missing in education today and how a company he’s starting with friends, Dream It Youth, plans to fill in those gaps. He also lets us in on a huge change in education he would make (a change I have been advocating for extensively) and he gives advice on how other young people can make changes in education and how educators and parents can help them.
After all of that awesomeness, we play a really fun British Prime Ministers version of The 5-Minute Game Show.
Don’t forget that you can get some awesome OE swag including shirts, hoodies, notebooks, tote bags and the famous OE mug! See the link below for more information and great shopping.
I want to thank my wonderful guest Kayhan Ali and my excellent fauxmercial helpers Tzofiya Bookstein and Tuvia Frankel.
Links and Resources:
https://www.dreamityouth.co.uk/
Kayhan@dreamityouth.co.uk
Swag for Overthrowing Education: https://overthrowingeducation.threadless.com/
Tara Raju, of the Mountain Region of the Anti-Defamation League, tells me all about an incredible resource for schools to create empathetic, tolerant learning environments for all students that work toward eliminating prejudice, implicit bias and bullying called No Place for Hate. We also discuss ways that individuals – whether teachers or students -can try to combat these issues even when they don’t have the support they need from their school. One of the keys to eliminating inequities in our education system is to tackle the problems of prejudice head on, with our students taking the lead and adults providing support for them.
After listening to this episode, please check out the tons of resources and links below:
www.adl.org/education
noplaceforhate.org (national website)
mountainstates.adl.org (regional website)
www.adl.org/mountainstates/noplaceforhate(regional NPFH website) - this site has our videos on it
Louisville Middle School (Colorado)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGlmcpiIfUk&t=1s
Rampart High School (Colorado)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdIXhtOe82c
Life in the Middle (Colorado Schools - about NPFH in Middle Schools)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNN61TgJr3I
Here are lots of amazing free online resources from ADL as well.
- Responding to Bias Incidents - Responding to Bias Incidents in Middle and High Schools: Resources and Best Practices for School Administrators & Educators
- Lesson Plans- is a collection of timely, relevant and free lesson plans for different grade levels (common core connected) to assist educators in teaching about news topics and other issues of the day.
- Table Talk: Family Conversations About Current Events: provides parents and family members with the tools they need to engage their families in conversations about important news stories and other timely discussions about societal and world events.
- Books Matter- remarkable kids’ bibliography re: social justice issues.
- Rosalind’s Classroom Conversations– bestselling author and bullying prevention specialist Rosalind Wiseman joins forces with ADL to provide a timely resource for educators.
This is the first in a series of mini-episodes that share ideas about the creative and authentic assessments I call DISCOVER assessments. In each short episode, I'll share an idea that will help students express not only what they know, can do and understand, but also synthesize the content, and express it using multiple intelligences. And enjoy it. Tests and quizzes can't do that!
Need help getting started? Wanna share something cool your students have done? Any questions? DM me on Twitter @BatshevaFrankel or IG @Batsheva.Frankel
See NewLensEd.com for more information about great assessments.
In this episode, I address a major problem all educators can attest to: Cheating. It’s always been a serious issue, but the solutions are right in front of us. I talk about 3 key things we can do that will eliminate cheating, and also promote real learning. I also share my very favorite, true and hilarious plagiarism stories. If you are looking for laughs, here they are.
Also, I realized that if I am “the guest” on this episode, I should also have to play The 5-Minute Game Show, so I borrowed the one that Aviva Levin wrote for me when she had me as a guest on her podcast Lesson:Impossible a while ago.
If you have a great cheating story to share it! Batsheva@overthrowingeducation.com
Links:
Twitter: @overthrowinged @batshevafrankel
Instagram: @overthrowingeducation @batsheva.frankel
New Lens Ed
Lenses of Questioning Course
Overthrowing Education Swag Shop
Twitter: @avivalevin
Lesson:Impossible
My guest blog for Matt Miller/Ditch that Textbook
On this episode, Rachel Creeger, a passionate parent and stand-up comic who has been advocating for better education in the UK, joins me to talk about what makes great learning. We discuss the importance of, cross -curricular and experiential education, integration of art, relationship building, getting rid of standardized test and much more. Rachel also shares insights about the similarities between teaching and doing stand-up, and some great lessons that educators can learn from stand-up comedians. After our interview, Rachel does brilliantly in The 5-Minute Game Show.
Special thanks to my guest, Rachel Creeger, and to Joshua Silverstein from episode 34, because I re-used the fauxmercial that he created for his episode.
Links:
Contact info for Rachel:
W: www.rachelcreeger.com
F: www.facebook.com/RachelCreegerComedianWriterDirector
T: www.twitter.com/RachCreeger
IG: www.instagram.com/rachcreeger
The Overthrowing Education Swag Shop is open! Get gifts for yourself or any educator, parent or student who wants to make a statement. https://overthrowingeducation.threadless.com/
Matt Barnes, podcast host and founder of started the Global Education Movement, so that educators and parents can team up to create and implement a whole new vision of learning that will benefit every student. Our conversation has many great take-aways for both parents and educators. Please share this episode with every parent you know!
Matt hit it out of the park for The 5-Minute Game Show. And I announce a contest for a listener to get their own Overthrowing Education mug!
Special thanks to Matt Barnes, and to my fauxmercial VO pal Shane Lawrence from The Ed podcast.
For Parents:
https://theeducationgame.com/
https://educationgame.fireside.fm/
www.QualiaSchool.com
Contact Matt to find out information about Global Education Movement:
On this episode, Zaynab Baalbaki joins me. She is a passionate educator who is truly working on and supporting others in overthrowing education and creating amazing and equitable learning spaces joins. She talks about an incredible public school, Escuela Verde, where she worked in and I also talk about Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning, another example of education at its best. And we also discuss how more traditional schools and districts can start slowly to incorporate elements of both these and other transformative schools into their learning spaces.
If you know of another “super cool school” (a reference from today’s commercial parody), please let me know. I love to highlight some of the wonderful work that some schools are doing out there to help inspire everyone with how to make small and large changes. You can send me an email at batsheva@overthrowingeducation.com, or DM me on Twitter @overthrowinged.
Don’t forget to listen to The 5-Minute Game Show at the end of the interview, not only because it’s fun, but also because we drop more good ideas and some cool facts about Wisconsin.
Lastly, astute listeners will notice that the fauxmercial in this episode is related to the one from the previous episode. I had so much fun with Jake Miller from the last episode, I asked him to help me again with the fauxmercial for this episode.
Special thanks to my guest Zaynab Baalbaki, and my terrific voice actors who joined me on today’s fauxmercial, Jake Miller who hosts the Educational Duct Tape podcast and Tuvia Frankel who is always a good sport.
Links and Resources:
Contact: zbaalbaki@gmail.com
Twitter: @zbaalbaki
Escuela Verde
Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning
Teacher Powered | Ambassador
Wisconsin Resource Center for Charter Schools | Charter School Consultant
Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education | JEDI Committee
In this episode amazing educator and Ed Tech sage Jake Miller, host of the podcast Educational Duct Tape, and I discuss some great tech tools and how to make sure they enhance, not distract from, your lessons. We also laugh. A lot.
In our chat, Jake talks about his new book, Educational Duct Tape: An EdTech Integration Mindset. And you won’t want to miss him play The 5-Minute Game Show, because not only does he nail it, but it’s also pretty funny. And if that isn’t enough, the multi-talented Jake Miller is also the announcer in the “Dynamic Duct Tape” fauxmercial.
Special thanks to Jake for all of the above!
Links, Resources and Contact Information: JakeMillerTech@gmail.com
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
Website
Educational Duct Tape Podcast Website
YouTube
TikTok
LinkedIn
Pinterest
I have a pretty radical guest today, Nadav Zeimer, an educator with a strong background in education and digital media, who is definitely doing his part in trying to overthrow education. He talks about how to completely overhaul our flawed transcript system that particularly effects high school students, and he has a plan for eradicating standardized testing that pretty much effects all students.
I had really high hopes that when we moved to predominantly remote learning in 2020, and it became clear to people just how absurd most standardized testing was. I was sure that we’d finally see some big changes. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening. In my disappointment with the continuing status quo, I realized this was the perfect time to shake things up. And Nadav is certainly trying to make that happen.
And stay tuned to after the interview for the 5-Minute Game Show. And the fauxmercial for this episode is a parody of the classic cartoon “Mighty Mouse” where I get a chance to use my editing skills. It’s a lot of fun!
I would like to thank my special guest Nadav Zeimer. I also want to give a huge shout out to my fellow voices on the fauxmercial, Yossie Frankel as Almighty Mouse and Tuvia Frankel as the announcer. They are both really great sports and I appreciate it!
Links and Contacts:
z@hs.credit
Nadav’s Blog
Nadav’s book: Education in the Digital Age
Make One Change book
Radio: An Illustrated Guide by Ira Glass
Out on the Wire (graphic help for radio etc. ) by Ira Glass and Jessica Abel
In this really informative and fairly goofy episode, I chat with my Edu podcaster friends, William Mealey and Christopher Tudisco about how important collegial relationships are for educators and how to make them happen. It’s a perfect topic for this very collegial team behind one of my favorite education podcasts out there, Unprofessional Development. Below is a link to when I was on their show ages ago. They also star in my commercial parody for the fake product “Create-a-Colleague”. When they sent me the MP3 of their parts, I laughed really hard at the recording which includes them trying to figure out a typo of mine near the end. While you heard how I edited them for the fauxmercial, I thought it would be fun to share the whole silly thing, so I added it at the end the episode. And by the way, Mealey and Tudisco absolutely nailed The 5-Minute Game Show at the end of their interview!
Special thanks to Tudisco and Mealey for the great conversation and the help with the fauxmercial.
Twitter: @Unprocast
Email: unprofessionaldevelopmentcast@gmail.com
Unprofessional Development Podcast
Video of the whole Edupodlooza
Batsheva on Edupodlooza round table about innovation pt 1
Batsheva on Edupodlooza round table about innovation pt 2
Batsheva on Unprofessional Development
The Last Day of School radio comedy on Edupodlooza
Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning
Lesson Impossible podcast
In this episode, veteran educator and podcast host Charles Williams and I have a great conversation about the work we need to do to create true equity in education and the importance of challenging our current narratives. We also talk about problematic intrinsic biases that we all have and how to change them. Even though the topics we discuss are serious and important, along with all the practical ideas, we do get very silly (and not just on The 5-Minute Game Show, although he slays his food themed game show!).
Special thanks to Charles and to my fauxmercial helpers Yossie Frankel and the wonderfully talented Linda Korn for writing and singing the original Paradigm Shifters jingle that I borrowed.
Important Links and Resources:
CW Consulting Service
The Counter Narrative Podcast
Inside the Principal's Office Podcast
Twitter: @_cwconsulting
School Rubric Team
Code Breaker
This episode celebrates Overthrowing Education’s 2nd anniversary with Universal Design for Learning expert educator and author Loui Lord Nelson. Our conversation explores what UDL is and how to incorporate this important framework into lesson designs. Play The 5-Minute Game Show along with Loui and see if you can do as well as she did, cause she slayed it!
My special thanks to Loui and to my fauxmercail helpers Tuvia and Yossie Frankel. I also want to thank all of the wonderful guests and fauxmercial actors that have contributed so very much these last 2 years (check them all out on the previous 54 episodes!). And a big shout out to Distant Cousins, the band behind my theme song and Casey Arrillaga for his The 5-Minute Game Show theme music.
Important Links and Resources:
CAST
UDL Guidelines
UDL in 15 Minutes Podcast
Design and Deliver (Book)
A Tree for All: Your Coloring Book of UDL Principles and Practice
Go Fishing with UDL cards -An awesome card game about UDL that creates an ocean of possibility for your learners!
Culturally Responsive Design for English Learners (Book)
My guest on this episode is Clement Townsend who helps schools and teachers integrate media arts into their programs and lessons. In this time of media saturation, using media arts as a means for learning is even more important. Clement and I discuss how we can integrate media arts into all subjects. We also talk about how to help students tell stories, including their own, to inform, inspire and impact the world around them.
At the end of the interview, I subjected Clement to one of the hardest The 5-Minute Game Shows ever. And he did well!
I want to thank my special guest Clement and the people that helped on my fauxmercial – Yossie Frankel and William Mealey from The Unprofessional Development podcast and his awesome wife Lindy. By the way, look for an upcoming episode of Overthrowing Education with Mealey and his podcast partner, Christopher Tudisco.
Important links for Clement:
linkedin.com/in/clement-townsend
Broadcast Career Mentor
videojournalismpro.com (Company Website)
broadcastingcareermentor@gmail.com
Twitter: @ClementTV_
This bonus episode is just for fun! This radio comedy, "The Last Day of School" was performed live online during Edupodlooza back in June. I joined a talented group of education podcasters to write and perform this brief glimpse at a very unique last day of school. We poke fun at ourselves, ed podcasts in general and some of the crazy things that educators endure . . . like Zombies (??!!) Edupodlooza was the brainchild of Mealy who, along with Tudisco host the awesome and hilarious podcast Unprofessional Development, and this was originally released on their podcast, but they said I was welcome to share it on mine. Enjoy!
Hear more episodes from Edupodlooza at Unprofessional Development!
Today’s episode with educator and author Connie Hamilton is so near and dear to my heart. We have a great conversation about the importance of not only how to ask powerful, more focused questions, but also how students can do the same. Connie also shares how to respond to the “I don’t know” answer that we often get from students. She offers so much solid, applicable advice in this episode!
At the end of the interview. Connie plays a “pop songs with questions in the title” The 5-Minute Game Show. And super bonus: She sings some of the answers!
In my discussion with Connie you’ll hear me talk about my Lenses of Questioning course that has now officially launched. Watch the video to find out more about the course and see NewLensEd.com to register.
I’d like to give my special thanks to Connie Hamilton for joining me and also a special shout out to my Lenses of Questioning commercial helpers Shane Lawrence from The Ed Podcast, Yossie and Tuvia Frankel.
Links and Resources:
Hacking Questions
Visit www.hackingquestions.com
Connie’s Free Resources
Follow Connie on Twitter: @conniehamilton
Check out the Lenses of Questioning Course
In this episode, I have a great conversation with the wise and wonderful educator, Mike Kaechele, who clearly lays out why Project-Based Learning is such a natural partner for growing Social Emotional Learning skills and how to combine them together to create a better education for all students. Mike provides lots of great examples and tools (not just tech tools, either) to design incredible PBL units, with great SEL opportunities. We top off this important discussion with an acronym based The 5-Minute Game Show that is a lot of fun!
I’d like to give a special thank you to Mike Kaechele and to Linda Korn for the wonderful Paradigm Shifters jingle on today’s fauxmercial.
Links and resources:
http://www.michaelkaechele.com
Twitter: @mikekaechele
CASEL competencies
Trello Boards
Padlet
On this episode, my wonderful guest is educator and co-author of The Startup Teacher Playbook, Darcy Bakkegard. We have an in-depth conversation about why so much of traditional professional development for educators isn’t working and how teachers can take charge of and design their own PD. She also talks about why teachers are natural leaders even if they don’t see themselves as such. There are so many great takeaways in this episode. And at the end of our chat, Darcy plays a special musical theater version of The 5-Minute Game Show.
I’d like to thank my special guest Darcy Bakkegard as well as the fantastic people who helped me the Magic PD Dust fauxmercial, Shane Lawrence of The Ed Podast, Yossie Frankel and Rivi Frankel.
Resource Links:
The Educators' Lab Website
The Startup Teacher Playbook
Personalized PD Challenge- Darcy’s PD Challenge for the summer to help teachers turn ideas into action. Free to participate, all videos & resources will be on YouTube; no book required.
Darcy on Twitter: @DBakkegard
Michelle Blanchet (Co-Author of The Startup Teacher Playbook) on Twitter: @Educatorslab
My guest is educator and podcast host of Lesson Impossible, Aviva Levin, who joins me to discuss why teacher transparency is so important, and how to make it happen. The Bonus of this episode is that we also include a little bit about how to incorporate improvisation games into your classes. Both Aviva and I have performed and taught improv, so I surprised her with an improv twist to The 5-Minute Game Show. And then she turns the table on me!
Aviva and I co-wrote and performed the fauxmercial for this episode. It was a blast to do. And she and I co-wrote a hilarious radio comedy with a group of really funny Ed podcasters for Edupodlooza that we are performing live on June 27th. Check back for links on how to watch or follow me on Twitter: @Overthrowing Ed or @BatshevaFrankel.
Important Links:
Website: www.lessonimpossible.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/avivalevin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lessonimpossible/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lessonimpossible/
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aviva-levin-8483511a7
Celebrating my 50th episode:
My awesome guest on this episode is educator, author, and lovely, charming human being Lindsay Portnoy who joins me today to talk about why playing games, and playing in general are the best way to learn and how to incorporate games and play into any subject or grade. Lindsay has so many inspiring and wise approaches to education and we really geek out together on this favorite topic for both of us. As for the 5-Minute game show, Lindsay racks up lots of imaginary points as she slays it!
And speaking of slaying, don’t forget to listen to the hilarious live radio drama that I’m in called The Last Day of School, which I also helped write with some really funny education podcasters. It’s all a part of Edupodlooza on June 27th. Follow me on Twitter @overthrowinged and/or @Batshevafrankel, because I will be tweeting all about it.
Thank you so much to Lyndsay Portnoy and also to Yossie Frankel, the deep voice that joined me on the Edugamara fauxmercial.
Resources:
www.lindsayportnoy.com
Game On? Brain On!
Designed to Learn
The episode that Lindsay mentions that has the singing game show, featuring the amazing voice of Barbara Heller: Kevin Stoller: Why Kids Hate Math and How to Fix it.
The episode with Micaela Blie’s hilarious story about the Oregon Trail game she played with her students: Jon Cassie: Game-Based Learning
Batsheva’s workshop on Deeper Learning Games (and other workshops): https://www.newlensed.com/workshops
On this episode, I have a really insightful and inspiring conversation with master educator and author, Tara Martin. She digs deep in talking about her motivations for creating her books, Be R.E.A.L. Educate from the Heart and Cannonball In, and she shares so much wisdom for all educators. Learn about the acronym R.E.A.L and how much better education would be if everyone followed Tara’s charge. Also, we talk about how teachers can cannonball in, and why it matters. At the end of our conversation, I made her play a really hard The 5-Minute Game Show and she did a valiant job!
Resources:
Be REAL: Educate from the Heart
Cannonball In
Twitter: @TaraMartinEDU @dbc_inc
daveburgessconsulting.com
To learn more about EduPodlooza: Twitter @unprocast
and check OverthrowingEducation.com soon.
My guest today is Lorraine Connell. She first caught my attention with some great blog posts on her site Peers Not Fears and now she has a new podcast that features voices of students, as well as teachers called Unimagined. Among other things, she has been working with all students to help develop their leadership skills. It’s a great conversation that includes questioning our pre-conceived ideas of what student leadership looks like to include all learners, dealing with implicit bias and going gradeless. And to top that off, Lorraine aces The 5-Minute Game Show.!
Special thanks to my guest Lorraine and to my fauxmercial voice helpers Naftali Bookstein and Tuvia Frankel.
Chelsea Robberson joins me on this episode for an entertaining and inspiring conversation. It’s a lot fun, but within all the laughs that we have on this episode, Chelsea drops some serious wisdom and help for all educators to move education forward. She asks some great questions that all administrators and teachers should be thinking about, including examining how schools can actually fulfill their mission statements. Chelsea has been a great fan of this show, so she’s well familiar with The 5-Minute Game Show, but after her interview, I play a special edition with her and you don’t want to miss it. Lastly, my fauxmercial for “EduLax” was one of the most out there parodies I’ve ever written. I hope you think it’s as funny as I do.
My special thanks to Chelsea Robberson and to Yossie Frankel for providing his dulcet tones to EduLax.
Links and Resources:
Twitter: @cnrobberson
Lealyn Growth
Galileo Online School
Rae Pica
On this episode, I chat with the hilarious, charming, passionate educator and professional comedian, Joe Dombrowski. We talk about not only why teaching with humor and playfulness is crucial for deeper learning, but also how to make it happen in your classes and lessons, even if you don’t consider yourself naturally funny. You might know Joe from his many hysterical, viral YouTube Videos , or maybe you saw him on one of his appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which I made him tell me all about. And while I can’t say Joe was the most successful player of The 5-Minute Game Show, he was certainly one of the funniest. Don’t miss it at the end of the interview.
I want to thank my special guest, Joe Dombrowski, and all my fellow education podcasters who helped with my fauxmercial today: Charles Williams, Host of The Counter Narrative Podcast, Traci Browder host of Intelligogy, The Podcast, and a recurring favorite, Shane Lawrence of The Ed Podcast, and also Yossie Frankel.
See more of Joe’s great video’s and listen to his podcast: https://www.mrdtimes3.com/
Find Joe on Twitter: @MrDtimes3
Prolific author and passionate educator, Starr Sackstein, is my guest again, this time for a great conversation about why and how to go gradeless and move beyond tests and quizzes for better assessments. After our chat, Starr plays another awesome round of The 5-Minute Game Show. Don’t miss the special code I give out just to listener’s to save 20% on my Lenses of Questioning course. See below for more information.
Special thanks to Starr Sacktein and my fauxmercial helpers, Ami Korn, Naphtali Bookstein, Tuvia Frankel and Yossie Frankel.
Resources and links:
Batsheva’s blog post 10 Amazing Assessment Ideas on the Ditch That Textbook website.
Starr’s Books:
Teaching Mythology Exposed: Helping Teachers Create Visionary Classroom Perspective
Blogging for Educators
Teaching Students to Self-Assess: How Do I Help Students Grow as Learners?
The Power of Questioning: Opening Up the World of Student Inquiry
Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School
Hacking Homework: 10 Strategies That Inspire Learning Outside of the Classroom co-written with Connie Hamilton.
Peer Feedback in the Classroom: Empower Students to be the Experts with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
From Teacher to Leader: Finding Your Way as a First-Time Leader without Losing Your Mind in 2019 (DBC).
Hacking Learning Centers in Grades 6-12: Teaching Choice and Providing Small Group Learning Opportunities in Content Rich Classes with Karen Terwilliger
Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead)
Prolific author and passionate educator Starr Sackstein is my guest for a great conversation about the power of questions and the importance of cultivating students’ curiosity. We had so much to talk about that I have a second episode with Starr about better assessments and going gradeless on my next episode. She also slayed the super hero-themed The 5-Minute Game Show at the end of our discussion.
On this episode, I also debut my new course, Lenses of Questioning, an approach I created to help students ask a wider variety of kind of question, and it helps teachers, too. In my course you’ll learn lots of activities and games you can do with your students to help them develop their analytical and critical thinking skills. Listen to this episode to get the discount code for the course. For more information, go to NewLensEd.com or write to me at Batsheva@newlensed.com
My special thanks to Starr Sackstein and to the voice over talent that helped me with my Lenses of Questioning not-so-fauxmercial, Shane Lawrence, from The Ed Podcast, and Yossie and Tuvia Frankel from my family.
In today’s episode I have a great conversation about unconventional teaching with passionate educator, Rachelle Dene Poth. I spend a little time at the beginning of our discussion talking about some of her books which are helpful to all teachers. Then we dig into some practical ideas for unconventional teaching including loads of tech tools to make those ideas happen. Even if you aren’t so into tech, there are lots of ideas you can scoop. At the end of our conversation, I subject Rachelle to a very challenging The 5-Minute Game Show. And she plays valiantly.
Thank my wonderful guest, Rachelle Dene Poth, and a shout out to my husband Yossie Frankel for help in today’s fauxmercial.
Listen to Rachelle’s podcast ThriveinEDU available at https://anchor.fm/rdene915
Follow Rachelle on Twitter @Rdene915 and on Instagram @Rdene915
Purchase Rachelle’s books, ‘In Other Words: Quotes That Push Our Thinking,” “Unconventional Ways to Thrive in EDU” (EduMatch), “The Future is Now: Looking Back to Move Ahead,” “Chart A New Course: A Guide to Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow’s World" and “True Story: Lessons That One Kid Taught Us” (EduMatch).
Rachelle’s Blog: bit.ly/Pothbooks
My guest is Don Goble, and he is an awesome media specialist educator. Not only do we have a great conversation, but we give tons of tips and ideas for how you can incorporate film and video into your classes no matter what you teach. If you aren’t already incorporating media into your lessons, this should inspire you to give it a shot. And if you are, I would LOVE to hear what you are doing! Please go to OverthrowingEducation.com and put a brief description of what you do into the comments of this episode. And don’t miss The 5-Minute Game Show at the end of the episode- it’s really fun!
Long-time educator Jared Magee, from the very cool The Winchendon School, shares what Impact Learning is, why it’s important, and how to make it happen for all educators. Jared and I discuss ways to take what he has learned from his experiences there and mine working for another non-traditional school, Arete Preparatory Academy , and apply them to other, more traditional school situations.
Dave Burgess, of Teach Like a Pirate, is one of the most energetic and positive people you’ll hear. In this inspiring and fun conversation, he gives great practical tools and ideas for how to hook our students into our lessons, helping them buy into the content with joy whether in person or online. Then Dave plays a pirate-themed The 5-Minute Game Show, of course.
My guest, Amber Harper of The Burned-In Teacher Podcast is a valuable resource for helping with the very real problem of teacher burn-out that affects almost all teachers often multiple times in a career. After one of the most challenging semesters in most teachers' careers Amber’s Burned-In Teacher approach is a true remedy giving solid tools and advice on what to do when feeling burnt out. And then we play a fun The 5-Minute Game Show, where the clues are Haikus.
Welcome to this special holiday bonus episode that is all about enjoyment. Whether you are an educator, parent or student, or really anyone on this planet right now, this has been a really challenging year. So I wanted to give you a well-deserved gift of this fun game show compilation taken from a few older episodes and give you a chance to get some real gifts by flexing your creativity.
Natalie Vardabasso, a true assessment innovator and host of the #Educrush Podcast speaks with me about how we can move way beyond tests, quizzes and other traditional paradigms of assessing students to find creative and authentic ways for students to express their knowledge, actually understanding where our students are at and how we can move them forward. This episode explores the bigger philosophy behind overhauling assessments including why we should be assessing for mastery and not grades, and also delivers lots of practical ideas to inspire you.
Special thanks to Natalie, who also co-wrote the fauxmercial, “Brain Snoop” with me, as well as, lent her voice talent. And, thank you to Eve Hirschman who co-wrote this episode’s The 5-Minute Game Show with me.
Today’s show with wonderful and generous guest, Zack Hartzman of Hey Listen Games, is filled with practical ideas and resources for engaging students through using video games. Zack explains how he uses “non-education” video games in his lessons, and all the resources he has created for educators free of charge, so they can do the same. This interview was recorded at the end of February of 2020, and like so many interviews I did before mid-March, I put it aside for a while to deal with what was happening in the moment. However, the information and resources shared on this episode can be used in remote learning very easily, as well.
My guest in this episode, Kevin Stoller, started Kay-Twelve in 2009 to help educators design better learning environments. He is the author of “Creating Better Learning Environments” and host of the Better Learning Podcast. We discuss different ways to enhance student engagement and provide true equity by focusing on the design of classroom. He gives lots of tips for educators even with no budgets, and in an interview update, talks about what to do now, and why there are better options than plexiglass.
Special thanks to Kevin and to my fauxmercial voice actors, Shane Lawrence of The Ed. Podcast and his daughter.
Other Links:
Kevin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinstoller/
Lorraine Connell’s Are we Breeding Poodles
My guest is the incredible Joshua Silverstein, an educator who is also a beatboxer, rapper, comedian and writer. In fact, he wrote, produced and performed the entire fauxmercial this week! And our conversation in this episode focuses on the importance for both students and educators to be creative, find ways to allow for self-expression, again – for both teachers and students. And how doing so creates personal and powerful learning for all.
On this episode my guest is the wonderful and kind, Dr. Sam Fecich, the prolific author and host of the EduMagic podcast, which focuses on guiding preservice and new teachers to greatness. But I found so much of what we discussed to be relevant to all teachers in this time. Then hear Sam (mostly) rock The 5-Minute Game Show. Today’s fauxmercial is an homage to every teacher who suffered bad advice and was inspired by good advice when they were new.
Special thanks to Dr. Samantha Fecich and my wonderful fauxmericial voice artists who joined me, Spencer Krull, Miriam Pesso and Yossie Frankel.
In the last part of this 3 part series, our panel - Andre Daughty, Stacey Joy, Charity Parsons, Brett Mitchell, Jason Ernest Feldman and Dr. Hattie Mitchell - brings solid ideas for moving forward in trying to eradicate racism in education. They speak to all the stakeholders including schools, districts, teachers, parents and students - letting us know what it will take to bring an equitable, enjoyable and meaningful education to every student.
Special thanks to my co-host and co-producer of this series, the incredible Lacrecia Terrance for helping put this series, and for co-writing an voicing a part of this episode’s fauxmercial. Also special thanks to Destiny Terrance and Yossie Frankel for their voice work as well.
Some resources mentioned in this episode:
Dr. Bettina Love and her book, “We Have to Do More Than Survive”
Gholdy Muhammed and her book, “Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy”
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz and The Archeology of Self
In this second episode of the series, our panel - Andre Daughty, Stacey Joy, Charity Parsons, Brett Mitchell, Jason Ernest Feldman and Dr. Hattie Mitchell, share their powerful and painful stories of personal experiences with racism in education. Before we can move forward, we must understand what the many issues are, and the best way to truly understand them is by listening to people’s experiences. Even though we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg, this sampling of what our panel has experienced as professionals, parents and students is an important place to start.
Special thanks to Lacrecia Terrance, my amazing co-producer and co-host for this series and our esteemed panel for sharing their stories.
Thanks also to voice actors Jill Moray, Spencer Krull, Tsofiya Bookstein and Tuvia Frankel for joining me in the fauxmercial for Clarity Eyedrops.
Veteran educator Lacrecia Terrance co-produced and co-hosts with me our 3 part series with a prestigious panel of guest for what many may call tough conversations on racism. With all that is happening, as a global pandemic has further peeled back the cover on generations of systemic inequities rooted in racism, we feel these conversations are a crucial part of moving education forward for all. In this first episode we will be defining the issues - what do we mean when we talk about racism in education? Our panel includes Stacy Joy, Charity Parsons, Andre Daughty, Jason Ernest Feldman, Dr. Hattie Mitchell and Brett Mitchell who discuss what racism looks like in education, what the pervasive issues are and why this isn’t just a moment but a movement.
Ron Berger, my educational hero, joins me to talk about his new book, We Are Crew: A Teamwork Approach to School Culture and presents some important and beautiful ideas about what education should really be all about. I was so grateful to get this opportunity to speak with and learn from Ron and learn how we can all work together to “get everyone to the top of the mountain.”
My very special thanks to Ron and to Yossie Frankel for his voice work on this episodes fauxmercial.
Today’s subject is all about making meaning with project-based learning . My guest today is the passionate and entertaining Ben Talsma from Blue Apple Teacher. Ben also co-wrote the fauxmercial “Empower-Mints” with me. This parody of the old Mento commercials features the very talented musician Robby Helperin of Spotlight Music, giving us his cheesy best, and Eli Schiff, who is one of my favorite voice actors. After my initial interview with Ben, he nails The 5-Minute Game Show, and then I bring him back for a few more minutes to update us on what is happening now to accommodate the various modalities of learning that this fall is challenging us with.
We are tackling some big, possibly controversial ideas in this episode. It’s all about calling into question everything we think about education. While I do that all the time on this show, we are going further this time. My two incredible guests are, TedX speaker and an educator with Alpha, Mike Yates and Naphtali Bryant, founder of Spark-Ed University. We have a great, sometimes radical, and totally entertaining look at how to reinvent school. And they slay The 5-Minute Game Show. But first, I address an issue that is on so many parents’ minds as they try to figure out what is best for their kids this school year. More parents than ever are considering homeschooling - but are overwhelmed. It’s time to shift paradigms!
As school’s are still debating, at least in most places, about whether to or how to safely open schools, and many have already committed to beginning the school year remotely, we know that there will be so many challenges ahead no matter what route a school takes. One of the biggest challenges, that many are not even considering with everything else to think about, is how to connect with our students, create a strong positive school culture and build a classroom community whether in a masked/physically distant classroom situation, where large groups cannot congregate in school, or in an online/remote situation. On today’s show, my guest, educator and author Hans Appel, and I discuss how to build a strong school community onsite, and also online. We also talk about making learning joyful, experiential learning, going gradeless, honoring student voice and much more! On In the Trenches, I share some ideas for creating classroom communities online, as well as in class, and I have a special announcement!
I have a great discussion with Shoshanna Sumka of ISEEN about experiential learning with an added recent interview at the end that includes experiential learning in remote and online class situations. After our talk, Shoshanna bravely conquers a really hard The 5-Minute Game Show. Then, on In the Trenches, I talk about a way to provide experiential learning opportunities for your online students or at home kids. You’ll hear about how my 15-year old son helped me solve a problem I have been thinking about for years: How to turn an amazing experiential lesson that I have been doing with my classes and my PD workshops for over 20 years into a meaningful online experience.
Host Batsheva Frankel recreates her presentation, "What Do We Mean by 21st Century Education When the 21st Century Changes Dramatically?" In this talk, given on June 10, 2020 for the site, Hopes, Dreams, Journey (connecting parents with information, tools, resources and providers of services to help their children succeed and thrive), Batsheva lays out some of the skills, knowledge and systemic changes that need to be promoted in order to adequately prepare our students for the increasingly shifting present, as well as the unknowable future. View the presentation with all its fun visuals here.
This episode on why kids hate math and what we can do about it features a conversation with John Bianchette of Mathnasium from January 2020 with a recent additional talk to reflect the radical changes that have taken place since then. In the Trenches I trace my journey from hating math as a student and defining myself as “I’m not a math person” in adulthood to finally realizing that I actually enjoy math because of the math teachers at Arete Preparatory Academy. I’ll share some of their tips and tools that transform students, too. Also, The 5-Minute Game Show features a musical parody game you won’t want to miss.
My guests today, Shannon Green, Vickita Bhatt and Jim Hahn show how, now more than ever, we see the benefits of going gradeless. True educational equity, social justice, decreased anxiety, no cheating, eradication of bullying, and growth mentality are just some of the positive ramifications of providing meaningful feedback in place of the usual letters and numbers. Any school can do it, and my guests give practical tips and tools for how.
Two special guests join me in this inspiring episode - Marie Kueny of the Compassionate Educators podcast, and grief coach, Kaley Zeitouni. They are here to help us deal with everything that is going on, and all the things that no longer are. So If you are a parent, teacher or student feeling burnt-out, depressed or overwhelmed or if you are grieving over what we lost from the past and what won’t be happening now in the future, this episode is for you.
In this episode you will hear from educators around the world- in the United Kingdom, Japan, The Netherlands, Israel, Denmark, South Africa and Canada – telling us what’s happening in their part of the world. These global educators share not only how they are coping, but also how they are growing, inspiring us with wisdom and hope.
Today I speak with Liz Vogel from Facing History and Ourselves who gives us a snapshot of how to use history to strengthen our students and help them become true up-standers. As this episode comes out on April 19th, 2020, most of us have been hunkered down in our homes, dealing with distance learning and lots of other issues right now. One thing that is always a problem whenever troubling times arise whether it’s a health crisis or a financial crisis – or in this case both – is the rise of hate – racism, Jew-hatred, xenophobia and so on. It’s been rising to scary levels even before the Covid 19 pandemic, and now we are seeing it grow so much worse. And when the extent of the financial repercussions become clear, we are at risk for seeing an even more intense rise in identity-based hate speech and hate crimes. So, how do we as educators and parents help our students and kids make great choices and combat any potential problems? Listen and find out!
In this powerful episode, 12 educators in the trenches share their challenges, tips, tools and words of inspiration during this challenging time of a shut-down schools and distance learning. This is a double-sized episode that is filled with not-to-be-missed dispatches from all over the US (and one from Canada) representing all different communities and the difficulties they are facing along with the creative approaches these passionate educators are using.
The Best part is that this episode can be viewed as well at OverthrowingEducation.com. And I highly recommend watching because you can see the people who spoke with me. It’s amazing to see them as they tell their stories. And here’s the thing – just as there is a huge technological disparity that impacts how our students are able to access their learning right now, the video portion of this episodes shows the challenges of various WiFi connections, devices and so forth because some are clearer and smoother than others. I’m usually really picky when I edit my episodes, but this episode is very raw and real.
And I added some bonuses as well. I’m bringing back some of my favorite fauxmercials, one of which I fully animated.
Also, I’m doing something a little different for the The 5-minute Game Show. Instead of playing a game with my guest, because I had so many special guests today, this game show is strictly for you, the audience. So play along, and then submit your answers to join@overthrowingeducation.com
In this incredibly challenging time of new realities every day, I have put together a special episode with Educational Tech expert Dr. Monica Burns and long-time awesome home school mom Kelila Sicilano who started OURSandYRS: Our Online Village They each bring lots of sage advice, tools, tips and strategies for helping educators and parents figure this out and try to make it work. Please share this episode with everyone you know! And go to www.overthrowingeducation.com for tons of great resources.
Two of my previous guests, Jesse Stommel and Sean Michael Morris and I discuss digital pedagogy, bettering education, and why teachers will not be replaced by robots. However, In the Trenches, we have my 14-year old computer wiz son explaining why they just might be. Jesse and Sean play a super fun The 5-Minute Game Show after their interview. And I do want to give a shout out to all the great educators on twitter who inspired my Robo-Helper commercial by answering my question: What are school-related tasks you resent that take you away from actual teaching?
If you want a quick taste of what's in store for you on Overthrowing Education, here it is!
Author and Blended Learning specialist Catlin Tucker makes a second appearance on this episode discussing her new book, “Balance with Blended Learning” and great ways to engage students in their learning process while helping teachers bring balance to their lives. Then we play a challenging and fun round of The 5-Minute Game Show. In the Trenches, an Arete Preparatory Academy senior explains Symposium, a unique approach to “finals”.
Nick Covington and Chris McNutt are fun, passionate advocators for great education. We discuss the importance of human centered learning and what they are doing with The Human Restoration Project, a fantastic free resource for educators. Then they compete with each other in a nerdy throw-down during The 5-Minute Game Show. And on In the Trenches today, we have a mystery guest! Our fauxmercial stars this week are Barbara Heller, Elliot Schiff, Jill Moray and Yossie Frankel.
Melissa Tomlinson a public education advocate leader in BATS –the Badass Teachers Association and I discuss the problems with standardized testing and other important issues. Then on In the Trenches, Christi Gambil tells how Arete Preparatory Academy found a great alternative to traditional standardized testing. Lastly, Teacher2Teacher prompted a follow up to our previous “Be the Match” episode with practical ideas for teachers to help their fellow teachers take on new techniques or innovative approaches.
Mark Taylor, host of the podcast Education on Fire, among others, discusses how all of us can make a positive impact on education. As Mark demonstrates, it only takes one match to light up a dark room, so today we are focusing on how to be that match. Because Mark is from the UK. The 5-Minute Game Show is totally UK based. Then on In the Trenches we hear from two parents and a student sharing strategies that students and parents can do to be the match. Our "sponsor" today in our fauxmercial is "Teachers' Helper"
Long time educator, attorney and judge, Karen Steinhauser and I discuss how to acknowledge and deal with implicit bias in ourselves, in our classrooms, and in the world around us. On In the Trenches, Dr. Shindale Seale, professor and diversity consultant, talks about the potential connections between implicit bias and microaggression and how to answer them.
Amazing educator and author Matt Miller (Ditch That Textbook) and host Batsheva Frankel discuss the whys and hows of student buy-in and engagement. After the interview, enjoy Matt’s valiant efforts playing a very challenging The 5-Minute Game Show. Former 8th grade student, Naomi T. joins us In the Trenches for the first in a series of students describing their ideal school and education.
Today’s episode examines the importance of differentiated learning and offers tips and tools with expert educators and authors, Angie Ridgeway and Nate Ridgeway, the dynamic mother and son duo who wrote, Don't Ditch That Tech: Differentiation in A Digital World with Matt Miller. The Five-Minute Game Show was quite a challenge this week, but they pulled off a win! I am the “guest” on In the Trenches sharing messages from frustrated parents, and celebrating the many educators whose great examples in differentiated learning can inspire us.
On today’s episode , I speak with artist, graphic designer and educator Hillel Smith about why we should and how we can integrate the arts into all subjects. After our interview, test your wits as Hillel slays The Five-Minute Game Show. And here’s a bit of trivia that probably won’t help win any bar trivia nights -Hillel designed the Overthrowing Education logo. On our In the Trenches segment, Arete Preparatory Middle School Director, Anne Butler, shares inspiring ideas and tips for integrating the arts. Our fauxmercial parody on this episode is more of a cautionary tale film trailer instead of “advertising” an awesome fantasy product - So listen and be warned of what a world without art integration would be like!
Engaging educator, author and speaker Antero Garcia discusses how cell phones and games can be used effectively in a class, as well as other important issues surrounding cell use, games and technology. And then Antero nails The 5-Minute Game Show! The fauxmerical parody, “TAC vs. Worksheet” starts us off and we finish with students from St. Mary’s High School in Owen Sound, Ontario sharing the ideas they came up with after analyzing an “anti-cell phone for teens” article on the In the Trenches segment. Special thanks to Antero, Anna, Max, Eamon, Rachel and Laura Honegger
Big thanks to the fauxmercial stars, Ben Elterman as TAC and Spencer Krull as Worksheet.
Award-winning storyteller and educator, Micaela Blei, joins for a great conversation about how to use story frames to bring learning alive, engage students and provide deeper learning. The fauxmercial parody, “Story Surprise” starts us off and after her interviewed, Micaela plays a hilarious version of The 5-Minute Game Show. In the Trenches, wonderful storyteller/educator, Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff gives practical tips on bringing history classes alive by creating powerful, relevant connections.
This episode tackles an issue that is affecting our world and schools - the widening gap between people because of their opinions and ideas. It starts with the fauxmercial parody, “Listen”. Then special guest, Chloe Valdery shares her solution to mending that gap during our conversation and continues to offer ideas during The 5-Minute Game Show, Disney Princess Teachers. In the Trenches, writer and educator Eve Hirschman tells of her challenges in the classroom trying to bridge the gaps. Special thanks to Chloe, Eve -who also wrote the “Listen” fauxmercial, and actors/voice over artists extraordinaire Barbara Heller and Elliot Schiff!!
Blended Learning expert, Catlin Tucker converses with me about the why’s and how’s of Blended Learning. Then we play The 5-Minute Game Show Flippin’ Fictional Schools. Our In The Trenches segment features some food for thought from Rabbi Doctor Reb Mimi Feigelson. Then we honor a few teachers in Teacher Shout Outs.
Our Fauxmercial sponser is “Blend It” - and special thanks to Linda Korn - composer, vocalist and musical director of the spot, and Amy Ritz and Karen Holender for the wonderful vocals!
Sean Michael Morris talks about the importance of Critical Pedagogy and why schools should not be transaction-based. Then we play my 5-Minute Game Show, Fictional Schools for Fictional Folks. Our In The Trenches features Zoe Greene, who was an 8th grader when I talked to her about her science fair project, “Why My Mom Can’t Get a Date,” which analyzed the algorithms of dating apps. She tells parents and teachers how to advocate for the changes you want in schools. And our “sponsor” is Fix Tape (A parody of Flex Tape)
In this episode we start a new segment called “Teacher Shouts Outs”. This is an opportunity to give a special thanks to the teachers that have impacted our lives in positive ways.
We start with a conversation filled with practical tools about games and gamification with educator, author and expert Jon Cassie of Game Level Learn. Then play along as Jon is subjected to The Five Minute Game Show where he has to determine whether the unusual games describes are Fact or Fantasy. Then listen to Micaela Blie’s awesome story(Grand Slam winner on The Moth) about her gamified Oregon Trail lesson on In the Trenches. This episode is “sponsored” by Edu-Gamerama - a fake product we wish was real.
Educator and writer Jesse Strommel explains the whys and hows of Ungrading. Afterwards, he plays a special edition of Two Truths and a Lie in our 5 Minute Game Show. Then hear middle school teacher Leora Smith’s funny story about the perils of grading as we go In the Trenches. This episode is “sponsored” by Grades Be Gone (A product we wish was real!)
In this short trailer episode, host Batsheva Frankel tells you what you can expect from this edgy, entertaining and informative show. This show hopes to transform education, while making you laugh.
Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast!
Watch the Overthrowing Education Trailer