Subscriber-only episode Cheers! Log in to your Brave New Teaching Happy Hour account HERE: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/hhmembers (password in email) Join Happy Hour HERE! "Send us a message - please include your contact information so we can chat soon!" 📚 BNT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & RESOURCES 👩💻 Join Happy Hour! Curriculum Rehab Down with the Reading Quiz Shop the BNT Resource Library Connect with us on Instagram @bravenewteaching Subscribe to our YouTube Channel...
Feb 11, 2023•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Subscriber-only episode Cheers! Log in to your Brave New Teaching Happy Hour account HERE: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/hhmembers (password in email) Join Happy Hour HERE! "Send us a message - please include your contact information so we can chat soon!" 📚 BNT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & RESOURCES 👩💻 Join Happy Hour! Curriculum Rehab Down with the Reading Quiz Shop the BNT Resource Library Connect with us on Instagram @bravenewteaching Subscribe to our YouTube Channel...
Feb 11, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Subscriber-only episode Cheers! Log in to your Brave New Teaching Happy Hour account HERE: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/hhmembers (password in email) Join Happy Hour HERE! "Send us a message - please include your contact information so we can chat soon!" 📚 BNT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & RESOURCES 👩💻 Join Happy Hour! Curriculum Rehab Down with the Reading Quiz Shop the BNT Resource Library Connect with us on Instagram @bravenewteaching Subscribe to our YouTube Channel...
Feb 11, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Does giving your students choice come easily to you? For some teachers it does, but for others it can be extremely difficult to release that control! Incorporating choice requires a major mindset shift as you learn how to navigate your students all doing something different. In this listener favorite rerun, we’re showing you how you can allow students to have choice without letting go of having a central focus and common skill that the whole class is learning. Show Notes: https://www.bravenewtea...
Feb 09, 2023•32 min•Ep 138•Transcript available on Metacast We're bringing you a re-run of one of our favorite episodes - an exciting COLLABISODE with listeners to the podcast! Valentine’s Day is a fun “holiday” to celebrate in the classroom and we thought we’d bring some new ideas your way by handing off the microphone to six amazingly creative teachers. These six teachers have ideas that will help you brainstorm your own take on a Valentine’s celebration ranging from week-long kindness activities, to poetry lessons, and more! CLICK HERE FOR SHOW N...
Feb 02, 2023•41 min•Ep 137•Transcript available on Metacast We’ve got a lot of things to worry about as teachers, and now we get to add ‘plagiarized stuff that was written by a bot’ to the list! That’s right - it’s time to chat about ChatGPT. If you haven’t heard of ChatGPT, it’s an AI chatbot system that can be used to help you write all kinds of things. It’s building buzz quickly in the teaching world, and causing a lot of panic because students have used it for things like writing assignments and assessments. Before we all completely freak out, let’s ...
Jan 26, 2023•33 min•Ep 136•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to part two of our series with Andrea Michelle. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, (episode 134) then push pause on this one, and check that out first! In this series, we’re doing a unit makeover on Night , by Elie Wiesel. Andrea has taught this unit before, but she wants to make some tweaks to improve the experience for her and her students. So, that’s exactly what we’re doing in this series! From the activities, to the essential questions, to assessments, and more, we’re looking ...
Jan 19, 2023•46 min•Ep 135•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re a long-time listener of Brave New Teaching, then you know how much we love a good unit makeover. If you’re new to the show, then today will be a great introduction! We are joined by high school teacher, Andrea Michelle, who is sharing all about a unit that she has taught using the anchor text, Night . This episode will be part one of a two part conversation with Andrea. In part one, Andrea tells us all about how she taught this unit, including what her goals were, the themes explored, ...
Jan 12, 2023•47 min•Ep 134•Transcript available on Metacast We’ve officially entered into 2023, and you’re probably either feeling like you are ready to take on the world or feeling like you need [at least] another two weeks of winter break. Today’s episode is going to walk you through an exercise that will help you to feel prepared to take on the second half of the school year. We’re going to talk about how you can get things on your calendar now, and plan your future units accordingly, so that ‘future you’ will be way less stressed. So, grab your plann...
Jan 05, 2023•32 min•Ep 133•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the last Brave New Teaching episode of 2022, and the time of year for reflection, goal-setting, and thinking about next steps. But first, books! Today, we’re sharing our top picks of books we can’t wait to read in 2023 because if we’re being honest, that’s kind of a top priority for us. Books are a form of self-care, and that includes talking about them and finding different types of books to add to our TBR list. Does that make you as happy as it makes us? You can check out all the books we...
Dec 29, 2022•40 min•Ep 132•Transcript available on Metacast We are constantly gushing over our latest reads to each other behind the scenes, and realized that we should probably record these types of conversations for you! As English teachers, books are a huge part of our lives, but not just in the classroom. We love books because they bring us joy, they entertain, they educate, and they can be a great way to connect with others. So, why not talk to you about the books that we read and enjoy? Today you’ll hear our top books from 2022. Happy book browsing...
Dec 22, 2022•48 min•Ep 131•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode is truly a gift to the Brave New Teaching community. It’s Amanda here, and I’m joined by my dear friend and life coach, Blair Wilson. I met Blair during 2020 when I was taking my first steps in seeking out therapy and mental help support during the overwhelming experience of pandemic teaching. I knew that I needed to have someone to talk to in order to process through my aspirations, my issues, my questions, and all of the things that were holding me up in my personal life and ma...
Dec 15, 2022•48 min•Ep 130•Transcript available on Metacast Enjoy a sneak peak of the content that will be coming to you on our brand new private podcast inside the Brave New Teaching Happy Hour! You can sign up for Happy Hour here - https://www.curriculumrehab.com/happyhour Mentioned in this episode: Get more Brave New Teaching each week: Join BNT Happy Hour Here! "Send us a message - please include your contact information so we can chat soon!" Purchase your copy of Role Call here and then be sure to claim your free bonus here ! Support the s...
Dec 09, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast As a teacher, do you ever feel like you have to choose between fun and rigor? Early in our teaching careers, we definitely got sucked into the “edutainment” culture, where we felt like we needed to constantly be performing. We had to keep things fresh and fun. We quickly learned that that led to two things - burnout and poor classroom management. Not to mention that centering all of your lessons around fun often meant sacrificing some crucial learning time. Depending on where you are in your car...
Dec 08, 2022•43 min•Ep 129•Transcript available on Metacast Enjoy a sneak peak of the content that will be coming to you on our brand new private podcast inside the Brave New Teaching Happy Hour! You can sign up for Happy Hour here - https://www.curriculumrehab.com/happyhour Links mentioned in this episode: Episode 128 John Greene’s Crash Course - Roaring 20s , Langston Hughes Ted Talk - Paul Piff; Does Money Make you Mean? The Balance: What is the American Dream Today? American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures by America Ferrera The Greates...
Dec 02, 2022•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do you remember the first time you read The Great Gatsby? As one of the most commonly taught American novels, it’s likely that by now, you’ve also taught a Great Gatsby unit to your class. Because it is so widely taught, you may have gotten stuck in teaching it the same way over and over again. Well my friends, we’re here to shake that up! Over the years, we’ve found ways to make The Great Gatsby accessible, applicable, and engaging for virtually all the kiddos in our classroom. We’re excited to...
Dec 01, 2022•37 min•Ep 128•Transcript available on Metacast As we celebrate American Thanksgiving this week, we know that we have so much to be grateful for here at Brave New Teaching! Mostly, we are thankful for you, our teaching community who continues to come back here week after week. We appreciate you so much. To keep things fun and light, we’re going to do a special episode about some of our favorite fall things at work, at home, and more. These are things that are currently bringing us lots of joy and that we think you’ll love as well. We’ve got q...
Nov 24, 2022•39 min•Ep 127•Transcript available on Metacast What teacher doesn’t love a good hack? We’ve all got more than enough on our plates, so anytime we can simplify a task to save us time, while still being effective in our teaching, it’s a BIG win. Today’s hack is brought to you by part four of our “The Best Thing I Ever Taught Series” - sub plans! We’re sharing our 5-step approach to stress-free sub plans that you can use time and time again. The best part of these plans are that they model good teaching. You’ll be able to take care of yourself ...
Nov 17, 2022•21 min•Ep 126•Transcript available on Metacast If we asked you what you get most excited about in teaching, assessments might not be at the top of your list…but it is for us! By the end of this episode, it just might be for you too. Assessments are the star of the show in part three of our “The Best Thing I Ever Taught” series. Today we’re sharing two specific examples of favorite assessments that we have used with our students. Before you listen in, just remember that you can take these ideas and tweak them to fit the exact needs of your st...
Nov 10, 2022•36 min•Ep 125•Transcript available on Metacast How do you feel about group work? Love it or dread it? Either way, stay tuned because today marks the second episode in our four part “The Best Thing I Ever Taught” series, where we’re covering group work. You can probably tell by the title of this episode that we love group work now …but trust us, that hasn’t always been the case. In the past, we absolutely detested it. Group work was one of those things that led to over planning, too much management, and way too much grading. Fast forward to t...
Nov 03, 2022•31 min•Ep 124•Transcript available on Metacast We’re kicking off a new 4-episode series called The Best Thing I Ever Taught . (If the name sounds like it’s inspired by The Best Thing I Ever Ate from the Food Network, it’s because it is!) Inside this series, we’ll be sharing all kinds of things that bring us joy and that we, and our students, have seen a huge return on. This week we’re focusing on gateway activities. First, let’s define exactly what a gateway activity is. It has everything to do with what we do here at Brave New Teaching - es...
Oct 27, 2022•42 min•Ep 123•Transcript available on Metacast Today's episode is a re-run of one of our favorites! If you aren’t already on the dystopian band wagon, we’re fairly confident that you will be after this episode. We’ve taught dystopia for YEARS, and it hasn’t lost any steam along the way. Can you say that for other genres? So, why is dystopia as a specific genre so gosh darn exciting? Why is it something we believe should be in every single ELA classroom? We couldn’t even begin to count the reasons, but to begin, it helps kids understand ...
Oct 20, 2022•27 min•Ep 122•Transcript available on Metacast If you’ve been racking your brain for a way to approach a Shakespeare unit in a way that is engaging and impactful for your students, then you’ll want to stick around. This episode is a conversation between Amanda and one of her coaching clients, Kelsi. You’ll get to hear them give all the juicy details about an incredible unit that they designed together. Kelsi initially came to Amanda for help because her English course was extremely standards-based and focused on teaching for mastery (aka, dr...
Oct 13, 2022•49 min•Ep 121•Transcript available on Metacast Friends, it’s time to wrap up our nonfiction series that has been focused on biography and memoir. What better way to do that than with a TBR list? We’re sharing our favorite books that fit into the genre of biography and memoir, as well as some that we’ve had on our list but haven’t had a chance to read yet. Disclaimer: you are going to want to put all of these books in your Amazon card immediately. You’ve been warned, so don’t send us your bill! If you ask us, filling up your book shelves with...
Oct 06, 2022•35 min•Ep 120•Transcript available on Metacast For part four of our nonfiction series, we’re looking at using biography and memoir as mentor texts. You’ll hear how we define and use mentor texts in our own classroom. We’ll also give you some specific mentor texts that we recommend using, and our reasoning behind those texts. Since we love a good collabisode, we’ve also crowdsourced some great ideas from our colleagues and friends. They will be sharing their favorite biography and memoirs to use as mentor texts, how it provides a powerful tea...
Sep 29, 2022•41 min•Ep 119•Transcript available on Metacast We love a good unit makeover, and today you’ll hear part of one in action! We’re going to do a makeover on a unit that Marie has taught one time so far. It uses the text, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. This unit is part of a brand new course. As many of you may have experienced, brand new course + brand new unit = flying by the seat of your pants! In other words, it’s a good time to talk through it and think about some changes that can be made the next time that it’s used. The unit that we’re ta...
Sep 22, 2022•33 min•Ep 118•Transcript available on Metacast We’re on this podcast for a lot of reasons, and one of them is to unpack one of the most powerful and often underutilized genres in the ELA curriculum world, and that is biography and memoir. In our last episode , we began making our passionate case for biography and memoir. If you missed it, you can check it out here . We’re continuing that conversation today so that you can get even more excited to join our upcoming virtual workshop on teaching memoir and biography . Tickets start at just $7 a...
Sep 15, 2022•34 min•Ep 117•Transcript available on Metacast Hey Brave New Teachers! We’re excited to start a brand new series that we’re putting together for you, starting with this episode. This series will lead into our newest virtual workshop (what we’ve called “festivals” in the past!) that will be held on October 3, 2022. It will be centered around nonfiction and teaching biography and memoir. Are you wondering why we’ve chosen biography and memoir? To put it simply, using biography and memoir, whether it’s a whole unit or sprinkled into your other ...
Sep 08, 2022•32 min•Ep 116•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes the best ideas and inspiration come from hearing about other teachers’ experiences in the classroom. That’s why I’m excited to have Ana Perez on the Brave New Teaching podcast today. Ana is a 10th year high school ELA teacher and a Jill of many other trades including poetry, Zumba, and techy resource creation. In the classroom she's a proponent of relationships over content, and outside the classroom, she enjoys creating resources to help other teachers foster meaningful relations...
Sep 01, 2022•47 min•Ep 115•Transcript available on Metacast Today's episode marks the last in the series we are doing on classroom management. To close out the series, we're talking about a strong belief that we have here at Brave New Teaching, which is this...true compassion is accountability! We'll share what this actually means, and how you can take this belief and incorporate it into your classroom this year. Reserve your seat for The First Ten Days: The Complete Back to School Toolkit Watch our FREE masterclass, Down with the Reading ...
Aug 25, 2022•37 min•Ep 114•Transcript available on Metacast 
