When you think about your role as a teacher, are you trying to control your classroom, or are you trying to build a community? Our guest today, Dr. Deonna Smith is asking the tough, yet crucial, questions like this in part three of our series on classroom management! This is her zone of genius, and we couldn’t be happier to have her on the podcast to share her experience and insight. Deonna is a former teacher, instructional coach and school leader. Before transitioning into leadership, Deonna t...
Aug 18, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep 113•Transcript available on Metacast Here at Brave New Teaching, we feel strongly about several things, one of which is creating a classroom culture that exudes trust, acceptance, and community. We believe that these things are at the heart of successful, and holistic, classroom management. That’s why in this second episode of our four-part classroom management series, we are chatting with our friend, John Rodney about organic community in your classroom (and may be slightly fan-girling while doing it!) . SHOW NOTES: https://www.br...
Aug 11, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep 112•Transcript available on Metacast As you prepare for another school year, how are you feeling about your classroom management? We don’t know about you, but we were raised in an age of clip charts, reward systems, and overall surface level management systems that were really creating inequitable experiences for students. We now know that there are better practices to put in place that are equitable and responsive to all kids. Your goal is not a perfect classroom. Your goal is to create an environment where your students are going...
Aug 04, 2022•42 min•Ep 111•Transcript available on Metacast Is it just us, or do you start to get a bit dreamy when August rolls around? Whether we like it or not, a sense of excitement starts to build as back-to-school season approaches. Maybe you start dreaming of how you'll redesign your classroom, or you have a new system you're planning out that you firmly believe will solve all of your classroom management challenges. If this sounds like you, we want you to keep bringing that enthusiasm! But first we want you to run through our practical ...
Jul 28, 2022•41 min•Ep 110•Transcript available on Metacast Do you ever feel like the position you are currently in as an educator just doesn’t quite fit? Maybe it’s because of the grade level you’re in, the specific school you work at, or the colleagues that you work with. Whatever the reason, if where you are in your career as an educator doesn’t feel right, you don’t have to stay there. If your passion is teaching, and you know you want to stay in this career, there are lots of shifts that you can make while still staying in the classroom. You’ll hear...
Jul 21, 2022•42 min•Ep 109•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is special for so many reasons. Want to know why? To begin, we are recording together in person!!! 🥳 We’re at the 2022 Teachers Pay Teachers conference in Chicago and it’s the first time we’ve been together since the very first time we met, (which was THREE years ago). It’s surreal to be here right next to each other after staring at each other through a computer screen for years. As we sit down today, we’re reminiscing on where we started, and getting excited about what is to come...
Jul 14, 2022•30 min•Ep 108•Transcript available on Metacast Who doesn’t love a good makeover? Well friends, today we’re talking about giving our favorite kind of makeover - a unit makeover! Specifically, a short stories unit makeover. The reason we’re creating this episode during the summer is because we have heard from many of you that your first unit is short stories. We’ve also heard from you that this unit has not yielded much success for various reasons. So, if you are in the same boat and do a short stories unit to kick off the year, we want to go ...
Jul 07, 2022•52 min•Ep 107•Transcript available on Metacast Summer is finally here, and we are here for it! Teacher summer break is truly something that nobody outside of the profession really understands. It’s a mix of emotions and if you’re anything like us, you may be battling with choosing how to spend this time. Should you focus on rest? Should you use the summer months to plan and prepare for the upcoming year so you feel less overwhelmed when it’s time to go back to work? Is there a middle ground? Well friends, we sent out the bat signal and calle...
Jun 30, 2022•40 min•Ep 106•Transcript available on Metacast Friends! We’re finishing up our series on collaboration today. We started this series off by talking about what collaboration is, what it can be, when it works, when it doesn't work, and what we call “lone wolf syndrome”. Today, we're here to widen the perspective a bit and talk about collaborating with the community at large when it comes to individual students, a classroom setting, and the school as a whole. To spark some inspiration, we even have some fun projects that we have done ...
Jun 23, 2022•51 min•Ep 105•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to our third of four episodes in a series all about collaboration! In case you missed it, in part one episode 101 , we talked about collaborating with your teacher team (instead of being a lone wolf!). In part two, episode 103 , Erin Castillo joined Marie to share about SPED and classroom teacher collaboration. Today, we are going to start talking about the star of the show…the kids! We're sharing about several different ideas, from student-to-student peer collaboration, to teacher-...
Jun 16, 2022•41 min•Ep 104•Transcript available on Metacast You are in for a treat today Brave New Teaching friends! I am interviewing my internet friend, Erin Castillo, who you may know better by her Instagram handle @affirmationsandaccessibility . We have an important discussion centered around providing accommodations for students and working collaboratively with your co-teacher. Erin Castillo teaches English to students with mild to moderate disabilities at a high school in Northern California. She also teaches a peer counseling class and incorporate...
Jun 09, 2022•43 min•Ep 103•Transcript available on Metacast This week's episode is a re-run of one of our favorites! This episode outlines the work we plan to do over the summer of 2020 to grow professionally. Books, podcasts, and online conferences to further Anti-Bias & Anti-Racist work in the classroom and beyond, as well as those with instructional strategies to engage and deliver content effectively... Enjoy! LINKS TO ALL RESOURCES MENTIONED IN SHOW NOTES Mentioned in this episode: Get more Brave New Teaching each week: Join BNT Happy Hour ...
Jun 02, 2022•34 min•Ep 102•Transcript available on Metacast How would you describe the teacher team that you’re a part of in your school? Collaborative and aligned? Divided and negative? The climate of your teacher team truly can make or break your experience as a teacher. If your team is the complete opposite of collaborative, and the dynamic is causing a toxic work environment, then it’s time to work towards fixing it. We are starting this important conversation ( which sometimes can be an awkward one!) in today’s episode. SHOW NOTES: https://www.brave...
May 26, 2022•50 min•Ep 101•Transcript available on Metacast The day has come, friends. We’ve made it to our 100th episode! Whether you’ve been listening since episode one, or if this is your first episode…thank you for being here. We are celebrating this huge milestone by reminiscing on some of our very favorite moments of Brave New Teaching, PLUS we’re featuring audio messages from our listeners! SHOW NOTES: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/home/episode100 Follow us on Instagram: @bravenewteaching Mentioned in this episode: Get more Brave New Teaching e...
May 19, 2022•44 min•Ep 100•Transcript available on Metacast Things like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and podcasting have expanded the teacher universe in a way that was never possible before. The technology has allowed the teaching community to explode their reach and make their voices heard. We both feel like we are better teachers because we found community in social media. Today we’re sharing our perspective on two social media platforms specifically - Instagram and TikTok! Check out 20 teachers that we love to follow on Instagram in the show notes a...
May 12, 2022•52 min•Ep 99•Transcript available on Metacast The countdown to our 100th episode continues! Today we’re going in a bit of a different direction and are talking about teachers becoming business owners. So often, teachers are taught by outside companies who have absolutely zero experience with teaching. That’s why it’s so incredible that we are in the midst of a movement of teachers taking back the reins of being the experts in teaching. To celebrate this movement, we’re sharing our stories of getting started in business, plus a list of 20 te...
May 05, 2022•55 min•Ep 98•Transcript available on Metacast As teachers, we all know what happens when it starts getting warm outside. You’ve reached that point in the year where classroom management starts to get a little dicey. Yes, this always happens before a big break, but nothing compares to the end of the school year when it comes to behavior management challenges. This leads us to the topic at hand for today. It’s our number one, greatest-of-all-time classroom management key! We’ve been around the block a few times and what we discuss today is go...
Apr 28, 2022•46 min•Ep 97•Transcript available on Metacast One of the most frequently asked questions that we get from you is some version of, “what books do you suggest using?”. Well, you asked and we listened! Today, we have our top recommendations of books that have been the most popular in our classrooms. Most importantly, we want to talk to you about the three things that we keep in mind when curating a list of book choices for a choice reading unit. Check out our top 20 book list and the show notes at: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/home/episode...
Apr 21, 2022•50 min•Ep 96•Transcript available on Metacast Are you ready to nerd out with us today on argument and rhetoric? I hope so, because we are really digging in! We’re discussing the potential for viewing poetry as an argument, and looking at poetry through the lens of rhetorical analysis. We want to help you see poetry from a different angle, and consider where you can incorporate this into your units. Sign up for our FREE masterclass, Down With the Reading Quiz: https://www.curriculumrehab.com/assessment-masterclass SHOW NOTES: https://www.bra...
Apr 14, 2022•39 min•Ep 95•Transcript available on Metacast We love hearing from you about which topics would be helpful for us to cover on the podcast! A recent popular request is the topic of classroom management. So today, Marie is sharing her 3 C’s of behavior management - clear expectations, constant reminders, and consistency. Join Curriculum Rehab: curriculumrehab.com/course SHOW NOTES: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/home/episode94 Follow us on Instagram: @bravenewteaching Mentioned in this episode: Get more Brave New Teaching each week: Join BN...
Apr 07, 2022•30 min•Ep 94•Transcript available on Metacast It’s me, Marie, and I’m solo-hosting today’s episode! Today I’m telling you a story that I think you’ll appreciate as teachers. It’s a story of how I made a little oopsie and broke my students’ brains, and it’s one that comes with lessons that we can all benefit from! Join Curriculum Rehab: curriculumrehab.com/course SHOW NOTES: https://www.bravenewteaching.com/home/episode93 Follow us on Instagram: @bravenewteaching Mentioned in this episode: Get more Brave New Teaching each week: Join BNT Happ...
Mar 31, 2022•34 min•Ep 93•Transcript available on Metacast It's time for unpopular opinions part two! We love producing a mix of niche content as well as teacher life, and we’re excited to share the latter today! If you haven’t listened to part one, head to episode 82 to catch up. In part two, we’re sharing four unpopular opinions that our teacher listeners have, and our reaction to them! Sign up for our FREE Down with the Reading Quiz Masterclass: https://www.curriculumrehab.com/assessment-masterclass Join Curriculum Rehab: curriculumrehab.com/cou...
Mar 24, 2022•49 min•Ep 92•Transcript available on Metacast This week's episode is a re-run of one of our favorites. It is a walk-through of the absolute best formative assessment you'll ever give your students. It asks students to synthesize their understanding of content, explain that understanding through concise writing, and can be adapted to ANY CONTENT AREA. That's right. Any subject. Enjoy! Grab your ticket to The Shakespeare Teacher Festival. CLICK HERE FOR SHOW NOTES Mentioned in this episode: Get more Brave New Teaching each week...
Mar 17, 2022•26 min•Ep 91•Transcript available on Metacast What’s March without March Madness, right? Well my friends, it’s time for not just March Madness, but Poetry March Madness! This is Amanda coming at you solo this week, and I am going to walk you through exactly how to get started with Poetry March Madness. You’ll hear which supplies you're going to need and how you can fit this into your classroom and unique schedule. Grab my brand new resource, Teaching Poetry with the Big Six: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teaching-Poetry-w...
Mar 10, 2022•21 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast If you read the title of this episode, you may or may not know what this episode is about or if you want to listen! We say this because most people have different definitions of what text pairings and supplemental texts are. We go into detail of how we differentiate these two types of texts and when we use them in our lessons. As most of you already know, the texts we choose are not the main focus of our units, but are used as tools to teach our concepts and literacy skills. In this episode, we ...
Mar 03, 2022•42 min•Ep 89•Transcript available on Metacast A lot of the feedback we get about Shakespeare-related content is that you feel like it’s just too much. It feels hard, and you don’t want to do it. We totally get that, and we’ve been there. But that’s why we get so excited about the things we talk about because we really have found ways to make it a part of the day that you and your students will look forward to. The practice of analysis can get painfully routine. Students read something and then analyze it. But there’s a better way. There’s a...
Feb 28, 2022•38 min•Ep 88•Transcript available on Metacast Are you ready to nerd out with us? Today’s episode will be focused on one of our favorite topics, Shakespeare. We’ve done multiple episodes on Shakespeare, so it’s safe to say that we’re obsessed! This episode will be different than the others though, because it will give space for Shakespeare to be in conversation in any literature class. We don’t want to beg you to incorporate Shakespeare into your general education or AP class, but we also think that there is typically flexibility in curricul...
Feb 17, 2022•40 min•Ep 87•Transcript available on Metacast Today is part two of our episodes focused on what to do when our kids don’t read at home. If you missed last week’s episode, you’re going to want to head over to episode 85 and listen to that one first. Giving students choices is the first step towards giving them a sense of pride and ownership over their reading. But what happens when students still aren’t reading at home, even when they do have choice? Push play to hear our thoughts and solutions! Join Curriculum Rehab: curriculumrehab.com/cou...
Feb 10, 2022•22 min•Ep 86•Transcript available on Metacast If your students aren't reading their novels at home, the first thing you need to do is take a deep breath. The second thing is to remember that in a unit of study, there are so many things for kids to learn beyond the plot of the novel. That may sound completely crazy to you, but stick with us here. In today's episode we are going to talk about how simple shifts you make can make a big impact on student follow through. Join Curriculum Rehab: curriculumrehab.com/course SHOW NOTES: http...
Feb 03, 2022•40 min•Ep 85•Transcript available on Metacast This episode will be a continuation of last week’s episode where we had Jolene Heinemann join us as a guest to talk about choice reading. Choice reading is so important because it truly helps compartmentalize the choices you have when designing units and creating reading programs. This episode will give you a clearer vision on what reading units are supposed to do on their own and what independent reading does on its own. If you take anything from this episode, we want you to consider how choice...
Jan 27, 2022•33 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast 
