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. But this is the last new one.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 to make change.

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.

On today’s show, 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.

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.

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.

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.

Guest Kevin Stoller of Kay-Twelve gives tips for creating better learning environments.

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.

. Today’s subject is all about Project based learning and how to add extra meaning to an already great approach to learning.

We are tackling some big, possibly controversial ideas today. 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. I have two incredible guests today, TedX speaker and an educator with Alpha, Mike Yates and Naphtali Bryant, founder of Spark-Ed University.

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.

Host Batsheva Frankel recreates her presentation, "What Do We Mean by 21st Century Education When the 21st Century Changes Dramatically?"

This episode on why kids hate math and what we can do about it features a conversation with John Bianchette from Mathnasium

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.