It’s easy to teach a unit. The hard part is designing the right assessment to see what each student has absorbed, individually and collectively. The even harder part is finding time to analyze what they turn in to see what has been learned. And the nearly impossible part is then following up to provide each individual student the missing piece of the puzzle. This week, the very not-sexy but oh-so-important question: How can we best check for student understanding?

This week, hosts Toby Lowe, Rachel Scott, and Julie Rust were joined by an amazing crew of educators: Tiffany Busby (second grade) Burton Williams-Inman (ninth grade history), and Kari East (middle school learning facilitator). Our conversation ranged from the importance of articulating foundational learning objectives to the joys of sticky notes and desk pets. Listen to the whole chat, or jump to what you are interested in below:

3:33-6:37: Think high school teachers only lecture? Think again. Burton reminds us there are so many ways for youth to access information outside of passively listening; and has the reassuring news that as a teacher “you are probably [checking for understanding] all the time . . reading the room to see what kids are picking up and not picking up.”

6:38-9:00: On the value of student talk, and the importance of documenting what we learn from it.

9:20-11:30: Tiffany shares her genius one-standard-per-sticky note check for the day strategy!

11:37-13:47: The importance of co-constructing “big rock” standards as a school to know whether what you are teaching in your grade level is foundational, spiraled practice, or an end-point of full proficiency.

13:53-18:38: Why Toby considers learning facilitators like Kari, “like a teacher but HELPFUL!”; and the vital importance of creating a low stakes/no stakes safe environment in your classroom to encourage student questioning.

18:40-23:05: How centers or stations can carve out precious time in any grade level for small group check-ins with groups of students.

23:05-23:42: The surprising reason teachers of middle and upper school students are sometimes pressured into traditional lecture style classes.

23:43-28:15: What it really means when students say a particular teacher “doesn’t know how to teach,” and how realistic are our expectations for students in monitoring their own understanding and clearly articulating the questions that they have?

28:20-32:32: Why we should all be making THE MOST CRINGEY POSSIBLE videos with our teaching teams to model question-asking strategies for our students.

32:33-35:50: Rachel’s favorite strategy for checking for understanding: teach the teacher!

35:50-37:15: How making a class newspaper is a powerful way to facilitate individual research that moves into a collaborative project.

37:17:37:37: What we are really talking about in all of this is building toward student agency: kids having the ability to teach themselves.

38:10-39:03: Burton’s commercial for the many varieties of the classic and very basic google form exit ticket! “It can serve in so many ways: beginning of class from previous lesson, open ended question about the day . . . You can make it closed note or open note”; the possibilities are endless!

39:22-41:22: Tiffany’s embrace of “challenges” to do a quick check of what students did and didn’t understand immediately following a lesson . . . and the surprising motivational value of deskpets!

42:33-43:33: Why Kari advocates for a good low stakes/not stakes self check in which students do a 5-7 question worksheet and then check themselves; also shout out for non-permanent vertical learning spaces (VNPS)!

43:40-44:44: No wiser words from Toby were ever said: there are no shortcuts to doing this work well. “You just need to strap in for ‘it’s gonna be more work, but it’s gonna be worth it.’”

Friends, you already loved Maria Edwards, Judy Menist, Rachel Scott, and Toby Lowe, but just wait. Their vulnerability, wisdom, and depth of stories in this particular podcast episode recorded on Friday the 13th (just the day before Toby got married) will undoubtedly move you. Part therapy session, part love story, part call to action, episode 2 in “Can We Talk?” reflects on the very real, very timely topic of teacher burnout. What is it? What produces it? How do we help ourselves and our colleagues when we find ourselves there?

Listen to the whole conversation, or pick and choose from the show notes below:

2:35-7:26: Maria had the advantage of entering her teaching career armed with tools for avoiding teacher burnout: find a community, connect to your personal “why” for teaching, don’t hesitate to ask help from mentors, choose to teach at the RIGHT place that fuels you, accept that every day is a different-new day, embrace the constant change that surrounds teaching., and enjoy the performative aspects of teaching.

7:30-8:20: Toby recalls his feeling of belonging when first invited to SA and the impact it made.

8:43-12:40:: Judy reminds us that community and having a passion for what you do isn’t enough to guard against burnout . . . and why fireworks and campfires provide powerful analogies for a sustainable teaching career.

14:05-16:32: Judy’s story of burnout which stemmed from not feeling trusted as a professional and the constant pendulum swing of “this is how you are supposed to teach.” She reminds us, “It’s easy to get [to a place of burnout], and you’re there before you realized what caused you to get there.”

16:35 -17:20: Why burnout isn’t always directly tied to long working hours working.

17:20-18:42; 22:20-28:34; 29:59-30:15: If you can only listen to one section of the pod, listen to these snippets in which Toby shares vulnerably about his own personal experiences with burnout.

18:43- 21:01: Rachel’s story: burnout by boredom ironically cured by the challenges covid presented

21:02-22:07: If you’ve seen one case of burnout, you’ve seen one case of burnout; there is no monolithic experience or cure.

28:35-29:57: Why it’s doubly difficult to do “mindfulness” as a teacher . . . and why teaching pushes all of us into anxiety.

31:48-34:30: Judy issues a strong call to administrators to pause, read the room about how faculty are feeling, and take the time to ask faculty for their professional opinions.

34:45-36:20: You know how north campus students have to fill out a survey and list their “trusted adult” on campus? Well, we think we should have to do that as faculty as well; asking help is most definitely a superpower.

Have you noticed that kids just aren’t as tough as they used to be? Do you wonder why so many hands come up with so many questions the minute you assign a task? Did you read that recent article about how elite college students no longer even have the sticktoitiveness to read a full book? Do you wish your students could persevere a little longer, bounce back a little faster? Today’s episode: “Can we Talk About Building Resilience?” is going to address just that. Hosts Toby Lowe, Rachel Scott, and Julie Rust were lucky to be joined by special guest UMMC Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow, Dr. Peyton Thigpen, as well as our three incredible school counselors: Courtney McGee, Shedrick Rogers, and Chelsea Freeman.

1:12-3:30: Toby introduces the theme of resilience by telling a success story about a fifth grader he taught, asking “what was it about this kid that made her decide ‘I’m going to give this a try’?

5:55-6:25: Courtney McGee, Lower School Counselor, introduces resilience and how it fits into CARES (cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self control) programmatic model.

7:16-9:00: Shedrick Rogers, Middle School Counselor, argues that kids are more resilient than we often give them credit for; perhaps we need to have more patience that we are not the end point in their journey.

9:40-11:25: Chelsea Freeman, Upper School Counselor, campaigns for getting more comfortable with discomfort in her homage to Damour’s book, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers.

12:49-14:10 : Dr. Peyton Thigpen encourages educators that the adults that had the most impact on us as children most likely challenged us to do hard things: “I’m not going to take your worst work; I know you have more potential than that.”

14:11-17:10: Shedrick argues for the importance of consistently high expectations for youth in all areas: academics, social life, etc.

17:11-20:03: So how do we actually help youth that are uncomfortable in the struggle? The good news is many of these skills can be taught, having social support and connection is vitally protective, and our school counselors have myriad tools to share.

20:04-22:52: How can we best support the youngest students in our lives? Courtney and Peyton advocate for giving youth insight for recognizing their emotions, sharing language for naming them, and modeling strategies for coping.

22:55- 29:38: Toby asks the million dollar question: how does all this resilience stuff take on a different note when it comes to us parenting our own kids? (Note: Julie found some solace in an episode of Hidden Brain featuring an interview with psychologist Peter Gray entitled “Parents: Keep Out!”)

29:40-31:05: Why we need to be the thermostat rather than the thermometer when it comes to our interactions with youth.

31:10-39:00: Guests sagely address our first teacher-generated question: With attention spans and the ability to maintain sustained focus decreasing, specifically in upper middle school grades, how can we help students understand that they can, in fact, learn how to focus even at the age of 13?

39:20-43:35: Our second teacher-generated question elicits the comforting advice of “don’t change a thing; the conditions you are creating are the perfect recipe for building resilience!”

My AP World History class is the first AP that students can take in the HS. The curriculum, set by the College Board, is extremely rigorous and fast paced. It's not unusual to have students crying in my office mid-September, but by the end of October, they seem to get their "sea legs" and begin to see improvement. I start the year advising them to work hard and trust the process. I continuously encourage them and teach skills along the way, but I still have meltdowns. What can I do better in the early days to help students understand that it's a marathon, not a sprint, and that their grades WILL improve? (Some have never earned B's or C's before and you'd think it was the end of the world!). Thanks!

45:02-47:45 : The episode ends on a “yay rah go teachers” note. Because you all are awesome, and by simply building connections with students, you are building up their resilience.

Do you teach? Do you work at a school in any capacity? Do you have kids of your own? Do these offspring of yours attend (or have they attended) the same school that pays your paycheck? If you have selected yes to just one of these questions, this episode is for you. But if you selected yes to more than one . . . well this episode may hit some very familiar notes (and I wish we could have invited you on as a guest.) Join host Taylor Davis and guests Anna Frame and Lea Crongeyer for an exploration of the intersection of parenting and working as a school professional.

2:58-3:20: Inquiring minds must know; what does a child call their parent when they are actually teaching them in a classroom setting?

4:22-6:57: How being a teacher and being a parent are sometimes very different and sometimes very similar; also we discover Lea has basically taught every kid in the world.

7:05-8:14: Why Anna Frame is a lot less fun as a mom than a teacher; and the interplay of high expectations and “not MY kid!”

9:45-13:33: A surprise side effect of being a teacher momma: we never want to infringe on our kids’ teachers’ time or stress them out in any way.

13:38-14:55: The added entanglements for mommas who are not only teachers at the same school but also ALUMNAE!

14:56-16:30: “The balance of challenges and blessings” when your own kid is in the exact same grade you teach; the things we miss but also the insights we glean.

16:40-17:20: Julie’s surprise reveal that Lea Crongeyer is the real reason she ended up working at St. Andrew’s. (When I was considering the job she texted me, “it is one of the most precious gifts of my life to have taught at the same place my kids go to school.”)

17:28-20:25: Julie’s biggest point of tension in these dual roles of administrator/teacher and momma is also incredibly generative.

20:26-21:16: Lea drops some major wisdom: “So parenting you do so much of it with your heart you have to have a lot of self control as a teacher . .. you can’t be momma bear at school”; and Taylor points out sometimes we have too many “inside” insights. :)

21:16-23:20: Anna shares the good side of all this: we have a cheat code for what to talk to kids about in the car; also that year Lea let Taylor wake up her own kid from nap.

23:40- 25:26: Being a momma-teacher makes you have so much grace and empathy for your kids’ teachers and other cheat codes that can give us a leg-up on our parenting partners.

25:31-26:38; 28:18-29:58: When your kid gets in trouble, sometimes [a different kind of] the swooping in is helpful; also why Julie loves student-led conferences.

26:48-27:33: Listen here to find out which of our children was NOT a good napper and required an elaborate ticket system to stay put!

30:25-31:40: Josh Brister finally gets on the mic to drop wisdom about how parenting has impacted his view of the parent/teacher relationship; also our podcast’s most dramatic moment in the history of its existence!

31:41-32:46; 34:24-35:00: Not only do we give teachers more grace when we are in our parenting role, we give parents more grace in our teaching role; now we know how hard it is!

32:47- 34:23: How parenting shifts our view of the value of writing qualitative comments to parents.

35:00-35:50: Sometimes we are very, very bad parents. True confessions.

This week, join host Hannah Williams-Inman as she speaks with middle school educators Paul Buckley and Maria Edwards about experiences teaching as an introvert/extrovert.

• (0:00-2:35) TEAM Intro and Episode Intro - Teaching as an introvert vs extrovert, and the way that may change the vibe and feeling of our day to day life here at SA.

• (2:45-3:10) - Can you figure out, based on this conversation, who is our introvert and who is our extrovert?
• (3:20) Question 1: What is your favorite part of the school day?
  • (3:40) Maria starts us off - she loves seeing her lessons come to life, especially when a lesson hits well in a (probably morning time) class.
  • (4:50) We reflect on how the time of day completely changes the vibe of a class.
  • (5:30) Paul speaks about how he loves the calm moments of the day, taking a moment of peace, and maybe even a quick walk around campus.
  • (6:15) We love our outdoor campus!
• (7:00) I forgot to introduce myself! Sidebar, it doesn’t take just an introvert to LOVE their planning period - I love mine too!
• (7:50) Another sidebar - Maria remembers a conversation between the three of us before she had actually been hired. We knew she was a winner!
• (8:25) Question 2: What part of the school day consistently stresses you out?
  • (8:35) Hannah first - needing to be super flexible stresses me out, even though our environment and schedule at SA is typically so consistent and our days operate generally as expected, we still sometimes have to adjust on the fly. Such is life as a teacher.
  • (9:50) Paul shares - he feels stressed when lesson plans go awry, and he has to change things on the fly. He also shares that on a normal, regular day, lunch can be very stressful. It can feel draining, and it’s loud!
  • (11:25) Maria shares - she agrees that it’s stressful when a lesson plan flops, and being in year one of teaching is a lot of trial and error. Maria and Hannah both struggle with the way one lesson plan gone wrong can really flip the entire week/month/quarter on its head schedule wise.
  • (12:40) There is a unique struggle when classes are only 50 minutes.
• (13:50) “Just a quick sidebar…” figuring out how to effectively plan a class period (making sure you plan enough but not too much) is kind of the art of teaching, in a nutshell.
• (15:25) Question 3: How do you feel at the end of a school day?
  • (15:40) “Do you mean before or after my nap?” - Paul uses his after school time to rest, and restore, by enjoying some silence and taking his dog on a walk.
  • (16:35) Maria gives a lot during the school day, but she gives herself a boost with some energy drinks, so she can still be active and head to the gym after school!
  • (18:30) Boundaries! Work/life balance with our families and our own ability to recharge!
  • (18:50) What does it look like to turn off “teacher talk” at the end of the day, especially when we are with non-teachers?
  • (19:45) Hannah shares that at the end of the school day, she may be tired and more mellow, but is also kind of ready to expend a different kind of “after school” energy.
• (20:50) The big reveal! Who is our introvert?
• (21:45) We are so clued into the way our kids are each day; do we have the same amount of awareness for ourselves? Do we keep a finger on our own pulses as well?

Sure, we’ve all experienced the very public job/side of teaching: how a teacher lectures or constructs a lesson. But what about those more veiled parts of the job of teaching that no one sees? What stories can we share about invisible parts of teaching across a range of grade levels? And what costs and benefits lurk in these often-hidden parts of our work? Join Toby Lowe, Hannah Woodward, and Saana Watson for an in depth discussion on these themes.

Show notes:

• (3:55-5:15) A glimpse into Saana’s spookiest time at St. Andrew's! (To learn more, read this blog!)
• (5:18-7:24) Hannah’s ghostly disappearing/reappearing act at SA; imagine the possibility within three inch binders; Toby and Hannah as polar opposites on the first grade team
• (7:32-11:01) Why work-life balance isn’t “one size fits all” and one hidden benefit of long work hours (shoutout to Mr. Chris!); also the very quotable: “Sure the work will still be there tomorrow, but so will all these children!”
• (11:02-12:31) The irony of working ahead.
• (12:50-14:52) Put plainly, differentiation just takes time.
• (14:53-16:15) Toby used to chug Sunny D; and the ebb and flow of productivity.
• (16:17-20:00) Why Toby’s SPOOKY invisible work is more about remaking systems; also writing his own tests and homework
• (20:02-20:17) Why we should all stop giving planners like Hannah a hard time! “I’m not miserable! This makes sense to me!”
• (20:18-22:32) Why the timing of our invisible work matters
• (22:50- 24:20) Why teaching kindergarten is just like teaching any grade but with a bit more material-prep.
• (24:21-25:25) The glory and delight of how teaching takes up residence in your brain.
• (25:25-26:58) That one time Zander knocked over a water glass on my laptop while we were playing Headbandz and the gentle reminder of “maybe one thing at a time.”
• (27:03-27:42) Julie’s unpopular opinion: grading papers is the best.
• (28:18-29:22) Hannah has some good advice if you plan to work late; good news though: there are lots of good areas to sleep in lower school. :)
• (29:44-30:53) Another invisible teacher truth: we pay attention to our students’ social dynamics and care about the health of their friendships.

Sometimes you read a book or watch a movie that is so chock-full of hyperbole you just roll your eyes and lean into it for entertainment value. Sometimes that very same book or movie magically transforms before your very eyes into the truest representation of life you have ever seen. Roald Dahl’s (1988) novel, Matilda did that, with its captivating story about a young girl who encounters injustice with adults in her life at home and school with bravery, intelligence, and creativity. And in our household anyway, the latest iteration of Matilda in musical form directed by Matthew Warchus (from a screenplay written by Dennis Kelly featuring song/lyrics by Tim Minchin) did it again, with a catchy set of musical numbers that had us singing for weeks. I had the privilege of sitting down with two third graders who love the movie, Elizabeth Bensler and Alianna Rust, as well as their very own Dr. Egger, Head of Lower School to discuss what the musical might teach us about parenting, schooling, and growing up:

3:12-6:16: Meet our guests, and learn which one most closely related to the terrifying character of Mrs. Trunchbull!

6:51-10:00: What is up with the dynamic between Matilda and her parents?

10:29-12:45: What St. Andrew’s has in common with the terrifying Cruncham Elementary; (related sidenote: we need a statue of Dr. Egger in the front of the school).

13:15-17:10: What all of us think about growing up: from the perspective of sweet Bev Egger, to our third graders, to Dr. Egger and me; the pros/cons of having control but also having responsibility.

17:40-20:48: We have a delightful time comparing Mrs. Trunchbull to Dr. Egger; spoiler alert: they have like nothing in common!

21:10- 25:07: We gush with love for the character Miss Honey, and not just because she’s a nice teacher; because she’s got some solid skills. Also Elizabeth and Alianna dish on which of their teachers most remind them of Miss Honey.

25:45-30:44: We explore the premise of the lyric “sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty”; interestingly sibling relationships come up quite a few times.

30:58-33:50- We close out with our favorite scenes from the show, featuring circus-school, throwing hammers, dancing on top of desks, and floating above the clouds.