Episodes
Nov. 1, 2021
32 – Coaching Change in Schools (w Tim Lewis)
Despite our best intentions, collaboration in schools often looks more like cooperation (at best), or polite dysfunction (at worst). As an NCAA div 1 basketball coach and strategic business development professional, Tim Lewis has learned a lot that...
Oct. 25, 2021
Project Feature: Forest of Fright (w Leeanne McLim)
In this project feature episode, we explore how drama teacher Leeanne McLim reimagined the classic “Haunted House” project in response to the pandemic. While students learned a myriad of life skills through planning, pitching, designing, and...
Oct. 18, 2021
31 – What is the literacy of our lives? (w Brent Saccucci)
The 21st century demands an updated definition of literacy and an expansion of our understanding of what constitutes a “text.” For instance, how might we read and write our relationships? Our institutions? Our own thoughts? Brent Saccucci...
Oct. 4, 2021
30 – Pointless Assessment Practices (w Sarah M. Zerwin)
For too long, the purpose of assessment has been to collect points for a gradebook. As a high school English teacher, Sarah Zerwin decided to uphold a better purpose for assessment: learning. On the episode, Sarah discusses many “point-less”...
Sept. 27, 2021
29 – Gender Norms, Violence and Body Autonomy (w Dr. Gerald Walton)
In many ways, our students have a more nuanced understanding of gender than ever before. However, they continue to uphold many unexamined gender norms that lead them to cause violence to one another. Dr. Gerald Walton is a professor in the Faculty of...
Sept. 19, 2021
Strategy Hack: Executive Functions (w Becca Bouchard)
Strategy hacks are designed to be bite-sized episodes that provide teachers a practical tool they can use in their classroom immediately to reimagine the learning experience for their students. Executive Functions (EFs) are higher orders in the brain...
Sept. 12, 2021
28 – Teacher Powered Schools (w Zaynab Baalbaki)
What would a school look like if teachers were in charge? How would administrative tasks be managed? What impact would this have on student learning? Zaynab Baalbaki previously worked for Escuela Verde, a public charter school in Wisconsin that...
Sept. 6, 2021
Project Feature: Voices of Democracy (w Jodi Garagan & Katy Funtasz)
On project feature episodes, school-based practitioners tell the story of how they disrupted the status quo in their context. In this episode, learn about how a team of grade 6 teachers and an instructional coach worked together to breathe life back...
Aug. 30, 2021
27 – Liberating Creativity
Creativity is an energizing force that allows us to breathe new life into our work as educators. In this solo episode by host Natalie Vardabasso, learn more about what exactly creativity is (and isn’t), why it needs liberating, and how to do just...
Aug. 23, 2021
Season 2 Trailer!
EduCrush is a podcast that aims to reimagine and rehumanize education. In the second season, host Natalie Vardabasso will continue to feature the dope and disruptive humans who are leading change and unleashing authentic learning. Season two will also...
June 28, 2021
26 – Treat Each Gift as a Learning Opportunity for All (w Dr. Leyton Schnellert)
In the final episode of season one, Dr. Leyton Schnellert describes how he disrupts both teacher education and academic research by designing learning experiences that are interdisciplinary, inclusive, and always in the context of real classrooms. As...
June 14, 2021
25 – Reimagining Numeracy Instruction (w Kim Petersen & Sheryl Walters)
Math has traditionally been a space dominated by the simple binary of right and wrong answers. However, there are many important competencies, mindsets, and values that students can learn in the Math classroom if we embrace complexity and rethink the...
May 31, 2021
24 – When you Call Them Low, you Teach Them Low (w Ken Williams)
Teacher expectations have a massive impact on student learning, and yet, they are often one of the most forgotten factors in school improvement efforts. In the episode, Ken brings the humor, heart and hammer to call our attention to the limiting...
May 17, 2021
23 – A More Adaptive Way of Working (w Rodney Evans)
It doesn’t matter if you work in a company, a hospital, a not-for-profit organization, or a school, we are all facing the same problem; our ways of working are limiting the potential of humans to adapt to complex challenges. On the episode, we...
May 10, 2021
BONUS – PodSwap! Ready, Set, Growth (w Nick Moskaluk)
I thought I was a unicorn until I met Nick Moskaluk; the only other edupodcaster in Calgary. Turns out, we have even more in common including a reluctance to become a teacher, a love for creativity in the classroom, and a low-key obsession with the...
May 3, 2021
22 – What Will it Take to Transform Education? (w Dr. Greg Bass)
To achieve equity and meet the demands of the future, many of our institutions and operating systems are due for a massive overhaul. But what does exactly does that look like? Is it a rapid revolution or an incremental pivot? A visionary leader or a...
April 26, 2021
BONUS – PodSwap! Unprofessional Development (w Mealy & Tudisco)
Unprofessional Development, hosted by Mealy and Tudisco, features the hilarious stories teachers tell in the workroom, the barroom, and the coffee house. In the true spirit of PodSwaps, this three-way interview covers a wide range of topics including...
April 19, 2021
21 – Where are all the Teachers of Colour? (w Gerardo Muñoz & Kevin Adams)
As male teachers of colour in their school district, Gerardo and Kev felt like unicorns. That is, until they found each other and started to talk about their shared experiences on a podcast called Too Dope Teachers and a Mic, connecting with thousands...
April 5, 2021
20 – Are my Students Engaged? (w Dr Sharon Friesen)
Engagement is a key outcome of every teacher’s practice, but what does it actually look like? In 2009, Dr. Sharon Friesen led a study to figure out how many students across Canada were engaged in school socially, academically, and intellectually....
March 29, 2021
BONUS - PodSwap! The Ed Podcast (w Shane Lawrence)
PodSwap(n): when two podcasters jump on each others' shows to double down on the awesome. In this bonus episode, I chat with Shane Lawrence, host of The Ed Podcast. We dig into podcasting (obviously), what he's learned after interviewing over 160...
March 22, 2021
19 – The Opportunities of Online Learning (w Natalie Conway)
In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear says, “Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.” So how might a teacher’s practice change if they were no longer within the walls of a traditional classroom? On the episode,...