Episodes

Amber Trout is an experienced educator who navigated her career through different experiences and leveraged her expertise to support her colleagues and teachers best. She gravitated towards educational technology to create the best learning experiences for her students. One of the leading criteria for ed-tech should be ease of use. It should make the life of a teacher easier or more efficient. The basic functionalities of PearDeck. PearDeck is a great way to enhance vocabulary review lessons ...

Sensei Miwako was an incredible guest to join our podcast. Since moving to the United States, she has spent her time teaching students math through abacus. This conversation was a great learning experience for Matt and Ken. Miwako provided great insight into how this tool can help build foundational mathematical skills for students. Self-paced classes on her website to learn these systems and ideas to build math foundations. Help students understand the foundation of math through numbers. When...

Mark Housel is a passionate, dedicated, experienced educator. His career has been in physical education, but his wisdom will impact all teachers. He provides a thorough analysis of strategies he utilizes in his classroom that each and every teacher can take and apply. Physical education is the only subject that has the ability to affect how people feel each and every day for the rest of their lives. Connection is the content. If we are not connected to our students, they are not connected to t...

Brittany is the 2023 Wyoming Teacher of the Year, and she has brought her life experience as a learner into her own classroom. She isn’t afraid to showcase herself as a real person to allow her students to see past the titles and be kind to all. Tell your real stories and show your real self to allow students to be themselves. Working with parents to help advocate for students who need additional support in the classroom. Teachers need to support all different types of learners regardless of ...

This week is short and simple; we have quick messages from many former guests to share words of inspiration to start the school year right! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/poweredup/support

Ryne Anthony, Director of Flux Space, and Todd Guellich a STEM educator, is rapidly changing; our job is to stay relevant with our instruction for students. Educational technology and STEM or STEAM continue to be a hot topics. Regardless of what you teach or where you teach, we need to think about the instruction in our classroom. There are strategies to put into place for students to experience other skills and ideas through technology and non-technology opportunities. We need to be intentiona...

Student-Centered learning is a phrase thrown around education, and there is fluff around it. This is a foundational instructional strategy, at its core, is sound in practice. The approach to student-centered learning has become blurred. Cory Henwood joins the podcast again to break this down into a conversation about how and why to implement it. Student-centered learning is not small-group instruction. Small group instruction is one component of student-centered learning. “When can students ge...

We brought Dr. Don Berg back to the podcast to focus solely on goal setting. It is crucial personal practice for us to implement to grow as professionals. There are specific strategies and science behind how our brain works to hack successful goal setting. We dive deep into the conversation and focus on how to support students with the goal-setting process as well. It is necessary to set small goals to reach other goals. Our brain needs checkpoints to reach for. It is essential to know how you...

In every podcast we hear from our guests, relationships matter. Care for the students, be real, be present, etc. This is, without a doubt true, but how do we do it well? This podcast digs deep into this question and forces our guests to create a guide for how teachers can create successful relationships with students. Bethany Petty and Candace Young join the show to help peel back the onion on this topic. As new teachers, we must establish a strong classroom management level. It’s hard to see w...

According to the International Institute for Restorative Practices, “ We believe that human beings are instilled with the need to connect and grow with each other, but not the methods. Here at the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), we provide our students with the tools they need to effect change within their own lives as well as their schools, their organizations, and their communities. Through intimate learning communities of faculty and students, we teach together, we l...

The opportunity to put Anthony Swann and Ramon Benavides together on a podcast creates an emotional, robust conversation. Both men share their deepest feelings about how we can support trauma-inflicted and struggling students. This is the best education conversation on supporting struggling students available on any podcast today. Empowering students and developing self-efficacy skills so they can take the skills from school and succeed early in the real world. Use empathy to help become an ad...

Teachers are potentially going through small or big changes to prepare for the new curriculum, classrooms, courses, grade levels, or maybe even a new school. The summer is a great time to reflect, goal setting, and mentally prepare. Reflect on your core teaching values that are non-negotiable aspects of your classroom. Think about how to protect these core values in your new situation. It’s essential to be intentional with how you are preparing for your new set of expectations and students. F...

As teachers, there is more than a basic job description to detail all we do. Jessica Saum and Autumn Rivera come back as guest co-hosts to enrich this conversation. We all get emotional and personal and talk deeply to make it as meaningful as possible for our listeners. Teaching is exhausting but incredibly rewarding when we make the best efforts in the right ways. It’s important to recognize where our skills will best serve the need and evaluate if you are the best person. As a staff, develop...

It is summertime! Ken and Matt take a few minutes to reflect on the year and discuss summer plans and goals. Most importantly, they preview the 2023 summer series. Be sure to come back each week this summer for an amazing in-depth professional development episode. We bring back our top guests to join the conversation as co-hosts! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/poweredup/support

Weston Kieschnick is a gift to education, teacher, administrator, speaker, and author, and changing the lives of teachers. His passion is in good teaching, and empowering teachers to do that well. His mission has always been to take the knowledge we know and blend it to meet the students of today. His first book Bold School was ahead of its time in technology integration, encouraging teachers to utilize technology and maintain old-school, sound instructional practices. Evaluate how we use tech...

AJ Crabill is uniquely positioned to support school districts from the school board to the student. He is focused on creating systems that focus all school employees on improving student learning. It is so focused they measure all of their time from school board meetings to a principal's calendar. Teachers support students, principals support teachers, upper administration supports principals, and the school board supports upper administration. In AJ’s district, everyone is focused on students ...

Christine Girtain is the 2023 New Jersey State Teacher of the Year and a fantastic model for how facilitating empowering and content-rich classrooms. She works in a unique classroom, but her strategies and stories can be applied to all classrooms. She empowers her students to be their best and pursue that through research. Students are capable; we must allow them to rise to the occasion. Sometimes the best scaffolds are the ones that we wait to provide students. Developing and harnessing inte...

Jon Bergman is an amazing educator, pioneer of the Flipped Classroom, presenter, author, and influential educator. His passion and ability to change education have profoundly affected how learning occurs worldwide. Jon has been teaching since the mid-80s, and for him, it’s simple to define; kids are kids. We need to support our children with best practices and support structures for them to grow. Mastery learning is Jon’s newest project and pursuit. The flipped classroom was born out of necessi...

Allowing our students to read significantly below grade level is unacceptable. As Marnie Ginsberg states, “Reading is not that hard to learn;” we can’t accept anything less. She shares countless strategies for teachers to utilize to help develop our students into stronger readers. The data we often receive is too vague to know what students can and cannot do. Assess your students and hold yourself accountable. Evaluating all factors contributing to a student's lack of reading ability can be ov...

Jason has had the experience worth listening to, K-12, from teacher to administrator. He encourages teachers to start to look at the classroom as a learning atmosphere, not a teaching stage. Stop planning lessons and start designing lessons. A lesson needs a clear learning target and objective students understand to strive for. Assess prior knowledge to make decisions about the upcoming lesson. Create criteria of success for students to self-evaluate their own learning. Check out the book 17...

Long-time middle school science teacher turns towards STEM. Bryan has a passion for change, innovation, and learning. This inspiration has transitioned into all his activities with his students to create authentic learning. Bryan invests time in his students to inspire a learning culture so they can accomplish any goal. Use local references, in his case, the military community, to create design challenges. Flex the guardrails of your curriculum to push the boundaries of learning for students. ...

Samantha’s experience before education has reminded her of the value of respecting every student and every parent as an individual. It allows her to create an unwavering positive rapport and respect in the classroom. Start every day on the same page and on the same note to be the best version of yourself Create opportunities for students to thrive through the structures you create in the classroom. Differentiation is a powerful tool to reach the needs of all learners. When we know students, ...

Sarah started her teaching career working with some of our youngest learners at the age of two and moved on to continue to work with middle school students. She utilized a maker space in her art classrooms to help foster and develop creativity. Sarah has transitioned into utilizing movement in learning; she is now a certified yoga instructor and finding ways to blend it into instruction. Use a maker space to connect to curricular activities, such as developing an animal’s habitat to represent t...

Ty White is the 2023 Arizona Teacher of the Year and was an amazing guest. He teaches Chemistry 1 and Chemistry 2 to high school students. The class is focused on experiences, phenomena, and observing the world around them. He backs those experiences up with the math second. His approach is increasing retention and enrollment in Chemistry 2. The perspective of Ty’s life experiences helps him focus his energy on not allowing students to slip through the cracks. He wants all students to have a ch...