The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast

It can ruin even the most carefully designed lessons: An activity you had planned takes way longer than you thought it would. Or worse, it takes way less time. And sometimes it can be both, with some students finishing a task in five minutes while others need half an hour. Getting classroom pacing just right is an art that takes practice and technique. In this episode, I'll share 10 habits you can build into your classroom routine that can prevent many of these problems from happening, or help you deal with them much more effectively when they do. ___________________________ Thanks to Renaissance and Erikson Institute for sponsoring the episode. To read a written version of this podcast, visit cultofpedagogy.com/classroom-timing. To learn more about my upcoming course, Mastering the Lesson Plan, visit cultofpedagogy.com/teaching101.

When a student behaves in a way that disrupts their own learning or someone else's, our response is often limited to a reprimand or a punishment. While this usually stops the undesirable behavior for a while, it doesn't often solve the problem long-term. What has longer-lasting impact is viewing the misbehavior as a sign that a student is missing an important skill, and if they are taught that skill, the behavior should naturally improve. In this episode, we learn more about what this approach looks like in practice from Nathan Maynard, educator and author of the new book, The Science of Discipline. ___________________________ Thanks to Listenwise and Erikson Institute for sponsoring the episode. To read Maynard's article about replacement skills, visit cultofpedagogy.com/replacement-skills. To find Nathan Maynard online, visit HighFive.school. To learn more about The Teacher's Guide to Tech, visit teachersguidetotech.com.

Students are coming to school with more needs than ever, and a lot of those needs aren't strictly academic: anxiety, withdrawal, behavior issues, and learning differences that don't always have quick or obvious solutions. These are problems that often send us to the internet in search of answers, but the nuances of each individual situation can make it hard to find exactly what we need. Ideally, we'd have a colleague with a lot of knowledge and experience who would listen carefully to our problem, ask us questions to make sure they understood it, and offer solutions. Now there's a new platform called Ellis that may be the next best thing. This free, chat-based tool created by the Children's Health Council is designed to give educators practical guidance in those moments when something isn't working and you're not sure what to try next. In this episode, I talk to Cindy Lopez from the CHC about how Ellis works. All educators are invited to give Ellis a try now at askellis.org and see how it works for you!  ___________________________ This episode was sponsored by Ellis. To read a full transcript of this interview or watch a video of how Ellis works, visit cultofpedagogy.com/ellis.

There's been no shortage of conversation about the science of reading over the past several years. But writing barely comes up, even though the two are deeply connected. That's what drew Melanie Meehan and Maggie Roberts to write their new book, Foundational Skills for Writing. The book breaks the larger task of writing into smaller skill categories, including transcription skills, oral language, and executive functioning. In this episode, they share eight of the strategies from the book. Each is from a collection they call "minute moves," quick lessons and exercises that can be done in just a few minutes to build different kinds of writing muscles. They're fun and engaging and if you're someone who teaches writing, I think you're going to love them. ___________________________ Thanks to Renaissance and Erikson Institute for sponsoring the episode. To read a full transcript or find links to Meehan and Roberts' book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/quick-writing-lessons. To learn more about Grammar Gap Fillers, visit cultofpedagogy.com/grammar.

Have you ever watched students sit completely silent in math class, only to come alive the moment they're asked to share an opinion? That's what inspired my guest Chris Luzniak to start bringing debate into his math teaching — and the results have been remarkable. In this episode, Chris walks us through how he turns ordinary math questions into debatable ones, how he gets students making and defending arguments, and why he thinks this approach matters now more than ever. It's a conversation that will make you rethink what math class can look like.  ___________________________ Thanks to Listenwise and Erikson Institute for sponsoring the episode. To read Luzniak's article about math debates, visit cultofpedagogy.com/debate-math. To find Chris online, visit DebateMath.com. To learn more about The Teacher's Guide to Tech, visit teachersguidetotech.com.

When our students face challenges in the classroom, some teachers double down on control and rigor: tighter rules, firmer consequences, higher demands. Others lean toward grace and flexibility: easing up, giving extensions, and softening expectations because they know our students are carrying a lot. But what if the answer isn't either/or? Warm Demander pedagogy is an approach that pairs genuine care and deep relationship-building with unwavering high expectations. It's the belief that students need to feel seen, respected, and valued — and that we honor them most by refusing to lower the bar. In today's episode, I'm joined by educators Marcee Harris and Dr. Wendy Amato. They explain what Warm Demander pedagogy looks like in action, how it supports student agency and productive struggle, and why it's especially relevant for teachers right now. ___________________________ Thanks to Renaissance and SchoolAI for sponsoring the episode. To read Amato and Harris' article about Warm Demander pedagogy, visit cultofpedagogy.com/warm-demanders. To learn more about The Teacher's Guide to Tech, visit teachersguidetotech.com.

Teaching students to write well has always been challenging, and newer developments have made it even more difficult: The internet offers unlimited text to plagiarize, standardized testing has pushed us to teach more formulaic writing, and AI constantly offers to do our writing for us. Frustrated with her students' lack of confidence and the robotic style of their writing, language arts teacher Nashwa Elkoshairi tried adding freewriting before and after her inquiry-based units. The results, she says, were dramatic: Students became more confident as writers and their writing developed far more depth and complexity than she'd ever seen before. In this episode, she joins me to talk about how she weaves freewriting into her classroom practice. ___________________________ Thanks to Renaissance and SchoolAI for sponsoring the episode. To read Dr. Elkoshairi's article about how she uses inquiry-based freewriting, visit cultofpedagogy.com/inquiry-based-freewriting. To learn more about Grammar Gap Fillers, visit cultofpedagogy.com/grammar.

We're kicking off the year like we always do, with a round-up of six educational tech tools we think are worth a look. On the list this year: a site that offers fantastic STEM interactives, an AI-powered collaborative writing platform, a free, web-based sound editor, a tool that can turn any text into an infographic, a library of beautifully produced documentaries on current events, and an incredible project that connects makers with people who need assistive devices. My lead technology specialist, Marnie Diem, joins me to talk about them.  ___________________________ Thanks to foundry10 and SchoolAI for sponsoring the episode. For links to all six tools and videos showing each one in action, visit cultofpedagogy.com/6-ed-tech-tools-2026. ___________________________ To learn more about The Teacher's Guide to Tech, visit teachersguidetotech.com.

We're living in a time when having a difference of opinion is a potential minefield of hurt feelings, emotional outbursts, and severed relationships. If this has caused you to avoid certain topics in your classroom, the growth discourse framework used by the School of Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL) may offer a way to re-engage in these conversations. In this episode, I talk with SEGL founder Noah Bopp about how the growth discourse model works and how teachers can get started using it. ___________________________ Thanks to foundry10 and SchoolAI for sponsoring the episode. To read a full transcript of this conversation and find links to the growth discourse guidelines and the sample lesson plan we talked about in the episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/growth-discourse. To learn more about Grammar Gap Fillers, visit cultofpedagogy.com/grammar.

Neurodivergent educators, like those with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other forms of cognitive diversity, are essential voices in our schools. They bring innovation, empathy, and authenticity. Yet they often work within systems that weren't built with them in mind, and this can make the job of teaching especially challenging. In this episode, we'll learn about the strengths neurodivergent teachers bring to the classroom and strategies that help them thrive from Emily Kircher-Morris, who is a mental health professional, neurodiversity advocate, and host of The Neurodiversity Podcast.  ___________________________ Thanks to foundry10 and SchoolAI for sponsoring the episode. To read Kircher-Morris's article and a full transcript of our conversation, visit cultofpedagogy.com/neurodivergent-teachers. ___________________________ To learn more about The Teacher's Guide to Tech, visit teachersguidetotech.com.

If we're doing our jobs right as educators, students will gradually become independent, self-directed learners capable of monitoring, directing, and actively participating in building their own learning. But what if that's not happening? What if students continue to lean heavily on their teachers for step-by-step instructions on every task, never really taking the learning process into their own hands, and as a result, limiting their growth to only what their teachers happen to spoon feed them? In this episode, author Zaretta Hammond offers five "learn-to-learn" strategies we can coach in our students, moves that build their learning power and boost their cognitive capacity. ___________________________ Thanks to foundry10 and SchoolAI for sponsoring the episode. To read Hammond's article and get links to the book Rebuilding Students' Learning Power, visit cultofpedagogy.com/learn-to-learn. To learn more about The Teacher's Guide to Tech, visit teachersguidetotech.com.

If your teaching requires students to read or work with texts, and things have gotten a little stale in the engagement department, this episode will give you some great new strategies to try. High school English teachers Susan Barber and Brian Sztabnik once felt the same way, so they curated tons of fun, interactive, interesting text-based activities in their new book, 100% Engagement: 33 Lessons to Promote Participation, Beat Boredom, and Deepen Learning in the ELA Classroom. In this episode, they'll share three of their favorites. ______________________________________________________________ Thanks to Solution Tree and Listenwise for sponsoring the episode. For links to the book 100% Engagement and a full transcript of our conversation, visit cultofpedagogy.com/text-engagement-strategies. To learn more about Grammar Gap Fillers, visit cultofpedagogy.com/grammar.

Concept maps are graphic organizers or visual representations of knowledge. They're simple, they're low-tech, and they're incredibly powerful tools for learning. In this episode, cognitive scientist Dr. Kripa Sundar explains why concept maps are so impactful, then shares a handful of specific practices that will help you make the best use of them. Also joining us is Dr. Pooja Agarwal, editor of the book Smart Teaching Stronger Learning, which includes a chapter on concept mapping along with nine other high-impact teaching strategies. ______________________________________________________________ Thanks to Solution Tree and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. For links to the book and a full transcript of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/concept-maps. To learn more about the Teacher's Guide to Tech, visit teachersguidetotech.com.

At a time when test-driven reform has quieted student voices and marginalized perspectives are being pushed aside, we need student voice and agency more than ever. In this episode, I'm joined by Shane Safir, Marlo Bagsik, Sawsan Jaber, and Crystal Watson, authors of the new book, Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency. The book offers a "seed store" of small, replicable classroom practices that help students reflect, speak, and act with purpose. Each of the four authors shares one or two of their favorite practices that teachers can use right away to help students grow into thoughtful, empowered participants in their learning. ______________________________________________________________ Thanks to Solution Tree and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. For links to the book and a full transcript of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/pod and choose episode 260.

Project-based learning can be a powerful instructional framework, but it is often structured in ways that exclude students who need a different approach. Too often, PBL becomes a space where accommodations and differentiation fall by the wayside. The good news is that we don't have to abandon PBL or dramatically overhaul it to make it work for diverse learners. In this episode, author and educator John Spencer shares five small but thoughtful structural changes we can make that will allow every student to thrive in a project-based environment. ______________________________________________________________ Thanks to EVERFI and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. To read John's post, visit cultofpedagogy.com/accessible-pbl. To learn more about the PBL Master Course bundle, click HERE and use the code pedagogy at checkout to take an extra $20 off!

Answering student questions is faster in the moment, but redirecting is better in the long run. The next time a student asks you a question, pause before answering and see if you can point them toward finding the answer themselves.  ------------------- Thanks to Brisk Teaching for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

Sometimes the best instructional materials are sitting right in our classrooms. At a time when AI threatens to make human writing obsolete, using students' own work as a teaching tool offers a wonderfully authentic alternative. In this episode, educator Marcus Luther joins me to share four ways he uses student exemplars to teach craft lessons, build student confidence, practice giving feedback, and foster a much-needed sense of belonging. ______________________________________________________________ Thanks to Solution Tree and The School Me Podcast for sponsoring this episode. To read Marcus's post and see photos of these practices in his classroom, visit cultofpedagogy.com/student-exemplars.

We're living in troubling times. When you're surrounded by so much chaos and confusion, it can be hard to figure out where to put your focus and energy. At a time like this, it might not make sense to talk about joy, but that's what were going to do in this episode. My guest is Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, author of the book Cultivating Genius and the 2023 follow-up, Unearthing Joy. We sat down to talk about about why joy is essential in our lives and in our teaching practice. She shares how to bring more joy into your classroom right now, how it connects to justice, and why it's an essential survival skill for teachers. This conversation gave me hope, and I hope it does the same for you. ______________________________________________________________ Thanks to EVERFI and The School Me Podcast for sponsoring this episode. For links to Dr. Muhammad's books and a full transcript of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/joy-gholdy-muhammad.

The practice of collecting supplies and distributing them to all students over the school year has become a common practice in elementary schools. Unfortunately, not all parents are happy with it, and much of the trouble stems from a few key misunderstandings. In this episode, my guest Julie Lause explains why schools use these systems and how they ensure that time in class is used effectively and every student gets the best education possible. Thanks to Alpaca and the EVERFI for sponsoring this episode. To read Julie's guest post, visit cultofpedagogy.com/community-supplies. You can find Julie on TikTok at @thebossyhouse

If the thought of decorating your classroom fills you with anxiety, or if you're just ready to try something different, I have good stuff for you. In this episode, educator and author Tom Rademacher shares two simple activities he did at the beginning of every school year to get to know his students AND fill the walls of his classroom with beautiful, personal, meaningful student products: The One Word Wall and the What You Bring project. Thanks to Alpaca and the EVERFI for sponsoring this episode. To read Tom's guest post and find links to his books, visit cultofpedagogy.com/classroom-decor-one-word. If you do these projects with your students, share photos on social media with the hashtag #onewordwall so we can see!

As a life-long reader, English teacher Dan Tricarico wanted to bring the love of reading to his high school students, but the constant, irresistible presence of digital media made for tough competition. Rather than seeking out a high-tech solution, he brought back simplicity in the form of daily silent reading, and to his surprise, most of his students really took to it. In this episode, he shares his experience in the hopes that more teachers will resurrect this classic practice in their own classrooms.  Thanks to Alpaca and the School Me Podcast for sponsoring this episode. To read Dan's guest post and find links to his books, visit cultofpedagogy.com/silent-reading.

Although most teachers understand that not all students have the same home life, sometimes we forget how big those differences can really be, and how humiliating it can be for a student to be asked to publicly share details about their lives outside of school. In this EduTip we'll talk about some situations where this comes up, and what you can do to prevent it from happening.  ------------------- Thanks to Studyo for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

Most special education efforts have focused on giving students with disabilities better access to the curriculum — but access alone isn't enough. In this episode, I talk with Amy Tondreau and Laurie Rabinowitz, authors of the book Sustaining Cultural and Disability Identities in the Literacy Classroom, about disability-sustaining pedagogy, a framework that helps students embrace disability as a cultural identity. We explore practical ways teachers can make their classrooms more inclusive, empowering, and identity-affirming for disabled students. Thanks to Alpaca and the School Me Podcast for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and find links to related resources, visit cultofpedagogy.com/disability-sustaining.

If you want to have the kind of classroom where students do more than just sit and listen, it's likely that your plans may include activities that require some social risk-taking. One way to help your students get more comfortable taking these small social risks is for you to be the first dork, the first one to do the thing that no one else wants to do because they're afraid of looking weird or being vulnerable.  ------------------- Thanks to Studyo for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

While the shift to restorative practices should be improving student behavior, that's not happening in every school. Some teachers say the discipline systems at their schools have completely broken down, creating an environment where students do whatever they want with no consequences. This has made teachers feel frustrated, angry, unsupported, and in some cases, unsafe. What has gone wrong? In this episode, I have an in-depth conversation about this issue with restorative justice educator bink jones and trauma-informed educator Alex Shevrin Venet. Both educators are well aware that restorative practices are getting a bad rap for all the wrong reasons, they unequivocally validate the frustrations teachers are experiencing, and they explain what they think is going wrong in schools that aren't seeing good results from this framework. They offer a path forward for educators who are desperate for a healthy, respectful, productive climate in their schools. Thanks to ExploreLearning and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and find links to related resources, visit cultofpedagogy.com/discipline-reform.

If I give my students an exit slip to check their grasp of a particular skill, and a third of them don't do well, just moving forward with my original teaching plan is a missed opportunity. Ideally, my next steps should involve some kind of targeted response. Let's talk about what that looks like. ------------------- Thanks to Studyo for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

Since ChatGPT's arrival in late 2022, the top concern I've heard from teachers is that students will stop doing their own writing and rely entirely on AI. While that worry is real, more teachers are recognizing that AI is here to stay and are looking for ways to work with it rather than against it. My guest today, Tony Frontier, offers one of the most insightful takes I've seen on this issue. In his new book AI With Intention and in our conversation, he shares clear, practical strategies for helping students use AI responsibly and maintain academic integrity. Thanks to ExploreLearning and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and find links to more retrieval practice resources, visit cultofpedagogy.com/ai-integrity.

Lots of teachers give students some kind of questionnaire at the beginning of a school year to get to know them, but what do you do with that information after you get it? By putting responses into a spreadsheet, you'll have a relationship-building tool you can use all year. ------------------- Thanks to Studyo for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

Retrieval practice is the act of trying to recall something you learned from memory by doing things like taking a test or using flashcards instead of just looking at, rereading, or reviewing the information. When we study with retrieval, we learn and remember things much better than we do by other review methods. So how do we add more to our classrooms? In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Pooja Agarwal, editor of the book Smart Teaching Stronger Learning, and two of the book's authors, Dr. Janell Blunt and Dr. Michelle Rivers, to learn nine simple, easy, and fun retrieval strategies that can be added to any lesson. Thanks to Zearn and EVERFI for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and find links to more retrieval practice resources, visit cultofpedagogy.com/retrieval-in-action.

We talk a lot about differentiating instruction, measuring growth, and preparing students for the real world, but how do you actually do that in a system still driven by grades? Maybe you need a new model altogether. In this episode, we're exploring an approach to school called competency-based learning. I'm joined by three educators — Susie Bell, Heather Messer, and Beth Blankenship — who show us what this model actually looks like in classrooms. They share real teaching examples, how they assess growth over time, and how the Mastery Transcript Consortium supports this work. Thanks to Zearn and EVERFI for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and get more resources on competency-based learning, visit cultofpedagogy.com/competency-based-learning.

Grammar has never been an especially popular area of study, and teaching it has frustrated many English teachers throughout time. It seems like no matter how hard we try, the concepts just don't stick as well as we'd like them to. In this episode, I'm talking to Matthew Johnson, author of the new book Good Grammar: Joyful and Affirming Language Lessons That Work for More Students, about some truly fresh approaches he takes to grammar instruction (I definitely never tried them!). They have worked so well that his students now say grammar is their favorite part of his class — definitely worth a listen!  Thanks to Zearn and EVERFI for sponsoring this episode. And to learn more about Grammar Gap Fillers, go to cultofpedagogy.com/grammar. To read Matt's article and get links to his book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/grammar-stinks/.

Research shows that adding physical or hand gestures to a learning experience, especially ones that have some meaning to them, can significantly boost how well students understand and remember the content.  ------------------- Thanks to Class Composer for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

This episode is for everyone and anyone. In it, I'll share five techniques that will encourage any person you're talking to to go a little more in-depth, share a little bit more, and most importantly, feel seen, heard, and understood.  Thanks to Boclips Classroom and EVERFI for sponsoring this episode. For a written version of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/listening-skills.

If you're doing an activity that requires students or participants to volunteer to participate, this is a fun way to choose them. ------------------- Thanks to Class Composer for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

Recent executive orders have launched an attack on teaching for diversity, equity, and inclusion. How do you teach at this precarious time in history when so much work has been done to weave these values into so many of our materials and practices? The more I think about it, the more I think you may not have to change as much as it might seem. When I look over the years of articles and podcast episodes I have done in the service of supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, so many of the practices I've had the privilege to share would never get flagged by these directives. I thought it might be helpful for me to curate some of the most important teaching recommendations that have come through my platform for addressing inequities in schools. Thanks to Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. For links to all the resources mentioned in this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/dei-under-attack.

You can create the most spectacular lesson plans, but if all of your students aren't in the room when those plans are executed, catching them up can be kind of a nightmare. And despite the fact that this has been a problem for generations, few teachers have ever figured out a foolproof plan for solving it. My guest today has an approach that can help. Robert Barnett is co-founder of the Modern Classrooms Project and the author of a new book, Meet Every Learner's Needs: Redesigning Instruction So All Learners Can Succeed. In this episode, Rob is going to explain how his approach, which ultimately evolved into the framework Modern Classrooms uses, helped him solve the problem of student absences in his own classroom. And he'll show us how any teacher can get started with it in a very simple way. Thanks to Boclips Classroom and Zearn for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and get links to Robert's book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/absent-students.

One of the best-kept secrets in teaching is that frequent quizzing leads to better learning. If you can incorporate more ungraded or low-stakes quizzes into your instruction, there's a good chance your students will start remembering more of what they're learning. Learn about the research behind this phenomenon in this EduTip. ------------------- Thanks to Explore Learning for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

When we make certain choices, often without even realizing it, we can turn a teaching moment from one that should be clear into one that's confusing. Luckily, these choices are pretty easy to spot and fix once we know what to look for, and cognitive science can help us understand what's going on. In this episode I'm going to talk about three of these with Blake Harvard, who writes the Effortful Educator blog and has just published a new book, Do I Have Your Attention? Understanding Memory Constraints and Maximizing Learning. Thanks to Boclips Classroom and Brisk Teaching for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and get links to Blake's book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/cognitive-overload.

In a classroom that is emotionally "cool," no one is preoccupied with any kind of anger, hurt feelings, anxiety, or fear, and this frees them up to concentrate on academics. One way to make that happen is by using neutral language: By choosing words that are less judgy and more neutral, we keep things professional, calm, and cool.  ------------------- Thanks to Explore Learning for sponsoring this EduTip! You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips. ------------------

As our understanding of the human mind gets more sophisticated and nuanced, we're learning how to identify neurodivergence, how to appreciate it, and how to help those who fit under that umbrella navigate the world better. In this episode I'm joined by Emily Kircher-Morris and Amanda Morin, authors of the new book Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools. The book offers all kinds of specific guidance that will help teachers reshape their classrooms into places that offer flexible options for students with a wide range of "wiring." In today's episode, they'll share four actionable changes you can make right now to begin that reshaping. Thanks to Boclips Classroom and Brisk Teaching for sponsoring this episode. To read a full transcript of this episode and get links to all the resources we talk about, visit cultofpedagogy.com/neurodiversity-affirming/.

As you move through your career, you'll discover new ways of doing things that you're excited about — so excited that you want to share them with colleagues and convince them to try them, too. But trained professionals aren't always open to changing the way they work, and we don't want to come off as the know-it-all telling everyone what to do. So the most effective way to share a new idea is to talk about it in terms of "I." ------------------- Thanks to Grouper for sponsoring this EduTip! You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips. ------------------

To become skilled readers, our students need reading instruction in all of their classes, not just English language arts. But if other subject-area teachers don't know how to support readers, how can they do this? In this episode, literacy expert Jen Serravallo walks us through the steps of a close reading lesson, one of nine re-usable lesson structures she offers in her new book, Teaching Reading Across the Day. By the time you're done with this episode, you'll be able to teach a close reading lesson yourself. Thanks to Wix Tomorrow and Brisk Teaching for sponsoring this episode. To read a transcript of this episode, links to Jen's book, and a video of Jen teaching a close reading lesson, visit cultofpedagogy.com/pod and choose episode 242.

When student behavior starts driving you bananas, and you feel like you're going to yell, this simple notebook technique can regulate your nervous system and calm your class down fast. ------------------- Thanks to Grouper for sponsoring this EduTip! You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips. -------------------

It's our annual round-up of tools for educators, and this time along with it, we're announcing the launch of the online version of our Teacher's Guide to Tech! This year we're talking about three new AI tools, a platform for creating interactive lessons, a video editor, and a tool that makes text more accessible to everyone, plus a replacement for any teacher who really misses Flip! My lead technology specialist, Marnie Diem, joins me to talk about them. Thanks to Alpaca and Brisk Teaching for sponsoring this episode. To see videos of these tools in action, visit cultofpedagogy.com/6-ed-tech-tools-2025.

It can happen to the best of us — classroom management deteriorating over time. Don't despair! By figuring out where the problems are, you can turn things back around. My guest is Claire English, who runs an incredible platform called The Unteachables, where she shows teachers how to manage their classrooms with confidence and calm. We talk about three reasons why classroom management can fall apart midway through a school year and what teachers can do to get things heading back in the right direction. Thanks to Scholastic Magazines+ and Alpaca for sponsoring this episode. For a full transcript of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/pod and choose episode 240.  Learn more from Claire through her courses*, That'll Teach 'Em and The Low Level Behaviour Bootcamp. and her membership site, The Behaviour Club,.   *I am an affiliate of the Unteachables Academy. This means Cult of Pedagogy receives a commission on every purchase made through these links.

Multitasking isn't great for our brains, it compromises our mental health, and ultimately it doesn't even work, but that doesn't stop many of us from trying to do it all the time. What we may not realize is that it also sneaks into our classrooms and interferes with learning, and it's happening in ways you may not even notice. In today's episode, I'm talking with cognitive scientist Megan Sumeracki about the pitfalls multitasking creates in schools, and what we can do to avoid them. -------------------------------------------- Thanks to The Gilder Lehrman Institute and Alpaca for sponsoring this episode. For a full transcript of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/pod and choose episode 239.

For many this week, the discomfort and pain of living side by side with people who see the world so differently from us has hit hard. But this is where we are right now, and we can either succumb to our current divide and let it get bigger, or keep trying to figure out how to close it. Though I didn't plan it this way, this week's podcast just happens to address one of the ways we might start to do that in our classrooms. I'm talking with Peter Johnston, author of Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning, about the prompts and phrases teachers can use to equip students not to avoid or be afraid of differences, but to approach them as opportunities to learn.  -------------------------------------------- Thanks to The Gilder Lehrman Institute and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. For a full transcript of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/democratic-classroom.

Books are one of the most powerful ways to learn about others and about ourselves. But for that learning to happen, we need a wide range of stories that represent a whole spectrum of people and lives. In many schools and classrooms, however, the offerings are far too narrow. Curating the kind of library that truly reflects the diversity of human experience takes time, intention, money, and good tools. This episode will help you make that happen. Joining me are three exceptional librarians — Cicely Lewis, Julia Torres, and Julie Stivers — who share their advice for building more inclusive collections. They also recommend a handful of outstanding titles to add to your shelves. Thanks to Scholastic Magazines+ and Alpaca for sponsoring this episode. For a full transcript of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/pod and choose episode 237.

Any time we teach our students something, we need to check to see how well they learned it. If we only do this check at the very end, after all the teaching is done, and we find that our students haven't learned the material, it's too late to do anything about it. That's why we really need to do formative assessment — checking along the way — so if there are problems, we can fix them. In this episode, we're talking about five important things we need to do to make sure we get formative assessment right. Joining me are two people who really understand what works in education: The Marshall Memo's master curator Kim Marshall, and Jenn David-Lang, the mind behind The Main Idea. Together they have published the Best of the Marshall Memo website, a fantastic, free collection of the best ideas in education. Thanks to Scholastic Magazines+ and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. For a full transcript of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/effective-formative-assessment/.

If our students are going to thrive, they all need to feel safe, accepted, and loved while under our care. This week, we're focusing on what that looks like when it comes to gender-expansive students — kids whose gender expression or identity is different from what they were assigned at birth. For these students, creating a school that feels safe and accepting isn't simply a matter of being nice to them; there are some specific do's and don'ts that can make a huge difference in how they experience school. My guest is Dave Edwards, an educator who teaches these principles through his website, Gender Inclusive Schools, and his brand-new book of the same name. As the parent of a transgender daughter who has experienced discrimination, Dave's mission is a personal one. In this episode, he shares specific things schools can do to proactively create safe learning environments for these students. Thanks to The Wired Classroom and Listenwise for sponsoring this episode. For links to Dave's book and a full transcript of our conversation, visit cultofpedagogy.com/gender-inclusive-school.