This episode is about Constructivist Learning. Here’s a definition from the University of Buffalo:
Constructivism is the theory that says learners construct knowledge rather than just passively take in information. As people experience the world and reflect upon those experiences, they build their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing knowledge (schemas).
I grew up in the pretty rolling eastern part of Ohio. We had beautiful woods behind my house. As a boy, I’d wander those woods. I couldn’t tell a maple from an oak, but I loved being in those tall trees.

In science class, my attention often wandered and my grades suffered. But the hands-on parts engaged me more. One project I actually loved and it made a lasting impression. In one of my high school science classes, I don’t even remember which, we were tasked to collect leaf specimens for a display and a presentation. For a week after football practice, I would wander the woods behind our house and collect colorful leaves. It was exhilarating. I learned a bunch about the trees that I had always appreciated but knew little about. I filtered my new knowledge through my extensive experience of walking in those woods. I developed a new understanding of how the forest functioned. As I learned about the trees I became passionate about sharing my new knowledge, my passion, and my interpretation of the natural beauty behind my house. I became curious about trees and sought more information. I still vividly remember this project and virtually nothing else about that science class. This project was assigned to me over 4 decades ago!

When I ask students to recall powerful learning experiences, they often point to something similar. It could be a capstone project or a breakthrough where they finally learned how to do something or mastered a skill. In most cases, students point to a memory where they were actively making sense of something—like the differences in the trees in the woods behind my house.
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Now, consider every class that you’ve been assigned to teach. If you’re like me, and I’ll wager that you are, you must figure out the curriculum guide or the syllabus. It becomes like a hands-on science project and is often confusing at first. It only starts to make sense once you implement your spin informed by your perspective. When I teach a new class, my lessons generally end up looking quite different from whoever taught the class previously. Of course, in the opinion of your humble narrator, my version of the class is always superior.

The process that I just described is Constructivist Learning. All learners, including teachers preparing to teach a class, construct meaning from their own perspective. This may lead to diverse understanding and creations, but that’s okay. We educators should embrace this variety.

On the other hand, I often ask my students, “How would you do if you had to retake last semester’s final exams?” Most grimace and predict that they wouldn’t do well. This is depressing. It points to the reality that many educators assess a lot of short-term memory. I’m not trying to come off as superior. I’ve done my share of it too. However, such learning events don’t make much of an impression.

And this dear listener is where Kennedy Borcoman makes a dramatic appearance.

Summer vacation is getting long in the tooth. A number of years ago, I would’ve been staring down the calendar because football practice starts next week in Ohio. It’s sad to see summer wane, but it is what we do for a living. And, even though it’s hard to go back, as soon as you step in front of those students—it just feels right.

Today, I’m going to give you a magnificent idea for the first day of school. I’m teaching a brand new class this fall. It’s EDUC 313 Curriculum and Design. I’m determined to engage my 3rd and 4th year students right out of the chutes. I’m also determined to demonstrate to them how they can start creating an outstanding learning environment once they become the teachers in the very near future. I want to read from the Ohio Teacher Evaluation Rubric. This is under the domain Classroom Environment. To score accomplished on the rubric, you had to do the following:

The teacher and students have collaboratively established consistent use of routines, procedures and transitions that are effective in maximizing instructional time. On-task behavior is evident and ensured by students. Students initiate responsibility for effective operation of the classroom.

I think this is a great objective. Congratulations Ohio. I’m going to certainly attempt to do that starting on Day 1. I’m going to draw inspiration from the British Isles and 807 years ago. The Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215. By doing so, he became a monarch whose power was limited. He agreed to certain demands of his nobles in the process. Since then, the United Kingdom has been a beacon of good government. I had a pretty rugged Biology teacher in high school. On the first day, he informed us that the class was not a democracy and he was a benevolent dictator. Certainly, there’s a middle ground. I’m guessing that Magna Carta Jigsaw lesson will inspire you!

Liz Jorgensen is an all star high school English teacher from Wisconsin. Her brand new book
Hacking Student Learning Habits just hit Amazon’s virtual shelves. I’m confident that you’ll be inspired to check out this book after listening to this interview. Liz articulates how she utilizes empathy to inspire learning. We also talk a lot about assessment—hence the title of this podcast episode. What I particularly love about Liz is that she’s not self-promotional. She supplies oodles of examples of inspirational tactics from various subjects and grade levels.

You’ll hear us discuss:
why she decided to write the book
her ideas on assessment
how to help students thrive
inspiring intrinsic motivation
student feedback
authentic purpose
growth mindset

Just maybe, Liz has an idea that’ll transform your classroom. So sit back and absorb and consider.

It’s sad to hear reports of so many educators becoming discouraged. Some are considering leaving the profession. If that’s you, or you have a friend or colleague who's struggling, you selected the right podcast.
In the last episode I interviewed Jim Mahoney and we addressed this theme of the teacher exodus. I feel so passionately about this topic that I decided to dedicate an entire episode to it and I have the perfect guest.

Michale Brilla made a move from classroom instruction to technology coach in 2019. Last year, he was given the option to stay in that role or return to the classroom. He obviously chose the latter and this episode is why he opted to return, everything he missed in exile, and what his triumphant renaissance has been like. This is an important episode. Please consider Michael’s compelling message as you go through your evaluation.

It’s heartbreaking to hear about all of the talented educators who are strongly considering cashing in their chips and exiting the classroom. This is not a good thing. Their students need them and quitting may not be the right move for discouraged educators. I can say this with confidence because I vamoosed from education after my 7th year. I was fortunate to be able to hightail it back into the classroom after just a 6 month hiatus. If you quit now, you may never return even if you want to.

A few years after my rather intense exile. I had the opportunity to hear Jim Mahoney speak at a professional development. I was excited to hear him because he was the superintendent at my home school. I hadn’t met him yet, but my mom and dad knew him and they liked him.

2 sentences into Jim Mahoney’s presentation, I was hooked. This guy was engaging, funny, and highly relevant. I vividly remember one animated part of his presentation when he was talking about teacher frustration. He clenched his fists, scrunched his face, and then he empathized. As he was clenching and scrunching, he said the following:

When you folks (we were an audience of k12 teachers) start wondering, Why do I keep doing this?

The rest of his presentation was a powerful answer to this rhetorical question. It was a pure shot of educational areniline. I left that auditorium thinking, Man, I’m glad I’m back in the classroom. I’m not leaving again till retirement.

Jim and I later connected. We catch up with one another at least annually. I love the guy and I’m not alone. Jim Mahoney is education royalty in Ohio. His resume is as impressive as it is diverse. But that’s not why I invited him on this show. Jim just authored a book called To Lead is to Teach. If you, or anyone you know, are considering leaving the classroom, this book will probably give you hope and will at least give you pause. If you’re not considering leaving, read it anyway and be inspired and feel great about being part of this magical calling.

It’s been a while since I published an episode. There’s a reason for that. I’ve been busy developing a new podcast. The Retired Teacher Coach Podcast debuted in the last week of 2021. It’s based on my coaching practice. My elevator pitch for my coaching goes as follows:

I help retired educators make awesome health and lifestyle choices.

While my niche is retired educators, I work with clients that are not educators and clients who are not retired. Each episode of my new show follows a template similar to the Hacking Engagement Podcast. I’ll identify a problem and offer solutions.

Please don’t worry about the Hacking Engagement Podcast. It’s not ending. There’ll be more episodes in the future.

But for today I wanted to share an episode of my new podcast. This episode has been very well received and I’ll wager that it’ll inspire you regardless of your age or your occupation status.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe to The Retired Teacher Coach Podcast on Apple, Google, or Spotify.

One of my passions since the semi-return to normal instruction in hopefully the receding wake of COVID, is to retain successful aspects of virtual instruction and then to include them in-person instruction. I’ve heard a lot of students and instructors say, “I never want to be on another Zoom call again.” Well, that’s not realistic. There were aspects of virtual instruction that facilitated learning. We need to keep those.

In this episode, four powerful virtual tactics will be explored. Granted, each of these ideas is much older than the pandemic and had been utilized extensively in in-person instruction, but they were particularly well-suited to virtual instruction and they should absolutely be included now in face-to-face learning. Here are the four tactics:

the use of a virtual interactive syllabus
populating the virtual syllabus with highly interactive HyperDocs
incorporating higher level thinking prompts
utilizing landing pads where students can submit work and then collaborate

To help me explore these ideas, I conscripted Ethan Miller—a primary source. Ethan is an education major at Muskingum University. He’s been in a class I taught in-person and one that I taught virtually. He’s passionate about how much better in-person instruction is, but he’s coming around to virtual learning’s potential. He’s the perfect guest for this episode and he’s going to be a magnificent teacher.

Imagine a high school girl from Texas deciding to venture to Denmark as an exchange student. Talk about a culture and a climate shock. I’m describing the young Jennifer Burke-Hansen. What’s interesting about Jennifer is that she became enchanted with this tiny nation of 6 million on the scenic Jutland Peninsula. So much so that she’s resided there for the last three decades and taught high school for the bulk of her stay.

Jennifer embodies the growth mindset. She continually pushes herself outside of her comfort zone. Teaching school is hard enough in your hometown. Imagine teaching in a different culture where the students don’t even speak your native language.

The challenges of returning to in person instruction this fall is making many anxious. Jennifer is here to help. She’s offering free training entitled How to create your personalized back-to-school reEntry plan! Just click on the link to access. Here’s also a post from her reEnchanting Teaching Blog. The post is titled Redefine your Normal. I love this idea and we talk about teaching in the post-COVID world a lot in this episode. I also love the theme of her blog reEnchanting Teaching. I was a successful teacher, but there were seasons in my career where I had doubts. Jennifer’s blog addresses questioning educators. You’re not alone and Jennifer is here to help.

I’m going to describe a student. I’ll bet you can picture one similar. This kid seems unenthused by many of the prompts and activities that are issued or done in class. It isn’t that they are incapable, in fact just the opposite. They master directives quickly and effortlessly. Unfortunately, they complete their efforts without much enthusiasm. The student feels stuck in the endless wave of mundane requirements that overpopulate the typical k12 experience. They are disillusioned with the one size fits all approach to education.

I’ll bet you can think of a student like this. Picture that young person in your mind. I’ll bet you worked hard to personalize this their instruction to give them room to grow and explore. Such efforts on your part are noble and I applaud you for it. But the fact remains that we probably don’t offer students enough intellectual freedom. We probably don’t leverage curiosity enough.

And this dear listener is where Collin Jewett makes a dramatic appearance. Collin was a classic bored student, but he doesn’t come to my podcast to vent. He’ll vent a little, but he’s more interested in helping. Think of Collin as a customer who actually completes a consumer feedback prompt and does so in the spirit of constructive criticism. We can learn a lot from students and former students like Collin if we have the courage and humility to listen.

I think that every educator has heard the following, “I didn’t do well on this assessment because I have test anxiety.” The fact that every teacher has heard this should be a red flag. Certainly, a bit of test anxiety is healthy—I mean you have to be motivated enough to study. The problem is when test anxiety results in diminished performance. Not only is this stressful and demoralizing, but it also creates inaccurate results. We need to do assessment better.

Assessment should be less like judgement day and more like growth events. And this is where Aaron Cook, the Director of Secondary Curriculum and Assessment at the Delaware City Schools in suburban Columbus, makes a dramatic appearance. Aaron is an assessment savant. In this episode, he’ll promote assessing the whole child. My wife and I strive to eat a whole foods diet. We feel a lot better when we’re not scarfing down all of those preservatives that we can’t pronounce. A whole child approach to assessment will be just as healthy. Not only will Aaron’s ideas inspire you to empower your students through assessment, but he’ll also guide you to creating much more accurate probes.