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.