The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast

By using HyperDocs, digital lesson plans that pull together all of a lesson's resources into one place, teachers can make room for more interactive, personalized, and student-directed learning. In this episode, I interview Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis, authors of The HyperDoc Handbook.

For many students, getting into a highly competitive college drives most decisions about where to spend their time and energy. But what if some of these decisions actually hurt their chances of getting in? My guest Shirag Shemmassian, who helps students get admitted to highly selective colleges, shares the three mistakes students make when trying to make themselves stand out in the application process, and what they should be doing instead.

So many teachers have English language learners in class, but the teachers have no training in how to support them. In this episode, I gather tips from three ESL teachers for the most effective ways regular classroom teachers can support these students.

The last day before vacation. After-testing days. The day when the fire drill messes up your plans. What do you do when class is in session, but actual teaching may not be in the cards? I have thirty fantastic ideas.

A digital curation project is a fast way to engage critical thinking in any content area. In this episode, I explain how it works. For links to all the resources mentioned in this episode, visit http://cultofpedagogy.com/curation

Most people who teach at the college level do so without any formal training. In this episode, Norman Eng, author of Teaching College: The Ultimate Guide to Lecturing, Presenting, and Engaging Students, shares five strategies college teachers can use to be more successful in the classroom. To read the full blog post, go to https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/teaching-college

In far too many cases, schools do not support students of color in ways that help them grow to their full potential. My guest, Dena Simmons, shares four specific things teachers could be doing in their classrooms to change this.

Plagiarism is a serious problem for many teachers, and to beat it, we need to go beyond looking for new ways to threaten, catch, and punish students for it. We have to work on prevention. The 5 research-based exercises I describe in this episode will teach students how to avoid plagiarism and weave information from outside sources into their own writing in elegant and ethical ways.

Many of us like the idea of personalized learning, but we don't have many models for making it happen. In this episode, I interview the founders of the Apollo School, a project-based, personalized program built inside a public school that offers a hybrid of English, social studies, and art in one block of time. You'll definitely want to see how they make it work and possibly do the same thing at your school. Thanks to Wes Ward, Greg Wimmer, and Jim Grandi for sharing their experiences with me!

Most teachers struggle with what they might call lazy, unmotivated, or disorganized students. What really works with these learners? In this episode, I interview executive function coach Seth Perler about the systems he uses to help these kids finally reach their potential in school. To read the full blog post that goes with this episode, including links to all resources mentioned, visit 7 Systems that Work for Outside-the-Box Learners.