The Broken Copier

Almost every teacher wants their classroom to be a place where discussion amongst students thrives. Yet the reality is, unfortunately, that classrooms do not always live up to that vision of what they can be in terms of academic, purposeful discussion on a regular basis.Today’s conversation is with Matt Kay, a veteran teacher and coach and also the author of a book on this subject: Prompting Deeper Discussions: A Teacher’s Guide to Crafting Great Questions. In this conversation, Matt shares more about the urgency within this present moment to elevate what discussions look like in our classroom along with reflections on his own experiences as a coach, teacher and leader.To follow more of Matt’s work and/or purchase his books:* Matt’s website* Prompting Deeper Discussions: A Teacher’s Guide to Crafting Great Questions * Not Light, but Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the ClassroomThanks, as always, to:Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

In the previous episode, Jim and Marcus shared about their own experiences with Teach For America—both their motivation for entering into teaching through this program and then their experiences as corps members over their first two years of teaching in rural Arkansas.That led to this second part of the conversation, which this episode features: a back-and-forth about different critiques of Teach For America and the program’s impact on education more broadly, with Jim and Marcus considering how they feel about each critique given their own respective experiences as corps members along with their current perspective now as teachers still in the classroom. Thanks, as always, to:Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Jim’s back! And he wasted no time in recording a two-part episode that has been on the docket for some time: a conversation about Jim and Marcus’s experiences coming into teaching through Teach For America and then, in follow-up episode that will come out later this week, about how they feel about Teach For America’s broader impact on education. In this initial part of the conversation, both Jim and Marcus explain how they ended up joining Teach For America and what those initial years of teaching were like for them—what was good and also, of course, what was difficult. Later this week there will be a Part 2 of this conversation in which Jim and Marcus go back and forth about how they feel now looking back on their experience and Teach For America as an organization overall. (Spoiler: they don’t 100% agree!)Thanks, as always, to:Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

What can a school be? This is a question that today’s guest Carla Meyrink has had to consider constantly since co-founding The Community For Learning in 1998, a school Carla and two others started in Santo Domingo to live out the values of education they believed were best for students.In this conversation, Carla shares about how The Community For Learning school began and the ways they continue to live out the value of community in all facets: student-centered classrooms built around inquiry; responsive professional development amongst teachers; and an ongoing, collective imagining of how school can be better going forward. (Note: there are a few snippets of wind chimes at points in this episode, so feel free to enjoy the summer-themed, very-organic background music!)In order to learn more about Carla and her work, you can follow her journey at her blog, The Teaching Experiment.Thanks, as always, to:Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Last month Tyler Rablin wrote a blog post with a quite-lengthy title: “The Bandaids and Backflips of Surface-level Equitable Grading Practices That Avoid Meaningfully Equitable Grading Reform”That thought-provoking and important post on grading led to this conversation: a discussion that ranges across numerous “grading topics” such as minimum grades, late penalties, and retakes—and considers grading philosophy more holistically, too, making it a great opportunity for teachers and educators to consider their own perspectives, too, as they listen along.In order to find more of Tyler’s work:* Tyler’s website* Tyler’s book: Hacking Student Motivation: 5 Assessment Strategies That Boost Learning Progression and Build Student ConfidenceThanks, as always, to:Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

With the help of several really thoughtful questions from listener and readers—including some from those about to go into the classroom for the first time this upcoming school year!—Adrian Neibauer and Marcus had a chance to reflect on their own perspective as teachers and offer advice on several different topics:* How to establish systems in the classroom, what to do if they aren’t working—and what to do if you feel like the systems in your school building don’t align with your own philosophy of what is best for your students?* Navigating “imposter syndrome,” particularly as an early-career teacher—but also, as Marcus and Adrian note, reckoning with the perpetual dilemma of not feeling as knowledgable as you want to about your content when standing in front of students.* The intersection of “imposter syndrome” and AI, and more broadly how that lens of novice v. expertise is a potentially-helpful way of unpacking different views on AI technology more broadly as far as its utility. * The age-old and always-important question of what to do when you feel overwhelmed by the behavior of students in your classroom.Thank you also Jared Fox, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Sara Love, and many others for tuning into this conversation! (Oh, and if you aren’t subscribed to Adrian’s Newsletter, I highly recommend you take care of that ASAP!) Finally, this is a new format, so feel free to leave feedback in the comments (or email us directly!) to let us know if this is something we should aim to do more often with The Broken Copier! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

A lot of education conversations focus on what is happening in elementary schools and high schools, along with whatever is driving discourse in higher education at the given moment.What gets left out of the conversation too often? Middle school. Fortunately, today’s conversation is with award-winning middle school teacher Joe LaTorre and his vision of what middle school can be for students in the present moment as well as a foundation for what is ahead of them. Both with the work Joe does in his own classroom and school along with his leadership outside of it with the Bridges Program he co-founded, Joe leans into the values of joy and community—and this conversation is a reminder of why we all should continue to dream big about what is possible for our students. If you’re interested in following up with Joe after hearing about his work in this conversation, the best place is his website or email: josephlatorredirect@gmail.com—and you can also find him on most social media platforms, too!Thanks, as always, to:Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Larry Ferlazzo has been a leading voice in education for quite some time. With a weekly advice column for Education Week, 13 different books on education (and a 14th in the works!) as well as his own blog on teaching, Larry has again and again offered guidance and shared his perspective with educators in myriad ways as an award-winning classroom teacher who always centers that classroom perspective in his work. However, this school year was Larry’s final school year in the public school classroom! Fortunately, in his first official week of retirement he was willing to hop on The Broken Copier to share more about his journey, what it is like to be at the classroom finish line, and his perspective on education in this current moment—include some wisdom for those of us still in the classroom.Thanks, as always, to:Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

There is a ton of conversation out there about AI in education right now—but too often, very little of that conversation centers the exploration and learnings of actual teachers from their own classrooms.That is why this conversation is built entirely around the work of Brett Vogelsinger, a current teacher with over two decades of experience in the classroom who just published his second book: Artful AI in Writing Instruction. In this episode, Brett shares what he has learned through his exploration in the classroom with AI as a tool for writing, including conversations and perspectives from his own students as well as other teachers. (Note: Marcus is one of those teachers interviewed for the book.)For those who are curious about Brett’s work who want to read and learn more:* Brett’s first book, Poetry Pauses, which is mentioned in the conversation* Brett’s website, where you can find almost all of his work* You can follow Brett on LinkedIn as well as several other social media platformsThanks, as always, to:Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.Email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening (and tell your friends)! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

For our 20th (!!!) Kicking The Copier episode, the focus is very much singular: the importance of being transparent as a teacher, particularly in your classroom with your students. Not only because of the consequences of failing to be transparent, but more importantly because of the rewards that come with doing so. (Especially in the closing stretch of the year!)As always, thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for contributing their music to The Broken Copier podcast—and also Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden; and Courtney Milavec for graphic design.* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.* Email thoughts and feedback to thebrokencopier@substack.com, and if you want you can record your own thoughts at our Fanlist that might show up on a future episode! (Feel free to also just toss your response in the comments.)Thanks for listening! Share or leave a review if you’re willing, and take care of yourselves as educators as we finish out the school year! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com