The Broken Copier

Jim already had his first day of school, and Marcus is about to start. Whether you’ve got your Q1 seating charts locked in, or are just starting to dust off the work laptop, we’re all getting ready for another exciting year in the classroom. In this episode, Marcus asks Jim about his thoughts on what makes for a strong start to the year, and Jim talks about a new exit ticket strategy that’s already working wonders.We’ve also hit a few milestones with our little teacher pod over here. First, it’s been a full year for Marcus & Jim podcasting together on TBC, so happy anniversary to us! And, better yet, we’ve officially crossed 5k podcast downloads. Pretty small compared to the pros, but not bad for a few teacher hobbyists. Thank you to everyone who has participated in this community, and who keeps doing the good work in schools. Thoughts or advice? You can leave us an audio message for the next episode:podinbox.com/brokencopierThanks 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 thoughts to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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 this third episode of “Kicking the Copier,” our series of shorter solo episodes, Marcus reflects on how shifting the way teachers return our feedback to students can make a substantive impact on the culture of growth in our classrooms—and he offers three different steps to make for what he believes is a better feedback-return system.Here’s the link to one of the slide decks I used for this type of feedback!As always, thanks to the following: 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.Email thoughts to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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

This is the second episode “Kicking the Copier”: a series of shorter solo episodes where we offer not a solution necessarily but rather an idea for teachers, akin to a copier kick, based on our own experience and thinking. These won’t be long, under 10 minutes, but we hope they can be valuable in offering ideas and also potentially beginning conversations around topics worth having conversations about. Because sometimes kicking the broken copier works, right? Today’s topic: a reflection by Marcus on two questions he intends to ask himself daily going into the new school year—questions that he believes can help cut through all the responsibilities and distractions a teacher has to navigate within the classroom. And two questions that, if answered, make the classroom much better for students.As always, thanks to the following: 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.Email thoughts to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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

This past week a report from the Center for Reinventing Public Education received a lot of coverage—including as fuel for a WSJ editorial—and then subsequent reaction for its targeted blame towards…you guessed it: teachers. Needless to say, Jim and Marcus weren’t happy about this at all—especially after digging into the rather-barebones report and seeing how disconnected the framing and coverage of it was from the actual “data” it was built upon. In this episode, Jim and Marcus discuss not only the contents of the report but also the way it has been covered and, more broadly, the implications of how quickly and haphazardly narratives can be formed in the current moment. Spoiler: buckle up for two not-happy-at-all teachers.Links to referenced report and coverage articles:* Full CRPE report link* Education Week article covering report* Wall Street Journal editorial based on reportThanks 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 thoughts to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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

This is the first episode “Kicking the Copier”: a series of shorter solo episodes where we offer not a solution necessarily but rather an idea for teachers, akin to a copier kick, based on our own experience and thinking. These won’t be long, under 10 minutes, but we hope they can be valuable in offering ideas and also potentially beginning conversations around topics worth having conversations about. Because sometimes kicking the broken copier works, right? Today’s topic: a reflection by Marcus on why being overly concerned with trying to catch students cheating—particularly with the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence tools in education—might not be the best mindset for teachers to hold. As always, thanks to the following: 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 thoughts to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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

The dog days are in full swing, and we wish all the teachers out there a wonderful, restful, well-earned July. In this episode, Marcus and Jim connect to talk about how they solicit and respond to student feedback, especially as they look forward to the fall. Using Marcus’s recent Edutopia article, they discuss how this type of feedback process looks in their classrooms, and the importance of bringing students into curricular decisions in meaningful ways.SPOILER ALERT: Around 33 minutes, they also talk about season 2 of FX’s The Bear, since they’re both big fans of the show, and thought there are tons of interesting ways the different characters, conflicts, and themes in the show intersect with teaching.We’d love to hear your thoughts & ideas that help you make grading efficient, fair, and do its most essential job–provide meaningful, actionable feedback for students to improve. You can leave us an audio message for the next episode:podinbox.com/brokencopierThanks 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 thoughts to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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 this episode, Brett Vogelsinger joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Poetry Pauses: Teaching with Poems to Elevate Student Writing in All Genres. Brett shares about the background of his book as well as the numerous benefits he has found in “pausing for a poem” in the classroom—especially as a way to improve student thinking and writing in a much broader sense. This isn’t just an episode for English teachers, either. Brett and Marcus talk about what it means to bring something “new” into any classroom, and how leaning into a new, innovative system can open myriad doors for students and teachers alike. Interested in getting the book yourself? You can find it at the publisher’s website, https://us.corwin.com/books/poetry-pauses-282912Thanks 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. As always, you can email thoughts and feedback to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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 conversation between Jim and Marcus about how their classrooms came to a close to finish the school year as well as some “teacher takeaways” from the year overall as they look forward. Though at times it dips into the weeds of HS English pedagogy and particulars, this episode tries to dive into the thinking and reflection of two different teachers about how to best “end” a classroom community—and then moves into a broader reflection on wins from the year that they will try to carry into the next school year. (After a much-needed summer break, of course.)Thanks 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. As always, you can email thoughts and feedback to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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 welcomes back Elizabeth Jorgensen with Dr. Lucy Park for a conversation about teaching Sijo–a traditional Korean poetry form. Similar to Haiku, Sijo offers students an accessible poetry structure to learn, play with, and develop their own creative voices and identities as writers. Liz and Lucy have recently published an award-winning book, Sijo: Kore’s Poetry Form, that offers teachers background of the form, beautiful collections of famous Sijo, award-winning student samples, and lesson plans."SIJO: Korean Poetry” (Edited by Lucy Park and Elizabeth Jorgensen) is sold on Amazon. Also, complimentary copies of this book are available for educators who teach SIJO in classes in the USA. Send an email to sejongculturalsociety@gmail.com.Online Sijo course for teachers: https://www.sejongculturalsociety.org/events/sijo/online.php Sijo poems are going to the moon in The Polaris Trilogy. Learn more in this YouTube interview.We’d love to hear your thoughts & ideas that help you make grading efficient, fair, and do its most essential job–provide meaningful, actionable feedback for students to improve. You can leave us an audio message for the next episode:podinbox.com/brokencopierThanks 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 thoughts to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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

We’ve finally made time in between walking the dogs, cooking, parenting, attempting to work out every once in a while, and our wildly easy teaching jobs with tons of flexible time built in. Seriously though, folks, there’s more to say about grading. In this episode, we took a deeper dive into some of our thinking around grading policies like late work, extra credit, and the no-zero discourse, and have returned to a familiar place: sometimes, it’s just not that simple. We’d love to hear your thoughts & ideas that help you make grading efficient, fair, and do its most essential job–provide meaningful, actionable feedback for students to improve. You can leave us an audio message for the next episode:podinbox.com/brokencopierThanks 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 thoughts to thebrokencopier@substack.com.Thanks for listening! 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