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Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher. I'm Lu Gerlach with thinkchat. 

This is Confession 169, where we look at John Dewey's Experience and Education and dig into chapter two: The Need of a Theory of Experience. This is the third episode in this book club series, as I'm trying to unpack the ideas of John Dewey and think about the implications for today's educational landscape.

This episode will explore the difference between experience and education and how they show up in traditional and progressive schools.   We will lean into what Dewey has to say and how they might reflect our current classrooms. 

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Welcome back my friends to Confessions of a PYP Teacher. This is Lu Gerlach with thinkchat. 

Today, I'm focusing on chapter one of Experience and Education by John Dewey, which is the second episode in the series. This chapter focuses on traditional versus progressive education.

Just a reminder: this text was originally written in 1938. Ninety years ago, my friends. It's really interesting. As I was reading through this chapter, I found lots of tidbits that made me pause to think about the argument for traditional versus progressive education.

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Welcome to confession number 167. My name is Lu Gerlach from thinkchat. This episode is starting a new book club series, because you know I love a good book club. 

This summer, while traveling, I've been diving deep into podcasts and books that have genuinely shifted how I see the world. I've found myself captivated by figures like Marcus Aurelius, who, despite being one of history's most powerful rulers, spent his life wrestling with the most human of questions: What is the whole purpose of why we're here? He wasn't just a conqueror or a statesman. He was a thinker, someone who looked at the world around him and refused to stop asking why.

Then I started asking, who are the Stoics of education? Who are the all-time greats, the true GOATs, who forever changed how we think about learning, about the rights of children, about what it actually means to teach? My brain started percolating. Naturally, names like John Dewey and Vygotsky rose to the top. These are people we reference constantly in education circles, people whose ideas form the backbone of so much of what we believe about how children learn.

I began the quest to return to these educators who laid the foundation for modern thinking.  The person we are exploring here is John Dewey in his work, Experience and Education.  His work is dense, but also quite powerful. 

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the fifteenth episode in our well-being series.

As we come to the end of this series, we have spent time sitting with some heavy, but very real parts of learning and teaching.

We have explored worry, fear, panic, anxiety, stress, burnout, boreout, and trauma. We have looked closely at what they can look like in our classrooms, and how easily they can be missed, misunderstood, or mislabeled.

If we are honest, there may have been moments where we recognized ourselves in those descriptions too.

That is part of our work.

Because well-being in a PYP school has never been about getting it right all the time. It is about learning to notice, to respond, and to grow with more awareness and care.

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the fourteenth episode in our well-being series.

I’ve been waiting to talk about our next topic for awhile, because it is quite heavy.  But I would be remiss to skip it, because it makes me feel uncomfortable.  If you haven’t guessed, it is trauma informed teaching. 

We have already gone in deep on all of the areas that make us feel uncertain.  Why not explore trauma too?  

I know this is deep, but it's about making a safe space for our learners. 

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the thirteenth episode in our well-being series.

Today, we are continuing our exploration of boreout, this time from the learner’s perspective. If teachers can experience boreout, is it possible that our learners can too?

In a PYP classroom, this can be easy to miss because everything might look like it’s working. The tasks are getting done, the room is lively and orderly, and expectations are being met. But when we look a little closer, we might notice something else.

Take a listen to see how learner boreout shows up in our practice and what we can do about it. 

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the twelfth episode in our well-being series.

As I am writing this episode, I can’t help but to reflect on my last year in Brussels.  I met so many people who had worked at the same job and complained of burnout and boreout.  This is not a criticism of them, but rather that system that they work in that could bring it about.  These were highly paid people in supposed interesting professions, but they were bored with what they were doing.  No matter how you talked about their work, they were no longer interested and were out on leave. 

This made me connected to how this connects with our profession as PYP educators.  These questions came to my mind.

If teachers do burnout, do they also boreout?
What is the fine line beneath the two? 
Is one more severe?
Is one more preventable? 
How can we swing back into the “in” zone? 

If you want to find the answer to teacher boreout, be sure to listen to this episode.

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the eleventh episode in our well-being series.

I have been curious about learner burnout as I watch my five-year old niece.  She is a neurodivergent thinker who has ADHD, but also struggles with speech delay. For most of her life, she has been unable to articulate herself and her needs.  I have personally witnessed her frustration to be understood.  

I was reminded of these issues related to learner burnout as I returned to the classroom three weeks ago.  My school needed an additional teacher for new learners enrolling into the school in the middle of the year.  I was fortunate to lead this class, but I was reminded of the potential burnout of neurodivergent thinkers and myself. 

I went on a hunt to determine the primary causes and found the cycle of neurodivergent burnout by New Glade Counseling based in the UK.  They state that five major causes can create learner burnout in our schools, which I think applies to all learners who are struggling to keep up. 

Listen to this episode to find out more!

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the tenth episode in our well-being series.

Fatigue is the silent pandemic of modern life that happens when repeated stressors, small or large, grind us down over time. It’s the constant, everyday pressures that compound until you wake up one day unable to face them anymore.

This is called Burnout.

In this episode, we will discuss the signs of teacher burnout and how we can prevent it, so we can remain whole. 

Let's do this!

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the ninth episode in our well-being series.  

So far, we’ve looked at fear, worry, panic, and anxiety. These are internal experiences of threat;  the ways our mind and body respond when we anticipate danger, whether real or imagined. They’re signals that the nervous system is on high alert, scanning for what could go wrong.

But there’s another side to mental health and well-being. Instead of being driven by inner threat signals, it’s shaped by the demands placed on us from the outside. This is where overload and stress come in. When the pressures of life and work outweigh the resources we have to cope, the system tips over. At first, this feels like everyday stress. But over time, if it doesn’t let up, it can spiral into two very different outcomes: burnout, being drained by too much or boreout, being drained by too little meaning or creativity. Both wear down our sense of ownership over our lives.

Let's take a moment to unpack stress overload and how it can impact your well-being.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the eighth episode in our well-being series.  

We have already unpacked all the ways that anxiety can manifest itself.  I don’t know about you, but it made me slightly anxious just talking about it!  No pun intended.  

Now, we are going to examine the anxiety disorders that may be afflicting many of our colleagues, familiies, and learners within our learning community. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the seventh episode in our well-being series.  

This week, we are going to explore the big kahuna of well-being, which is anxiety.  As I was researching this condition, it was interesting to see the contrasting points of view.  Some stated that worry, fear, and panic were on a spectrum of anxiety.  While others stated that they were related, but not the same thing.  Naturally I went to a credible source, the National Library of Medicine. 

Join me for this episode as we examine the cognitive, physiological, behavioral, and affect symptoms of anxiety. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the sixth episode in our well-being series.  

It’s been interesting going through this well-being series, because it has really stretched my thinking about how we are supporting our own mental health and that of our learners.  As I was unpacking panic, it really hit home to me.  Although I don’t have regular panic attacks, I do experience acute moments of panic that cause me to worry and to become fearful.  I usually find that these moments come when I feel out of control and do not have a sense of ownership over what is happening to me. 

With this idea in mind, I want to explore how this process can regularly happen within a classroom setting.  We explore simple strategies that make a huge impact for our learners and others within our learning community.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back to our podcast and the fifth episode in our well-being series.  

In this episode, we are going to lean into panic and how it can impact our well-being.  

We’ve all experienced those moments of panic and our brain temporarily shuts down.  According to our friend Mo Gawdat, it’s because we believe a threat is imminent and there’s no time to act.  This makes sense when we lean into what we know about panic attacks. 

Let's take some time to discuss how fear transforms into panic and what we can do to get out of it.  

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back to our podcast and the fourth episode in our well-being series.

In the last episode, we examined the power of fear in our lives.  We are all struck with fear many times in our lives and there is no shame attached to it.  In fact, we might have to worry if everything is perfect all of the time.  

Fear is a natural response to tension in our lives, real or imagined, that can take over our rational thinking.  Many of us can be controlled by fear at different times, especially during times of challenges and change. Once again, this is a normal human experience.  The key is to not stay in the clutches of fear, but climb out of the situation as quickly as possible. 

Let's take some time to address our fears, so they no longer control our minds and hearts, so we can live a full life together. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back to our podcast and the third episode in our well-being series.  This is the most vulnerable I have been in some time. 

Fear is our mind’s early warning system. It shows up when we sense a threat (whether real or imagined) and while it can protect us, it can also quietly hold us back. Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, offers a powerful reminder: fear is natural, and it is something we all experience. Her message is not to wait until fear disappears, but to build the courage to act in its presence. She writes, “The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it.” The more we wait, the more fear grows. The more we act, the more we grow.

In this episode, we are going to take time to name the fears that have taken over our lives.  By giving them a name, we are one step closer to owning them and moving forward with confidence. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back, my friends, to Confession 153. 

This episode is framed by this quote by Mo Gawdat, "Worrying is praying for what you don’t want."

Mo frames worry as a form of negative visualization. Rather than focusing our energy on what we want to grow, worry channels our attention toward fear and imagined threats. When we do this consistently, we reinforce anxiety. We lose our sense of clarity. We become less joyful and less present. Mo reminds us that while pain is often a part of life, suffering does not have to be. Worry is a mental habit, and like any habit, it can be examined and gently shifted.

This had me thinking about how I might bring about and look for worrying that is regularly happening in the classroom.  If I were to look deeper, what would I find? 

We will explore how to identify and deal with worrisome situations that arise in our classroom and personal lives with grace.  

If you are a worrywart too, please have a listen to this episode. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back, my friends, to Confession 152.

Today’s episode marks the beginning of a brand-new series on something that’s been quietly knocking at the door of my consciousness for a while now: well-being.

If I’m honest, I used to push that topic aside. It just didn’t feel academic enough; too soft, too personal, too invisible in our talk about developing unit planners and learner agency. But some recent events stopped me in my tracks.

A couple of weeks ago, I was all fired up and ready to document the final learning journey of the school year. You know that feeling when the countdown is on? Six weeks left. That golden stretch where everything comes together. I even filmed a little video in my classroom. I was excited. Inspired.

Two days later, I was at home. In pain. Sent home by my doctor and told to rest for five days.

What happened the following week? It was a short three-day week and I barely made it through. There were moments I didn’t think I’d make it to the end of the day. The pain was constant, my energy completely depleted. I was moving, but it was like dragging myself through wet cement.

As educators, we push. We push through colds. We push through exhaustion. We push through grief. We show up because that’s what we do. But what’s the cost of that push?

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Hello my PYP family, this is Lu Gerlach from thinkchat.  Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher as we explore confession number 151, which is a challenge for our essential specialist and supporting teachers. 

Over the past episodes in our specialist and supporting teacher series, we have explored some power topics, including

• The learner profile attributes
• International mindedness
• Conceptual understanding

Now, in the thirteenth episode of this series, it’s time to go even deeper with our application and challenge our thinking in a new way. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Hi friends, it’s Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and today is a BIG one.

Episode 150. One hundred and fifty episodes.  It's the longest episode to date.

Can you believe it? Because honestly, I’m sitting here with a cup of tea and a full heart wondering how we got here.

What started as a passion project for me with a microphone and a head full of ideas has become a place of connection. This learner-centered community has kept me going, so a big thank you.  It’s through your willingness that you come back with me, episode after episode.  I know this isn’t the traditional podcast with fancy music and guests.  It’s just me sharing my ideas about the world, but I hope it has helped you in your journey. 

For this very special milestone, I wanted to dive into something that continues to challenge, confuse, and inspire us: Conceptual Understanding — especially for specialist and supporting teachers.

Let’s be honest: while homeroom teachers are often the focus of IB professional development, the incredible educators teaching music, PE, art, design, language support, special needs, counseling, and library are left trying to figure out, “Where do I fit in?”

Well, this episode is for you. All of you.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Hey friends. Welcome back.

It’s been a minute or two since we last connected, but here we are—episode twelve of our specialist and supporting teachers series. And this one? It’s a big one. Today, we’re diving into what I believe is the beating heart of deep learning in the IB: conceptual understanding—and more importantly, how it shows up in your space.

 This is the question I hear all the time:

 "Lu, I’m a PE teacher."
 "I support EAL learners."
 "I’m in the science lab once a week—am I really supposed to design around concepts?"

YES. A thousand times yes.

Your subject, your space—it’s filled with rich, meaningful ideas. And when we frame those ideas through concepts, we give learners the opportunity to build understanding that sticks—understanding they can transfer and apply long after they leave your room.  So, yes. It applies. But let’s talk about how.

Also, I have a quick update. If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been hiding, I’ve been in the zone—leading workshops, collaborating with incredible educators, and building something that’s bringing me so much joy: the Learner Agency Guide. I’m talking theory and practice. A guide and a workbook. It’s general for now, but a version just for you—our specialists and support educators—is on the way. I just need time, space, and many cups of hot cocoa to do it right.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome to the eleventh episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series.  Today, we are focusing on how we can further explore international mindedness in our practice.  This requires some deeper thinking and collaboration to make it happen.

In the last episode, we explored how to unpack international mindedness through local and global contexts and projecting across time.  I am hoping that this episode will equally excite you to move forward with making global connections. 

One thing I’ve been hearing over again by everyone that inspires me is that learning is intentional.  How are you being intentional with international mindedness as a specialist and supporting teacher?

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome to the tenth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series.  Today, we are focusing on bringing about more international mindedness in your classrooms with authenticity. 

There are so many possibilities of exploration with the focus of international mindedness.  One of the most common might be to embody an international mindset by exploring new ideas, meeting new people, being open to new experiences, and traveling.  Although this is opening ourselves to the world, this is not authentic international mindedness. 

Instead, we are talking about opening our minds to different experiences that bring about intercultural connections of understanding.  This is going to mean something different for every person based on their unique backgrounds and exposure to other people’s ideas.  I guess that is the point.  Are we open enough to listen to other people’s ideas and be willing to change our own. 

Let's explore these ideas together in this episode!

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Welcome to the ninth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series.  I’m super excited to talk more about the learner profile attributes.  This is one of the most underused tools alongside the approaches to learning in the IB programmes.  This is a bold statement to say, I know.

I’m just tired of people using the learner profile attributes as character traits.  They are SKILLS required to create a DISPOSITION. 

More than ever, we need young people who know how to think, feel, and act.  The only way that we will get them there is by using the language of the learner profile in our practice everyday.  You heard me, every single day.

Take a listen to one of my shortest, but equally powerful episodes of how to make the learner profile work for you as a specialist and supporting teacher.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome to the eighth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series.  We are going to spend our time unpacking the learner profile in a new way.  Oftentimes, the learner profile are reduced as a way to connect with behavior and they are much more than that.   

As specialist and supporting teachers you have a possibility to use the learner profile as a set of skills that create a learning disposition in your classes. It won’t take too much planning, but it requires you to have them in your mind while you plan.  I hope that makes sense. 

Let's get cracking and have some fun!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome to our seventh episode in our series for specialist and supporting teachers.  This has been a passion project that has been frequently delayed with my return to the classroom, a school-wide adventure camp, International day, the IB global conference, a trip to London (my favorite city in the world like so many others), and a workshop in Dubin, Ireland with the Nord Anglia school.  As I go through this list, I am excited, yet invigorated at the same time.

One of the things that surprised me within the past few months is the connectivity this podcast has given some people.  I met several people at the global conference who mentioned how much this podcast has meant to them.  Thank you for sharing.  This has always been a passion project to help others and it truly warms my heart when I hear your stories.

These interactions made me curious about the reach of the podcast today and I was quite surprised by the results. Here are the top five cities within its reach of all time.

Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Singapore
Mumbai, India
Dubai, UAE

As I looked through these locations, it really warmed my heart.  Melbourne is where I learned to find my voice as an adult.  The place where I discovered my unique self and found mates who I will forever cherish like Kelly Thong, Angel Trudgeon, and Greg Woodford.  Singapore was my main stopover for many years and I came to love their Dr Scholl’s massage parlor and day trips into the city.  India is where I learned about the beauty of color and the continual celebration of life through gratitude.  Dubai is where I found the educator within me.  It’s the safe place that helped me to grow and try out new things, even if I made mistakes.  I dusted myself off and tried again.  Thank you lovely listeners.  Your cultures truly helped me on my life’s journey and I can’t wait to return to create new memories.

Next school year, I would like to return to the region to share ideas with fellow educators.  If you are interested in participating or hosting, please contact me via my website https://www.thinkchat2020.com/

As we finish going through this series, I would like to weave in some tidbits that I’ve learned along the way and apply it back to your role as a specialist or supporting role educator.

This episode, we are going to take a moment to pause and reflect on what we have explored so far and take it a step deeper.  This challenge will focus on what we know about agency and inquiry in the specialist and supporting role.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back to our specialist and supporting teachers series!  This is our sixth
episode leaning into inquiry for our supporting teachers, particularly the inclusion specialist. 

In specified roles that support learning and behavioral development, the challenge is there isn’t a set curriculum you are following.  This is how the PYP can help you the most, because it’s full of approaches to help bring about the best in the learners that you support.

This can be a challenge, but it’s totally worth it when you see learners finally making meaning of the content or process they are trying to master.  As a supporting teacher, this is at the heart of your role. 

Take a few minutes to listen to this episode and hopefully it will help you in your role as an inclusion specialist.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome back to our specialist and supporting teachers series!  This is our fifth episode zooming into inquiry for you fabulous teachers. 

In this episode, we will explore how we might infuse more inquiry into our practice through think, chat, create, particularly in the PE classroom.  This will be a fun exploration of how we might ask some thought provoking questions to bring about more local and global inquiry into our practice. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

Thanks for listening! Please find us on X @thinkchat2020, LinkedIn @lugerlach, and Instagram @thinkchat2020.

Join our Confessions of a PYP Teacher Facebook Group! We are going to launch some webinars and extra challenges soon. Let's have some fun!

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Welcome to the fourth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series. 

We are continuing our journey with agency through the lens of the specialist teacher, in particular the librarian.  All other specialist and supporting teachers should be able to find ways to modify the strategies over the two episodes to help their practice.  It's about look at practices and our content through a different lens.

This episode is dedicated to Kerry Darby, a passionate librarian at the Lawrence School. I met Kerry a year ago and shared my vision of a learner-driven library that promotes agency.  Without a clear vision of what it would look like, she volunteered to beta test the process.  She is that librarian…one that has a growth mindset.  Everytime I chat with Denise, she always mentions Kerry’s passion to redesign the library space to reflect more learner agency. My kind of people.

Before we move forward, I want to clarify that these ideas are my personal opinion and not necessarily of the IB.  You need to confirm everything with your IB consultant and/or IB world school manager.  The ideas I am about to share are based on my experiences and observations.  Now let’s get to it!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome to the third episode in our specialist and supporting teachers series. If you haven’t listened to the series so far, consider going back to the beginning, because we are getting into the nitty gritty about your roles in each part of the PYP.

Agency is a huge push in the PYP, but I rarely hear it being discussed in the role of the specialist and supporting teacher role.  It may have to do with your hectic schedule from 30-60 minutes per week to incorporate meaningful experiences. This can be quite a pressure.  On the other hand, if we don’t allow agency to happen in our practice, then our learners will struggle to make independent decisions.

In this episode, we will explore a method to bring about more agency in your role as a specialist and supporting teacher.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.com

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Welcome to the second episode of my new series to support specialist and supporting teachers.  I just want to let you know that in this space you are so valued.  The work you do makes the rest of the school more complete.  Never forget this my friends as you try to navigate your role within the PYP framework. 

Before we begin, I want to honor the contributions of my friend Yuni Santosa who gave me so many ideas for this series.  She is a fabulous educator who is so passionate about the PYP and creating meaningful learning.  Yuni works as a PYP teacher at the International School Ruhr and is also an IBEN member and concept-based trainer.   Yuni provides many contributions online through Toddle App and beyond and I’m so thankful to have her in my professional network.

Before we move forward, I want to clarify that these ideas are my personal opinion and not necessarily of the IB.  You need to confirm everything with your IB consultant and/or IB world school manager.  The ideas I am about to share are based on my experiences and observations.  Now let’s get to it!

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Welcome to our new series about specialist and supporting teachers.  I have been thinking a lot about this series over the past couple months, especially during a visit to Le Jardin Academy in Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii.  I had a candid chat with the specialist team and it made me think that other specialist and supporting teachers might appreciate the same guidance.

This episode, we will review some of the common misconceptions about the role of the specialist and supporting teachers within our schools.  We will begin to discuss how we might support their roles, so they feel more part of the planning and teaching process.

I want to clarify that these ideas are my personal opinion and not necessarily of the IB.  You need to confirm everything with your IB consultant and IB world school manager.  This is based on my experiences alone. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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I can’t believe that we are almost done with Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond.  This book has reaffirmed that some things I am doing are reflective of cultural responsiveness and that there are many ways that I can still grow.  As we talked about in the last episode, it’s all about having a balanced academic mindset.  We know that tasks may be challenging, but with time and practice, we still attempt them with a belief that we can do it. This is a game changer for those tough times.

Join us for this episode as we explore how to support a positive academic mindset and how to support struggling learners.  This is a super-packed episode. The longest one ever!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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This is the final week of our exploration of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.  We will explore how to build more intellective capacity with Zaretta Hammond.  At my age, I feel like this capacity is waning, so I hope to pick up some tips!

The chapter begins with a quote by Benjamin R. Barber, a political theorist. He states, “I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures, those who make it or those who don’t.  I divide the world into learners and non-learners.” 

As I read this quote, I thought about how many people view success in life based on financial status, fame, and acquisition of stuff.  The more that they have, the more successful that they feel.  We don’t often think of the person that has repeatedly failed as a winner.  Yet, the experiences and understanding they have gained by losing is probably worth more than all of the accolades from their peers.

I connect this to success in school. The accolades that schools often seek from learners are grades.  If they fail, it means the school was a failure too.  Since many schools are funded by the government or private investors, it’s difficult to justify that failure is a good thing. 

If we look at every success story of every genius that walked the earth, they often talk about all of the failures they had.  These experiences spurred them on to finding the correct solution or inventing a tool that would better mankind.  Embracing failure is vital in this process. This is what independent learners do.


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Welcome back my friends to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher.  This episode speaks directly to my heart and I hope it will resonate with you too.  Zaretta Hammond focuses on building deep alliances with our learners in chapter 6 of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.  We will uncover some parts, but it’s not possible to unpack all of the ideas.  Have fun reading and finding your own nuggets of wisdom.  

The chapter begins with a quote by Rita Pierson, “Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists they become the best they can possibly be.”

This sets the stage for ways to support our learners by building a strong alliance, so learners can build an academic mindset over learned helplessness. 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Something I’ve been thinking about has been learner relationships and why they are not the primary focus in many elementary classrooms.  Usually within the first month of school, teachers are building systems and routines of how the classroom will operate, but do they really take the time to get to know their learners personally?  Zaretta Hammond points out, “Too often though, we ignore the quality of our interactions with students and instead focus primarily on the curriculum.” 

In this episode, we will explore how to build more authentic relationships that help us to affirm and validate our learners.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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In the past episode, we discussed our own role as a culturally responsive teacher and how it shapes our frame of reference when teaching a classroom full of learners from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, let alone language acquisition, disabilities, and gender identity needs.  This was compared to our understanding of surface, shallow, and deep cultural beliefs and ways we may trigger amygdala hijack without knowing it.

I don’t know about you, but my brain exploded.  This is completely normal, when we peel back the layers of our own cultural frames of reference and compare them with our learners.  Zaretta Hammond references a three part process for widening our own lens called description, interpretation, and evaluation.

I introduced it in the last episode to get you thinking, but this time, we are unpacking it to the fullest.  Are you ready for description, interpretation and evaluation?  I’m ready to get vulnerable and make changes in my practice.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Welcome to another deep dive into the fabulous book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond.  This week will be full of insights about ourselves.  Are you ready to go deep into your practice?  To be honest, this chapter left me with a feeling of being exposed, but that is the process of recognizing how our beliefs and behaviors shape cultural responsiveness or not.  Yikes, we went there already, but this is all part of our growth into becoming more aware educators while honoring the things we are doing well.

This episode will explore how culture has shaped our view of our learners.  Hammond asks some deep questions that have sparked my reflection and hopefully yours.  

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher and our exploration of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brian by Zaretta Hammond.

I’m not going to lie, this next part of the book makes me feel like a numpty.  Zaretta Hammond begins the chapter by stating, “If we want to use culturally responsive teaching to support the cognitive development of dependent learners, we have to know how the brain uses culture to make sense of the world.  When we know this, we can easily piggyback on the brain’s natural systems to activate its unique ability to grow itself.”  I don’t know about you, but this sounds really beyond my pay grade, but I’m going to do my best.

Join me as I attempt to unpack the connection of culture on the brain. 

 For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP Teacher.  We are continuing our exploration of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond.  This week, we will examine the influence of culture and shine light on our need for awareness.

Zaretta Hammond states, “Building background knowledge begins with becoming knowledgeable about the dimensions of culture as well as knowledgeable about the larger social, political, and economic conditions that create inequitable education outcomes…teachers also have to be aware of their beliefs regarding equity and culture.”

What are some of the ideas that pop to your mind?  Listen to this episode to find out more. 

 For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Welcome back to our book study of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain (CRT) by Zaretta Hammond.  As I reviewed my notes for the last episode, I discovered that I missed two key significant ideas that I want to explore before moving forward. 

Hammond refers to the school-to-prison pipeline, which is something that is quite prevalent within the United States.  This pipeline consists of learning systems that withhold rigorous instruction to children of color, particularly black and latino boys.  The repetitive instruction sparks behavior issues, which increases learners from being removed from the learning setting.  The decrease in instruction widens the gap for developing young people who can critically and creatively think. 

The pipeline can largely be attributed to the pedagogy of poverty.  Hammond describes this as, “setting up students up to leave high school with outdated skills and shallow knowledge.  They are able to regurgitate facts and concepts but have difficulty applying this knowledge to new and practical ways.”  Unfortunately, you often see this at the elementary/primary level in poorer schools.  Having worked in these conditions, I’ve seen the pedagogy of poverty used repeatedly by teachers who came from a similar background.  They are often perpetuating the same low-level instruction to the next generation without knowing it.

Listen to this episode to find out how we can address the school-to-prison pipeline and the pedagogy of poverty through Hammond's Ready for Rigor framework.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Welcome my friends to a new book study.  I have wrestled with what to talk about next within my podcast series and I kept circling back to Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond.  This book changed me this past year and I couldn’t wait any longer.  There will be insights from Zaretta’s book, my thoughts, and my meanderings.  If you’ve been listening at all, you know I tend to get off track a bit, but I believe these are the times that I make the most ahas.  I hope you do too. 

Let me start off by saying that, Zaretta Hammond is the first person in a long time that made me excited, weep, and find hope in a short span of time.  This book made me excited to see all of the possibilities that are available to learners from diverse backgrounds if we just focus on building rigor instead of watering down curriculum.  She made me weep, because I think of all the learners I wasn’t able to reach during my teaching career, because I didn’t have this book to guide me.  Zaretta made me hope that if more people read this book, then we will have less learners falling through the cracks of the education system.  I choose to focus on hope. 

My hope is that you find nuggets along this ready journey that stay with you and help you think differently about our role as educators.  Be sure to check out Zaretta's keynote address at Toddle TIES 2023.  Here is the link to watch the presentation:  https://www.toddleapp.com/ties/speakers/

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Hello, dear educators, and welcome to the final episode of our application series. I'm Lu Gerlach, your host and fellow advocate for empowering young minds through thinkchat. Today, we're embarking on a thrilling journey, exploring how to craft a classroom that truly tickles our learners' brains and igniting a fiery passion for learning. It's all about creating a learner-driven haven that celebrates agency, choice, and ownership. So, let's dive right in!

We are engaging in the ultimate reflective practice.  As we go back through all of the elements of a PYP classroom success criteria, what is on your list?  Here is a recap of the big ideas we have discussed.  Get ready to apply!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Hidee Ho Neighbor, my name is Lu Gerlach and I’m from thinkchat.  Welcome to confession #126!  In this episode, we'll be exploring some of the big ideas presented in the inspiring book, 'The Expert Effect' by Zach Rondot and Grayson McKinney. Get ready to join me on a journey of reflection and growth as we uncover the transformative power of allowing our learners to become the experts. So, grab your favorite cup of tea, find a cozy corner, and let's reflect back on how to allow your learners to become an expert in their learning.

This episode, we will only have one application challenge, because I have been quite intense the past two episodes.  I can’t help it, I get excited about this stuff and have to share it with you! 

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Welcome back my Lu Crew.  I’m Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, just in case you forgot my name.  This is confession #125!  We are going to sit for a moment and reflect on how to make local and global inquiry happen within our context.  This seems like quite an abstract concept to many people, because we tend to overthink it.  Let’s take a deep breath and break it down into manageable parts that you can apply.

Disclaimer, there are two possible ways to apply local and global inquiry to your context.  You can choose to complete both or only one, based on where you are on your inquiry journey.  I like to have choices, so I don’t feel hemmed into a process, especially when talking about this topic.  The primary goal is to have fun with local and global inquiry.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Good day to my fabulous thinkchat family.  It’s me again, Lu Gerlach, your host, and welcome to confession #124, where we will explore how to use personal inquiry in our practice.  Every time that we loop back with an application series, it has helped me to grow as a practitioner and consider my own actions. 

For this episode, we are returning to Kath Murdoch’s book, Getting Personal with Inquiry Learning. 

This episode will be a three-part process to stretch us, since it’s been a while since exploring the book.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Good afternoon to my favorite people, I’ll just call you my Lu Crew.  If you haven’t guessed, I’m your host, Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and I am having fun with today’s episode. As we end 2023, I want us to think about where technology has greatly exploded this past year and where it is rapidly going in the years to come.  We cannot pretend that it won’t change our roles as educators.  Of course it will. At the same time, we need to look at AI as a partner in getting information more quickly and sometimes more accurately.

We have known for quite some that the internet is the depository of information and we are the facilitators of meaning making.  Our role will require us to know how to engage with the technology to gain the maximum output.  With this in mind, we are going to explore our new relationship with ChatGPT in this episode and challenge ourselves to start using it tomorrow.

Before we begin, I want to be clear that our goal is meaning making.  More is not more.  For ChatGPT to be effective in our practice, we need to know how to engage it successfully.  Here is my attempt in modeling the process while making some mistakes along the way.  I will present my prompt, ChatGPT responses, and my commentary of the answers. 

Let’s get started!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Hey there, wonderful people! It's your host, Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and I am beyond excited for today's episode.

We're going deep into the heart of the PYP philosophy exploring how learners visually represent their unit of inquiry journey. So, buckle up for Confession #122, where we'll dig into the nitty-gritty of shifting from showcasing finished products to emphasizing the process and giving every student a chance in the spotlight.  This will be the final episode of our PYP classroom success criteria series.

A big thank you to Siba Shekhar, the PYP Coordinator at the GEMS Modern Academy Kochi for providing the inspiration for this episode.  Let's close out our series with a bang!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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In this episode, we are going to explore two questions posed by my Twitter friend, Donna Mathew.  

• To what extent can we differentiate an inquiry classroom?  
• What are the different ways of doing it?

We will answer these questions through the wisdom of Lynn Erickson, Lois Lanning, and Carol Ann Tomlinson.

Let's have some fun!

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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Welcome back to another episode of Confessions of a PYP teacher.  I have taken a bit of a hiatus from this podcast due to personal health issues and work schedule.  This is my ultimate passion project.  When I’m not sharing with you, it means I’m off-balance and need to calibrate again.  

I’m super pumped to continue our series of creating a PYP classroom success criteria.  It’s more than just the walls, but the feeling within the classroom itself.  This can be demonstrated in so many ways from choices you provide to the materials being used. 

The key question for this episode:  How are we celebrating student voice through agency?

As always, I am interested to learn how you celebrate student voice through agency.  Please share your ideas on Twitter @thinkchat2020 and LinkedIn @lugerlach.

For a written blog post and other resources, visit:   https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com

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