Overthrowing Education – Details, episodes & analysis

This is the first totally new episode in about 10 months. What could get me to put aside my other work to make sure this episode gets out? Only something as important as the death of critical thinking in our education system and how it has especially played out this school year of 2023-24 would make me drop everything to make sure to get this out.  

Please open your mind and heart while listening to this episode. 

I want to thank Distant Cousins, one of my favorite bands, for their incredible music that opens and closes my show. Give them a listen!

Want to get in touch with me? 

IG: @batsheva.frankel

X: @batshevafrankel

website: batshevafrankel.com

In this encore of the 4th episode in the series on AI in education, my guest, Matt Miller and I discuss the issues we need to consider as well as some very practical ideas for using ChatGPT and other really cool AI in our classes. Matt has been digging deep into this subject and brings so much wisdom and insight into our conversation.

Matt shares some great resources to explore in the links below. And he also plays a fun version of The 5-Minute Game Show called “ChatGPT, Google or Me?”

I’d like to thank my awesome guest Matt Miller and my fauxmercial helpers including my award-winning Voice Actor friend, Eli Schiff as the announcer and Jakey Schiff, Yossie and Tuvia Frankel.

This is a great time to buy any burned-out or otherwise deserving teacher friend or colleague some Overthrowing Education Swag. Or buy some for yourself. You totally deserve it!

Links and Resources:

ChatGPT, Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence in Education

Tons of great resources and classes: DitchThatTextbook.com

Get on Matt’s email list to get all kinds of amazing resources: DitchThatTextbook.com/join

Classroom videos to use in class TODAY:  Teachflix

This project provides you with research-based teaching practices you can use in class tomorrow to save time AND teach better: EfficienTEACH.com

Jump into the Overthrowing Education archives with me in this encore episode!

Long-time educator Jared Magee, from the very cool The Winchendon School, shares what Impact Learning is, why it’s important, and how to make it happen for all educators. Jared and I discuss ways to take what he has learned from his experiences there and mine working for another non-traditional school, Arete Preparatory Academy , and apply them to other, more traditional school situations.

Special thanks to guest Jared Magee, and also Yossie Frankel for joining me on today’s fauxmercial!

Check out all of things we spoke about on this episode:

The school's website
The Winchendon School

A (literal) product of ColLABs
The Little Elf Cutter from Mr. Bryan Perla

Prose's (Jared’s podcast) Official Website
Prose

@Mr.JaredMagee¸ @winchendon_brooklyn

@MrJaredMagee

Veteran educator Lacrecia Terrance co-produced and co-hosts with me our 3 part series with a prestigious panel of guest for what many may call tough conversations on racism. With all that is happening, as a global pandemic has further peeled back the cover on generations of systemic inequities rooted in racism, we feel these conversations are a crucial part of moving education forward for all.  In this first episode we will be defining the issues - what do we mean when we talk about racism in education?  Our panel includes Stacy Joy, Charity Parsons, Andre Daughty, Jason Ernest Feldman, Dr. Hattie Mitchell and Brett Mitchell who discuss what racism looks like in education, what the pervasive issues are and why this isn’t just a moment but a movement.

Ron Berger, my educational hero, joins me to talk about his new book, We Are Crew: A Teamwork Approach to School Culture and presents some important and beautiful ideas about what education should really be all about. I was so grateful to get this opportunity to speak with and learn from Ron and learn how we can all work together to “get everyone to the top of the mountain.”

My very special thanks to Ron and to Yossie Frankel for his voice work on this episodes fauxmercial.

Today’s subject is all about making meaning with project-based learning . My guest today is the passionate and entertaining Ben Talsma from Blue Apple Teacher. Ben also co-wrote the fauxmercial “Empower-Mints” with me. This parody of the old Mento commercials features the very talented musician Robby Helperin of Spotlight Music, giving us his cheesy best, and Eli Schiff, who is one of my favorite voice actors. After my initial interview with Ben, he nails The 5-Minute Game Show, and then I bring him back for a few more minutes to update us on what is happening now to accommodate the various modalities of learning that this fall is challenging us with.

We are tackling some big, possibly controversial ideas in this episode. It’s all about calling into question everything we think about education. While I do that all the time on this show, we are going further this time. My two incredible guests are, TedX speaker and an educator with Alpha, Mike Yates and Naphtali Bryant, founder of Spark-Ed University. We have a great, sometimes radical, and totally entertaining look at how to reinvent school. And they slay The 5-Minute Game Show. But first, I address an issue that is on so many parents’ minds as they try to figure out what is best for their kids this school year. More parents than ever are considering homeschooling - but are overwhelmed. It’s time to shift paradigms!

As school’s are still debating, at least in most places, about whether to or how to safely open schools, and many have already committed to beginning the school year remotely, we know that there will be so many challenges ahead no matter what route a school takes.  One of the biggest challenges, that many are not even considering with everything else to think about, is how to connect with our students, create a strong positive school culture and build a classroom community whether in a masked/physically distant classroom situation, where large groups cannot congregate in school, or in an online/remote situation. On today’s show, my guest, educator and author Hans Appel, and I discuss how to build a strong school community onsite, and also online. We also talk about making learning joyful, experiential learning, going gradeless, honoring student voice and much more! On In the Trenches, I share some ideas for creating classroom communities online, as well as in class, and I have a special announcement!

I have a great discussion with Shoshanna Sumka of ISEEN about experiential learning with an added recent interview at the end that includes experiential learning in remote and online class situations. After our talk, Shoshanna bravely conquers a really hard The 5-Minute Game Show. Then, on In the Trenches, I talk about a way to provide experiential learning opportunities for your online students or at home kids. You’ll hear about how my 15-year old son helped me solve a problem I have been thinking about for years: How to turn an amazing experiential lesson that I have been doing with my classes and my PD workshops for over 20 years into a meaningful online experience.

Host Batsheva Frankel recreates her presentation, "What Do We Mean by 21st Century Education When the 21st Century Changes Dramatically?" In this talk, given on June 10, 2020 for the site, Hopes, Dreams, Journey (connecting parents with information, tools, resources and providers of services to help their children succeed and thrive), Batsheva lays out some of  the skills, knowledge and systemic changes that need to be promoted in order to adequately prepare our students for the increasingly shifting present, as well as the unknowable future. View the presentation with all its fun visuals here.