School of Practice – Details, episodes & analysis

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School of Practice

Edutopia

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/14d. Total Eps: 27

School of Practice, the first podcast from the team at Edutopia, brings you ready-to-use strategies to improve your teaching today. Join us for 15-minute episodes filled with smart, pedagogy-shifting advice—backed by research and test-driven by teachers just like you.

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Data updated on 23/09/2026

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Score global : 58%

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The Extraordinary Impact of Drawing to Learn

Tuesday, September 22, 2026 • Duration 22:23

Did you know that drawing can be a learning superpower—even for students who claim they’re not good at it?

Research shows that when kids attentively sketch something they’re learning about, they tap into the visual, kinesthetic, and linguistic parts of their brains. This generates rich connections across the brain’s neural network and encodes learning more deeply compared to passive learning tasks like reading or listening to a lecture.

We revisit our 2025 conversation with science educator Selim Tlili to uncover how drawing to learn works across grade levels and subjects. Plus, he’s got special tips for engaging even the most reluctant sketch artists.

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5 Common Teacher Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Duration 24:33

Everyone makes mistakes—including teachers.

While educators are quick to reframe student mistakes through a growth mindset lens, they’re less forgiving when it comes to their own slipups. But teacher errors often follow familiar patterns and can be a source of exceptional personal and professional growth.

In this episode of School of Practice, ELA teacher and instructional specialist Miriam Plotinsky digs into the most common teacher mistakes and identifies key strategies for quick, effective resets that get learning back on track. We’ll also hear from a few classroom teachers about their own missteps, and examine the research about how students benefit when teachers address their own mistakes head-on.

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How Nicholas Ferroni is Rewiring His Classroom for Human Connection

Tuesday, August 25, 2026 • Duration 23:11

Like a lot of other educators, Nicholas Ferroni is trying to find his way back to a time before technology was the default classroom mode. He thinks he was a better teacher back then—and kids acted more like kids.

Last year, Nick published a viral Instagram post in which he pledged to go back to basics in his teaching, back to “more paper, more writing, more eye contact, more conversations.” In this episode, Nick tells us how he turned the clock back, what he thinks his students have gained from less tech time, and why he’s not giving up on classroom tech completely.

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Research: 5 Principles of Superb Classroom Design

Tuesday, August 11, 2026 • Duration 28:11

Before there’s curriculum or calendars or lesson plans, there’s the classroom space itself, stripped of last year’s posters and anchor charts. Where should teachers begin? We’ve got the answers.

In this back-to-school episode, editors Youki Terada and Steve Merrill review over 30 high-quality studies on classroom design and boil them down to five big takeaways, from how to use wall decoration to maximize student attention to why potted plants can alter student perceptions of the classroom—and the teacher, too!

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3 Outstanding Community-Building Activities for Back to School

Tuesday, July 28, 2026 • Duration 22:41

How do you lay the foundation for real community in your classroom? Teachers know (and the research supports this) that when kids feel safe and connected in school, they’re better equipped to focus on learning. The start of a new school year is a crucial time for this type of work – and it goes beyond icebreakers.

In this episode of School of Practice, we’ll hear from three educators who’ve developed powerful activities for building robust classroom cultures, including a strategy for co-creating classroom norms, an exercise that gets students discovering what they have in common, and a memorable 60-second trust-building activity. Together, these activities go beyond typical icebreakers – and set the stage for a classroom where students feel they belong.

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How to Jumpstart Belonging in Your Classroom From Day One

Tuesday, July 14, 2026 • Duration 24:48

Do you want to build a vibrant classroom community this year, but you’re not sure where to start?

Research shows it’s well worth the effort—and the first week of school is the perfect time to lay that foundation. When students feel a strong sense of belonging at school, they tend to be more motivated to learn and achieve higher academic outcomes.

In this first back-to-school episode from School of Practice, teacher Marcus Luther shares a simple activity that helps him get to know his students from day one, and sets the tone for the year ahead. Then, he shares two easy strategies for keeping that feedback practice going, so you can continue to build belonging and engagement all year long.

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11 Ways to Improve Teacher Well-Being

Tuesday, June 9, 2026 • Duration 24:01

Teaching is hard (often draining) work, and educators’ instincts about what will bring relief are frequently wrong—just as they are for most people.

That’s because our minds deceive us, says cognitive scientist and Yale professor Laurie Santos, one of the world’s leading researchers on well-being and happiness. “One of the most annoying features of the mind is the fact that we all have these intuitions about the kinds of things we should be doing to feel better. But the research shows that many of those intuitions are just incorrect.”

In this episode of School of Practice, Dr. Santos joins host Kristin Leong to debunk some of the most popular and persistent myths about happiness—more money *mostly* doesn’t buy more happiness, for example, and a values mismatch at work may be more consequential for burnout than you think—and shares a set of evidence-based tools teachers can begin to apply right away to reclaim a sense of balance.

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Rethinking Zeros in the Grade Book

Tuesday, May 26, 2026 • Duration 23:37

What’s your take on eliminating zeros from the grade book? Does your school have a no-zeros grading policy? Even if it doesn’t, you probably have opinions about it.

Setting 50% as the minimum grading threshold is a well-meaning effort to more accurately assess student learning, but it can also create new—and frustrating—challenges for teachers and students.

In this episode of School of Practice, teacher and instructional coach Tyler Rablin explores the tradeoffs of eliminating zeros from the grade book. We’ll hear from teachers in our community with firsthand experience navigating the policy, and discuss exceptional strategies for building motivation and accountability without relying on numerical penalties.

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14 Excellent Ways to End the School Year

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 • Duration 19:42

The end of the school year can feel like the best––and worst––of times.

On the one hand, it’s a great stretch because “the routines and procedures are set,” and the kids have their sights set on summer vacation, says Kansas City-based middle school ELA teacher Jeremiah Kim. But the workload for teachers closing out the year can be intense. “We all just want to be done, but we still have these boxes to check,” he says.

In this episode of School of Practice, Kim joins host Kristin Leong to explore a toolkit of low-lift, delightful, teacher-tested activities that inject celebration, meaningful reflection, and even some review into the last few weeks of class.

Hang in there, teachers, summer break is just around the corner!

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One Task, Many Doors: A More Effective Way to Differentiate

Tuesday, April 28, 2026 • Duration 21:26

It’s a mistake to assume that good differentiation always means splitting students up into small groups, says Michael McDowell, an author, coach, and former teacher.

A more effective approach, he says, is to design rigorous learning routines that unite the whole class—from fast finishers to kids who need extra support—with shared strategies, structures, and thinking moves.

Think: Same surface, different deep problems, much more time in the “we do” space, and a big emphasis on high-quality classroom discussion.

In this episode of School of Practice, McDowell breaks down three low-prep differentiation strategies, explains how and when small groups fit into the picture, and makes the case for basketball over ping-pong question protocols.

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School of Practice – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

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School of Practice – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

ScienceDirect9

SAGE Publishing7

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

ScienceDirect9

SAGE Publishing7

Apple Podcasts

Spotify