Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Scott Petri will join us to discuss EduProtools as instructional strategies that can help students engage and learn in a variety of different content and skill areas. Dr. Petri utilizes EduProtocols in his history classes at the high school level. He will outline how he uses them on a daily basis to support student learning and make learning social studies and history fun!
Guest Bio: Scott Petri has taught social studies at the middle and high school level since 2003. He has also served as a coordinator and small school principal in LAUSD. He holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and a Master’s in educational administration from California State University Northridge, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of San Diego. Dr. Petri was named the 2021 Outstanding California Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the California Council for the Social Studies and has twice been a finalist for the CUE Leroy's Big Idea contest.

Guest Social Media: @Scottmpetri (Twitter, Instagram)

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode, we delve into the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI in education and discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrating these technologies into educational contexts. Our guest, Alfonso Mendoza, provides valuable insights on the definition of AI and Generative AI, successful implementations, ethical considerations, personalization of learning experiences, limitations, inclusivity, professional development for educators, promoting digital literacy, and emerging research areas. We explore how educators can navigate the complexities of AI in education and ensure responsible and inclusive use of these technologies for the benefit of all learners. Join us as we navigate the fascinating world of AI in education and its implications for the future of learning.

Guest Bio: Alfonso Mendoza is an Instructional Technologist & Google Innovator from South Texas, U.S.A. with 15 years of experience in education. He is a K-12 Instructional Technologist. He also has a Masters in Educational Technology along with a graduate certificate in E-Learning and a graduate certificate in Technology Leadership in Education. He is a servant leader and am always looking for ways to help my learning community use the power of technology.

Guest Social Media: @myedtechlife (Twitter, Instagram)

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

 In the final episode of Season 2 of Navigating Education - The Podcast, guests Nancy and Elizabeth Jorgensen will join the podcast to outline how teaching about heroes in classrooms can have positive outcomes for our students. They will outline how they've used the story of their sister, Gwen Jorgensen, who is an Olympic Gold Medalist in the triathlon at Rio 2016 as an example to illustrate the humanity of our heroes as well as outline how heroes are a gateway to finding mentors. This will be a great podcast to inspire educators and to think of ways to bring our student's heroes and their stories into the classroom to learn more about their journey's to build important lifelong learning skills.

Guest Bios:

Elizabeth Jorgensen is a high school writing teacher from Wisconsin. She focuses on process-based assessment that provides students with feedback throughout their time with her in their class. An advocate and practitioner of a gradeless class, she prides herself on giving students opportunities for authentic learning experiences.

Nancy Jorgensen earned a Bachelor of Music from Alverno College and a Master of Music from the University of Wisconsin. She taught high school choir and music theater for many years in Wisconsin. In 2009, her production of CATS was named best high school musical by USA Today. Her choir program of 400 students appeared frequently with the Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra, Present Music, and at Holy Hill Basilica in Hubertus, Wisconsin. Nancy conducted biannual student tours of New York City, and presented multiple times at the Wisconsin Music Educators' Conference. She served as both conductor and accompanist for her choirs and directed the pit orchestra for musical theater productions. 

Since 2015, Nancy has been a writer, concentrating on book-length memoir and short creative nonfiction. She is also a collaborative pianist, partnering with instrumentalists for recitals and programs.

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @lyzaJo @nancyjorgensen

In this episode, Dr. Mariah Mayer joins the podcast and outlines her research on gratitude and SEL in addition to providing insight as to how she implements these strategies in her work in the classroom. Additionally, we will discuss a number of strategies for teachers to incorporate these practices every day in their classrooms to support SEL and build positive classroom communities.

Guest Bio: Dr. Mariah Mayer is a Concordia University professor in the teaching preparation program and a Bernice Ayer Middle School 6th and 7th grade Social studies teacher as well as a PAL (Peer Assisted Leadership) Advisor. Her research expertise in gratitude and implementing it within classrooms. 

In this episode, Dr. Nathan Lang Raad will discuss how we can teach critical thinking and asking questions. In a world full of misinformation and challenges that require problem-solving and asking questions, building our student's abilities to ask questions and critically think is more important than ever before. We will provide a discussion on strategies that can be implemented within classrooms. Last, Dr. Lang-Raad will discuss his new upcoming book Never Stop Asking. This is an episode you will not want to miss out on!

Guest Bio:

Dr. Nathan D. Lang-Raad is an educator, speaker, and author. He is the Vice President of Strategy at Savvas Learning. Throughout his career, he has served as a teacher, elementary administrator,  high school administrator, and university adjunct professor. He was the Director of Elementary Curriculum and Instruction for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, as well as education supervisor at NASA's Johnson Space Center. He was also the Chief Education Officer at WeVideo. He serves as the US State Ambassador for the Climate Action Project, a collaboration between the United Nations, World Wildlife Fund, NASA, and the Jane Goodall Institute, and an advisor for TAG (Take Action Global).

Nathan is the author of:
Everyday Instructional Coaching
The New Art and Science of Teaching Mathematics, co-authored with Dr. Robert Marzano

WeVideo Every Day
Mathematics Unit Planning in a PLC at Work
The Teachers of Oz, co-authored with Herbie Raad
The Boundless Classroom, co-authored with Dr. James Witty
Instructional Coaching Connection
Never Stop Asking

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @drlangraad

Website: https://www.drlangraad.com/about

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode, Dr. Schembari and Dr. Rhoads will discuss what instructional and skill gaps coaches and leaders need to help support teachers in building in 2023. We will outline what has happened over the past school year in 2022 to frame our conversation. This is a great opportunity for coaches, leaders, and teacher leaders to listen as they may learn about resources that may support them in amplifying teaching and learning in their schools and districts.

Guest Bio:

Dr. John Schembari is an Improvement Coach through which he supports teachers and school leaders by performing on-site evaluations, identifying data-informed trends, reviewing curriculum/assessment materials, creating improvement plans, coaching individuals one-on-one, developing and delivering group trainings to educators, and implementing evidence-based instructional strategies that improve teaching practices and increase student learning.

Guest Social Media

LinkedIn: John Schembari

In this episode, we will be discussing with our guest and expert in AR and VR, Rachelle Dene Poth, on how schools and teachers can implement augmented and virtual reality tools to support and amplify student learning. From the types of tools available and purchasing decisions, to implementing them into our classroom instruction, we will be covering these important topics. Our goal will be to outline steps to support making AR and VR a reality in our K-20 classrooms.

Guest Bio:

I am an educator, consultant, author, attorney and keynote speaker. I love the work that I do as a Consultant and  as a Spanish and STEAM: What’s nExT in Emerging Technology Teacher at Riverview Junior Senior High School in Oakmont, PA. I earned my Juris Doctor Degree from Duquesne University School of Law and have a Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology. I am currently pursuing a doctorate in instructional technology.

I  have presented at the state, national and international level. I have spoken at conferences including ASCD, BETT, CUE, FETC, Future Ready Nebraska, ICE, iNACOL, ISTE, MASS CUE, Microsoft E2, PETE&C, PSMLA, Southern Oregon EdTech Conference, Spring CUE, USM Summer Spark, and TETC on topics such as assessments, SEL, emerging technology (AI, AR/VR), blockchain, metaverse, innovation, STEM and technology integration.

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @Rdene915

In this episode, we will discuss teacher happiness. In our current climate, teachers have ever-increasing demands and stresses. How can we improve this to help teachers who want to come to work every day to be their best selves and practitioners as possible? Our guest, Robert Dunlop, an expert in teacher happiness, will provide insights and tips to help teachers and schools create environments for themselves to put themselves into positions where they have opportunities to be happy!

Guest Bio

In this episode of the podcast, we will discuss the leadership behind instructional design that propels students to deeper learning. Joined by an expert in educational leadership and instructional design, Dr. Scott McLeod will outline how leaders can support teachers in implementing research-based instructional design into their courses. Additionally, the conversation will also focus on leadership dispositions and skills related to their ability to be instructional leaders and coaches.

Guest Bio

In this episode, guest Stacey Roshan will discuss strategies and EdTech tools to create accessibility within our classroom for all learners. She focuses her work on making learning accessible to students who may be introverted in how they socially interact with others. Listeners will have a toolkit of strategies to utilize in their classrooms regardless of the content they teach and the age of their students!

In this episode, our guest Alex Isaacs will discuss how he app-smashes various EdTech tools to create engaging and accessible classrooms. Additionally, he will outline how he uses these various app smashes to personalize learning and build relationships not only with students but with their families and the local community. Listeners of this episode will come away with strategies on how to app-smash multiple readily available EdTech tools to create multi-modality learning environments to amplify student learning and community!

Guest Bio: Alex Isaacs is a Middle School Math Teacher from Red Banks, New Jersey. He has experimented with virtual classrooms where he app-smashes accessibility and content curation tools to provide multiple modalities for students to have access to his math curriculum. Additionally, he provides outlets to amplify student voices not only in his school community but connecting with other schools and educators around the world!

Twitter: mr_isaacs_math

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, we will focus on process-based assessment and student study habits. The topic of grades will be discussed and how to use assessment as a mechanism to support learning versus grades. Elizabeth provides us with concrete examples of how to not use grades in a writing class as well as how this can transform the student experience to take more risks and have more authentic learning experiences. We will also have a brief conversation about why Elizabeth formulated these ideas into a book called "Hacking Student Study Habits."

Guest Bio:

Elizabeth Jorgensen is a high school writing teacher from Wisconsin. She focuses on process-based assessment that provides students with feedback throughout their time with her in their class. An advocate and practitioner of a gradeless class, she prides herself on giving students opportunities for authentic learning experiences. For more information about Elizabeth and her work, check out www.lizjorgensen.weebly.com. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter - @LyzaJo

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

As we begin the school year, all educators within all contexts work with students who have experienced trauma as well as experience trauma within classrooms and schools. In this episode, Joshua Stamper joins the podcast to discuss Trauma-Informed Practices. The goal is to illustrate a number of strategies for how educators can navigate trauma within classrooms and schools to support their students and themselves.

Guest Bio: 

Joshua Stamper initially used his artistic talent, creativity and original ideas as a professional graphic designer. He then transitioned to inspiring students to utilize their imagination and creative expression in public education. Being unsuccessful as a student growing up, Joshua never expected to be back in the classroom as a teacher, athletic coach or administrator. His struggles as a student spawned a passion to change the education model, push the boundaries of traditional learning, and explore new innovative ideas. Joshua has been a middle school Assistant Principal in North Texas for the past eight years, where he's served at four campuses in two school districts.

Guest Social Media

Twitter & Instagram - Joshua_Stamper

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In episode 53, Erin Kiger will discuss with Dr. Rhoads how storytelling and collaboration can help us navigate challenges and celebrations as well as #jugglethestruggleedu. This conversation is geared towards supporting educators as we begin the upcoming school year as we want to provide a toolkit of how we can juggle the year's challenges and be sustainable in our practice.

Guest Bio

Erin Kiger has worked in education for 17 years. I began working as a classroom teacher in 2004 and have taught K, 1st, 4th, 5th, and technology. After earning my MEd in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Technology Integration, I left the classroom to support teachers with technology integration. Since 2012, I have been working with teachers as both a technology and an instructional coach. I have also been responsible for data collection and testing coordination.

Guest Social Media

Twitter and Instagram: @EBGTech

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode, teacher and consultant Bonnie Nieves will discuss with Dr. Rhoads strategies to build relationships and community within our classrooms and schools. As this episode airs as we begin the 22-23 school year, the strategies outlined will help teachers and school leaders set up the routines needed to begin building relationships with students. Building relationships and community are important factors related to student learning, which should be established and reinforced continually throughout the school year. Our goal is to address this and support educators in implementing them as they begin their school year.

Guest Bio

Bonnie Nieves is a high school Biology teacher with a Master’s Degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Educational Leadership and a member of the MassCUE board of directors. She is passionate about creating immersive, authentic experiences that fuel curiosity and creating student-centered, culturally responsive learning spaces that promote equity and inclusion. Bonnie is also a member of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), and National Science Teaching Association (NSTA). She encourages you to connect with her on Twitter @biologygoddess, Instagram @beawesomeonpurpose, and LinkedIn.

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode, teacher and technology coach Renee Dawson discusses the Technology Integration Matrix as well as how she utilizes it to coach teachers on integrating technology and pedagogy to amplify student learning. We outline what the TIM is and how we can integrate it into our coaching to build capacity in using instructional strategies with technology. Many practical applications are outlined to assess teacher progress and implementing the matrix within coaching cycles. Also, various resources are discussed to help coaches, schools, and districts implement the matrix. 

Guest Bio

Renee Dawson is an Educational Technology Specialist, Verizon Innovative Learning Coach, and Verizon Innovation Lab Mentor from Atlanta, Georgia working at the middle school level. Before moving into her current role, she spent 14 years in Special Education, working with students from Pre-K to Adult Transition in self-contained physical disabilities, co-teaching, resource, and Reintegration for Juvenile Delinquents

Supplemental Documents/Resources Mentioned in the Podcast

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads had a solo monologue discussing some of the major themes encompassing all 50 episodes of the podcast to help educators navigate the present and future of education. The themes discussed will include relationships first, Maslow before below, educator autonomy, professional development pathways, feedback over grading, encouraging gratitude, risk-taking, and innovation, and being prepared to teach within any classroom setting.

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode, we will be discussing how gratitude can not only affect us on a personal basis but also transform our classrooms and schools. Our guest for this episode, Lainie Rowell, author of the book Evolving with Gratitude, provides strategies and ideas to help our own personal gratitude practices as well as transfer them to our classrooms and schools. By the end of this show, you will have a toolkit of strategies to amplify your gratitude practices as well as how you can teach them within your classroom and schools.

Guest Bio

Lainie Rowell is an Educational Consultant who has experience as a classroom teacher, teacher leader, and district leader. She enjoys utilizing technology to help optimize learning for students in addition to sharing with teachers those very strategies to amplify instruction and student learning. Lainie is the author of two books, which include Evolving Learner and Evolving with Gratitude. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter & Instagram: @LainieRowell

Website: https://www.lainierowell.com/

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, we will be discussing instructional models we see in our schools. Currently, there have been pockets of instructional innovation as well as a pushback to traditional instructional models. Our guest, Nate Ridgway has developed a multitude of different strategies and EdTech integrations to try to break away from the traditional educational instructional models we see in schools that are not meeting our student's learning needs. We will discuss our current instructional paradigm as well as future instructional models that can best fit where our learners are going as they move through their educational journey. Join us as we delve into each of these fascinating topics!

Guest Bio

Nate Ridgway is a History Teacher, Author, Speaker, and Consultant from Indianapolis. He teaches history at the secondary level and also has experience teaching Special Education. Nate enjoys researching and tinkering with instructional models and strategies that make learning engaging and equitable for students. He enjoys creating content for his students to amplify their voices in addition to establishing classrooms that provide 24/7 instruction. He is the author of two books, Don't Ditch that Tech and Breaking the Blockbuster Model. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @teachfromridge

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Rebecca Rolland discusses her work related to how to communicate with children, including examples from her book The Art of Talking with Children. In an ever-changing world, educators and families need to build a toolkit of communication skills to meet children where they are at as well as help build their communication and emotional intelligence skills. Our hope for this episode is to provide a number of examples of how to further communicate with children to add to your toolkit.

Guest Bio

Rebecca Rolland, Ed.D. is a Speech Pathologist, Harvard Professor, Author, and Consultant who focuses on communication with children. In her book, The Art of Talking with Children, she provides a step-by-step framework and examples of how to create rich conversations with children and dialogue with them to build relationships deeper relationships with them. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @rolland_ug

In this episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Rhoads will discuss with Tech Coach Ainsley Hill coaching trends from the 2021-2022 school year, planning for next year, and how to best meet teachers where they are at in relation to the technology integration and instructional capacities. We will outline tips and strategies to help tech coaches, instructional coaches, and instructional leaders on how to meet the needs of teachers and support them in our ever-changing times in education.

Guest Bio

Ainsley Hill is an Elementary Instructional Technology Facilitator out of Memphis Tennessee. She has classroom experience teaching Special Education to students who were deaf/hard of hearing. In her work, she enjoys working and coaching teachers in technology to amplify student learning as well as building relationships with her staff. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @mrshillteaches

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, our guests Drs. Richard Bernato and Al Pisano, will outline "The Collective Mindset" as an organizational, future-w/  based, and innovative framework to help schools, districts, and organizations navigate the present and future.  Additionally, in this episode, our guests will provide leadership and teaching insight throughout the episode as they have their hands both in K-12 and Higher Education and have held many leadership positions within educational organizations.

Guest Bios:

Richard Bernato’s over fifty years of experience and innovative contributions to all levels of education include simulation design and curriculum development, and creative leadership initiatives. He is especially committed to school restructuring by embedding a futures -based change leadership model into twenty first century needs best exemplified by his 2017 book of the same name.

Al Pisano, EdD, Neoteric Thought Leader, Speaker, Author, Educator, Entrepreneur, Futurist

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @dralpisano, @richDis48

In this episode, we will discuss the "Expert Effect" and how that can amplify student learning by bringing in an expert from the field to discuss and support what students are learning. We will discuss strategies on how to implement this within K-16 classrooms and how it aligns with project-based learning. Last, we will dive into the Expert Expedition to learn more about how we can use various texts and curricula to implement and amplify the Expert Effect strategy for our classrooms and students.

Guest Bios: Together, Zach Rondot and Grayson McKinney are 4th and 5th-grade teachers from Michigan and the authors of the recently published book, The Expert Effect: A Three-Part System to Break Down the Walls of Your Classroom and Connect your Students to the World, which was released by Edumatch Publishing in May of 2021, as well as the upcoming classroom companion picture book, The Expert Expedition. They are both experts in project-based learning, co-teaching, and EdTech integration. They are also well-known for recruiting experts from the field to come into their classrooms to amplify their curriculum for their students. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @MrRondot

Instagram: ZachRondot

Twitter: @GMcKinney2

Instragram: experteffectedu

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Paul Emerich France will discuss his sustainable teaching project and the major themes he has uncovered. In this same light, we will also discuss various systemic and personal and individualized solutions to help make teaching more of a sustainable career and practice. Additionally, we will focus on personalized learning and Paul's ideas relating to humanizing it as well as practices on implementing it within classrooms and schools for students and teachers alike to amplify instruction and learning.

Guest Bio:

Paul is a consultant, writer, podcaster, Adjunct Professor, Keynote Speaker, and National Board Certified Teacher. He has published two books on Personalized Learning and is working on a new book project on Sustainable Teaching. He has also published with EL Magazine, EdSurge, Edutopia, and ASCD. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @PaulEmerich

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode, we will be meeting with Laura Boyd, a middle school Spanish teacher, who uses engaging strategies to create classrooms that are student-driven. Additionally, we will have a conversation about how she uses EdTech to amplify the strategies she utilizes. Last, we will discuss how she develops student community and uses social-emotional learning as a basis for doing so.

Guest Bio: Laura Boyd is a Middle School Spanish teacher from Franklin Tennessee who is an expert on integrating instructional strategies with EdTech tools to amplify language instruction. She has written for Edutopia and has been featured by Teach for America. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @TechnologyLaura

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, we will be discussing how we can use technology to help amplify and support students become multilingual. We will be joined by Language Consultant Joe Dale, who is an expert in using tech-infused pedagogy to teach languages to students. Throughout this episode, we will focus on how we can teach languages to students within any setting using the best tech-infused strategies.

Guest Bio: Joe Dale is a well-acclaimed Language Consultant out of the United Kingdom who has taught in primary and secondary settings over his career. His expertise is infusing tech with instructional strategies to amplify language classrooms teaching a wide array of languages. 

Guest Social Media

Twitter: @JoeDale

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode, we will be discussing the similarities and differences of Adult Education in the US and UK. We will have three guests from the UK, Dr. Lou MyCroft, Jo FletcherSaxon, and Mel Lenehen. They all have leadership positions in Adult Schools in the UK, which will give us insight as to how Adult Schools are organized and what programs they offer. A must listen to learn more about Adult Education and how it can be a game-changer for communities, businesses, and students as an opportunity to grow. 

Guest Bios: All three of our guests, Dr. Lou Mycroft, Mel Lenehan, and Jo Fletcher Saxon, have worked or are working in Adult Education in the UK. They have held my roles, including teacher, Assistant Principal, and consultant while working in Adult Education. Ms. Fletcher Saxon is also the podcast host for FE Research Podcast. 

Guest Social Media

Dr. Lou Mycroft - @loumycroft

Mel Lenehan - @mellenenhan

Jo Fletcher Saxon - @jfletchersaxon

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, we will be discussing school finance with Dr. Larry Dake who is an Assistant Superintendant for Budget and Instruction from New York. An important topic that is not discussed enough. We can't wait to share his insights to help educators from all areas within the school community navigate school finance as important stakeholders in the budgeting process.

Guest Bio: Dr. Larry Dake is an Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Budget for Binghamption CSD. He was originally a social studies teacher who has held almost every position within a school and central office. He is faculty at Binghamton University within their educational leadership department. Last, he has several publications related to educational leadership with a new release of a book coming out in May 2022 on forming positive habits for school leaders. 

Social Media:

Twitter: @larrydake

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the topic of data literacy with Kyle Holder who is the CEO of IoN Software Group. Mr. Holder is an expert in education data consolidation and creating reports for schools utilizing a wide variety of metrics. Throughout this episode we discussed how data is being collected and utilized around the K-12 landscape. Additionally, we outlined data literacy skills every educator should know about and implement into their practice. Then, we spoke about the importance of having data consolidation tools in our current education world. Overall, you'll enjoy learning about data literacy, data consolidation, and how data impacts our decision-making in K-12 education. 

Guest Bio: Kyle Holder is the CEO of the IoN Software Group. He has worked in K-12 education system for most of his career creating software solutions for districts. He lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin. You can follow him on Twitter at ion_k12

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

In this episode, Ms. Timmerberg defines and discusses community schooling and how it differs from K-12 neighborhood schools. She outlines the various programs, collaborations, and events community-based schools provide that go above and beyond what traditional school districts provide. For those who do not know about community schooling, this is an episode that will help build foundational knowledge on the concept and how they are on the rise in urban areas. 

Guest Bio: Danielle Timmerberg is a School Counselor and doctoral student in Urban Education. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky and works in a Community Based School.

Learn More About Navigating Education - The Podcast

As the first season of Navigating Education - The Podcast comes to a close, Dr. Rhoads discusses his reflections and summarizes some of the major themes outlined in the first season of the podcast. From coaching, leadership, instruction, and more, Dr. Rhoads discusses how building relationships is a catalyst to navigating the present and future of education. In addition, he describes a number of episode themes and content that can be reviewed that can help any educator navigate our present as well as the future. Thank you to all of the amazing guests and contributors to season one of the podcast. We can't wait until the next season begins in early 2022!

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads outlines his top three themes from the six-part Education Coaching series. Throughout this episode, he reflects on how building relationships, having a coaching mindset of less is more, and being a reflective and connected coach are important facets in navigating the present and future of education as a coach and instructional leader. In less than fifteen minutes, listen to each of these themes and nuggets provided by the six episodes from educators across North America. 

In this final episode of the Education Coaching Series, Dr. Rhoads sat down with Jake Miller to discuss coaching with the EdTech Integrationists mindset. Our conversation focused on several strategies to help teachers utilize technology in classrooms. We outlined steps to how to select EdTech tools to meet a teacher's needs. Additionally, we had a conversation about our goal as coaches is to make a teacher's life more efficient and to align the tools we want to use with their instructional goals. Part of our conversation was on Jake Miller's new book, "Educational Ductape: An EdTech Integration Mindset," which provides a very detailed outlook towards the technology that's available, how to best implement it, and how we can focus our instruction with EdTech present in our classrooms. Finally, as the episode ended, we discussed Mr. Miller's EdTech conference persona's that he sees, which aligns directly to coaching as some teachers may be overly enthusiastic or pessimistic when it comes to utilizing new EdTech in their classroom. 

Social Media

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviews Janelle McLaughlin in Part 5 of the Coaching Series, which focuses on Coaching Educational Leaders. Throughout the episode, we discuss how coaching school and district leaders can lead to transformational effects on teachers and students. One of the themes expressed throughout the episode is building trust and the relationship with the coach to ensure that accountability is established and maintained. Additionally, we outline how it's important that everyone regardless of their position within an organization should have a coach as there are many benefits professionally and personally that can be yielded from these experiences. This was further discussed when Janelle provided a short summary of her new book on leadership, which outlines five qualities that can create effective leadership for classroom, school, and district leaders. Last, Janelle provided a few quick coaching tips to help amplify your coaching practice!

On this episode of the podcast, Dr. Rhoads sits down with his high school AAU basketball coach Todd Malecki. Coach Malecki has been a mentor of mine over the course of my playing career as well as throughout my life. I wanted to have Coach Malecki on the podcast for this series as he's been the most instrumental coach I have ever had. As a result, I wanted to pick his brain to learn many important nuggets on how to motivate, evolve over time, and constantly learn to become a better coach. Coach Malecki provides numerous examples of this throughout the episode, which can be applied to coaching in any domain; especially within education. You'll see how basketball is used as a vehicle to talk about coaching, but the lessons learned can apply to whatever you may be coaching in your life. This is truly an episode you will not want to miss out on as its entertaining and insightful to help anyone wanting to expand their coaching capacity.

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

Instagram: DrRhoadsEDU

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com 

Guest Bio: Coach Todd Malecki has been coaching basketball for 29 years. He has coached NCAA Division 2, Summer NBA Free Agenda, Youth, Junior College, and AAU. Throughout his career, he has helped over 168 players get placed in college basketball through Icemen Basketball, his AAU basketball club. Besides coaching club basketball, Coach Malecki hosts events to showcase player talents. Additionally, he founded the Desert Valley All-Star Games in 2007 to showcase the top senior in Riverside County. Coach Malecki has over 75 recommendations from high school, college, and pro players who he has made an impact on through his coaching. 

Social Media

Twitter: @toddmalecki

Instagram: moddtalecki

Facebook and Linkedin: Todd Malecki

In the 30th episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Rhoads discussed the topic of Education Futuring with Dr. Richard Bernato. We outlined several important definitions and background of futuring and how it can help schools and districts navigate and prepare for the future in our ever-changing world. From curriculum, EdTech integration, to organizational planning and changing laws and demographics, education futuring is an immensely important skill all educators need to take time to develop in their capacity as educators. Dr. Bernato outlines how we future all of the time in our daily lives. Dr. Bernato discusses how futuring needs to be a focus of educational organizations so they can plan for future trends and variables like climate change, changing laws and funding, and future pandemics may bring. This is an episode you will not want to miss out on as Dr. Bernato is a wealth of knowledge experience as you will see in this conversation!

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviews Dr. Samantha Fecich on coaching and supervising pre-service teachers. Our conversation outlines relationship building with these students as they experience student teaching. Additionally, we focus on providing feedback and crafting mindsets that focus on the small wins each day that add up over time. Our discussion also touches on a number of coaching tips to keeping organized, providing feedback, and helping the student-teacher navigate this experience. If you are an educator at the university level who coaches and supervises pre-service teachers, this is an episode for you as well as teachers who help coach and mentor teachers as they are clearing their credentials. 

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

Instagram: @DrRhoadsEDU

Website: www.matthewrhoads.com

Guest Bio: Dr. Samantha Fecich has been a Professor of Education for over 7 years.  Some days she's in my office at Grove City College, working with students and teaching preservice teachers about educational technology or Special Education. Other days she's working on consulting projects. She has published two books for new and pre-service teachers, which are called EduMagic and EduShine. Additionally, she has a podcast for new and pre-service teachers as the targeted audience. 

Social Media

Twitter and Instagram: @Sfecich

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviews CEO and Found of GotLearning, Mike Rutherford, on the topic of qualitative data as an opportunity to measure student progress and growth. Mr. Rutherford has had a long experience in and out of K-12 education in both the classroom setting and in the EdTech industry. He and his team developed a tool that provides opportunities for teachers to consolidate qualitative data generated from students and provide feedback to students that is actionable. Our conversation outlines the power of qualitative data as an indicator of growth and ensuring we keep track of it longitudinally. Additionally, this discussion went hand in hand with a short conversation on actionable formative feedback, which is now one of the major foundations of instruction and learning within our classrooms. By the end of this episode, you will see how there's an opportunity for a paradigm shift from quantitative measures of student growth to more qualitative and longitudinal data samples exemplifying student growth and development that can be stored in one place to demonstrate learning. 

Twitter: @mattrhoads1990

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Samantha Shaffner and discussed digital assessment tools. Ms. Shaffner has utilized assessment EdTech tools inside and outside the classroom in her various roles in her career. Our conversation focused on a number of assessment tools ranging from Pear Deck, Edulastic, Wakelet, Quizzizz, and Buncee and how to effectively use them for formative assessment to then collect data to drive our instruction. Overall, if you are a teacher or school leader looking for a few new instructional practices to be used with assessment tools, this is an episode you will definitely want to tune into!

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviews David Frangiosa, who is the author of Going Gradeless for Corwin Press, discusses how to take classes from a traditional grade-based classroom to a gradeless classroom. Throughout this discussion, we outline the why, mindset, and then how it can be done in your classroom. From setting up the gradeless classroom to providing student feedback after assessments, this episode is thought-provoking and can help any teacher or school leader curious about going gradeless to begin implementing it in their classrooms and schools. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed John Maguire, a middle school Special Education teacher from the Bronx in New York City. He wrote the case study found in Chapter 5 of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. During this conversation, Mr. Maguire outlined his background and context in education and how he switched to education after a career in finance, which started after coaching for ten years. He found that he could be his authentic self around students and that gave him the motivation to move into education. He discussed the importance of social-emotional learning and showing compassion and empathy for students as the foundation for building relationships with them. Then, the conversation shifted towards balancing case management and instruction during the toggled term. He outlined how he used a variety of tools to help him be effective in each facet of his job as well as a lifelong learner. Last, he provided two to three recommendations of how all teachers navigate this time in education. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Alfonso Mendoza on getting started with creating your own education podcast. As someone who has over 75 plus episodes on his own podcast, MyEdTechLife, Mr. Mendoza has a lot of experience podcasting, which gave light to many great nuggets of information to help would-be and current podcasters during this episode. We discuss the production to marketing process of creating education themed podcast. Overall, this is an episode you will not want to miss out on because these same practices can be incorporated not only for your own podcast, but for also producing school and classroom podcasts. 

In the final bonus episode of the Navigating the Toggled Term series, all of the contributing authors of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders met for a launch party to celebrate the book as well as discuss the present and future of education. The book's contributing authors all wrote short case study's at the end of each chapter to illustrate and provide firsthand accounts as to how the themes of the chapters are being implemented by teachers and school leaders from across North America. Perspectives from case study contributing authors provided a lens to the schools and students they serve in urban, suburban, rural, private, and public settings. Additionally, we had teachers and school leaders in varying points of their careers from first-year teachers to veterans who have been in the educational profession for over 30 years.  These various perspectives provided for powerful conversations and case study's in the book as they provide diverse perspectives of how to navigate education now and in the future. 

The goal of the launch party's conversations was to discuss the following five areas: 

1) Instructional Innovations and EdTech Integrations

2) Challenges to Future Innovations

3) What have we learned in teaching and leading students and schools over the past 16 months (after March 2020) and how has that prepared us to navigate the future of education?

4) How can we best support teachers and school leaders? 

5) What advice would you give teachers and school leaders as they navigate the upcoming school year and the future of education. 

Overall, the conversation we had was inspiring, motivational, and empowering. If you are a teacher, school leader, parent, or a stakeholder in the educational community, this is a discussion that will inspire you along with giving you real practice strategies and advice to navigate education now and in the future. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Dr. Janet Ilko, who is the Chapter 6 Case Study contributing author in Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. In Chapter 6, the book discusses how to communicate and engage with students and families. It provides strategies and EdTech integrations to communicate and engage with students when they are in a wide variety of settings ranging from online, blended, and traditional in-person classrooms. During our conversation, we dive deeper into the case study Dr. Ilko wrote as well as some of the content from the chapter. Many important takeaways for teachers and school leaders to utilize in their practice are discussed. This is a bonus episode you will not want to miss out on!

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Dr. Kevin Leichtman on the topic of teacher burnout. This topic is important, especially now, as teachers and schools are navigating uncharted waters as we are taking on the challenges of living in a world of COVID-19. Along with the everyday stress of navigating a classroom, parents, students, and administration, teachers have had to navigate moving between online, blended learning, and traditional in-person settings. Altogether, this has created an unprecedented number of teachers leaving the profession. My hope with this conversation is to help provide teachers with a blueprint of how to navigate burnout. Dr. Leichtman has a lot of research on how school leaders and teachers can mitigate burnout. Our conversation covers this and more, which we hope you take a listen to as it can help set you with some tools to help navigate and mitigate the effects of burnout. 

In this bonus episode of the podcast, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Elizabeth Esposito Haupert, who is the case study contributing author in Chapter 4 of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. Our conversation discussed differentiation strategies and EdTech integrations to help students within any classroom setting. As someone who works with a wide variety of students, Mrs. Haupert focused on feedback strategies, small group instruction, and personalized learning with student choice. Ultimately, this conversation is just the beginning of what you can find within Chapter 4 of the book, which covers differentiating instruction for all learners. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Alexander Deeb, who is the co-found and CEO of the EdTech platform Classhook on student engagement. As a company that thinks about student engagement constantly, our discussion outlined how bite-sized learning using relevant popular culture media is essential to help students build conceptual frameworks around the skills and concepts they are taught. Additionally, we discussed how bite-sized clips can help solidify retention and create more fun and interactive spaces for learning to occur. Last, we outlined several engagement strategies as well as how a tool like ClassHook can be utilized to not only help create more engaging lessons for educators but also helps cut down the time it takes to develop lessons as tools like ClassHook are great curators of content. 

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Rhoads discusses EdTech Coaching with Debbie Tannenbaum. At the beginning of the episode, we discuss Mrs. Tannenbaums background in education. She has been able to see many inceptions of EdTech integration over her career, which made for an interesting conversation of what has changed over the past two decades in education. Then, the conversation shifts to discuss coaching teachers on EdTech integration. A number of great suggestions are raised regarding how to support and coach teachers. Last, our discussion ends with Mrs. Tannenbaum discussing her new book, TRANSFORM: Tech Notes to Make Learning Sticky.

In this bonus episode of the podcast, Dr. Matt interviewed Victoria Lowe, who is the Chapter 8 Case Study contributing author of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. In our conversation, Ms. Lowe outlines how she uses a wide range of strategies and EdTech tools to integrate into her lessons within blended learning classroom settings. In this discussion, she discussed how she selects tools and integrates them into lessons and her process of curating new tools and strategies she learns from her professional learning and global professional learning network. Ms. Lowe describes how she utilizes the station rotation model of blended learning. Specifically, she added a lot of great nuggets of information on how to develop and model routines so students know how to initiate and participate in each station and generate buy-in and community. In the final minutes, Ms. Lowe provides her top three to five recommendations on how to successfully implement blended learning. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads discussed rural education and how to best support rural educators with Dr. Casey Jakubowski. In our conversation, we outlined some of the challenges of rural education ranging from underfunding, but also discussed its strengths such as community involvement by students and teachers. As the conversation progressed, Dr. Jakubowski discussed how our schools need to provide more outlets for our students to be involved within the community whether in local politics, business, or entrepreneurship. We both agreed that provided opportunities for student voice and agency in the form of entrepreneurship can be a future avenue for schools would be an optimal opportunity for students! As the conversation ended, Dr. Jakubowski outlined how our classrooms can be Makerspaces for community projects, which can help students develop solutions to help the community moving forward into the future. 

In this bonus episode, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Jennifer Ingold, the contributing author for Chapter 2's case study of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders, on mainstream EdTech tools that amplify learning anywhere and anytime. Within our conversation, Mrs. Ingold outlined how she utilizes slides and docs as hyperdocs and hyperslides to create clear, concise, predictable, and engaging routines and strategies for students. Much of our conversation she outlined how she created structures within our class to help students, as well as families, be successful in navigating her course. Additionally, she discussed how she designed her lessons and online infrastructure to create easy-to-follow procedures and routines. Overall, for any teacher or school leader, Mrs. Ingold outlines how to create the systems and routines to be successful instructionally within any classroom setting. 

In this bonus episode, Dr. Rhoads takes a deep dive with Shannon Moore, who is the contributing author for Chapter of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders, on the topic of selecting EdTech tools to amplify instruction in any setting. Throughout the conversation, we discussed how to select EdTech tools, which centers around the philosophy of "think less is more" as well as how we can align our instructional goals and strategies with tools that can amplify our student's learning. Additionally, Mrs. Moore outlined several tips and tricks on how to select EdTech tools not only in the classroom setting but also for an entire school. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads spoke with Dr. Malikah Nu'Man on restorative justice practices implementation throughout the school community as well as her research on teacher trauma and how to mitigate it to help with teacher retention. Throughout our conversation, Dr. Nu'Man provides many applicable restorative justice practices to integrate within school cultures ranging from embedded social emotional learning activities in all classes and school-based activities, reflecting on our language we use while speaking to students, restorative circles, reevaluating our perspectives and seeing what may have been perceived harmful, apologizing for our actions, and sharing leadership responsibilities to create buy-in. Additionally, we discussed teacher trauma and how to integrate support groups on campuses for teachers as well as a focus on clarity of procedures and initiatives so teachers know the expectations of leadership. Overall, this is a very insightful conversation any classroom and school leader can learn a lot from to be able to implement restorative justice and brave and safe spaces into their leadership practices. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads spoke to Ariel Adrian who wrote one of the self-care case studies in Chapter 12 of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. We discussed the mind-body connection and how self-care is essential to educators who want to be their best selves not only to their students and colleagues but authentically to themselves. In addition, she outlined her mindset of navigating the past 15 months as well as how routines helped amplify her self-care so it was done on a daily basis. Many important nuggets of information on self-care that can amplify an educators energy are discussed in this episode - you will not want to miss it on a deep dive on this important topic!

In this bonus episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Rhoads discusses professional development and learning with Rose Avalos who is a case study author in Chapter 11 of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders. Further elaborating on her case study she wrote for the book, Ms. Avalos outlines her experience with professional development and learning over the past 15 months. She outlines professional learning experiences that were helpful and impacted her practices versus other experiences that weren't as helpful. Additionally, she emphasizes teacher collaboration whether its teachers within your same school or online that has been a major contributor to her learning. Our discussion finalizes on the note that teacher collaboration was essential to helping her improve her practices as she navigates the present and future of education. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviews Dr. C. Malik, Boykins on his music, learning, and racial bias algorithms. We first discussed Dr. Boykins context in education and how he has navigated his research and teaching the past 15 months. Following that conversation, we had a short discussion about his music, which has taken off on platforms such as Tik-Tok to create dance music videos. This conversation moves into Dr. Boykins research on racial bias within algorithms. He has currently developed a software that can help measure algorithmic bias in many of the social media platforms we utilized today for personal use and professional learning. He outlined the implications of the bias's as well as the need for regulating algorithms. At the end of our conversation, Dr. Boykin outlines two to three teaching practices that can be implemented into your classroom and school tomorrow. 

In this bonus episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Rhoads discussed with Dr. Darrin Peppard district leadership and leadership practices that have helped him navigate the past 15 months as a district leader. Dr. Peppard is a contributing author to Chapter 10's case study of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders that relates to the chapter's theme of the Coherence Framework in action to help districts at the organizational level navigate in our ever-changing landscape. During our conversation, Dr. Peppard provided insight as to what leadership practices have helped in almost every role he's had in education ranging from a teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, and superintendent. He also provides four critical leadership practices that can help any leader navigate not only the present but also the future of education. 

In this episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Rhoads discusses with Jillian DuBois, who is the contributing author of one of Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders Chapter 12 case study on educator self-care. Her topic in the case study on self-care is on letting go of perfectionism and focusing on joy versus happiness. Our conversation in this podcast outlines her evolution as an educator as well as how she navigated the past 15 months as an elementary teacher. The conversation then discusses how letting go of perfectionism takes a lot of stress and anxiety off not only the teacher but develops a culture within classrooms that is beneficial to student learning and social-emotional well-being. Finally, Jillian provides a great analogy contrasting happiness and joy, which can help educators avoid burnout and model to students that we can find joy in our challenges and successes without it fleeting over time.

In this bonus episode of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Rhoads interviews Mark Ureel who is a contributing author for the chapter three case study in the book Navigating the Toggled Term: A Guide for K-12 Classroom and School Leaders.  Within his case study, Mark outlines how he utilized instructional strategies to amplify his students learning in several classroom settings. In our conversation, we discussed how Mr. Ureel has toggled numerous times throughout the school year (more so than many teachers throughout the country) and he gave some great ideas on how to navigate multiple classroom settings throughout the school year. Additionally, Mr. Ureel and Dr. Matt discussed Project-Based Learning. Mr. Ureel provided us some insight as to how he utilizes the strategy to create personalization and student choice in his classroom setting. He also outlined how he was able to sustain PBL instructional model for his classroom throughout the many toggles that happened throughout the school year. 

In this episode, Dr. Neil Anderson was interviewed by Dr. Rhoads on the topic of Fine Arts and Music Education. Dr. Anderson provided his background and context in education, which provides listeners a great synopsis of the state of fine arts and music within education. Throughout our conversation, we discuss how to embed fine arts and music into the curriculum as well as being active collaborators to create cross-curricular learning experiences for students. Additionally, Dr. Anderson outlined mechanisms to help retain music and arts teachers as they are some of the vulnerable teachers to leaving the profession. Last, we outlined how Dr. Anderson's current work of his podcast and professional learning opportunities, can connect art and music educators with general education teachers and school leaders to create opportunities for enhancing the arts education in schools. 

In Episode 14, Dr. Rhoads interviews Dr. Jasara Hines on the topic of cultural responsiveness and teaching. Throughout the conversation, we discussed what culturally responsive teaching looks like within classroom settings as well as how to establish and maintain relationships with students using many strategies related to culturally responsive pedagogy. Dr. Hines outlined her experience incorporating culturally responsive teaching into AVID courses at the secondary level in addition to embedding it throughout the curriculum. This is an episode you will not want to miss out on as it is very practical and discusses several key strategies every educator can implement within classrooms and schools that are culturally responsive and relevant to students. 

Today on Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Rhoads interviews Greg Bagby, a district-level EdTech Instructional Coordinator, about EdTech Leadership within schools and districts. Mr. Bagby has many years of experience integrating EdTech at the school and district level. He discusses how to set up an infrastructure of relationships, coaching, and goals to help establish and maintain EdTech integration in classroom and school settings. As the podcast draws to a close, Dr. Matt asks Mr. Bagby about advice for new and upcoming EdTech leaders. He provides several key points that all leaders, including EdTech leaders, should take note as they take on leadership opportunities and positions. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads interviews Zach Groshell, who is a Director of Educational Technology and a Ph.D. student in Instructional Design and Online Learning on the topic of cognitive load and its effect on learning. To begin, we define cognitive load theory and then discuss how practices on how we can limit its effects on our student's working memories. Zach provides a number of strategies teachers can do using EdTech tools and learning management systems to limit the effects of cognitive load on students. In this same conversation, Zach outlines his Ph.D. study on cognitive load where he describes the study and experimental design. Then, following this conversation, Dr. Matt asks Zach how we can limit cognitive load when we are assessing our students and providing feedback. Overall, this episode provides many strategies to help students learn and to optimize teacher instruction in online, blended learning, and traditional in-person classrooms. 

On Episode 11 of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Rhoads interviewed Matthew Downing an EdTech coach and integrationist on the topic of Attitudes/Beliefs and Relationships as the Foundation of Technology Integration. This conversation focused on establishing positive views and beliefs related to integrating technology use in the classroom setting. We discussed how to begin those conversations as well as maintain those conversations over the course of the school year, which focused on having collaborative conversations with teachers. Dr. Matt outlined a few of his favorite coaching techniques based on the Diffusion of Innovations theory, which focuses on making practices more efficient. Additionally, Dr. Matt aligned developing attitudes, beliefs, and relationships towards EdTech integration to Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn's Coherence Framework. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads discusses how to select research-based instructional strategies as well as EdTech tools and integrate them together to amplify student learning. Dr. Matt outlines each of these steps in addition to discussing how to implement the strategy integration within classrooms and practice it over time with students. The goal of this podcast is to illustrate to teachers and leaders we can implement strategies that help our students learn with mainstream EdTech tools to further amplify their learning as well as show the framework of how to do it within our lesson design. Ultimately, this is something all modern classrooms need to have as we live in the digital age. Last, we must remember that the strategies and pedagogy are what drive our technology use, which is reiterated throughout this episode. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads discusses what classroom routines should look like within digital and physical spaces that encompass modern classrooms. Beginning with outlining what classroom routines are, Dr. Matt provides a framework for how they are defined and how they can be implemented. Then, he goes on to discuss digital and physical classroom routines. This involves EdTech integration as well as navigating physical spaces and relationship building using strategies such as restorative justice and student-involved classroom norms. Last, there is a short conversation on bridging and blended physical and digital classroom routines in addition to what makes them successful over time for teachers and students alike. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads discusses how Special Education teachers along with service providers for students with special needs can optimize their case management with EdTech tools. With large caseloads and fires to put out, teachers working with students on their caseload need to build systems and procedures along with integrating EdTech to make their case management efficient and effective. The three segments discussed in this podcast include what does Special Education case management look like as well as its challenges, how we can leverage EdTech to enhance case management, and tips and tricks to effective case management. Ultimately, the goal of this podcast episode is to discuss how this can be done in a very practical way. Thus, by the end of this episode, listeners will have several strategies they can utilize to amplify their case management. 

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Rhoads discusses how adaptive EdTech can be utilized as a personalized learning tool that can help students with retrieval practice to amplify their learning. As adaptive EdTech becomes more sophisticated, it's important to see its instructional uses for K-12 teachers and how it can be leveraged to help students practice reading and math skills. The three segments the episode is divided into are defining adaptive EdTech tools, how we can leverage adaptive EdTech to personalize practice, and what are the instructional implications of using these tools in our classrooms. After listening to this episode, our goal is for you to know how to use adaptive EdTech and leverage it strategically within your instruction to support your students where they are at in their reading and mathematics. Additionally, you will also know how to use the data generated to monitor and adjust your instruction. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads discusses best practices grounded in research that work in online learning classroom settings. Dr. Rhoads outlines how to provide instruction during synchronous as well as asynchronous portions of the lesson along with integrating several instructional strategies with EdTech tools to amplify student learning. The podcast ends with a short discussion on the practical applications of online instruction that can be integrated into face-to-face and blended learning classroom settings. Overall, listeners by the end of the episode will have a number of instructional strategies integrated with EdTech tools that can be utilized in a variety of different classroom settings as well as some solid research-based tips to amplify your instruction within online classroom settings!

Today we live in a world of in-person and virtual instruction. Now, classes have a physical and a digital space where instruction and feedback take place. This is blended learning. With blended learning becoming a prevalent instructional model, there a number of ways to amplify blended learning to support students in their learning. From setting up a classroom infrastructure to implementing instructional sequences for students with synchronous and asynchronous instruction, there are a variety of strategies that can be integrated to help with organizing the instructional sequence. By the end of this podcast episode, listeners will be able to incorporate many successful strategies into their blended learning classroom settings that amplify student learning. 

In this episode, Dr. Rhoads discusses how we are in the age of formative assessment in education. Dr. Matt outlines the implications of being in a time where a teacher can quickly assess student progress and provide student feeedback. Also, throughout the episode Dr. Matt describes how assessment can be integrated within the sequence of a lesson and how it help teachers monitor and adjust instruction and provide student feedback. On this note, Dr. Matt will outline that in the past, short assessments could not be quickly analyzed by teachers in real-time, which made it difficult to provide feedback directly to students immediately after the assessment. In much of the literature related to learning, this is a massive step forward because we are now able to give feedback related to performance, which amplifies student learning. Altogether, by the end of this episode, listeners will have a solid understanding how the power of formative assessment and how to integrate it into their instruction. 

In Episode 3 of Navigating Education - The Podcast, Dr. Matt Rhoads discusses how teachers and school leaders can use data collected from mainstream EdTech tools to make instructional data-driven decisions in a matter of seconds and minutes. Focusing on data visualization dashboards and extracting data to spreadsheets, Dr. Matt summarizes a step by step process of how he uses data to drive his instructional decision-making. Using many mainstream EdTech tools, listeners will then be able to see how they can use the data collected from these tools to help them amplify their students' learning by helping enhance their instruction.  Overall, the goal of this episode is to demonstrate that we have so much data around us that can be used to help support our instruction and students. It’s more accessible than ever before so let's take advantage of it. Therefore, let’s talk about and begin using it extensively to amplify our teaching!

Today, Dr. Matt Rhoads discussed social-emotional learning strategy integrations with several EdTech tools to help amplify student SEL development in any classroom setting. Using what educators call an app-smash, Dr. Matt outlines how step by step to integrate Google Slides, Pear Deck, and Flipgrid together for a powerful instructional sequence that can be implemented within any classroom setting. Ultimately, the goal of this instructional integration is to help build classroom community and relationships with your students to maintain and establish positive classroom learning environments and cultures. Overall, this podcast summarizes this process and the benefits it can have on students, if implemented within K-12 classrooms. 

Be sure to check out Dr. Matt on social media to continue the conversation.

In this introductory episode, the host Dr. Matt Rhoads, provides a summary of the podcasts purpose, episode formats, and why he wants you to become a listener and guest on an upcoming episode. Overall, the podcast's purpose is to provide a space to help educators and the greater community navigate education now in the present as well as the future. Topics of the podcast range from instruction, edtech integration, Special Education, policy, English language learners, instructional models, organizational models, leadership, and much more. Last, listeners of these podcasts will be given research, step-by-step how-to's of instruction, thoughts to evaluate within their classroom and schools, and opportunities to listen to a diverse set of voices. Ultimately, you will learn about this podcast and future episodes by listening to this introduction podcast!

Be sure to check out Dr. Matt on social media to continue the conversation.