Innovative Education in Vermont
Exploring innovative, personalized, student-centered school change
In this episode, we get real about what educators can do in their classrooms to make a more equitable playing field, how to walk that fine line between supporting student activism and co-opting it, and how to juggle the competing demands of educational and intersectional change. Also, we talk local soccer. It’s a full workout …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: So You Want to Talk About Race”
Jeanie: In this episode, I sit down with educational phenoms Christie Nold and Jess Lifshitz. And we’re joined by Brendan Kiely, Author of The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege. Now, you might be wondering what The Other Talk actually is. As many of you know, black people and other people of the global …
In this episode, we welcome author, educator, and Vermont transplant Kathleen Kesson who talks about Community Schools Blueprint: Transforming Our School Community Partnership. Kathleen and I talk about the possibilities we see for widening the cracks in traditional schooling by building opportunities for students and communities to support one another in authentic, real-world ways.
The recent issue of the research journal Middle Grades Review was extraordinary for two reasons. First, it focused on the intersection of personalized learning and social justice education. And second, Vermont educators authored all but one of the articles. I encourage folks to peruse the entire issue, but this may not be realistic in the …
Continue reading “A Vermont-centric look at personalized learning for social justice”
“Be yourself; everyone else is taken.” That. Quote. Drives. Me. Nuts. I mean, duh! And of course! And who else am I gonna be?! [Also it makes the librarian in me nuts because it is often attributed to Oscar Wilde, but there is no evidence he ever said it. Additionally, he doesn’t seem to have …
Continue reading “Student-centered personalized learning starts with identity”
How do we effectively engage people in our community who aren’t already predisposed to discuss race and the impacts of racism? How do we pull people into a community conversation on race? Especially people who aren’t already striving to be more antiracist? I’m not entirely sure, but I do know that the more community conversations …
Continue reading “Lessons learned from a community conversation on race”
Physical, social, and emotional health are the top priorities in our learning communities. Period. End of story. Educators have been preparing for the opening of schools with this in mind. Thinking through endless what-if scenarios. Arranging and rearranging classrooms to observe best observe social distancing guidelines. Reading constantly updated and addended protocols. In addition, hand …
I’m Jeanie Phillips, and this is Vermont Ed Reads: books by, for and with Vermont educators. Today we’re joined by Philadelphia-based educator and “Learning Maximizer” Erika Saunders, to talk about the book Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. Jeanie: Thank you so much for joining me, Erika. Tell us …
Today on the 21st Century Classroom: Beckett: When the school systems were created was to produce factory workers, to have good workers for their assembly lines and could make cars and they all knew basic information and could all say the same facts. It was a standardized person pretty much, being produced into the workforce. …
Continue reading “What CVU students want you to know about education”
This past weekend started like many others. An early morning trip to the local hardware store with coffee and daughter in hand. We were there to gather an eclectic list of items, optimistically hoping to check a few house projects off the “list.” I’m sure you all have “a list” too. Instead, my 8-year-old gravitated …
Listeners: how do you talk to your students about the special love that exists between a woman and a Sasquatch? Or between an insect and a robot-powered building? And where and how do you determine which texts are appropriate to give to students? On this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Sarah Birgé, a …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: Dreadful Young Ladies, with Sarah Birgé”
*Why* do you want to personalize learning? What’s your purpose for using PLPs? Teachers typically have a range of priorities. Two common ones are to increase equity and to foster social emotional learning (SEL), both of which are rooted in knowing students well. Increasing equity PLPs provide a powerful way to address inequity in schooling. …
Continue reading “3.1 What Are Your Pedagogical Priorities?”
Sometimes pursuing systemic equity in education can feel a little like the carrot vs. the stick. Since No Child Left Behind, federal education policy has talked about equity while applying punitive measures to schools based on students’ aggregate performance. We have been largely mired in deficit-based policy that is ineffective for spurring transformation and generally …
What does Jane Austen have to do with a Drake mixtape? For this episode, I was joined by Vermont rockstar librarian Meg Alison, in discussing Ibi Zoboi’s Pride, a Pride and Prejudice Remix. We talk about gentrification, agency, and the amazing power of spoken word poetry, we give a shout out to DisruptTexts and ask …
What’s the plan? Here’s a quick reminder of my focus question for this year’s Learning Lab: How can social justice be a lens for personalized, student-designed curriculum? Here’s how — at this moment anyway — I would adjust the wording of my focus question: How can students use social justice as a lens for designing …
When things get tough, the tough use tools. Whether you’re actively trying to embed current events in your curriculum or helping your students respond to the headlines, here are five useful tools to help you wrangle news in the classroom.
#vted Reads is a podcast by, for and with Vermont educators, discussing books for professional development and use in the classroom. Host Jeanie Phillips sits down with an educator, student or author each episode and together, they look at a book they feel is relevant for Vermont learners. Whether it’s YA, popular press or professional …
Hoo boy, we have a CORKER of an episode for you today, with On The Come Up, by Angie Thomas. We’re going to be talking about some of the continual and heartbreaking trauma students of color face in our schools, as well as the incredible resilience of mothers. I’m joined today by Marley Evans, a …
Get your red hot summer reads right here! Or your chilling-in-the-AC-far-away-from-sunlight summer reads. We don’t judge. For educators, summer is a time to relax, recharge and maybe fit some professional development in, but honestly, not til like, August, easily*.
Lovely listeners, welcome back. I’m Jeanie Phillips, and on this episode, I get to talk about “The Last Cuentista”, a book by Donna Barba Higuera. It’s a fantastic middle grades book that touches on the tension between technology and organic life, duty and desire, along with what we know about identity — and how we …
Welcome, listeners, to another episode of vted Reads: talking about books by, for, and with Vermont educators. In this episode… we own an oversight. On this show, we are dedicated to breaking down systems of inequity in education. We administer flying kicks to the forehead of intersectional oppression! But we haven’t yet talked about disability. …
Continue reading “#VTED Reads: Care Work with Dr. Winnie Looby”
What if we could give more time to educators, many of whom are overworked and in danger of burnout? The Kingdom East School District (KESD) did it, and other districts could too. Recognizing that educator wellness is the foundation for student wellbeing and learning, KESD added ten early release days to their calendar. Teachers use …
Continue reading “How one district gave teachers the gift of time”
Listeners, I’m going to ask you to bear with me on this one. This is one of my favorite episodes we’ve ever recorded because, in it, you’ll hear students at U-32 school in Montpelier, Vermont, get to bring their questions about the book “Dig”, by A.S. King, directly to the author. If you haven’t read …
Lovely listeners: today is a work day. Now, we all know that talking about anti-bias work is a vital component of the kind of school change that makes our classrooms safer and more engaging for students of color. Doubly so when we are white educators, and when we teach in predominantly white spaces, in predominantly …
Hooray for summer! Sure, we usually say something along those lines this time of year, but this year? ONCE MORE WITH FEELING. And with that, we turn to our Tarrant correspondents for a peek into the reading bags, shelves, carts and– *squints* — trees, that keep our folks out of trouble.* We’re off reading and …
Back on the show: it’s Bill Rich! But first: Lovely listeners, a few episodes ago, we turned fifty. Fifty! Can you imagine? It took us a hot minute (and um, more math than we’d care to discuss) to figure that out but this is the season that took us to FIFTY EPISODES. And we are …
From the innovativeEd mailbag: a reader looks for ways to keep pathways of conversation open with their colleagues when it comes to talking about difficult topics. Meet “Flummoxed in Flannery”. “Dear InnovativeEd, With everything that’s been going on lately, simple conversations with coworkers have turned into a minefield of hurt feelings, recriminations and misunderstandings. So …
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Audio only Resources Slides from “Fostering Brave Spaces” Annotated Transcript Hello, my name is Grace Gilmour. I’m a seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher. And today I’m going to be talking about: “How do we foster brave spaces for discussions about race and other forms of oppression in our classrooms?” In the fall …
Flood Brook School has been talking about a classroom library audit for A LONG TIME. Like, a real long time. It became one of those running jokes in some of our classrooms. 7th and 8th graders talked with teachers about how inclusive (or not) our libraries are, and we always intended to do a formal …
Chicago-based educator and twitter wunderkind Jess Lifshitz joins Jeanie on the podcast to talk about Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s seminal text on equity and criticality: Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. Jeanie: Thank you so much for joining me, Jess. Just tell us a little bit about who you are and …
Today on the podcast, Alex Shevrin Venet joins us to talk about her new book, Equity-Centered, Trauma-Informed Education. How does it work in classrooms? How can you, as an educator, use your own coping strategies to dismantle inequity at your school? Will action research help? And what does convincing your landlord to let you have …
If you want to know what an organization prioritizes, examine its budget. If you want to know what educators care about, look at their curriculum. Curriculum is perhaps the most concrete representation of educational values. Students’ day-to-day experiences are rooted in their direct engagement with this bundle of lesson plans, materials, and assignments. We package …
Continue reading “Culturally Responsive Curriculum by design”
Oh lovely listeners, we are all still here, and we are all noticing the change of the seasons. This year the melting of the snow and the return of the sun are coinciding with a COVID-19 vaccine becoming available. We know, lovely listeners, that you are all feeling that complicated mix of joy, sorrow and …
Are you wear-your-mask-in-a-pandemic brave, listeners? Or get-vaccinated-when-needles-scare-you brave? On this episode of the podcast, we’re joined by Vermont author and educator Lindsey Stoddard, who’s here to talk about her new middle grades book, Brave Like That. We’ll talk about the many different kinds of brave you can be, along with how students know that tiny …
We’re here to talk books for educators, by educators and with educators. Today I’m with Dr. Penny Bishop and we’ll be talking about The Successful Middle School: This We Believe, by Penny and her co-author Dr. Lisa Harrison. Thanks so much for joining me, Penny. Tell us a little bit about who you are and …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: The Successful Middle School”
Imagine a place where every person can be their authentic whole human selves. A culturally responsive learning environment is a place where everybody belongs. The posters and images on walls, books and materials on shelves, the furniture and flow of the space all radiate belonging. These tangible items convey important information: what is valued, …
Continue reading “The Culturally Responsive Learning Environment”
In January 2020, the Vermont state legislature proposed a resolution formally apologizing for the legislature’s role in passing a 1931 law making eugenics perfectly legal and encouraged in the Green Mountain State. Meanwhile, on the Standing Rock Reservation, in South Dakota, the future of the Dakota Access Pipeline is in doubt, but only at the …
Continue reading “#vted Reads about Equity & Cultural Responsiveness in the Middle Grades”
Equity. In Vermont and beyond, educators and administrators are talking about equity. But what does equity look like in practice? Most importantly, how do we stop talking about it and start doing it? Culturally responsive practices are a concrete way to do equity work in the classroom. So what are they and what do they …
Continue reading “Culturally responsive practices for equity in the classroom”
Are you there, #vted? It’s me, Jeanie. On this episode of the podcast, we’re re-joined by one of the very first guests on our show, Jory Hearst. She returns to talk about All-American Muslim Girl, by Nadine Jolie Courtney. Jory shares her own journey through and relationship with Judaism, and the ways she found her …
On this episode, it’s the return of Aimee Arandia Østensen! She’s here to talk with me about The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games, by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. We reflect on what we read growing up, and have deeply spicy thoughts about fan fiction, Island of the Blue …
No matter what that new year looks like. At the start of a new year, we often think about our hopes and set resolutions. Is setting goals passé now? Not for students. And especially not for young adolescents, regardless of what else is happening in the larger world. Goals make the world manageable. They make …
Continue reading “Setting goals with students for the new year”
It’s not you; difficult conversations are a lot right now. While it’s fair to say that the history of the world consists of “being a lot” at regular intervals, right now is a moment where multiple unlikely catastrophes have collided, exposing deep rifts in conventional society. A lot of people we know and love hold …
Continue reading “How to have difficult conversations in the classroom”
How do you blend a time-honored tradition and an unprecedented moment of social, civil and personal upheaval? Carefully. Very carefully. So, in order to make lemonade from 2020’s truckload of lemons, currently broken down in the fast lane of our lives, let’s look at 5 keys to a successful virtual parent night. 1.Provide choice — …
Continue reading “5 keys to a successful virtual parent night: 2020 edition”
Listener, how do you feel about positive interventions, behaviors and supports? I don’t mean in general — in general those all sound fine and dandy — but when they come within 100 yards of a school, they turn into PBIS. And that’s another ball of wax entirely. Today author Thomas Knestrict joins me on the …
228 days home with my 3 children. 88 days of remote learning, spanning 2 school years and 5 different grade levels. 10 different teachers. 34 Zoom meetings per week (not counting mine). Engagement level: 27%. This is parenting pandemic math. But who’s counting, right? At home, my kids are missing school. Or, more specifically, they …
In spring 2020, during statewide “emergency remote learning” due to the pandemic, many districts and schools changed their approach to grading and reporting. The shift was toward a “do no harm” model. In a moment when everybody was reeling from ongoing collective trauma and uncertainty, this made a lot of sense from a purely human …
In this episode, we sit down with the executive director of the Vermont Humanities Council, Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup. The Vermont Humanities Council runs Vermont Reads (not to be confused with Vermont *ed* Reads), in which they choose a book for our whole state to read, ponder and talk about. This year, that book is Angie …
Schools have been preparing for students all summer: developing protocols for handwashing and bathroom use, deploying hand sanitizer stations, hanging signs to remind students to stay socially distant, measuring and taping classrooms, cafeterias, and hallways. It’s *A LOT*. You are carrying an enormous burden, and I applaud your hard work, creativity, and fortitude. It is …
Listeners, I’m angry. I’m angry about the failure of our political leadership, the unmitigated disaster of climate change, and the risks we’re asking our educators and students to take right now. I’m angry, and I’m hurt, and frustrated, and I’m not the only one. I know you’re angry, and I know our students are angry. …
I’m Jeanie Phillips and we’re back for a third season of vted Reads! Books by, for and with Vermont educators. Kicking off this season we’re joined on the show by author and former teacher Kate Messner. Kate’s here to talk about how we can use books about some dark topics as conduits to reach students …
Emily Hoyler It seems my ‘to-read’ pile is growing faster than I am reading. Luckily it’s summer. These longer days provide daylight well past my bedtime, ensuring I make it a few pages further before dozing off. First up, because my digital hold finally arrived (I love you, Green Mountain Library Consortium!), is The Glass …
Middle school is not a Zoom room. When the quick switch to a remote environment was required, Charlotte Central School decided to go with what they know. And these folks know their students. Specifically, they know “Personal Interest Projects” (PIPs, aka passion projects, aka Brainado, aka curiosity projects) work for their students. Charlotte Central students …
Schools are committed to bringing anti-racism into curricula and systems more than ever before. Even in predominantly white schools there appears to be a growing acknowledgment that anti-racist education is crucial for all students. Big changes seem to be underfoot. And that’s a wonderful thing. But there will be pushback. White fragility and white rage …
Continue reading “Student intervention for anti-racist education”
Listeners: our hearts are breaking. Our hearts are breaking for all of Vermont’s Black students, Black educators, and Black families. But frankly, our broken hearts are not nearly enough. Right now, we need to talk about what this all means for Vermont. What it means to interrogate in schools, and in classrooms, and in ourselves. …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: Hemingway, with Elijah Hawkes”
I’m Jeanie Phillips, and welcome to Vermont Ed Reads: books by, for and with Vermont educators. Today on the show, we welcome Mike McRaith, who’s here to talk about Nora Samaran’s Turn This World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture. How *do* you hold harm, and harmony together in the same space in a …
The need for trauma-informed practice is particularly salient during the current global pandemic, when many if not all of us are experiencing trauma daily. And educators are working hard to translate trauma-informed practice to emergency remote learning. Luckily, we have experts like Alex Shevrin Venet engaged in the current moment. She’s a local Vermont educator …
Continue reading “Trauma-informed distance learning, with Alex Shevrin Venet”
The other day as I imagined my thirteen-year-old self stuck at home for the remainder of the school year, I panicked! By now I would have read, and re-read my entire library. Where would I get more books? Never fear: books are everywhere! Fiction has always been a means of escape for me, a way …
Continue reading “How to get ebooks in the hands of students”
I’m Jeanie Phillips: welcome to #vted Reads, the podcast by for and with Vermont educators. And today, with Vermont students as well! We recorded this episode at last year’s Teen Lit Mob. What’s Teen Lit Mob, you ask? Teen Lit Mob is Vermont’s only book-related conference specifically for young adult readers. Students from all around …
The middle school movement has been a powerful force for positive change. It’s rooted in progressive education, with special attention to the developmental needs of young adolescents. In Vermont, we are ahead of most other states in implementing middle school systems and associated student-centered practices. That’s a good thing. Relative newcomers to this place, like …
Welcome back to #vted Reads! The podcast for, with and by Vermont educators. I’m Jeanie Phillips and in this episode, we’re joined by Dolan, in talking about Juliet Takes a Breath, by Gabby Rivera. Along the way, we talk white fragility, preferred pronouns (and how your students can let you know what’s safe and appropriate …
When we talk about a student in an intervention meeting, we often start with what is amazing about that student. Teachers and caregivers who know the students deeply rattle off talents, skills, and strengths. These are personal and often show up outside of school. There are so many ways to be smart, creative, and self-directed. …
Continue reading “A critical lens on project-based learning”
On this episode of #vted Reads, we’re joined by noted Native scholar Judy Dow, to talk about Hidden Roots, by Joseph Bruchac. This book and the issues it raises are incredibly important for us to address as both educators and Vermonters, given Vermont’s appalling history with eugenics. So as a quick content note: we’re going …
Today on the show, we’re going to talk about The End of Average: How to Succeed in a World That Values Sameness, by Todd Rose. We’ll be joined by Emily Gilmore, who teaches world history at South Burlington High School, in South Burlington Vermont. But first, a few words of background for today’s show. In …
This episode is all. About. QUESTIONS. Why are we here? Who was here before us? What kinds of stories do we tell about the world around us? And: how can we change from seeing the world as something to be studied, to something that can be acted upon …and changed. First-year educator Thierry Uwilingiyamana — …
Continue reading “#vted Reads: Place-Based Curriculum Design”