Topic: Retention

Teachers, you made it to summer! Find a happy place that nourishes you, eases some of your tired emotional muscles, and resets your motivation. Try the 100-word writing prompt at the end!

Provide online access to all of your materials. When absent students do show up, make their arrival welcoming and warm. We can only assume that any chronically absent student is struggling and needs capable adults to offer support, not judgment.

The pursuit of perfection can hurt us and our students. Unlearn the need to be the all-knowing perfect educator and embrace that making mistakes is what makes us human.

It is our responsibility to create classrooms where students can learn skills beyond the rote, that extend to their very ways of interacting with, and perhaps changing, the world. The beliefs that inform your teaching make all the difference.

Help! The tears are welling during class and I'm overwhelmed. I'm at a breaking point. What if I was mean to a student? Learn some emotional regulation tips from Berit Gordon's The New Teacher Handbook.

Prioritizing sleep is difficult for teachers and students alike. Learn how to model self care habits in this post from M. Colleen Cruz.

Tired, hungry, stressed teachers make mistakes. Take time to reflect on your self-care routines with an assessment from M. Colleen Cruz.

Can we use pop culture to have larger conversations? Water cooler talk in schools can encourage teacher engagement and retention.

New teachers, is your start-of-the-year energy dead and gone? Berit Gordon provides tips to revive yourself mid-year.

What do rural educators need to know to navigate in their communities? Cathie English illuminates how she shifted her mindset from growing up in a rural environment, to her first teaching job, to settling into a community with a new outlook.

What necessary structural changes need to be made to support and nurture the mental well-being of teachers?

If we want to truly make a change in education, we need a school to call home. A story from The First Five by Patrick Harris.

This week on the podcast we’re joined by Berit Gordon, author of The Joyful Teacher: Strategies for Becoming the Teacher Every Student Deserves.