Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to listen to interviews with educators who are on the forefront of innovative pedagogy, with your host Aviva Levin. Check out www.lesssonimpossible.com for podcast info and blog.
Episodes
Monday Dec 13, 2021
Monday Dec 13, 2021
Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to improve your teaching practice by being part of a Professional Learning Community, or PLC. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Chad Dumas.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ What is, and is not, a PLC?
2️⃣ How to start a PLC for the first time
3️⃣ How to improve an existing PLC with a focus on community
Click here for links and resources mentioned in the episode or more information about Chad and the podcast. Click here for Lesson: Impossible’s blog.
Lesson: Impossible is proud to be one of the many amazing School Rubric podcasts.
Monday Oct 18, 2021
Monday Oct 18, 2021
Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to use various planning and instructional strategies to support your neurodiverse students. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Drew Thompson, of Organized Minds.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ Drew’s personal experiences as a neurodiverse learner and the supports he wished he had received
2️⃣ Scope creep, the dark side of graphic organizers, inductive versus deductive thinking, the value of chunking assignments, and making social interpretations clear
3️⃣ Why sometimes giving students a “wiggle and a snack”, no matter what age, can make a huge difference!
Click here for links mentioned in the episode or more information about the podcast. Click here for Lesson: Impossible’s new language-learning blog.
Monday Oct 04, 2021
Monday Oct 04, 2021
Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to incorporate Project Based Learning into your teaching to support, among many amazing things, the Social-Emotional Development of your students. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Mike Kaechele.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ Responding to school and community needs, such as reacting to an ICE raid, or helping farmers choose their next potato crops
2️⃣ Giving students agency and hope for the future, such as a Chemistry, English, US History project looking at poverty in America or returning the rapids to Grand Rapids
3️⃣ Making it work by providing structure, connecting to standards, learning from mistakes, adapting year-to-year, and having the students ask rather than the adults
Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.
Monday Sep 20, 2021
Monday Sep 20, 2021
Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to welcome students with limited or interrupted formal education (aka. SLIFE) into your classroom. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Orly Klapholz, co-founder of “Inlier Learning” from Hollywood, Florida.
According to the UN, by the end of 2021 as many as half a million people will likely flee Afghanistan. After time spent in refugee camps, many families will resettle in North America and Europe, and I think it’s worth asking ourselves an important question: would our schools, and would we, as teachers or administrators, be ready to provide Afghan students, or any other population with limited or interrupted schooling, with the best education possible?
In our conversation Orly and I discuss:
1️⃣ Defining SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) and the need for more data
2️⃣ SLIFE social, emotional, cultural, linguistic, and academic needs as well as the systematic issues that lead to a high drop-out rate
3️⃣ Providing age-appropriate appropriate and trauma informed resources
Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Monday Jun 21, 2021
🎙Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to consider becoming an educational podcaster🧑🏽🏫💬. The special agents🕵️♂️🕵️♂️ assigned to help you with this task are co-hosts Mealey and Tudisco of the Unprofessional Development Podcast.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ Their origin story and how podcasting has enriched their teaching
2️⃣ Their division of labor and co-hosting dynamic
3️⃣ Their only rule: don’t get fired
… as well as Tudisco and Mealey going on many hilarious tangents
Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Monday Jun 07, 2021
🎙Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to become more culturally competent🌏 by exploring research📙 on the varied educational📝 attitudes and experiences of Asian-American immigrants🔑. The special agent🕵🏽♂️assigned to help you with this task is Dr. Pawan Dhingra of Amherst College.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ What Pawan has learned through his research of how some Asian immigrant parents and their children view American school systems
2️⃣ How teachers can navigate relationships with parents when educational attitudes aren’t in sync (and how they may be more aligned than we realize)
3️⃣ Becoming a more culturally competent teacher and communicator
Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.
Monday May 24, 2021
Monday May 24, 2021
🎙 Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is instill a love❤️ of books📚 in even the most reluctant😩reader. The special agent🕵🏻♀️ assigned to help you with this task is middle school teacher Kari Pitstick of Illinois.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ Strategies to help students develop a love of reading
2️⃣ Helping students find appropriate books (content and reading level)
3️⃣ Why she’ll never give up silent reading time
Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.
Monday May 10, 2021
Monday May 10, 2021
🎙Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to work with colleagues👩🏼🏫🧑🏽🏫 from different subject areas👩🏾🔬👨🏼🎨 to create interdisciplinary units 🔢📝🔬 for students. The special agent🕵️♂️ assigned to help you with this task is Steve Capone of Utah.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ How Steve and his team create, plan, implement, teach, and then assess cross-curricular units
2️⃣ The importance of maintaining relationships when collaborating in a multi-disciplinary team
3️⃣ The ways that freeing himself from traditional educational structures have improved his practice
Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.
Monday Apr 26, 2021
Monday Apr 26, 2021
🎙Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to celebrate🎉 math🔢 in front of your students as a joyful😃, relevant🗺, and inclusive❤️ subject. The special agent🕵🏻♀️ assigned to help you with this task is Shelby Strong of New Orleans, Louisiana.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ How “I’m not a math person” is rooted in historical inequities and self-protection
2️⃣ Why the narrative we’ve accepted about math being objective and based in rote memorization is completely false
3️⃣ The joy of disrupting how math is taught and perceived in schools
You can find the original Twitter thread here. Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.
Please consider rating or reviewing Lesson: Impossible on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Castbox, or your preferred podcast platform.
Monday Apr 12, 2021
Monday Apr 12, 2021
🎙Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to support neurodiverse learners👦🏽👩🏾🦱👱🏼♀️ by better understanding how their brains work 🧠. The special agent🕵️♂️ assigned to help you with this task is Michael Weingarth of Connecticut.
In our conversation we discuss:
1️⃣ Why we need to assume all learners have undiagnosed learning differences and how our brains work when processing new information
2️⃣ The systematic issues that create a fundamentally flawed educational infrastructure for neurodiverse learners
3️⃣ What we need to be doing to help students succeed on the micro and macro level
Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.
Please consider rating or reviewing Lesson: Impossible on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Castbox, or your preferred podcast platform.