Episodes

Friday Feb 21, 2025
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Jonathan G. Vander Els specializes in supporting teachers and administrators in schools and districts across the country in developing, sustaining, and enhancing structures to support all learners. As a practitioner, Jonathan is able to blend his experience and expertise to meet educators where they are and assist them in developing practical next steps to ensure high levels of learning for students in their school.
Formerly, Jonathan was principal of Memorial Elementary School in Sanborn Regional School District in New Hampshire. Under his leadership, Memorial School became a nationally recognized model PLC and competency-based learning elementary environment.
Jonathan has an education specialist degree from the University of New Hampshire in educational administration and supervision and is certified as a superintendent, principal, and teacher.
Joshua Ray, EdD, is an educational speaker and author who has led the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) at Work® process at the elementary, secondary, and district level. He is passionate about building healthy school cultures, the work of collaborative teams, systems of support, and educator well-being.
As assistant superintendent, Dr. Ray helped schools collaboratively build district common assessments, unite around common expectations, and improve teaching and learning. He worked alongside principals and instructional coaches to make the PLC at Work process practical and meaningful.
Joshua holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Arkansas. He is a National Board-Certified Teacher and an Arkansas Master Principal graduate.
Our focus today is Jon and Josh’s book - The Foundation for Change: Focusing on the Four Pillars of a PLC at Work.
Powerful talk!
Inspiring! Great information!
Please share.
Before you go...
You could help support this podcast by Buying Me A Coffee. Not really buying me something to drink but clicking on the link on my home page at https://stevenmiletto.com for Buy Me a Coffee or by going to this link Buy Me a Coffee.
This would allow you to donate to help the show address the costs associated with producing the podcast from upgrading gear to the fees associated with producing the show. That would be cool. Thanks for thinking about it.
Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!
You are AWESOME!
Connect & Learn More:
https://www.solutiontree.com/foundation-for-change.html
https://www.solutiontree.com/presenters/joshua-ray.html
https://www.solutiontree.com/presenters/jonathan-g-vander-els.html
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-vanderels/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-ray-259426161/
@jvanderels - X @JoshRay711 - X
Length - 58:59

Monday Feb 17, 2025
Monday Feb 17, 2025
Barbara J. Smith - Urgent Care for Educators: Situating Responsibility as a Way to Transform School Cultures. This is episode 744 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.
Barbara Smith is a passionate educator who challenges the boundaries of "sameness" in schools. Smith's background includes over forty years in public, charter, independent and international schools.
Barbara has started three schools and has been a teacher, principal, consultant, trustee, and teacher educator at OISE, McGill and the University of Saskatchewan teaching faculties and graduate schools.
She has published books about school values and economies, teacher retention, assessment tools for learning, her charter school principal story and most recently with Hope Blecher, a book about engaging students as writers. Her next book is called: Students in Responsible Roles: A Powerful Way to Learn and Transform School Culture.
Barbara supports schools committed to improving engaging and purpose-based teaching and learning for all.
Our focus today is the book - Urgent Care for Educators: Situating Responsibility as a Way to Transform School Cultures.
Awesome discussion!
Excellent ideas from so many educators!
Please share.
Before you go...
You could help support this podcast by Buying Me A Coffee. Not really buying me something to drink but clicking on the link on my home page at https://stevenmiletto.com for Buy Me a Coffee or by going to this link Buy Me a Coffee.
This would allow you to donate to help the show address the costs associated with producing the podcast from upgrading gear to the fees associated with producing the show. That would be cool. Thanks for thinking about it.
Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!
You are AWESOME!
Connect & Learn More:
Urgent Care for Schools - Amazon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-smith-ab042b3b/
https://www.zpdschoolsandcurriculumdesign.com/free-curriculum
Length - 51:31

Friday Feb 14, 2025
NL Holmes - Flowers of Evil: Hani's Daughter Mystery Series Book 1 - 743
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Friday Feb 14, 2025
NL Holmes - Flowers of Evil: Hani's Daughter Mystery Series Book 1. This is episode 743 of Teaching Learning Leading K12.
N.L. Holmes is an award-winning novelist embarking on another significant career phase. Prior to taking up the power of writing and using this pen name, she was an accomplished archaeologist and teacher for 25 years. Early in her career, she served as a nun for two decades. In between, she was an artist and antiques dealer. Yes, she has lived an interesting life and the sum of her experiences informs and inspires her writings today.
Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, she attended The University of Texas in the honors program but dropped out midway to enter into the antiques business. Two years later, she entered the Discalced Carmelite convent in Texas. She left the convent 20 years later and returned to school to get her B.A. in Classical Studies.
Holmes, who earned her doctorate in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College despite an offer to attend Princeton, has excavated in Greece and Israel, and also did archaeological artwork for excavations from Lebanon. She taught ancient history and humanities at Stockton University in New Jersey and the University of South Florida for many years.
Her ten published novels embrace two series of historical fiction: the Lord Hani Mysteries, set in the Egypt of Akhenaten, and the Empire at Twilight series, featuring life in the Hittite Empire in the 13th century BCE. The inspiration for her Bronze Age novels came with an assignment she gave to her students one day: Here are the only documents we have telling us about royal divorce in Ugarit in the 13th century. How much can we say about what happened? She notes: “It quickly became apparent that almost anything we might come up with was as much fiction as historiography!”
Holmes resides with her husband and three cats. She splits her time between Tampa, Florida, and northern France, where she gardens, weaves and plays the violin. She also has an adult son.
A little about Flowers of Evil
When two young women in ancient Egypt open a medical dispensary, they don’t expect their first patient to be a dying florist of Amen whose last words are totally mysterious. It’s Neferet and Bener-ib’s nature to want to appease the ba of the murder victim by finding his killer, and their teenaged apprentice is a born detective. But between the skepticism of their own families and the malice of a rival healer, they find out the simple desire to do the right thing gets them into more trouble than they could have imagined!
Our focus is on her book Flowers of Evil: Hani’s Daughter Mystery Series Book 1 and a peek at Book 2 - Web of Evil, Book 3 - Wheel of Evil and Book 4 - The Melody of Evil.
Exciting stories!
Excellent conversation!
Please share.
Before you go...
You could help support this podcast by Buying Me A Coffee. Not really buying me something to drink but clicking on the link on my home page at https://stevenmiletto.com for Buy Me a Coffee or by going to this link Buy Me a Coffee.
This would allow you to donate to help the show address the costs associated with producing the podcast from upgrading gear to the fees associated with producing the show. That would be cool. Thanks for thinking about it.
Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!
You are AWESOME!
Connect & Learn More:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/n-l-holmes/
https://twitter.com/nlholmesbooks
https://www.facebook.com/nlholmesbooks
Length - 31:23

Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Michael McDowell - Rigor Redefined: Ten Teaching Habits for Surface, Deep, and Transfer Learning. This is episode 742 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.
Michael McDowell, EdD was a public-school educator for eighteen years serving in the roles of classroom teacher, academic and athletic coach, school principal, assistant superintendent of personnel and instruction, and superintendent. During his tenure as a superintendent, his school district received state and national accolades including the National Blue-Ribbon Award which recognized their work for student performance and mental health and well-being in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic by the U.S. Department of Education.
Dr. McDowell serves on educational boards, served as a college professor, and has worked for non-profit organizations to enhance student learning around the world. Over the course of his career, Dr. McDowell has authored bestselling books, created professional learning programs and workbooks, provided keynotes and workshops, and provided practical tools and resources for thousands of teachers and leaders on almost every continent around the world. A prolific author and consultant, Dr. McDowell is recognized as one of the leading authorities on integrating innovative and impactful practices into schools. Dr. McDowell co-founded Hinge Education and offers keynotes and executive coaching to heads of school around the world, where he partners with educational leaders to implement high leverage strategies that will enhance teaching and learning in classrooms, schools, and systems.
Our focus today is Michael’s book - Rigor Redefined: Ten Teaching Habits for Surface, Deep, and Transfer Learning.
Awesome conversation!
So much to learn!
Please share.
Before you go...
You could help support this podcast by Buying Me A Coffee. Not really buying me something to drink but clicking on the link on my home page at https://stevenmiletto.com for Buy Me a Coffee or by going to this link Buy Me a Coffee.
This would allow you to donate to help the show address the costs associated with producing the podcast from upgrading gear to the fees associated with producing the show. That would be cool. Thanks for thinking about it.
Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!
You are AWESOME!
Connect & Learn More:
https://www.hingeeducation.org/
https://youtube.com/@hingeeducation2627?si=Cv5h8qc1FpQ684FA
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B088QPL7M9
Length - 49:23

Thursday Feb 06, 2025
Self-Regulation: Controlling Your Behaviors, part 2 - 741
Thursday Feb 06, 2025
Thursday Feb 06, 2025
Self-Regulation: Controlling Your Behaviors, Part 2. This is episode 741 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.
In the first episode on Self-Regulation, I shared some thoughts about what self-regulation means and how it appears in the classroom. (Episode 737). I use the term in referring to you the adult in the classroom keeping control of your behaviors. I also shared some thoughts about things that you can do to help keep you in control of you.
Today, I am sharing a specific strategy. It sounds simple enough but at times we can get frustrated with behaviors that the kids have previously exhibited and so we always associate those behaviors with that particular kid. To overcome always affiliating the bad with those one or two students something that works really well is to post an image, drawing, or place an object in the room that you will see that is there to remind you of something that student does well, or to make you think about a calming/happy thought, or to think of some specific positive characteristic the child exhibits most times. By doing this you will help counteract any negative thoughts that you immediately go to that are associated with previous bad behavior by that student. You will see the picture, the drawing, the object and say to yourself, "Remember you put that there to be patient with this child." Does that make sense? Try it. You will discover that adopting this technique to assist with your self-regulation will be very helpful.
What do you think about this?
Any thoughts or questions?
Reach out to me and ask.
Happy to talk about helping with self-regulation.
Before you go...
You could help support this podcast by Buying Me A Coffee. Not really buying me something to drink but clicking on the link on my home page at https://stevenmiletto.com for Buy Me a Coffee or by going to this link Buy Me a Coffee.
This would allow you to donate to help the show address the costs associated with producing the podcast from upgrading gear to the fees associated with producing the show. That would be cool. Thanks for thinking about it.
Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you!
You are AWESOME!
Length - 20:34
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio. Downloaded from Pexels.com