by Amanda | Sep 23, 2023 | Equity, Neurodiversity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Race, Social Justice, Teacher Shortage Crisis
Share Tweet Pin It In this episode, hosts Trina and Amanda discuss the topic of educational equity and the confusion surrounding its definition. They criticize the narrowing down of the term equity to only focus on racial equity, excluding other...
by Amanda | Sep 1, 2023 | ELD, Equity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Other, Secondary Teachers, Social Justice, Teacher Shortage Crisis
Share Tweet Pin It In this episode, Amanda and Trina interview two teachers who pushed back against using canned curriculum and discuss the sensitive nature of the stories shared by teachers and the importance of protecting their identities. They share...
by Amanda | Aug 19, 2023 | Equity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Social Justice, Student Motivation, Teacher Shortage Crisis
Share Tweet Pin It In this podcast episode, Amanda and Trina discuss the use of canned curriculum in schools and its impact on teachers and the education system. They recognize canned curriculum is useful in certain contexts, such as for long term...
by Amanda | Jul 22, 2023 | Equity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Social Justice, Teacher Shortage Crisis
Share Tweet Pin It In this podcast episode, the host introduces Kelvin Mak, a recently resigned high school English teacher, who shares his experiences and frustrations with the education system. Kelvin discusses his burnout and the lack of fair...
by Amanda | Jul 22, 2023 | Equity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Teacher Shortage Crisis
Share Tweet Pin It In this podcast episode, Amanda, the host of the Empower Students Now podcast, introduces Trina English as a special guest and co-host for a series of episodes on the teacher shortage crisis. They discuss the importance of addressing...
by Amanda | Jun 30, 2023 | Equity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Reading, Reading Units, Reading Workshop, Secondary Teachers, Social Justice
Share Tweet Pin It Do you want to teach your students how to read more effectively and prepare them for college and life? In this podcast episode, Amanda discusses the book “Reading Reconsidered” by Doug Lemov, which provides a wealth of...
by Amanda | Jun 23, 2023 | Equity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Reading Workshop, Social Justice, Writing Workshop
Are you an English teacher looking to create an anti-racist writing workshop that prioritizes student voices and celebrates diversity? Look no further than “The Antiracist Writing Workshop” by Felicia Rose Chavez. In this episode, Amanda provides a...
by Amanda | Jun 17, 2023 | Equity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Race, Social Justice
In this episode of the Empower Students Now podcast, host Amanda shares her summer plans and introduces a series of episodes where she provides overviews of eight books on educational equity and social justice that she read in 2021. She also offers a toolkit for...
by Amanda | May 25, 2023 | Equity, Neurodiversity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Secondary Teachers, Social Justice, Student Motivation, Support for Struggling Readers, Support for Struggling Writers
In this episode of the Empower Students Now podcast, Amanda introduces her new course, The Empowered English Classroom, which aims to increase student engagement through equitable teaching practices. Amanda discusses the Empowered English Classroom Framework, which...
by Amanda | Mar 10, 2023 | Equity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Social Justice
Transcript: Every child grows up following rules. They follow the rules of their parents, they follow the rules of their teachers, They follow their friends, and there’s a reason for that. We all want to be accepted. We all want to be loved. We want to be good....
by Amanda | Feb 10, 2023 | Differentiation, Equity, Neurodiversity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Social Justice, Support for Struggling Readers, Support for Struggling Writers
The neurodiversity movement is happening right now. It’s exciting, invigorating, and gaining more and more momentum every day. But, what is the neurodiversity movement? Why do students need to know about it? How can we introduce students to the complex and sometimes...
by Amanda | Feb 3, 2023 | Equity, Neurodiversity, New Style Blog Post, New Style Podcast, Social Justice
In January of 2022 I wrote a blog post about my identity crisis as an educator and teacher-author. I wrote about how I needed to go back to all the lessons and units I’ve ever written and look at them from an equity lens. I went on a quest to read all the social...
by Amanda | Jan 6, 2023 | Assessment, Equity, Make Writing Fun, Podcast, Support for Struggling Writers, Technology
In the last few weeks I’ve been playing with, talking to teacher friends, reading articles, and thinking about one thing… Chat GPT. I learned about this new AI tool in early December through a Facebook Group post that had 100+comments. The comments scared...
by Amanda | Oct 19, 2022 | Equity, Make Writing Fun, Podcast, Social Justice, Support for Struggling Writers, Writing Independence
Share Tweet Pin It Every classroom has struggling writers. There are many reasons young writers struggle during our writing units. They may feel overwhelmed, be uninterested, have writing skill deficits because of past experiences with writing,...
by Amanda | Sep 27, 2022 | Assessment, Equity, Podcast, Reading, Secondary Teachers, Support for Struggling Readers
Share Tweet Pin It I wrote this six part equity series to better understand the inequities surrounding the ways in which we teach and assess reading and writing skills in the United States. I wanted to know more. Not only that, I wanted to find...