Welcome to the Podcast
The Empower Students Now Podcast
A New Way to Think about Apathetic, Unmotivated, and Defiant Students
In this episode of the Empower Students Now podcast, Amanda discusses how to handle apathetic and defiant students in the classroom. She shares her personal experience as a parent of a neurodivergent child and suggests a collaborative approach that involves building...
Dropping the Suitcases of Regret and Worry: A Guided Meditation for Teachers at the End of a School Year
Transcript: Welcome back. I am thrilled to tell you that I am enrolled currently in a two year mindfulness and meditation teacher program. And the teachers are just very, very well known. If you, uh, follow go gurus in the meditation mindfulness realm, maybe...
Easy to Plan End of Year Writing Projects Your Students Will Love
Are you looking for fun and engaging writing projects for your students at the end of the school year? Look no further! In this episode, I share five writing projects that will keep your students motivated and excited about writing until the last day of school. You...
8 Highly Engaging (and Controversial) Argumentative Mentor Texts for Middle and High School
This podcast and website cost money to maintain. I enjoy providing free support for as many teachers as I can but I also have to pay the bills. The best way you can support the work I do is by purchasing one of my resources or one of my courses here. Not only will you...
Are You Blindly Following Rules?
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. We...
The Absolute Best Way to Start an Argumentative Writing Unit
Over the years I've learned that the first lesson of an argumentative writing unit is key to the success of the entire unit. The first lesson needs to accomplish a lot, so it's hard to do it right. Argumentative writing can also become boring fast. I want to help you...
8 Outstanding Videos to Spark Discussion about Neurodiversity with Students
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...
The Story of a Teacher Author’s Identity Crisis Part II + Why I’m Changing the Name of My Podcast
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...
11 Ways Chat GPT Can Help You Teach Argumentative Writing
Amanda Write Now · 66. 11 Ways ChatGPT Can Help You Teach Argumentative WritingIt's about time for teachers to start their opinion, persuasive, or argumentative writing units (depending on the grade you teach). Most teachers realize that sample sentences and essays...
How to Talk to Students about Chat GPT and Increase Academic Honesty Too
The best way to handle new technology being introduced to the education world is to investigate the tools for ourselves, with an open mind, rather than getting caught up in fear and overwhelm. I know this is hard to do, believe me, I'm a fairly neurotic, anxious...
My Best Ideas to Prevent Cheating with Chat GPT + How to Handle Plagiarism Suspects
Now that students have easy access to artificial intelligence chatbots like Chat GPT, teachers are pondering how to prevent students from using these tools to do their work for them. Cheating seems to be easier than ever these days. English language arts teachers are...
7 Ways Chat GPT Will Impact Education Positively (2023)
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 me, so I...