Season 2

Jan. 9, 2023

033 Who's Indoctrinating Whom?

According to Merriam-Webster , the word indoctrinate originated in the 17th century. It meant "to teach," as it comes from docēre, the Latin word for teaching. But by the 19th century, the meaning shifted to signify teaching...

Episode page
Oct. 30, 2022

#032 Is Your Child's School Successful? How do you know?

What comes to mind when someone says, "Oh, that's a really good school?" Is it students all sitting in their seats, diligently taking notes? Is it passing along students who can read and do math on grade level? Or is …

Episode page
Sept. 3, 2022

Rebroadcast of Episode 028 Is it Time to Stop Promoting Social Promot…

When initially released, the audio volume was sooooo low that listeners had to turn the sound way up even to hear it and then got their ears blasted when the interlude music played. I'm sure that was annoying enough to …

Episode page
Aug. 14, 2022

031 Teachers MIA? The Where, the Why, and What to Do to Solve the Tea…

Don't be surprised if you find someone named "TBA" teaching your child's class. There will apparently be A LOT of TBAs in charge of classes this fall. School districts across the country report record numbers of unfilled posi...

Episode page
Aug. 1, 2022

030 Back to School Blues (and what to do about them)

Hey, it’s Anne. Welcome to another episode of Transparency in Teaching. As summer vacation is ending, I was wondering if you are beginning to get a nervous tick when you hear, “Back to School Sale?” Or do you find yourself …

Episode page
Jan. 3, 2022

027 You're Not the Boss of Me...or Are You? Parent Power's influence …

Happy 2022! Let's hope this year makes up for the last two! It's always good to be hopeful. And on that note, I hope public education survives. Last year brought educators and their curriculum under the microscope in a way …

Episode page
Aug. 16, 2021

024 When Did Public Schools become Public Enemy #1?

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become the latest way to demonize public schools. I admit when I first heard CRT I thought it was some medical test for the heart. Now it has become the fear-raising focus of concern among …

Episode page
July 29, 2021

(Rebroadcast) Tricks for Cost-Free Travel (or almost free) – With Jac…

My husfriend and I just got back from a trip to Hawaii. It was his birthday gift to me. Nice huh! We had to jump through a few hoops to get there. Our vaccination cards made it possible to avoid …

Episode page
July 4, 2021

023 What Makes an Effective Teacher Effective?

What makes an effective teacher effective? That's a pretty subjective question, isn't it? I'm beginning to believe that so much of what people think makes education good is subjective. Like, who decides what kids need to know...

Episode page
June 12, 2021

022 New Teachers, This One's for You!

This school year is FINALLY ending (thank god for small favors) and we are packing up our minimally used classrooms. For many teachers, this will be their last time having to do this. Covid caused many to throw in the …

Episode page
April 26, 2021

021 What does a Teaching Credential Really Prove?

The National Center for Education Statistics reported that in the 2017-18 school year there were 3.3 million full and part-time traditional public school teachers. That is the most recent count available. That's a lot of coll...

Episode page
April 14, 2021

Minimum Day #4 : Back in the Classroom

Here's how the school year progressed. It started as "We won't likely be returning to campus this year." Then it changed to "I doubt it will happen." Which changed to, "Maybe it will happen." Then to, "It's happening," and f...

Episode page
April 2, 2021

020. Tackling Teacher Tenure

In 2005 then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to make changes to California's teacher tenure, increasing the time to achieve tenure from 2 to 5 years. He also proposed that teacher pay be based on merit, not length of te...

Episode page
March 6, 2021

019 Going Back to School (for real this time)

We are rapidly approaching the end of our 3rd quarter and it looks like a pretty done deal that after spring break, we will be going back to school for real this time! So what does that really mean? We've …

Episode page
Nov. 22, 2020

016 Bye Bye Betsy - Who Will Be Biden's Pick for Secretary of Educati…

So the election is over (or is at least supposed to be over...) and Biden has a lot of work to do to help put the country back together. Of course, being teachers, we're rather focused on Mrs. DeVos's replacement. …

Episode page
Nov. 1, 2020

015 The Value of Teacher Evaluations

Hello Faithful Listeners! So, yeah, this episode is a bit late, (or a bit early if you want to pretend last week didn’t happen). Here’s why: The end of our first quarter of distance learning has just come to a …

Episode page
Oct. 5, 2020

014 Minimum Day #3 with Angel

Our guest co-host, fellow co-worker and single parent, Angel, joins us today to share her unique (or not so unique, depending on your family dynamic) situation of juggling two elementary school aged children during distance l...

Episode page