Episodes

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 someone to uncritically accept a particular group's ideas, beliefs, and opinions. The key word is "uncritically." This is supposedly why public schools and their teachers are now called indoctrinators. They are accused of pushing a liberal agenda about race, gender, equality,...

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 it graduating students who can immediately join the workforce, or go to college, or interact with others with empathy and respect? Common sense would say a combination of all of those things signals a successful product of K-12 education. But is that what schools are actually produc...

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 cause people to stop listening, which is a shame because there is a lot of great information in this episode! So I decided to figure out how to correct the audio so that one can listen at a reasonable volume minus the frustration. I'm happy to announce that I was successful! I hop...

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 positions at the start of this school year. My state, California, reports a shortage of 50,000 teachers going into the 2022-23 school year. It's not just teachers either. Madison, Wisconsin, reports 199 teacher vacancies along with 124 non-teaching positions. This means district...

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 tearing up when you walk by the school supplies aisle? Or do you awaken in the fetal position, gripping the crumpled notification of your preservice professional development days? If any of these situations apply to you, you might be a teacher. I'm retired, but I know Jen, Sha...

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 I don't remember ever seeing. Much of the hullabaloo seems to come from the usual media rabble-rousers and pot-stirrers. Today's episode delves into our side of this twisted narrative. Listen and see where you land. For years, some politicians have claimed to be "education ca...

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 many people inside and outside of education. To better understand what CRT is I spent a lot of hours looking at where it came from in the first place. The research makes me believe that most people don’t really understand what CRT is or its purpose. An article from The Journali...

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 a 10-day hotel quarantine. (Get vaccinated, already!!🙄). It was a quick 7-day trip. Too short, but it’s always too short when I visit the islands. On the plane ride home, the flight attendants, take advantage of people’s recent trip to paradise. They encourage passengers to sign up for the airline’s cred...

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 for state tests and how to decipher those scores? Or who decides what is important and should be taught in schools. Not to mention, who comes up with the best way to prepare college students to become teachers? It's all someone's opinion. Somehow the "Powers the Be" (and wh...

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 eraser this year and turned in keys. They will look forward to new challenges this coming fall that don't entail lesson plans and students. But for others, who are holding newly minted diplomas and teaching credentials, this summer offers time to plan for a new classroom and get re...

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 college tuition and credentialing fees. So does all the investment in a piece of paper that supposedly certifies a person is a competent teacher really mean anything? What does a teaching credential really prove? Every state requires public school teachers to jump through the h...

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 finally... "It happened!" Last week we were back in our classroom with students! Well kind of... Families had the choice of returning to campus or continuing with the distance learning protocol we had been following since school started. We weren't sure how many would show up...

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 tenure, and that continued employment be tied instead to performance, not, as he put it, “just showing up.” He called the system, “an educational disaster” “Our education system,” he said, “is in desperate need of reform with the current tenure system locking problem teachers ...

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 been polling our students and so far it seems like most will be opting to stay right where they are, at home on Google Meet. So does that mean I'll have a class of three little people sitting at their desks staring at me through their plexiglass barriers and mumbling answers through their masks...

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. In this episode, we discuss a few of the possible people who are on the radar to replace her. Sharyn shares a little history lesson on the Department of Education and Biden's education platform. Biden has pledged to choose a public education teacher to fill the Secretary of Education ...

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 close. If you’re a teacher you know that means it’s student desperation time. The students who never looked at their grades the entire quarter, decide to the night after everything is due. Then it’s the “Huh? How come you gave me a D (or F)?” reaction. (emphasis on the YOU GAVE like it’s m...

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 learning, while also wearing the seventh grade science teacher hat. She discusses how she often must excuse herself from teaching her junior high students, to help her daughters as they stand just off camera, staring at her, while quietly mouthing the word " Mom...Mom...." an...