Your perfect school-year continues in this episode of the Punk Rock Preschool Podcast! After your class discovers that learning is everywhere – in the classroom, in their home, in their community, in the world, and in their lives – they are going to want to put this knowledge to good use! Students have started to discover their passions and they are beginning to see how all they’ve learned in school is coming together into something great. After covering letters, sounds, numbers, and much...

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Ben Franklin, as always, dropping wisdom. And as I’ve found, listening to actual philosophers usually affords the best teaching philosophy.  In this case, it’s spot-on. But how do you get kids involved in a preschool discussion every single day? Stop asking students to raise their hands! Find out how you can make this work in your classroom. When I called on students individually, the class could never keep...

What does your perfect year look like?  As you and your students embark on all of your learning adventures, what will be the story of your classroom? How does your journey begin and how do you want it to end? Listen here as we write the perfect script and turn your school-year into a blockbuster movie! Like any great movie, we need a compelling hero to save the day. Luckily you have the most compelling cast of characters imaginable: your students! The kiddos in your class are the heroes of...

What is critical thinking and how do you explain it to a class of four and five-year-olds? One of my students summed it up best when she said, “Mr. G! My brain is talking!” Yup, that’s pretty much the best explanation of “thinking” I can imagine. And it got me thinking, “Critical thinking must be when  your brain isn’t just talking; it’s when your brain is asking all the right questions!” So how do your students go from “my brain is talking” to thinking through and answering super...

A happy parent can tell you so much more than any evaluation from an administrator.  Now that I am out of the classroom, I can say that without having to worry that putting my parents’ happiness above all else can somehow harm my job status. Where I taught in Oklahoma City, we used the Marzano’s Instructional Strategies as a metric for our teachers’ success, and NOWHERE in the Marzano’s Evaluation do they ask parents — “Are you happy with the job the teacher is doing?” Actually, nowhere do...

A field trip to the movies can actually be one of the most effective ways to spend your time. If that sounds counter-intuitive or maybe just flat-out wrong, then you may be surprised by what you hear in this episode of the Punk Rock Preschool podcast. If you want to connect with your students on a more personal level, a field trip to Beauty and the Beast may be the perfect way to do so. Kids love it when you share stories about your childhood! For one, they get a real kick imagining you as a...

What’s more important? Going over the same calendar and weather routine every single day (and boring kids half-to-death) OR changing things up and bringing something fresh and new to school each morning? Would you rather fill your day with monotonous routines or would you rather light up your students’ worlds with the best classroom on the planet? Bring enthusiasm and excitement into your classroom every day.  Let’s make school the most exciting place in the world! Think of all the things...

Did your education prepare you for life in the 21st century? If I asked you to come up with a list of “things I didn’t learn in school,” I bet you’d have no problem running off a number of essential life-skills you had to learn on your own. Meanwhile, you spent four years in high school reading Shakespeare and practicing Calculus… If you want to make sure your students learn stuff they actually will use in their lives, this podcast is for you!  When you were in grade school (or even...

In our class, everyone knew to always “do your best.”  These three magic words changed everything. In this episode, get all the tools and mindsets to build a classroom culture around effort and growth. It really is amazing… when you praise kids for their hard work and self-betterment, kids will work really hard to make themselves better!  This idea of praising the process — giving students credit for their hard work rather than their intelligence, was developed by Carol Dweck as part of...

Before you teach a topic, always ask yourself: “Will this make my students fall in love with learning?” As preschool teachers, we shouldn’t obsess over repeating the calendar and weather every morning because this sends the wrong kind of messages to kids: Learning is routine. Learning is the same thing every day. Learning is repetition whether you know it or not. Is that really the first impression we want kids to have of school? Routine, boring, repetition? No way! Kids should be coming to...

It’s your classroom and you’re in total control!  You can teach what makes you happy.  If for some reason things aren’t going the way you planned or the way you like, all you have to do is make a change. It’s that simple!  Nothing can stop you from having the classroom of your dreams.  In the very first episode of the Punk Rock Preschool podcast, find out how to bring your passions, excitement, and enthusiasm to school every day and teach what you love! What makes you tick?  What are your...