Schoolutions: Curious Educators. Evidence-Based Strategies. Classrooms Where Every Child Thrives.

Episoder

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  The Truth About Year One: What Really Matters in the Classroom 02.10.2026 26min

  Jennifer Orr felt she had to prove herself to new colleagues in her 28th year of teaching. In part two of our S6E3 Schoolutions conversation, she explains why that feeling has nothing to do with being new and everything to do with being human. We take apart the myth of the Pinterest-perfect classroom and discuss why bare walls invite students to co-create the space and build a sense of belonging in the classroom. Jennifer shows how sentence starters, vocabulary lists, and partner talk are inc...
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  How to Feel Confident Meeting with Families as a New Teacher 30.09.2026 1min

  Nervous about meeting skeptical parents at the start of the school year? You're not alone. 💛 In this reel, educator Jennifer Orr shares how she built trust with families as a 25-year-old first-year teacher, and the two mindset shifts that make parent communication feel less intimidating and far more powerful. TIP #1: LEAD WITH CURIOSITY Instead of trying to prove yourself, invite caregivers to talk about their child. Ask questions like: • What does your child love to do outside of school? •...
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  Why You Should Spend 2 Minutes for 10 days with Your Hardest Students 29.09.2026 1min

  Struggling to connect with a few students this school year? Try the 2x10 strategy! 🍎 In this Try It Tuesday reel, I share a simple, relationship-first approach from this week's podcast guest, Jennifer Orr, for teachers who are struggling to reach two or three students. Whether kids are resistant, having a hard time with the back-to-school transition, or showing low engagement, the 2x10 strategy builds classroom belonging one conversation at a time. How the 2x10 strategy works: Spend 2 minut...
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  How to Build a Classroom That Runs Itself 28.09.2026 24min

  Four days into her 29th year of teaching, Jennifer Orr already knows which student she hasn't figured out yet. She also knows they'll get there. In part one of our S6E3 Schoolutions conversation, Jennifer shares the teaching tips she wishes someone had handed her in 1998, straight from her book, Letters to a New Teacher: Real Advice and Practical Strategies for Getting Started in Elementary Teaching. We talk about classroom behavior as communication, the 2x10 strategy for building classroom b...
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  The Truth About Student Silence: It’s Not What You Think 25.09.2026 13min

  58% of recent high school graduates say they held back their real opinion on a political or civic topic in class. When asked who they were worried about, 91% said their classmates. Only 41% said the teacher. In this S6E2 Schoolutions solo episode, I break down the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute⁩'s 2026 report, "Why Are Students Self-Censoring in Civics Class?" It follows the institute's 2025 brief, which found almost 80% of civics teachers had avoided a topic in their own classroom for fear o...
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  Thoughtful Thursday Research: Why Are Students Self-Censoring in School? 24.09.2026 2min

  91% of students who self-censor in civics class say they're worried about their classmates. Only 41% said the teacher. That finding comes from a new Sandra Day O'Connor Institute report, "Why Are Students Self-Censoring in Civics Class?" I'm breaking down the full report Friday on the Schoolutions podcast. Today is one number and one strategy you can try tomorrow. I was coaching in a high school this week. One social studies teacher opens every class with a bell ringer. He poses a "would yo...
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  How to Teach the 250th Anniversary of America 23.09.2026 1min

  Donald Trump was born in 1946, when Harry Truman was president. Truman was born in 1884, when Chester Arthur was president. Arthur was born when Andrew Jackson was president. Jackson was born in 1767, nine years before the Declaration of Independence. That's four presidential lifetimes, and Jesseb uses them to show students how close the founding really is. The country grew from 2.5 million colonists to 338 million citizens and from 13 colonies to 50 states. The political divisions students ...
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  Try it Tuesday Teacher Move: Teach Critical Thinking 22.09.2026 1min

  Five-year-olds can practice critical thinking. So can seniors in high school. Pick a topic with several perspectives, let students learn why people see it differently, then ask where they stand and what they value. That's this week's Try It Tuesday move. Your students don't need to know your political affiliation. They need to hear many perspectives on things happening in the world, pitched at a level that fits their age. Topics and moves to explore with your students in your community: A l...
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  Inside the Classroom During America's 250th: 17 Teachers on Division, Hope, and Civics 21.09.2026 26min

  S6E2 of Schoolutions is civics education at its best. 17 teachers who participated in the Civics for Colorado Summer Institute, answer one question: What does it feel like to teach civics and history at the exact moment the country turns 250? Their answers run from hopeful to unresolved, sometimes in the same breath. The first teacher (Jesseb) covers all of American history in four presidential lifetimes. A first-year government teacher explains why polarized students need a voice from outsi...
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  The Think Tank Protocol: A 15-Minute Framework for Solving School Problems Together 18.09.2026 15min

  Can a teacher name a real problem in a room that includes the person who evaluates them? Jenn David-Lang of ⁨@themainideaeducation⁩ breaks down why that question determines whether school leadership actually builds teacher support or just performs it. In part two of this S6E1 Schoolutions conversation, Jenn walks us through her 15-minute consultancy protocol, a structure built for instructional coaching, teacher coaching, and peer-driven professional learning. She explains why mixing supervi...
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  Thoughtful Thursday Research: What Motivates People to Learn? 17.09.2026 2min

  It's Thursday, and I'm starting a new series called Thoughtful Thursday. Each week I'll offer you one piece of research you can apply to your life or your classroom right away. This week's topic is motivation. I was in conversation with Jenn David-Lang of @themainideaeducation, and she connected motivation to Richard Ryan and Edward Deci's Self-Determination Theory. It comes down to three factors. That reminded me of Daniel Pink's book Drive, which names three factors of its own for...
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  How Can You Build Your Influence As a Leader? 16.09.2026

  In this clip from my conversation with Jenn David-Lang of @themainideaeducation , she breaks down a shift that changes how new leaders solve problems. In her mastermind groups for aspiring leaders, someone always brings the same complaint early in the year: a teacher won't do what's being asked, and the instinct is to have the principal force it. Jenn pushes back on that instinct. Real influence starts long before the issue comes up, built through credibility and trust with the p...
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  Try it Tuesday Teacher Move: Keep Your Lesson Relevant 15.09.2026 1min

  It's Tuesday, and I'm starting a new weekly series called Try It Tuesday. Each week, I'll give you one teacher move that has a real, measurable impact on student success and student engagement. This week's tip comes from a moment with Cris Tovani, and it's about relevance. We were standing in a high school classroom together, and the teacher couldn't quite explain why the content mattered to her students. Cris said one thing: Google it. So we did. We searched why kids still need to learn th...
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  What Does Peer-Driven Leadership Look and Feel Like in Schools? 14.09.2026 21min

  Jenn David-Lang has spent over 20 years supporting school leaders, first through @themainideaeducation, her monthly education and leadership book summary service, and now through the peer-led Mastermind groups she facilitates for principals and aspiring leaders. In part one of this S6E1 Schoolutions conversation, Jenn and I break down what school leadership actually looks like when instructional leadership comes from the people already in the building instead of an outside consultant. Jenn...
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  How to Build a Stronger School Community this September 13.09.2026

  This September on Schoolutions, I'm bringing you three conversations that will change how you see leadership inside school buildings. 💫You'll hear from Jenn David-Lang of The Main Idea about a peer-led leadership model where instructional leaders troubleshoot problems together and partner with each other from all over the world. It's a model built on instructional coaching, coaching strategies, and professional learning instead of top-down answers. 💫You'll hear from 17 teachers who attend...
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  Forever Getting Better: Season 6 of Schoolutions 11.09.2026 1min

  Season 6 of the Schoolutions Podcast is here. This season leads up to the release of my book with Stenhouse Publishers, Forever Getting Better: 5 Essential Practices for Reclaiming Teacher Expertise, which I hope will be in your hands by June of 2027. This season follows teachers, coaches, and school leaders as they use the five essential practices from my book in real classrooms. Guests discuss learning in action, share ways to inspire students, and walk through methods to boost student par...
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  Behind the Scenes: Revising my Book Chapter by Chapter (Writing Wednesday) 09.09.2026

  This is my last Writing Wednesday post for a while. Season six of Schoolutions starts next week, and Wednesdays are switching over to expert tips from that week's guest. Right now I'm in the final stretch of revising and editing my book, Forever Getting Better: 5 Essential Practices for Reclaiming Teacher Expertise. Going slow here is what lets me move fast later. I'm going chapter by chapter, checking that the language holds together and the structure stays consistent so the text feels acce...
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  Reading Wars: The $1 BILLION Industry That's Failing Students 07.09.2026 1t 13min

  Are reading wars destroying our children's education? In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. P.L. Thomas, a former high school English teacher with 18 years of classroom experience, exposes how education strategies, effective teaching, and instructional strategies are being replaced by one-size-fits-all programs that ignore what we know about student engagement, student motivation, and inclusive teaching. What You'll Learn: ✅ Why the reading wars keep repeating every decade (it's not wh...
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  Inside the Secret Moves of Expert Teachers 04.09.2026 42min

  S5E1 of Schoolutions begins with Professor John Hattie, renowned for his groundbreaking Visible Learning work. After analyzing 2,500+ studies with 200 million students, Professor John Hattie discovered something shocking: there's virtually no correlation between teaching experience and effectiveness after 5 years. So what separates expert teachers from the rest? In this eye-opening conversation, Hattie reveals that expert teachers are "nosy" - obsessed with understanding not just IF students...
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  What Words and Phrases Could You Cut As a Writer? (Writing Wednesday) 02.09.2026

  Five words/phrases are quietly cluttering your writing: our, your, that, I think, I believe. This Writing Wednesday breaks down why these words sneak into student writing and adult writing, and what happens when you cut them. The tip comes from a real classroom. A teacher noticed her student kept writing "I think" and "I believe" before every idea. Her response: you're the one writing it. We already know it's your thinking. This kind of small shift is what effective teaching and instructiona...