Teach Me, Teacher

#409 Rebuilding Connection to Schools with Jacob Adams (pt.1)

What happens when the biggest problems in education—chronic absenteeism, failing grades, teacher burnout, and families leaving schools—aren't actually the core issues at all? In this episode of Teach Me, Teacher, I sit down with Jacob Adams, founder and executive director of Inner Spark Learning Lab [https://www.innersparklab.org/], to explore what he calls the Disconnection Crisis in education. Check out their Inside Out Summit. March 19- 9:00-1:00 PT [https://mailchi.mp/innersparklab.org/inside-out-summit]. Free virtual conference for folks who want to transform education from the inside out. For years, schools have chased outcomes—attendance rates, test scores, graduation numbers—while layering on interventions meant to fix them. But what if those outcomes are only symptoms of something deeper? Jacob argues that underneath many of the challenges educators face today is a growing sense of disconnection between students, families, educators, and the institutions meant to serve them. Drawing from nearly a decade of work with more than 40,000 Black and Brown young people in South Central and East Los Angeles, Jacob shares how his organization has focused not on scaling fast, but on going deep—rethinking learning environments from inside existing schools. The work centers on a simple but powerful idea: if students don't feel connected to their school, no intervention will stick. Throughout the conversation, we dig into why so many well-intentioned reforms fall short, what educators often miss when trying to improve student outcomes, and how shifting the focus from "fixing students" to redesigning the learning environment can transform the culture of a school. Jacob also challenges some of the dominant narratives in education reform, pushing us to ask whether we're even asking the right questions in the first place. Instead of focusing solely on performance metrics, what might happen if we prioritized relevance, relationships, and student voice? For educators feeling the strain of the current moment, this episode offers both a critique of the systems we work within and a hopeful look at what schools could become when connection moves to the center of the work. If we want schools to truly work for students, families, and teachers, the real question might not be how we fix outcomes—but how we rebuild connection. Listen in.

Teaching Grammar as Possibility (Martin Brandt pt.2)

Hello everyone! I hope you are ready for some AMAZING content today, because I have brought on one of my favorite educators in the literacy space, Martin Brandt [https://betweenthecommas.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-wish-that-i-knew-what-i-know-now-when.html?fbclid=IwAR0d8acHkotJFLhx_2m9xara3qa3YGkJWo_eQKdfi1rdlOSKsN_gleDPWtA], to discuss his book Between the Commas [https://www.heinemann.com/products/e10820.aspx], and how to use writing instruction that WORKS! In this talk, we discuss: 1. That writing is more than just responses to questions and essays 2. How to achieve sentence focus 3. The power of writing instruction that frees students from artificial constraints …and much more! For this episode, I just wanted a pure talk about teaching writing. And that's what it is! Enjoy! NOTE: This episode originally appeared as #159 of the podcast.

Keys to Focus Student Writing with Martin Brandt (pt.1)

Hello everyone! I hope you are ready for some AMAZING content today, because I have brought on one of my favorite educators in the literacy space, Martin Brandt [https://betweenthecommas.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-wish-that-i-knew-what-i-know-now-when.html?fbclid=IwAR0d8acHkotJFLhx_2m9xara3qa3YGkJWo_eQKdfi1rdlOSKsN_gleDPWtA], to discuss his book Between the Commas [https://www.heinemann.com/products/e10820.aspx], and how to use writing instruction that WORKS! In this talk, we discuss: 1. That writing is more than just responses to questions and essays 2. How to achieve sentence focus 3. The power of writing instruction that frees students from artificial constraints …and much more! For this episode, I just wanted a pure talk about teaching writing. And that's what it is! Enjoy! NOTE: This episode originally appeared as #158 of the podcast.

#408 Choosing to Keep Teaching (Pam Ochoa pt.2)

This week on Teach Me, Teacher, Jacob sits down with lifelong educator and friend Pam Ochoa — former cohost of the Craft & Draft podcast — who has stepped back into the high school classroom after retirement. Why now? What pulled her back? Together, they wrestle with big questions facing the profession: * Where has quality professional development gone? * Has the era of student voice and choice quietly faded? * And what happens to schools when the champions of that work leave? Jacob and Pam dig into real data from schools where student voice and choice once thrived — and examine what happened after they stepped away. The results are sobering. This is part 2 of the discussion from last week. This is an honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversation about leadership, sustainability, and whether we're losing something essential in today's classrooms. If you care about student agency, teacher autonomy, and the future of the profession — this episode is for you.

#407 Is This Era of Teaching Dead? with Pam Ochoa (pt.1)

This week on Teach Me, Teacher, Jacob sits down with lifelong educator and friend Pam Ochoa — former cohost of the Craft & Draft podcast — who has stepped back into the high school classroom after retirement. Why now? What pulled her back? Together, they wrestle with big questions facing the profession: * Where has quality professional development gone? * Has the era of student voice and choice quietly faded? * And what happens to schools when the champions of that work leave? Jacob and Pam dig into real data from schools where student voice and choice once thrived — and examine what happened after they stepped away. The results are sobering. This is an honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversation about leadership, sustainability, and whether we're losing something essential in today's classrooms. If you care about student agency, teacher autonomy, and the future of the profession — this episode is for you.