Real Talk Intervention

I don’t make sweeping generalizations because they are always wrong, but if you are a teacher, people have wondered why you actually do that. The curiosity about WHY on EARTH you would choose this profession is so deep-seated that we even ask it of each other in job interviews. I mean think about that for a second. Can you imagine at NASA: “So Christina, why did you decide to become an astronaut?” Sitting before the medical review board: “What motivated you to become a neurosurgeon?” I guess I don’t really know – perhaps they do ask that sort of question, but it just feels kind of unlikely. My husband’s an electrical engineer who works on fighter planes, and I promise you he has never had to justify to anyone why he chose THAT particular career path. Yet I have justified my career path to everyone from job interviews to grant applications to friends at cocktail parties, and every single time everyone’s left feeling unsatisfied. I can feel them want...

In 2016 the Houston Chronicle published a report claiming that the Texas Education Agency had imposed a "special education cap" on the percentage of a district's students that could be classified as special education. In 2018 the US Department of Education completed its investigation and found that Texas had indeed illegally set this cap at 8.5% and that this cap had caused qualified students to be denied services. On today's podcast we talk about how,  yep, this is totally a thing ,  a thing that we have experienced in our years of education, the students that were denied services because of this cap, and where we think this misguided, illegal policy came from. We discuss why it is so vitally important that we serve our special education students, what is going on with dyslexia services in Texas, and where we go from here. If you work in special education, we'd love to hear from you! Comment on this blog, on our Facebook page, or email us at realtalkinte...

Your at-risk student is looking for your support. Your GT student is looking for a challenge. We've talked a lot about intervention for your struggling students, but what do you do when you have gifted and talented students who are struggling? The struggle may look different when you're working with advanced courses and high achieving students, but the struggle is real all the same. Today on the podcast we have veteran AP teacher, multiple Teacher of the Year winner Valerie Minor on to talk about how she intervenes and differentiates for advanced students as well as what she's learned in her transition into a special education co-teach setting this year. You can listen to the podcast here or follow us and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. Give us a like on Facebook, rate or review us, and please share! We love to hear from our listeners!

All of us have been asked the question at one point or another. What made you decide to become a teacher? You've been asked it in job interviews, where the right answer seemed critical. You've been asked it by incredulous family members, where the right answer seemed impossible. You've been asked it by students, where the right answer seemed loaded. We've all got our response memorized. Whether that response reflects your deeply felt, inspirational path into the classroom, the safe-for-work, sanitized version of your winding road towards respectability, or is simply a rehearsed tale that carefully avoids saying "I don't know why I do half the things I do." I don't know about you, but I'm bored by my story. It's not particularly inspirational, and, frankly, it's not particularly interesting. You want to see into a teacher's soul? Don't ask us why we started. Ask us why we  stay .  Why do we stay in a career that...

What Happens After... 2/14/2018 5:50 PM Another 10 hour day….I never knew I would have to wear so many hats at one job. Exhausted, I walk in the door of my home and fall onto the couch. Time to switch off, turn on Facebook, pictures of cats and babies.  Only instead of a smiling baby, there’s a woman embracing a child. She has an ash cross on her forehead and her mouth, silenced by the photograph, screams only in my mind…not my child….not mine!  My husband interrupts my moment of national connected horror. It’s Valentine’s Day, we’ve all had the flu for the last month, and we finally have a babysitter and a night to go out to see The Greatest Showman.  9:45 PM   Humming “This is Me”, I wait for my husband to get out of the bathroom, and what else would I do in 2018? I grab my phone, mindless scrolling time.  The reactions are starting to feel familiar.  Thoughts and prayers.  Thoughts and prayers don’t work.  Stop trying to ca...

 In the midst of our wider, cultural conversation about women, and power, and leadership, and power, let us pause for a moment to consider the quite curious case of gender in education. Of course, education is an historically female driven profession - for much of the last century it was, in fact, one of the few jobs a woman could even realistically perform. That history continues to influence our profession today. 76% of classroom teachers remain women.  As women slowly take on larger and larger roles in industries all over this country, education sits as an - actually rather large - island. An experiment if you will, of sorts - an enormous, functioning machine -  a bureaucracy, a power structure - inhabited almost exclusively by women.  The lazy among us often joke how the world would be different, how much better it would be, if it could be run by women.  Well, education gives us a glimpse into what that world might actually be like. ...

Well my friends and colleagues, welcome to 2018! Welcome to the second half of our year ... the LAST half of our year! Are you back at work? Are you sitting in professional development? Are you currently being trained on the latest piece of life changing #edtech that your district has bought for you? Don't you wish you could find a piece of educational technology that would ACTUALLY change your life? What are the things that you wish edtech would for you? On today's episode we talk about what we wish tech could do for us as teachers, what pieces of technology we're currently finding helpful for at-risk students, and ask the question most won't dare to ask - do our millennial students actually prefer digital learning opportunities? Give us a listen and share your experiences with educational technology here on our blog. Listen to our episode above, or find us on iTunes. If you like our show we appreciate likes and reviews on iTunes.

On today's episode, we have a special treat -we are joined by our guest, long-time teacher, first time author Brendon Lowe, who speaks with us about his new book, Know Thy Students: Differentiation Made Simple available now on Amazon right here . Differentiation made simple? We're in. Brendon comes to the tricky topic of differentiation as a secondary educator, who can speak to the particular difficulty of differentiating in the overcrowded, content-driven high school classroom. His system teaches teachers how to use data to quickly assess where students are in a learning standard based on their performance on each Bloom's Level within a standard. This method of empirically quantifying variables that may seem unquantifiable creates a snapshot of students that teachers can use to modify instruction, modify assessment, and wow their administration. To learn more, listen to the full episode here , or as always, download and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or ...

Hey teachers. We've got a subversive message today. YOU are enough for your students. Drop the professional development. Drop the instructional strategies. Drop the trainings. It's not that. It's not pedagogy. It's not curriculum. It's not co-teaching. It's not graphic organizers. It is YOU. On today's episode we talk about the empowering, amazing, humbling power that is being a teacher. Take fifteen minutes today to listen to our podcast to remind you that no matter what you do in the classroom, because YOU are doing it, you are making a difference. Listen to us here, or download us on iTunes or Stitcher.

In today's episode we discuss what a data driven classroom can ACTUALLY do for you. What does state wide, school wide, or even classroom wide data actually mean to you? Can you really use data trends to inform your teaching? Does that even make sense? Listen to our new episode here or where you listen to your podcasts. As always if you like our podcast please subscribe or rate and review us on iTunes or Stitcher.

Real Talk Intervention is back! We took a summer hiatus to refresh our hearts and souls and prepare to return to school, intervention, and podcasting. But it's August now, school is back in swing, and on today's episode we discuss how to get a great start to the new year. In our conversation we move beyond the First Day of School, policies and procedures, and dig into what you can start implementing right NOW at the beginning of the year that will seriously improve your classroom for the rest of the year. Start the year out right - subscribe to Real Talk Intervention on iTunes and Stitcher this year for inspiring content for your high school at-risk learners.

In today's episode, we take on the Texas science standards with our friend John Long, a former AP/IB/PAP biology teacher. We take on how we differentiate instruction both for at-risk students and for students who really need to be gearing up to take AP classes in a few years. And, of course, we address the ongoing controversy over those re-written evolution standards in Texas. How do those standards change our teaching?  Does the wording of the standards provide an opening for creationism in the public schools? Listen here, and don't forget to subscribe to our email list or on iTunes and Stitcher.

In today's episode we speak with two women who served on the Texas Education Agency's standards writing committee for the brand new English Language Arts TEKS. They shed light on who it is, exactly, that writes these standards we all follow, how involved the state assessment department is with the standards, and they give their opinions on how their work came out in the end. Referenced links in this episode include: Dr. Revelle's opinion piece in the Dallas Morning News where she criticizes the final ELA TEKS. The vertical alignment of the new ELAR TEKS. Additional resources that support the content of this episode that you may enjoy include: Are Common Core and the TEKS Really That Different? ACT Standards Texas College Readiness Standards

Try incorporating student-created podcasts into your classroom to inspire and engage your students. Learn how with our introductory course.

In today's episode, we discuss the philosophy behind the standards. How can one set of standards for every content possibly satisfy all the different educational outcomes a student might want to achieve? This month we're looking at the philosophy behind the standards, wondering how the standards align to college and career readiness standards and college entrance exams such as the SAT, and talking to experts in the field of English and science standard writing. Listen to our episode here, or download us on iTunes or Stitcher.

Let’s just call it like it is. 2016-2017 was not a great year for student assessment in Texas. Between the scandal of mis-graded STAAR tests, graders hired for peanuts on Craigslist, and large numbers of parents and students conscientiously objecting to even taking part in our state’s annual testing rituals, many Texans have been left wondering where, exactly, IS the accountability in our state accountability system.    But if there is one person who is keenly aware of where the accountability is, it’s the high school senior who’s taking a STAAR End of Course test. That senior needs to pass that test in order to graduate in that same month. That student is painfully aware that the STAAR test doesn’t care where he grew up, or who her parents are, or whether he is dyslexic or learning disabled or gifted and talented. Regardless of what challenges she faced or what advantages he received, everyone all sits down and takes the exact same test. That’s what TEA promises. All stude...

Accountability measures force us to take students not just from where they were to somewhere better but all the way We have been very vocal here at Real Talk Intervention about our support of school accountability measures, standardized testing in general, and the high school STAAR EOC tests specifically. Last month we took action and spoke before the Texas legislature in support of school accountability, specifically against HB 1333 The Teaching Over Testing Act. When we returned to our school from that trip, word of what we had done traveled fast. Many of our colleagues cheered on us, others weren't such fans of our opinions though they appreciated our moxie. But what really struck us was the reactions of the students - ours and other teachers - who watched the video of our testimony. A group of students came to both of us, stood before us, and said "Thank you. Thank you for telling them we weren't ready to graduate." Once students exit the doors of our high...

May is #happyteacher month at Real Talk Intervention! Standardized testing is behind you, and before you lies the most rewarding time to be an educator - June, July, and part of August. It's time to recharge those batteries by thinking about what you really LOVE about your profession. What makes you a #happy teacher? Stefanie and I share some tricks and tips from our eleven years of working with at-risk students that we've found make our lives, and our students' lives, just so much happier on this week's podcast. Special shout out to one of my favorite podcasts Happier by Gretchen Rubin  for the inspiration and formatting of today's episode. It's a fanisode! Never miss an episode of Real Talk Intervention by subscribing on iTunes or Stitcher.

April is a tough month. The weather is getting beautiful, teachers and students are getting burnt out, and end of the year assessments are looming. We spent the month of April casting a critical eye on education - from teachers to the government - and now we're casting that eye on ourselves. It's time for some Real Talk - why do WE do the things we do in the classroom? We ask each other about some of the questionable practices or mistakes we've seen each other make over the years. We are two very different teachers, in two very different contents, who make very different mistakes. If you're an optimistic innovator in the classroom who finds herself in tears at the end of some days like Stefanie or a grumpy cynic who rolls her eyes during professional development like Sarah you'll hear your voice, and your experiences, in this one! Listen to us here . Music courtesy of The Creative Commons. http://www.bensound.com

Today's special episode was recorded live and on location inside a Senate meeting room as we prepared to give testimony against Texas House Bill 1333, colloquially known as The Teaching Over Testing Act. This bill, which aims to reduce the number of standardized tests given by Texas to the federal minimum while also drastically reducing the emphasis these tests have on school accountability, has been well received by the state anti-testing movement. We, however, stand with the many civil rights groups , the Texas Association of Business , and the many, many nervous and silent teachers who know that the anti-testing, anti-accountability movement's well-intentioned, but misguided, efforts damage the hard work educators are doing to create a more equitable society across Texas. To give a voice to all the educators across Texas who feel as we do, we traveled to the state legislature with the support of a non-profit educational foundation group called Texas Aspires  to...