Education Podcast Review

This week I will be reviewing two podcast episodes that relate to the education field. One of the podcasts is covering leadership evaluation in schools and the other discusses nostalgic attitudes towards classes as a teacher. I'm excited to get into it an share my thoughts!

The first episode is from the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast hosted by Vicki Davis. This episode explored the question of how to evaluate leaders in schools with the help of Dr. Toby Travis as the guest. The episodes starts by talking about how important it is to evaluate teacher leadership in school and how often it is difficult because it seems like a very subjective thing to measure. There are all kinds of models and different ways to measure leadership but the number one metric should always be trust between teachers and administration. If they trust each other then they are doing a good job as leaders. That is what I took away as the most important piece of information from this podcast. Teachers and administrators have to trust each other in order for a school to function well. If there is a divide in trust within the hierarchy then it makes it difficult to be an effective leader at any level.

The second episode I listened to is from Cult of Pedagogy hosted by Jennifer Gonzalez. This episode talk about teacher nostalgia and how teachers sometimes get stuck in the mindset that older students were better than newer students. Teachers can sometimes share stories about their classrooms and how students have changed for the worse of the years it seems. These stories create a feeling of nostalgia for an older group of students who were different and "better" students than the ones they have now. This is a dangerous mentality to get in and it puts a strain on the teacher student relationship. The biggest takeaway I got from this episode is that as Jennifer Gonzalez put it "nostalgia for the past is toxic when it makes us feel contempt for the present." I think is a great quote and a great learning point for myself. I remember one of my education teachers said his number one advice for a new teacher is to avoid the teachers lounge for the first few years. I think this exactly why he gave that piece of advice. Time and energy should be spent making the classroom more productive not gossiping or reminiscing about how it used to be better. This is something I will need to remind myself of moving forward.

I think podcasts overall are a great method of learning new things. They are so easily digestible and can be put on while driving or walking to work. They also offer so many unique perspectives about so many different topics. If you want to learn about something there is a podcast for it. They also have a more casual conversational tone to them most of the time. Instead of a lecture or lesson you are just listening to people share their perspective in an organic way and that it very appealing to people. I know I will continue to listen to podcasts for the rest of life as a walk or drive to and from places so that I can always be learning something and absorbing information and opinions.