Category Archives: Podcast Episodes

This is episode 4 in my 2024 summer headspace series. This is a chance to revisit episodes from the previous school year during the summer months when you may have a little extra time. Beginning August 26th, you will see new episodes with exciting new topics every Monday.  For today we take a look back at the Leveling Coach episodes where I coach several language teachers who are working on a challenge area in their teaching. 

Episodes: 

• Tamica, Streamline Lesson Planning (109)
• Jenn, Teaching and Assessing Writing (114)
• Lisa,What If Common Assessments Are Not Proficiency-Based (118)
• Judy IPAs and World Language Standards (122)
• Victoria Addressing Disruptions Constructively, Effectively and Equitably (130)
• Stephanie, Engaging Speaking Activities for Language Growth (134)
• Liz, From Unit Plans to Daily Lessons (138):
• Stephanie, Keep Up Your Own Target Language Proficiency and Confidence (143):
• Leveling Up Check-Ins (147)

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

You  can also be a part of Leveling Up coaching episode if there is an area of your teaching that you like to improve or enhance.  Join me on the podcast for a Leveling Up Coaching Episode.  

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast

This is episode 3 in my 2024 summer headspace series. This is a chance to revisit episodes from the previous school year during the summer months when you may have a little extra time. Beginning August 26th, you will see new episodes with exciting new topics every Monday. For today we take a look back at episode 135 where Fadi Aboughoush talks about class pacing and brain breaks and episode 136 where I discuss classroom management.

Episodes: 

• Pacing Your Lessons with Fadi Aboughoush (135)
• 10 Strategies for Effective Language Classroom Management (136)

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

You  can also be a part of Leveling Up coaching episode if there is an area of your teaching that you like to improve or enhance.  Join me on the podcast for a Leveling Up Coaching Episode.  

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast

This is episode 2 in my 2024 summer headspace series. This is a chance to revisit episodes from the previous school year during the summer months when you may have a little extra time. Beginning August 26th, you will see new episodes with exciting new topics every Monday. For today we take a look back at episodes 124 and 125 where I talk about trying something new in your classroom.

Episodes: 

• Try Something New Part 1 – Why? How? What Gets in the Way? (124)
• Try Something New Part 2 – What Will that New Thing be? (125)

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

You  can also be a part of Leveling Up coaching episode if there is an area of your teaching that you like to improve or enhance.  Join me on the podcast for a Leveling Up Coaching Episode.  

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast

This is episode 1 in my 2024 summer headspace series. This is a chance to revisit episodes from the previous school year during the summer months when you may have a little extra time. Beginning August 26th, you will see new episodes with exciting new topics every Monday.  For today we take a look back at my episodes about the book Honing Our Craft.  In episode 111 I talked about Comprehension-Based Communicative Language Teaching, in episode 112 I talked about Standards-Based Grading and in episode 113 I spoke with the editors of Honing Our Craft. 

Episodes: 

• Comprehension-Based Communicative Language Teaching  (111)
• Standards-Based Grading (112)
• Honing Our Craft with Dr. Florencia Henshaw and Dr. Kim Potowski (113)

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

You  can also be a part of Leveling Up coaching episode if there is an area of your teaching that you like to improve or enhance.  Join me on the podcast for a Leveling Up Coaching Episode.  

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast

Now that the school year is over hopefully you have a little less on your mind and have a little extra time. This is the perfect time to get into your summer headspace.  What do I mean by that?  You’ll soon understand.  

• time to reflect without other pressing priorities and issues
• opportunity to revisit themes and episodes with a fresh lens
• catch something new.
• finish an episode that you started
• listen to an episode for the first time

I’ll group episodes by theme so that you can listen to them together with a 5 minute recap to pull the themes together. The links to episodes will be in the show notes.

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

You  can also be a part of Leveling Up coaching episode if there is an area of your teaching that you like to improve or enhance.  Join me on the podcast for a Leveling Up Coaching Episode.  

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast

How often do we stop to reflect on our teaching?  Hopefully we take the time and opportunity to do it regularly so that we are teaching our students as effectively as possible.  In this episode I’m going to talk about reflective practice and how we can use this as language teachers.  I’ll also include a discussion of success criteria and how this can work into our reflective practice.  I know, this all sounds way up there in the theory world.  I promise you it’s not and that it’s fairly simple.

Topics in this Episode:

• Reflection can help you to be more creative and try new things. It’s very easy to get stuck in a rut and it can be helpful to think about what you are doing and why you are doing it. This can help to spark new ideas and ways of thinking.
• Reflection in Learning and Professional Development: Theory and Practice, Moon, J. (1999)
• Reflective Practice for Language Teachers:
  1. Teach
  2. Assess the effect your teaching has on learning
  3. Consider what can improve the quality of teaching and learning
  4. Try the new ideas
  5. Reflect on effectiveness
  6. Repeat
• The Success Criteria Playbook John T. Almarode, Douglas Fisher, Kateri Thunder, Nancy Frey (2021)
• Tim Eagan on Episode 60: Leading a Proficiency Focused Language Department
• Success Criteria:
  • What will be learned?
  • Why is it going to be learned?
  • How will I know that it has been learned?
  • What will I do with what I learned?

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast

As teachers, and proficient second language speakers,  we have figured out ways to communicate words that we don’t know. We can teach this skill to students early on so that they can begin doing it right away. Circumlocution is a strategy for describing or defining a concept instead of saying or writing the specific words (when we don’t know it). We can teach students how to do this and give them tools to help in the process. In this episode I give suggestions to teach students how to cicumlocute along with games for practicing this skill.

Blog Post on Circumlocution.

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast

What is your understanding of the word proficiency? This is a concept that we use all the time in our language classrooms. How about the word performance? This concept is also becoming more commonplace in our teaching vernacular. When we say that we are proficiency-oriented or teach toward proficiency, are we also able to assess proficiency in our language classrooms, or should we focus on performance, and what does that even mean?  Well, that’s our topic for this episode….defining exactly what we mean by proficiency and performance, how they relate to each other and which one we should focus on and assess in our classrooms.

Topics in this Episode:

• Proficiency: This term refers to a learner’s ability to use the language across various situations, regardless of familiarity with topics or contexts.  It’s about what one can do with the language, no matter where, when, or how it was learned.
• Performance: On the other hand, performance is more about using the language within structured settings like classrooms.  It involves applying “learned” language skills within familiar contexts and content areas.
• Do we assess Proficiency or Performance in the classroom?
•  Preparing students for performance with high leverage teaching practices:
  • grammar as concept
  • backwards planning
  • appropriate feedback
  • authentic resources
  • use target language for teaching
  • communicative activities
• Blog Post on Performance and Proficiency

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast

Throughout the school year I published Leveling Up Coaching episodes with language teachers who are taking on a challenge area in their teaching or simply wanted to improve in a particular area. As part of this collaborative relationship we talk through some possibilities and come up with an action plan. After some time implementing I check back in to see how things are going.  On today’s episode you will be a part of that follow-up.

Leveling Up Coaching Episodes & Action Plans:

• Tamica, Streamline Lesson Planning (109)
• Jenn, Teaching and Assessing Writing (114)
• Lisa,What If Common Assessments Are Not Proficiency-Based (118)
• Judy IPAs and World Language Standards (122)
• Victoria Addressing Disruptions Constructively, Effectively and Equitably (130)
• Stephanie, Engaging Speaking Activities for Language Growth (134)
• Liz, From Unit Plans to Daily Lessons (138):
• Stephanie, Keep Up Your Own Target Language Proficiency and Confidence (143)

Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.

Teachers want to hear from you and what you are proud of in your classroom.
Join me as a guest on the podcast.

Follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible
• Amazon Music
• Overcast