Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud

AI for Student-Centered Learning: Customizing Learning Pathways For Every Student

Josh Ecker and Erin Cummings, from the Ed Tech and Learning Design Team at Chester County Intermediate Unit in Pennsylvania, explore AI’s current and future potential for the personalization of students pathways to success. They explore ways that school leaders and instructional coaches support teachers’ AI learning through PD, modeling, and policy.  Student AI Literacy is all discussed.

Visit Chester County’s AI Support site here.

Email Josh Ecker: joshe@cciu.org

Email Erin Cummings: erinc@cciu.org

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Schools That Build Relationships

Marcela Andres, the CEO of designEDegagement and author of a post titled, "Moving Beyond Compliance: Building Relationships in Education," joined the podcast to share her experiences and recommendations for building connections with students. "Educators need to see students as individuals with unique backgrounds, dreams, and potential- despite challenges they may be facing. When we know students that way they can amaze us by starting to take charge of their own education.” Marcela explores her work generating relationships within the school, with parents, and among the greater school community.

Visit the designEDegagement website here. 

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Coaching With Intention for Instructional Growth

Sherry St. Clair, the author of Intentional Instructional Moves: Strategic Steps to Accelerate Student Learning, shares her work identifying the research behind instructional strategies with the potential to elevate student learning and save teachers time. Sherry breaks the strategies into intentional steps so teachers can move efficiently from theory to practice. Instructional coaches and school leaders will find her work helpful in supporting the educators that you coach.

Visit Sherry's website here.  

Email Sherry: Sherry@reflecttolearn.com

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

AI-Powered Assessment: Moving Beyond Traditional Testing

In what ways can AI be a teacher’s assistant? How do you keep a "human touch" in the AI assessment process? How can AI empower students as they request assessment feedback? Josh Ecker and Erin Cummings from the Ed Tech and Learning Design Team at Chester County Intermediate Unit in Pennsylvania examine these and additional questions with Steve.

Visit Chester County’s AI Support site here.

Email Josh Ecker: joshe@cciu.org

Email Erin Cummings: erinc@cciu.org

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Leading From the Middle: Principals and Teacher Leaders

Both principals and teacher leaders lead from the middle, feeling pressure and demands from a system level and a classroom and community level. Dr. Katie Pekel, the director of Educational Leadership at the University of Minnesota, joins Steve to explore instructional leadership. They examine the need for administrators to guide the evaluation, supervision, mentoring and coaching of teachers. The role of instructional coaches and their work with school leaders is discussed.

Read the article, Rochester Public Schools Aims to Remake Principals From Managers Into ‘Head Teachers’ here.                   

Email Dr. Katie Pekel: kpekel@umn.edu

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Building Real Student Engagement

How do teachers shift the focus from passive learning to active exploration, challenging students to think critically, solve complex problems, and apply their knowledge in authentic contexts. Experienced educator and CEO of WhyMaker, Liz Gallo, explores promoting deeper understanding by immersing students in meaningful tasks that mirror the challenges they’ll face outside the classroom, ultimately leading to stronger academic outcomes and skill development. Project based and career ready strategies are explored.

Visit the WhyMaker website here.

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Exploring Depth of Knowledge Teaching and Learning

The author of Deconstructing Depth of Knowledge: A Method and Model for Deeper Teaching and Learning, Erik Francis, joins Steve to examine what teaching and learning for depth of knowledge (DOK) looks like. Francis describes ways to support staff with ways to use DOK for differentiating based on the demands of standards and building upon the strengths and successes of students.

Visit the Maverik Education site here.

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Leaders Responding to Staff Social and Emotional Needs

Dr. Maggie Broderick who serves as a faculty lead for Social Emotional Learning at National University converses with Steve around the need to develop schools where staff and students build emotional well-being and develop interpersonal skills. What teacher dispositions are crucial? What roles do instructional coaches and leaders play in creating learning environments that are equitable, inclusive and emphasize student social-emotional well-being?

Email Dr. Maggie Broderick: mbroderick@ncu.edu

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Providing Effective Professional Development

Liz Gallo, the CEO of WhyMaker, joins the podcast to explore the planning, delivery, and follow up of effective professional learning. Often, the knowing doing gap is caused by insufficient support for teachers as they experience the learning dip during the implementation of new instructional practices.

Visit the WhyMaker website here. 

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Posing Good Questions to Promote Student Inquiry

"Phrasing and posing a good question can be just as complex and difficult as the process of answering. It involves critical, creative, and reflective thinking from both students and educators."(Erik Francis)

As the author of Inquiring Minds Want to Learn: Posing GoodQuestions to Promote StudentInquiry, Francis explores strategies for how questions can set the stage for student engagement and learning. He shares the power of the questioning stems, "How do you_________? How can you _________? And How could you__________?"

Visit the Maverik Education site here.  

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!