We Teach So Hard!

All of us at We Teach So Hard felt like we needed an uplifting read, and listeners...THIS book inspired us! By the end of  Michelle Obama´s memoir, Becoming, we felt like we had just had a fabulous glass of wine and some girl time with the former first lady.  In this episode, we unpack our thoughts about her memoir, share how her story inspired us, and reveal our own sor

When you have to learn a lot in a short amount of time, it´s not unusual to feel overwhelmed. In fact, we´ve grown to expect those emotions! In this episode, we discuss apps, websites and online resources that we found when teaching in our virtual classrooms this spring. We unpack ideas for how to best use them and share what worked and what didn´t. If you´re worried about this

Our first book in our summer read series, Untamed is the perfect avenue for self-reflection. Most have us have been in our own little physical cages over the last 3 months of shelter-in-place, but what about those metaphorical cages we find ourselves in? In this episode, we explore Doyle´s book from the teacher´s perspective. We know all too well about societal cages. And because

We know, we know. It feels like you just ended your school year...or maybe you have! But with all the uncertainty, we are already thinking ahead to the new school year. Will we be teaching remotely? Will we be back in our classrooms? Or, will we be teaching in a hybrid situation? No matter what, we will be making connections with a new classroom of students. This episode is about h

Normally, you'd be breaking down your classroom, cleaning off shelves, recycling your piles of paper, and taking bulletin boards down. But in our virtual classroom, how do we close up for the end of the school year? CAREFULLY! If we want to face the possibility that we might be virtual at the start of the school year, how we close up our digital world now could make a big differenc

You don't teach sooooo hard...you've been teaching TOOOOO hard! We Teach So Hard is back with a new podcast episode about saying goodbye to your students in a virtual classroom. This episode is chocked full of ideas for celebrating your students' success with goodbye and gift ideas. With school districts and state governments limiting the type of contact we can have with our studen

Roses are red...violets are blue...we're feeling a little bit anxious, how about you? This past week has been mind-blowing, emotional, and anxiety-ridden for all of us-teachers and students. What better way to reclaim some calm (and maybe sanity) than to wax a little poetry. Poetry reminds us of our humanity, gives us an outlet for our emotions, and helps us stay in the present mom

It seems like everywhere we look on social media, we're seeing article after article about teaching empathy in the classroom. One of our favorite ways to teach empathy is to do service projects with our kiddos. Nothing develops empathy, belonging, and community quite like a service project. In this episode, we discuss a myriad of reasons to try service projects and share a wealth o

Project-based learning is sooooo much fun! Right? But it can be daunting, too. The preparation, the organization, the performance-based assessments- Ugh! Sometimes it feels like we're suiting up for a football game, only to figure out that we forgot the football once we get out on the field! All kidding aside, there's a lot that goes into a successful project-based learning opportu

Welcome to our last episode in our Fostering a Culturally Responsive Classroom. In this episode, we relive our tragic elementary school cooperative project experiences and pick at the group-grade scabs and scars we all carry.  In a culturally responsive classroom, choice is offered to students. That doesn't mean it's a free for all. On the contrary, choice can be as simple as