ARPDC Change Maker Conversations in Education Rick Gilson

Our last podcast episode of the 2023-2024 school year features Matthew (Matt) Johnson a Michigan area English teacher who has taught grade 6 - 12. Matt has written several books and his most recent book comes out during the summer of 2024 entitled:
Good Grammar, Grades 6-12: Joyful and Affirming Language Lessons That Work for More Students 
Don't fall over; it's not a mistake. Joyful and Grammar in the same sentence. Matt shares several ways by which teachers can better approach grammar in speaking and writing.
Matt mentions the ‘Da Art of Storytelling essay by Kiese Laymon as another resource to consider. Matt's own websitecontains a section with summaries of his books and links to his submissions to several journals and other resources. 
Matt also invites us to look at the choices that others make in their social media post, pulling texts and (X)/Twitter posts into the writing and into the writing structure. Little Nas X to Taylor Swift.
Every English teacher can benefit from this podcast as Matt discusses assessment practices and the mechanics of helping students enhance their understanding and application of the mechanics of English.
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This Changer Maker Conversations in Education—Literacy Across the Curriculum podcast episode features two outstanding educators, Michelle Bence and Michelle Ramzy. This dynamic duo came together through proximity in work and postgraduate studies, sharing a deep commitment to literacy instruction that has led them to share their understanding of the work with educators. Avid readers(no surprise there), Michelle and Miriam share thoughts on several professional and personal titles, thoughts on helping students read and write and the importance of seeking out sound research and methodologies to support the work. You can find them online through their Layers of Literacy website. The Alberta Professional Leaning Consortium (APLC) is grateful for the opportunities to partner in sharing their understanding through this podcast and sessions we've hosted and look forward to hosting moving forward. 
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​​Rebekah O'Dell believes in the power of choice, authenticity, and students' voices in the reading and writing classroom.
Travelling the country to work with teachers and students provides constant inspiration as she helps educators do the hard and transformative work of teaching real writing. In public and independent schools, she taught middle and high school students at all levels -from inclusion to AP and IB classes. In addition to being a real-time classroom teacher, Rebekah co-founded Moving Writers - movingwriters.org  and is the author of Writing With Mentors (Heinemann 2015) and Beyond Literary Analysis (Heinemann, January 2018).
Rebekah shares several insights into working with students to develop stronger writers and readers, resources for teachers to support that work and their development as mentor readers and writers.
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When you are blessed with an opportunity to visit with an individual whose career has been dedicated to helping children learn how to read and love reading, the conversation will be a good one. When you add decades of service as a professor at the University of Lethbridge, dedicated in large part to helping pre-service teachers develop the skills to support the instruction of all aspects of literacy, you are really on to something special. When it turns out that your guest is also a voracious reader of detective mystery novels that feed a desire to know more about other places around the world, that's just fun. Our podcast conversation with Dr. Robin Bright of the University of Lethbridge was all that and more.
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In this episode, Charlie Kraig and Rick Gilson visit with a long-time friend and colleague, Joanne Pitman, who was recently appointed as Chief Superintendent of the Calgary Board of Education or CBE. Jo (as she prefers to be called) shares some thoughts on her most recent read - and re-read, "What We Owe the Future" by William MacAskill and how it has influenced her thinking and work as a system leader and human sharing planet Earth. The episode draws to a close with Jo sharing one of many great poems from the book, "Leading from Within: Poetry that sustains the courage to lead."
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In this episode of our ARPDC Podcast - Literacy Across the Curriculum Series, we visit with Elyse Morin, one of our ARPDC team of Designers of Professional Learning and a seriously intense champion of reading and books in the classroom and at home. Elyse discusses some 15-plus titles for the Francophone or French Immersion classroom with Rick Gilson and Charlie Kraig - the conversation is in English. (for the most part;-)). Several books Elyse talks about are available in both French and English versions. 
One such example, Killer Underwear Invasion! or Alerte: Culottes Meurtriéres by Elise Gravel, has come up in a couple of episodes recently; the sub-title is timely for adults and younger children in today's world: "How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories." Spoiler Alert: Not everything called fake news is fake; not everything called news is news. Great books, how and why you might use them in the classroom is the focus of our conversation. The episode website link provides a full listing of the titles discussed in this episode.
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