Schurtz and Ties: A podcast about education and culture

Schurtz&Ties
  • 4.9 (18)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED DAILY

Inspired by the classroom, Kasey Schurtz and Brian T. Miller wrestle with how to become better teachers, leaders, and people. Schurtz and Ties is sponsored by PeerDrivePD.com and is a proud member of the TeachBetter Podcast Network. You can find out more about Brian and Kasey, discover resources, and enjoy more content on their website, SchurtzandTies.com.

  1. 1D AGO

    Episode 138: Cordelia Fine on Gender, Schools, and the Stories We Tell About Boys and Girls

    Psychologist, researcher, and author known for her work on gender, social norms, and the myths that shape how we understand boys, girls, men, and women. In this conversation, Cordelia Fine joins Schurtz & Ties for a careful discussion about gender in schools, the assumptions educators make about boys and girls, and why treating students as individuals matters more than leaning on stereotypes. The conversation moves through classroom expectations, masculinity, boys and purpose, gender roles, economic shifts, and the tension between equality, identity, and opportunity. Rather than offering simple answers, this episode explores why some of education’s hardest questions often live in the gray. 🎙 Schurtz & Ties Podcast Follow the show for more conversations about education, culture, and learning. #SchurtzAndTies #EducationPodcast #CordeliaFine #SchoolCulture #TeachingAndLearning #EducationConversation Website: http://www.schurtzandties.com

    43 min

  2. APR 7

    Episode 137: Alfie Kohn on Compliance, Control, and What Schools Reward

    Show Notes Educator, author, and speaker known for challenging traditional thinking about motivation, rewards, punishment, homework, grading, and the role of power in schools. In this conversation, Alfie Kohn pushes on some of education’s most familiar assumptions: why control often replaces trust, how compliance can diminish curiosity, why democratic classrooms matter, and what it means for educators to serve as a buffer between students and harmful systems. The discussion moves through parenting, classroom decision-making, school leadership, and the tension between doing what is expected and doing what is right for kids. Website: Alfie Kohn https://www.alfiekohn.org Listen to More Episodes 🎙 Schurtz & Ties Podcast Connect With Us Follow the show for more conversations about education, culture, and learning. #SchurtzAndTies #EducationPodcast #AlfieKohn #Motivation #ClassroomCulture #SchoolLeadership #Curiosity #TeachingAndLearning

    39 min

  3. MAR 30

    Episode 136: Why Humans Took 300,000 Years to Invent the Toilet with Adam Mastroianni

    In this episode, we sit down with psychologist and writer Adam Mastroianni to explore why so much of what feels obviously true about people often turns out to be wrong. We talk about why people across generations believe society is in moral decline, even when evidence suggests otherwise, why schools often rely on interventions that sound right but fail in practice, and how human beings are wired to notice the negative more than the good. Adam shares why psychology still behaves more like an adolescent science than a settled one, why many educational instincts deserve more skepticism, and why students may be learning far more from what adults quietly model than from what adults intentionally teach. The conversation moves from awkward social experiments to school culture, from vandalized bathrooms to the scientific method, and eventually to a bigger question: why did it take humans so long to discover so many things we now cannot imagine living without? This is a conversation about human behavior, uncertainty, education, and the danger of mistaking confidence for understanding. Adam Mastroianni Psychologist, writer, and researcher exploring how humans think, why we misread the world around us, and how many of our strongest intuitions fail when tested. Website: https://www.experimental-history.com/ Listen to More Episodes 🎙 Schurtz & Ties Podcast https://www.schurtzandties.com Connect With Us Follow the show for more conversations about education, culture, psychology, and learning. #SchurtzAndTies #EducationPodcast #Psychology #HumanBehavior #ExperimentalHistory #SchoolCulture #TeachingAndLearning #EducationalLeadership

    54 min
  4. Schurtz & Ties Presents: Behavioral Leadership with Tony DeRose | Guest Appearance on Collab Lab Live

    MAR 18

    Schurtz & Ties Presents: Behavioral Leadership with Tony DeRose | Guest Appearance on Collab Lab Live

    What happens when behavioral leadership is not treated as a program, but as part of a school’s culture? In this special Schurtz & Ties Presents conversation, Kasey Schurtz joins Tony DeRose on Collab Lab Live for a deep discussion about what behavioral leadership looks like inside a junior high school, why secondary educators sometimes hesitate to embrace it, and why simple practices like noticing often do the heaviest instructional lifting. Built around ideas from Ervin Educational Consulting, this conversation also points listeners toward the broader work behind Behavioral Leadership. https://www.behavioralleadership.com/ Kasey shares his journey from teaching in Ohio, serving in a bilingual school in Chile, working in an alternative school in Wyoming, and now leading instructional work in a junior high where teachers are turning behavioral leadership into shared staff practice. The conversation explores how noticing creates clarity, how clear expectations protect relationships, and why the best classrooms often look like students taking ownership while teachers are free to teach. Also in this episode: Why substitute teachers need behavioral leadership language too How schools can build culture through simple shared practices Why secondary teachers often resist behavior systems and why they may already need exactly this work How clarity and relationship-building happen through noticing Why teaching behavior protects teachers from becoming therapists, enforcers, and constant correctors How strong classroom culture gives students ownership of space, routines, and expectations A strong discussion for anyone thinking about behavior, instruction, culture, and what it means to let teachers teach. 🎧 Schurtz & TiesEducation. Culture. Thoughtful conversations that stay with you. 🌐 schurtzandties.com

    38 min

  5. MAR 9

    Episode 135: The Literacy Knowledge Teachers Need with Mary Jo Fresch

    In Episode 140 of Schurtz & Ties, we welcome back literacy expert Mary Jo Fresch to talk about what teachers really need to understand about reading, vocabulary, and language. Mary Jo has spent decades helping educators make sense of the English language and build the background knowledge needed to confidently teach literacy. In this conversation, we explore the realities of the Science of Reading, the role of phonics across all subjects, and how teachers in any content area can support students as readers and writers. We also dive into how vocabulary, word origins, and language structures help students move from simply memorizing information to actually building memories and understanding that last. Along the way we talk about: • Why every teacher is a teacher of reading • How understanding word structure and etymology strengthens vocabulary instruction • The difference between memorizing words and building memories with language • Why nonfiction text structure matters for student comprehension • How administrators can better support literacy instruction in their schools • Whether texting, emojis, and digital communication are changing how students read and write Mary Jo also shares practical strategies teachers can use immediately to help students break down complex words, understand content-area vocabulary, and become more confident readers. This episode is packed with insights for teachers, school leaders, and anyone interested in how students learn to read, write, and understand language. Guest Mary Jo Fresch Literacy educator, author, and speaker focused on helping teachers build deep knowledge of the English language and effective literacy instruction. Website: https://maryjofresch.com Listen to More Episodes 🎙 Schurtz & Ties Podcast https://www.schurtzandties.com Connect With Us Follow the show for more conversations about education, culture, and learning. #SchurtzAndTies #EducationPodcast #Literacy #ScienceOfReading #TeacherLearning #ReadingInstruction #TeacherDevelopment #PodcastForTeachers

    55 min

  6. MAR 1

    Episode 134: The Wisdom of Being Unsure with Maggie Jackson

    What if uncertainty isn’t weakness—but the doorway to deeper thinking? In this episode of Schurtz & Ties, we sit down with journalist and author Maggie Jackson, whose books Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure and Distracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost Attention challenge some of our deepest assumptions about attention, expertise, and learning. Schools often reward speed, correctness, and certainty. But Maggie argues that the ability to pause, question, and remain open may be the very thing that allows us to think clearly, connect with others, and grow. We explore why focus is not simply the elimination of distraction, but the gateway to thinking. Maggie explains how attention works—not as a fixed trait, but as a skill that can be strengthened through practice. We also examine how uncertainty, when used intentionally, becomes a powerful tool for perspective-taking, empathy, and adaptive expertise. This conversation challenges the instinct to label students as motivated or unmotivated, capable or incapable. Instead, it invites us to stay open long enough to understand what’s really happening when students lose access to thinking—and what educators can do to restore it. As Maggie explains, uncertainty creates space. And in that space, new thinking becomes possible. Uncertainty isn’t the absence of knowledge. It’s the beginning of wisdom in motion. Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure Distracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost Attention Why focus is a skill that can be strengthened How uncertainty improves thinking and decision-making The difference between routine expertise and adaptive expertise Why labeling students creates false certainty How uncertainty promotes empathy and perspective-taking How educators can protect students’ access to thinking Website: https://www.maggie-jackson.comBooks available wherever books are sold Books by Maggie JacksonIn This Episode, We DiscussLearn More http://www.schurtzandties.com

    55 min

  7. FEB 22

    Episode 133 (Part 1): Teaching Through Fear — Inside a School During a Political Firestorm

    Teachers carry more than lesson plans. They carry fear that isn’t theirs.They carry responsibility no one trained them for.They carry the weight of holding stability when everything else feels uncertain. In this first episode of a two-part series on the unseen burdens teachers carry, we speak with Minnesota educator and Teacher of the Year finalist Sean Padden about what happens when national politics enters school hallways. Sean describes a reality many Americans never see: Students afraid to come to school.Attendance dropping dramatically.Teachers delivering food and printed lessons to homes.And classrooms becoming the place where students process fear, trauma, and uncertainty. As Sean explains, when fear enters a community, it doesn’t stay outside. It enters the classroom, and educators are left to help students carry it while still trying to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. This conversation is not about politics.It is about responsibility. It is about what happens when teachers are asked, once again, to hold together the lives of students in circumstances far beyond instruction. And it is about a truth every educator understands: We cannot surrender the classroom. This is Part 1 of a special two-episode release exploring the burdens teachers carry that the world rarely sees. Listen now:👉 https://www.schurtzandties.com #teachers #education #teacherlife #educators #schoolculture #teachertruth #classroomreality #educationpodcast #teacherburnout #schurtzandties

    44 min

  8. FEB 22

    Episode 133 (Part 2): The Fear Teachers Carry — When One Decision Can End a Career

    Teachers carry more than lesson plans. They carry the knowledge that one moment—one decision, one sentence, one misunderstood action—can change everything. They carry the quiet awareness that the work they love can also make them vulnerable. In Part 2 of this special two-episode series on the unseen burdens teachers carry, we speak with educator and former principal Toby Price, whose career was abruptly ended after reading a children’s book to students. No parents complained. No students were harmed. But within hours, he was suspended. Days later, he was terminated. Toby’s story is not just about a book. It is about fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of being misunderstood. Fear that the trust once placed in educators is no longer guaranteed. As Toby explains, this fear doesn’t just affect one teacher. It shapes the decisions educators make every day—what they say, what they teach, and how willing they are to take the risks necessary to truly reach students. And yet, even after losing his position, Toby remains clear about one thing: If given the chance again, he would still choose to do what he believed was right for students. Because teaching has never been about safety. It has always been about courage. This conversation explores the emotional and professional reality of what it means to teach in a time when educators must navigate not only the needs of students—but the fear of consequences beyond their control. This is Part 2 of a special two-episode release exploring the burdens teachers carry that the world rarely sees. Listen now: 👉 https://www.schurtzandties.com #teachers #education #teacherlife #educators #teachertruth #classroomreality #educationpodcast #teacherburnout #schurtzandties

    33 min
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4.9
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18 Ratings

About

Inspired by the classroom, Kasey Schurtz and Brian T. Miller wrestle with how to become better teachers, leaders, and people. Schurtz and Ties is sponsored by PeerDrivePD.com and is a proud member of the TeachBetter Podcast Network. You can find out more about Brian and Kasey, discover resources, and enjoy more content on their website, SchurtzandTies.com.

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