Middle School Walk & Talk Association for Middle Level Education

 Teacher wellness has become the latest buzz word as schools continue to struggle to recruit and retain enough educators to meet community needs. It turns out, encouraging the adoption of yoga classes isn’t quite enough. But there are meaningful things schools and districts can do to support their staff – and their students – both physically and emotionally.  Rick Wormeli joined Joe Mazza and Phyllis Fagell to talk about some of these strategies and figuring out, at our core, what do we truly believe as educators. 

Who is school for? When we talk about redesigning school...what are we really talking about? Phyllis and Joe chat with Cornelius Minor and Kass Minor, New York City educators and authors, whose work focuses on how to create fully inclusive learning experiences for kids. 

What would happen if we treated students...like real human beings? Phyllis and Joe and joined by Nathan Maynard, co-author of Hacking School Discipline, and Dr. Belinda George, who gained international notoriety for her "tucked in Tuesdays," who both share how their own experiences as youths shaped their thinking around positive discipline and the use of restorative practices in schools.  

We want to teach our middle schoolers important social skills, including how to be kind. But what does that really look like in practice? Houston Kraft joins Phyllis and Joe  talk about practical ways to infuse compassion into the schools we serve and our daily personal routines. 

In this episode, Phyllis and Joe are joined by Todd Brist, principal of Watertown Middle School in South Dakota and author of AMLE's forthcoming book Successful Middle School Advisory to talk all things advisory. Why should schools have them? What should they accomplish? And how do you convince reluctant teachers its worth the time?  

This episode was recorded LIVE at the AMLE22 Annual Conference. 

Recording LIVE from the #AMLE22 Annual Conference, Phyllis and Joe are back! In this first episode of the season, they talk with the middle schoolers and educator sponsors whose project on saving the bee population won the grand prize in the 2022 Solve Together Digital Career Exploration Challenge. The team talks about the importance of student choice and exploration in the middle grades, and some of the skills kids will naturally develop when you integrate these key concepts.

Thank you to students Michael Snono Thomas Esposito and from Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey for representing Team Passion Project, as well as their teacher Alyssa McAloney and instructional coach Gina Aiello. To learn more about the Solve Together contest visit  https://asasolvetogether.org/