Teaching Tomorrow Podcast

Through Teaching Tomorrow, the wonderfully talented Celeste Kirsh covers the relevant topics of our time concerning education, literacy, democracy, society, technology, culture, etc. As I listen to her conversations with other experts, I am awed by the questions Celeste asks that lead to such rich, thoughtful discussions and the sharing of hopeful perspectives about how to educate and empower young people in this beautiful, flawed world of ours.

If any educators were curious about expanding their teaching skills and environment, I would recommend the “Teaching Tomorrow Podcast.” This podcast is run by Celeste Kirsh who teaches middle school. She brings speakers on the podcast who are either fellow educators or are educators who have retired. I enjoy how relaxed the podcast is and the professionalism shown by the guests and content.The episode I chose to listen to was episode 58, ‘Sketchnoting for Social Justice.’ The episode opened with the idea that students must be watching the teacher at all times in order to learn what was being taught and then expanded into the various note-taking styles before concluding on the idea of sketchnoting. Sketchnoting refers to the idea that while taking notes people absently sketch. While I agree, from a personal perspective, that absently sketching does help me recall information, the sketches have to be simple. It is misleading to claim that any drawings can help, as too detailed drawings take away attention. As sketchnoting was the main point of the episode, the idea of social justice also appeared. It was explained that cultivating creativity, like sketchnoting, helped social issues by bringing them to the public’s eye. I do not agree that sketchnoting has a part of social justice but I do agree that creativity has a part in it. Overall, I enjoyed this podcast. The main speaker and the guests she brings are informed and qualified to talk about the episode’s subject matter. I also appreciate the speaker’s points of view and how they address the opposing sides to their ideas. The podcast is not biased and openly explores new ideas and teaching struggles and I think that educators could benefit from these topics.

Celeste brings interesting and kind guests to share their thoughts and opinions with us. But it’s definitely more of a conversation than a “lesson”.

“Teaching Tomorrow” tackles relevant and pressing issues that schools and educators face everyday. This podcast is not afraid to sit down and talk about issues that may seem uncomfortable or that are not easily discussed. The episodes consist of early pandemic issues, social justice issues, online learning issues, and all other topics that go along with how the classroom is changing. I choose to listen to the episode [Addressing anti-Black racism in education with Alexis Dawson], where she used real life experiences that can be used as teachable moments for education. She mentioned an incident that occurred during a Facebook live meeting, where it was overtaken by members of a racist group. They talked about how it can be used as a teachable moment, and what actions can be taken to prevent this in the future. Additionally an incident was brought up where a bystander made racist comments to a student. She used this again as a teachable moment to show how it can be better handled in the future. She stated that she sent out resources to her staff after the altercation to show what actions should be taken if a similar incident ever occured in the future. Finally, at the end of the Podcast they did what was called an “Exit Ticket” where they asked “get to know you” questions such as what is the last thing you do before bed. At the end they shared resources that would be beneficial in teaching this topic, as well as contact information if any listeners had any questions. What I liked was the use of real life examples on how it affects schools. It can also provide useful resources, contacts, and ideas on how they may handle a similar situation within their school.