65 episodes

Dr. Catlin Tucker is a bestselling author, international trainer, and keynote speaker. She was named Teacher of the Year in 2010 in Sonoma County, where she taught for 16 years. Catlin earned her doctorate in learning technologies from Pepperdine University. Currently, Catlin is working as a blended learning coach, education consultant, and professor in a Masters of Arts in Teaching program. Catlin has published several books on blended learning, including The Shift to Student-led, The Complete Guide to Blended Learning, UDL and Blended Learning, and Balance with Blended Learning. She is active on Twitter @Catlin_Tucker and writes an internationally-ranked blog at CatlinTucker.com.

The Balance, by Dr. Catlin Tucker catlinthebalance

    • Education
    • 4.8 • 55 Ratings

Dr. Catlin Tucker is a bestselling author, international trainer, and keynote speaker. She was named Teacher of the Year in 2010 in Sonoma County, where she taught for 16 years. Catlin earned her doctorate in learning technologies from Pepperdine University. Currently, Catlin is working as a blended learning coach, education consultant, and professor in a Masters of Arts in Teaching program. Catlin has published several books on blended learning, including The Shift to Student-led, The Complete Guide to Blended Learning, UDL and Blended Learning, and Balance with Blended Learning. She is active on Twitter @Catlin_Tucker and writes an internationally-ranked blog at CatlinTucker.com.

    Cultivating Student-led Meaning-Making in Classrooms

    Cultivating Student-led Meaning-Making in Classrooms

    In this mini-episode, I explore the value and process of cultivating meaning-making in classrooms. Meaning-making is the process by which students interpret, understand, and make sense of the information, experiences, and world around them. In this episode, I share strategies teachers can use to help students construct knowledge on their own and in collaboration with peers. 
    To read more, check out my blog on this topic. 
    Here is Judy Willis's article "Understanding How the Brain Thinks" that I reference in this episode. 

    • 12 min
    [ReAir] The Shift to Student-led with Dr. Katie Novak

    [ReAir] The Shift to Student-led with Dr. Katie Novak

    [ReAir] In this episode, Dr. Katie Novak and I discuss our newest book, The Shift to Student-led. In it, we identify ten teacher-led, time-consuming, often frustratingly ineffective workflows and reimagine them from a sustainable, student-led perspective using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and blended learning. The goal is to help teachers empower students to share the responsibility for learning so they can create more balance in their lives!

    • 35 min
    Designing a Station Rotation: Go Horizontal with Your Agenda

    Designing a Station Rotation: Go Horizontal with Your Agenda

    In this mini-episode, I share a strategy I call "going horizontal with your agenda." The purpose of this strategy is to help teachers conceptualize how they can shift from a linear whole-group lesson to a station rotation. The goal is to reimagine the individual learning activities in their linear agenda as separate stations in a rotation. 
     
    Part I: Station Rotation Design Tip – Go Horizontal with Your Linear Agenda
    Part II: Station Rotation Design Tip – Use AI to Go Horizontal with Your Linear Agenda

    • 13 min
    Excerpt from Shift Writing into the Classroom

    Excerpt from Shift Writing into the Classroom

    In this mini-episode, I read excerpts from the introduction of my new book, Shift Writing into the Classroom with UDL and Blended Learning. In this excerpt, I explain why Dr. Novak and I wrote it, who the book is for, and how it is structured so you know what to expect. I hope this sneak peek into the book helps to dispel the misconception that a book on writing is only for English teachers. We want to help ALL teachers leverage writing as a powerful vehicle for learning in their subject areas.

    • 16 min
    Developing the Skill of Learning with James Anderson

    Developing the Skill of Learning with James Anderson

    In this episode, I talk with James Anderson about his new book, Learnership. James coined the word "learnership" to bring together the idea of craftsmanship and learning. He makes the point that learning is not simply a product of good teaching; learning is the result of what learners do. In this conversation, we discuss Jame's growth mindset continuum, student agency, and how we can support students in developing the skills of learning. 
     
    Connect with James Anderson on X @MindfulByDesign
    Connect with James Anderson on LinkedIn 
     

    • 59 min
    Ask Catlin: Student Agency

    Ask Catlin: Student Agency

    I answer your questions about student agency in this Ask Catlin episode. You'll also hear about my favorite and least favorite holiday. 
    If you want to learn more about the student agency, check out my collection of blogs on student agency. 
    If you have questions about education, blended learning, or work-life balance, please send them to me via X @Catlin_Tucker or Instagram @CatlinTucker. 

    • 28 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
55 Ratings

55 Ratings

reginator044012445 ,

Woah!

This show is great, I listened to just one podcast. Innovation Inside the Box With George Couros, and it was amazing. It touched on a lot of different topics but the one that stuck out was how tech isn’t the end all be all in terms of the best teaching/learning strategy, sometimes that will always be human aided.

Tyler Poirier ,

My thoughts

I agree that standards are more focused on quantity instead of quality because my experience in my high school geometry teacher confirms it. We constantly worry about getting behind just so we would at least be able to see the content before the end of the year. The Balance podcast by Caitlin Tucker “designing learning” is about how to handle your workload. She starts the interview and goes to talk about how we can help students learn quality content by overthrowing a bunch of content for them to learn. Her guest Jay McTighe has had a lot of experience trying to develop programs to support higher process thinking. The first program to help this was the “Thinking Improvement Program”, this program was developed to have higher order thinking to all kids instead of just the gifted education kids. By spreading it to more than just the three percent it will improve all students’ performances. McTighe was also apart when the standards were first formed in 1990, in Maryland. All of these tests or assessments were going to be performance based, no multiple-choice questions. He saw an improvement in both of his children’s assessments. They did not stop there, they continued ways to make people think harder. The Maryland Consortium was summer workshops where teachers of the state would get together in the summer and learn of performance assessment and design tasks that are made available to that state. When looking at the state standards Bob Marzano and John Kendall both decided if there was too much content it would cause superficial disconnected learning. It makes the teachers not able to slow down if there is a student who struggles. The focus is more on finishing all the standards and content rather than help the students be successful. I would rate the podcast at 3 stars. While it was informative and thoughtful, I was dozing off listening to the conversation.I feel the questions that were asked repeated themselves and only focused on the specificity of the one question “how can we make kids learn quality over quantity. It had good content if you are interested in the subject at hand.

meggy lo ,

Episode 2O Reflections

Life as we know can be pretty hectic and the wide array of responsibilities, expectations, and skills of multitasking necessary to being a teacher can be pretty daunting for an individual pursuing this vocation. Which is why I was allured to listen to this podcast station in specific because I always like the idea of balances. The Podcast I decided to tune into is called “The Balance” and is hosted by Dr. Catlin Tucker. The episode I listened to from the podcast was called [Reclaiming Personalized Learning with Paul France]. I genuinely enjoyed listening to this episode, I found it to be very insightful, thought provoking, and rich in practical wisdom for current teachers and soon to be teachers. A memorable takeaway was a quote from Paul France about the quest for making “personalized learning a pedagogy for restoring equity and promoting humanity in the classroom.” Ultimately, I believe this sentence entails the following; how can we as educators make learning more engaging, sustainable, meaningful, and effective? With a focus on not learning for the sake of obtaining knowledge but actually deeply understanding concepts and content, all the while creating a pedagogy where classrooms aren’t solely “intellectually” centered but rather more “human” centered. I definitely agree with France’s pedagogy towards learning. I believe teaching should include a holistic approach as France described in this podcast, where learning is of course a main priority but so is the quality of learning and the relationships between students and their peers, and teachers and their students. As France said “a pedagogy for...promoting humanity in the classroom”. I’d definitely give this podcast a 5 star rating. I don’t have anything negative to say about it. It is a podcast I wouldn't mind listening to again and sharing it with others out in the teaching field.

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