The Best Education Podcasts for Teachers

The Best Education Podcasts for Teachers Sarah, an English teacher with 15 years of experience, shares her favorite education podcasts that helped her get through long commutes to work. These podcasts continue to give her invaluable tips about teaching. For five years in the middle of my career, my drive to work was over an hour.  Many times I would carpool with my dad, and we would listen to old radio shows on his satellite radio. I then changed jobs to a school only five minutes from my house.  While I was no longer spending time on the road every day, my treks to my parents on weekends and during the summer were frequent.   It was at that point in time that I discovered audio books, much to the dismay of my daughters.   I managed to listen to all three volumes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on Audible.  I selected this series because they are short stories, so when I was stopping and not listening for several weeks I could easily pick up with a new story.  The collection of audiobooks grew, and I got more listening in each summer during our travels.   About a year ago, I started hearing about the podcast, Serial; then it started popping up on my teaching Facebook groups too.  I finally decided to have a listen.   First, I had to find a podcast app that would work with my Google Pixel.  I really love Stitcher, and it is now a frequently used app on my phone because my drive has become longer with a job change and with more evenings of dance for the girls.  With Serial I was hooked and when I finished it, I started looking for other podcasts to fill my time.  It was then that I stumbled upon education podcasts.   Here are some of my favorites. The Google Teacher Tribe Educational technology is an entire segment of our profession that is constantly developing new tools and evolving.  Even as a Google Certified Trainer in a school with solid technology, there is no way for me to keep up with all the updates and features.  The Google Teacher Tribe brings the best of the Google Apps for Education Tools to your listening device.  They have episodes ranging from tips for Google Slides to video production processes. I am especially fond of episode 12 from April 2017 that focuses on productivity through Google tools.  As someone who always strives to be more efficient, this provided me some great strategies.  I still have tab scissors on my Chromebook and use it regularly. The Cult of Pedagogy The Cult of Pedagogy is a secondary-based podcast, but many of Jennifer Gonzolas’ episodes are relevant to educators at all levels and even support professionals and administrators.  She has developed a long-running series of tips, interviews, and reviews for educators. One of my favorite episode is 108 entitled To Learn, Students Need to Do Something changed my classroom.  After listening to this episode, I realized that I need to have students process and synthesize information more regularly.  Now processing and synthesizing is something my classroom does on a weekly basis. Truth for Teachers Angela Watson’s Truth for Teachers was my first trek into educational podcasts.  Angela was an elementary teacher before becoming an educational entrepreneur.  In addition to her podcast, she has written several books.   Much of her body of work focuses on teacher happiness, work-life balance, and productivity.  As I was going through a rough patch in my career Angela’s episodes helped me focus on the balance and what makes me tick as a teacher Check out her recent episode How to Keep Overbearing, Micromanaging Parents from Stressing You Out, episode 150.  It has led me to a place where I come at tough patient situations with a new perspective. The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast Betsy Potash created this podcast in 2017 to help the teacher find balance among the factors within their classroom: creativity, assessment preparation, and administrative expectations while working with what students need and want from their literacy experience. I suggest Episode 60: Students Won’t Read?  Don’t Care?   One Year to Change That since most teachers are literacy teachers in some way.  Here she provides a selection of strategies to get students more engaged in texts and literacy.  I am excited to make some revisions to all my classes using her ideas. Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty’s award-winning podcast provides short episodes focuses on writing and style.  While this is not your typical educational podcast, I have found the episodes have made me a better writer and a better teacher of writing.  I even use her podcasts with my students in the classroom One of my favorite episodes to share with my students is 639: Great Paragraphs. Falling off the Turnip Truck.    The 13-minute episode helps students move beyond the basic structure of their writing.  Try sharing this one with your students after they finish their next draft. Ditch that Textbook Matt Miller is amazing!  Pure and simple he helps teachers make their classroom interesting and engaging while avoiding the boring and uninteresting.  His midwestern heritage and background in technology and journalism make him a joy to listen to. Take five minutes to listen to episode 43: Hearing from EVERY student.  After this one, I had to pause and assess where I was with this concept.  I have implemented several of his strategies. Take a minute and download the free Stitcher App, so you can start checking each of these off your list. You can also listen to these podcasts on itunes and Soundcloud.    Be sure to check out The Education Podcast Network for more options. Which teacher podcasts are your favorite currently? Share with us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Sarah is currently a high school English and social studies teacher in Michigan where she also assists with school improvement and district technology. Her experience spans 15 years, grades 7-12, 5 schools, and 4 districts. She is a National Writing Project Teacher Consultant and a Google Certified Educator. Sarah loves spending time with her husband, daughters, and cats. Check her out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. She can also be found at Kovescence of the Mind.