Hallway Conversations

Episode 075: Uncomfortable Truths and Teacher Imagination

This week’s episode is inspired by a tweet from our friend, Darren Spyksma that has us thinking about things that are “uncomfortable truths” about education today…and things that we think really need to change about the way we do school. Through the conversation, we come to the idea that teachers and school leaders need to develop an imagination for what could be rather than just focusing on what is. 

• If you are on Twitter, you should really follow Darren Spyksma! You will find him inspiring and encouraging…and challenging for developing your teacher imagination. You can find him at @DSpyksma. 
• In this episode we referenced Kelly Kapic’s excellent book, You're Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God's Design and Why That's Good News. You can order a copy from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Only-Human-Limits-Reflect/dp/1587435101/ 

Episode 074: A Conversation with Justin Bailey, part 2

This week, a continuation of our conversation with Dr. Justin Bailey about his new book, Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture. If you haven’t listened to our last episode yet, we would recommend starting there, because we’re going to be jumping into the middle of a conversation here.

While this isn’t a “teaching” book…it has plenty of wisdom for Christian educators, and lots of encouraging ideas for how to help children and young people make sense of the complex cultural setting we find ourselves living in. We hope you’ll find Justin’s wisdom on discerning issues of faith and culture both challenging and encouraging.

Interpreting Your World will be available soon, and we highly recommend it to you! You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Interpreting-Your-World-Engaging-Theology/dp/1540965066/

Episode 073: A Conversation with Justin Bailey, part 1

It’s the beginning of the new academic year across North America, and we know that many of you listeners have already launched in, and some are very soon going to. We started classes this week too—lots of newness around! And…we are hoping to try a few new things this semester on the podcast as well. One new thing: we are hoping to regularly start sprinkling in interviews with people we would love for you to get to know. This episode is our first “interview” show. We started with our good friend and colleague, Dr. Justin Bailey.

Justin teaches in the Theology department at Dordt University, and he is one of the most popular professors on this campus—students love him! He recently wrote a new book entitled Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture. While it isn’t a “teaching” book…it has plenty of wisdom for Christian educators, and lots of encouraging ideas for thinking about how to help children and young people make sense of the complexity of the culture we find ourselves living in.

We enjoyed visiting with Justin so much, it was a long conversation! So we decided to split it into two episodes. The first half of the conversation is here for you, and we’ll have the second half coming out next week. We hope you’ll find Justin’s wisdom on discerning issues of faith and culture both challenging and encouraging.

Interpreting Your World will be available soon, and we highly recommend it to you! You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Interpreting-Your-World-Engaging-Theology/dp/1540965066/

Episode 072: Back to School (and a Creaky Table)

It’s the beginning of the new academic year, and we are excited to begin again! In today’s wide-ranging conversation, we talk about the joys and stresses of first days, and we share some of the things we do at the beginning of the new academic year to foster a hospitable space and begin building community. We aren’t prescriptive here, but descriptive of some of the practices we have found to be successful and beneficial–both for us as teachers, as well as for our students. Here’s to new beginnings! (And our apologies for the creaky table noises throughout this episode–we’ll talk to Matt about not leaning so hard on the table next time.) :-)

Summer 2022 Bonus: ”Schooled”

BONUS EPISODE: Schooled!

In this episode we connect with some of our favorite Christian school podcast friends and have some fun drafting our ideal schools using peculiar pools to choose from.

In round 1 we draft our school's name and motto using 80’s bands and their songs.

In round 2 we draft our school's sports teams, colors and mascot using a current pro sports team.

In round 3 we draft our school’s framework using some of the options from the Christian Deeper Learning network.

In round 4 we draft our school's building type.

In round 5 we draft our school’s mode of transportation.

In round 6 we draft our school's principal using characters from the Bible.

In round 7 we draft our school's lead teacher using characters from a TV show.

 

This is a weird, weird, weird episode...but we hope you enjoy it! We'll be back soon with new (normal?) episodes.

Summer 2022 Replay: Failure

Greetings, loyal listeners! We have had a terrible time finding shared times for recording lately, but don't worry--more new episodes coming your way soon. For today, one from the archives. In this episode, Matt asks the question, “What’s up with all this talk of failure and what do we mean when we talk about ‘failure?’ Is failure truly essential to learning? And how do we reconcile failure when we live in a culture that can hyper-promote excellence and success?” We try to define what we actually mean by “failure,” and we discuss why some schools seem to hold up failure as a key component to learning. We grapple with some students’ tendency towards perfectionism, and explore the grace that might be present in embracing risk-taking and missteps--and the importance of feedback--as part of the learning process. (One other fun fact...this is the first episode where Abby joined us as a full-time part of the team, and completely elevated everything about a show that was previously two middle-aged dudes blathering into a microphone.) :-)

Summer 2022 Replay: Positivity

Greetings, loyal listeners! We have had a terrible time finding shared times for recording lately, but don't worry--more new episodes coming your way soon. For today, one from the archives. In this episode, Dave is wondering about positivity, which is typically one of his strengths, but questions whether positivity can sometimes become toxic. We begin by talking about potentially-problematic positivity in our personal lives before turning our attention to our work as educators. We talk about how teachers can model for students and demonstrate appropriate ways to communicate emotions. We briefly touch on what to do with negativity in the staff room, and spend a little time thinking through how educators might be able to embrace healthy positivity even when things are hard. 

Episode 071: The Work of Imagination in Teaching Christianly

Today’s episode was inspired by Dave’s recent re-reading of David Smith’s book, On Christian Teaching. Dave is wondering about the work of imagination and how it connects to teaching “Christianly.” Smith encourages teachers to “see anew”--to reflect on our practices, and perhaps develop more of an imagination for the work of teaching, and the possibilities and potential of how we can help students to “see anew” through our pedagogy. We talk through different ideas for how this might play out for teachers in their work, and share some examples from our own teaching as well.

We’d always love to hear from you–whether with a question of your own, or feedback on this episode or any other episode. You can always reach out at hallwayconvospod@gmail.com. And if you’d be willing to rate this show, or write a review, we would deeply appreciate it! 

• David Smith’s On Christian Teaching is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Teaching-Practicing-Faith-Classroom/dp/080287360X/ 
• Along the way in the conversation today, Abby mentioned Wiggins & McTighe’s classic book, Understanding by Design, which is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Grant-Wiggins/dp/1416600353/ 

Episode 070: In Praise of Substitute Teachers

Today’s topic is substitute teachers–people we all celebrate! In our conversation we share about some of our happy memories of working with substitute teachers from our K-12 experiences, and some of the joyful experiences we have had serving as substitute teachers. We also have a few ideas about how to equip substitute teachers, so if you know someone who think could be an awesome “teacher on call,” share this episode with them! We love substitute teachers, and hope this conversation helps you celebrate the subs you’ve worked with as well.

We’d always love to hear from you–whether with a question of your own, or feedback on this episode or any other episode. You can always reach out at hallwayconvospod@gmail.com. And if you’d be willing to rate this show, or write a review, we would deeply appreciate it!

Episode 069: Book Talks - Reading, Faith, and Community

We haven’t done book talks for a while, and since we have more time to read in the summer…it’s time to share a bit about the things we’ve been reading! We each brought in one book that we have read recently, and share a bit about our take-aways from the book. At the end of our recording session, we realized that though we didn’t discuss our choices ahead of time, they all seemed to “touch” and flow from one to the next. We hope that listening in on our conversation of some of the things we’re thinking about related to reading, and faith, and community will encourage you to think deeply about what you’re reading.

We’d always love to hear from you–whether with a question of your own, or feedback on this episode or any other episode. You can always reach out at hallwayconvospod@gmail.com. And if you’d be willing to rate this show, or write a review, we would deeply appreciate it! 

Here are the books we discussed in today’s episode:

• Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters by Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst. Available here: https://www.amazon.com/Disrupting-Thinking-Why-Read-Matters/dp/1338132903/ 

• When Everything's On Fire: Faith Forged from the Ashes by Brian Zahnd. Available here: https://www.amazon.com/When-Everythings-Fire-Faith-Forged/dp/1514003333/ 
• The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World by Andy Crouch. Available here: https://www.amazon.com/When-Everythings-Fire-Faith-Forged/dp/1514003333/ https://www.amazon.com/Life-Were-Looking-Relationship-Technological/dp/059323734X/