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481 episodes listed below
Classroom practice, school change, and AI with purpose.
Unpacking Education & Tech Talk For Teachers pairs reflective education interviews with short technology briefings. Its strongest episodes stay close to classroom life, moving from student voice and assessment to AI use, school leadership, and tools teachers can actually evaluate.
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Unpacking Education & Tech Talk For Teachers works from a simple center: education ideas matter most when they survive contact with students, teachers, and actual classrooms. The show combines longer interview conversations with compact technology episodes, giving it two useful speeds. In the longer format, Rena Clark, Paul Beckerman, and Winston Benjamin frame topics with quotes, stories, and questions, then let guests develop the classroom reality behind the concept. Recent episodes return often to student agency, confidence, feedback, and the belief that schools should notice what young people already bring with them. A conversation with Dr. Betty Webb turns feedback into a learning conversation rather than a one-way judgment. An episode with Mike Rahn uses AVID in the English classroom to think about how teachers recognize or miss student knowledge. Jen Ivers' AI assessment conversation focuses on students as active learners, with AI framed as something to model, scaffold, and discuss openly. Nicole Dimich's assessment episode treats grading as information for growth rather than a final label. Dr. Luis Cruz brings the change lens, especially the trust, clarity, and human conditions needed for change. The Tech Talk side is brisker. Paul Beckerman breaks down AI in education through reports, frameworks, and specific tools, including a Brookings study and Khan Academy's Writing Coach. These episodes are less conversational and more structured, often moving through benefits, risks, action steps, setup details, and classroom guardrails. That split gives the show range. It can pause over a teacher's story, then shift into a practical explanation of writing prompts, student accounts, or AI-diminished learning. The recurring concern is not novelty for its own sake. It is whether a strategy, tool, or reform helps students become stronger learners and helps educators spend their effort where it matters. The tone is encouraging, sometimes passionate, but still professional. It suits educators who want research, technology, and school improvement translated into language that belongs in a staff room, PLC, or planning conversation.
Made for: For teachers, school leaders, and education teams who want practical reflection on assessment, student agency, AI, and classroom strategy. It especially suits listeners who prefer professional warmth over hype.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by pairing thoughtful guest-led education conversations with short technology briefings. It keeps abstract reforms anchored in feedback, student work, scaffolding, leadership, and everyday classroom decisions.
If it relates to education and matters to you, we're talking about it on our podcasts. Unpacking Education shares in-depth conversations each Wednesday on timely topics with guests who share their expertise and experience—from teaching strategies, to educational technology, to equitable access to future-driven skills for all students. Tune in every Tuesday for a new Tech Talk For Teachers. 5 minutes jam-packed with practical and actionable tech integration strategies and tool tips you can immediately apply in your classroom.
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
A practical study of measurement, motivation, technology, and leadership through the daily operating decisions of schools and classrooms.
Unpacking Education & Tech Talk For Teachers turns classroom practice into questions of management: what outcomes matter, how progress should be measured, and how institutions can help people improve.
Assessment becomes a learning conversation here, if your red pen is ready for early retirement.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear case for using AI openly, with guardrails, in student work.
Jen Ivers argues that authentic assessment should prepare students to keep learning, stay curious, and serve their communities. She treats AI as part of the work, not a side topic: students study professional storyboards and trailers, then use Gemini in a controlled setting…
Assessment works best when it helps students improve learning, not just receive a score.
Nicole Dimich treats assessment as information first, not just evaluation, and that frame holds the conversation together. It shows how grading and feedback can lower stress, build confidence, and still keep students accountable.
A practical case for using PLC time to focus on student learning and timely intervention.
It frames RTI and PLCs as practical supports for student success, whether the need is academic help or behavior support. The strongest stretch of the argument keeps returning to everyday classroom pressure, where teachers have to sort out what matters most, decide how learning…
Media literacy, tested against real feeds.
Business stories with practical connective tissue.
Edtech talk with classroom sense and snacks.
Free classroom tech, tested by a teacher.
Classroom tech, explained teacher to teacher.
Campus AV talk from the people maintaining it.
Naomi Fuentes, Ector County ISD's Odessa High School Teacher of the Year and an AVID Certified Educator alumna, tells Rena Clark, Paul Beckerman and Winston Benjamin that the program's advice to "just ask" students for feedback produced responses that made her say "ouch, that hurt." She describes her 20 years of teaching, including an AVID Foundations of Instruction self-assessment that exposed her habit of "teaching to check boxes." She credits two practices for improved classroom discourse: short, simple student surveys and a scaffolded progression from think-pair-share and stand-share-sit to mini Socratic seminars and then a full seminar.
This episode discusses the final installment of a Brookings AI study, outlining a framework for action to integrate AI into K-12 classrooms responsibly.
This episode discusses the impact of the AVID program in English classrooms, featuring insights from Mike Rahn and exploring how educators can better recognize and unlock student potential.
Jen Ivers joins Unpacking Education to talk about authentic assessment in a time when AI is part of student work.
This episode explores the potential benefits of AI for teachers and students, based on a Brookings study on integrating AI into K-12 education.
The hosts open with a quote that reframes assessment as future-facing learning.
This episode discusses the rational resistance to change in education and features an interview with Dr.
This episode introduces Khan Academy's Writing Coach, an AI-powered tool for grades 7-12 that guides students through the writing process.
Educators discuss diagnostic teaching and the importance of reflective practice and engagement checks in the classroom.
Educators discuss the importance of supporting students both inside and outside school, emphasizing emotional safety and community.
This episode discusses behavior solutions in education, emphasizing that misbehavior indicates a skill gap that educators should teach.
This episode discusses AI optimism in education, exploring how AI can be used to reimagine educational possibilities rather than just automate existing practices.
Mike Mattos, a 38-year veteran educator, former principal of Marjory Vale Elementary and Pioneer Middle School in Tustin, California, and internationally recognized author on response to intervention, explains RTI and professional learning communities with hosts Rena Clark, Paul Beckerman, and Winston Benjamin on Unpacking Education.
This episode discusses the Future Ready Librarians Framework 3.0 with Shannon McClintock Miller, exploring how school librarians can empower students, collaborate, curate resources, and support AI literacy in education.
Educators discuss human-centered skills in the age of AI, emphasizing pedagogy over tools.
This episode discusses how to prepare students for the real world by emphasizing soft skills like communication, teamwork, and authenticity, with insights from guest Scott Nunes.
This episode features an interview with elementary principal David Shaffer discussing how schools prepare students for the future by providing diverse opportunities and fostering community-driven education.
Educators discuss the phrase 'work hard, be nice' as a guiding principle for school culture and student success.
This episode features Dr.