Unprofessional Development

["Unprofessional Development talks with Brian Hain, a middle-school math coach, about replacing point-chasing with feedback that happens while students are learning.", "Brian traces the shift to Jaime Escalante, his own Korean tiger mom upbringing, and Peter Liljedahl\u2019s line from Building Thinking Classrooms: 'Are we teachers gathering points or are we gathering data?'", "He describes a classroom test where students talk without pencils, then retake it with notes, which turns grading into a conversation about what they know and what they still miss.", "The hosts push on edge cases like blank papers, student self-assessment, and how supportive principals and math teams let the approach spread beyond one classroom."]

["Unprofessional Development brings Shane Lawrence and Millie into a co-teaching conversation with Jamie Davis and Revs, who describe a classroom where the two adults are supposed to look seamless.", "Davis says she wanted to teach at age five and still remembers a freshman teacher asking, \"How stupid are you?\" after she froze at the board, while Revs says he has taught high school math for 14 years across algebra, AP calculus, statistics, and computer science.", "They say North Carolina inclusion classes can run 30 to 32 students with about 10 to 12 receiving services, and the goal is for a visitor not to tell which adult is the special educator.", "Their advice stays practical: co-plan, share the stage, use a question like \"Are you done or stuck?\", and treat math as teaching students \"how to think.\""]

Crystal Frommert says grades are "harmful," biased, and arbitrary, and she treats math as a rough draft process instead of a number chase.

["Elle Cole says homeschooling started only after a pediatrician suggested it at her daughter's second appointment, long before she planned to do it.", "Her family was dealing with one child who has sickle cell disease and type 1 diabetes, so keeping infections down and allowing rest became the priority.", "Cole says education means lifelong learning, and she argues that homeschooling builds self-directed learners instead of just classroom compliance.", "The episode also covers Maryland homeschool law, hybrid private-school classes, yearly TCD ultrasounds for sickle cell, and why her children later scored in the 99th percentile."]

Alison Apsey reframes serendipity as a mindset for finding lessons inside “happy accidents,” not just luck.

Unprofessional Development talks with Jay Wamsted, a Georgia math teacher who spent 14 years at one Atlanta high school before moving to middle school in February 2020, about state testing, classroom culture, and what teaching is for.

Unprofessional Development Ep.

["Jacob Johnson says grades are a social construct and nobody is literally a 78 or a 74.", "He explains how he runs an English classroom with complete/incomplete work, open retakes, and student conferences instead of points.", "Johnson starts the first six weeks with a placeholder A for everyone, then uses a contract-style conversation to settle final marks while still filing grades in Canvas and the SIS.", "The conversation also gets into credit recovery, Brainly, Photomath, Delta Math, and why he thinks compliance is a weak proxy for learning."]

Teachers share real stories and insights from their experiences in education, blending humor and wisdom.

Teachers share humorous and insightful stories from their professional and personal lives, featuring a guest educator.

Teachers share funny and heartfelt stories from their professional and personal lives.