Hack Learning

What happened in Charlottesville, Virginia should not be politicized, says Hack Learning creator Mark Barnes. Many people have made this despicable event about the president and what he said in the aftermath of violent protests of the removal of a statue.Teachers, parents, and school leaders are better served with a discussion about how the events in Charlottesville can lead to lessons about tolerance. But is teaching tolerance really a teacher's job? Mark says, Yes, and shares some What-You-Can-Do-Tomorrow strategies for teaching tolerance without politics.Learn more at http://hacklearning.org/toleranceLook inside every Hack Learning Book at http://hacklearningbooks.com

@markbarnes19 is Uncut again, and swearing, literally, that students need to like their teachers in order to learn from them. Mark references a blog post at Teachthought.com that covers students liking their teachers. Most students, Mark says, won't learn from you, if they don't like and trust you and believe you like them back. Find out why students must like you as a teacher and learn Mark's keys to making this happen this school year.Subscribe to the show at http://hacklearningpodcast.comLearn to engage all learners with the new Hacking Engagement Again. Find it at http://hackingengagementagain.com

Engagement guru James Alan Sturtevant joins Mark to discuss better presenting for teachers and students and his latest book, Hacking Engagement Again: 50 Teacher Tools That Will Make Students Love Your Class.Sturtevant, host of the Hacking Engagement Podcast, shares some of his best engagement tools and strategies for being the Sage on the Stage (yes, it's okay when done right), but not boring students, and for eliminating those awful student-presentation days that most teachers (and students) hate. Sturtevant shares EdPuzzle and other cool EdTech tools and a couple of tricks for engagement that don't require any technology.You'll love Sturtevant's style. As he says, Buckle up ... you're going to love this episode.Bonus: For a free preview of Hacking Engagement Again, visit http://hacklearningpodcast.com and click the Episode 94 link.Or buy the book now at http://HackingEngagementAgain.com.

Mark Barnes is unedited and Uncut again, discussing how he used to be the most thin-skinned SOB you'd ever meet. Mark provides 3 simple hacks that he learned help thicken even the thinnest skin. Mark shares several personal stories about the dangers of having thin skin, from an epic blog post you can find on the blog at http://hacklearning.org. Listen to more episodes at http://hacklearningpodcast.com. Grab some free hacks for innovative teaching and leading at http://hacklearningfree.com

We teach behind walls, and it's time to leverage todays technology to create transparency in education. In episode 92, Mark shares some right-now solutions for building a Glass Classroom -- an environment that empowers teachers and learners to show off what they're doing in class to all shareholders. Mark also wishes Happy Birthday to Book 1 in the Hack Learning Series -- Hacking Education: 10 Quick Fixes for Every School -- which turns 2 this month.Learn how to build a Glass Classroom tomorrow, while celebrating Hacking Education. Read all of Hack 8 -- The Glass Classroom -- on the show notes page: Episode 92 at http://hacklearningpodcast.com.Find Hacking Education at http://hacklearningbooks.com.

In this edition of Uncut, Mark riffs on teachers using technology, just to say that they are integrating technology in their classrooms. Telling kids to type an essay in a Google Doc just so they can say they're teaching with tech, only to have the students print the essay, is not creative technology integration. It's time to eliminate old-school EdTech, Mark says, in addition to sharing a cool new intro and outro of Hack Learning Uncut.To join the conversation, visit http://hacklearningambassadors.comSubscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode (only subscribers automatically receive Uncut episodes). Visit http://hacklearningpodcast.com to subscribe and listen to archived episodes.Download the app at http://hacklearningapp.com.

In Episode 90 of the Hack Learning Podcast, Mark shares Toni's Template for engaging reluctant learners, taken from the forthcoming Hacking Engagement Again: 50 Teacher Tools That Will Make Students Love Your Class (Times 10 Publications August 2017) by James Alan Sturtevant.Toni taught some of Cleveland's most reluctant learners and developed a simple, hacky template for engaging even the most reluctant, and sometimes beligerant, students. Mark shares this amazing template, while providing a sneak peek into another Hack Learning Series book.See Toni's Template at http://hacklearning.org/reluctantlearnersHelp us Hack Learning by joining thousands of educators in this growing movement. Commit today at http://hacklearningambassadors.com.

As summer break begins, Mark gives a homework assignment to all teachers: Break up with nightly homework this coming school year. Learn how to change your homework mindset and eliminate the useless traditional homework assignments that often make students and parents hate school.Mark shares a story about lying constantly as a middle school student, in order to avoid punishment for not completing homework. He also provides an anecdote from school principal Bethany Hill, who has changed the homework mindset of faculty, students, and parents at her school.Learn how to break up with nightly homework this summer and reimagine teaching and learning next school year.For more education innovation, visit http://hacklearningfree.com.To see a list of all episodes, visit http://hacklearningpodcast.com.

Are you tired of alerts? Fed up with one bell or buzz after another on your Smartphone or tablet? Now, you can sift through all the Internet noise with a much quieter, much more effective kind of alert -- Google alerts in your email inbox. In this episode, Mark shares three of 99 Ways to Leverage Google Tools in Classrooms, Schools, and Districts, from Hack Learning Book 11 -- Hacking Google for Education. All three strategies center on Google Alerts and how to use them to teach kids new ways to research, digital citizenship, and effective monitoring of distric news. Learn how to use Google Alerts at the classroom, school, and District levels.For more information about leveraging the power of Google Alerts and other tools, check out Hacking Google For Education.Look inside Hack Learning Book 11 at http://hackingGFE.comFor more Hack Learning episodes, subscribe on iTunes or in the Play store or check out http://hacklearningpodcast.com.

With sports fans abuzz over the NFL draft, Mark Barnes got to thinking, What if educators held their own draft? What positions would they fill. Mark selects his Top 3 in three key education categories. See how they stack up to your picks and share your favorites on Twitter at #DraftEDULearn more at http://hacklearning.org/draftEDUDownload Hack Learning Anthology for free at http://hacklearningfree.com

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 42 percent of students who are bullied report that it happens in school hallways and stairwells.Thirty-four percent say they're bullied in the classroom, right under their teachers' noses, yet the bullying problem continues in both public and private schools.In this episode, Mark shares three easy hacks to stop bullying at your school. Check out the show notes at http://hacklearning.org/bullying.Download a free Hack Learning book at http://hacklearningfree.com

After an intense debate on Facebook, which led to some heated comments, Mark explains how to both model and teach kids best practices on social media.Read his 5 tips for teaching kids to police themselves on social media at http://hacklearning.org/police.Grab the free Hack Learning Anthology and other Innovation Tips at http://hacklearningfree.com

Asked by a book translator if people would consider the word "Hacking" negative, Hack Learning creator and your host Mark Barnes explained that "hackers" can actually be heroic. Mark shares the story of how a fictional character from the famous movie Jurassic Park taught him why hackers and hacking are perfect for education.Download the free Hack Learning Anthology at http://hacklearningfree.comCheck out all podcast episodes at http://hacklearningpodcast.com

Worksheets and workbooks do not provide real-world learning opportunities. The best real-world teaching and learning comes from, where else, the real world. Mark Barnes explains how buying and selling a house gives his kids better real-world learning than they get at school and how teachers can carry their own real-word experiences back to their classrooms.For more episodes visit http://hacklearningpodcast.com. Download the free Hack Learning Anthology: Innovative Solutions for Teachers and Leaders today at http://hacklearningfree.com

Hacking Literacy author Gerard Dawson wonders, Why are required texts often so inaccessible? These texts are often not modern. They may take place in a different historical, geographical or cultural setting than the setting of your classroom. They are often written at a reading level that may far exceed that of your students, and the experiences of the characters may not immediately appear to be relevant to your students’ lives.With all that working against us, we still can make required texts work for our students. But, it takes a hack -- the 80/20 analysis.Learn how to employ this cool strategy to engage even your most reluctant readers.Also, learn 5 Ways to Turn Any Classroom Into a Culture of Readers at http://hackingliteracy.com.Check out all our episodes at http://hacklearningpodcast.com

In Episode 81 of the Hack Learning Podcast, Mark Barnes shares a heartfelt story from author James Sturtevant about being the best teacher you can be, taken from the conclusion of the new book, Hack Learning Anthology: Innovative Solutions for Teachers and Leaders. Read Sturtevant's story and learn more about being your best on the show notes page at http://hacklearning.org/bestteacher. For all the Hack Learning episodes, visit us at http://hacklearningpodcast.com. Look for the new Hack Learning Anthology on Amazon.

Meryl Streep, the three-time Oscar-winning actress, condemned the actions of a man she chose not to name and who shall remain nameless here on the Hack Learning Podcast.During her acceptance of the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement award at the Golden Globes, Streep stood as tall as ever, as she set her sights on the most powerful man in the world and fired back like no on has since the 2016 presidential election.Hack Learning Podcast host Mark Barnes discusses Streep's viral speech and supports her plea for people to speak up and fight back against leaders who abuse their power by bullying people who are powerless to fight back. Mark shares a 3-pronged approach to standing up and speaking out, while teaching kids that bullying is wrong, no matter how powerful the bully may be -- even a bully who resides at the White House.See Streep's entire speech at http://hacklearning.org/streepCheck out all 80 Hack Learning Podcast episodes at http://hacklearningpodcast.com

Connie Hamilton wrote a book. What's the big deal? Like most would-be writers, Connie wondered if she could do it. In Episode 79 of the Hack Learning Podcast, educator/presenter and popular Twitter influencer Connie Hamilton explains how she went from self-doubting, wannabe writer to a published author whose book hit Number 1 on Amazon in its first week. Best of all, she gives you a success plan with some hacks you probably didn't know.Learn more about Connie's journey at http://hacklearning.org/write.Listen to all episodes and subscribe to the Hack Learning Podcast at http://hacklearningpodcast.com

Starr Sackstein believes in change, and sometimes change in education means cutting out archaic practices like traditional homework and grades.Author of Hacking Assessment and Hacking Homework, Starr explains how to change out-of-class work so that the onus of learning and how that learning is assessed falls squarely on our most important stakeholder — the student.Read an excerpt of Starr's latest book, Hacking Homework, at http://hacklearning.org/hwgradesCheck out all Hack Learning podcast episodes and show notes links at http://hacklearningpodcast.com

PBL paralysis. That's a scary phrase that makes many teachers run as far as possible away from project-based learning.Hacking Project Based Learning authors and PBL and inquiry learning experts Ross Cooper and Erin Murphy explain how to overcome the paralysis and dive into project-based learning today.In this episode, the authors identify several problems with project-based learning and share several simple ways teachers can begin creating an efficient PBL environment immediately.Learn more and read an excerpt from Hacking Project Based Learning on the show notes page at http://hacklearning.org/pblparalysisLook inside the book at http://hackingpbl.com