Hello everyone and welcome to Teach Me, Teacher’s SUMMER BLAST of inspiration! I cannot express how excited, pumped, and inspired I am right now for next year, and I want you to join me and my AMAZING guests in our quest to bring some positivity into the teaching world. And today is the finale of this experiment! I wasn't sure how everyone would react to a two episode a week BLAST, but you all have been listening in record numbers! So first... THANK YOU! And second... Here is my talk with the one and only Kelli Sanders! Kelli was on episode #98 of the podcast where she was helping me learn guided reading, and today she is talking about how she is pushing out of her comfort zone and reaching for new heights in her teaching and professional life! Such a timely episode. So much inspiration to get from this talk! But if you are in need of MORE inspiration, I want to invite you to the Teach Me, Teacher Facebook LIVESTREAM where we celebrate the 1,00,000th download of the podcast, and record the season 5 intro! The livestream will be on 8/22/20 at 9pm CST, so mark your calendar!   This episode is sponsored by Heinemann and their book, Classroom management. After decades of teaching, Nancy Steineke passionately believes this much to be true: a collaborative classroom environment is essential for student learning, and for teachers’ well -being. In this guide for every teacher, Nancy makes a powerful argument that we can dramatically reduce the stress of classroom management and improve student achievement when we cultivate classroom communities built on student-centered collaboration. Laying out a plan for collaborative classroom management across a semester or a whole school year, Nancy offers teaching moves and student activities that: build strong relationships between students and teachers, and between each other help students develop, invest in, and uphold positive classroom norms show students the importance and real-life value of soft skills, including what those skills look and sound like in action. Nancy’s strategies can easily be integrated into your classes as you teach required content. “By threading community-building work through your schedule,” Nancy explains, “you show your students that they matter as individuals, and that social skills are intertwined with academic success.” If you’re wasting precious class time addressing classroom management issues and want to foster a more meaningful, productive place to learn, give Nancy’s time-tested moves and activities a try. There’s never been a more important time to create collaborative classroom communities where every student is seen, heard, and believed in. Get it now.