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Schoolutions: Curious Educators. Evidence-Based Strategies. Classrooms Where Every Child Thrives.
Do you need innovative strategies to strengthen your school culture and spark student growth? This podcast is your go-to resource for coaches, teachers, administrators, and families seeking to create dynamic and engaging learning environments.
In each episode, you'll discover how to unite educators and caregivers to support students, tackle common classroom challenges, and cultivate an atmosphere where every learner can thrive.
With over 25 years of experience as a teacher and coach, host Olivia Wahl curates episodes with insights from more than 150 expert interviews, offering practical tips that bridge the gap between school and home.
Tune in every Monday and Friday for actionable strategies and inspirational stories that can transform your approach and make a real impact on learning.
Start with a fan-favorite episode today (S5E1: Inside the Secret Moves of Expert Teachers with John Hattie) and take the first step towards transforming your educational environment!
Episodes
321 episodes
Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics
Dr. Peter Liljedahl breaks down why 80% of students sit through a math lesson without ever thinking, and what actually fixes it. This episode covers the research behind Building Thinking Classrooms:...
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What I Learned When My Friend Read My Writing Aloud to Me (Writing Wednesday)
Reading your own writing out loud catches a lot of errors. But, reading it out loud yourself is not the same as hearing someone else read it back to you. In this Writing Wednesday, I talk about what happened when my friend
20 Years in Kindergarten Taught Me This About Joy
Kindergarten teacher extraordinaire "Mr. Greg" of The Kindergarten Smorgasboard<...
Kids Deserve More Than Answers: They Deserve Ownership
Discover why true educational transformation happens when we shift from content-centered to student-centered learning! In this insightful conversation, educators Julie Wright...
We All Have Our Own Writing Process (Writing Wednesday)
I spent last week at the Quoddy Writing Retreat in Lubec, Maine. My colleague Angela teaches fifth- and sixth-grade writers. She tells her students that every writer works dif...
Orthographic Mapping vs. Memorization: Which Actually Works?
In this S5E4 Schoolutions conversation, Dr. Molly Ness challenges what you know about learning to read, sharing insights from her most recent b...
When RtI Boxes Kids In Instead of Lifting Them Up
I sit down with teacher, instructional coach, and author Julie Wright to dig into her book What’s Our Response: Cr...
Stop Trying to Fix Students' Writing and Do This Instead (Writing Wednesday)
I'm at the Quoddy Writing Retreat in Lubec, Maine, this week, working alongside Ralph Fletcher and
What Happens When You Bring Mindfulness into Every Classroom?
Christy Lynn Anana is a Mindfulness Director with Whole School Mindfulness at
The Step-by-Step Process to Build Your Own Integrated Curriculum
Leah Mermelstein returns to Schoolutions for S2E35 to make the case for bending curriculum instead of buying a new one for literacy instruction every few years. She walks me through th...
We Need Human Stories Tied to Data About Teaching (Writing Wednesday)
Research alone won't move a teacher to change what they do tomorrow. A story will. In this Writing Wednesday, I break down the method I use in my own writing: for every piece of research I include, I pair it with a real classroom moment, either...
Relationships Before Correction: The Strategy That Changes Student Behavior
In S3E11 of Schoolutions, I sat down with school counselor Zack "Coach Kasabo" to talk about self- and co-regulation men...
Identity-Affirming Classrooms: What's Actually Working?
You will learn practical strategies and frameworks to create inclusive, identity-affirming spaces throughout this S4E24 conversation with Kwame Sarfo-Mensah. This episode highligh...
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Four Brain Shifts That Happen When You Walk (Writing Wednesday)
Stop staring at your screen and start walking for a mental reset. This Writing Wednesday covers four science-backed reasons walking resets your brain and improves cognitive function before you sit back down to write. Movement is a powerful tool...
The Outline I Almost Skipped Became My Lifeline (Writing Wednesday)
I'm starting a new weekly series called Writing Wednesday. My book manuscript is due end of August, and I'm holding myself accountable by posting every week about the process. Here are two lessons from my editor,
Transform Your Classroom With Intentional Vocabulary Instruction
Dr. Tanya S. Wright, an Associate Professor at Michigan State University and former kindergarten teacher, explains how to move beyond static word lists. This S2E26 Schoolutions episodef...
The Case for Bringing Play Back to School
Global changemakers Renée Dinnerstein and Larry Leaven have a shared commitment to children when it comes to reviving choice time, inquir...
PLC at Work® Is Being Reignited by Leaders Like This
I sat down with Dr. Anthony Muhammad for Schoolutions S3E37 to talk about his book The Way Forward: PLC at Work and the ...
Science of Reading & The PreK Years (NYSED Literacy Brief 4)
You're about to hear one of the most downloaded episodes from the last five years of this podcast. The audio may be rougher than what you hear now, but I'm not going back to clean it up. You're hearing exactly where I started, and I trust that ...
Counting Down the Top 20 Schoolutions Episodes This Summer
There's a magic to the 1980s and 90s childhood memories that just doesn't exist anymore. Did you grow up waiting by the radio on Sunday mornings for Casey Kasem's American Top 40? My sister and I would sit next to a clock radio for four hours, ...
Season 5 Finale: Truths About Teaching in Uncertain Times
How do we approach parenting advice and teaching children when the world keeps changing? After over 40 conversations with experts during Season 5 of Schoolutions, I am summarizi...
Teaching Fiercely: Why Teachers Need Autonomy to Transform Schools
What does it look like to lead with both ferocity and grace, and why do so many teachers forget that admitting your feelings isn't the same as admitting defeat?In Part 2 of my S5E43
Teachers Don't Have to Go It Alone
At the heart of the refreshed Minor Collective site is one belief: people come before ideas, ideology, or frameworks. As conversations about student growth and teacher effectiveness quie...