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A series about teachers (who are the main characters of our mission) out there hustling to make their students feel known, heard, and challenged through student-led discussion.
Thank you to Erika Drezner for sharing her REAL life with us! Erika is the Upper School English department chair at the Berkeley Carroll School in New York. Here are her thoughts on discussion, R.E.A.L.®, and learning. Hometown: Ithaca, New York Current City, School, Teaching Assignments: English teacher and Upper School English Department Chair at…
Glenn Whitman is the Executive Director of the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning at St. Andrew’s Episocpal School, where he also teaches history. The CTTL’s mission is “to elevate teacher effectiveness, student achievement, and the whole child’s school experience using the most promising research and strategies in Mind, Brain, and Education Science.” What follows…
Thank you to David Barndollar for sharing his REAL life with us! David is the English department chair at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, PA. Here are his thoughts on discussion, R.E.A.L.®, and learning. Hometown: Houston, TX Current City, School, Teaching Assignments: English Department Chair at Shady Side Academy. Describe yourself as a student in…
One of the best parts of working at R.E.A.L.® Discussion is that we learn as much from the teachers who deploy our program as they learn from us. Callie Hammond, a middle school English teacher trained in the R.E.A.L.® method, recently shared her report “Learning How to Talk: How Teaching Middle School Girls the Steps…
Discussion skills are critical for learning and for life – and that fact has become even more glaringly obvious in our hyper-polarized world. At R.E.A.L. ®, we’re convinced that teaching today’s teens how to engage in thoughtful, respectful face-to-face conversations isn’t just good for their GPAs – it’s critical for our entire society. In our…
Thank you to Robby Uhrman for sharing his REAL life with us! Robby is an English teacher at Hutchison School in Memphis, Tennessee. Here are his thoughts on discussion, R.E.A.L.®, and learning. Hometown: Memphis, TN Current City, School, Teaching Assignments: 8th grade English teacher at Hutchison School in Memphis, TN. Describe yourself as a student…
AI is on everyone’s mind – and teachers are no exception. The recent rise in generative AI has educators undergoing somewhat of an existential crisis. If computers are smart enough to write an essay, to analyze text, and to draw connections and conclusions among various sources, what’s left for students to do? If teens have…
Thank you to Patrick Farmer for sharing his REAL life with us! Patrick is a reading/language arts and social studies teacher at Nativity Preparatory School in Boston, Massachusetts. Here are his thoughts on discussion, R.E.A.L.®, and learning. Current City, School, Teaching Assignments: 6th grade Reading/Language Arts and Social Studies Lead Teacher at Nativity Preparatory School…
R.E.A.L.® PD is not just any PD. Our game-changing professional development for Humanities teams is embedded, research-backed, and impact-guaranteed. In this case study, we’re diving deep into our PD sequence: how it’s designed, what it looks like, and how it feels for our faculty. Read on to learn more!
One of the best parts of our job is seeing how the skills students learn from the R.E.A.L.® program directly affect their performance in class and elsewhere. Our dashboards allow us to gain insight into how students grow in multiple ways — in how they participate in class, in their comfort in expressing themselves, in…