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For thousands of years, rites of passage were an indicator that a child was becoming an adult. Have we lost the rites of passage? Today, many teens get a phone with no guide, no milestones, and no process of learning and earning more responsibility. Can rites of passage help parents and teachers help children grow up well in the digital age? In today's show, Betty Ray, founder of Boss Battle Labs and former director of programming and innovation at Edutopia (the George Lucas Educational Foundation), shares her STARS model for designing a modern rite of passage. She also shares a "Signal Check" process that parents can use to set device boundaries in ways that kids understand. This is an important Thought Leader Thursday for parents or anyone who works with helping kids draw boundaries for digital devices. What you'll learn: What is a rite of passage, and how is it different from a ritual? What traditional rites of passage gave kids that school often doesn't...

Struggling readers in middle and high school might pretend to read or might act out. On the U.S. "Nation's Report Card," about two-thirds of fourth and eighth graders are not yet reading proficiently. Two-thirds! But these students don't want to be seen with a babyish-looking book or for anyone to know they're struggling. Not wanting to embarrass kids can make it tough to reach and help these readers. In today's show, Louise Baigelman, founder and CEO of Storyshares, explains how we can help older students without embarrassing them. Louise started as a Teach for America teacher working with newcomer students, and she built a library of high-interest stories written at the reading levels older students need. Her work has been honored by Forbes 30 Under 30 and the Library of Congress. She shares the mistakes well-meaning teachers make, the cues to watch for, and something you can do tomorrow morning. I hope this adds to the conversation about what we can do to...

Adaptive AI to engage students in reading? Dr. Ron Yaros says it is possible. His fascinating study had articles from the New York Times chunked and placed in more social-media like ways and found that while people read the New York Times format for longer than the chunked version, the easier-to-scan format resulted in higher achievement for the students reading them. This is done with adaptive AI. It is taking the words and adapting them to an easier-to-navigate structure, in this case. I've included some prompts in the show notes that can help you adapt text, but it seems to me that groups targeting students might just want an adaptive button on their own site as there are issues with us doing it for them. Ron directs the Digital Engagement Lab at the University of Maryland and is the author of The Digital Engagement Model: How to Capture and Keep Audience Attention. His DIET and SPICE frameworks hold some fascinating approaches to improving our teaching. You can use his ideas ...

Financial literacy isn't enough: kids need the missing math of money, risk, and odds. In 2025, American adults answered just 49% of everyday money questions correctly, and risk was the lowest-scoring area. Vicki Davis talks with three guests about the math that actually decides our lives, from sports betting and credit cards to reading a medical test. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why you have to win more than 52% of sports bets just to break even, and what that means for students - The probability and statistics ideas Ted Dintersmith, author of Aftermath, says schools skip - How Diana Isern, author of Money Talks, helps students overcome money shame and talk about investing without giving advice - What Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, the world's fastest human calculator and founder of Bhanzu, says about math anxiety and mental math - Three ideas to try in your classroom tomorrow, plus one question for parents to ask during the game Show notes, the full transcript, and...

Real world connections answer "Why do we have to learn this?" They make every subject relevant and boost student engagement, says Dr. Annalies Corbin, author of Hacking School: Five Strategies to Link Learning to Life. We talk about practical ways to help students know why what they are learning matters to their lives. This is a great episode for teachers who feel like "because I said so" isn't cutting it anymore. Annalies founded the PAST Foundation to help link learning to life, and she shares how we can connect real world learning to the standards we already teach. What you'll learn: What math researchers say to do in the first minute of every class Big real world problems you can bring into science, math or history How an ecosystems theme and a zoo trip can run all quarter How the businesses your students drive past every day can shape your next unit What changed for middle schoolers who said "I want to be a nurse" during a summer prog...

Reward charts, stickers, and systems might get students to do the work, but what if a long term use of rewards in this way ultimately backfires? Dr. Özgür Bolat says rewards can have the opposite effect if we're not careful. Dr. Bolat is a Fulbright scholar with a Harvard master's and a Cambridge PhD, and his book on rewards was a best-seller in Turkey before coming out in English as The Reward Trap. I asked him when rewards are ok and what his research shows about helping kids become intrinsically motivated. What you'll learn: Why a valedictorian with a perfect GPA ended up anxious, and what he traced it back to What a sticker chart quietly tells a child about the work Why three stars eventually have to become five The question to ask before you ever offer a reward How a World War I homework assignment can spark curiosity My sourdough cinnamon roll confession, and his answer What a horse-riding instructor teaches us about using rewards If this episode helps you...