The Broken Copier

There is a conversation about reading happening in our country right now, especially in the world of education—a conversation that is undeniably shifting what is happening in schools for teachers and students alike. What do we make of that “reading conversation,” particularly given the impact that it is having in so… Read more

Perhaps in this moment more than ever, there is a lot of conversation around grades and grading policy in our schools—in all sorts of directions, too, from Harvard faculty voting to place a cap on A’s to the University of Michigan withholding letter grades for their incoming class of freshmen , instead using a… Read more

What is your most important word going into this new school year? Today’s reflection is one potential answer to that: signals . In particular, the way that we are in a “messy” signal-sending environment in this education moment—around AI and all other things. What can be received quite-positively by one person might… Read more

Today’s Broken Copier conversation centers around the idea of teacher agency—the trust and freedom afforded to teachers to make choices in designing and facilitating the learning that takes places in their classrooms. Joining this conversation is Dylan Kane , a National Board Certified Teacher in Colorado who has… Read more

With a new school year on the near horizon for many teachers across the country, we’re taking a bit of a pivot with today’s Broken Copier episode: a brief reflection on the tendency in education to focus on and celebrate what is new—sometimes in a way that leads us to take for granted what is already good. And a… Read more

There are many conversations happening in education around AI, but what impact are those conversations actually having on the classroom? And is there a way to make these AI conversations better for students and teachers alike? In this conversation, teachers Mike Burns, Sam Collins, and Matt Hicks join The Broken… Read more

A lot of the discussion around AI in education is around the idea of widespread adoption and integration: teachers using AI to enhance their own planning and preparation; students experiencing it as a tool to potentially support their learning; assessments integrating AI-driven scoring and feedback to improve… Read more

Students walk into the classroom as individual learners, and every single student deserves to not only “access the learning” but to feel included and empowered. Unfortunately, this does not happen in nearly enough in our classrooms —but there are things we can do to move in a better direction. Dr. Nicholas Emmanuele… Read more

Without question, it is immensely important to build connections and community in the physical spaces where you work. However, for many teachers and educators—including those who may have stumbled across The Broken Copier !—there is also an online education space, one to not only navigate but to potentially learn from… Read more

Yes, we can always talk more about what can be done in classrooms to better support students—but what about those doing the supporting? Those looking for not just learning but leadership? Especially in these uncertain times? This is an episode that centers that focus on the way teachers and educators move through our… Read more

This moment education is rife with conversations around learning science, and within these conversations the vision of the classroom often consists of students who are mostly-passive recipients of the learning— told what they need to know and then asked to regurgitate it. Christian Moore-Anderson , author of the new… Read more

There are many exhaustions to navigate as the school year comes to a close. But amidst those exhaustions, there can still be a lot of good—and that is what this episode is: a brief reflection on a really hopeful ending to this year’s classroom, and a reminder of why we need to reject the visions of our classrooms that… Read more

There is nothing easy about saying goodbye to a classroom. Yet so many teachers and educators have their own experience with departing a classroom. They know that how a teacher says and shows goodbye matters. I t matters a great deal. So we should talk more about what it’s like, right? Thankfully, last week Adrian… Read more

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week everyone! For what is now becoming a Broken Copier tradition, Chanea Bond joins the podcast for a reflection on all things teaching. This conversation covers, well, a lot : what we appreciate and love about this work of teaching; what is difficult about this work, especially in this… Read more

With Teacher Appreciation Week forthcoming, today’s episode is very simple in its concept: sharing one good story from the classroom that is really two good stories—along with a reflection on why these stories mattered. A core belief with this Broken Copier project continues to be the importance of sharing and… Read more

In the opening essay of Good Teaching: a Provocation , Zach Czaia writes that, collectively as a country, we have “reduced what it means to be a teacher, let alone a good teacher.” But what does “good teaching” even look like? In today’s conversation, Zach shares his thoughts within and beyond his new collection of… Read more

Whether you are a student, teacher or even a building leader, there is too often a shared experience of how individuals feel within our education system, no matter their role. Stressed. Drained. Overextended. Burnt out. Depleted . Ruth Poulsen believes there is a better path forward. An international school leader and… Read more

There’s a lot of conversation about which books students should be reading these days and how many —but too little, perhaps, about how to make their actual experiences with books in the classroom better . Today’s guest is Kate Roberts , a former middle school ELA teacher who now works with teachers all over the… Read more

Many teachers and educators have strong feelings about “no-zeroes” or minimum grading policies. Quite often of late, strong negative feelings. A few weeks ago, Matt Brady wrote a piece for his newsletter called “The 100-Point Scale Is a Design Flaw,” which outlined not just the thinking about his own classroom policy… Read more

Surveys show students increasingly turning to AI as a tool for their school work . Teachers who want to limit AI usage during instructional time still have many options on table—but what should they do about homework and other assigned out-of-class essays and projects? Given that the topic of homework already has been… Read more

After a couple quieter months, we are back and rolling with The Broken Copier. Today’s Unjammed episode is built around a simple-if-implausible idea: what happens when teachers are given enough time to do their work. It’s not just about having enough time to complete all the items off the to-do list, either. (Though… Read more

The conversation about reading across education has taken a front-and-center position in many places, so it felt like the right time to have a conversation about it—especially since Adrian Neibauer recently wrote a thoughtful reflection on the topic called “The Sanctity of Literacy.” In this conversation, Marcus and… Read more

Given that we are at the finish line of a very-busy 2025 with The Broken Copier , the goal of this short episode is first and foremost to express gratitude for what has been an incredible year of conversations and community-building—and also to share an update that over the next few months, we are going to slow down… Read more

It is a very easy word to say in education, right? Full-stop: everyone wants to be supported and everyone wants to be supportive . However, making that support a reality that is experienced and sustainable in our classrooms and schools? For students and teachers alike? Much more complicated. Today’s conversation with… Read more

The Broken Copier began a little over three years ago with a very simple idea: we wanted to uplift the type of conversations that happen so often between teachers in the margins of the school day: in the hallway between classes; in each other’s classrooms after the school day ends; in the faculty lounge while trying… Read more

Over time, school years can fold into each other, in a way, with each eventually becoming indistinguishable from the next. This is why the goal of this episode, quite simply, is to pause before the month of November comes to a close and ask a simple question: What has this school year taught us so far? For this… Read more

“What happened to helping them interrogate what it means to be human?” In his book Teaching without Teaching , Scott F. Parker makes a case for re-centering teaching around core human values—and away from what he calls “the whole charade” of the transactional system students and teachers alike are too often confined… Read more

There is a lot of conversation happening in education around the topic of AI—but is it the right conversation? Recently Stephen Fitzpatrick wrote a piece around this, arguing that instead of two different AI conversations in education that seem to be talking past each other, what we need “is a third conversation… Read more

This is the third episode of our new Unjammed series, with a topic that a lot of teachers still are struggling with in their classrooms: chronic student absences and the consequent empty desks in the classroom. In this episode, he shares how difficult it can be as a teacher to encounter so many of these “empty… Read more

For our second episode of our new Unjammed series, the focus is on a pattern Marcus was noticing in his own responses in the classroom this school year: finding himself losing his patience a bit more quickly than in previous years. In this episode, he talks through what it is like to notice yourself as a teacher… Read more

After over twenty Kicking The Copier episodes that focused on specific teaching strategies and mindsets, we’re going to make a slight pivot this school year. While still designed to be shorter, single-topic episodes, this new Unjammed series instead will feature a specific stories around a problem in the classroom—not… Read more

This is a conversation between two teachers who noticed the same thing early into this school year: it feels heavier than usual. After Adrian Neibauer wrote a piece in his newsletter around this idea, he joined The Broken Copier to reflect collaboratively with Marcus about how the school year is going, what is… Read more

With the school year underway, the word “assessment” is front-and-center in many classrooms—so what can we do as teachers to shift our thinking and practices around assessment to be more responsive to and uplifting for students? In today’s conversation, high school math and science teacher Melissa Dean joins to talk… Read more

In his newly-released book Learning Environment , Jared Fox writes, “I found that incorporating my passion for the natural world into the classroom was always worthwhile.” This is fitting, as the book explores the many ways that the classroom environment itself can be reimagined—including beyond the physical walls of… Read more

With a new school year just getting underway for some and about to begin for others, it is a time of hoping and imagining for what the classroom can become—but what happens when reality hits? How do you hold onto those initial hopes and imaginations as a teacher throughout the day-to-day grind of the school year? In… Read more

In this current moment, there are perhaps few things more valuable for students than the ability to confidently and skillfully navigate conversations. So how do we make those conversations a reality in our classrooms? Today’s guest has some ideas. Not only is Joe Ferraro in his third decade of teaching, but he also… Read more

In this Kicking The Copier episode, Marcus shares his current thinking and plans for AI as a teacher heading into this new school year with six things he either is or is not going to do—at least for now. The goal of this reflection is not to suggest what the “right answer” is for any other classroom or context… Read more

Almost every teacher wants their classroom to be a place where discussion amongst students thrives . Yet the reality is, unfortunately, that classrooms do not always live up to that vision of what they can be in terms of academic, purposeful discussion on a regular basis. Today’s conversation is with Matt Kay, a… Read more

In the previous episode , Jim and Marcus shared about their own experiences with Teach For America —both their motivation for entering into teaching through this program and then their experiences as corps members over their first two years of teaching in rural Arkansas. That led to this second part of the… Read more

Jim’s back! And he wasted no time in recording a two-part episode that has been on the docket for some time: a conversation about Jim and Marcus’s experiences coming into teaching through Teach For America and then, in follow-up episode that will come out later this week, about how they feel about Teach For America’s… Read more

What can a school be? This is a question that today’s guest Carla Meyrink has had to consider constantly since co-founding The Community For Learning in 1998, a school Carla and two others started in Santo Domingo to live out the values of education they believed were best for students. In this conversation, Carla… Read more

Last month Tyler Rablin wrote a blog post with a quite-lengthy title: “The Bandaids and Backflips of Surface-level Equitable Grading Practices That Avoid Meaningfully Equitable Grading Reform” That thought-provoking and important post on grading led to this conversation: a discussion that ranges across numerous… Read more

With the help of several really thoughtful questions from listener and readers—including some from those about to go into the classroom for the first time this upcoming school year!— Adrian Neibauer and Marcus had a chance to reflect on their own perspective as teachers and offer advice on several different topics: *… Read more

A lot of education conversations focus on what is happening in elementary schools and high schools, along with whatever is driving discourse in higher education at the given moment. What gets left out of the conversation too often? Middle school. Fortunately, today’s conversation is with award-winning middle school… Read more

Larry Ferlazzo has been a leading voice in education for quite some time. With a weekly advice column for Education Week , 13 different books on education (and a 14th in the works!) as well as his own blog on teaching , Larry has again and again offered guidance and shared his perspective with educators in myriad ways… Read more

There is a ton of conversation out there about AI in education right now—but too often, very little of that conversation centers the exploration and learnings of actual teachers from their own classrooms. That is why this conversation is built entirely around the work of Brett Vogelsinger, a current teacher with over… Read more

For our 20th (!!!) Kicking The Copier episode, the focus is very much singular: the importance of being transparent as a teacher, particularly in your classroom with your students. Not only because of the consequences of failing to be transparent, but more importantly because of the rewards that come with doing so.… Read more

Teacher Appreciation Week 2025 is here! With that in mind, we wanted to have a conversation around what exactly it means to be a teacher in this moment. Joining that conversation? Chanea Bond, a teacher who has for some time now been an influential, important voice amongst teachers all over—advocating for what… Read more

Recently, Adrian Neibauer wrote a reflective piece about his experience with standardized testing that began with these words: I’m a hypocrite. In today’s episode of The Broken Copier , he shares more about the conversation with his own children that resulted in these words—along with the myriad, contradictory… Read more

After opening with a note of gratitude for our listeners and readers, today’s Kicking The Copier shares a simple, powerful strategy you can use at any time as a teacher: a classroom pulse check. Five minutes of classroom space, way more than five minutes of impact. As always, thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s… Read more

In January 2021, Nick Covington was a social studies teacher in Iowa fully-immersed in his classroom and students. Successful, purposeful, and thriving. A year later, after being swept up into the culture war against educators and facing targeting and harassment for doing his job , he handed in his resignation later… Read more

The little solutions in the classroom can often create big impacts for the classroom—and today’s Kicking The Copier is very much one of those examples: a simple question you can begin occasionally including as a teacher to better support students in the way they deserve to be supported. As always, thanks to: Alberto… Read more

The idea of “100% engagement” is a loaded one in education, particularly when it comes to the expectations and implications for the classroom. Adrian Neibauer tackled this idea with conviction but more importantly humility in a recent post on his Substack called “The Scary Teacher” —and he was generous enough to hop… Read more

Today’s conversation is with Courtney Eddleman and Don Sturm, two educators who have been an integral part of an ongoing, district-wide partnership with MagicSchool AI. Rather than asking teachers to navigate this potential paradigm shift with AI on their own, Courtney and Don share a much-different experience that is… Read more

Today’s conversation features John Warner , author of the new book More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI —a book that explores how ChatGPT and other large language models force us to reconsider what writing means in education and, more broadly, in society overall. (Also: this conversation ends… Read more

Sometimes our Kicking The Copier episodes are more teacher-centered in terms of habits and strategies—but today is very much the opposite: a specific, student-centered strategy that you can use tomorrow in the classroom, if you want! (Seriously: Marcus uses this pretty much every day in some sort of way, no matter the… Read more

For our 16th Kicking The Copier episode—our continuing series focused on specific mindsets and strategies that can be helpful for teachers and educators—Marcus shared about a ritual that he has come to find considerable value in each year as a teacher—and why he believes finding and leaning into rituals as a teacher… Read more

After their months-long, slow-read journey through Becoming an Everyday Changemaker , Adrian Neibauer joined Marcus in this episode to talk with the author, Alex Shevrin Venet, about this transformative book she has written for educators. In this conversation, Alex shares her intentions behind the book and responds to… Read more

For the last Broken Copier episode of 2024, Marcus was able to speak with Jireh Keys, an early-career elementary school teacher in Fordyce, Arkansas— who also just happens to have been a freshman back in the first English class Marcus ever taught back in 2012. In this conversation, Jireh shares about her path into the… Read more

Marcus and Jim sit down to talk (again) about AI, since it looks like it’s not going away. Jim shares what he’s doing with AI in his planning and feedback process as a teacher. Marcus shares his hesitations and frustrations around AI in education more broadly. Some agreement, some disagreement—and a conversation that… Read more

This 15th Kicking The Copier episode is a simple one: a single daily habit—one that takes less than a minute before you head home for the day—that, at least for Marcus, has shifted the way he looks at his classroom in a considerable way. Our gratitude, too, for those who continue to listen and response and share, as… Read more

Pretty simple summary here: like many teachers and educators out there, we have a lot of thoughts about the election and what it means for our classrooms and students—so we decided to take some time to talk about what we’re thinking two weeks later. Not our normal type of episode, but we’d rather be authentic about… Read more

Marcus and Jim are back to talk about reading —more specifically, the broader discourse in education that students aren’t reading nearly as much as they used to. In this conversation, Marcus and Jim begin by reflecting on their own reading identities (06:05) before discussing the article “The Elite College Students… Read more

In our 14th Kicking The Copier episode, Marcus reflects on what he is keeping in mind as a teacher over this final stretch of election season, sharing three priorities that he finds helpful to center as an educator. This isn’t an episode suggesting any specifics of what educators should say or do—that would be the… Read more

The hot seat is back for today’s episode, but this time Jim is the one asking Marcus for his immediate thoughts on a handful of education “buzzwords”—with the conversation jumping from Standards-Based Grading to Social-Emotional Learning to Critical Thinking (with some other topics in between). If you want to play… Read more

After a great conversation at the beginning of summer about what the 5th grade classroom is like, Adrian Neibauer was generous enough to return to the podcast to share about the mindset he is taking into this school year and the incredible community that is already building in his classroom. In this conversation,… Read more

Big news: Jim’s back! In this episode, Jim catches up with Marcus and fills him in on how the first few weeks have gone—which, in turn, gives Marcus a chance to reflect on his upcoming school year. A big focus for both Marcus and Jim this year, they realized: making this work in the classroom sustainable going… Read more

In the 13th Kicking The Copier episode, Marcus shares how the umbrella works as a perfect analogy for him in thinking about the “bigger picture” of feedback in his classroom—and how, at the end of the day, feedback is really about the trust students have in us as teachers and the purpose they see in what they are… Read more

Most of us educators have thought a lot about school cell phone policies in recent years, but very few of us have experienced them in different contexts . Education journalist Paige Tutt, however, has done exactly that: she visited numerous school communities that had implemented cell phone bans and interviewed myriad… Read more

Given that summer is coming to a close for many teachers out there—or, for a handful, already has!—we decided to focus on that “thing” that we all go through as educators this time of year and that we all have our own opinions about: professional development for teachers. In this episode we’re joined by Trevor Aleo, a… Read more

Another guest interview today on The Broken Copier : Marc Watkins, professor at the University of Mississippi, Director of the Mississippi AI Institute, and author of the blog Rhetorica —a go-to resource for thinking about artificial intelligence through the lens of education, particularly as classroom instructors.… Read more

We’re excited to continue our shift on The Broken Copier with more conversations with more listeners today, as Dr. Julie Arnold joins the podcast to talk about her work around assessment and the ways we can do better in our classrooms to make assessment part of the learning experience—as well as the barriers we… Read more

It’s summer and a time for rest and restoration for teachers, so Marcus figured, why not talk about something that riles pretty much every teacher up the moment you mention it? That’s right: differentiation . In this twelfth installment of our Kicking The Copier series of individual reflections, Marcus shares about… Read more

Marcus finally gets a chance to talk with Adrian Neibauer, a 5th grade teacher who just finished his 21st year of teaching and also happens to be the author of Adrian’s Newsletter — probably Marcus’s favorite weekly read on teaching out there. In this conversation, Adrian reflects on his path into the elementary… Read more

It’s been awhile, but our series of “Kicking the Copier” episodes is back—and this one is about a strategy, literally but also figuratively, that might help you center your “wins” of the school year more intentionally. (Especially before summer arrives!) Another note: congratulations to those getting near (or even… Read more

Jim sits down with Cyndi Mahne, a veteran teacher and instructional coach from St. Louis. They talk about her experiences moving around different schools, running a student TV station for ten years, and especially her insights on trust and relationships as an instructional coach supporting teachers. We’d love to hear… Read more

Recent reporting from the New York Times details how school absences have “exploded” in just about every school district. On this episode, Marcus and Jim talk about how difficult this can make things for both students and teachers, and dig into the many challenges that arise in and outside the classroom as teachers… Read more

The tenth episode of “Kicking the Copier” is all about how we as teachers tend to respond to “bad vibes” in our classroom (this time of year especially) in a way that sometimes makes those “bad vibes” even worse. In Marcus’s experience: by retreating from classroom community rather than leaning into classroom… Read more

Lots of schools are trying out different approaches to grading, often met with mixed emotions from teachers. Mastery-based and minimum grading policies are popular, and this week Marcus and Jim were able to discuss how they see some of these ideas playing out. Grades are very important–to both high school students and… Read more

The ninth episode of “Kicking the Copier”—and the first of 2024!—is centered around the value of reflecting on our own past “mistakes” as teachers: practices and mindsets that existed in previous versions of our teaching that we no longer believe are the best for our students. This isn’t about being hard on… Read more

Welcome to 2024! As many of us are in a moment of reflection & adjustment, we were finally able to sit down & reconnect for this latest episode. We continue to be grateful for your support, especially since our recording schedule has become a little sparse in 2023–but we assume our audience of educators can understand… Read more

The eighth episode of “Kicking the Copier” begins with a question: as a teacher, do you understand how your students see themselves as learners in the classroom? If not, the first step is asking them—and this episode briefly dives into the why before moving through three different quick ways to begin this shift in… Read more

This seventh episode of “Kicking the Copier” is very simple: a reflection and reminder about the value of a good classroom—how it can feel too often like it doesn’t matter in the broader scheme of things when it very much does matter. That’s all this episode is, really: a brief message about why the classroom matters… Read more

This sixth episode of “Kicking the Copier” is a reflection on how teachers so often are asked to do things beyond the basic responsibilities of their classroom—and how “saying no” to these above-and-beyond requests can be really challenging. Still, being intentional and confident in when and why to say “no”? That can… Read more

It’s time to write recommendation letters again, which any teacher of seniors will tell you is the spookiest part of the entire season. As our students have an eye on all these college applications, we’ve seen a lot of different stories floating around about the value of college. Some of the more disingenuous… Read more

In this fifth episode of “Kicking the Copier,” Marcus responds to one of our own reader’s questions about how to build a culture of accountability in the classroom without relying on late penalties. Marcus begins with a brief explainer on why he’s against late penalties and then shares two separate strategies for… Read more

In this fourth episode of “Kicking the Copier,” our series of shorter solo episodes, Marcus reflects on how he has reacted in the past when a student walks in having a tough day—and how he tries to do better nowadays with a simple strategy: writing that student a note. Thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former… Read more

Jim already had his first day of school, and Marcus is about to start. Whether you’ve got your Q1 seating charts locked in, or are just starting to dust off the work laptop, we’re all getting ready for another exciting year in the classroom. In this episode, Marcus asks Jim about his thoughts on what makes for a… Read more

In this third episode of “Kicking the Copier,” our series of shorter solo episodes, Marcus reflects on how shifting the way teachers return our feedback to students can make a substantive impact on the culture of growth in our classrooms—and he offers three different steps to make for what he believes is a better… Read more

This is the second episode “Kicking the Copier”: a series of shorter solo episodes where we offer not a solution necessarily but rather an idea for teachers, akin to a copier kick, based on our own experience and thinking. These won’t be long, under 10 minutes, but we hope they can be valuable in offering ideas and… Read more

This past week a report from the Center for Reinventing Public Education received a lot of coverage —including as fuel for a WSJ editorial—and then subsequent reaction for its targeted blame towards…you guessed it: teachers. Needless to say, Jim and Marcus weren’t happy about this at all—especially after digging into… Read more

This is the first episode “Kicking the Copier”: a series of shorter solo episodes where we offer not a solution necessarily but rather an idea for teachers, akin to a copier kick, based on our own experience and thinking. These won’t be long, under 10 minutes, but we hope they can be valuable in offering ideas and… Read more

The dog days are in full swing, and we wish all the teachers out there a wonderful, restful, well-earned July. In this episode, Marcus and Jim connect to talk about how they solicit and respond to student feedback, especially as they look forward to the fall. Using Marcus’s recent Edutopia article , they discuss how… Read more

In this episode, Brett Vogelsinger joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Poetry Pauses: Teaching with Poems to Elevate Student Writing in All Genres . Brett shares about the background of his book as well as the numerous benefits he has found in “pausing for a poem” in the classroom—especially as a way to… Read more

A conversation between Jim and Marcus about how their classrooms came to a close to finish the school year as well as some “teacher takeaways” from the year overall as they look forward. Though at times it dips into the weeds of HS English pedagogy and particulars, this episode tries to dive into the thinking and… Read more

Jim welcomes back Elizabeth Jorgensen with Dr. Lucy Park for a conversation about teaching Sijo–a traditional Korean poetry form. Similar to Haiku, Sijo offers students an accessible poetry structure to learn, play with, and develop their own creative voices and identities as writers. Liz and Lucy have recently… Read more

We’ve finally made time in between walking the dogs, cooking, parenting, attempting to work out every once in a while, and our wildly easy teaching jobs with tons of flexible time built in. Seriously though, folks, there’s more to say about grading. In this episode, we took a deeper dive into some of our thinking… Read more

What’s the best way to grade student work? This is one of those questions that seems like it should have an obvious answer, but once you do a little digging, it turns out the answer is far from easy. Not only are schools entirely misaligned when it comes to grading practices and norms, but the more we ask why, the… Read more

We’re getting into the swing of things now, as most of us have started a new semester. Marcus and Jim check back with each other about writing instruction in general, and continue the conversation around what AI might start to mean for classrooms. They talk about culture through content, and what authentic learning… Read more

Gwen Jorgensen became the first American to win a gold medal in the triathlon at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. Her mother, Nancy, and sister, Liz, wrote about her inspiring journey in their book, Gwen Jorgensen: USA’s First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete. The book targets an important gap for middle grade nonfiction… Read more

It’s a new year, and for many of us, Q3 is either starting or has already started. Marcus and Jim are excited to get back to recording after holiday travel, a little bit of the sniffles, and a whole lot of grading. They talk about what the end of their first semesters looked like, and what they wish it could look like… Read more

A new AI writing tool, ChatGPT, has K12 teachers and college professors alike scratching their heads and revisiting a fundamental question: Why do we need to write stuff? Derek Thompson’s recent article in The Atlantic has explored this question, and while the professional world might be excited at the possibilities… Read more

How will AI writing tools impact education? When is writing original? How should teachers incorporate–or avoid–what seems to be an inevitable push towards faster, better, and more nuanced writing tools like AI language generators? Teachers are constantly balancing the world we live in against the world our students… Read more

How many new buzzwords have you had to memorize in the past few years? How many times have you had to… um… tweak… a lesson plan to ensure that it does, in fact, demonstrate XYZ? Especially when the person looking for XYZ has little (read: no) context for your classroom culture, systems, and goals. New buzzwords and… Read more

How many students are allowed out of the classroom? What happens when you only let one student out at a time, but another teacher lets two? Should there be a difference between going out to your locker and going out to visit the nurse? What if one student is out in the bathroom, but another student suddenly needs to… Read more

Who is responsible when students fail? If students aren’t meeting the bar for learning, what should the response be from the teacher? What is the appropriate balance of accountability and opportunity, especially for taking a risk, when the stakes are so high for students? Now that they’re both treading water a little… Read more

Jim has had students for just over a week, and Marcus is getting ready to go back. They debrief how the first few days of school have been, talk about some tough in-the-moment decisions teachers have to make on a daily basis, and Marcus gives Jim a hard time about his beloved practice of covering textbooks in brown… Read more

As another first day of school approaches, Marcus puts Jim on the spot with a new game: Wise or Unwise. Marcus shares some common advice that we’ve all heard about starting a new school year, and Jim shares his hot takes about them. They circle back to the omnipresent jeans debate, and Jim talks a little bit about his… Read more

Jim is able to sit down with one of his old friends from the St. Lawrence University admissions office, Mx. Sam Gradess. Sam has worked in education all over the world, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Afghanistan. Currently, they are a school leader at South Bronx Classical Charter School, serving students in… Read more

It seems like every summer, teachers have to go through the same song and dance routine around standardized testing, what the numbers actually mean, and whether they made any impact whatsoever that year. Fun, right? Marcus & Jim sit down and talk through how they process getting test scores back every year, and offer… Read more

Welcome to The Broken Copier, a conversation about teaching. Marcus and Jim are excited to get back into recording after taking some time to redesign a bunch of aspects about the podcast. We think we’ve got some good systems up and running, and we’re excited to learn and grow as the show evolves. In this episode, we… Read more

During teacher appreciation week, Jim published this essay called "Build the Compound." Marcus points out that compounds aren't exactly where young, idealistic, fresh new teachers want to spend their time, and for an essay in which the central thesis is that you should quit your job to be a classroom teacher, might… Read more

Mr. P is back! After strenuous negotiation with our record label, Brandon was granted paternity leave from the pod to help care for his new baby girl! On behalf of the entire @realPDpod family, we'd like to say congratulations to the entire Piasecki family - especially to the newest big brother in our fanbase,… Read more

Marcus & Jim sit down to talk about The Great Education Resignation. Teachers are quitting mid year, creating viral social media content about how to transition out of the classroom, and we're just getting the sense that after this school year is over, a lot of teachers are going to leave their jobs. We talk through… Read more

After a short brush with viral Twitter fame, Jim heard from all kinds of different people. One of them was Joseph Maffey, who didn't email about the infamous bus tweet, but rather to let Jim know that not only had he listened to the podcast, but that he actually liked it! The two teachers are finally able to connect… Read more

As many state legislatures are drafting and passing legislation aimed at requiring teachers to be more transparent about their curriculum, especially out of fears of indoctrination and the idea that teachers are "teaching Critical Race Theory," Marcus & Jim dive head on into a conversation about how they approach… Read more

Jim and Marcus sit down with Dr. Chris Jones to talk about his run for Governor of Arkansas. After a viral campaign launch video that took Twitter by storm (currently with 5.3 million views), Dr. Jones has been clear that education in Arkansas is a top priority in his campaign. He's got a tough road ahead of him: he's… Read more

Jim and Marcus debrief the recent report from The Teacher Salary Project, "Teacher Salaries and Teacher Shortages: The View from the Classroom." They walk through their reactions and experiences around compensation in both rural and urban contexts, and discuss the role they think salary plays in teacher retention from… Read more

Marcus & Jimmy catch up after all the hustle & bustle of the holidays, and discuss how they're thinking about their jobs in the midst of some really serious questions emerging about the relationship we should have with work itself. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or… Read more

Jim interviews Matt Wright, the Superintendent of the Marked Tree School District. Matt was Jim's principal when he started teaching in 2011, and has been a significant mentor for him throughout his career. In this episode, Matt shares some insight into how he led his district through the transitions around shifts to… Read more

Jim talks with his former Master's thesis advisor, Dr. Patrick Comstock, about his own journey in education and some of his current research on mindfulness in the classroom. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit… Read more

Jim & Marcus return to the conversation about pivoting from remote instruction. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Jimmy, Brandon, and Marcus talk about their goals and mindsets as they go back in person into an uncertain school year. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Jim reconnects with his old college friend and track teammate, Whitney Koch, to talk about her journey in the classroom. Whitney dives into her own process of discovering her love of teaching a few years into her teaching career, some of the people who helped her along the way, and her current efforts teaching high… Read more

Hosts Jimmy and Brandon dive deeper into their remote learning discussion (since there's a lot to talk about). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Brandon and Jimmy reflect on their transition to remote learning, how that felt, and the ways in which they had to adapt during the pandemic. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Jimmy welcomes Marcus Luther as another host to the show. They talk about some of the big things on their mind as they look to the fall after a year of remote learning, how the current political climate around education is shaping their thinking, and geek out a little bit regarding best practices for English teachers.… Read more

Jim interviews one of the people who first inspired him to become a teacher, and somebody who has always encouraged his journey in the classroom: Mr. Bonfiglio, his high school English teacher. Joe walks Jim through his own journey into the classroom, what it was like to be a teacher making less than $6,000 a year,… Read more

Jim, Brandon, and Marcus describe what the podcast is all about. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com

Hosts Brandon and Jimmy introduce themselves & discuss what they want for the podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com