Leah Crawford is an experienced educator and independent education consultant. She emphasizes the importance of engaging teaching methods, such as using dialogic exchange and mentor texts to enhance student comprehension and creativity. Leah also highlights the significance of teaching concepts over skills and the value of using literature to foster a rich understanding of storytelling and writing techniques.

https://leahcrawford.com

https://searchingforexcellence.co.uk  Bob Cox’s site - the home of Opening Doors

https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/opening-doors The Opening Doors series of books

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxCgNvQM8mbQK9KZ3P5UtQ5dmy5uQrRAX  15 mini tutorials lifted from the books on YouTube

Bluesky  @thinktalkleah.bsky.social

LinkedIn   Leah Crawford

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Major Choice is a career mentorship program for students with and without disabilities. The program emphasizes personalized mentorship, self-exploration, and career exploration, aiming to help students find fulfilling careers. Educators and professionals are encouraged to become mentors or volunteers. https://www.majorchoice.com/home-page5pdqllzu62926234

Holly Britton, a handwriting instruction specialist, discusses the importance of early transcription skills in education. She highlights the decline in handwriting proficiency, especially during COVID-19, and the need for explicit instruction starting from kindergarten. Holly founded Squiggle Squad, designed to teach handwriting through a fun, research-based approach.

In this episode, I chat with Eva, a 15 year old high school sophomore who loves to write. Eva provides great insight for teachers about what students really hope for when learning how to be better writers. Eva shares what inspires her, as well as her writing process. She is able to publish her work, collaborate with other young authors, and get feedback with a site called Wattpad.

In this episode, I zoom in on research and the writing process with author and Washington Post writer, Geoff Edgers. Geoff stresses the importance of in depth research and plenty of time to write and revise.

What are the best content choices for podcasting with students? In this first episode in the Podcasting with Students series, I share clips from The Birch Meadow Way Podcast which my fourth grade colleagues and I started with our students this past Spring 2021. I reflect on the content choices for our first season of The Birch Meadow Way and what I believe our next steps should be.

Phaedra talks about the purpose of writing and finding what is essential.

Coding done well is computational thinking.

Kristy Sumner shares about her work as a paranormal investigator and her focus on research and sharing stories.

Angela shares her research and work with multi-modal expression in the writer’s workshop.