Doorways to Learning with Donna

Donna Lee Fields

Step into the world of education transformation with Donna Lee Fields in "Doorways to Learning with Donna" This engaging podcast journey unravels the dynamic methodologies, innovative programs, effective techniques, strategic insights, and empowering decisions that can shape the future of education. Join Donna as she explores a myriad of educational initiatives that hold the promise of granting students agency and lifelong opportunities. From spotlighting dedicated educators making a difference worldwide to unveiling practical classroom techniques and cutting-edge tools. read less
EducationEducation

Episodes

S1 E46 How can disease strengthen the Affective Domain?
28-01-2024
S1 E46 How can disease strengthen the Affective Domain?
How many of¡ you believe that physical problems are indications of an emotional, internal conflict? The very word ‘disease’ explains this concept perfectly. When we separate the prefix from the noun it’s easy to see that diseases are really the body’s lack of ease in assimilating something happening internally or externally. In one sentence, I'm going to explain how emotional health is the most important element we can have in the learning environment: 'New information enters the brain through the brain stem and the brain stem guides this information, fueled by brain chemicals to the limbic system which just by chance is also known as the emotional centre of the brain, and if the limbic system determines that the external environment…NOT the new information mind you – the external environment is positive (praise from a person you value, a healthy breakfast or lunch, wearing your favourite sweater), then a figurative tollbooth positioned directly on the other side of the limbic system lets the tollbooth arm  raise, this new information flows through to the frontal cortex and learning happens: however, (and you’ll see I’m saved by the transition word ‘however’ which gives me a semicolon and so we can still consider this the same sentence.. if the limbic system (remember also called the emotional centre of the brain) registers a negative external environment (an angry or frustrated teacher, a disturbing message from a friend, a recent punishment from parents), then the tollbooth keeps its arm firmly in the down position and new information stops in the limbic system, is not processed by the rest of the brain, and nothing (or very little) is learned.' For more, check out the online course now being launched. If you can explain why Ground Hog's Day has been chosen as the launch date, you will receive a special offer. Send me a message at: donna@scaffoldingmagic.com The online course is at: https://scaffoldingmagic.com/scaffolding-magic-online-courses/ You can find more conversations like this one at Doorways to Learning with Donna: https://scaffoldingmagic.com/category/doorways-to-learning-with-donna/ Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/contact-subscribe If you like this episode, treat Donna to a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/doorwaystolearning --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E45 What higher order thinking questions can you use in and outside of the classroom that will change your life?
21-01-2024
S1 E45 What higher order thinking questions can you use in and outside of the classroom that will change your life?
There is so much negativity in the world, in people’s perspectives on events, on the way news is offered to us, in the way so many people choose to complain about situations they are not happy about, but do nothing to change. One thing we can do, is use these fantastic 'What if' questions to change our own situations. And maybe even for the people around us. est that I deserve a raise?  If you give a positive spin on the upcoming event, you begin thinking about what you’ll say in this positive scenario, what you’ll wear, how you’ll look the other person in the eye more directly, how you’ll search for words ahead of time that will further the positive outcome, how you’ll walk into the room with your head high, pour out positive energy in your body towards the other person or people in the situation. In other words, you’ll be living the event in advance and making it more likely to happen in this positive light. More examples here! You can find more conversations like this one at Doorways to Learning with Donna: https://scaffoldingmagic.com/category/doorways-to-learning-with-donna/ Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/contact-subscribe If you like this episode, treat Donna to a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/doorwaystolearning   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E24 Rachel Long: Unfolding the Mysteries of Marketing Educational Materials
15-01-2024
S1 E24 Rachel Long: Unfolding the Mysteries of Marketing Educational Materials
See below for activities to use this podcast in your language classes... Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: ⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast You can find more conversations like this one at ⁠⁠Doorways to Learning with Donna If you like this episode, ⁠treat Donna to a coffee!! What does PARSNIPs have to do with a publisher's ideology? When is a book not just a book, but rather refracted knowledge? What is hidden behind the printed words and colourful images? Rachel Long, expert in marketing, representing not just her beloved team at Macmillan Education but also the fierce devotion her fellow marketers in all publishing houses have in designing their products. She explains that there is a determined ideology behind students books that is intended to empower children, an invaluable resource in teacher's books created to ease the load of classroom educators, and the movement toward diversity and acceptance in each and every image chosen for publication. Listen and decide for yourself if Rachel's message changes your mind about publisher's books in the classroom and how we can use them more fluidly and divergently, inside and outside of the classroom, with students and their parents. Activities to use this podcast in our language classes: Rachel talks about her publisher very carefully choosing the images in the books so they reflect today's multi-cultural world. Suggestion: Ask your students, in pairs, to spend 10 minutes looking through their student book and identifying 10 images that reflect themselves and things that are familiar to them at home.Rachel talks about PARSLEYS - seven (7) tabu subjects publishers are not supposed to include in the Student Books. Suggestion: Write those seven subjects on the board and ask students, in groups of three, to talk about each of them and why they are tabu. (politics, alcohol, religion, sex, narcotics -isms, pork)Rachel talks about parts of the books that the teachers may not use because they are so busy. The teacher guide is top of the list  Suggestion: Open your teacher guide and randomly pick a page, and promise yourself that this year, you'll use the publisher's suggestion you've just found.  Music: Ariane Sailer --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E28 Understanding Trauma: Expert Insights with Justin Sunseri
15-01-2024
S1 E28 Understanding Trauma: Expert Insights with Justin Sunseri
When you feel scared, which do you choose: fight or flight? What if Justin told you that it's actually not a choice you make, but one your body makes naturally? How could understanding a crazy term like POLYVAGAL help your students to feel more empowered? Are you an educator concerned about students who may have experienced trauma? If so, this video is a valuable resource for you. Join us as we sit down with Justin Sunseri, a licensed therapist working within California's public school system, who generously shares his expertise to help you navigate this important topic.Justin provides insightful information on how trauma can become normalised and affect both students and educators. He introduces the Polyvagal Theory, a biological explanation of how our bodies respond to stress and unexpected danger cues. Through a clear and engaging discussion, Justin breaks down the Polyvagal Theory, making it accessible and understandable.By understanding this theory, you'll discover how students' stress responses are not a result of weakness or emotional immaturity but rather a natural, evolutionary response. Justin's expertise shines as he explains how he helps students experiencing trauma and guides them through the steps to navigate the Polyvagal ladder, teaching them self-calming techniques to foster healthy interactions.Don't miss this enlightening conversation that can empower educators to create safe spaces and support students on their journey to healing and growth. Subscribe now for invaluable insights and strategies. Activities to use these techniques in your classes ⁠https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast You can find more conversations like this one at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Doorways to Learning with Donna⁠⁠ If you like this episode,⁠⁠ ⁠treat Donna to a coffee!!⁠⁠ Activities to use with this episode: --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E30 Jennifer Serravallo: Reading Strategies that Electrify Lessons
15-01-2024
S1 E30 Jennifer Serravallo: Reading Strategies that Electrify Lessons
Are you tired of your students' indifference towards reading? Are you frustrated daily with your students' lack of comprehension of key points in texts? Where do you think the ideal model for professional training is (and it isn't Finland!)? Are you ready to hear some of the BEST reading strategies you may every be privileged to hear on a podcast or anywhere else for that matter? Jennifer Serravallo has swept in to leave a trail of golden breadcrumbs so that your students know the way from one cover to another of any book you may challenge them with. So much fun and effective reading strategies you aren't going to find anywhere else! Jennifer insists on the importance of strategies as ways of scaffolding reading - yes...she not only knows, but revels in the concept of scaffolding!!! She includes Inferencing, summarising, , using the title to remember key points, the first and last lines of the story, what does the main character want to achieve, and what happens that stops them from reaching their goal and so much more. Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: ⁠https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast You can find more conversations like this one at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Doorways to Learning with Donna⁠⁠⁠ If you like this episode,⁠⁠⁠ ⁠treat Donna to a coffee!! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E31 Doorways to Learning: All of what is involved in being an exceptional teacher-trainer, Nina Lauder
15-01-2024
S1 E31 Doorways to Learning: All of what is involved in being an exceptional teacher-trainer, Nina Lauder
How many languages do you need to speak to be an effective teacher-trainer? Is it important to know the majority language of the country if you're an English teacher? What do you do if you're giving a workshop and the electricity gives out suddenly? Today you have the opportunity to find out something you may never before have heard: What makes a good trainer? Why did your school hire that person and not the other? Why did I resonate with what he says instead of the person I listened to last week? Why do I feel on fire when she comes to my school instead of last year's trainer? We're going to learn a lot about what makes Nina the incredible teacher-trainer that she is - how publishing, volunteering, and breathing in the salt of the sea as often as possible, is essential to her educational vision. Join us now for a breathtaking journey through Canada, Greece, Spain, and most of the rest of the world, as Nina tells us about her journeys and her joys that she passes on to all of the participants in every single session she gives. Activities to use this podcast in your classes: Nina talks about having to suddenly change all of her presentation because of power-outages. Ask your students to work in groups and list EVERYTHING they do in a 24-hour period that involves electricity (or a battery-powered device that depends on recharging with electricity). Next, they write alternative ways of carrying out each of those items without electricity. Groups exchange lists, eliminate duplicate, carry out a class discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of electricity and. our dependency on it. Nina's childhood was filled with different accents and cultures. In groups, students make lists of people they've met from other cultures and/or countries. They include emotions they have had about those people - whether positive or negative, why they had these strong emotions - either because of the clothes those people wore, their accent, the way they operated that was different from the majority culture, anger that might have been caused by simple misunderstandings of common ways to communicate, etc. Lead a classroom discussion on how respect for other people's belief, cultures and customs on a small scale - in a classroom, neighbourhood and country, might change global conflicts. Another strategy Jennifer shares is to identify social, physical and cultural cues that are similar or different from the readers. Outside of class, students read the class text/book and take notes on these three elements of the ma in character/s in relation to themselves. In class, students work in groups, share notes, and make a list of similarities and differences of the main characters, using names (or not) of specific students. Find activities for this episode and more conversations like this one at Doorways to Learning with Donna: https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/contact-subscribe If you like this episode, treat Donna to a coffee!!! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/doorways... Contact Nina at: https://www.ninalauder.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E33 Robert Shaps, Leading with an Holistic Vision Part 2
15-01-2024
S1 E33 Robert Shaps, Leading with an Holistic Vision Part 2
How would your teenager solve the problem of eviction, what message would she want to give and take away from a political rally, what would he plan to do to clean up the local rivers and surrounding areas, how would living in China would heighten her understanding of the shades and subtlies of multi-culturalism? These are only some of the real-life issues the students in the school district of Mamaronek New York work on daily, led by superintendent extraordinnaire Robert Shaps.    For those of you who were mesmerised by the first part of my chat with Robert and his verbal illustrations of what makes a school system that works - and I can only imagine it was all of you - you are sooo lucky because there is even more more of how a leader can use his position to make each teacher, each student, each parent, each administrator feel valued and a participant in the positive changes in their educational world. Robert Shaps is currently the superintendent of the Mamaronek Union Free Schools, New York. Some of the programs he has been championing during his 13-year tenure here have been: global citizenship, relevancy in the work force, leadership, authentic learning, multi-culturalism, inclusive bilingualism, and much more. His ideology is largely founded on the studies of Kim Marshall and Harvard Project Zero. Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast You can find more conversations like this one at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Doorways to Learning with Donna⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like this episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠treat Donna to a coffee!! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E42 Are you evolving? And your educational practices?
31-12-2023
S1 E42 Are you evolving? And your educational practices?
As my experiences on the planet have changed and my perspective of life has evolved, I see education very differently. I believe the classroom is where we encourage human connection and where the curriculum the content is far less important that than the social skills our students can develop when we’re all together. If we want a generation of students, learners, humans on the planet who can work together to solve the problems they have been born into and have had no part in creating, we need to give them as many opportunities to develop the skills to work in teams – not to conform to each other’s ideas but to know how to respectfully share and listen to each others ideas, know how to actively listen, negotiate different perspectives, encourage variations based on justifiable visions, and in short work together to shine as one ray of light made up of crystals of each one’s individual light. How does that sound for the New Year? Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast You can find more conversations like this one at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Doorways to Learning with Donna⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like this episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠treat Donna to a coffee! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E40 Adult Bullying: When did it begin and how can educators be fundamental changers in this paradigm?
16-12-2023
S1 E40 Adult Bullying: When did it begin and how can educators be fundamental changers in this paradigm?
Have you ever been bullied as an adult? Were you also bullied as a child? Adult bullying comes in many forms and sometimes we don't even recognise it. The person who takes a parking place from us as we're about to turn into it, someone who won't let us go ahead on the checkout line when we have one item, a partner who demeans any request we have to strengthen the comfort level of our relationship, a supervisor who uses degrading terms and abides by unforgiving schedules to control us, a neighbour who dismisses requests for respecting those around her. And how did these adults become bullies or rather - when? In most cases, this started from their childhood. And why wasn't it stopped, curbed, dissipated? In most cases because the teachers were not trained in how to reteach these misled souls to be kind to themselves, first and foremost, so that they knew how to be kind to the people around them. This podcast explores a specific case of adult bullying and how then some specific tools educators can use to begin the process of stopping this type of misdirection in its tracks at the youngest ages. This a not-to-be-missed quick and energetic exploration of the origins of bullying and how we can be enormously impactful and proactive in the face of it. Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast You can find more conversations like this one at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Doorways to Learning with Donna⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like this episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠treat Donna to a coffee!!⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E39 When is cheating on exams acceptable?
09-12-2023
S1 E39 When is cheating on exams acceptable?
Can we change the behaviour of the people around us? I mean, how much are you aware of the people around you and how much do you take into account your own behaviour with regards to their best interests? I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, because I just got back from Finland and the difference between the expectations when we’re out in public between Finland and Spain is incredible. Scandanavians have an attitude towards what’s appropriate in public and what’s not that’s similar to how I grew up – in the. Northeast and pretty much everywhere in the States and Canada as well. And I’m going to bring this around to the classroom, because there is a culture in the classroom whether you are aware of it or not, and the culture you grew up in, and the culture you’re living in – whether they’re the same or not – influence how your students act towards each other and towards you. One culture or another influences your expectations of how your students act and what you reinforce or not. Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast You can find more conversations like this one at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Doorways to Learning with Donna⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like this episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠treat Donna to a coffee!! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message
S1 E38 If an adult knows nothing about being a team member, did the lacking begin in school?
01-12-2023
S1 E38 If an adult knows nothing about being a team member, did the lacking begin in school?
Have you been in an online course, put in the Breakout Room and someone hijacks the conversation? Actually, it isn't a conversation because it's one person talking and asking for help on her/his needs? Is there an equanimity within the people connected? Is there generosity? Is there respect and honour for the opinions, ideas, searching of all? If you've found all these elements, please feel you've won the lottery!! If you haven't, it's probably simply because you and the rest did not learn team building techniques when you were younger. Just imagine a world in which groups of adults or students get together and they have their own best interests at heart but they also have the patience and intention to let those around them to feel heard, seen and honoured. Would that not be a fabulous place to be? In this episode we explore the importance of connection - to ourselves and to others, and how that connection needs to be practiced within the classroom so that it later leaves the learning environment and becomes second nature in adulthood. Join us for a quick yet inclusive consideration of team building and connection, and click here for a simple and effective activity to energetically unite your group. Let me know how you feel when you're finished participating! Subscribe to get notices for new episodes and free activities to use in your classes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/scaffoldingmagic/sign-up-for-doorways-to-learning-podcast You can find more conversations like this one at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Doorways to Learning with Donna⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like this episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠treat Donna to a coffee!! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doorways-to-learning/message