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Brain Science Meets the Classroom: A Conversation with Dr. Lisa Riegel

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Episode Summary Let’s talk about brain science in education. As teachers, we are incredibly well-trained in structure, curriculum, and how to organize the day-to-day of teaching. But what about the human side of the classroom—for both our students and ourselves? In this episode, I sit down with Lisa Riegel to explore what really drives behavior…

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Why Your EL Lessons Feel Scattered (and How Backward Design Fixes It)

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In this episode, I’m diving into lesson planning and introducing a process called backward design, which is a truly great way to plan for our English Learner (EL) students. You will hear how backward design differs from the traditional, “build-as-you-go” approach that often leaves lessons feeling scattered and disconnected. I also share how I applied

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Stop Planning Everything: A Simpler Way to Plan for Multilingual Learners

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Episode Summary In this episode, I dive into a common source of overwhelm for EL teachers: overplanning and talk about a simpler way to plan for multilingual learners. . The pressure to adapt content-area lesson plans for multilingual learners often leads us to try to plan everything, including both content and detailed language support. I

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The Ultimate Planning Framework for ELL Teachers

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Episode Summary Today, I’m sharing a simple but powerful structure—the 30–60–90 Minute Planning Framework—to help EL teachers stop the spiral of overplanning and find clarity, even during busy seasons like testing. In this episode, I am unpacking why planning often feels so heavy for teachers of multilingual learners (hint: it’s rarely about time), and how

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How to Teach Listening (Not Just Speaking) to ELs

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Episode Summary Today I’m diving into a topic I believe is foundational to everything we do in our classrooms: listening. Communication breakdowns are often about what wasn’t fully heard. In the first part of the episode, I break down why listening is an active, intentional skill—not passive—and review Joseph DeVito’s five stages of listening.Then, in

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When “You’re the Expert” Becomes Too Much: Decision Fatigue in EL Teaching

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In this episode we tackle the pervasive issue of decision fatigue among educators, specifically focusing on teachers of multilingual learners (ELs). We redefine decision fatigue not as a result of being disorganized, but as a rational response to working within a system that demands constant decisions without providing sufficient structural clarity—what is called “Ambiguity disguised

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