TBT: Back to School with Tori Pattison

On this episode we talk to Tori Pattison about what it means to be both engaging and educating! This was such a fun conversation about heading back to school and how Tori uses purpose driven routines in order to set her students up for success. Tori spoke at length about how all of your routines must have a greater purpose in order for your students to take hold of them. To Tori this means that routines must work towards the greater purpose of helping students learn to respect ideas and feelings. This may seem like a hard concept for 1st graders to learn, but Tori proves that with high expectations students can learn anything! Our favorite routine that Tori has is that she calls all of her classroom jobs "the economy" and each student job is called an "internship". She gives examples of how students thrive in these "internships" as a sanitation specialist who sweeps up the room or a woodworker who sharpens pencils. We also got a chance to talk with Tori about what types of technology she uses in the classroom and how she has students build digital portfolios. If you're looking for back to school inspiration this podcast is the one for you! Thanks to Tori for coming on the podcast and you can connect with her on Instagram @engagingandeducating!!