PODCAST · education
#SmallBites
by Hedreich Nichols
Start your week Mondays with 5 strategies in 5 minutes at 5AM central to help you become a more impactful educator. With these "small bite" strategies, author and educator Hedreich Nichols gives you actionable steps for creating better and more equitable learning experiences. If you have 5 minutes, you can do something NOW to become a better educator for all of your students. Don't try to do everything, just do something. How do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time! Get the links at https://hedreich.com/. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hedreich/support
Episodes
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AI Ain't The Enemy
When most teachers I talk to about AI speak of it only as something to block or disallow to keep students from cheating, I understand this knee-jerk reaction. Every new technology is met with resistance...before it weaves its way into main stream use. Cars over buggies, planes over cars, search...
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Educator Encouragement
The saying goes, "there's no tired like teacher tired." Teachers have exhausting schedules, and if you've ever time stamped a teacher day, you'll know that a teacher day is simply impossible to get through in a day. That feeling is not confined to the classroom. For those of us who have deeply…
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Be a Better Teacher in <45 Hours Weekly
Wellness in educational spaces has become a trend that, while important, often falls flat in practice.That may be because teachers and administrators tend to forget that they have to actually make use of the time and tools given. Refilling your proverbial cup is the only way to ensure personal...
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Nostalgic Narratives and Native American History
As we approach November when the country highlights the histories of Indigenous Peoples of North America, it's fitting that Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the book by David Grann, calls our attention to the heinous crimes committed against the Native American Community. In...
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Wars and Rumors of Wars
The emotional work of teaching can be heavy on a good day, when all is generally right with the world. But on a day when students have had a weekend filled with clips of children in wartorn countries and friends running from bullets at state fairs, your upbeat Monday morning "How was everybody's...
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Equity Is More Than an Initiative
As the opposition to educational change grows, especially when talking about issues like learning gaps, teacher retention and inclusive environments, it's left to teachers in the trenches to help shape our future. That burden is immense, as seen in the droves of teachers experiencing burn-out and...
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SmallBites Summer Resources
If you are reading this, whether you have a signed contract at your old school, a contract that signals new beginnings in a new position or even a new beginning that has nothing to do with education, you survived the year (or are at least nearing the finish line)! Students and staff have looked…
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The PI in AAPI with Kecia McDonald Pt. III
In this final full week of #AAPIHeritage month, you still have time to learn about the PI in AAPI with your students, families or just for yourself. Read the part I blog, check out the resources in part II and add the resources below to your cache. What you can listen to (beware, the Jawaiian…
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The PI in AAPI with Kecia McDonald Pt. II
Listen to part one and get the show notes here. Further Resources: National Park Service AAPI History Site Learn a few phrases in Hawaiian Watch the Kealakehe Middle School May Day Production About our guest: Kecia McDonald is not a PI, she is an EL resource teacher and longtime resident on the…
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The PI in AAPI with Kecia McDonald (Pt. 1)
Although I hate the fact that we celebrate certain cultures only during certain months, I acknowledge that so much of the country sees diverse Americans as adjuncts, and with no group is that as profound as with Pacific Islanders. Admittedly, it is the group of Americans that I know least about…
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The Lost Cause: The Original School Indoctrination Plan
After this week’s CrazyPLN Twitter Chat, led by the incredibly knowledgeable “Constitution Lady”, Linda R. Monk J.D., I began to look more closely at the verbiage in various state censorship and "anti-woke" laws and book bans. While researching the often vaguely worded laws, it occurred to me…
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How Are Implicit Bias, Childhood 'Othering' and Shootings Connected?
What do you think when you see a "big Black guy'? Do you immediately feel a sense of danger? When you see Hispanic Americans, do you immediately think they are 'bad actors'? And what about White people? Do you think of them as racist and uncaring, or maybe just top of the food chain? Depending on...
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My Son, The Military and Educational Equity
Only a few short hours ago, I said goodbye to my son as he left to begin his career as a proud member of the US Army. Only yesterday I watched him make a wish as he blew out candles with the same family that was there at his very first birthday. Today he is entrusted with fighting for the…
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SmallBites Special Edition: "There's No Hate Like Christian Love?!"-- Three Guiding Questions for Christian Educators
Note: Today's Easter episode is a special edition specifically for Christian educators. While the episode offers great guiding questions to all educators, scriptures are used as a foundation for this episode. "There's no hate like Christian love" is an all too common phrase these days. And as I…
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More 'PIE' with AI
Remember the old adage, "what you see is what you get"? Well, that phrase is officially from a bygone era. Now what you see may be what you get, but what you're getting may not be real. With AI tools becoming less expensive and more accessible, deepfakes are increasingly finding their way into…
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Media Literacy and PIE Consumption
When educators are asked in my workshops, what the main goal of a media concern is, they generally answer “to inform”. For those of us who think in terms of author’s purpose, what other answer could there be, right? Usually, after a little prompting, someone comes up with “to make money”. We all...
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Good Patriots and History
Welcome back, listeners! There was so much I took in during my hiatus, that it was hard to choose ONE thing to come back with. But decide I did: CRT. The last time I did an episode I could still count how many laws banning "CRT" there were on my hands and toes. That is no longer the case. While…
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SmallBites: Your Turn
What have you learned? In two and a half years of SmallBites, how have the equity strategies talked about influenced your practice? What are you doing differently because of what you've learned? Let me know here or on Twitter, Instagram or Tiktok. I'll be looking forward to your answers....
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Three Things Districts Can Do to Promote Teacher Retention (pt. 2), with Dr. Kevin Leichtman of TLC Educates
Repost from part 1: With 90% of teachers surveyed by NEA experiencing burnout, the education industry obviously has room for growth in the ways teachers are supported in the workplace. As stated in last week's episode, wellness initiatives do not ensure teacher wellness. This week and next,...
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Three Things Districts Can Do to Promote Teacher Retention, with Dr. Kevin Leichtman of TLC Educates
With 90% of teachers surveyed by NEA experiencing burnout, the education industry obviously has room for growth in the ways teachers are supported in the workplace. As stated in last week's episode, wellness initiatives do not ensure teacher wellness. This week and next, SmallBites has enlisted...
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Work-Life Balance=Teacher Wellness
With all the talk of teacher wellness, I find that in the lives of the teachers I know, and in the lives of teachers they know, there is a lot of yoga, a lot of meditation, a lot of emoji checking in and tons of surveys about what’s working. What classroom educators are missing is time; and that...
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Marching Band Musings (Representation Matters)
When is the last time you saw a student with trisomy 21 on the field playing drums? When you grew up, were gender non-conforming, male presenting students allowed to be a part of color guard or dance team? Were Afrocentric hairstyles represented on the field—even gracing the heads of Eurocentric...
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Bias Helped Jeffrey Dahmer Kill
Could bias have been responsible for the Jeffrey Dahmer murders? If you think that sounds a bit like a way out there conspiracy theory, let me help you follow the logic. Glenda Cleveland was a woman in the neighborhood who, along with her daughters, followed up several times with the police…
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Data Driven Equity
Often, when we think of moving the equity needle on our campuses, we talk in terms of implicit bias, diverse representation and personal responsibility. We don't often connect it to data. Data tells you which teachers are having discipline referral problems within certain populations. Data tells...
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Cultural Appropriation and Halloween
Because it's time to don costumes and have some fun, I thought it would be a good time to send this friendly public service reminder: culture ≠ costume. Borrowing the sari, the skull or the sombrero is not the same as wearing a secret service agent suit, a superhero cape or a celebrity gown.…
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SmallBites at Sunset Live on location: The Confederacy, Civil Rights and Student Safety
Happy fall break!! Head over to @Hedreich on Instagram for this week's live episode. And for context: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/13/hiking-african-american-racism-nature https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/why-people-color-often-feel-unsafe-outdoors by @amandaemachado0...
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At The Intersection of Columbus Day and Hispanic Heritage Month
Listening to a wonderful teacher read the legend of La Llorona to her class on Mexican Independence Day eve, I began to ponder the intersection of Columbus Day and Latinx Heritage Month. There is irony in the fact that we celebrate an explorer who opened the floodgates of Spanish colonization,...
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Five Ways To Elevate Your Practice This School Year
Sometimes, it's the little things. And as you know, SmallBites is always about the high impact little things. Below are 5 ways you can elevate your practice this year. Know your state and district laws. "ban crt" and "don't say gay" type legislations are in over 500 jurisdictions in the country....
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SmallBites: Hispanic Heritage(s) Month(s)
As you know, if you've listened often, I am not a big fan of relegating cultural literacy to certain months of the year. However, since most campuses are highlighting Latinx communities this month, I do hope you'll represent the diversity of the cultures on your campuses. This week, please refer…
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BTS Edition: Losses, Gatekeeping and Selfcare
As I thought about the pomp and circumstance surrounding the death of the Queen, the national remembrance of 9/11 and how we, as a country, grieve, it occurred to me that our losses are ranked. And those rankings reinforce our caste system, our gatekeeping. Why, for example, are flags lowered for...
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SmallBites: Responding to Mass Atrocity Harm with Sarah Federman Pt. 3
In this final installation of the conversation on responding to mass atrocity harm with Sarah Federman, we talk about practical ways we can acknowledge and help diverse stakeholders, both those who suffer fallout and those who are perhaps unwittingly complicit. We also talk about how those who...
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SmallBites Summer Edition: Understanding and Responding to Mass Atrocity Harm with Sarah Federman Pt. 2
Yes, it's summer. But I'm back anyway! This is part 2 of a conversation with Sarah Federman on enslavement within the context of mass atrocity 'reckoning'. (Listen to part 1 here.) Highlights in this conversations include suggestions and recommendations for impactful apologies and ways to...
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SmallBites Summer Edition: Understanding and Responding to Mass Atrocity Harm with Sarah Federman Pt. 1
When we celebrate Juneteenth, we celebrate the freedoms given by the 13th amendment that only came to Texas 2 and a half years after the original proclamation. Upon closer inspection, this freedom was not only late in coming, but it also marked the beginning of mass illness and death, Jim Crow...
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SmallBites: Hello Summer
This summer comes after the most trying time in education since the era of bussing and integration. I don't have any stats on that, but having lived between most of those two Big Educational Events, I can't remember anything harder than the last two years. Educators are exhausted and leaving the...
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SmallBites: Three Strategies for an Inclusive Class Culture (Restorative Practice Pt. 3)
Restorative practice is a big undertaking and is best done school or district wide. So if you are a classroom teacher, where can you start? At the beginning of the year, build a strong, inclusive foundation. Building an inclusive classroom is not about what's in the books or on the walls, it's...
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SmallBites: Mass Shootings and Belonging
No matter what you think about the most recent mass shootings, two things are true: 1. The shooter felt like an outsider. 2. In his despair, he began to blame others for his misery and took action against them. This goes deeper than hate or racism. How do people walk among us and feel such…
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SmallBites: Against Exclusionary Discipline but For ??? (Restorative Practice Pt. 2)
It's easy to say "we are not suspending our kids", knowing that the number of suspensions directly correlates to the number of incarcerations. But without a plan for transformative discipline, the ensuing chaos disrupts learning. We can impact whole communities by ensuring that our discipline...
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SmallBites: Against Exclusionary Discipline but For ??? (Restorative Practice Pt. 1)
Between a Rock and a Hard Place Across the country teachers are being squeezed between data deep dives on one side and recurrent student behavioral issues on the other. The caught- in-the-middle pressure is putting a squeeze on teachers that is sending them out of the educational sector in…
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SmallBites: Teaching Truth about Columbus and Conquests
Did you ever stop to think that Christopher is an anglified name? An Italian explorer would have been named Cristoforo Colombo, in Spanish he would have been called Cristóbal Colón. That’s the funny thing about the truth. Depending on your perspective, it might be different. Not more or less…
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#SmallBites Will Be Back Next Week!
SmallBites is taking a short break this week and will return next week. Meanwhile, as you celebrate your faith, if you do, reflect over whether or not you may be judging others for being different in their expression of faith or identity. Let's make faith count!
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SmallBites Meets Cult of Pedagogy
If you have not yet found your way to Jennifer Gonzales' Cult of Pedagogy, please use this as your gateway. In this small bite of our interview, you'll hear one of the 8 questions below that you can use to challenge yourself on your way to becoming a more empathetic, inclusive educator. For the...
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From Church and 'Colored People' to People of Color
This week’s SmallBites is a round table with Jonathan Reidenouer, Hal Roberts and Emily Witt, three people shaped by the fundamentalist Christian community who have come to embrace the need for representation and cultural literacy. Why is it so hard for people from the Evangelical movement to...
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SmallBites: SCOTUS Nominations and the Danger of Tropes
Seeing the highlight clips of the Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmation Hearings morph into full blown defamation and attacks from pundits on the right made me wonder if indeed, Judge Jackson was singled out. This was, of course, due to the popular assertion that “we” think everything revolves…
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SmallBites: Talking to you Students About the Russian-Ukrainian War
I don’t know about you, but I don’t understand war. 'Let’s just all point guns at each others heads so you won’t get more than I have' seems frightfully ineffective. Oh, and actually, 'let’s send my kids to fight your kids to solve the disputes of wealthy, power hungry regimes' makes even more...
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SmallBites: Just Why DO We Need to Highlight Women?
Many who think of gender equality think of Women's Suffrage and perhaps yesteryear's fight for equal pay. One little known fact is that gender equality in the workplace is still an issue, with women earning, in some cases just over half of what White males earn. As we highlight diverse stories…
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SmallBites: Was Macht Hedreich?? A conversation in English and "Schweizerdeutsch"
This week, I got to speak with educators in my second home and was reminded that people are interested to know what I do now. So I'm interrupting the regularly scheduled programming to have a conversation with 3 friends and educators about my work as a writer and consultant. The podcast is in two...
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SmallBites: Black History and White Diversity
Black History Month is over, but the need to elevate the stories and achievements of Black Americans to their rightful place in American history books and curricula is still in its infancy. In actuality, history has been dominated by the achievements of White Males to the exclusion of many other...
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SmallBites: I Babysat Bryan Williams the Math PhD
If I babysat a math PhD who married a Math PhD, one of 4 Black Math PhD graduates from University of Mississippi, I will do well on the GRE when it's time to get my own PhD, right? Probably not. But am I honored to know young math movers and shakers who can be role models for my students? AB SO...
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SmallBites: Black History's Ida B. Wells
I actually planned to talk about entertainer extraordinaire, Cab Calloway, but a little thing like my low-key childhood shero got in the way. I remembered the name of the first Black female writer, Ida B. Wells from my childhood. I decidedly did not remember that she was so much more than just a...
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SmallBites: Chicago's Bronzeville
This week is part two of the SmallBites Black History series. It could aptly called "Beyond the Struggle". When I think of June and Pride celebrations, there is so much joy. Yes, there is talk of Stonewall and the fight for human rights, but there is a joy that we are missing in February. I…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Start your week Mondays with 5 strategies in 5 minutes at 5AM central to help you become a more impactful educator. With these "small bite" strategies, author and educator Hedreich Nichols gives you actionable steps for creating better and more equitable learning experiences. If you have 5 minutes, you can do something NOW to become a better educator for all of your students. Don't try to do everything, just do something. How do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time! Get the links at https://hedreich.com/. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hedreich/support
HOSTED BY
Hedreich Nichols
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does #SmallBites have?
#SmallBites currently has 120 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is #SmallBites about?
Start your week Mondays with 5 strategies in 5 minutes at 5AM central to help you become a more impactful educator. With these "small bite" strategies, author and educator Hedreich Nichols gives you actionable steps for creating better and more equitable learning experiences. If you have 5 minutes,...
How often does #SmallBites release new episodes?
#SmallBites publishes regularly with 120 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to #SmallBites?
You can listen to #SmallBites on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts #SmallBites?
#SmallBites is created and hosted by Hedreich Nichols.
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