PODCAST · education
Third Rail Classroom
by Third Rail Classroom
Touching on the topics NOT discussed in education
Episodes
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Episode 2: What to Do with AI in Schools?
It's been three years since the release of Chat-GPT, which has caused seismic shifts in the way that we think about technology in the classroom, but as Santha and John discuss in this episode, teachers are often left to fend for themselves because there has been little guidance, policies, or...
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Episode 1: The Past, Present, and Future of Book Bans
PEN America has documented nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021 with nearly 7,000 taking place in the 2024-25 school year. Coinciding with Banned Books Week, Santha and John discuss their own personal experiences with censorship in the classroom, which pale in…
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Season #3 Trailer
Santha and John are back for a new season to discuss the latest developments in education and their impacts on the classroom; this time with 25% more profanity! This season they will focus on book bans, artificial intelligence, policies affecting trans students and those who are undocumented, as...
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Episode 8: So, What Did We Learn This Season?
In this final episode of the second season, Santha and John reflect on the topics they discussed during this season about improving teaching quality, including building level-PD, incorporating student feedback, and the teacher evaluation process. They also reflect on the teacher strike they went...
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Bonus Episode: Live Teacher Roundtable
Recorded live at the College Board’s annual Advanced Placement conference in Las Vegas, John and Santha host an engaging roundtable of teachers from around the country who represent multiple disciplines and grade-levels about they continue to improve as professionals. The guests are Kate Cordes…
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Episode 7: How Can Student Feedback Help Teachers?
Throughout this season, Santha and John have been talking about how to get better at their jobs as teachers, but have missed an invaluable resource for teacher improvement that is right in front of them…literally right in front of them: their students. In the first part of the episode, Santha...
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Episode 6: How Can Teachers Improve Student Attendance?
Nationally, an estimated 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the pandemic. While we know that this severely impacts students’ learning, what exactly is the role of the classroom teacher in addressing this issue? John...
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Episode 5: Interview with Dr. Josh Bleiberg -- What do we know about teacher evaluations?
Throughout this season, Santha and John have been looking at the different tools available to help teachers to get better at their jobs, one of which is the evaluation process that most teachers are required to go through every year. Do they actually help teachers or are they just another hoop…
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Episode 4: How Can Teachers Set More Meaningful Goals?
An expectation for most teachers at the beginning of each school year is to write goals for their students’ learning. Too often the goal-setting process is tedious and inauthentic for many teachers. In this episode. Santha helps John to develop a meaningful professional goal for the year by…
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Bonus Episode: "It's My Evaluation Year...Again?"
In this bonus episode, recorded over the summer, John describes his history with and feelings about the teacher evaluation process and interviews one of his building administrators, Sean Murray. Please consider supporting our show using this link (buymeacoffee.com/thirdrailclassroom) and be sure…
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Bonus Episode: Reflections on a Teacher Strike
In this special episode, John and Santha share their thoughts on the unprecedented teacher strike in Portland, OR that lasted for more than three weeks. They recount the reasons for the strike and give first-hand descriptions of their days on the picket line and the first day back with students....
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Episode 3: Interview with Dr. Eunice Han -- How do teachers unions benefit teachers and students?
We are seeing an unprecedented amount of labor actions in the past few years with a number of teachers unions around the country deciding to strike for higher pay, better working conditions, and stronger supports for students. There are prevailing ideas among some people that teacher unions fight...
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Episode 2: Interview with Megan Harowitz -- What makes effective professional learning for teachers?
Few classroom teachers love going to staff meetings at the end of a long teaching day, but they are usually the only times we can get together to learn from each other. John interviews Megan Harowitz, a staff development teacher in Rockville, Maryland, about the benefits and challenges of...
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Episode 1: How Do We Teachers Get Better At Our Jobs?
In this first episode of the second season, John Golden and Santha Cassell, two long-time educators, discuss the need for teachers to continue to get better at their work and the challenges they face in trying to do so. The framework they present for teacher learning will act as the guideposts…
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Season #2 Trailer
In the second season of Third Rail Classroom, longtime teacher and instructional coach Santha Cassell joins John Golden to examine the hot-button topic of teacher quality. Lots of people discuss this issue, but rarely from the teacher perspective. John and Santha know first hand about the...
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Episode 10: Bonus Teacher Roundtable
Recorded live at the College Board’s annual Advanced Placement conference in Seattle, John hosts an engaging roundtable of teachers from around the country who represent multiple disciplines and grade-levels about the challenges of grades and grading. The guests are Kate Cordes, an English…
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Episode 9: What’s a Better Way?
Recorded on the last day of their school year, John and Alex reflect on what they’ve learned through the process of focusing on their grading practices, and then they discuss their hopes for a better future with grading and with the larger education system. Next, John interviews Mike Flanagan…
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Episode 8: Are Grades Biased?
With just a few weeks left in the school year, John and Alex reflect on some unanticipated consequences of their grading practices and then quickly move to the main topic of the episode: grading biases. Specifically, they discuss what causes these biases and, most importantly, what teachers can…
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Episode 7: What is the Most Equitable Way to Calculate Students' Final Grades?
Rapidly approaching the end of the school year, Alex and John turn to a key question: how to calculate final grades for students? It might seem like there’s an obvious answer, which is to take the average of all of the points earned and divide by the number of points possible. For generations of...
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Episode 6: Do Some Grading Policies Hurt Students?
At the halfway point in the school year, Alex and John take some time to reflect on how their new approaches are going and have a discussion on why it might be appropriate to assign an "Incomplete" to a student rather than a "D" or an "F." Next, they talk about some very common grading practices:...
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Episode 5: What Do Students Think About Grades?
Nearing the end of the first semester, John and Alex provide an update on how their new grading practices are going with a discussion on the different ways that they approach revision. Then, some students from their classes join the podcast to share their often very frank, thoughtful, and...
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Episode 4: Do Grades Actually Motivate Students?
Now at the end of the first marking period of the year, John and Alex provide an update on how it's going so far, including very frank feedback from some of John's students. Next, Alex and John explain why, in their experience, grades rarely provide the kind of motivation they're hoping for.…
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Episode 3: Is Homework Equitable?
With the first progress report grades submitted, Alex and John give some updates on how their approaches are going so far and then dig into the very contentious issue of homework. Neither John nor Alex is assigning homework in their classes this year, but they wonder about what is gained and lost...
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Episode 2: What Do Grades Even Mean?
Teachers have been using roughly the same grading practices for as long as we've had public schools, but we rarely examine the potential harm of these approaches. Alex and John define what they mean by "traditional grading" practices and begin to identify the damaging effects they can have on...
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Episode 1: We Need to Talk...About Grading
Why is grading a "third rail" issue? Why do teachers and the larger education community rarely talk about it? Because it's personal and very complex. In this episode, Alex and John begin unpacking these essential questions. John also interviews Sarah Brown Wessling, 2010 National Teacher of the...
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Season #1 Trailer
Welcome to Season 1 of Third Rail Classroom. We are hoping that you join us on our journey this year to find more equitable ways of grading. Our first two episodes will be released before September 1. Please share with friends and colleagues, and be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss an...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Touching on the topics NOT discussed in education
HOSTED BY
Third Rail Classroom
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Third Rail Classroom have?
Third Rail Classroom currently has 26 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Third Rail Classroom about?
Touching on the topics NOT discussed in education
How often does Third Rail Classroom release new episodes?
Third Rail Classroom has 26 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Third Rail Classroom?
You can listen to Third Rail Classroom 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 Third Rail Classroom?
Third Rail Classroom is created and hosted by Third Rail Classroom.
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