The Teach Different Conversation Podcast

What's the best way to use questions? Not all questions are the same. Some challenge authority, break rules and send people down new pathways of thinking. Other questions take the safer road and are designed to gather new information. Regardless of how they are used, questions are the heart of student engagement. The more questions our students ask, the bettter critical thinkers they become. Join Steve and Dan Fouts for a conversation about education using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Make sure you go to teachdifferent.com to learn more, and check out our library of conversation plans, where we’ve compiled dozens of quotes, each with their own claim, counterclaim, and essential question. Image source: Ian Leslie | With permission from Ian Leslie

What does it take to be a good leader? Sometimes leadership means control and enforcement of rules. The leader must demand compliance from followers. At other times leaders must empower their people to be the best at what they do. In this way, leaders become helpers who put their own needs behind their followers for the betterment of the organization. Knowing when to embrace each of these roles at the right times is a challenge. Join Steve and Dan Fouts for a conversation about leadership using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Make sure you go to teachdifferent.com to learn more, and check out our library of conversation plans, where we’ve compiled dozens of quotes, each with their own claim, counterclaim, and essential question. Image source: Robert Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership

What is the mark of an educated mind? When we hear a new idea, our first instinct is to accept the idea without question, either because we have intuition that it is true or we simply trust the messenger. Accepting truth in this way is comforting for it requires very little work and gives us permission to stop thinking. It's also dangerous. Sometimes new ideas must be met with delay and smart suspicion. Delaying acceptance affords us time to evaluate the true worth of ideas and compels us to reject the bad ones. Join Steve and Dan Fouts with guest, Joe Schmidt, Social Studies Specialist and Acting Coordinator of Secondary Education for the Maine Department of Education, for a conversation about critical thinking using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Make sure you go to teachdifferent.com to learn more, and check out our library of conversation plans, where we’ve compiled dozens of quotes, each with their own claim, counterclaim, and essential question. Image source: Wikimedia | Tilemahos Efthimiadis

Should we tell the truth? Everybody hates to be lied to. When that happens, we feel anger and disappointment. There is betrayal and a loss of trust. Enemies are created. But there is another kind of hate we feel when somebody tells us the truth, especially if it is a truth that we don't want to hear. It's that feeling we get when a teacher calls us out for not trying our best, or when a parent catches us breaking the rules. In those cases, we don't want to hear the truth and we take our anger out on the messenger. Sometimes honesty hurts more than lies. Join Steve and Dan Fouts for a conversation with David Olson, Director of Education at Retro Report, about honesty using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Make sure you go to teachdifferent.com to learn more, and check out our library of conversation plans, where we’ve compiled dozens of quotes, each with their own claim, counterclaim, and essential question. Image source: Look and Learn | Rijksmuseum

Do we have control over our own success? There are few things more frustrating than having to wait for other people to decide your future, whether it be waiting for college admission, that lead role in the play, or making the baseball team. In all of these cases, somebody else has control over your future. Rather than live a life of waiting for the approval of others (which may never come), rely on yourself. Be different and chart your own path for success. However, relying on others and "playing the game" are also necessary for success, because they show you know how to be a good follower. Join Steve and Dan Fouts and NY Times best-selling author Dave Burgess for a conversation about self-reliance using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Image source: Flickr | Jared Goralnick

How should you show confidence? The only thing worse than being afraid is for others to see you that way. Fear diminishes a person's ability to lead others. It causes hesitancy, doubt, and an inability to make decisions when they matter most. Courage, on the other hand, inspires the opposite - faith, hope and an unbreakable will to overcome setbacks. But, maybe revealing our fears and being vulnerable shows a different kind of strength which gives us self-confidence and influence over others. Join Steve and Dan Fouts with Dr. Terri Daniels, a middle school principal in Northern California, for a conversation about leadership using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Image source: Picryl

Should we strive for success? We often think of success in life as being tied up with the external rewards we get like money, fame or power. Life is viewed as a race to achieve these rewards. But, maybe we are running the wrong race. Maybe we should pursue more internal rewards, like being a good person and doing the right thing. Aligning our life to the pursuit of moral values may not give us riches and fame, but they will bring great value to the world. Join Steve and Dan Fouts with Steph Sukow, a high school instructional coach and English teacher in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, for a conversation about success and value using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Image source: Pixabay

What is needed to change the world? Most agree that you can't change much in the world if you don't have the knowledge of what needs to be changed. With education comes understanding, perspective and a keen awareness of how to bring change into reality. Education is a powerful weapon indeed. But action in the form of protest and self-advocacy are also vital tools to effect change, and they don't require an education as much as they require courage, spirit and drive. Knowledge and action must work together to make change happen. Join Steve and Dan Fouts with Mary Ellen Daneels, Director of the Illinois Civics Hub, for a conversation about the power of education to change the world using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Image source: Picryl | Maureen Keating

How should we act when we are angry? Anger is one of those emotions that we say is inherently dangerous and unpredictable. When we're angry, we are told to walk away or breathe to allow the intense feelings to pass. Yet, sometimes getting angry is actually a wise strategy, especially if we feel that we or our loved ones are in danger. Quick action is the better remedy. Our students should learn how and when to use anger to achieve the best possible outcomes. Join Steve and Dan Fouts with Shawn McCusker, Director of Professional Learning at Digital Promise, for a conversation about the power of anger and how we know when expressing it is the right thing to do or when it may get us into more trouble than we bargained for. Image Source: Wikimedia | Calidius | Creative Commons

How do you know when you should stand up for yourself? Children are taught from a young age that when they want something they should wait their turn until they are granted permission. Waiting cultivates patience. It shows good manners. This attitude works in some settings but when it comes to gaining respect from others, the whole idea of waiting becomes burdensome and futile, especially when other people treat you poorly. Sometimes, children should be taught to advocate for themselves to get people's attention about injustice. Figuring out when to do this in the right way is a life-long moral challenge. Join Steve and Dan Fouts for a conversation about self-advocacy using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Make sure you go to teachdifferent.com to learn more, and check out our library of conversation plans, where we’ve compiled dozens of quotes, each with their own claim, counterclaim, and essential question. Image source: Wikipedia

Does power reveal our true character? Being a good person is hard enough. It's even harder when we occupy positions of authority. Authority gives us leeway to deal with others in whatever way we want, and carry through with punishments of our design. How we execute our power reveals our true values, because we have the power to choose otherwise. Yet, adversity and hardship test our values too, and sometimes uncover more of who we really are. Join Dan and Steve Fouts for an unforgettable conversation about power using the Teach Different 3-Step method with guest, Andrew Swan. Image source: Picryl | Creative Commons

Can our imagination make us happy? Happiness is something that everyone wants. Sometimes, though, our imaginations create anxiety and actually prevent us from experiencing happiness. We make things worse than they actually are because of what we create in our minds. Yet, at other times, it is our actual experiences that create our suffering and our imaginations play no role. The power of the imagination is unique to each individual and can be a source of our happiness or despair. Join Steve and Dan Fouts and Dr. Jana Mohr Lone- Director of the Center for Philosophy of Children at the University of Washington- for an unforgettable conversation about happiness that you can recreate in your classroom using the Teach Different 3-Step Method. Image source: Wikimedia | Caladius