Vrain Waves: Teaching Conversations with Minds Shaping Education

Stronger Learning at All Ages!

Wrapping up Season 8 with three outstanding St. Vrain educators who continually seek to refine their practice. We don't need to redo everything every year! Small, intenti

Smart Teaching, Stronger Learning!

We can't say enough about the collective efficacy that contributed to this incredible book, Smart Teaching Stronger Learning, but more importantly, the collective efficac

ETHOS behind the AI

We are highlighting our incredible St. Vrain Valley AI team in this episode, and their work over the last three years has resulted in an Ethical, Transparent, Human-cente

AI: I can, but should I?

Tune in for one of our most important episodes with educator, author, and speaker Matt Miller. Facing an ever-changing educational system requires putting on our "Tomorro

Scaffolding in the Classroom; rooted in empathy

Tune into one of our favorite conversations ever with master teacher Wendy Schuller, who grounds her scaffolding principles in empathy for her students. What would I need

The Scaffolding Effect: Hunting, not Fishing

Bringing 2025 to a close with one of our most important conversations! Tune in as we chat with educator-authors, Rachel Ball and Alex Fairlamb, on why we need to be hunte

AI in the Classroom: Enhancement, Inspiration, & Reflection

The perfect follow-up to our episode last month with Dr. Catlin Tucker, three rockstar St. Vrain Valley educators give us a peek into how they're using AI as an enhanceme

Season 8 is here! Leverage and Lean into AI!

Welcome back to Season 8! Dr. Catlin Tucker is back on the show, talking with us about how we can leverage AI to be a thought partner. How can we thoughtfully design lear

Refine, Refresh, Relate!

We're wrapping up Season 7 with two master St. Vrain teachers, Joylynn Boardman and Brian Huey, who continue to refine their practice, create relevant learning experience

Scaffolding, Mastery, and Self-Image

Tune in as we chat with Professor Dan Willingham about his flow chart for independence, mastery in education, and building up the self-image of our students. Check out hi

Teaching to the whole student

It's time to connect the Physical and the Education in the classroom. Nothing is in a silo in our world. We are teaching the whole student, so connecting mind and body in

Sound Body, Sound Mind!

Welcome to 2025! The month of January is famous for starting new physical activity routines and we can't emphasize enough how important it is to move in the classroom too

Holy Cats! Learning Progressions

Looking to build agency and standards mastery in your classroom? Then look no further than learning progressions! Tune in as we say goodbye to 2024 and chat with our very

Self Assessment 1 through 6

Inspiring students to self-assess and start working independently doesn't have to be complicated! Not only are students becoming aware of what they need and advocating fo

What's Your Lead Domino?

Happy October to our Vrain Waves listeners! The perfect follow-up to our first episode with Brandon Slade is our conversation with these two rockstar St. Vrain educators,

Setting Up for Success in Season 7!

Welcome to Season 7 of Vrain Waves! We are kicking off with what we all need at the start of the year. Setting up for success means explicitly unpacking directions and ex

Reframing Assessment in Action

Wrapping up Season 6 with two rockstar teachers who show us what it looks like to reframe Assessment in the classroom. The key to engaging students is not tricky; it's bu

Assessment as Evidence of Success

What are some ways we can reframe assessment? How can we shift toward seeing assessment as evidence of success rather than a "gotcha"? Tune in as Hacking Student Motivati

Shift the Epicenter!

March Madness and the solar eclipse might be over but the excitement of Spring continues! Tune in to hear from our very own @missluker as she speaks to shifting the epice

Small Shifts for Big Impact

Tune in for our conversation with Dr. Scott McLeod about his 4 Shifts Protocol and how these shifts can help teachers engage in reflection, apply deeper learning principl