KickUp | The Best of Us

Podcast

The Best of Us

Highlighting the stories, practices, and tactics of K-12 professional learning leaders working to enhance the educator experience.

Latest Episode

The Best of Us S4/E2: Teresa Morales-Young on How Fresno Unified Built a Teacher Pipeline That Actually Works

Over 15 years, Teresa Morales Young has built something rare in education: a teacher pipeline that actually works. As leader of the Department of Teacher Development at Fresno Unified—California's third-largest district—Teresa has created 12 interconnected pathways that guide educators from high school through their entire career, achieving retention rates that far exceed state averages.

More from the Best of Us

Instructional coaching

Teacher evaluation

Teacher retention

Instructional leadership

Instructional coaching

Instructional leadership

Teacher evaluation

Teacher retention

The Best of Us S4/E2: Teresa Morales-Young on How Fresno Unified Built a Teacher Pipeline That Actually Works

Over 15 years, Teresa Morales Young has built something rare in education: a teacher pipeline that actually works. As leader of the Department of Teacher Development at Fresno Unified—California's third-largest district—Teresa has created 12 interconnected pathways that guide educators from high school through their entire career, achieving retention rates that far exceed state averages.

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Instructional leadership

The Best of Us S4/E1: Michael McDowell on How Leaders Can Build Collective Instructional Excellence

Why does a student's educational experience depend more on which classroom door they walk through than which school they attend? Educational leader and author Michael McDowell explores how schools can move from tolerating isolated brilliance in individual classrooms to building collective instructional excellence through systematic implementation of high-impact practices.

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Instructional coaching

Instructional leadership

The Best of Us S3/E12: Learning Labs — How Job-Embedded Professional Learning Transforms Teaching and Learning

What happens when professional learning moves from conference rooms into actual classrooms with real students? Elham Kazemi and Jessica Calabrese share how Learning Labs transform professional development by having teachers, coaches, and principals collaborate directly in classroom practice.

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Teacher retention

Instructional leadership

The Best of Us S3/E11: Taking Things Off Teachers' Plates — How School Leaders Can Combat Burnout Before It Starts

Laura Donnelly and Jill Hanley, co-authors of "What Can I Take Off Your Plate?", challenge the conventional approach to teacher burnout that places the burden on individual educators.

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Instructional leadership

Teacher retention

The Best of Us S3/E10: Teacher Agency at Scale — How M3T is Revolutionizing Professional Learning in West Virginia

What happens when you give teachers the power to identify their own problems and work together to solve them? In this episode, Joanna Burt-Kinderman and Adam Riazi from the Mountaineer Mathematics Master Teacher (M3T) network share how they've built a statewide system that puts teacher agency at the center of professional learning.

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Instructional coaching

The Best of Us S3/E9: From Lab Bench to White House — Why Steve Robinson Believes in Coaching as Policy

How does a molecular biologist-turned-middle school teacher end up shaping national education policy from inside the Obama White House? In this episode, Steve Robinson—a former university professor, public school teacher, and White House education advisor—walks us through his untraditional journey into education and his evolving belief that every teacher deserves ongoing support.

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