Chasing Bailey

10 Episodes
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By: Chasing Bailey

Chasing Bailey is a podcast about a group of teachers, leaders, and others who dedicated themselves to changing the fortunes of a failing middle school in Nashville TN from 2012 to 2016. They succeeded, but their achievement was bittersweet. In 2016, the district closed that school. Still, those who were there knew they had stumbled onto something special, some important educational truths that might help all of us find our way out of the morass that COVID 19 has left us in.

Reading Wars Redux:  The Science of Reading
#13
03/20/2024

Folks have been debating how to teach reading at least since 1985.  At that time, the issue was framed as top-down vs. bottom-up.   

 

This makes the debate seem “tidy,” just two sides with clear delineation.   You were FOR phonics (bottom up) or you were FOR textual understanding (top down), but you couldn’t be for both.  In truth, there were no teachers then or now who don’t value both, who don’t tailor their teaching to the instructional moment of their students, individually and collectively. 

 

Well, we’re at the reading wars again, but the...


What Do Parents REALLY Want?
#12
02/05/2024

Today we don’t talk enough about John Dewey’s call to educational equity and its impact on democracy.  Instead, small groups of parents (most notably Moms for Liberty) are prompting battles in local school boards to ban books, to fight racially inclusive curriculum, and to limit the rights and constrain the very existence of transgender and questioning youth.  

 

But some other parents – the majority it seems -- are fighting back to say clearly that these are not concerns they care about.   What DO they care about?  If this episode’s guests are taken seriously, families care...


Responsibility: Anchoring (Renewal in) Education
01/18/2024

This is a “bonus episode,” not part of our regular schedule, but a conversation that nonetheless deepens and expands the ideas about education that ground the podcast.  In mid-December, Bloomsbury Press published Responsibility, a book  authored by Dr. Barbara Stengle for their Philosophy of Education in Practice series.  To help launch the book, Barb decided to sit down with 4 colleagues and invite them to make sense of what she has said and done. 


Professional Development? Learning In and Through Practice
#11
12/01/2023

Have you ever taken the time to really listen to teachers talk about their work, about their joys and frustrations, and about how they grow as they work together?   This episode is an opportunity to do just that.   Bailey teachers talk about their experience and offer wisdom for all of us as they do so. 

 

 

00:00  Introduction to the Second Season Dr. Barbara Stengel 

01:25 Introduction to Professional Development? The Bailey Experience Stengel 

03:55 Bailey’s Team Structure as the Engine of Professional Development  Stengel, Keisha Harding, Bailey Teacher Leader now a STEM Consul...


Autonomy? Trust and Responsibility
#10
11/01/2023

The headlines are still screaming at us … but those headlines are not written by teachers and principals.  As we saw in the last episode, most media headlines simply don’t reflect the experience or concerns of those considered actual educational experts. 

 

00:00  Introduction to the Second Season Dr. Barbara Stengel

01:25   Introduction to Autonomy (a tour through the headlines from Chicago and Denver) Stengel, Camilla Modesitt, Director of External Relations, Denver Language School

08:15   Principals’ Perspectives: “Professionalism and Empowerment with Balance and ‘Compliance’” Merida Freguada, Principal, Marrama Elementary

12:13   Principals’ Perspective: “Innovation in Name Only” Alex Wenzel, P...


Season 2 Episode 2 Teaser
10/29/2023

The Pandemic is endemic, or nearly so.  We’re still getting sick at all the wrong times, but the impact on most who actually test positive for COVID-19 are annoying rather than debilitating.  But the pandemic left us with a huge educational hangover, and the headlines really are screaming at us.  As always, our interest is in the experience of those who are on the ground.

Full Episode releases on November 1st.


Post-Pandemic Responsibility and Recovery
#9
10/01/2023

The Pandemic is endemic, or nearly so.  We’re still getting sick at all the wrong times, but the impact on most who actually test positive for COVID-19 are annoying rather than debilitating.  But the pandemic left us with a huge educational hangover, and the headlines really are screaming at us.  As always, our interest is in the experience of those who are on the ground. 

 

 

00:00  Introduction to the Second Season Dr. Barbara Stengel 

01:30   Introduction to Post-Pandemic Recovery (a tour through the headlines) Stengel 

06:37 The Bailey Perspective (featuring teacher leaders)  Wh...


Season 2 Episode 1 Teaser
09/29/2023

Mid-pandemic, the wish educators most often expressed was that the COVID 19 Pandemic would provide an opportunity for an educational reset, that educators (not politicians) might once again set the agenda.   

 

What actually happened, of course, is not that.

The first episode of Season 2 of Chasing Bailey will be released on October 1st. 


Season 2 Teaser
09/25/2023

The new school year is underway, and we are getting ready for the second season of Chasing Bailey.   

The first episode of the new season will drop October 1st.   Plan to join us as we take a look at what schools can and should be doing post-pandemic.  Later episodes will look at principal’s autonomy, teacher shortages, professional development, and what parents really want from schools.   We’ll hear from familiar Bailey characters and then bring other educators into the conversation.    

 

If you want to be part of our conversations, if your school is doing some...


Bonus Back-to-School Commentary: Let Teachers Teach!
09/17/2023

September 16, 2023

Chasing Bailey

Bonus Back-to-School Commentary:  Let Teachers Teach!

 


In this bonus back-to-school episode of Chasing Bailey, we listen as our commentator, Dr. Barbara Stengel, reads “An experienced educator’s plea: Let teachers teach!”  This is a short essay Barb was asked to write for the Lancaster Newpapers Sunday edition as school was beginning in August.   The theme of the piece evokes several Chasing Bailey themes (as will be obvious to regular listeners).

 

00:00  Introduction:  How this Essay Came to Be  Barbara Stengel

 2:00    The text read by Dr. Steng...