ClassCast Podcast Ep.050 features host Ryan Tibbens discussing the value of and need for snow days, despite our ability to conduct classes online.  The shortest episode to date, just 10 minutes, this passionate defense of snow day school cancellations addresses parent concerns like falling behind, seat time, screen time, and learning as well as social-emotional learning, whole child development, and the sanctity of of snow days in American culture.  Before you criticize the decisions to close schools for snow, or before you engage with someone who opposes snow days, listen to this episode, consider your values, and remember this timeless wisdom -- there is a special place in hell for people who oppose snow days. 

If you disagree with any of the ideas in the episode, or if you'd like to engage further, use the contact form at www.ClassCastPodcast.com or find us on Twitter @ClassCastPod as well as Facebook and Instagram @ClassCastPodcast.  

Be sure to like, subscribe, share, follow, retweet, leave a positive review, and whatever else might help spread the word about the great conversation occurring the ClassCast Podcast! 

Support the show (http://paypal.me/TibbensEST)! 

 ClassCast Podcast Episode 048 features host Ryan Tibbens sharing insights and advice on reserving judgment (and passing it), building patience, and keeping an open mind.  As a teacher, he has developed a deeper appreciation for patience, optimism, and open-mindedness than most people (and certainly more than he had earlier in life); this quick solo episode includes ideas to help teachers maintain strong relationships with students and coworkers as well as advice to help families and friends overcome personal, political, and moral differences as we head into the holiday season.  Tibbens uses a line from F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby to anchor these insights: "Reserving
judgments is a matter of infinite hope." (To read the full opening passage referenced in this episode, look at the bottom of this page.)  Before you give up on a student, "unfriend" an old friend, or uninvite someone from a holiday celebration, think long and hard about hope, possibility, and patience.  

You can find this and every other episode of the ClassCast Podcast on all major streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, YouTube, and many more.  Be sure to subscribe, like, follow, share, leave a positive review, and tell your friends.  Happy holidays! 

​Support the show (http://paypal.me/TibbensEST)!

from the opening of  The Great Gatsby: 

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

He didn't say any more but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought--frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon--for the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.

And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit.

ClassCast Podcast Ep.039 features Mike Bergin and Amy Seeley -- standardized test experts, tutors, entrepreneurs, networkers, and podcasters -- speaking with host Ryan Tibbens about high stakes testing, the evolution of tests, "good testers," equity, grade inflation, improving schools, and much more. This discussion covers it all -- from becoming standardized test experts to school curriculum, from Randy Moss to Leo Tolstoy.

Table of Contents 

1. Intro/Changing Tests over Time     --     0:00-9:12
2. Randy Moss: Do "Good Testers" Make Good Tutors?     --     9:15-17:37
3. Leo Tolstoy: All about "Naturally Good Testers"     --     17:38-20:46
4. Is the SAT Legit?     --     20:47-23:40
5. Test Prep: Strategies vs Skills and Curriculum     --     23:49-33:28
6. Don't Kill the Messenger: Grade Inflation & Equity     --     33:29-44:41
7. Ideal Schools: More Reading, Smaller Classes, & Peer Teaching     --     44:53-49:48
8. Recommendations: Books & Movies     --     49:50-53:03
9. Wrap-Up/Parting Wisdom     --     53:21-54:58

Mike Bergin and Amy Seeley host the Tests & the Rest: The College Admissions Industry Podcast, which Ryan appeared on to talk about rhetoric and admissions essays; through their podcasting, they've spoken with well over 100 industry experts about different aspects of college admissions, testing, writing, research, and more.  In addition to their podcast, Mike and Amy are the co-founders of the Test Prep Tribe private Facebook group for tutors and the National Test Prep Association, an all-new professional organization that connects and supports independent test prep tutors around the world. Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning in Rochester, New York; he previously tutored and worked as testing expert for Princeton Review and Huntington Learning Center. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros in Cleveland, Ohio; she previously tutored and trained with Princeton Review. Between them, they have over 50 years of test prep tutoring experience. Be sure to check out their podcast, particularly the episode featuring our host Ryan Tibbens.

Support the show (http://paypal.me/TibbensEST)!
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