Episode 6 - What Game Developers Know About Motivating Students

Episode Link
33:44

In this week’s episode, guest Allison Keefe, a middle school ELA teacher with Agora Cyber Charter School, joins hosts Kelly Quackenbush and John Thomas to discuss what game developers know about keeping players motivated, and how teachers can bring those strategies into the classroom.

Episode 5 - Reaching Students with Emotional Support Needs in the Cyber Environment

Episode Link
23:06

In this episode Agora High School Emotional Support Teachers, Heather Silberman and Anta Brucker join our co-hosts, Kelly Quackenbush and John Thomas. They discuss topics such as:

• What it means for students to have emotional support needs.
• The reasons students with emotional support needs join cyber schools.
• The relationship between "Emotional Support" and "Behavioral Support."
• Building relationships with students who have emotional supports in the cyber environment.
• How general education teachers can meet the needs of students with emotional disturbances. 
• The importance of developing relationships between emotional support teachers and general education teachers.

Episode 4 - The Power of Introverts

Episode Link
30:16

In this episode, hosted by Katie DiStefano and Steve Nugent, Agora High School Principal, Holly Allen, and Agora Family Coach, Tiffany Joyner, discusses what power introverts bring the community. While it may seem like extroverts dominate most conversations, introverts play a pivotal role in steering the direction of organizations and schools.

As processors and listeners introverts bring a unique and valuable perspective to the work environment. In this discussion, both introverts and extroverts will learn how to work with each other to maximize the benefit we all can bring to the table.

Resources - 

• Book Mentioned - Quiet by Susan Cane
• Working With Introverts (Written by an Actual Introvert) by Season Hughes)
• The Scariest Thing About Introverts (Leadership Freak Blog) 
• What's Wrong With Introverts (Leadership Freak Blog)
• A Psychologist Explains How to Beat Social Anxiety by Angela Chen

Episode 3 - Meditation for Educators

Listen Here
29 minutes 35 seconds

Steven Nugent and Katie DiStefano interview Jennifer Adrienne. Jennifer, a teacher at Agora Cyber Charter School, has been practicing heart rhythm meditation since 2013. She teaches a local beginner’s meditation class and is writing a book on meditation for beginners. 

In this episode, Jennifer addresses how meditation is related to self-care, addressing its effects your concentration, relationships, health, etc. These are all issues that teachers face in the cyber environment. She shares how to get started with meditation, and why it’s worth investing the time to get started. Finally, she talks about how teachers can impact their students by having a focused mindset, developed through meditation.

Resources:

• Institution for Applied Mediation on the Heart
• HeartMath
• Book mentioned in the episode - Living From the Heart