Strategies for Teaching in a Toxic Climate: Balancing Relevance and Conflict Avoidance

Teachers Aid

Many of us are increasingly forced to choose between teaching lessons that are relevant, authentic, and meaningful or watering down our approach to certain material to avoid conflict. In the episode, we ask our guests to share strategies for teaching in a toxic climate.

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@AndrewSharosAP and @all4sAnd5s @David_Elbaum

Patrick Riccards is the executive director of Best in the World Teachers and the founder of the Driving Force Institute for Public Engagement. He is also the author of the nationally recognized Eduflack blog and its companion Twitter feed. PR News named Pat the Not-for-Profit Communications Professional of the Year for his work in teacher preparation and higher education transformation (2015). A former local school board chairman, Patrick is also the author of the award-winning Dadprovement. Host of TrumpED and former co-host of Common Core Radio. Andrew Sharos is a current administrator and teacher who lives in Chicago. He is the founder and CEO of the Village Project Consulting Group, which provides professional development to schools to improve their AP programs, their new teacher mentorship programs, and their overall culture of success. Also Amazon best-selling author for All 4s and 5s: A Guide for Teaching and Leading Advanced Placement Programs and Finding Lifelines: A Practical Tale about Teachers and Mentors. David Elbaum has been teaching Middle and High School Social Studies since 2003. He has presented at numerous NCSS (National Council of Social Studies) annual conferences, as well as ICSS (Illinois Council of Social Studies) and AP National conferences. He was the 2014 recipient of the Gilder-Lehrman Illinois History Teacher of the Year, and was a James Madison Fellow in 2012. He currently serves as the Social Studies Department Chairperson for Leyden High School District 212.