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Welcome to New Teacher Talk. This podcast channel is designed to support those new to

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teaching. We talk about the most common challenges educators face and

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how to find answers, whether working at urban, suburban,

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or rural schools. Today, our guest contributor is Dr.

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Casey J. Jakubowski, who is an educational consultant,

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a higher education faculty member, and leadership and development coach.

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Today I'm going to talk about place-based education,

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specifically how you as a teacher can utilize place-based

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education to talk about the strengths of your community as

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well as to enliven curriculum and instruction as an

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educator. And I've researched and written about this specifically in

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my book, Getting to the Hearts of Teaching.

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What we often find in schooling is a lot of our students

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are very disconnected with the curriculum and what they

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want to know locally. It is often best for the teacher to look at not only the

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national or state standards,

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but also your local curriculum as well.

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I highly recommend, though, that you conduct a community asset or community strengths

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inventory to see what it is that you have in your local

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community to utilize as you teach the local residents,

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students and family members for the 180 days you're in

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school. What's one aspect of good local place-based education?

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For me, it's the history of a community.

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Interviewing grandparents, community members and others will allow students beyond

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their local or state history course to really get a handle

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on where they came from,

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where the community came from and what they should be proud

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of. Utilizing your local historical association or museum is

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often a good first starting place.

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Research recently indicates that teachers who travel into a

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community or they commute a little bit tend to utilize

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local community strengths and examples more than teachers

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who have really relocated or who actually grew up in the

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community. Why might this be?

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Well, consider this, as a new community member or a community member who drives

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in, you often have time to think about the rivers, streams,

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lakes, mountains, forests that are in an area.

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Those examples of natural wonder can allow you to create a

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hands-on science lesson or unit where you can explore what

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your local community is best known for scientifically.

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You may also want to think about how you could do some

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local project that would allow students to write about

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their experiences in their hometowns.

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For a lot of people, often our smaller communities or our suburban communities

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are not centralized with day-to-day livings,

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but have often struggled to try and retain previous

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theories and previous enactments of glory.

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Combining ELA, math, science,

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and social studies in your local area using local

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references will help you create a more engaging, richly,

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and deeply thought about learning experience for your

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students. For those of us who are far away from our local communities

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because the schools were built out in the middle of two

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communities or more, you may want to consider asking for help with a bus tour of

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your local community, or if you can't get a bus tour,

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talk with your community school leaders about starting up

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in a library. or a museum in one of the two communities and that way you

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can have students really dig into what's going on.

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Partnerships are out there everywhere, and I think you as a place-based educator should talk to

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your local businesses, should communicate with your local community residents and

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see if there's hidden ideas everywhere for you to explore.

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I know I became very involved when we took our students to

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a local cemetery from the pioneer era,

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and we found so many different points of history and

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science all upon that graveyard.

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We saw the average length of life.

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We often did research into what caused families to move to

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the area and a few of the students recognized their surname

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or last name or knew somebody who was a descendant.

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When you are teaching in your classroom,

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find old newspaper articles, discover historic buildings,

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reach out to your elderly population,

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many of them who lived during times of great change and ask

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your students critical questions like why does it feel

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warmer in an urban area than it does in a suburban or rural

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area? Or, how do we keep rainwater from flooding away in sewer

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systems? Ask good questions, model great thinking and you,

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too, as a new teacher will find yourself in a community that has

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high points as well as questions about how to improve your

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community. Thank you for joining us.

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We appreciate your listening to today's podcast and hope

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you will become a regular follower of this channel.

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Also, be sure to follow New Teacher Talk on Instagram @NewTeacherTalk

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and X, formerly known as Twitter, @NewTeacherTalk1.