Home Podcasts The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast
The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast

The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast

Jennifer Gonzalez 311 episodes Latest Apr 27, 2026

Teaching strategies, classroom management, education reform, and educational technology are the focus of this podcast. Host Jennifer Gonzalez interviews educators, students, administrators, and parents about the psychological and social dynamics of school, trade secrets, and other insights not found in textbooks. The podcast provides practical resources for teachers, with more information available on the Cult of Pedagogy website.

Episodes

274: Why School in Denmark is Better, and What We Can Learn from Them Jun 7, 2026 01:51:19 When Pernille Ripp moved from the U.S., where she had taught for over a decade, to her native country of Denmark, she was immediately struck by how different school was. In this episode, we'll explore why Danish schools are so good for teachers and students, and which practices we might be able to adopt in the U.S. ___________________________ Thanks to Alpaca and iCivics for sponsoring the episode
273: The Art of Classroom Timing: 10 Ways to Fit it All In Apr 27, 2026 26:40 It can ruin even the most carefully designed lessons: An activity you had planned takes way longer than you thought it would. Or worse, it takes way less time. And sometimes it can be both, with some students finishing a task in five minutes while others need half an hour. Getting classroom pacing just right is an art that takes practice and technique. In this episode, I'll share 10 habits you can
272: The Replacement Skills Approach: Teaching Behavior Instead of Managing It Apr 12, 2026 33:23 When a student behaves in a way that disrupts their own learning or someone else's, our response is often limited to a reprimand or a punishment. While this usually stops the undesirable behavior for a while, it doesn't often solve the problem long-term. What has longer-lasting impact is viewing the misbehavior as a sign that a student is missing an important skill, and if they are taught that ski
271: Meet Ellis: Your On-Demand Classroom Companion Apr 5, 2026 29:44 Students are coming to school with more needs than ever, and a lot of those needs aren't strictly academic: anxiety, withdrawal, behavior issues, and learning differences that don't always have quick or obvious solutions. These are problems that often send us to the internet in search of answers, but the nuances of each individual situation can make it hard to find exactly what we need. Ideally, w
270: Eight Ways to Squeeze Writing Instruction Into a Few Minutes Mar 30, 2026 52:15 There's been no shortage of conversation about the science of reading over the past several years. But writing barely comes up, even though the two are deeply connected. That's what drew Melanie Meehan and Maggie Roberts to write their new book, Foundational Skills for Writing. The book breaks the larger task of writing into smaller skill categories, including transcription skills, oral language,
269: Bringing the Power of Debate to Math Class Mar 15, 2026 37:01 Have you ever watched students sit completely silent in math class, only to come alive the moment they're asked to share an opinion? That's what inspired my guest Chris Luzniak to start bringing debate into his math teaching — and the results have been remarkable. In this episode, Chris walks us through how he turns ordinary math questions into debatable ones, how he gets students making and defen
268: What is a Warm Demander? Mar 1, 2026 54:03 When our students face challenges in the classroom, some teachers double down on control and rigor: tighter rules, firmer consequences, higher demands. Others lean toward grace and flexibility: easing up, giving extensions, and softening expectations because they know our students are carrying a lot. But what if the answer isn't either/or? Warm Demander pedagogy is an approach that pairs genuine c
267: How Inquiry-Based Freewriting Can Deepen Student Writing Feb 1, 2026 44:54 Teaching students to write well has always been challenging, and newer developments have made it even more difficult: The internet offers unlimited text to plagiarize, standardized testing has pushed us to teach more formulaic writing, and AI constantly offers to do our writing for us. Frustrated with her students' lack of confidence and the robotic style of their writing, language arts teacher Na
266: Six Ed Tech Tools to Try in 2026 Jan 4, 2026 01:07:55 We're kicking off the year like we always do, with a round-up of six educational tech tools we think are worth a look. On the list this year: a site that offers fantastic STEM interactives, an AI-powered collaborative writing platform, a free, web-based sound editor, a tool that can turn any text into an infographic, a library of beautifully produced documentaries on current events, and an incredi
265: Growth Discourse: A Framework for Discussing Hard Topics with Students Dec 7, 2025 01:10:08 We're living in a time when having a difference of opinion is a potential minefield of hurt feelings, emotional outbursts, and severed relationships. If this has caused you to avoid certain topics in your classroom, the growth discourse framework used by the School of Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL) may offer a way to re-engage in these conversations. In this episode, I talk with SEGL founder
264: How Schools Can Support Neurodivergent Teachers Nov 23, 2025 01:20:33 Neurodivergent educators, like those with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other forms of cognitive diversity, are essential voices in our schools. They bring innovation, empathy, and authenticity. Yet they often work within systems that weren't built with them in mind, and this can make the job of teaching especially challenging. In this episode, we'll learn about the strengths neurodivergent teachers
263: Five Skills that Get Students to Take Ownership of Their Learning Nov 9, 2025 42:29 If we're doing our jobs right as educators, students will gradually become independent, self-directed learners capable of monitoring, directing, and actively participating in building their own learning. But what if that's not happening? What if students continue to lean heavily on their teachers for step-by-step instructions on every task, never really taking the learning process into their own h

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