Back to School Reflections and Plans

Shannon and Mary meet again to begin the 6th season of the podcast.    They recap their summer activities in both professional and personal lives, update the audience on the plans they're making for their reading students this school year, and preview what's coming next in Season 6 of the podcast.

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE

1. Georgia Department of Education:  Dyslexia Information
2. Great E-books about Structured Shared Reading & Writing and other guides Regarding Dyslexia
3. Assessing Reading Multiple Measures from Core Literacy Library *Amazon affiliate link*
4. Book a free call with us to tour our Patreon and see if it's right for you!
5. Get Literacy Support through our Patreon

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Transcript

6.1 Back to School Reflections and Plans

Shannon: [00:00:00] Hey, Mary. It's been a while. We've been on break, , from the previous season to now, but we're ready to get back into the podcast. And I can't wait to hear what you've been up to and how your summer was and how your school year is starting. 

Mary: Me too. Welcome back, everybody.

Shannon: Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge. Come join the conversation with other curious teachers as they discover teaching strategies and resources to reach all of their learners. I'm Shannon. 

Mary: And I'm Mary. And together, we bring an honest and experienced point of view to the topics we cover to shed light on best practices.

Whether you're a new teacher seeking guidance, A seasoned pro looking for fresh ideas or a curious parent, our community offers something for everyone. So grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and cozy up in the virtual lounge with us and eavesdrop on our professional conversations. 

Shannon: Listen, learn and immediately add to your bag of teaching tricks.

Find what works for your students [00:01:00] with us in the Reading Teachers Lounge. Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge. My name is Shannon Betz. I have been a teacher since 2002, and I've been a homeroom teacher as well as a reading specialist. Currently, I am working at a private school as the reading resource teacher for K 8.

Mary: And I'm Mary Saghafi, and I work as a private tutor and a dyslexia advocate. And, , I've been teaching since 2006, and in a couple different capacities as a gen ed teacher, and then also as a special ed teacher, and now as a private tutor. 

Shannon: So, , yeah, that's us. Yeah. So this is the start of our sixth season of the podcast.

We started obviously six years ago, , at the beginning of the 2018, 2019 school year. And I can't believe it's been, we've had a whole pandemic since then. And I've had a whole brain injury since then. And we've gone through a lot of life [00:02:00] transitions as well as work transitions. , and this podcast has gone through transitions as well.

I, you know, we've learned a lot more about. The reading brain and science of reading and we're, you know, morphing into a professional learning community where we're all gathered together as a group of teachers that are centered around finding, you know, what works for our readers.

Mary: I'm so proud of all of the big transitions that we've kind of gone through.

And, , You know, as many of our listeners know, we are kind of open and honest about sharing our personal journeys on this and somewhat vulnerable in the way that, , we have come across learning things and, and how we've come across learning them and how we've kind of changed and adopted our practices with it too.

And so I think that our podcast does speak to that, , , together as our joint efforts. And then also, , you know, individually I've. Yeah. Decided to become an advocate and I attend meetings regularly now. And, , my tutoring practice is [00:03:00] growing and thriving and I'm trying to figure out how that balances with my children's schedule.

Now that my children who were babies, my, my youngest was brand new when we first started podcast.

It sure has. , yeah. So, I, 

Shannon: I am. And what grade is your other daughter in now?

Mary: 3rd grade. Wow. 3rd grade. So we are elementary school parents now and we were involved in the preschool for a long time. I have very, very good friends from that era. And even now I'm still subbing in the preschool because it's my happy place.

I love meeting those. Four and five year olds and introducing literacy into their little lives and seeing how that plays out, especially with the social emotional, , piece of it. So I feel like that's one of the ways that, , our family has grown the most and how I've grown [00:04:00] professionally and personally is really helping to adapt to the social and emotional needs of young children.

So, , my journey has kind of been, I've been using the conscious discipline, , methodology. Our preschool utilizes that. And, , it's been a really great experience for us because we have a lot of parent helper days at our preschool where parents come in. It's a cooperative preschool. And so, , we have a lot of hands on training when it comes to watching them work through this social emotional curriculum.

So if you haven't checked out Conscious discipline, I highly recommend it for everyone in your world. My husband also notices sometimes when I'm conscious disciplining him funny, but, , but no, the communication skills in that program are so great. So. It's something else. 

Shannon: The role I've taken on at my school has become sort of the student engagement whisperer.

, we don't have a lot of discipline problems because we're a private school and we do have that, you know, [00:05:00] expelling option and some other things that we can do, , outside the realm that public schools can do. So we don't really have extreme behaviors, but, , we are a title one private school. And so we do have a lot of the, , language barriers.

We have a lot of the high poverty, you know, co accompanying issues that happen, like a low vocabulary, like some, , you know, just hierarchy of needs things that the students have. And then also they, , are coming to us a lot of times in the upper grades, , having experienced a cycle of failure in the private school and finally, I mean, in the public school.

And so finally the parents are just, you know, going to scrape together the funds that they can and get some community help as well to be able to Provide the student a few more educational opportunities by, , sending them to our private private school. And so, , A lot of times the teachers are getting me to help, you know, sort of have that moment of reckoning with the children to realize like exactly [00:06:00] what level they're at, especially if they're struggling reader and they're not really aware of it.

And then just the students, a lot of times have been just sort of passive of been really quiet in their public school environment just sort of like we're reading we're reading records from a new student yesterday, and it you know the student. It just can barely read and write, but then we're looking at the records and he had gotten A's and B's and C's and has public school for years and years and years and, you know, the students, the teachers and their recommendations just said this child's quiet, they, you know, prefer And, You know, they follow the rules of the classroom.

They don't ask a lot of questions, but they're well behave. Well, that doesn't really tell us anything about their learning, you know, and so what I'm having to do is awaken the learner within and like stop that cycle of passes passiveness and say, you know what, that's just not going to work here. Like we have a lot smaller number of students.

And so we are able [00:07:00] to truly leave no child left behind because we can, you know, kind of Hold every student accountable because we have small class numbers. And so that's become my role at the school. , it's successful with more students than some. There's been a handful that I have not gotten through, which is frustrating, but for the most part, , like particular one student last.

Yes. Yet. Well, one of them withdrew one withdrew. So I'm really sad because I'm just lost my opportunity with her. But, , Last year I had that kind of moment of reckoning with the student and I mean it really like I almost had to break him down like he was crying and the teacher was like so uncomfortable like, Oh, Miss Betts, I want to interrupt.

I want to interrupt, but I'm just gonna let you do your thing. And you know, and I kind of had to, you know, to show the student his data and he cried a little bit. But then I talked about this is what learning looks like. These are behaviors of learning that I need to see from you. I'm not seeing those right now.

You're not asking questions. You're not raising your hand. You're not, you know, making mistakes and then letting us help. Learn You know, give feedback so that you can fix them. You're just sort of [00:08:00] waiting and copying. We can't see that anymore. We need to see these behaviors of learning. And we got through to him and he signed a contract promising that he was going to do all those learning behaviors.

And he had a great year last year. I mean, he really changed and his mom even brought it up during summer enrichment and said, you know, my child's been different since this last school year. And so, , he's not on grade level yet, but I get to work with him again this year, which is really nice being in the resource role that I can loop.

And I'm hoping this is the last year that I really might need to work with him that hopefully we can just keep, you know, getting him to become, , the master of his own learning, you know, the driver of his own learning where he's motivated to make sure that he understands what the teacher's teaching and that he is grasping the content.

And paying attention to have I learned it or not, what else do I need to do to learn it? That's really what I, I mean, I almost want to work myself out of a job, you know. 

Mary: That's, I mean, that was always my goal too. , when I was in the classroom and I would tell, you know, our parapros and, and even our parents, when kids could get [00:09:00] dismissed from special education, it was such a wonderful thing.

, if they had met their goals and progress and everybody felt like, okay, this. This is a really good sign. , it's funny that you're sharing this story right now, because it almost sounds like an end of the year reflection, but I think it's really powerful to keep what happened at the end of last year and bring it forward with you in the new year, because having this conversation, I think, is really powerful.

And it's funny that. Your story kind of aligns with the story that I wanted to share too. So at the end of the year, very last day of school, , I sat in on IP meeting for one of the students that I am currently tutoring. And we were so thrilled because he finally qualified for special education and he really needed that support.

And, , over the summer, we worked really hard on a lot of self advocacy skills because similar to how you are explaining it too. He was passive in his learning. He was a, he is a highly distracted [00:10:00] kid. And so there were lots of holes and gaps. And when, and he had some learned behaviors where when he didn't know something, he would kind of be the class clown and he would kind of goof off or he would, you know, kind of go over with his friends and start.

Something, something positive, anything to hide that they can't read. 

Shannon: Yep. 

Mary: Yep. Or that they're confused or unsure, or they don't know how to do it. And so yesterday, , I was able to have the second piece of his IEP meeting where we really discussed with his new grade level teachers what, , what his goals were.

And they had already, before I said anything, they started the meeting saying, , He's raising his hand. He's asking important questions. He's paying attention. He's even clarifying directions if he doesn't understand. And I just threw my hands up in the air. I've been tutoring this child for a year and a half.

And a big piece of my tutoring practice is working on those self advocacy skills. , and, and we model that like [00:11:00] if he's going through, , a topic that You know, it was challenging for him. I'm constantly asking the questions or I'm modeling , what's happening in my head as I'm thinking through it so that he is ready and prepared to ask the question.

So we've been doing a lot of this back and forth. So I love that part. And I think going forward into the new school year with. Those successes kind of arms you for the battle that is the next year. And it's not always a battle, but I think sometimes we have to put our armor on because there's so much work that has to be done in the very beginning of the school year.

Practicing new routines, practicing, making sure that you, you have students. able to predict what comes next in their schedule so that they feel safe and they feel ready for what's coming next. So anyway, just wanted to share. I love that. 

Shannon: Well, my para pro and I are having those conversations, you know, cause she had started last at the kind of close to like Thanksgiving, [00:12:00] Christmas time last school year.

And for the first few months, she was just helping me organize, like we had spent like almost a hundred thousand dollars on title one resources over the last couple of school years that I'd been hired there. And so she was just helping me inventory those and organize them and, you know, give the teachers a tour of the kind of resources we have and just put them in a way that made sense so that everybody can access them.

And so that took a while. For her to help me get all of that in line. And then, , early in the spring, she started working with students and, , I had her first work with kindergarten students. She's not a trained teacher. She's from the health profession, but, , I. She ended up loving the kindergarten students because you see so much progress so quickly with that age, you know, they're so eager to learn.

And so by the end of the year, she was like sending me little videos from her phone, like, look at this student, you know, the students, you know, sounding out the words and blending and decoding and reading these decodable texts. And she was so excited. So, , [00:13:00] now she knows more about teaching reading. And so we can, , And she already knew kind of at the end of last year, like, okay, what students do we need to loop with?

Which students aren't we done with? Okay, which students can we just sort of monitor and we might not have to see them as regularly this year. So, , we got a book over the summer called Assessing Readers Multiple Measures, which is a great book. It's like, , it's research based and it has really cool, , graphs in it of like, okay, if a student is at this grade level, start with this test.

If they score on grade level, you're done. If they don't score on grade level, go to this test and now assess this skill. If they score on grade level, you're done. If they don't score on grade level, go back down to here. And it goes down to the bottom, which is phonemic awareness. Obviously we talk about that all the time, but, , you know, for a fourth and fifth grader, we are at least starting to assess, like we, we assess their oral reading fluency.

We assess, we give them a a core where they have to, you know, circle the missing word and things like that. And we have [00:14:00] vocabulary assessment, things like that. So that's been very helpful for her because she can just sort of follow the steps. On this assessment, you know, chart and then we're able to, , we've been creating like assessment profile folders for the students and we have all this data that we're able to triangulate and we're waiting for the map scores to come in so that we can really compare every single thing in place.

And then in the next few weeks, we're going to meet with teachers and prioritize the students and kind of also see like. In the past, we've only chosen to work on like one thing like we've only chosen to work on vocabulary, or we're only choosing to work on like decoding slash spelling, but this year we're going to have to blend some of that more to try to get more efficient with our intervention because we're only there two days a week.

And so. It's good to have all these multiple data sources so that we can really prioritize what we want to do with the students. So we've been having those conversations, I guess, you know, it's like still a continuing conversation from what we, you know, we're talking about it post planning [00:15:00] last year. And, you know, where we.

You know, which students had shown progress, what had they learned, but then what did they still need to know? And then we're assessing them again to see, did they have summer loss or did they, you know, parents had said some of the kids were going to have summer tutors. So we're trying to see, is that true?

Did they have summer gains? And then, you know, also we have an influx of like 20, 25, 26 new students that are new to our school. So we're also having to assess them. So, yeah. That's the mindset of the beginning of the year. You kind of see the year stretched out in front of you and you, you know, we're getting to know the new students and build that relationship with them and hopefully, you know, igniting the learner within all of them and getting them engaged in their own progress.

And then sort of seeing the school year stretched out as, you know, like a journey of possibility and where can we bring them? You know, I mean, some of the students, like we were already saying to a teacher, like, , Oh, if we can get the student engaged, like think about how we're going to celebrate in May, like just picture it 10 months [00:16:00] from now, how far the student's going to come.

Mary: That's really cool. Absolutely. Oh, that's so great.

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I'm thinking about some of the things that I'm like celebrating and reflecting on as well in my practice because [00:18:00] it's, my practice looks so different than yours, but we're really doing the same thing. , I had Two students, , transition to a, , private school. School that specializes in dyslexia, which I'm very happy for their family.

It's , it is an amazing and a very expensive gift to be able to share that with your child. And there are scholarships available and I do, you know, sometimes work on helping families. ascertain scholarships and and things like that because , these schools are so amazing and it is , a gift to the parents because most of the time if your child , is one accepted and then you go to the school, the school literally takes on the lion's share of the load of the schoolwork.

So most of the time they stay after for a lab or something and they complete any homework or extra assignments that they need. To work on, , but very rarely do those students take home homework and very rarely do they have extra tutoring. They don't need the tutoring anymore because [00:19:00] they've needed it.

So when it comes to that, I celebrate those families because it's, . It's a tremendous opportunity for their student to grow in such a long time. And the other goal is that they don't stay at that school for a long term period. Usually it's two to three years is usually the max. And then they transition either back to their public school.

, I'm really excited to be able to take a class with my students. , like that. So I'm really starting to learn the ropes of what that looks like for families. So that's one piece that I'm celebrating for those students. And then I have other students who are taking, , like less traditional routes. And so I have a student who has transitioned to a Montessori school, and, , I love the Montessori method.

I think it's beautiful. I don't think that it is for every single child, and, , I think that especially children with dyslexia who transition to a Montessori school. Like, I have to do a big caveat, who would never choose reading as something to work on because the [00:20:00] Montessori method has more of open exploration and, and they choose their work tasks and, , when it comes to independent work, it depends on what type of student that would be.

And so for some of my students, then I do see some of them fall further behind. So let me just kind of like briefly mentioned that. Secondarily, this student, however, , is kind of an exception, and I think that she is going to just flourish in this environment. It's really great, and she, , is an extremely bright student who has some really, , niche kind of difficulties, and, , The teachers are very aware of what her strengths and weaknesses are and I think that they actually are going to be able to scaffold and meet her right where she is, which is kind of amazing.

And then I have the opportunity to go into her two times a week in her classroom there. So it's nice for me to go back into the [00:21:00] classroom and work with other students there,

but they're always there. Kind of coming around to see what we're doing curious to see what kind of multisensory activities we're working on. So today we were pushing Plato and and counting out the sounds and words doing some orthographic mapping and they were very curious to see what was happening.

So anyway, so that's been that's been kind of a success that I've been happy to work on. And then also. Oh, I'm partnering with her teachers as well, because they're curious to know, and they're taking me up on the fact. I always offer, , you know, tell me what, you know, what can I help you with? Are there any, you know, research areas that you're curious about?

So they have actually taken me up on that. So I really appreciate that too. And then, . Yeah, go ahead. 

Shannon: Well, no, that reminds me you were mentioned in that private school that's dyslexic specific. , we got an email, my parent and I got an email, , just this week. We have a [00:22:00] volunteer that's going to come to our school who's retired from that school.

So she has offered her services to help us work with some of our students and utilize Wharton Gillingham experience. She worked at that school for 10 years. So we are very excited to sort of add her to the resource team and, you know, look at the students data and kind of, you know, like, which students do we want to, you know, share with her.

Mary: That's a wealth of resources right there. 

Shannon: And I kind of want to just like follow her around and learn what she's doing. 

Mary: You should. That's amazing. So cool. That's wonderful. Yeah, I'm, I'm excited about what this new year is going to bring. I've actually done a lot of advocacy to at the beginning of the year, the new law is finally rolling out in Georgia.

That dyslexia law specific specific to dyslexia and making sure that. Schools are monitoring and assessing correctly to see

Shannon: because for years, like my whole career [00:23:00] here for 21 years, it's been just called specific learning disability. 

Mary: Well, I mean, it's been like under that heading, which we don't say dyslexia, we say specific reading disability.

And so it's an umbrella term and they say that dyslexia falls within that. And, , There has been a lot of advocacy. 

Shannon: But if it's not specified, how can you, you know, which, which strategies to use? 

Mary: Well, I think that's why it's kind of an ignorant thing to say because, , the advocates who have really pushed for this law to go into effect, and in many other states too, , we know how to teach children with dyslexia.

There's science Orton Gillingham has been around for, the methodology has been around for 70 plus years. So we didn't know how to reach children who have one, a specific reading disability, specifically dyslexia. And so calling it [00:24:00] calling a spade a spade is really important. And so the reasoning behind a lot of that, what I was told when I was a special ed teacher is, well, if we say state dyslexia, then that means that if they request a specific kind of Curriculum or a specific kind of instructional practice.

We have to pay for it as a district. So it's money. Okay, always comes back down to money, isn't it?

Shannon: Yeah. 

Mary: And so when Orton Gilligham is expensive. They couldn't training is very expensive and it was a lot. Less common, , for training to happen for general ed teachers, , and especially 20 years ago. So, , there has definitely been more training, , maybe not to the exact level of the certified Orton Gillingham, , associates.

But, , yeah, it's coming along. So I'm happy to see, and I'm so curious to see what the practices are looking like in the different schools around our area. I'm kind of getting [00:25:00] first hand 

Shannon: glimpse. Part of that law, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like part of that law was to make sure that an initial screener is given?

Mary: Yes. At the schools? Yes. And that it was to Yes, so all schools depends on. So there were some rollout districts where they were first rolling out the law. , but they have to have a screener in place. They have to have specific people trained to teach Children with dyslexia at their school and resources have to be made available.

So actually now if you go on the Georgia Department of Ed website, there is actually some really great training that they provide for teachers and anyone free. You can look it up right now. Maybe I'll put a link in this episode if anybody is curious. I'm writing that down. Not maybe, we will. Yes, of course we will.

, the, , structured literacy practice. 

Shannon: And we also, like, when they were rolling it out and kind of training teachers last school year, We both attended some webinars and they had some great like little videos that were created just to [00:26:00] try to explain reading in the brain and explain what dyslexia is to even a layperson who isn't in education.

Mary: And those are great resources. I share them almost every meeting I attend. , because I do, I think it's really important to pass it on. And as teachers, we should be in the know. , and if you're not, don't be scared. Just learn reach out 

when the Department of Ed was working with, , reading researchers from University of Georgia and, you know, just other people that are actually in the field and in the research that in the know of what to do and best practices.

So, , yeah, I'm a little bit proud of our state. I mean, it was a little late, but it's coming and I'm glad we're taking steps and hopefully we can have a good turnaround. Like, you know, how Mississippi is I know. 

Yeah. , when, when the law was, , first being proposed, I actually got a chance to go to the state Capitol with Rigby, who is one of my tutoring students, Rigby [00:27:00] from first season He is now in high school and moving mountains.

He, he's going to change the world. Yep. I'm super proud of him. He's doing absolutely stellar in high school right now. And I keep in touch with his family. , but yeah, we got a chance when he was in fourth grade to go to the state Capitol and do some advocacy work there. It was to advocate for that law for that last.

Shannon: Okay. Great. And he is changing the world. Does he still have that website?

He does. I haven't looked at it in a long time. I'll see if I can link it. If not, forgive me. 

Because it was resources? 

It was resources. He won an award for trying to create a website that would connect tutors to students with dyslexia.

Yeah. Yeah, we need to see we need to check on that. And if it's if it's if it's out of date, I mean, he's busy, you know, living his life.

Mary: He is doing high school [00:28:00] work. So I'm curious. It wouldn't surprise me either if he sold that to another company and they're probably profiting. He's such a little entrepreneur so Not little anymore.

I'm sure he's much taller than I am. 

Shannon: But speaking of growing up, my kids have gotten a lot taller as the podcast has progressed. And I have a fourth grader and an eighth grader now. And the eighth grader is so tall and his shoes are even bigger than his father's now, which means he's growing like a puppy.

He's just got these big paws that he's growing into. , we think he's definitely going to be over six feet. , but the men on my mom's side of the family were always tall. So I think he It's going to run after that side of the family. 

Mary: Man, time flies. Yeah. Speaking of time flying, guess what else we did this summer?

Well, I know you know, because you were there, but we celebrated our 40th birthday party. 

Shannon: Happy birthday to you and your husband. 

Mary: Thank [00:29:00] you. The big 4 0. , I can't remember if I've shared this, but, , my husband has his. latest and greatest second job, I'm going to call it because he's not making any money off of it, but second career.

, he is in he's a rock star. He's a rock star. He wishes he was a rock star. That is so true. , over COVID, , as a way for His COVID hobby, he started practicing the bass guitar, the electric bass, and it morphed into a band with some former colleagues and a neighbor. And so they formed a band, and then the preschool dads kind of got together and formed a second band.

So at our birthday party this year, we, , , We had a rock show, and he was able to perform most of the time. It was really fun, but we invited lots of friends and family, and, , my older daughter also played the ukulele, and it was a really sweet little [00:30:00] duet that they played together. It was precious. She sang, Hey 

Shannon: Soul Sister.

By train 

Mary: it was so hard with the ukulele that she totally initiated it on her own and then I right after that my the two girls my two girls did a little dance routine as well because they wanted to perform as well it was it was a party that starred the sagafi family I'll tell you that 

Shannon: But when they were dancing, I like whispered to my husband's ear.

I'm like, this is what my friends with daughters experience. They tell me that all the time, that it's always just dance parties, but because we're parents of sons, we have no idea what that's like. 

Mary: I'm like, just watch and learn, babe. This is my girl, mom. Well, I also realized too, as I was standing there watching, , my older one play the ukulele, I'm like, Oh, and this is the rest of my life.

Here I am attending shows. 

Shannon: She enjoyed the spotlight, just like her dad did. 

Mary: She kind of lived up. She sure does. She is her daddy's daughter.

Shannon: So, , Your husband plays the bass and that's what my [00:31:00] husband played when he was, , in college and high school. And so you've inspired him like, , after the party, he was like, what friends can I have that would maybe get in a band with me?

Mary: Cause this is fun. 

Shannon: So I might be joining you as a band widow. 

Mary: I hear you. I hear you. , I actually, the best thing is I've made very good friends with the other band wives and because we are so gracious about the time that our husbands spend practicing and playing with their friends, we make our own fun, you know, but, , I, I will take it.

It's a really healthy outlet for him and I'm really, I'm really happy for him. So it was fun. 

Shannon: Well, this summer I enjoyed doing the workshop with you too. 

Mary: Yeah, we did our first kind of, I guess it wasn't our first one, but it was, it was a one that we promoted more regularly and more professionally. We're stepping into this new piece of our podcast.

Shannon: We did a lot with our Patreon as well. [00:32:00] Which if anybody joins our Patreon, they can receive access to all the other things we've done. But I really liked, , the recording that we made about systems for teaching reading. 

Mary: Yeah. Yeah. The, , making things, , simplified. Yeah. Well, I think it kind of goes along with our theme then.

So our theme for this season is, , really putting it all together. How can you be, you know, , stellar rockstar teacher doing all of the science of reading while not pushing yourself over the edge. 

Shannon: Right. Sacrificing all your time and energy. Like how can you work smarter and put in the right practices for vocabulary and morphology and comprehension and decoding and phonemic awareness and do all fluency and do all the things while also using the curriculum resources that you're mandated to use.

And teaching the standards, but then, you know, supporting the wide range of learners that you have in your classroom. Just how can we do that and put it all together [00:33:00] in the best possible way? Like that's something I'm exploring in my own practice. Like I said, I'm trying to focus on kind of one main weakness at a time with my students, but I'm trying to do more than one 

this year.

Mary: I think my, I mean, I've definitely been working on that. One of the big steps that I took this summer was really weeding out the resources that I do not use right now and and clearing out my office of things that are, , more dated and now bringing in the things that I'm utilizing more regularly and digitizing many of my resources so that, , I, , yeah, it As all of us know, especially if you've been teaching for more than five years, you accumulate a lot, and you're never quite sure.

I was always told, you never know if you're gonna need it. 

Shannon: Right. Hold on to these popsicle sticks and the stack of old magazines. Yeah. And honestly? 

Mary: Nope. No. No. [00:34:00] I don't, I didn't need those 10 year old popsicle sticks and old magazine pictures. I really didn't. So I was able to really take the plunge and do some good weeding out of things.

Oh, good. 

Shannon: Yeah. So anything else looking forward to for the school year? , 

Mary: no, I'm just, , I'm I'm feeling really positive. I think like when we first started, I can openly share that we were timid about, , you know, putting content out there and making sure that, , people resonated with us. But I think that our podcast is growing in a really nice and organic way.

And, , I'm so thrilled that we have, , some really cool guests lined up for this next season. I feel like, . It's going to be, , I just feel like it's coming together. I think that's that's the way I'm going to describe it. 

Shannon: It's going to be a good one. , we mentioned in our social media over the.

Summer that season three kind of was short, but it sort of pivoted the podcast. Yeah. And so now like season six is bringing us into that second [00:35:00] half, you know, the end of the second, you know, third of the podcast or however long we're gonna go. Yeah. But, you know, three seasons. And then three seasons kind of bookend.

I think this season six is really gonna just have some, we're gonna have some great topics lined up and then, , even some bonus episodes that people could listen to. , just to get even more reading teachers now, we can't get enough of us. 

Mary: Well, and just to plug the Patreon, , a little bit more because I think Patreon is, we have some really amazing offerings now for our Patreon followers and listening to it in the feed.

And even if you are, , reading through our feed, you're going to get some really good tips and tricks and resources with. visual content.

Shannon: Yeah, we're modeling techniques and showing more of our resources and behind the scenes of how we plan lessons and how we, , deliver intervention to students. And so, in addition to big monthly topics and then also providing support for your own teaching.

Either in through a small group or one on one. So be sure and check out our [00:36:00] Patreon, which is patreon. com backslash reading teachers lounge. It'll be in our show notes as well. 

Mary: Yeah. , if you haven't caught the new music yet, you're also going to hear our new music. Thank you, Jordan. He's in the band.

Thank you, Jordan. He's in the band. , Jordan is the, , composer and the one who's playing the music for us. And he created, , just a. We used our same music and he just kind of improved it a little bit. So hopefully you noticed and if you haven't, listen all the way through so you can hear the end, the end clips.

All right. 

Shannon: Well, I'm looking forward to it. 

Mary: Me too. All right. Thanks for tuning in. And we'll see you all this season. Can't wait.