All Episodes
Episodes
Episode 154 | Cultural Humility Is Different Than Cultural Competence
Episode Summary
What happens when schools misunderstand culture as misbehavior?
In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán reflects on powerful conversations with a Dominican mother advocating for her son after...
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Episode 153 | Cultivating Hope in a Time Like This
Episode Summary
What does it mean to cultivate hope in a moment like this?
In this reflective episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán explores the idea that hope is not denial, optimism, or pretending things are...
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Episode 152 | When It Happens in Real Life: What Pushback Looks Like & How to Respond
Pushback doesn’t show up as a theory—it shows up in real moments.
In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán breaks down what pushback actually looks like in schools and professional spaces—from parent emails...
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Episode 151 | Does Grammar Instruction Kill Student Voice? w/ Patty McGee
What happens when students stop worrying about grammar?
For many teachers, the answer is surprising: their writing becomes more powerful, more authentic, and more alive.
So why does that change when we shift the focus...
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Episode 150 | Music and Silence: The Passion and Protest of Pablo Casals w/ Christy Mihaly
Episode Summary
What does it mean to stand for justice—not just with your voice, but with your refusal?
In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán sits down with author Christy Mihaly to explore the life of...
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Episode 149 | When “Misbehavior” Is a Misunderstanding w/ Dr. Daniel Russell
Episode Summary
What if much of what schools label as “misbehavior” is actually a misunderstanding of culture?
In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán sits down with Dr. Daniel Russell to unpack how student...
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Episode 148 | What TO Do When You Get Pushback
Pushback is part of the work—but how we respond to it matters.
In Part 2 of the Leading When It’s Loud series, Roberto Germán explores five common mistakes educators make when facing criticism, tension, or public...
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Episode 147 | When the Noise Gets Loud
What happens when thoughtful, intentional content is met with noise, criticism, or misunderstanding?
In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán reflects on a recent moment of pushback and reframes it as an...
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Episode 146 | Teaching When the World Seems Unstable
Students today are encountering global events in real time. News about protests, war, political instability, and humanitarian crises travels quickly through social media, and many young people are trying to make sense...
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Episode 145 | Come for Bad Bunny, Stay for Community
Bad Bunny’s halftime show gave us culture, joy, and conversation, but it also gave us curriculum.
In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán breaks down the symbolism behind the performance and explores how it...
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Episode 144 | Anger is Not the Problem
Anger is often treated as something dangerous, especially when it comes from the margins. In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán reflects on anger not as a problem to eliminate, but as information worth...
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Episode 143 | When “Misbehavior” Isn’t Misbehavior at All w/ Lorena Germán
When we label student behavior as “misbehavior,” whose norms are we actually using — and who gets left out of that definition? In this episode of Our Classroom, Lorena Germán joins to help us explore how behavior,...
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