Mirjam Sophia Glessmer

Podcast recommendation: The Broken Copier!

Some time at the end of last year, I came across something on Marcus Luther’s BlueSky that stuck with me. It was something related to his slow reading of “Becoming an Everyday Changemaker“, and reflections on that and how he applies it to his own teaching. I then ordered the book and followed his podcast and promptly forgot the connection, until I rediscovered it last week. So here we go with a huuuuuge podcast recommendation!

The episode that prompted the decision that I should write a new “recommended podcasts” post was this one (and at that point I didn’t think I would just be recommending one podcast, I was thinking it would become a collection of several episodes from different places)

The broken copier: Find your ritual

Marcus Luther talks about a ritual that he has had for years: In his class, students write poetry and share it in a gallery walk, but then later, he takes one favourite line from each of the poems and combines them into a new work of art that he reads out to his students, not mentioning that it is compiled from their works. He describes both the initial sharing of poems but especially the realization later when students recognize lines from their own poems in his as so powerful and invigorating that it is really compelling and emotional.

While people might have rituals at the beginning and end of the year, he encourages people to especially seek out rituals, like his, to ground and reenergize them throughout the year. Now I am wondering — what kind of rituals do I have that I look forward to, to connect me with the passion for my job? One that comes to mind is the “microteaching” we do in our Introduction to Teaching and Learning, where 5 participant groups with 5 members each prepare a 10 minute teaching unit and then, in a jigsaw shuffle, present it to members from all other groups. The energy that is released through all the creative solutions is amazing, and it is so much fun to see people bloom in their teacher roles and get super engaged as students, and there is never enough time! But maybe there are other, similar moments we can cultivate?

After listening to this episode, I saw another episode that I had downloaded, probably in response to first reading about the book on BlueSky, but that I hadn’t listened to before:

The broken copier: “Becoming an Everyday Changemaker” with Alex Shevrin Venet and Adrian Neibauer

This is a conversation between two people that did a slow reading of the book together, Marcus Luther and Adrian Neibauer, and the author, Alex Shevrin Venet. I think it might have been possibly less interesting to listen to before reading the book, but now being about 2/3rds through, it is so interesting to hear the different perspectives!

Apparently, “the process is the point” was, at some point, planned as the title of the book! To me, understanding that “the process is the point” was really a lightbulb moment, that it is really about HOW change happens and not just that, so it is funny to learn that it was considered as the title! At the same time I agree that the final title works a lot better. It was also really interesting to hear the author say “it didn’t occur to me to use a more adversarial metaphor” when asked why she chose a road trip metaphor rather than a fight.

Other than that, they acknowledged how the book is full or generosity towards teaching, which is true, and how it is really helpful in claiming “trauma” as something that is everywhere, and that is a term we can use to describe our and others’ experiences with the pandemic or many other things people are currently going through, and that we can and should then also be sensitive about with everybody we meet.

And one more episode:

The broken copier: “Before You Give Feedback, Think of an Umbrella”

The umbrella is a really good metaphor for how feedback works. In the umbrella metaphor, the handle is the actual feedback. It can be good, bad, more or less effective. But what really matters in and outside of the metaphor is the umbrella bit, not the handle: the umbrella is what makes the umbrella function, and that is the trust that the students have in the teacher. Without the umbrella bit, the handle is useless. But then there also needs to be a purpose to carrying an umbrella in the first place, like rain, and that is how the feedback is being motivated to the students. Is the topic even relevant to their lives, so would they care about improving? And would they trust the teacher enough to have their best interests at heart, that they see the purpose of getting feedback, of accepting feedback, of acting on it?

As always, I had to draw it myself to make sense of it…

 

I love the calm manner in which this podcast delivers one lightbulb moment after the next. You should really follow the broken copier, big recommendation!

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