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Lawrenceville School science teacher Johnny Clore and history teacher Drew Inzer combine consideration of ecology and the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804. In addition to learning traditional science and pondering secondary and primary historical sources, students assemble raw materials into a beautiful wood-canvas canoe. Johnny Clore explains how traditional instruction, teacher and student collaboration, and boat construction converge to result in a remarkable testament to the power of project based learning.

After a long radio silence, Lunch Duty is back with another student focused episode featuring an original a cappella arrangement by Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart senior Maddie Ogletree. Produced by Claudia Van Vloten and performed by Stone Ridge’s student-run group Heartfelt with solo support from Maddie, it rivals anything at the top of the charts today. Listen to the song and hear about Claudia’s and Maddie’s creative process.

High school art teacher and middle school math teacher Tom Doyle and Giovanna Basney talk about professional survival in the Age of COVID. Teachers will see themselves in this frank consideration of the challenges we face while trying to reach students through the digital veil. Listeners from other professions or walks of life will find this an illuminating and free-flowing perspective on the strange current reality of school life.

Guest Producer and Stone Ridge School Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Michelle Black interviews high school senior Lourdes Russell about the beginning of the National Black Student Alliance and her role as one of several charter organizers.

Graduating high school seniors Kendall Wienecke and Carrie Goeke-Morie return for their fifth visit to Lunch Duty Podcast to offer students’ perspectives on the strange end of this school year with its abrupt transition from normal class meetings to remote learning and the unprecedented challenges of society-wide social distancing. Listen in for what students were really doing during online classes and how they maintained connections with their families and each other.

Liddy Coyle, friend of the podcast and principal of Northeast Elementary School in the Ithaca City School District in upstate New York, returns to discuss her school’s response to the unprecedented challenges posed by the spread of Covid 19. The stakeholders in any school community--students, parents, teachers, staff, and the broader community--all have various priorities and concerns when something this serious threatens the predictability and order of established rhythms and routines. Listen to this for remarkable perspective on how all the parts of a public school fit together to face a microscopic threat capable of dealing terrible damage.

Our first episode since the nationwide shutdown of schools in the face of the novel Coronavirus, this will be a reminder of prior normal times when typical American high schools students thought a lot about sleep and how much they wished they were getting more of it. Carrie Goeke-Morey and Kendall Wienecke talk about how they handled the pressures of life including commutes to school, extra- curriculars, lots of homework, and some semblance of a social life while struggling to squeeze in enough sleep to remain functional.

Lunch Duty Podcast covers the Bull Run Middle School upper and middle school robotics competition. Organizer and host David Oppenheimer, Woodbridge High School Coach Carlos Castro, Prince Williams school board member Jen Wall, and Woodbridge squad captain Will Calli. Between these four interviews, the story of how robotics works resolves with all the drama, humor, and educational excitement intrinsic in something as engaging as the construction of the future, a future mediated by brilliant young roboticists.

Montgomery County public school teacher Alex Tsironis turned his interest in weather and talent for communication into a multi-media empire followed avidly by thousands of D.C. Metro teachers and students who hang on his remarkably accurate predictions of how weather will influence school openings. Alex talked to Lunch Duty and explained everything about how, on top of a demanding teaching job, he keeps track of the weather and gives students and teachers hope (or not) for unplanned downtime.

First in what will be a series of interpretive readings of primary documents from United States history, this episode offers a three-voice arrangement of a few of Paine’s most dramatic paragraphs from his historically influential polemic against the King of England in 1776. Directed by Stone Ridge Head of Upper School Dramatics, Sandra Blakeslee, students Michelle Saunders, Caroline Friedrichs, and Grace Towern give dramatic voice to one of our nation’s formative documents in this three minute reading.

Second in a series of conversations with students about what they’re doing instead of your homework, returning Lunch Duty guests Kendall Wienecke and Carrie Goeke-Morey update listeners on the latest in the James Charles beauty influencer drama that broke out in June. With professorial authority, they explain the rise of TikTok and its grip on today’s young cell phone users. Sure, TikTok may not be your thing, but many, if not most, of your students are into this.

Dr. Katharina Matro explains her decision to pursue a career in secondary school education as a history teacher after finishing her PhD. in Eastern European History at Stanford University. Her article in the American Historical Association periodical Perspectives on History about this path and her reflections on her satisfaction with her career course generated some interest and resulted in an all-expenses-paid trip back to Stanford to talk to humanities graduate students about professional life at an independent high school.

Producers Giovanna Basney and Tom Doyle talk about the significance of summer to teachers. Parenting, catching up, exercise, reading, chores, sleeping, getting outside, and saying goodbye to beloved colleagues who are retiring or moving on to other opportunities are among the many things that they consider in this fast moving consideration of this sacred time for teaching professionals.

Another day, another drama: Juniors Carrie Goeke-Morey and Kendall Wienecke return (E14: As You Like It: Goat Scream) to “spill the tea” on the latest social media influencer scandal--the rise and fall (and rise) of beauty guru James Charles. Teachers! This is what you should know and why you should care about students’ daily interactions with digital media.

Stone Ridge seniors Alayna Kinkead and Madeleine Sateri explain their strategies for getting ready for the Advanced Placement United States History exam their junior year. They describe some idiosyncratic strategies and some really effective habits. This will be of interest to students facing similar challenges or teachers curious about how some students deal with the complexities of junior year.

Lunch Duty Producer Sharon Kenny interviews Ithaca City, New York public school principal Liddy Coyle about what Liddy does and does not control and what she thinks about first when she makes important decisions, helps her students, councils teachers, and keeps Northeast Elementary School on even keel, even in these turbulent times.

Producers Giovanna Basney and Tom Doyle talk about the dilemmas teachers face with presents: thank you note or no thank you note? Is verbal acknowledgement enough? Are emails sufficient? Or is a handwritten note correct? Should the note go to the student’s home address, or should the student receive the note by hand? All this and more in this fast moving back-and-forth between two hard working teachers.

Students, the whole point of teaching, are the stars of this episode in which juniors Kendall Wienecke and Carrie Goeke-Morey offer a stage-setting explanation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. As for the goat scream, it has to be experienced to be appreciated.

As educators know, teaching is about much more than information and skills. Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education Visiting Scholar Lauren Brownlee touches on teaching’s power to inspire in a conversation with Executive Producer Ken Woodard about her journey to her role as the CSEE’s first visiting scholar, her article in the recent issue of the CSEE’s publication Connections Quarterly, and her high school elective history course Genocide Studies.

The Internet is changing almost everything including textbooks. This conversation with the editors of the free online United States History textbook The American Yawp sheds light on it origin and process. Editors Joe Locke and Ben Wright talk about the challenges and rewards of their remarkable contribution to the digital humanities.