Roy S. Whitehurst is a former CIA analyst and instructor. He spent 30+ years evaluating written information, photos, videos, and other media collected by the CIA and taught media literacy skills to new CIA analysts.

He’s the author of Teaching Media Literacy with Social Media News: Practical Techniques for Middle and High School Classrooms.

We talk about:

• Some of the types of media to evaluate and what makes them challenging
• Velocity of information
• Disinformation, misinformation, malinformation
• Evaluation skills
• Is media literacy scalable?
• Do people want to be informed?
• What makes Roy optimistic and pessimistic

Get Teaching Media Literacy with Social Media News from Routledge.

About the guest

Roy S. Whitehurst is a former CIA analyst and instructor. He spent 30+ years evaluating written information, photos, videos, and other media collected by the CIA and taught media literacy skills to new CIA analysts.

Roy argues that anyone—not just CIA analysts—can learn how to evaluate the accuracy, credibility, logic, and argumentation of posts on social media. He believes that these skills are critical for us to engage in civic discourse and build a stronger democracy.

He maintains a website, www.medialiteracysleuth.com, where he periodically posts evaluations of social media, including trending pop culture media and media appropriate for use in civics, ELA, and social studies curricula.

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Bluesky or LinkedIn

I also host Sideline Sessions, a podcast for coaches and parents of student-athletes. The show features conversations with coaches and performance experts in the NFL, NBA, NCAA, Olympics, and more. Listen here: https://bit.ly/3Rp0QGt

Dr. Mario Acosta spent 20 years of his educational career as a teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, academic director, and principal leading schools with diverse profiles.

He was named the 2022 Principal of the Year in the state of Texas while he was the principal at Westwood High School, a U.S. News & World Report top-50 campus and member of the High Reliability Schools (HRS) Network.

His latest book is The Schools Our Students Deserve: A Comprehensive Framework for Shaping Exceptional School Culture.

We discuss:

• What are the schools our students deserve? Are we asking this question enough?
• The current state of schools and identifying the gaps
• Outcomes students deserve…
• The values to center in a school’s culture
• Many schools saw temporary bursts of innovation after the pandemic, but struggled to sustain them. How can leaders build on the urgency of that moment and create lasting change?
• How does a leader take charge of the culture?
• Building support from the community
• Attracting high-quality educators and retaining them long-term

Get The Schools Our Students Deserve from Solution Tree. You can also learn more in this webinar: http://bit.ly/4fXCYWa

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Bluesky or LinkedIn

I also host Sideline Sessions, a podcast for coaches and parents of student-athletes. The show features conversations with coaches and performance experts in the NFL, NBA, NCAA, Olympics, and more. Listen here: https://bit.ly/3Rp0QGt

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Ranan Lachman is a transformation expert with a BA in Computer Science and an MBA who has reinvented himself across radically different worlds — jet-fighter co-pilot, management consultant, Wall Street investment banker, and CEO of multiple technology companies.

He lives what he teaches, having relocated to four countries across four continents and even circled the globe for a year with his family while managing a startup.

Ranan is currently founder and CEO of Better Speech. We discuss his work with Better Speech and his book, Comfort Override: Future-Proof Your Life as AI Flips Your World.

Topics include:

• How AI can help schools address special education goals
• Principles for implementing AI responsibly in special education
• How can professionals proactively prepare for AI disruption in their industry?
• Daily practices to develop the adaptability “muscle”
• Evolving intentionally as an individual and an organization

Learn more about today’s guest:

• www.comfortoverride.com
• www.betterspeech.com

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Bluesky or LinkedIn

I also host Sideline Sessions, a podcast for coaches and parents of student-athletes. The show features conversations with coaches and performance experts in the NFL, NBA, NCAA, Olympics, and more. Listen here: https://bit.ly/3Rp0QGt

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.