#19: Teaching, Leadership, and the Movies That Shaped Us - with Brett Barker
Education Upgrade with Jake SchulkeShow Notes
What makes a teacher truly effective?
In this conversation, Jake Schulke sits down with educator and Navy veteran Brett Barker to explore classroom leadership, student relationships, and what movies can teach us about education, adolescence, and growing up.
Drawing from experiences in the military, continuation high schools, and middle school classrooms, Brett and Jake discuss why relationships matter more than authority, how healthy boundaries create better learning environments, and why the best educators never stop learning from their students.
The conversation eventually turns to storytelling and film, exploring how movies like Mean Girls, Dead Poets Society, and Dangerous Minds continue to shape the way we think about teachers, teenagers, and the human experience.
Questions explored
• What makes students respect a teacher? • Can military leadership improve classroom management? • Why do relationships matter more than authority? • How do continuation high schools differ from traditional schools? • What can teachers learn from their students? • Why do movies resonate so strongly during adolescence? • What does Dead Poets Society teach us about education and purpose? • How do stories shape our beliefs about teachers and schools?
Topics covered
• Classroom management • Educational leadership • Continuation high schools • Teacher-student relationships • Military leadership • Adolescent psychology • Student motivation • Film and education • Mean Girls • Dead Poets Society
💬 We'd love to hear from you. Which teacher had the greatest impact on your life? And what movie best captures adolescence? Share your thoughts in the comments or connect with us using the link below.
🎙 Education Upgrade explores education, psychology, leadership, and learning through conversations with teachers, researchers, and educational leaders.
New full episodes, Reel Talk, educational clips, and Essential Questions are released regularly.
Connect with Education Upgrade: https://linktr.ee/educationupgrade
Chapters 0:00 Introduction & Brett's Journey into Education 9:42 What Continuation High School Taught Us About Students 24:30 The Teachers We'll Never Forget 42:43 Are Schools Teaching the Right Things? 1:03:25 What's Holding Public Education Back? 1:17:26 What Can Teachers Learn from the Military? 1:29:20 Why Literature Still Matters 1:34:32 Reel Talk: The Movies That Shaped Our Generation 1:53:24 Dead Poets Society and the Purpose of Education 2:02:03 The Evolution of Teen Films 2:19:06 Do Movies Shape Culture—or Reflect It?
More from Education Upgrade with Jake Schulke
In this featured segment from Education Upgrade, Jake Schulke and guest Brett Barker examine how traditional teaching methods, large class sizes, and an emphasis on career preparation can limit meaningful learning. The conversation explores why students struggle to engage with English and social studies, whether conventional teaching practices encourage memorization over critical thinking, and how the structure of public education may contribute to these challenges. Watch or listen to the full conversation in Episode 19. Follow Education Upgrade for more conversations about teaching, learning, and rethinking education.
Can extrinsic rewards eventually help students become intrinsically motivated to learn? Dr. John McFarland (Dr. Mack) shares how he built “Fantasy French,” a gamified classroom system using experience points, levels, character classes, special abilities, and collaborative rewards. We discuss how students responded to the system, how it encouraged cooperation, and what happened as students began taking greater ownership of their learning. This featured segment comes from Episode 2 of Education Upgrade.
What do police searches communicate to students? Dr. Sebastián Sclofsky and I discuss school searches, student trust, discipline, and the difference between responding to a behavior and addressing what may be causing it. From Episode 11 of Education Upgrade.
What if teachers had more control over their own professional learning? In this featured segment from Education Upgrade, Dr. Derek Riddle discusses self-directed professional development and how teachers can identify their own learning needs, set meaningful goals, and seek out resources that help them improve their practice. We explore adult learning, reflection, teacher choice and motivation, and the many ways educators learn beyond traditional professional development. We also consider why even well-designed PD can fall short when it doesn't connect to what an individual teacher actually needs. Featured segment from Episode 12 of Education Upgrade: Why Teacher Professional Development Fails, and What Works Instead with Dr. Derek Riddle.
What does the research actually tell us about effective teacher professional development? In this featured segment from Education Upgrade, Dr. Derek Riddle explores the research on teacher professional learning, including six design features that shaped the field for decades: format, duration, collective participation, content, active learning, and coherence. We also discuss research that challenged that traditional consensus and an important factor that can get lost when professional development is designed: the teacher. What motivates teachers? What intellectually engages them? What makes professional learning meaningful? And how much voice should teachers have in determining what they need to learn? Featured segment from Episode 12 of Education Upgrade: Why Teacher Professional Development Fails, and What Works Instead with Dr. Derek Riddle.