Georgia O’Keefe and Christine Zuppa are co-founders of Making the Grade Project, an organization with a mission to empower educators starting with the very beginning of their careers. While they specialize in helping teachers in their home state of Massachusetts to pass the MTEL, they support teachers everywhere in setting up their classrooms and careers for success. Christine and Georgia each spent over a decade in the K-12 classroom setting before deciding it was time to make a change and support education in a different way.

In this episode, Christine and Georgia discuss their educator journeys, how to best support new teachers and how their business has evolved over the years.

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode103.

Renes Lophanor, a language teacher with over 23 years of experience, discusses his journey in education, emphasizing the importance of building strong relationships with students and treating them with respect. Renes advocates for a teaching approach that values creativity, flexibility, and genuine care for students. Renes's book, "I Still Love Teaching," aims to share his insights and methods to help other teachers. He advises teachers to prioritize their well-being and encourages those leaving the classroom to leverage their skills in other educational roles.

In this episode, he shares his experiences as a substitute teacher, highlighting the challenges and benefits of this role. He also criticizes the education system while acknowledging its potential benefits.

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode102.

In this episode I talk about how fun curriculum writing can be, and how it's such a creative outlet. One of my favorite things about curriculum development is that you get to think about things that are interesting in the world and bring it into the curriculum that you create.

I want you to think about when developing curriculum, you get to create what you find interesting and what you want to see out there in the world. As teachers, we can feel really boxed in by what we're told we have to teach or how we have to teach it. So working in curriculum design for me has been really an exploration and freedom. It’s why I think more teachers should try it!

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode101.

We’ve reached 100 episodes, so we’re celebrating. On this episode I've invited the wonderful Educator Forever team to join me in celebrating not just completing 100 episodes but all of the amazing work that they've done beyond the classroom.

Besides discussing our favorite episodes were, the team let’s me know what they love most about working with Educator Forever and how it’s empowered them. It gets a little emotional! But it’s a wonderful time and made me so happy to work with such fantastic people.

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode100.

Rob Owen is the founder of Move2Focus. With over 21 years as a school principal, author, and classroom educator, Rob deeply observed and personally felt the significant stress and burnout that plague the education world. After using both mindfulness and Tai Chi, Rob started to introduce these practices to students. Now he runs Move2Focus, which supports educators to use Tai Chi and Qi Gong in their classrooms.

Rob gets deep into the details of what Tai Chi and Qi Gong are, why he started teaching them to students and why it’s so helpful for teachers.

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode99.

Dr. Maggie Broderick is an associate professor at National University, where she serves as a dissertation chair and as a faculty lead for Social Emotional Learning and Curriculum and Instruction. She is also the director of NU’s Advanced Research Center and the editor of the International Journal of Online Graduate Education.

In this interview, Maggie and I talk about online education, going from teaching in K-12 to college, and how curriculum development is different for higher education.

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode98.

Lisa Vodala is the founder of Preschool Readers, she works with her team of preschool reading specialists to provide children ages three to five with an academic Head Start through their proprietary award winning accelerated reading instruction, which they deliver in person and virtually, enhanced by their exclusive framework, the Clear Approach, a framework for differentiated instruction.

I talk to Lisa about her business, how she was able to develop her framework while still teaching, and how COVID forced her to adapt.

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode97.

Dr. Shelby Kretz is the creator of Little Justice Leaders, an organization that provides social justice education resources for families, educators, and schools. Shelby earned her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA, and her research explores social justice education at the elementary school level. Over the past decade, Shelby has worked with thousands of parents, teachers, and school leaders to bring social justice education to elementary aged kids.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of addressing biases at an early age and some tips for running a small education business.

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode96.