In this episode, I reflect on Jesus’ Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13 and what it means for educators. Jesus describes a farmer scattering seed onto different kinds of soil, and I’m reminded that the farmer’s responsibility is to faithfully sow even though he cannot control what happens with every seed.

I connect that story directly to teaching because educators are constantly planting seeds. We plant knowledge, encouragement, curiosity, confidence, expectations, kindness, hope, and belief. Sometimes we get to see those seeds grow immediately, but other times the results may not become visible until years later.

I also reflect on how difficult that can be for teachers because we naturally want to know that our work matters. A student may not understand a lesson until the following year. They may not appreciate a boundary until they are older. They may not recognize the importance of an encouraging conversation until adulthood.

As I prepare for another week, I’m reminded that my responsibility is not to force growth. My responsibility is to faithfully create opportunities for growth. I may never see what becomes of every seed I plant, but that does not mean the planting was meaningless.

• Jesus’ Parable of the Sower
• Understanding the four kinds of soil
• Teachers as seed planters
• Planting knowledge, encouragement, and hope
• Why growth may take years to appear
• Faithfulness when results are not immediate
• Trusting that unseen seeds can still matter

• Teachers plant seeds every day.
• We cannot control how quickly every student grows.
• Some of our greatest impact may appear years later.
• Different students may be ready for different things at different times.
• Our responsibility is to faithfully create opportunities for growth.
• A seed can matter even when we never see the harvest.

In this Saturday Stories episode, I continue the Leadership Kit focus on imagination with the skill Read Lots of Books. Through the story The Story That Changed It, I explore how a student who wasn't even looking for a book discovers one that gives him a completely different way to think about a challenge in his own life.

I share how books can do far more than help students practice reading skills. Stories can introduce us to people, places, experiences, and perspectives we may never encounter otherwise. They can help us understand other people, solve problems, become curious, and sometimes better understand ourselves.

I also provide discussion questions teachers can use throughout the week to help students reflect on how books influence their thinking. The goal is to help students see reading as more than an assignment and begin noticing the connections they make between stories, characters, ideas, and their own experiences.

Ultimately, this episode is about helping students develop imagination through reading. Sometimes we choose a story because the cover catches our attention, but every once in a while, a story gives us exactly the idea, encouragement, or perspective we needed at that moment.

• Continuing the Leadership Kit value of imagination
• The skill: Read Lots of Books
• How stories can change perspective
• Helping students connect books to their lives
• Discussion questions for the classroom
• Encouraging students to recommend books
• Reading for discovery, empathy, and imagination

• Books can expand students' imagination and perspective.
• Stories can help students understand themselves and others.
• Reading can inspire persistence and new ways of thinking.
• Meaningful book connections deserve to be noticed and celebrated.
• Students should experience reading as discovery, not only an assignment.
• Sometimes the right story reaches us at exactly the right time.

In this episode, I wrap up the first week of the Teachers Are Not Broken series by asking what actually walks out the door when a great teacher leaves. Schools don't simply lose someone who knows the curriculum. They lose relationships, institutional knowledge, mentorship, leadership, professional judgment, trust, and years of influence that cannot simply be replaced by filling an open position.

I also share my own experience of leaving a school district after more than two decades without leaving the teaching profession. That experience taught me an important distinction: sometimes a great teacher doesn't stop loving teaching—they need a different environment where they can continue loving it. In my current district, professional trust, autonomy, respect, accountability, and opportunities to lead have helped me feel energized and excited about teaching again.

I explore how leadership, teacher voice, professional autonomy, accountability, and working conditions influence whether great educators stay. Compliance is not the same as commitment, and teachers can follow every directive while slowly becoming disconnected from their organization. I believe strong schools need educators who think, ask questions, advocate for students, contribute ideas, and respectfully challenge thinking when they believe something can be better.

Most importantly, I don't believe teacher retention should mean keeping every teacher at any cost. Sometimes leaving a school, district, role, or even the profession is the healthy decision. But when skilled educators still love teaching and feel forced to choose between their well-being and the profession they love, we should pay attention. Instead of simply asking teachers to become tougher, we need to ask what conditions would allow great teachers to thrive.

• What schools actually lose when great teachers leave
• Why relationships and institutional knowledge matter
• My experience changing districts after more than two decades
• How trust, autonomy, and accountability can coexist
• Why compliance is different from commitment
• When leaving may be the healthy decision
• What schools can learn from teachers who leave
• Creating conditions where great educators can thrive

• Replacing a position doesn't replace everything a great teacher contributed.
• Sometimes teachers leave an environment without wanting to leave teaching.
• Trust, autonomy, accountability, and professional respect can coexist.
• Teacher voice matters because compliance isn't the same as commitment.
• Schools should become curious about why strong educators leave.
• Retention shouldn't come at the expense of a teacher's well-being.
• Sometimes changing the conditions can help a great teacher rediscover their passion.

In this episode, I widen the conversation about teacher retention because I believe this crisis reaches far beyond teachers and schools. When a great educator leaves, the effects ripple outward to students, families, colleagues, communities, businesses, and eventually society itself. Education helps prepare the people who enter every other profession, which means all of us have a stake in the strength of our schools.

I explore what instability can mean for students and families, especially when schools experience repeated turnover, larger classes, substitutes, disappearing programs, or the loss of experienced educators. I also discuss the professional judgment veteran teachers develop over thousands of interactions with students and why schools need both the energy of new educators and the accumulated wisdom of experienced ones.

I also connect strong schools to strong communities and a strong future workforce. The doctors, nurses, mechanics, electricians, entrepreneurs, farmers, business owners, and community leaders of tomorrow are sitting in classrooms today. Education can expand possibilities for young people, help them discover their gifts, and give them hope that they have something meaningful to contribute.

Ultimately, I believe teacher retention belongs to all of us. Teachers have responsibilities to grow and serve students well, but society also has a responsibility to create conditions where great educators can do their work effectively. Keeping great teachers isn't doing teachers a favor. It is an investment in students, families, communities, our workforce, and our collective future.

• Why teacher retention affects everyone
• Education’s role in every profession
• How instability affects students and families
• Why veteran teacher experience matters
• Schools, communities, and the future workforce
• Education as a source of possibility and hope
• Our shared responsibility for teacher retention

• Teacher retention is bigger than an education issue.
• Students often experience the first effects of teacher turnover.
• Veteran educators carry professional judgment and institutional knowledge.
• Strong schools help create strong communities and workforces.
• Education expands possibilities and gives young people hope.
• Keeping great teachers is an investment in society’s future.

In this episode, I take a deeper look at what we commonly call the teacher shortage and ask whether the shortage itself is really the problem—or whether it is a symptom of something deeper happening within the profession. After 24 years in education, I’ve watched the conversation change from schools receiving huge numbers of applicants to districts struggling to fill classrooms.

I explore several factors that may be contributing to this shift, including working conditions, student behavior, leadership, compensation, workload, support, public perception, and the cost of becoming a teacher. I also reflect on what changed after COVID and why respect for educators belongs in the teacher retention conversation.

I talk about the importance of both new and veteran educators. When experienced teachers leave, schools lose more than employees—they lose professional judgment, institutional knowledge, leadership, and mentors for the next generation. When young teachers leave after only a few years, I believe we should become curious about what happened instead of immediately questioning their commitment.

Ultimately, I argue that we cannot recruit our way out of a retention problem. Recruitment matters, but so does creating a profession where talented educators can build meaningful, sustainable careers. Instead of only asking where we will find more teachers, I believe we also need to ask what will help great teachers want to stay.

• The teacher shortage as a symptom
• Recruitment versus retention
• Why teacher expertise is not disposable
• What changed after COVID
• The shrinking teacher pipeline
• Losing veteran and early-career teachers
• Building a profession where teachers stay

• Teacher vacancies may point to deeper problems.
• Recruitment alone cannot solve a retention crisis.
• Veteran teachers carry expertise schools cannot easily replace.
• Early-career departures should make us curious about why teachers leave.
• Filling a position is not the same as building a great teacher.
• Strong schools need both new educators and experienced educators.

In this episode, I explore the difference between teacher burnout and moral injury, a concept that helped me better understand what many educators may be experiencing. I also share how my longtime mentor, Dr. Tangela Sylvester, encouraged me to explore the idea more deeply and gave me language for something I had already been wrestling with.

I explain that burnout often feels like exhaustion, depletion, and emotional fatigue, while moral injury can feel more like knowing what you believe is right for a student but being unable to consistently do it because of circumstances outside your control. I’m careful not to diagnose anyone or suggest that every educator’s experience is the same.

I also reflect on how this tension can show up in real classrooms through limited time, competing responsibilities, testing demands, student needs, lack of resources, and the constant challenge of balancing authentic learning with accountability. Naming these realities is not about complaining or lowering expectations—it is about understanding what educators may be carrying.

I close by emphasizing that teachers are not victims and that this conversation should lead to greater compassion, better questions, and stronger support. Understanding burnout and moral injury does not solve every problem, but it can help us begin healthier conversations about teacher retention, student success, and hope for the profession.

• Teacher burnout vs. moral injury
• Dr. Tangela Sylvester’s influence
• When professional values clash with reality
• Why naming challenges is not complaining
• Supporting teachers supports students
• Understanding as the beginning of hope

• Burnout and moral injury are not the same experience.
• Moral injury can involve conflict between values and circumstances.
• Caring deeply can create significant emotional weight.
• Understanding educators’ experiences can build compassion.
• Better understanding can lead to better support.

In this episode, I begin an important new series by asking a difficult question: why are so many good teachers leaving the profession? I want this conversation to be honest without becoming negative, because I love teaching and believe deeply in the importance of strengthening the profession rather than tearing it down.

I reflect on the educators I’ve watched walk away over the years, including experienced teachers and young people who decided not to continue in education. What concerns me most is that many of the teachers leaving are deeply committed educators who care about students, continually work to improve, and carry an enormous amount of emotional weight because they take the work seriously.

I also explain why teacher retention is bigger than an employment issue. When great teachers leave, students lose mentors, schools lose experience, communities lose trusted adults, and future teachers lose people who could have helped guide them. Supporting teachers and supporting students are not competing priorities—they are deeply connected.

I close by making clear what this series will and will not be. I’m not interested in blaming parents, administrators, policymakers, or teachers. I want to understand what educators are carrying, talk honestly about the challenges, and continue looking for hope. The next conversation will explore the important difference between teacher burnout and moral injury.

• Why talented educators are leaving
• Teacher retention as a community issue
• The emotional weight of caring deeply
• Supporting teachers supports students
• Honest conversations without blame
• Beginning a new series rooted in hope

• Many outstanding teachers are reaching their limits.
• Caring deeply can carry a significant emotional cost.
• Teacher retention affects entire communities.
• Supporting educators directly benefits students.
• Honest conversations can create pathways toward hope.

In this episode, I celebrate two beginnings at once: another school year and episode 300 of the Be a Funky Teacher podcast. When I recorded my first episode, I never imagined reaching this milestone, and I’m proud of what those 300 episodes represent—300 opportunities to encourage educators and talk about a profession I truly love.

I reflect on how the podcast has evolved from individual episodes built around whatever was on my heart into deeper conversations and connected series. Those conversations have also become the foundation for future books, including Be a Funky Teacher and Teaching in an Age of AI, while reminding me that the podcast itself will always come first.

I also look ahead to the next major weekday series, which will focus on the challenges facing teachers and why I believe teachers are not broken—they are carrying tremendous weight. Saturday Stories and Sunday School for Teachers will continue, and I’m also working to make classroom resources more consistently available while exploring a possible Be a Funky Teacher YouTube show.

As I begin my 24th year in education, I’m excited about another group of students and another opportunity to grow. Episode 300 isn’t a finish line. It’s the beginning of a new chapter, and my challenge for educators is not only to think about what students should learn this year, but also who we want to become as educators.

• Celebrating episode 300
• Beginning my 24th year of teaching
• How the podcast has evolved
• A new series focused on supporting teachers
• Saturday Stories and Sunday School for Teachers
• Books, classroom resources, and a possible YouTube show

• Meaningful work is built through consistency.
• Reflection helps educators continue growing.
• Relationships remain at the center of teaching.
• Teachers need honest conversations and hope.
• Episode 300 is the beginning of another chapter.

In this episode, I reflect on how quickly summer has passed and the importance of slowing down to appreciate the people who matter most. As my family prepares for an eight-day cruise with friends we first met on a cruise two years ago, I’m reminded how simple conversations can grow into lifelong friendships.

I share why family memories require intentionality and how every season of life teaches us something. This summer has been filled with lessons from travel, family gatherings, professional learning, and watching my children continue to grow into young adults.

I also reflect on the importance of balancing excitement for the future with gratitude for the present. A new school year is approaching, and while I’m looking forward to new students and new opportunities, I don’t want to rush through the moments that make today meaningful.

As I close this final summer check-in, I encourage you to invest in relationships, make memories, and appreciate the season you’re living in. The greatest blessings in life are rarely destinations—they’re the people who share the journey with us.

• Preparing for a family cruise
• How friendships can begin unexpectedly
• Lessons from a summer of experiences
• The importance of intentional family memories
• Looking ahead without rushing today
• Episode 300 is just around the corner

• Every season of life has something to teach us.
• Family memories are created intentionally.
• Friendships often begin with simple conversations.
• Gratitude helps us appreciate the present.
• Relationships are life’s greatest investment.

In this episode, I reflect on one of the beliefs that has shaped my entire career: learning never stops. As I prepare to travel to Lincoln to help write science assessment items for the state of Nebraska, I’m reminded that even after more than two decades in education, I still have so much to learn.

I share how learning happens in many different places. Conferences, classrooms, family experiences, travel, podcasts, outdoor adventures, and conversations all continue teaching me important lessons. Some of the most meaningful learning in life happens far beyond a traditional classroom.

I also reflect on the connection between curiosity, humility, and growth. Experience matters, but experience alone is not enough. Great educators continue reading, asking questions, listening, reflecting, and remaining open to new perspectives.

As I look ahead, I’m grateful that I have not figured everything out. Learning keeps life interesting, keeps us humble, and helps us become better educators, parents, leaders, and people. The goal is not to arrive. The goal is to keep growing.

• Preparing to write state science assessments
• Why great teachers remain learners
• Lessons from conferences and experiences
• Students and family members as teachers
• The relationship between humility and growth
• Staying curious throughout life

• Learning does not end when school ends.
• Experience matters, but curiosity drives growth.
• Some of life’s greatest lessons happen outside classrooms.
• Humility creates room for continued learning.
• The goal is not arrival—the goal is growth.