School is out, baseball and grilling are in full swing, and our summertime rituals have us about as far away from the day-to-day, kids-to-school rituals as they could have us. And yet, speaking with educators, the lives they lead, and the impact they have is still our favorite thing to pack into a podcast. Today, we have the privilege of chatting with 19-year teaching veteran, Kristi Porter, who joined us here in Momence about 9-years ago and has some powerful observations to share about why early childhood education is so important and how we can build better outcomes by investing just a little bit of time each day into really listening to children, and hearing what is important to them. She’s making a real impact on the future of our community through her work with the youngest among us. Let’s jump in and meet Kristi Porter.