Our students all deserve to feel safe at school, so what do we do with all this news about immigration executive orders and the new Prop 314 that was passed? What does this mean for our schools and for our families?

Well, it's happening - the U.S. Department of Education is being wiped out. What does this mean? What do we do? Why is this happening? Listen to this episode with Interim Executive Director John Wright to learn more about the history, context, and impact of this decision.

As we grow our union and our power by having more and more locals reach majority and supermajority status plus seeing pro-public education candidates elected up and down the ballot, the possibility of us winning a spot at the metaphorical table is becoming more and more real. But how we do start to prepare leaders for being part of the decision-making and policy leadership and start to grow even more leaders? John Wright, Interim Executive Director, joins us to talk about leadership identification and development.

In this episode, we have Deputy Director of AEA , Joaquin Rios, on as our guest and resident political expert to talk about what is on your ballot from the very top all the way down to the bottom on all the issues that relate to public education and issues our members care about. Listen and share with other voters!

In this episode, we welcome Brandon Riddle - a Field Services Engineer who travels around the world helping set up planetariums! He talks with us about the future of space exploration and jobs, how he got into the field, and about resources we can use to engage and prepare students for STEM careers.

Join us in talking to long time union organizer - Joe Diggs! He is AEA's Deputy Director of Organizing & Growth Strategies, and he shares some thought-provoking nuggets of knowledge for us to think about when it comes to reclaiming our power as educators through our union.

This summer was a whirlwind of union activity! We really lived our motto of "Member-Led Organization"! We had Delegate Assembly in May where hundreds of educators from across the state gathered to discuss the business of the union and make important decisions about the budget, beliefs, and stances of AEA. In June, we had a leadership conference (Leadership & Growth Summit), and in July, we sent representatives to the national democratic body (Representative Assembly) - all while navigating historic firsts and continuing to grow!

For most people, when they think of grant writing they think of boring paperwork and repetitive questions, but what if you saw it as an opportunity to dream? Having successfully brought in over a $1,000,000 in grant dollars to AEA's Learn and Lead program, Carrie is ready to share some ways to bring in some extra dough for you.

It's season 3 and a brand new school year, and we're back with more cringe jokes, good conversation, and nerdy references.

We're kicking things off with an episode about goal setting - both personally and professionally. How do we look at what's currently on our plate, make goals we can actually achieve, and do so with joy?

In this episode, we're joined by Deputy Director Joaquin Rios who is talking about the educators at the capitol events we host every spring break, how they went this year, and the purpose of these types of organizing opportunities. Even more exciting is that Carrie gets to tell the cheesy joke this episode... ok, it's only exciting to her, but the conversation around what educators were able to share with legislators is worth a listen!