The Big E.D idea Podcast

Mrs. Betzy is a High School Innovation Coach and Instructional Leader in Guatemala City, Guatemala.  During the start of the pandemic, she realized the power of social media and became the Google Education Group Leader for all of Guatemala! 

Through her many connections, she has been able to collaborate with and unite people from all over the Southern Hemisphere.  

Mathew has dedicated a decade and a half to education in his role as a teacher, instructional coach, teacher mentor, and school administrator.

You can find Mathew on:

John Nash is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He has been a social research scientist, program evaluator, entrepreneur, professor, and department chair during his career.

You can reach John on Twitter @jnash or email him at The University of Kentucky at [email protected]. 

Kevin W. Curtis is the Founder and Lead Consultant for National Educators for Restorative Practices and co-author of the book Restorative Discipline Practices: A Journey in Implementation from a Community of Educators.

 Kevin has developed an educator's model for restorative practitioners in schools that includes six proactive tools to build and sustain relationships in the classroom, including three tools that take less than two minutes.  Kevin has developed an alternative approach where consequences and accountability collide in responding to behaviors, identified as Differentiated Discipline.

You can find more information on Relationship-Centered Learning at their website, www.rclfirst.com.  

Aviva grew up in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada as an only child, though she had plenty of imaginary friends. She was incredibly shy until she discovered a love of theater in the fourth grade, which allowed her to fake being outgoing until she woke up one day and realized she was no longer shy! 

Aviva became a Social Studies and French teacher, after a series of random jobs including retail associate, administrative assistant, and fake fortune teller. This career choice came as no surprise to her parents, who remember her taking attendance and then reteaching her stuffed animals whatever lessons she’d learned that day in school. 

Throughout her life she has maintained her love of theater, particularly improvisational theater, and has raised over $28,000 for various charities with her improv troupe based in Vancouver, BC. In 2018 Aviva and her husband decided that seven years of a long-distance relationship was enough, and she moved to the Seattle, Washington area. At that time, she started her podcast “Lesson: Impossible – An Exploration of Educational Innovation” as a way to interview extraordinary educators and to get a better sense of how the educational system works in the new country she calls home. In September she started a blog, also with the “Lesson: Impossible” theme, to share language teaching strategies and resources. You can often find her curled up with a good book, walking her dog Shelby, or listening to podcasts while she overloads the dishwasher.

Check out her podcast here! 

Kristi Hape is an Occupational Therapist with over 20 years experience in the schools and 17 years experience at home, raising 3 girls with her loving husband. She survived 22 years as the wife of a college and high school football coach by working in the schools and over the last 7 years, has supported students with significant behavior challenges in the schools and inpatient mental health settings.

She is passionate about sharing her experiences with teachers and supporting student learning by helping everyone understand how trauma impacts sensory responses to stress and the learning environment.

Andrea Samadi, a former middle-school teacher from Toronto, now in Arizona, has spent the past 20+ years working with social/emotional learning. Andrea knows first-hand about stress in the classroom as her first job at The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Education was a behavioral class. She felt overwhelmed by the lack of resources to help her manage and teach her students, so she set out on a mission to find ways to support students and educators.

In 2014, her program, Level Up (that consists of a book and over 60 online lessons and resources) was chosen by Arizona’s Department of Education and in 2019 she released her podcast “Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning” that bridges the gap between application and theory.

After just two years, her podcast has featured some of the leading experts in neuroscience, education, and the brain has over 111K downloads, and reaches over 153 countries. Andrea is focused on providing tools and resources for educators and the workplace to improve well-being, productivity, and results using the application of practical neuroscience.

Mark Horner is a proud husband and father. He has been married to his college sweetheart, Jennifer for over 20 years. They have two children: Kelsie, who just graduated from Tallmadge High School, and a son, Noah, who is entering his 10th-grade year at THS. Mark received his undergraduate degree from the University of Akron, and his Master’s in K-12 Leadership from Kent State University. He has spent his entire teaching career within Tallmadge City Schools.  At the HS  level where he has been teaching US History and Psychology for a lot of years! When not in the classroom you can either find him on a basketball court coaching basketball, at Crimson Cup drinking coffee and reading a good book or walking his Golden Retriever, Teddy, (yep, named after President #26) around town. 

Mark is an aspiring blogger and podcaster. You can check out his writing at https://horner.school.blog/ and his podcast, #Between2BlueDevils, at https://anchor.fm/mark-horner, or on any other podcasting platform. 

You can find Mark on Twitter @THSMr_Horner. 

Matthew J Bowerman has spent 24 years in education as a Heartleader, working to support and engage students and communities. He is an Assistamt Principal in an elementary school in Montgomery County, MD,.as well as a writer, speaker, and professional actor/singer/dancer in Theatre, TV and Film. Matthew has taught Special Education, all forms of Theatre, English, and Reading, and is an Emmy and Cine Golden Eagle awardee for his short film BusSTOP addressing the bullying crisis.  

Click HERE for Matthew's website

You can find Matthew on:

Dr. Basil Marin hails from the Central Virginia area. He is a graduate of Eastern Mennonite University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He later earned a Master of Teaching in Special Education from Liberty University. After moving to the Virginia Beach area in 2014, he pursued an Educational Specialist in Administration & Supervision k-12 from Old Dominion University. Dr. Marin recently earned an Executive Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Old Dominion University in 2020.   Dr. Marin is one of the proud assistant principals of Chamblee Charter High School, a diverse high school located in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Marin brings an authentic and refreshing perspective to the field of education. As an administrator, he works hard to foster equitable opportunities and inclusive learning environments where ALL students and teachers are valued and respected.  Dr. Marin works daily to build meaningful relationships with students and desires to be the administrator he needed when he was growing up yet did not have access to. As a former struggling student himself, Dr. Marin is humbled to be able to give back to students who historically have fallen through the cracks of education and have not been given a second chance.  Dr. Marin has been afforded some incredible opportunities through the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) organization such as being selected as a 2017 Emerging Leader and being appointed as a “featured speaker” at the 2019 Empower Conference in Chicago. In addition, he met with U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy Devos and her executive team to speak on behalf of marginalized and underserved students and explained how the lack of funding has impacted their educational experiences. Currently, Dr. Marin is the President for the Emerging Leaders ASCD National Affiliate. Dr. Marin is a contributing author in several books including Personal & Authentic, Unconventional Leadership, Modern Mentor, Forces of Influence, and It’s Me.