We Teach Inspired!!

For this episode we had the chance to talk with a man who is doing incredible work for the special needs community Mr. Mythiquer Pickett. We connected with him through our friend Chip Baker and we were so impressed with the work he is doing out of Houston through the non-profit he founded called We See Abilities. He is helping kids with special needs increase the joy in their lives through sports and activities. It really is a worthwhile cause and he gives some concrete advice that we can use as educators to better serve our special needs students.

To learn more visit their website or find them on Instagram!

https://www.weseeabilities.org/

On this episode we share with you the audio from the AIE Conference panel on teacher retention that featured Wilkie, Michael Bonner, Hamish Brewer, Mike Zucker of UTSA, and Heather Salaz of AIE. It was a great conversation on how we can get more teachers into our profession, the challenges our schools and teachers are facing, and how we can help the teachers already in the profession succeed and find their purpose in teaching. We're looking forward to having all of these people on the podcast of individual conversations soon!

You can connect with Michael online @michaelbonner_ and Hamish @relentless_principal!

Some kids are smarter than you, some kids have cooler clothes than you, some kids are better at sports than you. It doesn't matter...you have your thing too. Be the kid who can get along. The kid that is generous. The kid that is happy for other people. The kid that does the right thing. The kid that tries his best. Be the nice kid.

Many of you have seen this quote, but here is your chance to hear from the man who created it, Bryan Skavnak (bethenicekid.com). Bryan has spent much of the last year talking with students and teachers about what his intentions were in writing this passage and how he strives to help kids build better relationships in schools and he was kind enough to come on the podcast to talk with us about it. If you'd like to support them and work with Bryan you can go their website find them on or find them on Facebook and Instagram @bethenicekid.

This episode is the audio of Wilkie's talk on teacher leadership form the AIE Conference. More importantly it's his story and it defines how he has gotten to where he is today as an educator! We hope this helps you get to know him just a little better!

Jason West has taken a different path than most to become a successful teacher and program coordinator in Southern California. He worked successfully in TV before the economic down turn of 2008 when as a back up plan he got his teaching credentials. It wasn't until a couple years ago when he had to make the choice between teaching and going back to TV that he realized that he was where he was meant to be in life.

Jason is the host of the Podclass Podcast and we were able to have conversation with him about the state of education, the perception of teachers and our profession, and loving our students and teaching with rigor are not mutually exclusive! We hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and that you connect with Jason to learn and grow your craft!

Instagram: @teachmemrwest

www.teachmemrwest.com

Find the Podclass on iTunes!

On this episode of the podcast we were joined by Asmahan Mashrah to have a conversation about culturally responsive teaching, and we did talk about it. But the conversation was completely unscripted as we didn't use any of the questions we had prepared and truly just had a conversation between educators about the realities that people of color and other marginalized groups face in education. Asmahan is a teacher outside of Detroit which has some of the worst conditions for teachers and students in the country, so she sees first hand that literally across the street from her school there are schools with no water. It was also powerful to hear the story of how she grew up in the American educational system and society versus how she is raising her kids. She is a powerhouse teacher and advocate for students, but we are grateful to her for helping us learn and grow in our craft as well!

If you want to connect with her you can find her on Instagram @teachingwithsugarandspice

Fun fact about Eric Crouch... He actually took the picture we use for our cover photo on the podcast! We were so grateful to catch up with Eric for the second time on our podcast to talk with him about how Wilkie can create a global learning aspect of his classroom and well as what's in store for the Teach Your Heart Out Conferences in 2019 that will be coming to Atlanta in March, a cruise to The Bahamas in June and San Antonio in October. We also had a chance to talk about The Pep Talk Series launched by the folks at The Wright Stuff Chics and how we can work to get more men into the profession! Eric truly is a mentor and inspiration to us as he has been so willing to share his advice with us, listen to our big ideas, and show genuine love for us. Eric we are deeply grateful for that and we hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast!

If you'd like to follow Eric on social media here's how you can:

Instagram: @adventureswithmrc

Twitter: @ericcrouch

teachyourheartout.com

On this episode we had the chance to talk with Tiffany Jewell (@antibiasmontessori) about her work as an educator and social justice advocate! Tiffany is a teacher of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders at a Montessori school discussed with us the need for teachers to help students develop their identities before we start to work with them on social justice issues. She talked with us about how a part of her identity needs to be seen in all of her students in order to help them develop as people. She is a part of the Montessori for Social Justice (http://montessoriforsocialjustice.org) an organization that strives to provide teachers with training and frameworks to teach racism and anti-racism. You can also find Montessori for Social Justice on Facebook where they list their resources and future events!

On this Throw Back Thursday episode of the podcast we bring episode #41 where we first connected with Mike Berezny!! We wanted to throw it back to this episode to honor the incredible work that @mikeybee3 is doing in education and in life. If you follow him on Instagram you'll continuously see him providing his Mindset Mondays, inspiring you to follow your dreams, or supporting some other noble cause. Plus we love his drive and authenticity to continue to pursue making music while teaching and juggling all the other things he has going! We hope you enjoy this throwback episode with Mike Berezny!

On this episode we were delighted to have Rae Hughart (hugh---art)to talk about how she strives in her teaching craft to always reflect, learn, and amplify! We love that because as she explains reflection is the where true growth in any endeavor starts and it is incredibly important for teachers. From that reflections Rae explains we learn the ways we're able to improve ourselves and the people around us. And after we've reflected and learned we are then responsible to amplify those learnings in our interactions with others and as teachers we use that as opportunities to continually build strong relationships with our kids!

We also had the chance to talk about her work with The Teach Better Team (https://teachbetter.com/) and her podcast with Jeff Gargas Teach Better Talk (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/teach-better-talk/id1434230303?mt=2)!

If you'd like to connect with Rae online The Teach Better Team has a private Facebook group you can request to join or you can find her on Instagram and Twitter @raehughart!