We Teach Inspired!!

We were so fortunate to have our friend Monica Genta back on the podcast to talk about how teachers can find and create meaningful professional development opportunities. We had the chance to hear how Monica's year out of the classroom to speak to and train teachers is going and what she has learned during it! Monica talks with us about how she strives to create PDs that can be personalized to the teacher and allows them to grow both as an educator and a person. Pair that with how engaging and fun she is and it makes for a dynamic podcast!

If you want to connect further with Monica you can find her on social @monicagentaed and on her website monicagenta.com!!

This conversation and relationship with Gary Gray Jr means the world to us! He is such an inspirational educator and a really good friend that we had a really candid conversation about what is important to us in education. What it came down to was how do we as teachers find our identity and voice so we can model for students how to do the same. If we can share one thing with our students it would be to help them see their true identities and within that develop their own voice based on their experiences. We believe that a person who has found their authentic voice will us it to amplify the voices of others and what is more important than that?!!

We hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast but we also want you to subscribe and listen to Gary's podcast The Teacher Talk Series!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/teacher-talk-series/id1433551931?mt=2

And follow him on Instagram @garyrgrayjr

On episode #120 we have a conversation with San Diego based elementary teacher on teaching in a combination classroom! We hadn't heard of a combination classroom until we spoke with Whitney, but what it means is she is a self contained teacher who has 13 1st graders and 13 2nd graders. We were able to talk with Whitney about the challenges of this arrangement and how she fosters a community with students of different age groups. She also spoke about how there are no perfect schools for teachers, but there are always ways to learn and grow no matter where you're at! We're so grateful to Whitney for coming on the show and we hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast! You can follow on Instagram @learningwithcrayons and if you're finding value in our podcast please leaving a rating and review!!

On this episode we were joined by Tosha Wright the founder of The Wright Stuff Chics (@thewrightstuffchics) and the Teach Your Heart Out Conference (@teachyourheartoutcon). It was amazing to hear the story of how in less than three years her and her mother have made such a gigantic impact on the teaching community through their inspiring apparel and inventive conference. During our conversation we discussed the value of teachers building authentic relationships in our urban schools, how we can better serve teachers who are new to the profession, and her mission to inspire teachers in ways that will leave a lasting impact on the profession. We hope this conversation gets you as fired up as it did us. As always thanks for listening and to connect with us please email us at [email protected], follow us on Instagram @valueaddsvalue, or find us on Facebook as Lighthouse Educator Development. To learn more about Tosha, The Wright Stuff Chics, and The Teach Your Heart Out Conference click on the links below.

thewrightstuffchics.com/

www.teachyourheartoutcon.com/

On this episode of the podcast Wilkie is joined by author, coach, teacher, and speaker Chip Baker for a conversation on how we can all grow in our professional. Chip is a teacher and coach in the Houston area and is the co-author of the book Growing Through Your Go Through and is the host of The Success Chronicles Podcast! On this episode you'll hear about how teachers can persevere through the trials of the professional and how we can surround ourselves with successful people. As Chip says at the end he is just a good dude who does whatever he can to make his students successful and we hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast!

Here's how you can connect with Chip:

@chipbakertsc

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Through-Your-Go-Solutions/dp/1725614677/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539732075&sr=8-1&keywords=growing+through+your+go+through

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chip-baker-the-success-chronicles/id1385159125?mt=2

Jonathan Willis is and Special Education teacher in North Carolina who is committed to showing the world that students with disabilities are capable of more than we can imagine! During our conversation we learned about how Jonathan became a teacher rather than a pharmacist, how he immerses his students into their school community, and how he is an advocate for all people with disabilities. We're so grateful to Jonathan for taking some time to come on the podcast and if you want to connect with him you can find him on Instagram @thesoulspeducator!!

On this episode of the podcast we were lucky to be joined by our good friend Rob Wottawa for a conversation on how we've grown over the last two years when we met at the UNM Mentoring Institute! We got to catch up with Rob on how he approaches his job as an assistant principal and how he approaches the "bigger classroom." We also got hear Rob's journey into the classroom from being a classical guitar player and how he grew into teaching. It was great to catch up with Rob and we hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and be sure to follow Rob on Twitter @rwottawa and Instagram @robwottawa!

On this episode we were joined by Dr. Paul Gavoni (@drpauliegloves) and Anika Costa to hear how they use Applied Behavioral Analysis to train and coach teachers to be more successful with their students. During our conversation we got to hear both of their backgrounds in education, how they came upon the science of Applied Behavior and how they are using it to make teachers more successful in the classroom and keep in them in the profession longer!

Please don't be intimidated by the name is they make the concepts so practical and draw on their experiences of working with teachers to help us understand the simplicity of our students' behaviors.

You can find both of the them on Instagram, Linked In, Facebook or check out their website www.teampbs.com!!

We look forward to getting to meet them in person at AIE in San Antonio!

We're really excited to talk with you about our new program The Music and Arts Collective. It's an after school program Wil is piloting at his school that brings together students collaborate and create in the arts ranging from hip-hop to photography. It is a collective because students will learn life lessons and social skills by having to work together across disciplines to create as a unit. We're super excited for you to watch and listen to their journey and for this to be the next phase of Lighthouse Educator Development.

On this episode we're joined by kindergarten teacher Monique Waters (IG: @itsmoniquesworld) for a conversation about how we can build on the capabilities our students have not matter what age they are. Monique has been a kinder teacher in Cleveland for five years and we had the chance to talk about how she creates student success through her routines that include smiling, breathing, and focusing their minds! She learned this method from Prince Ea (IG: @princeea) and how she uses it with her kindergarteners because she wanted to give them a way to cope in life that they could use no matter where they were.

We also had the chance to discuss the importance for teachers of getting into routines with ourselves and with our kids because we had a good laugh about how easily we can through our days off when we lose track of routines. We really love how Monique also believes that her students are leaders right now and treat them as such! It was a lot to pack into 40 minutes, but we're so grateful to have had her on the podcast!

If you enjoyed this episode and have found value in our podcast please leave us a rating and review! It would help us gain more traction in searches and share these stories with more teachers!!