Big Ideas in Education

Latest Episodes:

BIIE 232: Effective Strategies for Principals to Succeed featuring Jorge Rivas Dec 01, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 232: Effective Strategies for Principals to Succeed featuring Jorge Rivas
This week, Ryan sits with Jorge Rivas, a longtime educator and current principal at the Cornerstone Charter Academy in Central Florida. Jorge is the author of the book “Principals Matter: Highly Effective Leadership Strategies”, which came out earlier this year. Jorge shares his extensive experience in the education field of nearly 40 years as a teacher, counselor, director, supervisor, assistant principal, and principal, discussing how education has changed, the importance of principals, myths of what makes a school leader effective, his book, advice for early-career educators, and more. Tune in!
You can find Jorge’s book, “Principals Matter: Highly Effective Leadership Strategies,” on Amazon.
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 231: The Growth of Microschools with David K. Richards Nov 03, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 231: The Growth of Microschools with David K. Richards
This week, Ryan sits with David K. Richards, a nationally recognized education leader and the founder and CEO of Changemaker EDU, a growing network of microschools and an incubator for school founders across the country. Microschools are small schools that vary in funding and location, have an enrollment of 5 to 150 students, and foster a close-knit environment via experiential learning. David discusses growth, myths, traditional education settings vs. microschools, Changemaker EDU’s work, and more. Tune in!
You can find out more about our guest’s work by visiting changemakereducation.com
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 230: What is ESTEAM® and How It Can Energize the Classroom with Scott Mann Oct 06, 2025

Show notes

Big Ideas In Education, Ep. 230: What is ESTEAM® and How It Can Energize the Classroom with Scott Mann
This week, Ryan sits with Scott Mann, the Director of Education and Training at VentureLab, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating the next generation of diverse innovators and changemakers through entrepreneurial learning. ESTEAM®, a version of STEAM learning that infuses entrepreneurship, allows students to employ an entrepreneurial mindset in their classwork, projects, and homework. Ryan and Scott discuss the value of entrepreneurship in ESTEAM®, examples, student success stories, Scott’s presentation at the Out-of-School-Time Initiatives Conference, VentureLab in the classroom, advice, and more. Tune in!
You can find out more about our guest’s work by visiting venturelab.org
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 229: Managing Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom and Beyond with Gerry White Sep 01, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 229: Managing Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom and Beyond with Gerry White
This week, Ryan sits with Gerry White, the Dean of Academic Technology at ECPI University and the founder of MyTutorPlus. They discuss Gerry’s view of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across education and a variety of careers, positive uses for AI in education, areas to be cautious, advice for teachers who integrate AI into the classroom, job trends, and more. Tune in!
You can find out more about our guest’s work by visiting gerrywhite.tech and gerrywhite.substack.com.
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 228: Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Data Analytics with Emily Chase Coleman Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 228: Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Data Analytics with Emily Chase Coleman
This week, Ryan sits with Emily Chase Coleman, the co-founder and CEO of HAI Analytics, a renowned education consulting firm. They discuss factors in K-12 teacher and administration turnover, how turnover affects schools financially, solutions, the impact of artificial intelligence on data analytics, and more. Tune in!
You can learn more about our guest’s work at haianalytics.com
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 227: Today’s Education Field and Advice with Dr. Jodi Blinco Jul 07, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 227: Today’s Education Field and Advice with Dr. Jodi Blinco
This week, Ryan sits with Dr. Jodi Blinco, the founder of The U School and a sought-after education consultant and leader. They discuss challenges facing schools today and staying resilient, cultivating an effective staff and minimizing turnover, her mantra “controlling the controllables,” advice for young education professionals, and more. Tune in!
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 226: Mentorship for K-12 Students with Jermaine Myrie Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 226: Mentorship for K-12 Students with Jermaine Myrie
This week, Ryan sits with Jermaine Myrie, the CEO of MENTOR, a national nonprofit that focuses on fueling high-quality relationship-centered practices for young people and uniting, expanding, and strengthening the mentoring movement. They discuss examples of effective K-12 mentorship, impacts on student outcomes, internal and external mentors, school involvement, MENTOR celebrating its 35th anniversary, and lots more. Tune in!
You can find out more about our guest by visiting mentoring.org
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 225: K-12 Risk Management and Insurance with Jonathan Schreter May 05, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 225: K-12 Risk Management and Insurance with Jonathan Schreter
This week, Ryan sits with Jonathan Schreter, the Executive Vice President at IMA Financial Group and a leading insurance broker for charter and independent K-12 schools. Jonathan is also a Certified Insurance Counselor with the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Resource. They discuss why insurance is a must-have for charter and independent K-12s, making sense of insurance and risk management terms, advice for those filling out applications, defining risk pools and JPAs, insuring unique offerings, virtual schools, and homeschool programs, and lots more. Tune in!
You can find out more about our guest’s work at imacorp.com
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 224: Addressing the Teacher Shortage Today with Nicola Soares Apr 07, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 224: Addressing the Teacher Shortage Today with Nicola Soares
This week, Ryan sits with Nicola Soares, the President of Kelly Education, the country’s largest staffing provider. Nicola has advanced a wide range of potential solutions to address educator shortages. They discuss where the shortage stands today, strategies to find new talent and retain veteran educators, professional development opportunities, and the role Kelly Education has played in aiding schools with finding substitute teaching, special education, support staff, early childhood education, and executive searches. Tune in!
You can find out more about our guest’s work by visiting kellyeducation.com
Don’t just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasInEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

BIIE 223: Trauma-Informed Classrooms with Dr. Robyn Koslowitz Mar 10, 2025

Show notes

BIIE 223: Trauma-Informed Classrooms with Dr. Robyn Koslowitz
This week, Ryan sits with renowned clinical psychologist and parenting educator Robyn Koslowitz. Dr. Koslowitz is also the host of the Post-Traumatic Parenting Podcast, a program that helps parents navigate giving their children a healthy childhood in the face of traumatic events. Dr. Koslowitz shares how the COVID pandemic exacerbated trauma, parenting with trauma, steps teachers can take to help students, what a trauma-informed classroom is, and lots more valuable insight into these topics. Tune in!
You can find the Post-Traumatic Parenting Podcast on all major platforms.
Don't just listen, join the conversation! Tweet us at @AcademicaMedia or with the hashtag #BigIdeasinEducation with questions or new topics you want to see discussed.
Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)
Producer: Laura Blanco

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