We Teach Inspired!!

Latest Episodes:

The LED Project #99: Empowerment w/ Lindsey Petlak Aug 28, 2018

Show notes

We love Lindsey to death and this episode could have gone on forever!! We brought her on to talk about empowering teachers, math and STEM and didn't get past the intro questions. So we promise we'll have her on again to talk about math and STEM, but please enjoy this conversation and why the teaching profession is so important and how we can empower the teachers around us to succeed!!

The LED Project #98: Creating Cultural Relevancy w/ Naomi O'Brien Aug 26, 2018

Show notes

What does it take to create cultural relevancy for students? If you were Naomi O'Brien growing up it was simply to have a teacher ask you about who you are and what you like. On this episode Naomi (Instagram: @readlikearockstar) talks about how her educational experience impact how she strives to connect with her early elementary students today. When asked what the one thing every student should be taught she responded with the ability to know what they need and how to ask for it. And she strives to do that with her kids and works with them on the language needed to ask for things. We also had the chance to chat how to put language to social justice issues for both students and teachers. Naomi says that we often don't talk about difficult issues because we don't have the language or don't know how to ask the right questions, so with her students she often focuses on what justice would 'look like' in certain fictional and literal situations. We wrapped up the conversation with practical ways to build better relationships with parents like sending newsletters home in their native languages and better relationships with colleagues like venturing to other parts of the building to see people. We're so grateful to Naomi for sharing her story and wisdom and we hope you enjoy this episode!

The LED Project #97: #TBT To Our First Episode!! Aug 23, 2018

Show notes

With next week marking our 100th episode with only thought it appropriate to release our very first episode as this weeks throw back Thursday! This episode was recorded in January of 2017 and in it we talk about what Lighthouse Educator Development is all about. So much has changed for both of us since this episode was recorded. Wilkie is now back in the classroom at a brand new school and Kyle is back home in Wisconsin pursuing this venture full time! We hope in this episode you hear our hearts and we prove to you that what we're saying now is what we've said all along! Thank you so much for supporting our podcast! To learn more about our podcast and our teacher mentoring program called The Lighthouse Educator Academy visit our website theledproject.com! Follow us on Instagram @valueaddsvalue and @its.wil.law.iii

The LED Project #96: Humanizing the Classroom w/ Paul France Aug 21, 2018

Show notes

On this episode of the podcast we have a conversation about what a more humanized classroom would look like with Paul France. Paul's first piece of advise, "You have to have a belief in other people's truth." Paul is an openly gay teacher and advocate for marginalized groups whose work we came across when he wrote an article about how white male teachers can be better allies (https://paulemerich.com/2018/08/06/how-can-white-male-teachers-be-better-allies-for-people-of-color/). This sparked a conversation about how people who have privilege can be better allies to people who do not and he started out by explaining how we must accept that other people have a different truth than our own, but we must understand that both truths are valid. To us this means we must as people refrain from trying to validate our own truths by undermining or discrediting the truths of others. Paul gives his 5 As for being a better ally to marginalized groups: Awareness, Acceptance, Amplification, Advocacy, Accountability And when asked what advocacy looks like he stated the importance of advocating for people in the way they desire which requires us to ask people what they need. This is great advice no matter who you are fighting for or what cause you are championing. We're so grateful to Paul for giving his time to our listeners and if you'd like to check out his work you can click on the links below! https://paulemerich.com/ https://twitter.com/paul_emerich

The LED Project #95: Deal With Depression and Anxiety w/ James Lyas Aug 19, 2018

Show notes

We're so grateful for that James Lyas would come on the podcast and be so candid with us about his experiences as both a student and teacher dealing with anxiety and depression. We were honored to be able to listen to his story learn how we can better cope with our own depression and anxiety and what we can do to better serve our students who face these challenges. To learn more about James and his experiences you can find him on Instagram @bondwithjames and you can follow his journey on his Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClpHwmWkYdIA5wefDsaixeA

The LED Project #94: #TBT w/ Joe Dombrowski Aug 16, 2018

Show notes

In honor of the new school year we're releasing our first #throwbackthursday episode to the one and only Joe Dombrowski!! We felt so fortunate to have Joe take time out his busy schedule to discuss what authenticity means to teachers and how we must all #embraceourweird!!! We hope you enjoy this throwback episode of the podcast and that the start of your year is magical!!

The LED Project #93: The Summer w/ Liz Kleinrock Aug 14, 2018

Show notes

On this episode Liz Kleinrock returns to discuss her summer adventures and talks about what she has learned about education abroad. If you want to go back and listen to our first episode with Liz it is #44! We had a chance to catch up with Liz to hear the story of her summer trip to South Africa and what she has learned about education after the fall of Apartheid. Liz had the chance to tour several schools and listen to stories of both students and educators and how race has factored into education in South Africa. We also want to congratulate Liz for winning an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Southern Poverty Law Center and Teaching Tolerance. We heard about her time in Alabama this summer and what experiences were like tour the new Lynching Memorial in Montgomery. We were again blown away by the knowledge and perspective Liz shared with us and we're still wrestling with her ideas and how we can grow as educators. We hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and to follow Liz click the links below! Instagram.com/teachandtransform teachandtransform.org

The LED Project #92: The Urban Connection Project w/ Justin Campbell Aug 12, 2018

Show notes

Justin Campbell is an educator who founded The Urban Connection Project (theurbanconnectionproject.org) and is the author of the book CONFESSIONS OF AN INNER CITY TEACHER. Through his organization and book Justin and his wife strive to prepare new teachers for the challenges they will face teaching in inner city schools. During our conversation Justin talked about the need for teachers to be a stable force in our students lives because live in the reality of inconsistency. When teacher turnover is high and we know that it is in many urban areas it adds to the already unstable world that many of our students live in. During our time Justin describes how he strives to overcome the lack of hope that can be found in both students and teachers by striving to build cultural competency in teachers who are entering classrooms in our urban areas. Justin says the most important thing we can do as educators to build our cultural competency is to share our experiences and create shared experiences within our classrooms. We hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and we thank you for listening and supporting Lighthouse Educator Development!

The LED Project #91: Back to School! w/ Tori Pattison Aug 09, 2018

Show notes

On this episode we talk to Tori Pattison about what it means to be both engaging and educating! This was such a fun conversation about heading back to school and how Tori uses purpose driven routines in order to set her students up for success. Tori spoke at length about how all of your routines must have a greater purpose in order for your students to take hold of them. To Tori this means that routines must work towards the greater purpose of helping students learn to respect ideas and feelings. This may seem like a hard concept for 1st graders to learn, but Tori proves that with high expectations students can learn anything! Our favorite routine that Tori has is that she calls all of her classroom jobs "the economy" and each student job is called an "internship". She gives examples of how students thrive in these "internships" as a sanitation specialist who sweeps up the room or a woodworker who sharpens pencils. We also got a chance to talk with Tori about what types of technology she uses in the classroom and how she has students build digital portfolios. If you're looking for back to school inspiration this podcast is the one for you! Thanks to Tori for coming on the podcast and you can connect with her on Instagram @engagingandeducating!!

The LED Project #90: Effort is the Thing! w/ Dr. Irileria Muhammad Aug 07, 2018

Show notes

It's not often that the universe comes around so amazingly as it did for this podcast. Dr. Irileria Muhammad grew up with and went to the same college and as Wilkie and it was such a joy all these later for us to be able to have her on the podcast! There were so good stories from Wil's past, but we'll save those for another time!! Things we talked about in this podcast: *Why teachers are the most powerful force for good in our country. *How we can maintain high expectations of our students even as expectations for them get lower in Texas. *How cancer and teaching abroad have changed her perspective. *How as teachers we need to understand the sociology of our students as well as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

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