Value Adds Value!

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! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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 --- Support this podcast: https://a

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 --- Support this podcast: https://

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! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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 @

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!! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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!! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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 podcast@theledproject.com, 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.

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 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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!! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

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 t

CJ Reynolds teaches 9th grade English at Latin Boys High School in West Philly... INSERT THE FRESH PRINCE THEME HERE and has an incredible YouTube channel with which he puts out videos on teaching. During our conversation we talked about the value of both authenticity and vulnerability and how we models them for his boys. CJ also discussed how to "find the you" among your students meaning that if we are struggling to connect with our students we should seek out kids who were like us at that age because we can easily relate. And among other things made the point in conclusion that our job as teachers is to make sure kids feel seen and heard and challenges us to strive at that goal. It was a powerful conversation and you're going to want to follow CJ wherever you can! @realrapwithreynolds https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRGA_FqyigEPmh5U37Yn7fA --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

We've been talking a lot recently as Wilkie has been back in the classroom about how kids truly just want to be seen. So we're releasing this podcast from earlier this year because we want to continue the conversation on how we can validate kids more authentically! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support

On this episode of the podcast we're joined by our friend and Bay Area teacher Tyler Richards! Originally we'd planned to talk about his routines and reading strategies, but it turned into a conversation about education and the teachers role in it. We talked about the difference between having discipline and structure and being an authoritarian. We talked about how teaching is a profession is among the most difficult and rewarding in the country. We talked about how reluctant we are as teachers to talk to people other than teachers about the joys of the job because we assume they won't understand. All of that is to say that this job isn't for the faint of heart and we must find a way to make our profession look more inviting! We hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast and if you want to connect with Tyler you can find him on Instagram @sculptinginsixth!! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valueaddsvalue/support