What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with three dynamic educators working to change the way teachers collaborate, teach and learn in New Orleans: Nan Sterling, Dr. Jawan Brown-Alexander, and Adrienne Dowden. Nan Sterling serves as the Executive Director of Instructional Quality with New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) where she provides opportunities to support charter schools with professional learning and curriculum implementation. Dr. Jawan Brown - Alexander is Chief of Schools at NSNO and Adrienne Dowden is an educational consultant and owner of ASD Educational Consulting Group, LLC. AS ..read more

What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with Shanna Beber, Director of Literacy, and Catsaha Edwards, Literacy Professional Development Specialist, with the Louisiana Dept of Education (LDOE). Beber and Edwards share their work in Louisiana to support the initiatives passed in two recent pieces of state legislation: Senate Resolution 182 and House Resolution 222. These resolutions provided the funds and resources to establish the Early Literacy Commission whose purpose is to guide the state-wide implementation of practices rooted in the Science of Reading research base. Beber and Edwards, bot ..read more

What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with Brent Conway, Assistant Superintendent of Pentucket Regional School District in Massachusetts about his experience with district literacy improvement. Several years ago, Brent began his administrative career as a principal of a school in danger of state takeover. With this task ahead of him, he set about doing the strenuous work of school turnaround which included changing schedules, curriculum, and mindsets. Brent is a firm believer in systematic, explicit instruction.  Brent currently serves on the Massachusetts Dept. of Elementary and ..read more

What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with Brent Conway, Assistant Superintendent of Pentucket Regional School District in Massachusetts about his experience with district literacy improvement. Several years ago, Brent began his administrative career as a principal of a school in danger of state takeover. With this task ahead of him, he set about doing the strenuous work of school turnaround which included changing schedules, curriculum, and mindsets. Brent is a firm believer in systematic, explicit instruction.  Brent currently serves on the Massachusetts Dept. of Elementary and ..read more

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness. In this episode, we chat with Nita Cherise, state-level trainer and podcast producer at Glean Education about her experience as a school leader, trainer, and coach about what teachers need to know about literacy instruction. Nita explores her experience rising through the ranks from teacher to coach to school leader. She talks about how she supported her students with high quality literacy instruction and the importance of bringing your whole self to the classroom. Links: See links mentioned in this podcast listed below - Au ..read more

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness. What’s inside: Palo Alto Unified is widely recognized as the one of best school districts in California, but a dive into district literacy data reveals a different story. In this episode we chat with Todd Collins, school board member at Palo Alto Unified School District, about his journey investigating how his district was supporting their “most challenged and least resourced students”. His exploration led to an understanding of how all districts should look at their district data with an eye to equity and how doing so can rev ..read more

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness. What’s inside: In this episode, Andratesha Fritzgerald, Director of Teaching & Learning at the East Cleveland City School District and founder of  Education Consulting firm Building Blocks of Brilliance, joins us to talk about her life-changing, impactful work in and outside of the classroom as an instructor and fierce advocate of UDL (Universal Design for Learning).  Andratesha shares her experiences building capacity in her students to affect social change as well as supporting and leading Teachers in impl ..read more

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness. What’s inside: In this episode, we chat with Alana Mangham, M.S., the Literacy and Learning Specialist for the Center for Development and Learning. She is also a member of Louisiana’s Early Literacy Commission and the Reading League Louisiana chapter’s vice president. She talks with us about her experience in Rapides Parish as the K-5 English Language Arts Curriculum Specialist and the lessons learned from their district literacy success. Alana’s work with Rapides Parish and the success with the K-3 literacy plan gained nation ..read more

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness. What’s inside: In this episode, we talk with two school administrators from New Madrid, MO, Principal Angie Hanlin and Superintendent Sam Duncan about the work they’ve done to raise literacy rates in their district and how other school districts can use their recipe for success to turn their district literacy rates around as well. Links: See links mentioned in this podcast listed below - Plain Talk Literacy Conference: https://www.cdl.org/plain-talk/ Schools Cubed Educational Consulting: https://schoolscubed.com/ New Mad ..read more

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness. What’s inside: In this episode, Leslie Zoroya, Reading and Language Arts Coordinator at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, joins us to talk about her work in the field of literacy. Leslie shares her experience working as a middle school reading interventionist and coordinator at juvenile justice schools. Her work now at LACOE focuses on supporting Los Angeles teachers to build an understanding of the Science of Reading, diverse learners, Structured Literacy, and anti-racist instructional practices to help improve stud ..read more