Teachers' Lounge

Today on the show we have not just a teacher, but a teacher of teachers! Dr. Laurie Elish-Piper is the Dean of the College of Education at Northern Illinois University. We talked about what drives her to want to help mold the next generation of teachers, how today’s aspiring teachers are different than 10 years ago, her career-spanning literacy work and how COVID-19 has changed how student teachers prepare to go into the classroom. Have you had an awesome teacher, coach or professor that

On a new episode of Teachers’ Lounge: Marcel Walker! He’s a comic book artist and art teacher extraordinaire. Marcel helped create the educational comic series “ CHUTZ-POW! Superheroes of the Holocaust ” with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and works with “ToonSeum" -- a museum of comics and cartoons. The ToonSeum even held an exhibition called “ From MLK to March: Civil Rights in Comics and Cartoons ” with civil rights icon, the late Representative John Lewis. Peter and Marcel are also

On a new Teachers’ Lounge, Dr. Laurie Cooper Stoll: sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She’s also an author who studies social inequalities, gendered violence and fat studies -- which is primarily what we talked about on this episode. She also has a website and blog she runs with a colleague, Dr. Darci Thoune, called “ Two Fat Professors ” where they fight fatphobia with education, community building and, as they say, a LOT of sass. As she says -- we all have bodies --

On a new episode of Teachers' Lounge, Lissette Jacobson and Maurice McDavid! They’re elementary school principals in West Chicago and the hosts of the podcast “ Black, Brown & Bilingüe ”! They talked to Peter about the mission of their show – uniting the Black and Brown communities with conversations & education. We covered identity and intersectionality and what it means in education, Illinois’ culturally responsive teaching standards that Maurice helped write, the non-profits they’re

On a new Teachers’ Lounge, we have an entire family of teachers --the Goekes! Karl, Stacy and Rachel join Peter to talk about their experiences as educators going through the pandemic. We talked about how in-person school “normalcy” isn’t really that normal at all. They’re all teachers at different schools at different grade levels -- so we get a look behind the curtain at every level of education! Also, Karl even taught Rachel’s Spanish class in high school. He had other siblings and cousins

On a new episode of Teachers' Lounge: Jackie Cleven! She’s a second-grade teacher at South Prairie Elementary in Sycamore and teaches at Kishwaukee College. Longtime Teachers’ Lounge fans may remember Jackie as the first guest who was ever on this show . She shared a personal essay about how she feels at the end of the school year. Host Peter Medlin always felt a little bad because she’s our only guest who was never actually interviewed -- so we wanted to fix that, more than a year-and-a-half

On a new episode of Teachers' Lounge: Mary Beth Cunat! She’s the principal at Spectrum Progressive School in Rockford. Talking to Mary Beth is like taking a free master’s degree class in education. We went in-depth about what it means to be a “progressive school,” her lengthy career in education including her time at Chicago Public Schools, teaching working with her family at Spectrum as well as her love of animals (specifically we both love otters and talk about that for a while. Don’t miss it!

On a new episode of Teachers' Lounge: Shelly Tranchita! She’s a physical education teacher at Sycamore High School. We talked about how physical health is a vehicle for mental health, and how she focuses on mind and body wellness in her classes. With the trauma her students have endured during the pandemic, she’s started teaching about meditation along with the physical fitness. We also talk about what a virtual or socially-distant P.E. class even looks like. Hint: lots of masks and open windows

On a new episode of Teachers' Lounge: Exploring the top education issues to watch in 2021 with Rockford teacher Erik Czerwin. Teachers’ Lounge host Peter Medlin and Erik dive into topics like: How COVID-19 has forever changed the school experience Are students really “falling behind” because of remote learning? What does that mean? Social-Emotional Learning and the way students are supported Project-Based Learning and how to get students solving real-world problems in the classroom They also

This Week: Another edition of Student Teachers’ Lounge! Host Peter Medlin talked to Taylor Leach, who has experienced the pandemic as both a student and as a teacher. She just graduated with a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University and finished up student teaching at Kingston Elementary School in Genoa, Illinois. They talked about her plans for the future as she heads into the job market in the middle of the weirdest school year ever, how her trial-by-fire year as a student and

On a special Christmas Day edition of Teachers’ Lounge: Rod Genandt. He’s been teaching 4 th grade at Forreston Grade School for over 40 years in his hometown of Forreston, Illinois. He’s taught kids, he’s taught the kids of those kids and maybe even the kids of those kids before all is said and done. He talked to host Peter Medlin about that, about the lack of men teaching grade school, how to create a safe and comfortable classroom for kids in a time it’s so hard to feel safe and comfortable.

On a new episode of Teachers' Lounge: Mike McHale. He’s a professor at Rockford University and a math and physics teacher at Byron High School. Mike is also a cross country coach and we talk about running during the COVID-19 season. He and host Peter Medlin chat about the potential closure of the Byron Nuclear Generating Station and the effect it could have on the school, community -- and his own personal connection to the plant. And they talk about Mike’s music hobby and a music video he helped

On a new episode of Teachers' Lounge: Lynne Ravas. She’s a recently retired English teacher who taught across the country. Lynne also has family -- including her father -- who survived the Holocaust. For decades, Lynne has worked with organizations to educate people of all ages and pass down the stories of survivors, especially as survivors themselves have passed away. In the meantime, we want you to be a part of the show. Send us an email at teacherslounge@niu.edu to nominate a teacher in your

This week’s episode is with Katrina Syrris. She leads a double life. By day, Katrina is a high school theater teacher at St. Edward Central Catholic. By night and weekends, she owns and operates Goodly Creatures -- her theater production company. She’s a producer, a director, a playwright -- the list goes on and on. Host Peter Medlin talked to Katrina about being an artist during the pandemic. Goodly Creatures lost their studio space during COVID so she’s had to pivot online both for her theater

This week, an election-focused episode with Dr. Christina Rivers, associate professor of political science at DePaul University. She studies voting rights, African American politics and she’s taught several inside-out classes at the Stateville Correctional Center with students on the inside and DePaul students. Rivers spoke to host Peter Medlin about how unprepared political science was for this moment in our history, the Re-Entering Citizens Civics Education Act which she assisted with, prison