In today’s episode, I continue with my personal background in education to discuss the research I conducted and how it led me to podcasting. Dr. Gregg Hassler, Jr. DMD joins me as a co-host. He was a school board president, is a dentist, but most importantly, is my husband. He's always said that it’s important that my audience gets to know who I am as an educational podcaster and so...this is it!
You will hear the story about a trip to Brazil that inspired me to teach families English which led to my master's degree in Online Teaching and Learning. I researched Family Second Language Acquisition and planned on completing my dissertation on it, but the idea was rejected by the university for not being student outcome focused.
Frantically searching for another topic, a county school board member asked me the question, "Does virtual school work in second grade for third grade reading proficiency?" That question led me down a rabbit hole that changed my life. I researched the topic, completed my dissertation, applied what I learned from the study to my own second grade classroom. I used this knowledge and experience to write the book, America's Embarrassing Reading Crisis: What we learned from COVID, A guide to help educational leaders, teachers, and parents change the game.
The excitement of learning new ideas and how to apply them to help our kids succeed not only in the classroom, but in life is what brought me to this platform. I love enlightening conversations about education!
