Today’s episode is all about new teachers. What are the biggest struggles they are facing in the classroom, are these struggles what they expected, what advice would they give to people considering this profession? I had so much interest in this episode that we decided to make it a three-part series. We started with our middle school teachers, toda…

Today’s episode is all about new teachers. What are the biggest struggles they are facing in the classroom, are these struggles what they expected, what advice would they give to people considering this profession? I had so much interest in this episode that we decided to make it a three-part series. We are going to start with our middle school tea…

Today’s episode is all about September 11th. We specifically focus on age-appropriate ways to facilitate discussion in our classrooms and share some of our favorite resources to use in the classroom to commemorate this day. To help me with this topic, I sat down with Anna Warriner, Teacher Center Coordinator from South Central Service Cooperative, …

Today’s episode is all about the enneagram and we can use it in education. Specifically how parents and teachers can use it to better understand what motivates their children or students. To help me with this topic, I reached out to Holly Billings- you know and love her! She has been a guest many times and her expertise never ceases to amaze me! Sh…

Today’s episode is all about our district’s move to an 8 period day. Our middle school and Jr. High moving from a 7 period day to an 8 period day. A lot of thought went into this change, and I know our community is excited about it. I sat down with middle school principal, Bethanie Hale, and Jr. High Principal, Mark Smith, to discuss why we’re movi…

Today’s episode is all about childhood trauma and how it affects the students we teach every day.Holly Billings, Behavior Support Specialist and Mental Health Coordinator for the El Dorado School District, has been on our show several times before. The first time we had her on, she discussed student behavior. I really see today’s episode like part …

Today’s episode is all about FACS- Family and Consumer Science. One of my dear friends Anna Reynolds teaches FACS at our local high school. I wanted to hear all about what this program is and what students get to do in this program. So, Anna agreed to sit down with me and tell me all about FACS! She has taught FACS classes for 11 years now. She maj…

Today’s episode is all about one of our elementary schools here in El Dorado, Hugh Goodwin. We sat down with Raven Swint, Assistant Principal, Kathy Sixby, Literacy Instructional Facilitator, and Janice Riggs, Math Instructional Facilitator to hear about all the things going on at Hugh Goodwin Elementary School. I took away from this conversation t…

Today’s episode is all about implementing a house system at a middle school and teacher morale. We sat down with middle school principal Bethanie Hale and discussed how she plans to implement a house system similar to the Ron Clark Academy and why she chose to do this. She also discusses what she is doing at her school to help support teacher moral…

Today’s episode is all about poverty simulations, equity labs, and TESS (Teacher Excellence and Support System). I sat down with Kim Wright, public school program advisor for the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education in Arkansas. Kim is in the office of Educator Effectiveness and Licensure she’s also in the Educator support and Development…

Today’s episode is all about how educators have pivoted and continued using the skills they learned in March as we move into blended learning this school year. I sat down with Anna Warriner, Teacher Center Coordinator from South Central Service Cooperative, Leah Stinnett, South Central Cooperative Math Specialist, Jo Ann Womack, Technology Integrat…

Today's episode is all about getting families engaged in education. How can we as educator's get our families more involved in the work we do here at school? What does involvement look like during this crazy, Covid-19 school year? What success stories do we have from other schools around our state? Chelsey Moore, public school program manager from …

You’re listening to the Promise Podcast. Produced by the El Dorado School District, created by educators for our community, to highlight education across our state. I’m your host and middle school librarian, Chelsey Turner. I’m also joined by my co-host Katie Sandifer. Today’s episode is all about mental health. As we know this pandemic has taken a…

Season 2 of The Promise Podcast is a wrap and we can’t wait to bring you Season 3, starting September 1st! Our third season will launch a new episode on the first of every month, just like last season. But don’t worry, if you missed any of the Season 1& 2 episodes, you’ve got time to catch up! Then tune in September 1st for the launch of Season 3 w…

Have you heard all of the Promise Podcast Episodes? You might have missed this one, and it's one of my favorites! Come alongside us as we take a back seat in several high school English classrooms to see what makes a truly good English teacher. What do these teachers have that others don't and how can we get it? Mrs. Jennifer Murphy (at the time ou…

Today’s episode is all about the PLC process. We have a special guest on this episode named Micheal Maffoni. He works with Solution Tree and has been working with our district this school year. I snagged him one afternoon after a training session at my school. The training this year has been life changing for my career as an educator. I’m so excite…

Today’s episode is all how influential teachers are in our lives! During this unprecedented time I wanted to boost the morale of our teachers. Times are hard with distance learning, and our teachers are doing what they always do- getting it done. I’m so proud to be a part of this profession and I wanted to share a little love. I’ve been asking for …

Today’s episode is a follow up to our last episode. Basically we’re talking about the fact that education is hard! After talking with our local teachers, I reached out to a couple of my experienced teacher friends that live outside of our state. I was thinking about how hard being a teacher is and I thought- how can we help? How can we keep teacher…

Today’s episode is all how education is hard! I will share at the beginning of the episode what exactly prompted this idea, but I started thinking about education and how we struggle to keep teachers in the profession. I wondered had it always been that way or is this a recent shift? And if it is recent, why? I discussed this topic with friends, co…

Today’s episode is all about arts in education I sat down with Bethany Hale, principal of Retta Brown Elementary School, Mrs. Gay Bechtelheimer, Educational Manager for Murphy Arts District, and Sophia Meyers, Vanderbilt University Undergraduate student. They all had such an interesting take on the importance of the various arts in education. Mrs. …

Today’s episode is all about social emotional learning. We’ve recently seen a shift in education moving towards understanding the social emotional aspect to learning. We sat down with Holly Billings, Behavior Support Specialist for the district, Nicole McAdams, 5th grade literacy teacher, and Megan Rainwater, 6th grade counselor. Holly has been a g…

Today’s episode is all about charter, public, and private schools. What makes them different, how are they the same? I decided to speak to a few teachers that I know who teach in the central Arkansas area. Our first teacher is Samantha and our second teacher is Christen. Samantha shares her experience at both public and charter schools. Christen hi…

Today’s episode is all about School Grades and their tie to poverty. Dr. Glen Fenter, superintendent from Marion School District, has published a paper titled, Deja Vu All Over Again where he discusses the direct correlation between school grades and poverty. It is linked below and I highly recommend that you check it out! He was joined by Dr. Bobb…

Today’s episode is all about college readiness. I sat down with Alejandra Munoz, Early College coordinator at South Ark Community College, Andy Turner and April Malone, college and career coaches for South Ark, currently stationed at EHS in El Dorado. We discussed so many topics- how to prepare you students for college or a potential career, how to…

Today’s episode is all about RISE. I know a lot of educators have heard this term and maybe panicked a little. Maybe your an educator and you’ve never even heard of this term and now your wondering- should I be panicked? Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered either way! I sat down with Mrs. Jeannie Strother, our El Dorado School District Literacy Spec…

Season 1 of The Promise Podcast is a wrap and we can’t wait to bring you Season 2, starting September 1st! Our second season will launch a new episode on the first of every month. But don’t worry, if you missed any of the Season 1 episodes, you’ve got time to catch up! Then tune in September 1st for the launch of Season 2 with an episode all about …

Today’s episode is all about Special Education. We were so lucky to have Dr. Kohler and Dr. Calhoon in town doing a professional development at one of our schools. They are from the Mashburn Center at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. Dr. Koehler is a professor at UCA and Director of the UCA Mashburn Center for Learning. Dr. Calhoon is …

Starting this month the Promise Podcast will release one episode a month, airing the first Monday of that month. Today’s episode is all about Arkansas Teacher of the Year! We sat down with Meghan Ables, coordinator of the Arkansas teacher of the year program, and Randi House, the current Arkansas Teacher of the Year. We discussed when this program …

Today’s episode is about a four time international awarding winning STEAM school. Washington Middle School, I feel so blessed to work at WMS for so many reasons! I absolutely am obsessed with our STEAM focus! It makes learning so much fun for our students and it makes teaching so much fun for our staff! Today we are going to hear from Jody Vines, P…

Today’s episode is about financial literacy. Katie and I first sat down with Kathleen Lawson, Executive Director at Economics Arkansas, and Marsha Masters, associate director at Economics Arkansas. We discussed the importance of economics in education along with some startling statistics. We then talked with Gayle Norman, a former educator who taug…

Today’s episode is about school grades and ESSA. Katie and I sat down with Barton Jr. High Principal, Mrs. Sherry Hill, and Deborah Coffman, Assistant commissioner and public school accountability. We first discussed school grades- when and how they started, how grades for each school is figured and more. We then switched our conversation over to E…

Today's episode is all about school security. I sat down with Mr. Jay Vines, School Security Director for the El Dorado School District, Mr. Jim Tucker, El Dorado School District Superintendent, and Captain Holt, retired from the El Dorado Police Department. We discussed how the police department works with the district to keep teachers, staff, and…

Today’s episode is near and dear to my heart. Today we are discussing school libraries and the dramatic change they’ve undergone in the last decade. Libraries should be much different than they use to be. Our students have changed, the needs have changed, and our world has changed. To help me with this topic I reached out to my dear friend Vanda Te…

This episode is a continuation of our Literacy Part 1 episode. This time we dive deeper into the classroom. We will get to hear from three amazing teachers as they teach their high school students how to analyze literature. We then have our instructional facilitator sit down and point out what those teachers do that make them so great at their craf…

Today's episode is all about literacy strategies from kindergarten to 12th grade. We'll hear from Anna Wairner, the literacy specialist at the South Central Coop, a group of literacy instructional facilitators from several of our elementary schools, and Mr. Tate Aldrich who has publish an article in the English Journal regarding a protocol he inven…

Today's episode is all about Educational Technology. I work in a school and a district that embrace technology and it's use in education. It's one of my most favorite things about my job. I think its changed the landscape of education and it isn't going away in our society, so our students need to know about it! However, there are disadvantages and…

This episode is all about student behavior. We talk with Holly Billings, a behavior support specialist, which is a new position in our district. We also talk with a classroom teacher regarding student behavior and how we as educators can address problems in our classrooms and schools.By El Dorado School District

Rural schools across the state of Arkansas often struggle with population declines and recent data shows that less than 50%* of Arkansas high school students go on to attend college. El Dorado Schools were given a unique opportunity through the El Dorado Promise Scholarship, the namesake of our podcast, to transform our schools. In this episode, we…

In this episode we continue our look into Standards Based Report Cards. We start by hearing from several classroom teachers about what this practice actually looks like in their classrooms. Lastly, we'll hear from Jeannie Strother, the El Dorado School District literacy chair. She will wrap up this series for us!…

In this episode Mr. Tom Simmons, math chair for the El Dorado School District, gives a basic breakdown of what Standards Based Report Cards are and why our district chose to move in this direction. We will hear from two instructional facilitators who give us more insight into how the actual standards are chosen, recorded, and shared with parents. L…