Creating An Easier Teaching Pathway for Aspiring Teachers with Jennifer Jordan

More Than a Test

Creating An Easier Teaching Pathway for Aspiring Teachers

In this episode of the More Than a Test podcast, Jennifer Jordan explains how TeachStart creates a pathway into teaching for people who want to teach but don’t have the opportunity, plus her passion for ensuring all kids have great teachers. Jenny is the Executive Director at TeachStart and formerly COO at Teach for America Bay Area. She excels at leading high-performance teams and helping schools to grow and succeed.

Listen in to learn the importance of improving teaching conditions for the benefit of both teachers and students. You will also learn how we can lighten the load on credential teachers by having enough different adults in the school building.

What You Will Discover:

• 00:00 Creating An Easier Teaching Pathway for Aspiring Teachers
• 01:18 How TeachStart creates a pathway into teaching for people who want to teach.
• 04:32 How TeachStart is smartly spending substitute funds by hiring experienced subs.
• 07:49 Jenny explains their training focus on classroom management and the science of reading.
• 09:36 The importance of improving teaching conditions for the benefit of teachers and students.
• 12:28 The value of deep listening and seeking input as a leader before making crucial decisions.
• 13:22 How to prioritize and engage those impacted by your decisions as a leader.
• 17:26 The questions TeachStart is asking to figure out where they fit in the education ecosystem.
• 19:54 The potential solution to help lighten the school load on credential teachers.
• 21:44 The good-intentioned policies that hold up the process for aspiring professional teachers.
• 25:57 The importance of models that allow people to try teaching before fully committing to it.
• 30:48 Jennifer on how her belief that all kids deserve great teachers inspires her work.
• 32:50 Some rapid-fire questions with Jennifer!

Connect with Jennifer:

• TeachStart Website: https://teachstart.org/
• Jenny’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-jordan-a04a1314/

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About More Than a Test

Our goal is to take a hard look at the shortcomings in literacy education and tech while still finding a sense of hope in what's possible in education through learning and technology.

Our guests include non-profit leaders, tech CEOs, state and district leadership, research leaders from top institutions, and a few teachers with stories that might bring you to tears.

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0JWhVG2nXZfC3FxOviFoR0

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-than-a-test/id1685012543

Listen on Other Platforms: https://more-than-a-test.captivate.fm/

About Amira Learning

Amira is the world’s first intelligent reading assistant that provides personalized tutoring to students at school, after school, or at home. Students working with Amira experience significant improvements in their reading fluency.

About your Host, Laura Glaab

Laura Glaab is a VP of Strategy at Amira Learning. She is a lifetime educator following behind educator parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

She's worked as a teacher and leader in public, private, and charter schools in places as far as India and as close to home as Boulder, Colorado. She holds degrees from Stanford, the University of Wyoming, and Kellogg School of Management.

She thinks everyone should read Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw and the entire Piggie and Elephant Collection by Mo Willems.

Connect with Laura

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-glaab/

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