Uncommon Voices, Uncommon Visions

What draws you and keeps you in the classroom?  Many days teachers  ask themselves this exact question.  Dr. Becky Thompson ’s vision for teaching is clear: she’s in the classroom to experience those moments of “amazing intellectual work that also [have] some heart in it.”  It keeps her coming back, year after year. Join scholar, poet, and activist Becky Thompson and I as we discuss teaching and l...

This fall I had the opportunity to sit down with John Pellman, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Capital College and Career Academy (CCCA), a new charter school that opened in August 2023 in North Sacramento.  CCCA’s mission is to ensure that all students graduate having experience taking both dual enrollment courses and internships so they have a clear understanding of their college and c...

How does Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. impact your leadership?  How can businesses, schools, and individuals seek to embody his dream today?  These were two questions asked during a fireside chat at a breakfast I attended this morning.  Two local African American leaders/business owners were asked to respond.  From their responses, I don't believe that either of them were raised in Sacramento. ...

Hi there!  It's been a while since I've been on the air, so I wanted to reintroduce myself. I'm Dr. Valerie Nyberg, former HS administrator, teacher, and single-parent to three accomplished young men.   In this episode, I share my recent experiences traveling and gaining clarity in my work and with my business.  My purpose is two-fold, to make a difference in the lives of others, bu...

Jacob and I get together again to continue our conversation, this time after watching the documentary 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed on HBOMax (newly renamed Max) to further discussion about race and identity.  Jacob and his brothers are Swedish, Irish, Eskimo, Native American (just a smidge), and Black.  It’s clear that during our conversation, despite my efforts to ensure that my children can correc...

May 8 - 12, 2023 is Teacher Appreciation Week.  As a product of the public schools, by and large, I wanted to take a moment to recognize and name numerous educators who helped me to become both the person and the educator I am.   Today there's a lot of debate about the role education plays in children's lives.  Many question the lesson content, the pedagogical strategies and beliefs that...

Sometimes awkward, sometimes revealing, last November I sat down with my youngest son, Jacob, to talk about what it means to be multi-ethnic in a time when race and identity are topics that have become highly politicized and polarizing.  Before we sat down, both of us committed to speaking honestly about our experiences and acknowledging that I consciously raised my children  to ensure they unders...

We often hear about people who’ve achieved great things, but we don’t necessarily know the back story.  Nancy and Elizabeth Jorgenson, with Gwen Jorgensen, have recently released their book, Gwen Jorgenson: USA's First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete.   Intended to help inspire as well as represent women athletes, Gwen wanted the story to be geared toward middle school readers.  When doing thei...

If you use social media to find out what educators are talking about, undoubtedly you’ve seen a post by Tyler Rablin .  In Episode 22, Tyler and I talk about the importance of building students’ confidence for learning while being their whole selves.  Currently he teaches high school ELA and is an education consultant in Central Washington.  During our conversation, Tyler shared a number of great...

Recently I learned my great-grandmother, along with her uncle were forced to leave their homes in South Carolina.  Though she was a teacher in South Carolina, when she moved, she had to take work as a kitchen worker.  Blacks weren't permitted to teach in Detroit in 1919.  Until just recently, I'd assumed that my great-grandmother was part of the Great Migration.  In textbooks we're...

Recently, former colleague and friend, Francisco Pepin, sat down to discuss his journey as a non-native English speaker from the Mission District in San Francisco to becoming the first in his family to graduate from college.  His foundational experiences impacted who he is as an educator and building leader.  Specifically, we talk about how to cultivate a building culture and climate that works to...

My gal pal, Dr. Nicole Gainyard, and I team up again to discuss where we are in our personal and professional careers.  A decade after completing our PhDs., we are at a point in our lives where we have the privilege to transition from survival mode in order to redefine what we, as individuals, define as success so we can begin to live and thrive in new ways.  Both of us are currently engaged in se...

"Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.  Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot."  These are the opening lines from the 80s sitcom  Cheers.   During my childhood, my mother and I faithfully watched the show each week, singing along to the theme song.   In episode #18, I explore the reasons behind my brief pause in podcasting in order to u...

Listening to the news, the current state of education seems to be at an important juncture.  Student learning loss.  School safety.  Teacher shortages.  All top the headlines.  Recently Roark Horn, former School Administrators of Iowa Executive Director and currently a Pomerantz Endowed Professorship in Education Excellence instructor of  Superintendency, sat down to discuss the purpose of educati...

Recently while visiting a hairdresser for the first time, I was fortunate to meet Mrs. LaDeetra Kincy, a multiple subjects and special education teacher who works remotely with K-12 students enrolled in her school district.  Our conversation was so rich that I wanted to invite her onto my podcast.  In this episode, we talk about our mutual desire to provide the most vulnerable students and familie...

Advocate, mother, racial justice warrior, creator of safe spaces for women of color, especially Black women, LaTasha DeLoach and I sat down to talk about her Joy Journey and how she’s learned to be her own place.  As Black women in predominantly White spaces, trying to make the paths wider, and the space more comfortable for those who come with us, we talked about her work and her life; specifical...

For more than a week now, I’ve struggled with finishing this episode.  Why, you might ask?  Put simply, it’s hard to admit that you have $243,746.89 in student loan debt.  Even with the recent Biden-Harris Student Loan Debt Relief, I haven’t hit the magical 120 payments in order to receive loan forgiveness, despite having initially started repaying my loans in 1999 when I was a high school teacher...

Roderic Cockhern, a retired Air Force serviceman, is currently a junior high counselor for the Arlington Independent School District in Arlington, Texas.  In the lead up to the 2022-2023 school year, Mr. Cockhern and I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss how he became a school counselor, what schooling is like in Texas–specifically speaking to recent controversies over Critical Race Theory...

Listening to parents and school officials, every generation is decried as being more difficult than the last, but in the case of iGens, is there some truth to this fear?  Concerns about lack of adulting skills, preoccupation with social media, and higher rates of anxiety and depression are common refrains used to describe this generation of young adults and adolescents.  My youngest son, Jacob, an...

Another year, new possibilities.  As Dr. Jared Smith prepared to transition from his position as the South Tama Superintendent to his new role as the Waterloo, Iowa Superintendent , I was fortunate this summer to have the opportunity to talk with him.  As a Waterloo native, Dr. Smith looks at this opportunity very much as a chance to come home.  His years in leadership have taught him, though he m...

Schools are under enormous pressure to close educational gaps, respond to community expectations and needs, and meet students where they are.  It’s no wonder students, educators, and parents are on a seemingly never-ending anxiety feedback loop.  Dr. Kimberly Granderson, School Psychologist for Aspire Schools and I talk about the importance of helping kids to name what they feel and develop approp...

In a time of economic, political, and cultural turmoil, we continue to have an educational system centered around the concept of competition, despite the recognition that not everyone enters the “game” with the same skills, equipment, and prior exposure. In Episode 9, Dr. Anthony Jones, current Ames Community School District Director of Equity, and future Director of Laboratory Schools at Illinois...

Education is a profoundly human endeavor.  To teach and to learn requires establishing relationships, making connections, and being vulnerable to challenge what you thought you knew.  How we, as educators, show up matters.  Our ability to help students grow into their authentic selves through the educational process is pivotal to making positive strides.  Using myself as the example, in this episo...

The world is changing. This, most people can agree about this.  How each of us responds is part of the current challenge in our society.  In Episode 7, Civil Rights lawyer Thomas Newkirk and I discuss Implicit Bias training, his approach and five common barriers people experience to this work.  Educators, as some of the most taken-for-granted, highly important positions in our society, engaging in...

For the last ten years, my friend Dr. Nicole Gainyard and I have talked about collaborating together to share our experiences as single mothers and doctoral students.  Though our paths were somewhat different, we have many parallels in our motivations for seeking a terminal degree as well as common experiences in Iowa City as we both separately and together, strove to make a path where there reall...