catchiNG up: Beyond the Classroom

This week I'm catching up with Marius Tesch, whom his students know as Mr. Tesch. He's a Timber Creek history teacher and musician, and one of the first teachers I met when I walked into that building as a long-term sub. Marius just wrapped Season 1 of his new podcast, Tesch Talks European History , a story-driven series built for his AP European History students (and any history buff). We...

Peter reconnects with former Timber Creek student Kamila Palermo. She took his virtual class in 2021 and recently graduated from UCF with a degree in English Creative Writing, a minor in Mass Media, and a certificate in Publishing & Editing. Kamila shares how an unexpected advising curveball changed her major halfway through college. She also talks about her work as the social media specialist...

Peter reconnects with Nabeel Kandah, who just wrapped up 33 years of teaching in North Carolina public high schools. Nabeel's path into education wasn't planned: a German & Biology double major at Michigan, a need for a job, and a local ad that led him to Southern Durham High School, where he ended up teaching German and Earth Science after his principal asked him to cover a subject he...

In this episode of catchiNG Up: Beyond the Classroom, Peter reconnects with Jennifer Longbrake — a program specialist, curriculum writer, and fellow alum of the alternative certification program that brought them together nearly a decade ago. Jenn shares her journey from teaching middle school language arts (6th, 7th, and 8th grade) to her current role as a program specialist, where she writes cur...

This week I'm catching up with Marcus Grey — a friend I met through Julia and Hannah, and now an in-house litigation attorney for a major record label in New York. We talk about what actually changes when you go from billing hours at a law firm to being "the client" in-house, and get into the surprisingly complicated business of music: why a single song is really two separate copyrig...

Growth isn't always linear — and neither is the road that gets you where you're going. In this episode, Peter reconnects with Rosa Maria Weaver, his former IB Spanish teacher from high school in St. Augustine, Florida. Rosa Maria opens up about growing up in Mexico City, navigating a rigid class system, and the culture shock of studying archaeology alongside Marxist-Leninist refugee profes...

This week I'm catching up with someone I know a little differently than most of my guests—Randy Poe, my wife's uncle, a man who has genuinely lived several lifetimes in one. Randy grew up bouncing between Alabama and Missouri, fell in love with music before he was old enough to understand what that meant, and built a career most people couldn't dream up if they tried. We talk about gro...

Season 2 comes to a close the way it started — just me, no guest, no script. Back in the first solo episode, I talked about why I became a teacher. This time, it's what a decade-plus in the classroom actually taught me: how the subject on your certification isn't always the one you end up teaching, why growth is never a straight line, how mentoring students changes the mentor as much as th...

This week, we're flipping the script. Normally Peter's the one asking the questions — but for this special episode, his younger brother Matt takes over as host, and Peter sits in the guest chair for once. What follows is part conversation, part unfiltered sibling check-in. Peter and Matt dig into what it was like growing up four years apart — the closeness, the natural distance that came w...

This week on catchiNG Up, I'm reconnecting with Zach Nelson — someone I first crossed paths with back at Nike, where our timelines almost overlapped. Zach's now a store manager at a medical dispensary, and we spend this episode tracing the road that got him there. We open by swapping Nike stories — Zach started at the St. Augustine store back in April 2010 while he was still in his second...

Some students you never forget — even the ones you first met through a computer screen. In this episode, Peter reconnects with Jandayra "J" Gonzalez, a former student from the strangest chapter of teaching either of them can remember: hybrid learning during COVID, when a class of masked faces and Big Blue Button tiles somehow turned into one of the closest groups Peter ever taught. J and...

This week, Peter reconnects with Andres Valcarcel — a UCF classmate he shared math classes with 13 years ago — for a conversation that spans career pivots, entrepreneurship, endurance sports, and the search for meaning outside of a screen. Andres started at UCF chasing an engineering degree and walked away with one in finance instead. A connection from high school led him into the live event ticke...

Peter reconnects with former student Mariana Ramirez, a UCF computer engineering and game design grad heading into a full-time role with Lockheed Martin on the Orion program — the capsule that will carry astronauts back to the moon and, eventually, to Mars under NASA's Artemis missions. Mariana traces her path from a high school Game, Model & Simulation class to a NASA internship, and shares w...

This week on catchiNG Up , Peter sits down with William Woods — trading card store owner, political organizer, DSA Orlando chapter member, miniature painter, former YouTuber, and a self-described "very autistic" person who once walked a leash-trained Nile monitor around a Georgia high school. To say William has had a non-traditional path is an understatement. The conversation kicks off e...

In this episode of catchiNG up , Peter reconnects with Mason Vilsaint, a former Timber Creek student who's traded a military police badge for a pilot's wings. Mason served three and a half years as an Army MP after enlisting just days after high school graduation, and is now a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University working toward becoming a commercial pilot. Mason opens up about t...

What do you do when you're 15, back in a city you left behind, and every friend group has already formed without you? For Natalie Fuentes, the answer was a classroom — a room with the music, anatomy posters, and a teacher who never minded company at lunch. In this episode of catchiNG Up, I reconnect with Natalie, a former anatomy student from the Class of 2019 who's now finishing her psych...

Season 2 kicks off with a family reunion. Peter sits down with his oldest brother, Victor Ng, a realtor, Air Force veteran, and self-described jack of all trades. Victor shares what it was like growing up in the Dominican Republic, where the school system put students together from first grade all the way through graduation, and how a disruptive but brilliant friend shaped some of his most memorab...

This one is different. For Episode 10, there's no guest — just me. And I want to tell you something I don't think I've ever said out loud in this format: I never planned on becoming a teacher. I graduated from UCF in 2013 with a degree in Molecular and Microbiology. I had a plan. Med school, a clear path forward. And then the self-doubt crept in, the scores weren't where I needed t...

On this episode of catchiNG Up , Peter sits down with someone who knows him better than anyone — his wife, Julia Porcher. A plan compliance consultant by trade and a self-described "lifelong partner" to Peter's "lifelong learner," Julia opens up about the path she thought she'd take (diplomat, world traveler, Model UN devotee) versus the one she actually walked. They ta...

This week, Peter reconnects with Brianna Jacob, a former anatomy student turned work-from-home nurse living in El Paso, Texas. What started as a student-teacher relationship has grown into a story about bold choices, personal reinvention, and learning to find yourself far from everything familiar. Brianna opens up about the realities of bedside nursing — including the trauma, the camaraderie, and...

Peter reconnects with Isabella Romero — UCF pre-med junior and dermatology medical assistant — who walked into the field at 17 with no certification and applied to every office in Orlando until someone said yes. In this episode, Isabella opens up about the high school moment she'll never forget, why she thinks making connections beats memorizing every time, and what burning out hard enough to...

Caden Redmond graduated from Timber Creek in 2022 and hasn't slowed down since. From winning a national championship at the NAIA level to recovering from a full ACL tear — with a double meniscus tear and partial fracture to go with it — Caden has had to fight for every yard, on and off the field. Now interning with the Orlando Pirates and building his brand on social media, he's chasing a...

In this episode, Peter reconnects with Connor Green, UCF friend, newly married husband, and middle school history and speech & debate teacher. They talk about the post-wedding exhale, what it's like watching students go from shy sixth graders to SGA presidents, and how a handful of unforgettable high school teachers set Connor on the path he's on today. They also get into the state of...

This week's episode hits close to home — literally. I'm catching up with my younger brother Matthew Ng and his partner Ann Schlotzhauer, both assistant professors of psychological science at Missouri S&T. We dig into what high school actually shaped us, what we'd tell our past selves, the psychology of how we define growth, and why there's no such thing as finishing your work....

In this episode, Peter catches up with Peyton Stanley — a former student who skipped 8th grade, started college at 16, and had her first semester derailed by a car accident that totaled her car and landed her in physical therapy. Rather than stay at a school that didn't feel right, she made a bold call: transfer mid-year to Gainesville, sign a lease sight-unseen off Facebook Marketplace, and s...