Maine Education Matters

Matt & Courtney get ENGROSSED!

Matt and Courtney continue to try and wrap up the 130th special session but the Ed Committee keeps having other plans! They review A public hearing (only one!), and a few worksessions; talk about Supplemental Budgets (zzzzzzz), and more. It's a short episode this week... and you're welcome!

Matt & Courtney review the work sessions from March 2-3, 2022, preview the final(?) Public Hearing and Work Sessions for the week of March 7, and do their best to simply be a boat in the water, and let the tides take them wherever they may go.

Matt & Courtney review the work sessions and public hearings from February 22 and 24, and preview the (supposed) final week of Ed Committee work.

Matt & Courtney review the Work Sessions from February 15 & 17, discuss the Public Hearing from the Criminal Justice committee, preview the February 22 public hearing, and do a stellar job of providing highly mediocre analysis. #onbrand There was a little Max Headroom in the recording and we apologize for the throwback to the 80s. Also, Matt Frewer is awesome.

Matt & Courtney host a panel of education rockstars to discuss the elephant that's in the education room: COVID fatigue. We talk with Kelsey Stoyanova (2022 Maine Teacher of the Year), Chris Howell (2022 Maine Superintendent of the Year), Carrie Woodcock (Executive Director of the Maine Parent Federation), and Bear Shea (MDOE Mental Health Specialist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker) about...

Matt and Courtney review the public hearings from February 8-9, 2022, preview the work sessions for Feb 15-16, and highlight a non-Ed committee bill that has TONS to do with educators. Also: "The Rock", jazz, and logic cards!

Matt & Courtney review the worksessions from Feb 3-4, and preview the public hearings for Feb 8-9. Plus: Matt and Courtney's Hogwarts Houses revealed!

Matt & Courtney cover the Public Hearings and Work Sessions from the week of January 24-28, preview the upcoming work sessions on Feb 1 & 2, and ask the listeners to guess which Hogwarts House Matt and Courtney are in! Go to @MaineEdMatters on Twitter and vote!

Matt (@DrewetteCard) & Courtney (@BelolanC) review the work sessions from Jan 19-20, and preview upcoming public hearings on Jan 25.

Matt (@DrewetteCard) and NEW COHOST Courtney (@BelolanC; @PLearnMC) welcome everyone back for the Part Deux of the 130th Legislative Session! We welcome our new cohost, talk about recent public hearings, and raise an uncomfortable question about the current relationship between Maine Education Matters and Personalized Learning with Matt & Courtney. Thanks for downloading, subscribing, listenin...

We're back in 2022! The Maine Legislative Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs has reconvened and started up the second session of the 130th Legislative Session. Today's episode is a short "welcome back," with a teaser for an upcoming BIG ANNOUNCEMENT and addition to the MEM team! Thanks for subscribing and listening!

Maine Education Matters returns! A short episode about what's next for MEM, plans for the special session starting next month, and a massive announcement!

In a very special episode, Matt and Julie talk to the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs Representative Michael Brennan (Portland). We talk about the committee, the process of how bills “work”, and of course: BILLS!!! This is a MUST LISTEN if you’re a fan of the show!!

Matt and Juie are here with a summer sendoff as they prepare for the new year. They are joined by their good friends at the Personalized Learning with Matt and Courtney podcast to talk about why they started a podcast and what keeps them going. Follow the PLearnMC pod wherever you listen to this pod!

Matt & Julie review the few bills that have VOTES in the House and/or Senate. 4 Vaccination-based bills (all basically dead), 1 IEP--based bill (moving on up #Jeffersons), and 1 PEPG bill (that would delay evaluations for the 21-22SY). Plus: Matt sends the podcast deep into the ethereal plane, and Julie tries to dive into the mind of one of the Ed Committee members. BIG shoutouts to @TableTopA...

Matt and Julie return to discuss a couple of weeks of committee votes, and to preview some upcoming hearing days: May 4: Safety/Bullying; May 5: Curriculum Mandate Day; May 6: It's Baaaaaaaaack...... It's All Immunizations and Vaccinations! Buckle up and get ready, folks!

Matt and Julie are BACK after a crazy couple of weeks to do a full-on BLITZ of recent work sessions. The dynamic duo covers work sessions from March 29, April 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, and 14... AND preview a couple of upcoming bills and work sessions that they're looking forward to... AND some #LadySmythShoutOuts!

Matt and Julie break down the work session and public hearings from March 22 & 24, covering bills on Lifetime teaching certificates, 30-minute lunch periods, and a very aggressive bill about school sports and funding. Plus: Matt and Julie are taking applications and resumes for a new association, AND we learned that #LadySmythSmackdowns comes with a real price! Thanks for listening!

We start off 2021 by wrapping up our series on the Learning Facilitators program, a collaborative effort by EMCC & MDOE. For this episode we focus on the Administration side of the program: its benefits, successes, and hopes for the future.

Matt talks with Fiona Stawarz and Sarah Cook, two members of the Maine Student Cabinet, about what it's like growing up in Maine schools through a lens of racism, bias, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Maine Department of Education rockstar Joe Schmidt also joins the episode, but, really, this episode is all about the learners. 

Matt talks with Deqa Dhalac and Joe Schmidt from the Maine Department of Education about racism, bias, diversity, equity, and inclusion in our schools, curriculum, and education system.

Matt and his bot (also named Matt) triumphantly return to talk about some DOE updates, including some major assessment changes.

Matt and Matt continue to hang around the pod and update you on what's going on this week in Maine educational matters, including some amazing CDC guidance for re-opening schools (spoiler alert: it's going to be super tough).

Matt and Matt have an even longer episode than usual (most people would say longer than necessary), as they celebrate 100 episodes!