Mastery For All with Mr. James O'Neal

Send us Fan Mail Teaching is NOT an easy job.   It takes a lot out of you and you must have a great capacity to give.  You find yourself giving so much of yourself and so much of your time that you can burn out easily.  In 2016, I left Pittsburgh, PA and headed back to my home state of North Carolina.  I was exhausted and needed something new and yet familiar.  I ended up at Piedmont "You Kno...

Send us Fan Mail Let me tell you, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE TEACHING!!!! There are many reasons why I love this job and since today is LOVE DAY, I am spreading the LOVE TO ALL OF YOU!!! I love teaching because... I love interacting/building relationships with students. I meaaaaaaaaaaaan come on now.  These human beings are full of joy and laughter and the occasional "go somewhere and sit down"...

Send us Fan Mail Black male teachers make up 2% of the teaching population.   It is imperative that we have more representation in this area!  I have been teaching for fourteen years and the lens that I have in education is unlike any other.  Our perspectives matter.  Our presence matters.  We matter! My entrance into a classroom is a statement that we belong here .  Throughout my time in the clas...

Send us Fan Mail TEACHING THROUGH A PANDEMIC!!!! Has not been for the faint of heart.  In this episode, I talk about some of the issues that I have faced in the past almost 2 years.  This pandemic has highlighted many inequities, mindsets, disparities, and intentions.  They have not all been negative, but this pandemic has put a strain on all of us in education!  Throughout this pandemic, I have l...

Send us Fan Mail Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!  It is our day of service.  Eight years ago , I had the awesome opportunity to write a spoken word and present it as a tribute to this amazing pioneer .  I am so blessed and honored to live in the legacy of his dream.  As a Black American I benefit from the choices this man made as he sought for the advancement of all mankind.  His legacy...

Send us Fan Mail Happy New Year! The saying, " It takes a village " is definitely true in education.  I am much more effective when parents are involved in their child's education.  Now, many times, parents confuse involvement with being content experts.  I am not asking parents to be content experts.  If that was the case, they should've went to school and got their Masters in...

Send us Fan Mail Growing up in the south and hearing about racism all the time became a norm.  I didn't know that I was being indoctrinated with the idea that "white" is better by simply being told all the time how things are and how things used to be.  It wasn't until I left and went to a school district that was predominately white that I realized I had internalized this narr...

Send us Fan Mail There is a HUGE myth out right now about "The New Math".  Well I'm here to say, and you can quote me (lol), "There is NO NEW MATH!   The why of mathematics is finally being explained!"   The explanations are NEW to us, because most of the time they were not explained or explained well when we were in school.  Today, students in kindergarten are learning ab...

Send us Fan Mail The truth is, we go into this profession to support as many children as we can.  The truth is, we can't save everyone!  We can try to help but even with that, sometimes we can't help either.  I know, it is something that we don't want to admit out of our mouths, but it is the truth.  In this episode I share my heart as a seek to try to help " Brandon " (no...

Send us Fan Mail This is my first episode and I am excited that you came to listen!  It is the spoken word that I have performed before thousands of people!   In this episode I introduce myself and talk about how I became a teacher.  Black male teachers make up 2% of the teaching population hear in America.  My matriculation through K-12 schooling was no easy feat but in 8th grade a teacher by the...