Spotlight 4 Success

Send us Fan Mail Reading growth doesn’t always come from a brand-new curriculum. Sometimes it comes from one small shift: letting students have real choice in what they read. From the floor of the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with Emmie and Shantale, ECU ambassadors and graduate students focused on reading and literacy instruction, to talk about what’s working right now with real...

Send us Fan Mail Letters can be surprisingly hard for young kids. They’re just shapes until a child can link each squiggle to a sound, then blend those sounds into real words. From the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with Vicki Norris, a trainer at Letterland International, to talk about a character-based approach to phonics that helps children make that leap with less struggle and...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of reading struggles aren’t about effort, they’re about abstraction. When phonics rules live only on a worksheet or a whiteboard, many kids never get a concrete “click” moment. From the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with Meagan Beam, founder of Otter Reading, to talk about a hands-on reading tool she built for the exact problems she kept seeing in her own cl...

Send us Fan Mail Stories can change a kid’s life when they finally feel recognized on the page. From the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with middle grade author Bobbie Pyron to talk about why fiction isn’t “extra” in literacy work, it’s a direct path to empathy, compassion, and deeper reading engagement for young people. If you care about children’s literature, school libraries, or...

Send us Fan Mail A blue-and-white teacup doesn’t sound like a doorway into history, until you hear what it unlocks in Half Truths. Recording live from the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with author Carol Baldwin to talk about her debut young adult historical novel set in Charlotte in 1950, a city shaped by segregation and the unspoken rules of the Jim Crow South. Website: spotlight...

Send us Fan Mail AI is everywhere in students’ lives, but what if we used it to push them outside instead of pulling them deeper into screens? From the floor of NCRA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we sit down with author Jo Watson Hackl to talk about a surprisingly grounded approach to AI in education: using technology responsibly to strengthen student engagement, spark curiosity, and support r...

Send us Fan Mail Literacy is getting rewritten in real time and educators don’t have the option to sit it out. From NCRA in Winston-Salem, we sit down with Hiller Spires, Professor at NC State University and NCRA president-elect, to talk about what comes next for literacy instruction as technology accelerates and classrooms adapt on the fly. Website: spotlight4success.com

Send us Fan Mail A dandelion wish sounds small until it spins into a full-blown adventure. From the NCRA floor in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we sit down with children’s author Darren Farrell to hear how Dandelion Magic turns a simple idea into a story kids want to follow all the way home. Website: spotlight4success.com

Send us Fan Mail A children’s picture book can start in a surprising place: a string quartet performing a concert for plants. From the NCRA conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we sit down with Tonnye Fletcher, a veteran educator who spent 17 years in second grade before making a big career shift into the K to 2 music room, and that pivot becomes the spark for a deeper conversation about c...

Send us Fan Mail Recording live from NCRA in North Carolina, we talk with Gina Mays, the owner of Gigi’s bookstore, about what happens when a lifelong educator decides she’s not done serving schools, she’s just changing tools. After 32 years as a teacher and administrator, Gina retires, buys $1,800 worth of books, drives to a conference stressed out of her mind, and discovers a real need for an in...

Send us Fan Mail A single “oh!” from a student can change everything, and it’s the feeling that keeps many of us teaching. From the NCRA Conference in North Carolina, we sit down with Grace, a fifth grade teacher who traces her path back to one vivid moment helping a child finally understand. She shares why she thought she’d teach younger students, how internships surprised her, and what makes fif...

Send us Fan Mail Grace Moser shares how using ABC materials has impacted her classroom. 

Send us Fan Mail “Every child can read.” Mary from Hoke County Schools says it plainly, and then she shows the work behind making it real. We’re recording live from the NCRA conference, where she explains how a district literacy committee approaches professional learning like a mission: attend strategically, take excellent notes, then debrief as a team so the best ideas don’t stay in a notebook th...

Send us Fan Mail Fluency isn’t the finish line. If you’ve ever watched a student read smoothly and still walk away confused, this conversation puts words to the problem and points toward practical next steps. We are joined by two educators from JT Barber Elementary School in the Craven School District: Deja Moore and Michaela Shy. They share their paths into teaching, why they love working with ki...

Send us Fan Mail Deja Moore & Michaela Shy share their testimony regarding ABC products.  Website: spotlight4success.com 

Send us Fan Mail Felisha Williams. a principal in South Carolina, shares her testimony regarding her success with ABC materials. Website: spoltight4success.com  

Send us Fan Mail Brian Edmond, a principal in South Carolina, shares his testimony regarding his school seeing score increases with ABC materials. Website: spotlight4success.com 

Send us Fan Mail Gladys M. shares his testimony regarding his success with ABC materials.  Website: spotlight4success.com  

Send us Fan Mail Roderick Hannibal shares his testimony regarding his success with ABC materials.  Website: spoltight4success.com  

Send us Fan Mail Step onto the LACUE 2025 floor in New Orleans with us and feel the shift from hype to help. We sit down with educator and board member Tisha Whittington to unpack what actually lightens the load for teachers under pressure: clear standards alignment, reliable practice, and tools that let you teach instead of triage. The buzz around AI is real, but the big win is clarity—using tech...

Send us Fan Mail Two decades of conference halls, classroom breakthroughs, and late-night planning come to life as we sit down with Ranay Lozala of Rapides Parish at LACUE 2025 in New Orleans. From board service to district leadership in data and analytics, Renee shares how a statewide conference becomes more than sessions and swag—it becomes a pipeline of ideas, tools, and guardrails that shape l...

Send us Fan Mail Step onto the LACUE floor in New Orleans with us and meet Jacqueline Edwards, a computer science instructor from East Baton Rouge who turns high school classrooms into launchpads for software careers. Jacqueline shares how her students earn dual enrollment credit through Baton Rouge Community College, graduate with Python and JavaScript certifications, and walk away with 27 credit...

Send us Fan Mail Say yes first, figure it out together—that’s the spirit of this conversation with Tracy Phillips from Washington Parish, recorded live at LACUE 2025 in New Orleans. Tracy has taught nearly everything from fourth grade English to biology and civics, and she shares how a single decision to attend a tech-forward conference reshaped her planning, assessment, and classroom culture. Web...

Send us Fan Mail Bright lights, fresh ideas, and real classroom wins—our trip to LACUE in New Orleans brought all three together. We sat down with fifth grade science teacher Brayondra Allen from Ferriday Upper Elementary to talk about what truly moves the needle for student learning: clear standards alignment, a smart resource mix, and the joy of those “aha” moments when a concept clicks. From th...

Send us Fan Mail The buzz of a great education conference can change a school year. From the floor of LACUE in New Orleans, we sit down with Gladys from St. Landry Parish to explore how curiosity about AI, beginner-friendly Canva workflows, and trusted practice materials can turn everyday lessons into steady student growth. She brings 15 years in the classroom to the table, sharing why those eurek...