The Edu20/20 Podcast

Halloween in the classroom is a special kind of chaos, especially when the candy starts flowing and classroom management goes out the window. In this Halloween edition of After Hours, Courtney and Shannon share their funniest Halloween memories from teaching, childhood costume disasters, creative school dress-up ideas, and a few classroom pranks that probably wouldn't fly today. From homemade...

Sometimes doing what’s right means being the villain in someone else’s story. In this After Hours episode, Courtney and Shannon talk about the very thin line between heroes and villains, especially when you're making hard decisions, setting boundaries, leading others, or having conversations people don't want to hear. They share personal stories about people pleasing, competition, leader...

PLCs and teacher collaboration should help teachers solve problems, plan instruction, and improve student learning. But when meetings aren't connected to an actual need, they can quickly feel like one more thing on a teacher's plate. In this episode, Courtney and Shannon break down common PLC mistakes and share how leaders can make collaborative planning more purposeful. They discuss dif...

The school year is officially in full swing, the honeymoon is over, and educator burnout can start creeping in fast. In this After Hours episode, Courtney and Shannon get surprisingly serious about practical ways to manage teacher burnout. They talk about shifting your perspective, figuring out what's actually making you feel overwhelmed, getting comfortable saying no, and building simple sys...

Classroom walkthroughs can provide valuable instructional data, but only if leaders are clear about why they're doing them and what happens afterward. In this episode, Courtney and Shannon break down what makes a classroom walkthrough effective, why compliance-focused observations can damage teacher trust, and how leaders can use walkthrough data to provide practical feedback and plan meaning...

Teaching is already a full-time job. Naturally, schools also find approximately 47 other things for teachers to do. In this After Hours episode, Courtney and Shannon share some of the extracurriculars, clubs, coaching jobs, fundraisers, and questionable after-school activities they somehow got roped into during their teaching careers. From cheer moms and mascot mishaps to bootleg Girls on the Run,...

With high-quality instructional materials doing much of the heavy lifting, do teachers still need to lesson plan? Yes, but that doesn't mean spending hours creating detailed plans no one ever looks at. In this episode, Courtney and Shannon break down how teachers and school leaders can simplify lesson planning by focusing on the planning moves that actually impact instruction and create accou...

What happens when we ditch the education talk and just start asking each other questions? Things get weird pretty quickly. In this After Hours episode, Courtney and Shannon share their favorite books, concerts and TV shows, tell a few cult stories, introduce some very particular children and cats, and discuss their highly scientific methods for surviving stress. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome back to Af...

Students can look like they're listening, complete every assignment, and still not actually learn the content. In this episode, Courtney and Shannon share three simple teaching strategies that help students retrieve, process, and practice what they're learning so teachers can check for real understanding, not just compliance. Timestamps 00:00 Are students listening or actually learning?...

Every professional development session has the same cast of characters: the eager learner, the side talkers, the emergency phone-call person, the paper grader, and the one who always has something to add or question. In this After Hours episode, Courtney and Shannon confess their own bad PD behavior, share stories from leading teacher training, and somehow end up discussing Vaseline, gloves, and s...

Classroom walkthroughs should help leaders make better decisions about coaching and teacher support. But when the purpose is unclear, the data goes unused, or teachers never receive feedback, walkthroughs can quickly damage trust. In this episode, Courtney and Shannon break down the biggest walkthrough mistakes and explain how leaders can make classroom observations more transparent and useful for...

What happens when the leaders in the room are the ones making professional development harder? In this After Hours episode, Courtney and Shannon unpack the leadership behaviors that can derail even great PD, from sitting on the sidelines to mixed messages between leaders, and what the best leaders do differently. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome back to After Hours 02:08 Bad leadership behaviors in profes...

The first weeks of school can set the tone for your entire year. In this episode, Courtney Dumas and Shannon Streett share three simple strategies to improve classroom management, streamline parent communication, and get into your content faster, without adding more to your plate. Chapters: 00:00 Why doing less leads to more 01:39 Teach these classroom routines first 05:35 The parent FAQ every tea...

Welcome to the Edu20/20 After Hours Podcast… and yes, we’re ending the season with state testing. Because what better way to wrap things up than revisiting one of the most stressful and chaotic times of the school year? In this episode, we’re sharing real stories from state testing--the kind that sound made up until you’ve actually lived through it. We’re talking: • The rules, the pressure, and th...

Welcome back to the Edu20/20 Podcast… and yes, this is the season finale. We’re talking about that very specific time of year. Testing? Done. Kids? Done. Teachers? Definitely DONE. And somehow, you still have weeks left. This episode is all about what to do with that time-- keeping things meaningful without making it harder on yourself. We’re sharing what we’ve tried, what worked, what didn’t, and...

Welcome to the Edu20/20 After Hours Podcast… where we’re nearing the end of the season by going all the way back to the beginning. In this episode, we’re talking about who we were before education-- the random jobs, weird experiences, and moments that somehow shaped how we show up in classrooms today. From running errands for executives (yes, including private jets) to Walmart snack bars, call cen...

Welcome back to the Edu20/20 Podcast… where we take the things we’ve all done in classrooms and actually look at whether they’re working. This episode is all about study guides. We’ve all used them. We’ve all handed them out before a test. We’re talking through what’s actually happening when students “study” and why a lot of it doesn’t last. This conversation gets into: • What we’ve done (and seen...

Welcome to the Edu20/20 After Hours Podcast, where we’re not solving education today, we’re just trying to survive it. This episode is all about teacher life hacks. We’re talking about: • The tiny changes that save your sanity during the week • How to create routines that work for your brain • Why your people at work matter more than anything • Systems, boundaries, and protecting your time • And t...

Welcome back to the Edu20/20 Podcast. This episode is all about success criteria and why it’s become one of the most misunderstood (and overcomplicated) things happening in classrooms right now. After hundreds of classroom observations, we’ve seen it all: • Success criteria turned into an agenda • Success criteria that literally gives away the answer • Success criteria used as a compliance checkbo...

Welcome to the Edu20/20 After Hours Podcast. This is your official warning to not listen to this one with your kids in the car. In this episode, we’re sharing some of the wildest, most unhinged things we’ve heard in the classroom, from students, parents, and situations that no teacher prep program could ever prepare you for. We’re talking: • Parent notes that should’ve never been written • Classro...

Welcome to the Edu20/20 Podcast, where we take the things everyone says we “have to do” in education and talk about whether they actually make sense. This episode is all about goals and why they so often feel like a moving target. We break down why goals feel overwhelming (or unclear), what teachers actually need, and how simplifying your focus will lead to real results. Chapters: 0:00 Why goals f...

In this After Hours episode of The Edu20/20 Podcast, Shannon flips the script and puts Courtney in the hot seat. We talk about her journey into foster care and adoption--how she went from zero kids to two in 48 hours (and eventually three) while also running a company and teaching full-time. We get into: • What actually led to the decision to foster • What those first 48 hours were really like • T...

In this episode of The Edu20/20 Podcast, we’re continuing the conversation on lesson planning and zooming in on one of the most overlooked (but critical) parts: checks for understanding. The reality is kids can be doing all the things and still not learning anything. We get into what it actually looks like to monitor learning in real time, how to check for comprehension (not just completion), and...

Welcome to the Edu20/20 After Hours Podcast, AKA the version of us that probably shouldn’t be mic’d up, but here we are. This episode is fully dedicated to Shannon because she casually dropped one of the most unhinged life stories we’ve ever heard and then just moved on like it was normal. We’re talking about her first marriage inside a highly controlled religious organization, what that process a...

In this episode, we’re breaking down a game-changing practice: lesson framing. If your students constantly ask: “Is this for a grade?” “Why I gotta do this?” …it might not be defiance. It might be that the lesson wasn’t framed clearly. We talk about: - What “lesson framing” actually means (beyond writing standards on the board for compliance) - How framing creates clarity, predictability, and smoo...