100 Episodes: Looking Back and Learning Forward

Monday, March 9th, 2020, is the release of my 100th Episode of the I Wish I Knew EDU podcast on VoicEd Radio.  You can also find it on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Spreaker - but the VoicEd.ca community of podcasters is it's home.  I'm honoured to be a part of this inspiring group of educators.

My first episode was broadcast on VoicEd Radio on February 5th, 2018. I blogged about that first podcast experience in a post titled I'm a Podcaster! Then last year when I hit my one year/50th Episode Podcast-aversary, I blogged again in a post entitled: 50th Episode - I Wish I Knew EDU learning.  You might think I had nothing left to say about podcasting... but you would be wrong.

Two years and 100 Episodes in and I am still talking, listening and most importantly, still learning.  

The idea behind the podcast has always been to share the journey of educators at any given point on the EDU-career timeline - pre-service teachers, first year teachers, veterans with 5, 10, 20, 30 years in the business to those who have retired and continued their EDU-journey in a variety of ways.  I always ask my guests to give me a look back at the years and experiences behind them, and to share what they have learned over that time that they wish they knew sooner.  Then we have a look forward and share what their hopes for Education are. 

The podcast has been some of the most

amazing Professional Development I've ever done.  I've spoken to educators who have been so generous with their time and have honestly and openly shared their adventures with me.  I've gained knowledge about programs, resources and career paths that would never have occurred to me to research or use or find out about.  I've tried new strategies in my classrooms that they've shared with me, and met or followed other educators they recommended.  Each guest has expanded my thinking and opened new galaxies of opportunities for me.  Thank you to Tony Vincent for being my guest for Episode 100.  If you are one of the 100 Educators I have had as guests on the podcast so far, I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the gift you have given me.  I am a better Teacher because of all of you.

If you are a regular listener, thank you so much. My hope has always been that the podcast gives you something that you want or need to hear.  Maybe a new activity or resource for your students, a different way of looking at things, a career opportunity that you hadn't thought of, a spark of inspiration or even just a moment of collegiality.  On a day when you come home feeling lost, alone, mentally and emotionally exhausted and are thinking of giving up on teaching, I hope that you find something in the podcast that reminds you we all have those days and that it gives you the strength to keep fighting the good fight.  I open each show with the comment that Teaching is the best job in the world.  I absolutely and completely believe that those words are true.  But it isn't easy.  And somedays, it can be the toughest job in  the world too.   


So where do I go from Episode 100?  

It's been almost 26 years since I graduated from Teacher's College, and just over two years and 100 Episodes of podcasting.  There are still so many Educators I'd love to talk to and so many things I want to learn.  Maybe you are the person I'll learn them from.  I really hope I'll be talking to YOU soon on I Wish I Knew EDU, where we are looking back and learning forward.



As always, I welcome your comments and questions below.

#RememberingLeanne

I think I've talked a lot about how online connections and my online PLN have made me a better teacher, pushed me to think deeper and brought so many new ideas and opportunities to my classroom.  Between Twitter and VoicEd Radio...well the learning has been expanding at an exponential rate.  But it's been more than just learning, it's been the birth of some pretty amazing professional and personal relationships.  I haven't met a lot of these folks in real life...I haven't met hardly any of these people in real life.  But, the bond we've formed is real.  The friendships are real.  These people are my tribe: my biggest supporters, my trusted and honest critics, and in some cases, my kindred spirits.

Leanne Hanson and I met through VoicEd Radio and Twitter.  To say that I had found a soul sister doesn't do our relationship justice.  If my life was a Soap Opera, it would be akin to finding my evil twin.  Except we were both evil twins.  We instantly clicked.  We tweeted, we DM'd, we Google Hangout'd, we guested on each other's podcasts, we #MADPD'd, we shared resources, we told stories from our lives, we sent each other the craziest gifs, we engaged in bizarre, yet loving - social media terrorism attacks on our friends and we made up ridiculous hashtags (She was much better at this than I was).  We talked teaching, music and poetry.  We got silly.  We LOL'd...a lot.

We talked about meeting irl one day.  It would have been great to do that.  I would have loved to see her home and meet her family in Queensland.  I can imagine there would have been a big welcoming hug.  There would have been jokes and laughter and likely a fair bit of whiskey.  But an irl meeting wasn't really necessary to us.  We were able to connect digitally as if we were in the same room.  I didn't think of her as "this teacher on the other side of the planet."  She was simply, my friend, Leanne.

Leanne lost her battle with cancer this week at the age of 45.  My heart goes out to her husband, Grant, and her children Michael and Elizabeth.   

I am flattened by this loss. 

Educator, poet, podcaster, dreamer, friend. 

Links to Leanne Hanson's podcasts, poetry and more:

Leanne's Website and many of her poems

Leanne's blog

EDUnauts podcast

Leanne as a Guest on the podcasts of her VoicEd family:

On the #P3 with Noa Daniel

On Chasing Squirrels with Chris Cluff

On Ed with Shane Lawrence    

On the live Ed broadcast with Shane Lawrence and Ramona Meharg

On the Planning Period Podcast with Brad Shreffler

On The Missing Link with Rola Tibshirani

On I Wish I Knew EDU with Ramona Meharg

On Live Episode of I Wish I Knew EDU - RadioAThon Feb 2019

Her published poetry volumes:

Odd Verse Effects

Ghost Dreaming

Leanne with Ramona Meharg and Lisa Corbett May 2019 #MADPD Poetry video

Leanne's #MADPD panel on Digital Storytelling video 

Leanne's Bitmoji - one of my favs from the many she sent me.

50th Episode - I Wish I Knew EDU learning

On Monday, my 50th episode of the I Wish I Knew EDU podcast goes live.  I wanted to celebrate this milestone with a special episode. The format of the show is generally learning about the great things my guests are involved with and then I ask them about some of those "I Wish I Knew" moments in their career.  For the 50th Episode I decided to turn the tables and I asked first year teacher and veteran podcaster, Sarah Anne Lalonde, to take the mic and ask me some of those same questions.  It's a fun episode and I hope you will give it a listen at www.voiced.ca once it drops on Monday Feb. 11/19.  My profound thanks to Sarah for being a part of the episode and for so expertly taking the reins.

My first episode was broadcast on www.voiced.ca February 5th, 2018. So - I've also hit my 1st Podcast-aversary.  A year and 50 episodes into my podcasting journey seems like a good time to reflect on some of my learning. 




The ask is the hardest part.
Deciding to do a podcast, to make that leap and try something new is always challenging.  I'll admit to having some butterflies in my stomach as I got my head around what my format would be and the logistics of getting started.  When the time came to ask a guest to join me it was like a plague of locusts had taken up residence in my gut.  My first episode guest, TVDSB administrator, Heather Jakobi, was so great about just making the leap with me.  When I listen to this episode now, I cringe at my tech errors and I can hear my own nervousness come through, but the sharing and learning is just as great in that recording as in my most recent one.  "The ask" continues to be the toughest aspect of podcasting for me.  Those locusts are still jumping around as I hit send on a request. Why would these intelligent, busy, and amazing Educators want to give up their time to talk to me?  And let me record it.  And then let me broadcast it.  I'm still not sure why they do, but I am so grateful to them for saying yes.  I've had a few turn me down, most often because they are uncomfortable with the medium, but so many more have been quick to respond and jump in.  And I love the guests who have told me "I've never done this before, but it sounds fun - let's do it."  To all of my first 50 guests, my heartfelt thanks for joining me on the journey.

Being organised is helpful
I've tried to release one episode a week.  To do that, work full time and still spend time with my family can get a bit frantic.  Folks who know me will likely agree when I say I'm pretty organised.  This has helped.  When I know things are going to be hectic, like September and June, I record a few episodes in advance and then hold back releasing them in those hectic times.  It's certainly a lot easier to record a few extra episodes in August (and easier to book times to record with guests) when I'm not working every day.  Having a PLN that is always willing to help is a great asset too.  I've had times when a guest has had to cancel or reschedule and my PLN has always been great about responding to a request for a guest with very little notice.  Those have been some of the best and most enjoyable episodes to do.  It's like chatting with a friend.

There are going to be technology issues - Just breathe!
Yep, things are going to go wrong.  And they did.  They continue to do so.  Don't panic.  Just breathe.. and if you can't figure it out yourself, ask for help!  Stephen Hurley (the godfather of voicEdRadio) was and continues to be my best resource for tech issues.  Mind you, he did give me the push to get into this.   I think the first time I experienced audio drift I started to hyperventilate.  Then there was the time I thought I lost the feed from my guest in Australia.  Imagine my horror!  This guest, across the world, has just spent an hour recording with me - across busy schedules and a pile of time zones, and I've lost the audio!  No matter what the problem, Stephen was very patient and helped fix my tech issues while I was learning how to fix them myself.   In times of trouble, I've reached out to other podcasters for help and they have never let me down.  Noa Daniel, your Google Hangout with me to show me a few Garage Band tricks made a profound impact on my editing skills!  So many people I have never even met before, have answered my questions.  Those of you who've helped me over this first year... a thousand times, Thank you!

Can I keep up the pace?
When I started last February, I set myself a goal of one Episode a week.  If you count the live episodes, which I didn't include in my tally, I'm over 50 for the year.  So, goal met.  Can I keep up the pace going forward?  I've had discussions with guests and other podcasters about the work that goes into a 30 minute to an hour podcast.  There's the time spent asking and connecting with guests.  I always like to do a little research.  My episodes last about 30-45 minutes or longer, so there is that recording time.  As I just mentioned, something often goes wrong and the episode needs some editing.  I don't do a lot of post production work and I try only to edit for tech issues.  I want the authentic voice of my guest to be heard, and I don't want to edit that voice out because of a time issue. Once the issue drops, I promote it via Social Media.  My guests have given so generously of their time, I feel I owe it to them to promote the Episode and get their voice heard.  So yes, podcasting has been a fairly large time commitment. It has certainly reduced the amount of blogging I am able to do.  It's also a heck of a lot more interesting and fun than housework! At this point, I'd like to try to keep close to the one a week goal.  But, I may be a bit easier on myself than I was in the first year.

The www.voiced.ca Community
Being a part of this community of EDU-podcasters has been - I don't even know how to put it into words - Supercalifragilisticexpealidoucius?   The support, the sharing, the live broadcasts, guesting on each others shows, the goofy gifs and the 'all in good fun' teasing on Twitter have been a unexpected but wonderful gift. These are great Educators and great people.  I'm honoured to be amongst them.

I'm listening...
In the 50th Episode, Sarah and I talk about our listening skills.  I think that's one of the intangible benefits of podcasting.  I'm a much better listener than I was a year ago and not just when I'm podcasting.  As the year has progressed, I find myself really listening deeply to what my guests are saying.  I'm not so worried about the next question, or getting to a certain topic before the time is up.  I'm really processing what they are saying and reflecting on it, even after our recording time is up.  I'm finding myself listening better to my Students and Colleagues as well.  And that is a good thing.

From the very impetus of the idea of this podcast, my goal has been to highlight and share the great things Teachers have been doing and learning.  I also wanted to share those things we don't learn in our Teacher Training - but sometimes learn the hard way as we navigate our educational careers.  By sharing these things we all learn and maybe save someone from making some of our own mistakes.  The show is not about me (OK, maybe episode 50 is), it's about all my wonderful guests.  I thank you for joining me as a guest, and I thank everyone who has listened this year.

I think I'll end this post like I end each episode, by saying that I really do hope to be talking to you soon on I Wish I Knew EDU, where we are looking back, and learning forward.