In case you didn’t know, our podcast Teachers’ Lounge is also on the radio! We’ve got all the interviews with Illinois teachers and education stories you love — along with exclusive segments — in a monthly, hour-long show on WNIJ.
On this episode, we’re talking with Jared Ploger! He wears a lot of different hats in education. First and foremost, he’s a social studies teacher at Bolingbrook High School. He’s also the president of his local teachers’ union and an elected member of the District 308 school board in Oswego.
It’s a lot, and Jared takes the time to break down what his union work looks like, how he advocates for his fellow teachers and for state legislation that might be able to help them. We also go behind the scenes of working on a school board at a large district: the responsibility of being transparent and having an open relationship with the public, especially at a time when board meetings have been very contentious at times over the past few years.
Also, Mathew Oakes! He’s an English professor at Rock Valley College.
He’s also leading the school’s RVC Votes program where they’re trying to encourage students to register to vote, answer questions, help them learn how to research what’s on their ballot and what their voting rights are! Pretty timely, given we have a presidential election coming up in here in a few days now!
We talk with Mathew about that and a community history project he’s working on with his students, along with diving into his teaching philosophy…which he sees as education as a tool for liberation.
We also catch up with our classroom correspondent: Dominique Yackley! She’s a 5th-grade teacher at Founders Elementary School in DeKalb. As our correspondent, we interview her every single month to follow a school year in a teacher’s life.
On top of all that, we see what’s going on with our student correspondents! They’re students we’ll talk with on every episode of Teachers’ Lounge. We’re following a group of students at Hinckley-Big Rock High School as they embark on their school’s first-ever fall production. AND we’ve got a group of 8-year-old students from Spectrum Progressive School in Rockford to keep us in the loop with everything going on for them in elementary school.
If you’ve never listened before, our show is based on an idea — we’ve all had teachers in our lives who shaped who we are. And we want to hear about the teachers who inspired you. Every educator we have on Teachers’ Lounge, whether teacher, coach, counselor, or professor, is nominated by our listeners.
So, tell us about the person who comes to your mind. Shoot us an email and nominate an educator at teacherslounge@niu.edu and they could be on the show!
Don’t worry – the podcast isn’t going anywhere. You can still catch episodes every other Friday on WNIJ.org or wherever you get podcasts.