Teachers' Lounge Podcast

On a new Teachers' Lounge podcast, we talk with a Morris teacher who’s not afraid to hold his students to a standard of excellence.“I tell the kids, if you come in and you work for me, I will jump over the moon for you.”What it means to go above and beyond for kids.

On a new TL Radio Show, we’re trying to help you make sense of some of the biggest education issues of the past year. We also catch up with our "classroom correspondent" teacher as they tell us about helping their students through their grief after a tragedy.

There have been so many massive education stories over the past year from the dismantling of the Department of Education to childcare funding freezes.On a new Teachers’ Lounge podcast, we try to help you make sense of it and give you a roadmap to following education in 2026.

Every semester, we feature a new group of "student correspondents." They're students in a club, sport, or activity. We interview them every month and bring you their journey. This fall, we highlighted the reporters and editors at Kaneland High School's student-run magazine "The Kaneland Krier" as they raced against their deadlines.

Before we get too far into 2026, let's take one more look back at some of our best education stories we reported in 2025.

We say goodbye to our student correspondents from Kaneland High School, have a holiday check-in with the teacher we interview every month, and look back at a few of our favorite conversations of 2025.

On a new Teachers' Lounge, we're revisiting a few of our favorite education conversations of 2025 as we finish up the year.

On a new Teachers’ Lounge Podcast, an Ottawa High School special education teacher helping her students transition to college…from knowing their rights to picking their classes.

On a brand-new Teachers’ Lounge, WNIJ’s Peter Medlin talks with music teacher Ann Smelser from NIU’s Community School of the Arts. He chats about education policy with Crystal Lake Central High School special education teacher Bob Chikos.And he catches up with our monthly teacher correspondent Caio Gomes from Clinton-Rosette Middle School in DeKalb, as well as our student correspondents from Kaneland High School’s student-run news magazine, the Kaneland Krier!

On Teachers’ Lounge, it's Ann Montzka Smelser.She's the Director of the Suzuki Strings Program at Northern Illinois University.Ann’s a practitioner of what’s called “the Suzuki method of music learning.” It’s based on the idea that music talent isn’t inherent, it’s something that’s nurtured through positive encouragement.