Our education podcast Teachers' Lounge is also on the radio. We feature interviews with Illinois teachers and education stories you love, along with exclusive segments, in a monthly, hourlong show on WNIJ.
On this episode, it's Cynthia Taines! She's an associate professor at Northern Illinois University in the College of Education and specializes in the sociology of education and education policy.
She has a new book called "The Metropolitan Community: Partnering for Equality Across the Educational Divide."
Picture this: Two public high schools, 25 minutes apart. One is in a wealthy suburban district. The other is a lower-income urban school in Chicago.
They are geographically close but worlds apart in how much money they can spend on students and the resources and services they provide.
Taines' project brought groups of students from each school together, where they saw for the first time the full disparity between their schools. They then teamed up to advocate for state policies to change how public education is funded in Illinois.
We also sit down with Tina Hardy! She's the coordinator for the Center of Accessibility and Neurodiversity at Illinois Valley Community College.
Basically, it's her job to make college accessible for students who need extra accommodations. That could mean more time to complete a test if a student has a physical impairment that affects writing. It could also mean helping students use software to record lectures and take notes.
The laws change quite a bit when students with disabilities move from high school to college, so Hardy helps students make that transition.
We talk about the winding journey that led her to teaching and the important conversations she has with students about why learning can feel hard — and how she guides them toward the tools and strategies that help them thrive.
We also have a "classroom correspondent" on the show. This is the teacher we interview each month during the school year to follow their experiences over time.
This year, our correspondent is Caio Gomes! He teaches English as a second language at Clinton Rosette Middle School in DeKalb.
Caio's Brazilian. He and his wife moved to the U.S. a few years ago. This month, we talked about his immigration journey as a teacher, as his students are also reading about immigration and refugees, many of whom come from immigrant families.
Finally, we check in with our student correspondents for the spring: students from the Whiteside Area Career Center's CEO program who are starting their own businesses from scratch.
If you have never listened before, the show is based on a simple idea: We have all had teachers who shaped who we are. We want to hear about the educators who inspired you. Every guest on Teachers' Lounge — whether a teacher, coach, counselor or professor — is nominated by listeners.
So tell us about the person who comes to your mind. Send us an email to nominate an educator at teacherslounge@niu.edu, and they could be on the show!
Don't worry — the podcast is still available. You can catch episodes every other Friday on WNIJ.org or wherever you get podcasts.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent
