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© Copyright 2026 Lily Jones, Teacher Advocate
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There’s a lot that needs to change in education. But there are inspiring movements going on too! At Educator Forever, we believe teachers need to be at the forefront of education reform and be empowered to create career pathways that work for them.
Do you ever think about leaving the classroom but have absolutely no idea what else you could do? You may not realize it yet, but you have acquired highly valuable skills throughout your teaching journey, and there is unlimited potential for you to use them. Tune in each week to hear about career opportunities that will help you achieve the income, impact, and freedom you’ve always dreamed of. The best part? You can do all of this without having to leave the world of education entirely.
In addition to showing you the many ways you can expand your impact beyond the classroom, we’ll introduce you to inspiring leaders in education. Want to learn about new research? Looking to get familiar with innovative approaches to teaching and learning? We’ve got you covered.
Your host, Lily Jones, is a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher who transitioned out of the classroom to work in curriculum design, writing content for ed tech companies and even launching her own educational product-based business. After quadrupling her teaching income, she realized she could help other teachers do the same. Now Lily runs Educator Forever, where she empowers teachers to expand their impact beyond the classroom, and Educator Forever Agency, where she works with a team of educators to create inspiring curricula.
For more helpful resources, head to www.educatorforever.com.
Do you ever think about leaving the classroom but have absolutely no idea what else you could do? You may not realize it yet, but you have acquired highly valuable skills throughout your teaching journey, and there is unlimited potential for you to use them. Tune in each week to hear about career opportunities that will help you achieve the income, impact, and freedom you’ve always dreamed of. The best part? You can do all of this without having to leave the world of education entirely.
In addition to showing you the many ways you can expand your impact beyond the classroom, we’ll introduce you to inspiring leaders in education. Want to learn about new research? Looking to get familiar with innovative approaches to teaching and learning? We’ve got you covered.
Your host, Lily Jones, is a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher who transitioned out of the classroom to work in curriculum design, writing content for ed tech companies and even launching her own educational product-based business. After quadrupling her teaching income, she realized she could help other teachers do the same. Now Lily runs Educator Forever, where she empowers teachers to expand their impact beyond the classroom, and Educator Forever Agency, where she works with a team of educators to create inspiring curricula.
For more helpful resources, head to www.educatorforever.com.
169 Episodes
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A lifelong educator with extensive experience in challenging students inside and outside the classroom, Nicholas Bradford started his restorative justice education in 2009 working in therapeutic settings. Having worked with hundreds of schools and districts, he has built a robust program that delivers a comprehensive Restorative Justice frameworkNicholas and I talk about how he began teaching restorative justice and the successes he’s seen in the classroom after providing it, especially in discipline rates. He also gives some good tips on starting a consultancy!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode168.
Patty McGee, the author of “Not Your Granny’s Grammar,” is a nationally recognized literacy consultant, speaker and educator with a passion for transforming classrooms into spaces where language and literacy come alive. With years of teaching experience under her belt, she’s become a strong advocate for delightful literacy practices.In this episode, Patty describes how she went from teaching to starting her own literacy consultancy. She also gets into why there needs to be a shift in how grammar is taught, and why budding consultants and small business owners should write a book.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode167.
Jessica Werner, Ph.D. is the founder and CEO of Northshore Learning. She has worked with schools worldwide as an instructor, a professor of education and classroom management, and a consultant. She is passionate about helping to equip educators to work with students with varying academic and behavioral needs.In this episode Jessica details how her education journey started with a trip to Chile. She also details how Northshore Learning helps teachers and how they need support through wraparound services and professional development. For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode166.
Karen Meyer Cunningham is a nationally recognized special education advocate, speaker, and mediator with over two decades of experience guiding families, educators, and professionals through the complexities of special education systems. Known as The Special Education Boss®, she brings deep expertise in IDEA, Section 504, and disability advocacy, with a clear commitment to ensuring equitable access and meaningful outcomes for students with disabilities.Karen details how a difficult introduction to special education set her down her path to helping others. She also gets into her book, The Epic IEP, and how she runs her Special Education Academy. Make sure to tune in to hear how special education programs can improve.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode165.
Jim Hollis is the founder and executive director of the Calculus Roundtable, a nationally recognized nonprofit that improves math and science achievement for underserved students. Under his leadership, the organization has worked with over 65 schools across California, Washington, and New York, earning accolades such as the New Profit Foundation’s recognition of Hollis as one of America’s top 24 social entrepreneurs of equitable education.Jim and I talk about the experiences that led him to start Calculus Roundtable as well as how it makes a difference in the classroom. We also get into the importance of providing engaging content in the classroom and the future of his organization.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode164.
Emily Cadiz is a teacher, musician, mom of three, and founder of Prelude Early Learning, home of Finnegan the Dragon. After a traumatic brain injury left her needing to relearn how to talk and walk, she rebuilt her skills through music and singing—an experience that inspired Prelude’s music-based approach to teaching language and pre-reading. With 20+ years in education and master’s degrees in education, special education, and music, Emily has created an NIH-supported program that’s shown up to 250% growth in early literacy skills. In our talk, Emily dives deep into her accident and her history as an educator. She emphasizes why she advocates for inclusive music in classrooms, rather than traditional speech therapy. She also has some great advice for those transitioning from education to entrepreneurship.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode163.
Leah Ellis is a mom of four, writer, wedding officiant, Girl Scout leader, and founder of The Society of Child Entrepreneurs. Through SoCE, Nerdy Nuptials ICT, and Girl Scouts, she creates spaces where kids, couples, and communities are empowered to lead with authenticity. Leah believes in making room for both the mess and the magic of becoming.Leah, a “serial entrepreneur,” shares with me how her daughter's interest in selling paintings led to hosting children's business fairs. She also explains why she hopes more parents help their children start their own businesses. For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode162.
Stephen Hughie Lasseter is the author of Kingston To The Rescue. He is also a special education teacher in Philadelphia, where he teaches reading and math to elementary school students. He designed an educational program called Educate to Skate. Educate to Skate combines the metrics of learning, physical exercise and independence with skateboarding to teach math, geometry and science to elementary and middle school students.In our talk, Hughie and discuss how his son’s skateboarding career influenced his work in special education. He also details how he intended his book to also teach reading and how storytelling can be a wonderful teaching tool. For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode161.
Dr. Marcus Deveso is the co-founder and Chief Program Officer at C3 Community. He is a lifelong educator with nearly 30 years of experience in fostering inclusive, equitable educational environments. Throughout his career, Marcus has held a variety of roles, from classroom teacher to Chief Program Officer in the nonprofit sector.Marcus and I discuss his teacher journey, which he sees as “accidental” despite his mother and grandmother having been teachers. He dives into the C3 framework — care, capability, and connection — which he applies to education and corporate spaces. Also, we discuss the importance of inclusive, joyful learning spaces, which is such an important topic to me.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode160.
Jean Lee is a neuroscientist and homeschooling parent of three who founded the Academy of Chaos, which provides classes for homeschoolers. She’s also the director of the Midwest Homeschool Expo, one of the largest secular homeschool conferences in the United States. Jean’s career is defined by scaling operations, leading diverse teams, and building high-impact partnerships. Today, she brings that expertise to reimagine education, bridging the gap between homeschool, higher education, and the business world.In our conversation, Jean and I discuss why she homeschooled her children, how she started the Academy of Chaos and how it lead to starting the Midwest Homeschool Expo. She also drops some great advice for budding entrepreneurs working in the field of education.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode159.
National Novel Writing Month might be gone, but its founder Chris Baty and a collection of former employees and volunteers are making sure the writing tradition continues. Next month their new organization, NaNo 2.0, will be encouraging writers all over to start and complete a novel, while also providing support through resources and camaraderie.In this episode, Lily talks to Tavia Stewart and Laura Bradley from NaNo 2.0. Both of whom played integral roles in the original NaNoWriMo, with Tavia being its first employee. Laura was an eighth grade teacher who incorporated NaNoWriMo into her writing lessons and saw her students fall in love with the hardest writing assignment she had ever given in her 20 years of teaching. She’s now one of the tradition’s biggest advocates.Tune in to hear why Tavia and Laura believe in NaNo 2.0 and how it helps foster a love for writing. You might want to write a novel this year after listening!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode158.
Alexandra DeSorbo-Quinn is the executive director of Pilot Light, a nonprofit that helps educators incorporate food education into their lessons. She joined the organization in 2014, hired personally by its founders as its first staff member, and since then, she has proudly worked in partnership with many educators, chefs and community members to grow the reach of their food education programs from one school to 79 impacting over 20,000 students nationwide.Alexandra and I get into her work history, starting with her days at a stroke center where she used hip hop to teach stroke prevention. We also dive deep into Pilot Light and the group’s involvement in developing food education’s seven standards. Alexandra’s story is a testament to the need for vision in the worlds of education and social work.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode157.
Dr. Scott Pickle is superintendent of the Sequoia Union Elementary School District in Woodlake, California. He is also a public speaker and best-selling author who uses his platform to champion the belief that all students can achieve at high levels. Scott used his 30 years of experience to write two published books, Upright and Impact Mentoring: 200 Ways to Make an Impact, and his third book, Impact Artificial Intelligence, will be published soon.Scott and I start off with his long history in public education and working his way up to superintendent. We then dive deep into his beliefs about mentoring, which we agree is lacking for teachers. We also discuss AI’s potential impact on teaching and why it needs to be regulated, as well as utilized.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode156.
Holly Britton is a handwriting instruction specialist with teaching experience in grades K through eight. She educated her own four now-adult children, has taught in private and public school classrooms, served as a curriculum director and founded Squiggle Squad, a unique approach to handwriting instruction for children, pre K to second grade.In this episode we go in depth into strategies for teaching writing, with emphasis on early transcription skills and letter formation. If you’re helping kids teach writing, you’ll want to take notes. For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode155.
For this episode, I speak to Maya Smart, an early literacy advocate, parent educator and author of Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child. She's affiliated faculty at Marquette University and holds degrees from Harvard and Northwestern. Her website MayaSmart.com features weekly book picks some playful learning ideas and free tools to help parents grow as their children's first teachers. We get into how she became in reading and why she wanted to research early literacy. We dive into her research, which found disparity in reading achievement between black and white kids. We also spend time discussing her book and how she wrote it. Take notes, it’s a good one!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode154.
In this episode, I talk to Donita Grissom, a senior lecturer at at the University of Central Florida and co-author of the book, High Five to Thrive. She is also the CEO of Best Questers, which provides teachers with practical, effective teaching strategies that they can immediately implement in their classrooms to help create resilient, thriving school communities.In this episode, Donita and I talk about her start in education as a K–12 ESOL teacher and how that led to her training other ESOL teachers. She also explains her Hope Theory and her belief in the importance of goal-setting. This interview is full of great tips to reignite your passion for teaching!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode153.
This week on the show we have Ben Somers, the founder of Recess.gg an education platform built for homeschoolers who learn differently. Recess is a kid centered product, and has helped kids publish books on Amazon, win awards at Oxford writing conferences and start amazing businesses.In this episode, Ben and I get into how Ben’s own frustrating experiences with school lead him to pursue education alternatives. He then goes into his goals with his online schooling platform, Recess, which allows students to pick their own classes. He also provides some notable reasons for getting into the homeschooling market.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode152.
This week we speak to Lori Woodley-Langendorff, the co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer of All It Takes, a nonprofit that equips youth and mentors with vital emotional intelligence skills. Lori has 30 years experience in education, having worked the majority of it as a middle school counselor before starting All It Takes in 2010 with her daughter, actress Shaylene Woodley. Lori and I have a good time talking about working in education and how it becomes your identity. Then we get into the creation of All It Takes before diving deep into the importance of Social Emotional Learning. We also get into the process of writing her new book, “SEL Muscle Mastery: 6 Tools for Building Resiliency and Connection in Schools and Communities.” Tune in!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode151.
This week’s guests are Dakota Irby and Anne Ishimaru, authors of "Doing the Work of Equity Leadership." Irby, a Professor at the University of Illinois, focuses on improving Black students' experiences through equity-focused leadership. Ishimaru, a Professor at the University of Washington, cultivates leadership among educators and racially minoritized youth.In this episode, they tell Lily how they entered the world of education and what brought them to working to increase equity there. They also discuss writing the book, what they hope it achieves, and what it actually takes to increase equity in learning spaces.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode150.
Alexandra Walsh is the Chief Product Officer at Amplify. She develops leads and implements a strategic vision that delivers product coherence and common platform excellence across Amplify's math, literacy and science product suites. Previously, she was senior vice president and general manager of ELA curriculum, overseeing product development on the company's curriculum platform.In this episode, we discuss how she started teaching in New Orleans after Katrina and leaving the classroom for policy work. We also dive into how policy affects teachers and students, and the need for curriculum that is both research-backed and adaptable to diverse classroom contexts. Lots of big topics are brought up and Alexandra shares important insight.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode149.
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