The Out of the Trenches Podcast

Episode #163: Barbara Ann Mojica

Barbara Ann Mojica is a historian and retired educator. Barbara provides tools to inspire, entertain and educate youth. History is the key to solving today’s problems. Tired of being bombarded by social media noise? Accept the challenge. Be a truth-teller. She lives in Upstate NY. Her education career spans more than forty years serving as a teacher, special educator, principal, and school district administrator. Using the whimsical Little Miss History character to narrate her book series, she makes learning history a fun-filled adventure. Barbara firmly believes, "If you don't know your history, you don't know what you're talking about."

Find Barbara online at www.LittleMissHISTORY.com -all her social links are on her website.

Episode #162: Todd Simendinger

Todd is a lifelong educator with over twenty years of experience in education, and presently a consultant for Navigating Challenging Dialogue for Schools. He’s a 2002 graduate of Ohio State University where he earned a B.A. in History, and a Masters degree in Education/ Curriculum Design and Development. Over the course of his career Todd’s worked across the entire K-12 spectrum as both an administrator and teacher, and has experience working in suburban, urban, and vocational settings. His ten years as a school administrator include leadership positions in the roles of Curriculum and Assessment Coordinator, HS/MS Assistant Principal, and for the past seven years as an Elementary Principal.

Todd’s a certified NCD trainer with coaching and professional development delivery experience in both education and business settings, and has served as a mentor and coach for numerous aspiring and sitting school administrators. Find Todd online: https://ncdforschools.com/

He is on LinkedIn & Twitter @Todd Simendinger

Episode #161: Dr. Chad Lang

Dr. Chad Lang is the Dir. of School Improvement and HR in Glenwood CSD, Glenwood, IA. He is a current author and researcher of grading and assessment; extracurricular participation in schools; school leadership; school improvement.

He graduated from University of Northern Iowa with a BA, Social Science Education. He was a High School Government and American History teacher 2005-2013 and at William Woods University-MA, He also served as a Secondary School Administrator and District Activities Director and Assistant Middle School Principal-Lawson, Missouri 2013-2019. He received the State of Missouri AD of the Year-2018 He completed his doctorate at the University of Missouri- Ed.D. 2018-Dissertation research: impact of multisport participation and academic achievement in rural settings. Chad is currently co-authoring book for 2023 publication, A Parents’ Guide to Grading and Reporting: Being Clear about What Matters with Dr. Matt Townsley. He is the host of the Learning with Interesting People Podcast, seasons 1 and 2.

Find Chad online on Twitter @Chad_mLang, @Learning_w_ppl FB: https://www.facebook.com/chad.lang.58/

Episode #160: Dr. Canute White

Dr. Canute White is a Jamaican scholar who has his own philosophical perspective of life and social settings. He had coined the concept of Self-Aweirdness to describe individuals who are comfortable with their weird behaviors and own those behaviors. Among other books, he had written weird people started to explain this concept.

Dr. White has a background in psychology but hold a doctorate in education with concentration in organizational leadership. He has a BSc. in counseling, MSc in psychology with educational psychology emphasis, and a MSc in organizational studies. Dr. White believes in education as a means for upward mobility and often question academic concepts in the realm of his philosophical mindset. He is a very critical thinker. He is a podcaster and host of the Canyouth's Exploration podcast. He used his knowledge and skills gained through a diploma in radio and television broadcasting to channel his educational, social, and cultural philosophies.

Dr. White had served in the Jamaican military for over 25 years and as a lay magistrate/Justice of the Peace in Jamaica before becoming a Notary Public in Florida. He is considering running for political office in the USA; hence, his pursuance of another master's degree in Public Administration.

Go to Canute's website www.canyouthsexploration.com and follow Canute on IG @canyouthexploration & Twitter @canyouthsn

Episode #159: Joshua Stamper

Joshua Stamper initially used his artistic talent, creativity and original ideas as a professional graphic designer. He then transitioned to inspiring students to utilize their imagination and creative expression in public education. Being unsuccessful as a student growing up, Joshua never expected to be back in the classroom as a teacher, athletic coach or administrator. His struggles as a student spawned a passion to change the education model, push the boundaries of traditional learning, and explore new innovative ideas.

Joshua has been a middle school Assistant Principal in North Texas for the past eight years, where he's served at four campuses in two school districts. In addition to his current administrative position, Joshua is the host of Aspire: The Leadership Development Podcast, an author, leadership coach, education presenter, and Podcast Network Manager for the Teach Better Team.

You can stay connected by following @Joshua__Stamper (double underscore) on Twitter and Instagram, or by visiting his website www.joshstamper.com

Episode #158: Dr. Jill Siler

Dr. Jill Siler served as the Superintendent of Gunter ISD for nearly ten years and now serves as the Deputy Executive Director for Professional Learning for the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA). Jill has been serving as an educator for 25 years, beginning her career as a high school social studies teacher and coach before she became a campus and district leader. Jill has a passion for impacting others and has been a frequent speaker to teachers and leaders alike. Jill’s first book, Thrive Through the Five, was released in 2020, and focuses on how to thrive through the most challenging seasons.

Follow Jill on IG & Twitter @jillmsiler and visit her website: www.jillmsiler.com

Episode#157: JoAnn Nocera

oAnn Nocera is an Educational Leader, Creativity Enthusiast, and Author with over two decades of experience helping children reach their highest learning potential and teaching parents strategies to assist in the process. In short, JoAnn helps students be SEEN, HEARD, and UNDERSTOOD.

JoAnn has changed the culture of school and home life to help those find success academically and emotionally. She has spent years researching and developing techniques that have been successful in helping students in all facets of education. She has worked with The Geraldine Dodge Foundation, MindPop, Mind-Aligned, and the Grunin Foundation as well as in corporate partnerships with Toys R Us, Ocean First, and Home Depot. She is also a sought after speaker and workshop leader. JoAnn holds multiple certifications in Elementary and Middle School Teaching, Principal and Supervisor administration licenses, and has been featured in WeAreTeachers.com, WebTalkRadio, and other national outlets within the industry. Her book Give Me Back My Crayons, companion planner Give Me Back My Creativity, and companion children’s book series Katherine Grace are available wherever books are sold.

Find JoAnn online at www.joannnocera.com IG: @joann_nocera FB: Joann Nocera7

Episode #156: Bill Renner

Bill Renner is principal and chief storyteller of The Amazing Spencer Elementary in Brighton, Michigan. He serves his elementary school with a daily focus on relationships by laughing together, focusing on success, and learning from failure. Whether serving lunch, helping his staff reach their goals, or offering to assist a student with a task, it's daily servanthood for Bill.

In addition to leading, he's the creator of a weekly parenting podcast, A Dash of Salt, where he shares his insights as a principal and his other favorite title, Dad. Bill's no stranger to the rigors of the classroom as he's taught as a kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade, and fifth-grade teacher. He holds a BS in science and early childhood education and a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University.

Follow Bill on Twitter: @rennerbill Insta: @theamazingspencerelem and listen to his parenting podcast: A Dash of Salt www.buzzsprout.com/1131905

Episode#155: Tar’kesa Colvin

Tar'kesa Colvin is an Award-Winning Publishing Coach & Consultant, wife, mother of 4 (including 2 fur babies), and a Bestselling Author who can be seen in The Huffington Posts, Thrive Global Medium, and the SBA’s SCORE – Birmingham Chapter.

She worked in Healthcare Management for 10 years completing a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management, then a Master of Business Administration in operations management, but she knew she was designed and purposed to do more. During this time in corporate, she also nurtured her passion and natural talent for writing and storytelling by writing and publishing fiction and nonfiction works both traditionally and independently. Then using her formal business education and the experience she gained from publishing 19 books in 6 years, she began to help people write and publish transformational books. To date, she has helped over 80 authors achieve their goals of writing and publishing their books, and these well-positioned books have been instrumental in increasing their visibility, credibility, authority, global reach AND profitability.

Working with her clients in 1:1 and group settings, their book projects have help them to become featured authors at the NAACP National Convention, secure TEDx Talks, create multiple income streams, gain access to larger stages and multi-national platforms, garner the attention of daytime television producers, get them featured in well-known magazines like Cosmo, and expanded their businesses by leveraging their finished books. Her goal for the work she does is to help people write books that "say something", books that are not only positioned for bestseller status, but that also change mindsets, lives, businesses and more by delivering powerful transformational messages to the masses!

Find Tar'kesa online: https://inowpublishing.com/ On social media, she can be found on https://www.facebook.com/tesacolvin/ https://twitter.com/jusreadit   https://www.linkedin.com/in/tcolvinmba/  https://www.instagram.com/inowpublishing/

Episode #154: Alicia Ray

Alicia Ray is a veteran educator of 14 years from North Carolina. She has taught PreK-8th grade students and currently serves as a digital learning coach and media coordinator in a STEM magnet middle school in a rural district. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Appalachian State University, a Master of Arts in Education in Instructional Technology and a Master Alicia Ray is a veteran educator of 14 years from North Carolina. She has taught PreK-8th grade students and currently serves as a digital learning coach and media coordinator in a STEM magnet middle school. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Appalachian State University, a Master of Arts in Education in Instructional Technology and a Master of Library Science from East Carolina University.

Alicia is passionate about being a catalyst for change, lifelong learning, and inspiring others to be better than they were yesterday. She believes every event in life contains a lesson, and seeks to discover those lessons (sometimes learning them the hard way). Alicia enjoys infusing technology into the classroom seamlessly and effectively. She is a firm believer that relationships with students and stakeholders are everything. Alicia uses virtual reality, blended learning environments, gamification, and game-based learning to engage & empower students while coaching teachers through co-planning and co-teaching. She encourages teachers to take risks by giving them a safe place to fail during these co-teaching experiences.

She began a journey of true introspection and implementation through blogging about the first 50 books published under the Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc label during the summer of 2018, which she called #DBC50Summer. Never wanting to become stagnant again, she continues sharing her reflections and implementations at using the hashtag #DBCBookBlogs. She blogs frequently about #DBCBookBlogs and education at aliciaray.com and is active on Twitter as @iluveducating. She and her husband, Chris, have two intelligent, spunky, beautiful daughters, Bailey and Sophie.

Find Alicia online on Twitter @iluveducating Twitter/IG @edueyeexam website: www.aliciaray.com