Copy Room Conversations

Your Invitation to the Copy Room

Teaching is a series of invitations. Here is your invitation to join us in the Copy Room.

What is the Copy Room?

What is the "Copy Room?" Listen for a quick introduction into the what and why behind Copy Room Conversations.

Season 1 - Belonging

Welcome to Season 1 of Copy Room Conversations. This season we focus on belonging, and you'll meet the women who gave me a seat at their table and sustained me through a 20-year teaching career and beyond. My intention with this season is to share these extraordinary women with you as a form of nourishment and a reminder that we belong to one another. Look out for the bonus episode that launches our collaboration with Responsive Reads.

Belonging - Pamela Wilson, the 3F Mentor

I'm sharing my mentors with you this season with the intention of sharing their gifts with you, in this most unprecedented time of challenge in our profession. Pamela Wilson is my 3F mentor: First, Favorite, and Forever. Listen in as she shares her wisdom with all of us. 

Belonging - Tovi Scruggs-Hussein - The One who Dares to Lead

In a time when we need our community more than ever, many of us are retreating, taking cover for the sake of surviving what is the most difficult year of our teaching careers. Teacher friends are the best friends, and Tovi is and has been both of these things to me for more than 25 years. Let's listen as she reminds us - through story and laughter and a few tears -  just how deeply we belong to one another. 

Belonging - Glenna Wurm Hayenga -The One Who Cheers

Who among us does not need a cheerleader right now? I'm sharing my dear friend and consummate cheerleader with you because now, more than ever, we need someone who puts the wind at our backs. Glenna will pick you up and carry you over the finish line herself if you can't, she's that dedicated to making sure everyone in her care knows how valuable they are and how much potential their future holds. Glenna lives and breathes the fact there is no such thing as other people's children, and that we belong to one another. 

Belonging - Stephanie and Sharon, The Ones Who Partner

The School Spouse, the School Bestie, the School Neighbor...the luckiest among us have all of these because school is a microcosm of our larger lives. How we do one thing is how we do everything and Stephanie and Sharon remind us of that very fact. Consummate partners to others in all areas of their lives, in school they were each other's. Listen in to our conversation to be inspired to thank those who walk this journey with us and remind us on the daily that we belong to one another. 

Belonging - Sheryl Cambra - The One Who Reaches

For all the pressures our teachers are under right now, we must also remember our principals are arguably under even more. I often wonder what a Sheryl Cambra principalship would look like in this season, as I long for leaders like her in a time like this. She has retired now, leaving it all on the field, as they say, with no regrets. Learning from her all these years was such a gift; interviewing her for this episode was no different. 

Belonging - Mary Milton, The One Who Serves

Mary Milton, the name conjures up a vision of joy and curiosity, love and support, and a relentless desire to serve. In this episode Mary and I talk about where that desire to serve comes from and how she's used it to care for and empower our kids, our colleagues, and our community. 

Season One BONUS Episode - Lydia McClanahan and Responsive Reads

Lydia McClanahan is a decades long teacher, instructional coach, and librarian who specializes in culturally authentic texts. Because we teachers LOVE to talk about great practical tools in the copy room, Lydia will be joining us in our copy room for the last episode of every season. In these episodes you get to listen on us chatting like we do, and learn along with me about a culturally authentic text that goes with the theme of the season. This episode features the book, Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson, about a group of sixth graders and their quest to belong.