Leaders of Literacy

Feb 05 2023 3
Leaders of Literacy Podcast artwork

The West Virginia Leaders of Literacy Podcast is designed to strengthen early literacy in WV by providing teachers and educational stakeholders with research and resources centered around the four components (School Readiness, Attendance, Extended Learning, and High-Quality Instruction) of the WV Campaign for Grade-Level Reading through engaging conversations and interviews. Are you ready to become a leader of literacy?

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Episode 63: Interview with Jessica Grose

Feb 05 2023 14 mins  
Today, Samantha Statler and Becky Lewis sit down with the 2023 West Virginia Service Personnel of the Year, Jessica Grose. During this interview, we take a closer look at what makes Jessica a successful educator. She also shares some great tips on how she builds positive relationships with her teachers and students along with how she keeps her families engaged.

Episode 62: Interview with Amber Nichols

Jan 01 2023 19 mins  
Today, Becky Lewis and Samantha Statler sit down with the 2023 West Virginia Teacher of the Year, Amber Nichols. During this interview, we take a closer look at what makes Amber a successful educator. Not only does she share some great insight into her classroom practices, but she also shares her passion for education and helping her students achieve success.

Episode 61: The Five R's of Family Engagement

Oct 09 2022 20 mins  
During today’s episode, Early and Elementary Learning Specialists Becky Lewis and Samantha Statler discuss the five R’s for promoting positive family engagement which include: respect, reassurance, responsiveness/relationships, reciprocity, and reflection. Not only do they talk about what each of these five R’s means, but they also share strategies you can use in your classro

Episode 60: Interview with Claire McCoy

Sep 11 2022 21 mins  
In this month’s Leaders of Literacy podcast episode, Becky and Sam continue their conversation around building positive culture and community in the classroom. This is an important task for all educators, and it truly sets the tone for the learning environment for the rest of the school year. Joining them for this conversation is lead Pre-K Teacher, Claire McCoy. Claire shares so

Episode 59: Building Classroom Community and Culture

Aug 07 2022 20 mins  
Tune in to this episode as hosts, Becky Lewis and Samantha Statler discuss the importance of building classroom culture. The resource they use for this episode is the book High Impact Instruction- A Framework for Great Teaching written by Jim Knight. Samantha and Becky walk you through the five recommendations Jim offers in this text which are: co-construct norms with your students

Episode 58: Teacher Clarity in the Classroom

Jul 10 2022 25 mins  
Tune in to this episode as hosts, Becky Lewis and Samantha Statler discuss teacher clarity. Not only do they discuss what it is, but they also dive into why it is important and how you can ensure teacher clarity in your classroom.

Episode 57: Interview with Janie Merendino

Jun 05 2022 24 mins  
In this episode of the Leaders of Literacy podcast, Early and Elementary Learning Specialists Samantha Statler and Amber Meyers along with special guest, Janie Merendino discuss the importance of number sense and how it can be tied back into literature in the classroom.  Janie shares her experiences working in the primary classroom. and also gives insight to how she used mathe

Episode 56: Instructional Coaching: Seven Factors for Success

May 15 2022 23 mins  
Early and Elementary Learning Specialists Samantha Statler and Brittany Fike reflect on the previous episode where they interviewed Jim Knight. During that episode, Jim referred to his latest publication, The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching: Seven Factors to Success, several times. These seven factors include: the partnership principles, communication skills, coaches as

Episode 55: Interview with Jim Knight

Apr 24 2022 35 mins  
Since the pandemic hit, educational leaders are making every effort to develop and implement new strategies to better support educators and students in all areas of education.  As a result, over the past year or two, there has been a significant rise in interest around instructional coaching as an option to address these needs. Early and Elementary Learning Specialists Samanth

Episode 54: Interview with Marian Clowes

Apr 17 2022 25 mins  
Early and Elementary Learning Specialists, Becky Lewis and Samantha Statler have a follow up discussion from the previous episode which focused on expanding student learning through strong community partnerships. To get a closer look at a strong community-school partnership, they hosted Marian Clowes. Marian is the associate director for community leadership at the Parkersburg Area