Episode 103: Supporting New Teachers with Christine and Georgia of Making the Grade Project
Georgia O’Keefe and Christine Zuppa are co-founders of Making the Grade Project, an organization with a mission to empower educators starting with the very beginning of their careers. While they specialize in helping teachers in their home state of Massachusetts to pass the MTEL, they support teachers everywhere in setting up their classrooms and careers for success. Christine and Georgia each spent over a decade in the K-12 classroom setting before deciding it was time to make a change and support education in a different way.
In this episode, Christine and Georgia discuss their educator journeys, how to best support new teachers and how their business has evolved over the years.
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Topics Discussed:
How they started helping teachers pass the MTEL in Massachusetts
The importance of executive functioning in teacher training
Setting realistic boundaries when exploring new opportunities
Resources mentioned:
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Read the transcript for this episode:
Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.
Georgia and Christine are co founders of Making The Grade project, an organization with a mission to empower educators starting with the very beginning of their careers. While they specialize in helping teachers in their home state of Massachusetts pass their licensure exams, they support teachers everywhere in setting up their classrooms and careers for success. Christine and Georgia each spent over a decade in the K through 12 classroom setting before deciding it was time to make a change and support education in a different way. They've worked with hundreds of teachers over the years through 1000s of workshops, classes and one to one sessions, and currently provide both individual educators and educational organizations with their support. You may know them from their podcast Making The Grade, where they share educator stories from all over the world. Welcome Christine and Georgia. So nice to have you here.
Christine
Thanks so much for having us, Lily. We're so excited to be here. Yay.
Lily Jones
Well, I always start with the same question, and maybe Christine will start with you. Tell us about your journey as an educator?
Christine
Yes, we love this question. We always start with it on with our professional development series, like what we do in our work, but also on our podcast as well. So my education journey started a little unconventionally. I didn't know that I wanted to be a teacher. Georgia actually inspired me to get into the field. So undergrad, I was studying psychology and business, and I saw Georgia really loving what she was doing, which inspired me to go back to school and get into special education. So I loved it. I taught every single grade, almost every single grade except Middle School in the K to 12 setting in the Boston area in Massachusetts, for over a decade. And then in 2020 I had my first baby, and when the world shut down, I had already planned to take a year long leave of absence, and that was when I started exploring virtual opportunities, and a really cool opportunity came my way to start working with teachers in training. So I took it, and that's what I've been doing the last few years.
Lily Jones
Amazing. I love that I had a very similar story of like, staying in the classroom till my daughter was born, and then also going virtual and realizing there are so many other things I could do out there too,
Christine
yes, and listening to a lot of stories like yours, your your podcast is one of the first podcasts that we found when we started exploring alternative spaces in the education field. So yeah, listening to others share their story helped us. So that's why we love doing it as well.
Lily Jones
Yeah, I love that awesome. And Georgia, how about you?
Georgia
So I am one of those people that always wanted to be a teacher. I, you know, growing up was making my brother be my student and all of those things. So I always kind of knew that was my path. Was lucky enough to get basically my dream teaching job right out of grad school, which was so exciting. And at that time, Christine and I were living together as roommates, and that's when, apparently I inspired her to become a teacher, which is very I feel very proud about that. I'm happy because she influenced a lot of students lives, but we were both teaching for around the same time frame. So we kind of think of ourselves as having these like Parallel Teaching journeys. She left, as she mentioned, because of her son being born. I left because I took a career exploration. Leave because I wanted to travel. And it happened to be the same year 2020 when everything shut down. I did get to travel a little bit before things shut down. And then I ended up going back and teaching hybrid. We were remote for full time, and then we were doing hybrid. I did that for a little while, but it was kind of my cue that that career exploration leave needed to be even longer, and it led me to eventually say, Okay, I'm going to leave the classroom. I'm going to leave this job that I have loved for so long, because I just feel like there's something more for me. And, you know, Christine inspired me in that way where I was like, okay, she's doing something else. Still in education, she left the classroom. It's working for her. I can do that too. And so I didn't, right away start working with teachers the way that Christine did, but I did a few other things, and eventually we came together. Started our podcast because we were always sharing our classroom stories, and we figured maybe other people want to hear us talk about our classroom days and share their stories with us. So that's kind of how our podcast was born, and how we came to start working together. And I joined her in her efforts to support teachers, becoming licensed educators and getting set up for success in the classroom.
Lily Jones
Yeah, it's so important having those models too, of just being able to see people doing different things, and it opens up a world of possibilities. I also love that you were able to take a leave of absence for career exploration. Exploration. Like, how awesome is that? And I'm curious too, of just like, even if people can't take a whole year off of teaching, maybe we can all create these, like, Career Exploration moments for ourselves. And I think it's just interesting framing there.
Georgia
Absolutely I was very lucky to be able to do that, I will say, I know that not everyone can do that, and it was unpaid. I will say that, but I saved up for it because it was something I just felt was really important to my growth and evolvement as a person. And so really glad I did it. And it's too bad COVID kind of got in the way of it, but everything works out how it's supposed to.
Lily Jones
Absolutely so tell us about Making The Grade project. How did it start? You got into that a little bit, but like, tell us more.
Christine
Yeah. So it started, really, I would say back in like 2020. 20 is when the the work started. So when I left the K to 12 setting and started working with adult teachers in training. I started working with teachers who were trying to pass their licensure exams in Massachusetts, which is kind of a very specific thing to start supporting teachers in and it's not that I was overly interested in standardized testing or anything like that. There was just a need. There were hundreds and hundreds of teachers that were not passing year after year, and especially as the education climate in Massachusetts has changed a lot, I would say, over the last decade, especially since covid. I'm sure, like you know, you hear of that happening all throughout the country, but there has been a huge decline there, you know, a ton of openings everywhere, and yet, at the same time we would, we've had supported many teachers that are, you know, really want to be in the space, but we're unable to become licensed. Like, why is this happening? This should not be the case. There's a teacher who's ready and willing and excellent, and then there's a license problem. So I started working with teachers in training, and I just really loved it. I was surprised too, because I love working with children. There's a reason why I got into a field where I would not have to work with adults, primarily. You know, it was something that I was surprised by, but we just kept seeing a need. And the more work that I got into, the more I kept getting contacted. And, oh, could you do a workshop series here? Would you be open to doing this for our students? Would you come on and, you know, teach a course about this? And it just kept we saw the need for it, basically. And then over the years, in parallel to that happening, Georgia started doing content design, and she can talk more about the beautiful, you know, spaces that she creates online and the content and the back end stuff. So I started following her journey, and I was just really inspired by that, and like the idea of building a brand. So we collaborated on that. You know, on the one hand, she said, Christine, you have all of this great content and curriculum and resources. You need to do something with it. I was like, Well, I can create it, and I can do it in person. And I love teaching, and I love helping us, you know, these teachers, but I have no idea how to do that. Well, I do, and it was the perfect match with a lot of things we're not mentioning during this in like, a very quick summary, that is kind of how it started. So we really seriously started putting more thought into it within the last two years, since we launched our podcast, and then our memes still made sense, like Making The Grade podcast, Making The Grade for the standardized test taking that we're doing, and then it's evolved since then, which is really cool too, which is kind of what we were hoping. And now we're helping mostly new teachers in the in the like first five years or so of the classroom, I would say, is a sweet spot, and just making sure that they have the support that a lot of teachers don't get around a lot of different areas, but yeah, so that's kind of like the synopsis of it.
Lily Jones
That's great. I love that. And I love I mean, I think the best things are always evolving, you know, and changing. And I love how you shared, like the parallel journeys that then come back together at various points. So that all seems so interesting. And I'm curious Georgia about that content development piece, like, what were you doing in the interim, while Christine was kind of doing the work with the new teachers? What were you doing?
Georgia
So I have always loved just creating things and just having, like a final product of something, watching something to come together. That's just something that I've always enjoyed doing, and it's when I was in the classroom I was doing that, and even more so when we started remote teaching, because I was teaching pre K, by the way, so I was teaching the littlest kids, and online learning actually went pretty well, and I think that's because little kids kind. Of like to be see themselves and show off their houses, and they don't have any fear of like, what they look like, or anything. So they loved it. But in order for it to be successful, I had to create like, a platform for my parents to be able to go on and see what we were learning about, and have the kids be able to do some stuff at home, independently, and so I loved creating, like, little classroom websites that were really useful during that time, newsletters, things like that. I just I started using Canva a ton, which I'm sure you know Canva. Everyone knows Canva. That's Canva. I love Canvas. I like Canva. If you hear this like, I will work for you. I will support you. Sponsor us all. But so there's, you know, a million things you can do with Canva. And so, you know, after once I did leave the classroom, I was still using Canva in other ways. I was dabbling in real estate and helping the realtors create stuff for themselves to market themselves. So I've done a bunch of things in terms of website and content creation, and I just really enjoy it. And so when I saw Christine, have all these amazing things and needing, like, a place to put them and a way to just package them up and share them with the world, I knew that I wanted to help her with that. So that's kind of where my my piece came in, and I also love I'm we're both very organized people, like I think a lot of teachers are very organized, and we are to a fault sometimes, but that back end piece that is so important with running a business and being really organized and having spreadsheets and making sure you know What you're doing day to day is just going to make a business successful. And so that's another area that I really, really thrive in and enjoy
Lily Jones
Wonderful. And so I know now you're working with beginning teachers, and do you have certain areas that you focus on with them?
Christine
Yeah. So everything that we focus on, we try to view from an executive functioning lens. So thinking about the way that you learn best, the way that you process information, and then, how is that going to be applicable to your day to day life? So, you know, we do that with if it's standardized test taking, passing teacher tests. There's a whole process to it. You know, we start with their learner profile, getting them to think about when times that they've been successful in, whether it's long term projects or even just, you know, teaching a unit or something that they've done. Well, what were the ways that worked for them? And then we also are doing a few different series this year with a few different colleges, teacher prep programs locally in the Massachusetts area, all about like key teaching areas. So time management, work life balance. We're doing, I'm trying to think of the other ones off. Let's see time management, technology and technology in the classroom, even just like emailing and having templates ready to go so things like that. And then classroom management, so thinking about the structure of your classroom, like the environment, the physical structure, and then the you know, thinking about like behavior management and things like that. So everything kind of starts from that executive functioning lens to kind of tune into your inner strengths and areas of need, and then going forward from there. So it kind of we tailor it depending on the organization needs.
Lily Jones
Yeah, I love the personalized approach, too, and the approach on executive functioning. That's an interesting lens to start with, and seems like a great guiding way to go. And I'm curious to how your experience with new teachers has if you think about just teacher training in general, and maybe how your own experiences becoming teachers. You know, going through teacher training programs. What do you think needs to change when it comes to teacher training?
Georgia
Yeah, so I mean, when Christine and I were both in the classroom, we spent a lot of time with new teachers. We were we very quickly wanted to become new teacher mentors, even though we were still kind of new to the teaching field as well. We just loved having student teachers. I always had a parax, like I said I was pre K, so I always had someone helping me out, who I ended up viewing as like a co teacher, because they were in school to be a teacher. They were, you know, doing their hours, doing their coursework. I loved giving them, like ownership of the classroom, to create activities and plan lessons because they were excited and eager, and that's the best way to learn, is to just do it. And so even when we weren't doing what we're doing now, we kind of always knew we wanted to help new teachers in some way. Maybe we didn't realize it, but subconsciously we did. And so when I was starting out as a pre K teacher, I was the only pre K in my classroom, and so there was like one pre K at a bunch of the different schools in the district, and we found that it was really hard to feel supported when you're the only one in your grade level. And so we kind of formed our own little cohort of teachers, where we would meet outside of the classroom and just talk about what we're doing in our pre K classrooms, and talk about how to set it up and how to create materials and classroom management and manage our time and all of that stuff. And so I think that made a huge difference for me in setting me up for success. And, you know, having me not run screaming away from the field, and so I think that we now want teachers to feel that way, feel like they have a community of people supporting them, and maybe it looks different than what I experienced or what Christine experienced, but knowing that they have people in their corner, wanting to set them up for success and help them see like their intrinsic strengths, and see themselves as the expert of their classroom. I think so often teachers are told what they need to do. You got to do this, you got to do that, you got to fit all this in. And they really need to be seen as the experts. They're the ones who are with their students all day, every day. There's a reason they chose this career, and they know a lot, and so putting them in making them feel that place of I'm the expert here, and I can make decisions and giving them more ownership of the professional developments that they choose, and making them feel more empowered, I think would make a huge difference for for new teachers, for all teachers,
Lily Jones
I agree, and it's so much of what also is great for kids, right, like giving them agency and making them empowered and giving them a voice and choice. And so I think so many of the things that we're like teaching teachers to do in the classroom, and we know work in the classroom also need to be put on teacher training. So I love that focus on community and agency and teachers as the experts that they are. And also with that too, is like being an expert doesn't mean that you know everything, and so you know a lot about education, you're the expert of your classroom. But I think just normalizing within a community that there are always going to be things that we're struggling things that we're struggling with or don't have all the way figured out, is so important too,
Lily Jones
Absolutely.
Lily Jones
So going back to both of your individual professional journeys, and I know they're like intertwined in a very beautiful way, I would love for you to reflect on what you've learned about yourself throughout your careers?
Christine
Yeah, no. We love this question. We love the self reflection piece. And the first thing that came to mind for me was just that there's not just one way to do something, and that's probably the special ed teacher and me, but there's always going to be more than one way to solve a problem, and really, when you put student needs at the center of what you do, then you can't go wrong, right? If you're acting in the best interest for your student or your client, or, you know, whatever space you're working in then you're leading with heart and you're leading with the best intention. But I think, yeah, something that always bothered me about being in the classroom or kind of like nod at me, was just that it seems like in order for something to change, there needed to be like this, all these different series of events, and I'm like, why can't we just XYZ, whatever it is, like, why can't we just do this? And it didn't feel to me like there was a ton of space to, like, explore that, like I always had great leadership in the buildings I was in, but it was kind of like, beyond that, right? Like, Oh, you know, I'm gonna watch the teacher across the hall. For me, she's an expert in behavior management, and I am not. I learned so much that way, but kind of beyond that. Like, well, why couldn't this student be in this placement of this school, you know? Like, why does it need to be so complicated? So, yeah, I think just when, when I first thought about this question, just the like, problem solving piece came in to mine came first to me.
Lily Jones
I love that
Georgia
I would, you know, echo everything she said. And I also think something I've learned about myself is that it might sound obvious, but I'm always I'm always changing, and I'm always evolving so kind of how we were saying before, you know, business is meant to evolve like, you know, every iteration is going to look different, depending on yourself, depending on what the need is, all that, I think I I struggled a lot when I left the classroom, because I was like, I'm a teacher. I love this. I teach preschool. Like, how can I do anything else? And in now, I couldn't be happier where I'm at and. I'm still making a difference, and I'm still loving what I do, and I'm so glad that I, like, leaned into that little nudge of like, you're changing, and it's okay, it doesn't it's not bad. You're meant to evolve. We're not meant to stay the same forever. And you know, even teachers who do stay in the classroom for their entire careers, till they retire, their teaching style is going to evolve with time and and that's great. So I think that's something that I've learned and I'm trying to embrace all the time, is that change is good. Yes, it can be a little bit scary, but there's a reason. If you're feeling a nudge to change, and if you lean into it, you'll you'll be led to the right next step, and it's probably going to be really great.
Lily Jones
Absolutely. I love that. I feel the same way. I mean, I think change is always kind of hard and kind of amazing, and so really leaning into it and always taking stock of what needs to change, or what you're feeling, the pull to explore, I think can be so empowering. So then thinking about our listeners, I would say are of two breeds. So some of them want to stay in the classroom, and, you know, maybe are exploring ways to use their skills outside of the classroom, or really just want to further their skills as a classroom teacher. And then the other people are looking to or maybe already have transitioned outside of the classroom. And so I'm wondering what advice you'd give for both the people who want to stay in the classroom and those who want to move beyond?
Georgia
You want to go first?
Christine
Yeah, sure. So for those who want to stay in the classroom, the first thing that comes to mind, I was just talking so one of my good a lot of our good friends are teachers yesterday, and I was thinking, she has really great boundaries. She's realistic about what she can and cannot do. And she was kind of saying this on when I was talking to her on the phone, she was saying, you know, I like, remember when we first started, and we would see so late, and we would, you know, could just kind of like, go above and beyond with the scope of what was okay for ourselves without burning out. And now she said, You know, it's not that I care less. She's like, I'm just more realistic with myself about what I can and can't fix. And I think, you know, having that outlook is is really important. I think Jordan, I mean, she can see for herself, but I feel like we almost did put in over and above for a really long time, and it was hard to find it's hard to find the balance when you love what you do so much, and it's hard to find the balance, I think, when you're serving people like when you're in A people first profession, but I think prioritizing your needs and your student needs, and then leaning on your network of teachers and non teacher friends, like both of our husbands, are not in the education space, and sometimes it would be kind of frustrating that they didn't understand. But it's also really important to have other perspectives of like, Wait, it's normal to be able to pee and take a lunch.
Everyone
(LAughing)
Christine
I think, yeah, people you need, you need those boundaries. I know that's set a lot, but, but thinking about it in a realistic way for you, mentally, physically, whatever that means.
Lily Jones
Absolutely, and focusing on what you can control. You know, I think that's so much part of it, too, realizing what you can control and put your energy into and what you can't, you know, so much of a part of having that boundary flexibility.
Georgia
It's a big piece of that for those who want to leave the classroom. And I love that both both sides. So to speak, listen to your show, because that's who we like to speak to, too. You know, we love all teachers. We want teachers to do what makes them happy? If that means stay in the classroom, that's amazing. Let's, let's give you a community that supports you in doing that. If that means leaving the classroom, fully support that too. So we are all preaching to the same people, and I love that. But for those thinking about leaving the classroom, I know, like I said before, it was a bit of a struggle for me, because I sort of again, had always wanted to be a teacher, and I felt like, what am I going to do if I'm not a teacher? Am I going to be able to find meaningful work. What else am I good at? And so it was definitely a bit of an identity crisis. And so if anyone is going through that, you're not alone. I think every teacher goes through that a bit when they make the decision to leave the classroom. And so just knowing that you're able to teach, you're able to really do anything. And so your skills can be used any way that you want to use them, really. You know, we're organized. We take care of 20 plus children every single day. That is like a super skill that can translate in a lot of different ways. And so I remember just kind of starting to pick people's brains. And doing research online, of like, what types of careers do teachers transition to? Like, you know, I thought about the things that I liked doing in the classroom, which, again, was like being really organized, making sure everything was set up successfully for the kids, and creating the content. And so I said, Okay, those are the things I feel skilled in. How can I take those elsewhere? And so I started just dabbling in other things and doing research. And you know, knowing that you don't have to leave the classroom and immediately have a new job that you love, if you just take that time to follow your curiosities, and whether that means having a conversation or again, looking some stuff up online, there's so many communities you can join. We live in a time when you can find infinite Facebook communities, infinite podcasts. LinkedIn is a great place to talk to people and just pick their brains. So we're really lucky in that aspect, that there's no shortage of people to communicate with about a big decision, like leaving the classroom. So I would just encourage them to start having conversations, start leaning into those curiosities. Christine said something earlier today about, you know, treat yourself like you would your students, like with a with a new project. You know, you wouldn't give them the whole project all at once. You would say, Okay, we're going to start learning about trains. It's my pre K brain. So we're going to start really small. What what do you know about trains? What do you like about trains? And so treat it that way, to treat your be kind to yourself the way you would to one of your students who's starting something new.
Lily Jones
Yes. And as a teacher, you know, we're experts on learning, right? So I think applying that, just like you're saying to our own learning, is so awesome and so empowering, like we often have the structure already, but we don't think to apply it to our own lives. So I love just breaking it down and even thinking about, like, oh, I want to do this thing. What do I know already? Like, I'm going to do a KWL chart for myself.
Christine
These things, yes,
Lily Jones
yeah, and it's all learning, right?
Christine
Totally, yeah. No. A lot of the work that we do with teachers, they end up taking back to the classroom to do with their own students in some way, shape or form, it's so important to, yeah, to do those things to yourself and Yeah, and just knowing it's, you know, a change like that is not going to happen overnight. It's taking years for us to get to this iteration of our business. And even, you know, over the last year, we've grown and changed so much, and that's important to give space for it, because you have to marinate on it for a while. It's not just going to come to you. And yeah, the best things are worth waiting for, though, always.
Lily Jones
Yes, and trying things and not having them go, right? You know, like, I taught kindergarten, so I always, I'm like, well, it's not, like, I give a kid a book and then they just know how to read it, right? Like, same thing for us, my students had to, like, read the same word over and over again and, quote, unquote, fail at it right? Like, first, get the first sound, and then be like, I don't know, and then get the second sound. And so it's just such a process. And I think that acknowledging, when you're doing something new that it's new, like, we don't know all the things, and so there are going to be a lot of ups and downs along the way, but that is actually how we learn.
Christine
Totally we Yeah, an example of that in the early days of us, we went to so many different events, and even events that we were like, you know, this really doesn't sound like a perfect fit for us, but it's good to practice networking, because as teachers, we don't have to network really often and talk to people and have conversations with them. And it was especially after covid, it was a skill that I really needed to just finding those those spaces or opportunities and saying yes to stuff like just being open to it.
Lily Jones
Absolutely wonderful. What's so nice to talk with both of you and to hear more about your journeys and the work that you're doing? Can you tell people how they can connect with you?
Georgia
Sure, we're pretty active on Instagram. I create a lot of stuff with Canva on there. Let's bring it back to you can find us. So our podcast is Making The Grade pod, and our Instagram, for our business, is Making The Grade project. So you can find both. If you find one, you'll find the other. And so we love to talk with people on there. Send us a message. Our website is Making The Grade project.com, and you can find our podcast there, as well as lots of blogs and free resources for teachers who are looking to you know, for support, for a community, for help getting set up for success. We We mainly do a lot of work with like professional development for schools, but we do do one on one stuff with teachers. So you can find information on. Our Website about that, too wonderful.
Lily Jones
We'll put the links down below as well. Thanks again.
Georgia
Thanks for having us. Thank you.
Lily Jones
Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai