GAEL UnscriptED Podcast

Most schools are fighting two fires at the same time: math scores that will not move and attendance that keeps slipping. What makes it worse is the blind spot nobody talks about enough, the huge share of absences that come through with no explanation, no context, and no clear next step. If we do not […]

The hardest part of teaching is not the lesson plan, it’s carrying the job alone once the “new teacher support” disappears. We talk with Craig Harper, Executive Director of PAGE (the Professional Association of Georgia Educators), and Michael Kobito, 2023 Georgia Teacher of the Year, about a new approach to teacher retention in Georgia that’s […]

Your calendar is already packed, so professional learning has to earn its spot. We sit down with Cindy Flesher to map out GAEL's fall lineup for Georgia educators, with clear dates, simple formats, and training you can actually use on Monday. If you’re staring at early-year diagnostic results and wondering what to do next, we […]

A new literacy law can feel like a fire hose, especially when the deadlines are real and the details are easy to misunderstand. We sit down with Georgia literacy leaders, including Dr. Fran Dundore and Stacey Lutz, to translate House Bill 1193 into plain, usable guidance for district teams who have to approve and implement […]

Your literacy plan can be strong and still feel impossibly hard if the system around it is misaligned. We sit down with Georgia Department of Education leaders Dr. April Aldridge and Amy Denty, joined by curriculum and instruction director Felicia Purdy, to show how small shifts in alignment create real relief for leaders and real […]

Your ELA standards aren’t “new” anymore, but the way they show up in classrooms still depends on leadership choices made every week. We sit down with Georgia DOE leaders Amy Denty and April Aldridge (with support from Dr. Sarah Welch in the chat) to get brutally practical about how to move from page to practice […]

Most leadership problems don’t need a faster answer. They need a better conversation. We sit down with Cindy Flesher, Kerensa Wing, and Wanda Law from GAEL to get practical about leadership coaching and why it’s becoming a must-have skill for principals, assistant principals, district leaders, and anyone supporting others in schools. If you’ve ever left […]

Teacher retention is often treated like a staffing puzzle, but we keep coming back to a tougher truth: educators stay or leave based on the daily experience of working in a school. That experience is shaped, minute by minute, by leadership. We sit down with Jennie Welch and Leslie Hazel Bussey from GLISI to unpack […]

The laws that hit Georgia classrooms rarely start as clean, simple ideas. They start as priorities, get reshaped by amendments and late-night negotiations, and land in districts with real staffing, scheduling, and budget consequences. We sit down with GSSA leaders Josh Hooper, Rob Brown, and Mike McGowan for a detailed Georgia education legislative recap that […]

The fastest way to stall school improvement is to treat leadership like a set of tips you can download. Real change asks something harder: adults have to be willing to learn, unlearn, and look in the mirror. We sit down with Leslie Hazel Bussey (CEO and Executive Director of GLISI), Jennie Welch (Chief Strategy and […]