About Elevating Educators Nevada
Elevating Educators is a story of two teachers who started on two totally different career paths before coming together to educate the minds of future generations.
Jessica started out wanting to become a teacher since the age of five. She saw the metaphorical light bulb go off over her cousin’s head as she taught him the alphabet, and has been hooked on that feeling every since. She attended the University of Nevada, Reno where she majored in Secondary Education with an emphasis in English. She landed a job at a Henderson high school (the same one she actually graduated from!) where she taught English for five years. It was during this time she decided she wanted to touch more lives, when she decided to go back to school to get her Masters in School Counseling. She is now a counselor at a Las Vegas middle school and still teaches during the summer. Ryan’s path to becoming a teacher is different, as it wasn’t his first choice. He graduated from UNLV with a degree in journalism and set out to be a journalist. “I always loved to tell stories, and thought media was going to be the career for me, I soon realized that it wasn’t.” Following the death of his father in 2008 he decided to go back to school to become a teacher. He enrolled at UNLV and got his masters in Curriculum and Instruction in 2011. Struggling to land a full time teaching job he long-term subbed at high schools before landing a teaching job in North Las Vegas where he remains to this day. Now, you may ask, how did the two hosts met? Their paths actually crossed while teaching. Ryan said: “Jessica and I met during our first year teaching. Her first year officially, while I was still subbing. We didn’t even realize we did student teaching at the same time, at the same school since we didn’t even see each other.” The two were able to build a friendship that stands to this day. Jessica excitedly explains, “We are both Hufflepuffs too, so we are loyal to a fault!” Jessica and Ryan have spoken out in the press over the years about issues that have faced teachers including health insurance, the removal of deans from Las Vegas valley schools, job security, and the treatment of teachers in the Clark County School District. Their common goals have led them to launch the Elevating Educators podcast. Both of them feel that this is an opportunity to promote education to those that may see education and educational issues through only one side. “Education is a community issue, and Elevating Educators wants to make sure that the community is involved in it. “ |