Teachers' Lounge
Education & Explainer
About
Host Peter Medlin connects with teachers, students and leaders in education as they discuss the biggest issues impacting classrooms.We want to hear your experiences as an educator. Send us a note to teacherslounge@niu.edu
Episodes
- The Illinois professor teaching the next generation of journalists | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
What’s it like teaching the next generation of journalists? WNIJ education reporter Peter Medlin sat down with Jason, a former-reporter and current director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois Springfield.
- The Highland Community College biology teachers uniting Women+ in Science | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
Women in science often don't get the credit they deserve for their work. A Highland Community College club unites women across the sciences to talk about the opportunities and real challenges they face.
- An Illinois Valley teacher making college accessible for all | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
Tina Hardy is the coordinator for the Center of Accessibility and Neurodiversity at Illinois Valley Community College.Basically, it’s her job to make college accessible for students who need extra accommodations. What does that look like?…
- An NIU professor helped urban & suburban students team up to confront education inequality | Teachers’ Lounge podcast
Two high schools, 25 minutes apart. One wealthy and in the suburbs. One in the city, lower-income. An NIU professor's project brought together students from both schools to see educational inequality for themselves and fight for change.
- A Waubonsee professor brings her experience as an immigrant business owner to the classroom | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers' Lounge, Waubonsee professor Dr. Nour Al-Nabir brings her real experience as an immigrant business owner into the classroom.Her students just won a national entrepreneurship completion. That and more on a brand-new episod…
- An Illinois civics teacher showing her students how to take action | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
In a civics teacher's “Taking Action” class, students fight for change, whether it’s fixing potholes or school lunches. What does it mean to actively DO social studies? I’s on a new Teachers' Lounge.
- The co-founder of Rockford's Womanspace on her half-century quest to create a comfortable and creative place for women | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
The co-founder of Rockford’s Womanspace on her half-century quest to create a comfortable and creative place for women..
- A Morris teacher who's not afraid to set a standard of excellence | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers' Lounge podcast, we talk with a Morris teacher who’s not afraid to hold his students to a standard of excellence.“I tell the kids, if you come in and you work for me, I will jump over the moon for you.”What it means to go…
- The top Illinois education issues to watch in 2026 | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
There have been so many massive education stories over the past year from the dismantling of the Department of Education to childcare funding freezes.On a new Teachers’ Lounge podcast, we try to help you make sense of it and give you a roa…
- Meet the student-reporters from Kaneland High School's student-run magazine 'The Kaneland Krier'
Every semester, we feature a new group of "student correspondents." They're students in a club, sport, or activity. We interview them every month and bring you their journey. This fall, we highlighted the reporters and editors at Kaneland…
- Some of our best education stories of 2025 | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
Before we get too far into 2026, let's take one more look back at some of our best education stories we reported in 2025.
- Some of our favorite conversations of 2025 | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers' Lounge, we're revisiting a few of our favorite education conversations of 2025 as we finish up the year.
- An Ottawa teacher helping her special ed students transition to college | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers’ Lounge Podcast, an Ottawa High School special education teacher helping her students transition to college…from knowing their rights to picking their classes.
- How an NIU music educator teaches music like a language | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On Teachers’ Lounge, it's Ann Montzka Smelser.She's the Director of the Suzuki Strings Program at Northern Illinois University.Ann’s a practitioner of what’s called “the Suzuki method of music learning.” It’s based on the idea that music t…
- A Crystal Lake teacher's adventure across Illinois | Teachers' Lounge podcast
On a new Teachers' Lounge, Bob Chikos! He’s a special education teacher at Crystal Lake Central High School.He's involved in education policy at the state level, working on reports about the teacher pipeline and school psychologist shortag…
- The Four Freedoms and Beyond | Teachers' Lounge Classic
We're revisiting our 2022 chat with Princeton middle school social studies teacher David Gray.He and his students worked on a project called “The Four Freedoms & Beyond," based on President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union spee…
- An Illinois superintendent says public education is a gift not to take for granted | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
A fateful trip to Haiti showed Vienna superintendent Joshua Stafford why public education is a gift. We also talked about the history of education in America, standardized testing, school safety, and his recent journey to Singapore through…
- An NIU STEM educator explains why so many students misunderstand what science is | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
An Northern Illinois University physics educator knows that all it takes for kids to get excited about science is their natural curiosity about the world around them.“I've compared it to to listening to a song in a language you don't under…
- A Waubonsee psychology professor on stress, first impressions, and finding your passion | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers' Lounge, a psychology professor who comes into class every year a little mean to show students how often their first impressions are wrong. We also talk about giving her students tools to de-stress and her own journey int…
- 'The Forgottonia Project' student-led local history initiative asks rural students to get curious | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
Joey Brewer has spent the past two decades teaching history and social studies at rural schools in western Illinois -- the region of the state often known as Forgottonia.
- Human rights, Holocaust education & the spark behind LIGHT | Teachers' Lounge CLASSIC
This week on Teachers' Lounge, we're revisiting our 2022 conversation with the founder of the LIGHT education initiative. It's a project to empower students to become human rights leaders in their community.
- Stillman Valley teacher shows the magic of music | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
John Gelasi knows school band can be really meaningful…“Kids tell me, 'the only reason I was able to get up and go to school this morning is because I knew I had band today,'" he said. The award-winning northern Illinois music educator on…
- A DeKalb teacher helping other international educators get to the US | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
We talk with a DeKalb teacher from Brazil about helping other international teachers come to the US. We’ll learn about his own journey and much more on new Teachers’ Lounge podcast.
- A Rockford STEM teacher takes flight | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers' Lounge, a Rockford teacher taking STEM education to new heights…literally. We’ve got airplanes, solar backpacks, medical detectives and more…it’s on a high-flying new Teachers’ Lounge podcast, now!
- 'Your Words are Fire' is a new book by two Illinois teachers on why culturally-responsive teaching works
On a new Teachers' Lounge, two local teachers wrote a new book called “Your Words Are Fire” on how culturally-responsive teaching helps kids learn. What it means to be culturally-responsive and what it’s like releasing their book in the Tr…
- We interviewed the same Rockford elementary schoolers every month of the school year | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers' Lounge, we interviewed a group of Rockford elementary school students every month of the school year this year. And, this spring, we featured students from the Somonauk, Sandwich, & Leland FFA organization!
- A school year in the life of a teacher, 2024-25
Ever curious what the school year is like for a teacher? We interviewed DeKalb 5th grader teacher Dominique Yackley every month to track a school year in her life. Follow her journey on a new Teachers' Lounge podcast!
- Teacher burnout, representation, and a journey from Chicago to Shanghai | Teachers' Lounge CLASSIC
On a classic Teachers’ Lounge episode, it’s a unique burden and responsibility to be the only Black teacher at your school.“I take it so seriously, because a lot of times this is a child's first interaction with an African American person,…
- A Marengo music teacher spreads his love of music beyond school band | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers’ Lounge podcast, a Marengo music teacher breaks down the barrier between students who love music and students who typically join a school band.
- Teaching students high-level music with the Rockford Symphony Youth Orchestra | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers’ Lounge podcast, a music teacher with the Rockford Symphony Youth Orchestra tells us how students have fun while playing really high-level music.
- A fable to help students plan for an uncertain future | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
How can students be expected to make hard decisions about their future when the world feels like it’s changing faster than ever? A book -- written as a fable -- designed to help students plan their life. It’s on a new Teachers' Lounge podc…
- The Art of School Counseling | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new episode, it's our chat with Chris Mrofcza. He's a counselor at Hiawatha High School. We had a great conversation about the unique role school counselors play. He helps students consider their future, what career they want to pursu…
- A Morris teacher who came home to continue the legacy of the teachers who inspired her | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
Andrea Gustafson! She’s an English teacher, speech team coach, and head of the drama department at Morris Community High School.Morris is her hometown, so it’s been really meaningful to build a career at the same school she went to and con…
- Microwaved rubies and can races: an Aurora educator teaches physics by playing | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a brand-new Teachers' Lounge, Julie is a physics teacher who encourages her students to learn through play. Sometimes that looks like rolling food cans down the hallway and sometimes that looks like her students growing synthetic rubies…
- The Jazz Problem: how schools fueled the first modern moral panic | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a brand-new Teachers' Lounge Podcast, we’re talking about America’s first school culture war: JAZZ!"Jazz was seen as more of a lifestyle, and so if you are interested in jazz, you were, as critics believed, also interested in drinking,…
- What's the purpose of social studies? | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
What’s the point of social studies?"Some students will go on and be doctors and some will be lawyers and some will be blue collar workers, but all of them are members of society," said Teresa Kruger. "The whole point of social studies, to…
- The education issues we're watching in 2025 | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
NIU's Jason Klein joins the show to dive into some of the most important education issues of 2025
- Meet the students behind Hinckley-Big Rock's first theater production in a decade | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
A group of northern Illinois students put on their school’s first ever theatre production this fall. Hear the full journey from auditions through opening night. It’s on a new Teachers' Lounge, out now on WNIJ.org or wherever you get podcas…
- Some of our best education stories of 2024 | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers’ Lounge podcast, before we kick off 2025…we’re looking back one more time on some of the best education stories we told on Teachers’ Lounge in 2024.
- Some of our favorite conversations of 2024 | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On our last episode of the year, we're revisiting some of our favorite Teachers' Lounge conversations of 2024.
- A teacher helping bilingual students across the country | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers’ Lounge podcast, why being bilingual is a superpower…and how many schools are teaching it in 2024.
- From 1,800 degree kilns to 3D printers: a ceramics teacher's cutting edge classroom | Teachers' Lounge CLASSIC
"If you're working with clay, some people may think 'oh, this is just a teapot.' That teapot can be a lot more. There can be a lot of other issues spinning around up there."
- Inside the real work of school boards and teachers' unions | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers' Lounge, a social studies teacher who’s also an elected school board member talks about why you should pay attention to your local school board.
- A Rock Valley College professor helping students get out to vote | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
A Rock Valley English professor helping his students get registered to VOTE…and answer questions for students who have never voted before…“One of my favorite questions. Was, it was actually a student in my class, and she said, Okay, so I s…
- Composing the Climate & Teaching Music | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
A music teacher puts a soundtrack to climate anxiety…with classical music…“If I'm going to continue spending hours each day practicing music from the past, then I also need to find a way to bring that to bear when coping with the present.”…
- A Rockford educator teaches us how to think like a physicist | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
"I don't need a student to like my class. I know that I've done my job when a student says, 'Oh my gosh, I can't drive my car without thinking about physics anymore!' or 'I'm always seeing physics through everything, and it's driving me cr…
- An award-winning P.E. teacher on helping kids feel strong and confident | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
Middle school can be an awkward time…let alone middle school P.E. class…so any breakthrough is a big deal!“I love those moments. I even go and have those personal conversations with those kids, like, ‘hey, it was awesome to see you out and…
- Teachers' Lounge 5-Year Anniversary Spectacular
On a SPECIAL episode of TL, our education show turns 5 YEARS OLD and we’re celebrating by revisiting some of our favorite moments over the years.Join us for a “Best of” Teachers’ Lounge out now on WNIJ.org or wherever you get podcasts.
- 'Never smile until Christmas': tales from teaching in the 1960s | Teachers' Lounge CLASSIC
Kathy started her teaching career in 1965 and…to say they threw her right into the deep end…oof."When I started teaching, as a teacher, you were extremely isolated," she said. "You were closed in this room with them. In my second year of t…
- We all want good food and a beautiful home | Teachers' Lounge Podcast
On a new Teachers’ Lounge podcast -- we all want to eat good food and we all want to live in a beautiful home. So, when you teach Food and interior design like Katey -- it’s not that hard to make the lessons feel relevant.