In recognition of Native American History Month, we have special guest, Connor Michael Crawn. Connor is an impressive 21 year old alumni from the Indian River School District in Northern NY. He is a current Active Duty Senior Airman having served 3 years so far in the United States Air Force. His current duty position is “Convoy Team Leader” with the 341st Security Forces Group, 341st Missile Security Operations Squadron, Convoy Response Force, Malmstrom AFB, Montana.  He is half Native American (Mohawk tribe), and half white, he grew up in Indian River, right along the Canadian border, and he is one of the first Native American Service Members to fight and win the right to regrow his hair in uniform under female hair standards.  Connor is extremely passionate about Native American culture and spreading awareness. He weaves his culture into almost every aspect of his daily life. From his respect for the earth, animals, and for people around him of all backgrounds. He is the primary Military liaison between 7 tribes in the state of Montana and his duty station.  He actively engages in the local community, as well as the surrounding Native communities.  He  supporting people in the VTC and various AA meetings, and he has learned, practices, and respects the difference and similarities between the tribes and customs in Montana.  Connor’s culture means the world to him. He has grown up walking two worlds being a bi-racial person. However his fathers teachings and customs have always been the most imperative teachings in his life. In the darkest of times he has thrived and persevered off of his fathers teachings. 

Today we meet our BTA President, Patrick Brady. Pat is a jack of all trades. He has dabbled in so many different kinds of work and activities, that I can safely say he is one of the most well rounded people I know. Andrew and I had a blast talking with him and we hope you enjoy getting to know your BTA union president, Pat Brady.

Today we speak to one of our retirees from Bellport High School, Matt Feddern. He shares his words of wisdom and stories of his time with us here since his arrival in 1991. Listen closely to the fun fact Andrew has about our next senior rep, John Romashko!

On our last episode of our Teachers of Color mini-series, we introduce you to 3 lovely female teachers-which coincides perfectly with Women's History Month. Ms. Grunenberg is one of our Orchestra teachers, and Mrs. Garcia is a Spanish and ENL teacher at Bellport High School. Ms. Escobar is a Speech teacher, currently working in Frank P. Long. On this episode we get stories of a Chinese-American teacher who also identifies as Irish, a Guatemalan mestiza and an Afro-Latina. Their experiences may sound familiar to you. Their stories will inspire you. All of our teachers of color have made us proud and will continue to do so.

For this Teachers of Color Mini-Series episode, we highlight Mr. Rodney O'Neal and Ms. Nefe Abamwa. Mr. O'Neal is a Special Education teacher at Bellport High School and Ms. Abamwa is a Social Studies teacher in the same building. We hope you enjoy their stories.

For the first episodes of this year, my cohost, Andrew Budris, and I, are bringing you a mini series on the many stories of our teachers of color at South Country School District. We invited a few of our teachers of color to tell us their stories about how they came into their careers in education, what it was like making that choice and journeying through their college experiences to find themselves at South country today. We had a blast talking to our teachers and found a few commonalities between all of them with some interesting variations sprinkled throughout. This mini series is for all of our students of color living in the south country community, we want you to consider a career in education as something that could just be the right career for you. Take a listen, and let us know at the end, if a career in education becomes just a little bit more Enticing to you. Because if we could just put one kid on to teaching, or being a principal, or a social worker, or a guidance counselor, or any other kind of education professional, then we did our job. Having people who work at our schools look like the students who go to our schools is really , really important. But it starts with you, I’m talking to all of our black students our Latinx students our Asian students, indigenous students…the influence you can have on our future generations—just by being you—is immense, so take a look at teaching, and get ready to make a difference.

In this episode, Andrew and I wrap up our Secret Summer Lives of Teachers Series by discussing our own summer experiences. We discuss how we are wrapping up summer and thinking about the fall. Take a listen, you just might be able to relate.

Lori Dougherty is one of our younger colleagues, but she’s lived a very full life already. She sat with us to recount her summers of backpacking across Europe and how wedding planning has taken over her plans this summer. Sort of…even now she’s made time for some traveling. She’s the best coadvisor I can ask for, and I’m so glad she took some time to sit and chat with us for a while. If you take a listen to this conversation, you may just walk away being as motivated as I was to start planning your next adventure! Check out the blog she created as she was backpacking through Europe @ travelsofaginger.blogspot.com or copy and paste the following web address:  http://travelsofaginger.blogspot.com/2013/09/pisek.html

The Secret Summer Lives Of Teachers: Sarah Rauch  Sarah is a returning guest, she’s one of our favorite teachers to talk to. Her Summers our experiences we should all strive to have. Take a listen to see how one of the most reflective, wise and kindest teachers I know, spends her summer months.

What DO teachers do in the summer??? My co-host Andrew and I, bring you our summer series on, The Secret Summer Lives of Teachers. We wanted to shed a little light on how teacher spend their summers and have invited four of South Country's own to share a little bit of their experiences with us. We begin the series by introducing Ms. Loraine Richardson McCray. She is one of the "finer" teachers I know and her sorority sisters would agree! We loved sitting, chatting and laughing with Ms. McCray...I can't wait to do it again!