Refactored is proud to support Teachers Talking Teaching and to help bring visibility to the extraordinary professionalism of the teachers who are devoted to our kids and our communities. Learn more about the series in our earlier profile here.

“We really started with the idea of changing the narrative and inspiring people by elevating the teaching profession. It’s a career that offers great personal growth opportunities. The experiences you have interacting with kids and other colleagues—and with the content you teach as well—empower you to expand the way you see the world.

What often gets lost is hearing the voices of other educators. When decision makers are making choices about what kids need and how to solve problems, they sometimes forget to tap into the perspectives of teachers. We felt it was important to elevate the voices of the people who are doing the work.

As the series evolved, we started hearing that it was actually a great source of professional development for teachers who are watching. Great teachers want to continually evolve, so they pick up a tip or a resource or an avenue for better reaching their kids.

This second season has continued to allow us to hear from the genius and expertise of so many people in our profession who continue to inspire us and others in our community.”

“When we were starting out, we brainstormed and talked about the stories that we wanted to tell that are representative of educators. And then we found people who fit a story and invited them to come be our guests. We started with people we knew well, then we branched off. And I think in the future seasons, we will expand that network to include maybe people we don't know quite so well, and hopefully we’ll get recommendations for others.

Don’t hesitate to go to your personal network. Some people might feel uncomfortable about asking their friends to come have a conversation on video. But starting with people you're comfortable with and already maybe have a bit of a rapport with can be a great way to work on your skills. You don't have the intimidation factor. When you know what your guest does and what they're amazing at, it’s easier to steer the conversation.

As your content grows, you’ll find new topics by listening to ideas in the conversations you’re having. For us, maybe it's a particular text or product or organization that a guest mentions in the interview. Whatever the guest elevates, I try to tag it on social media. That kind of completes the circle and enables us to then learn what educators value, need, and respond to.”

“You can build a strong audience with a podcast, but there's a stronger connection when you can physically see people. That shift to video has enabled us to reach more people through different platforms.

We’ve also changed how we produce episodes based on what we’ve learned about how people watch them. We started out by recording episodes that were 45 minutes to an hour long. But we discovered that people were only engaging with about the first 10 minutes.

The reality is, people don't necessarily have time to watch the entire thing. So we thought, how can we meet people where they are? If these teachers—our guests—are going to take the time to come meet with us, we want their story to be heard, we want to elevate their story. And the best way to do that was to break it into pieces.

Some people might be interested in the personal stories of how someone became a teacher. Others might be there for more professional development or strategies to use in their own classrooms the next day. So now, the episodes are shorter and more focused.”

“We just happen to be in a profession where we're constantly improvising. If you become a teacher, it's because you probably like to talk a lot, and you don't mind public speaking. But learning to be the listener—that's never a bad skill to work on. So now I get to learn how to let the other person talk and how to just sit back and listen and respond.

And neither one of us has ever hosted a show before. So being unscripted is pushing us to think about questions in the moment. I think one of the things that has challenged me is figuring out how I help this person tell the best version of their story through the line of discussion that we've developed. For us, this has been a chance to continue to hone our skills as listeners and question askers and podcasting in general.

But maybe somebody who's trying this for the first time might feel better if they’ve prepped, and that's not a bad thing. Having a prepared set of questions or more of a script could be a source of comfort for some people.

In general, though, don't overthink it. You can always evolve.”

“First, setting up interviews is easier this year; I think it's easier to articulate what we're inviting people to be part of because we have some content now that we can share with them. People are familiar with our show or may have heard of it when we're inviting them to be a guest. So there's some excitement when we invite people to be interviewed—and we both know educators who are really exceptional in their craft.

The planning and recording has changed a little bit because last year, we were doing a lot of weekends. And to be fair, we're all busy, including the teachers we’re interviewing. So to be more efficient with our time, we set out this year to do at least a couple of episodes back to back in each session. We determine first what our schedules look like and set aside time but leave a window so we can be somewhat flexible.

We keep prep minimal because we want a candid conversation and we want to follow our guests’ lead. And maybe we're using some of our own teaching moves to lead the conversation to where we want it to go, but ultimately, it's going to be much more interesting if it's about what they want to say.

Rob at Refactored handles the technical production on the back end, and we’re releasing on a on a fairly regular schedule. But we’ve agreed not to put an unnecessary demand on either one of us. Nobody's expecting a set launch date, so we can do it but also make it easy on ourselves.”