OSU alumna’s podcast equips fellow new teachers

Friday, April 17, 2020

When school days end, learning often continues in school hallways and classrooms. Teachers exchange ideas for better supporting students and encourage one another with stories from the day.

One first-year teacher and College of Education, Health and Aviation alumna, Shelbi Hladik, is bringing those conversations to the airwaves with a new podcast, “See You After Class!”, designed as a space for veteran teachers to answer first-year teachers’ questions.

“After school, I’ve often found myself sitting in my mentor teacher’s classroom and talking for what seemed like hours,” Hladik said. “We wanted this podcast to kind of reflect that setting – not a professional meeting or a college lecture setting where it may seem like you have to ask perfect questions.”

Hladik hosts the podcast with her mother, Jennifer Gambrell, an NBCT veteran teacher who is now assistant director of the Office of Education and Accountability. As a kid, Hladik travelled to teacher conferences with her mom. Now, as a first-year teacher, she often brainstorms ways to improve with her mom.

“My mom and I would talk for hours,” Hladik said. “You have great mentors and great people you have shadowed, but when it’s your classroom, you’re trying to figure out what this looks like for you.”

In the podcast’s first episode, Gambrell describes the moment she and Hladik decided to launch a podcast.

“I actually remember where we were on I-40 when I thought, ‘Hey, we could do this!’” Gambrell said. “You’re [Hladik] a first-year teacher, but I work with the support of the national board teachers, so I have all of these teachers that we can talk to and use in these conversations.”

Hladik said they chose Allison Lindsey, an assistant principal in Oklahoma City and National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), as the first featured guest on the podcast to answer one of Hladik’s personal concerns.

“I asked, ‘How do you approach your administrator about problems you’re having?’” Hladik said. “How do you not come across as a first-year teacher?”

Hladik said she was surprised Lindsey actually encouraged her to openly embrace being a first-year teacher, as it is often a conversation starter to learn from veteran teachers. Scheduling meetings with administrators shows a willingness to learn, Lindsey said.

Those wishing to tune in to the mother-daughter duo podcast can do so at the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability website. As the project continues to take shape, Hladik hopes to be a positive voice for her peers, just as others have been for her.

“I realized it was those NBCT teachers I’ve been around my whole life,” Hladik said. “I wanted to make that same impact.”

MEDIA CONTACT: Brittany Bowman | College of Education and Human Sciences| 405.744.9347 | brittany.bowman@okstate.edu