Educator Forever

Megan Coltoniak is a board-certified music therapist with more than 20 years of clinical practice supporting children's emotional and developmental growth. First in schools and early intervention settings, and now through the company she's built, Bloomiverse Music Therapy and Enrichment, Bloom Creative Arts Preschool, and Bloom Early Learning Center. Most recently, Megan created the Bloomiverse app for children ages two through nine, with the goal of creating a safe space for children to spend time on tablets.
In our talk, Megan and I talk all about her music therapy practice and how she started it. We also get into the challenges she’s faced in her business and her own music career.
For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode204.

Jan Helson is a business leader and education innovator who spent more than two decades helping build Golden Foods and Golden Brands, her family's niche food manufacturing company, into a $200 million global business. In 2013, two years after selling the company, Jan co-founded Global Game Changers, building on two award-winning children's books that she co-authored with her daughter Rachel. Today, Global Game Changers provides free, evidence-based pre-K to five character, leadership, and service learning resources designed to help children develop confidence, empathy, resilience, problem solving, and a belief in their ability to make a difference.
Jan and I have a pleasant conversation about her success in business and why she jumped into the non-profit world. We get deep into her thoughts about education and child development, and she also provides some great business advice.
For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode203.

Sammy Gonzalez Zeira is the Founder and CEO of Young Musicians Unite, the nation’s largest provider of free music education. Since founding YMU in 2013, Sammy has grown the organization to serve 21,166 students weekly across 131 partnering schools in Miami-Dade County, reaching more than 71,400 students to date. He has also personally raised more than $35 million for music education and continues to lead YMU’s mission of transforming lives and communities through music.
In this episode, Sammy gets into how teaching guitar and his love for his music teachers led him to start YMU. He also breaks down all the services YMU provides and gives some great tips on how to be a successful fundraiser.
For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode202.

Paul McKee is a former K-12 teacher turned education entrepreneur who has spent more than 20 years building and growing online education businesses. He is the founder of FreeWorksheets.com, a free resource platform created to help teachers, parents, and homeschoolers access classroom materials without memberships or paywalls. Along the way, Paul has worked extensively in SEO, digital publishing, and ad tech, while remaining closely connected to education.
In this episode, Paul and I discuss how his history in the tech world led to him starting his Free Worksheets business and what’s he’s learned about entrepreneurship over the years. He’s got some great advice about running a business so tune in!
For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode201.

Hi everyone, welcome back to Educator Forever. Episode 200. Wow! 200 episodes. It’s been such a pleasure hosting this show over the past four years.
Today I'm doing something different — no guests . Instead, I want to talk about a framework I've been developing for a long time, one I built out of my own experience as a teacher, a curriculum designer, and now someone getting a doctorate in learning design. It's eight ideas about how learning actually happens: finding your truth, envisioning possibilities, imperfect action, confronting perfectionism and shame, developing agency, co-creating learning, being fully you, and reflecting and repeating.
For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode200.