Building an education network to make change, starring A. Simone McQuaige
Meet Our Guest(s):
Meet our guest, A. Simone McQuaige.
A. Simone McQuaige has dedicated 34 years to education within the Prince George’s County Public School (PGCPS) system. A proud alumna of PGCPS, she began her career as an elementary school teacher. She has since had various leadership roles, including mentor teacher, reading specialist, and Reading/English Language Arts Instructional Specialist, as well as serving as an adjunct professor. She is the Supervisor of Reading/English Language Arts, K–5, and she leads the Elementary Literacy Support Team in the Office of Curriculum and Instruction.
In 2024, Simone was honored with Amplify’s Changemaker Science of Reading Star Award.
Meet our host, Ana Torres.
Ana has been an educator for 30 years, working in both the K–8 and higher education sectors. She served as an administrator and instructor at various public and private colleges and universities and as a bilingual and dual language teacher, dual language math and reading interventionist, dual language instructional coach, assistant principal, and principal in K–8 schools. Ana is currently the bilingual and multilingual specialist on Amplify’s product specialist team, and delivers literacy and biliteracy presentations across the nation. Ana’s passion and advocacy for biliteracy and multiculturalism has led her to educate leaders, teachers, and parents about the positive impact of bilingualism and biliteracy in our world.
Meet our Classroom Insider, Eric Cross.
Eric Cross is a middle school science teacher who hopes to someday be a lifelong educator, like the guests on Beyond My Years! In each episode, Eric connects with host Ana Torres to discuss her guests’ best insights gleaned from their long and rewarding careers in the classroom. Then, Eric talks about bringing some of their wisdom into his current classroom and busy life.
Transcripts and additional resources:
Quotes
“I want future me to be grateful for past me.”
“There are a lot of lessons to be learned from ‘back in the day.’ It doesn’t mean we always had it right. We were learning along the way and we recognize that our students are not the same students that were sitting in front of us ‘back in the day.’”
“Seasoned teachers are often looked at as the ones with all the answers, and they may not truly have all the answers, but they’ve lived experiences that I think a lot of new teachers could learn from.”
“When you look at a lot of the seasoned teachers who’ve been in the profession for quite some time, there’s a calmness about them. And you work effectively when you’re in that calm space.”
“One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is you cannot make change by yourself.”
“We’re talking about the kind of professional development that people have time to invest in learning, and where teachers are treated as the professionals they are.”
“When you think about legacy, you’re thinking about what things you can put in place that are going to support the generations in the future. And that means you are investing in the people around you now that will be in the field to make those decisions.”
“All of us kind of feel like there’s work undone … it’s never ever finished. But I think you get to a point where you just feel that you have given your entire heart.”