Trust or Consequence

“I love instructing. I love coaching. I love teaching.” Janelle Hughes, High School English Teacher, Basketball Coach, Athlete “Would I want my kids in front of me?” On this episode, we are joined by Ms. Janelle Hughes, a career changing athlete who took her talents from basketball courts around the world into a Chicago classroom. As she builds her talents as an educator, she reflects on her commitment to excellence (10,000 hours, yall!), developing a strong teacher identity (and the importance of getting to the root of the relationship), and how her experience at a “gifted school” shaped her approach to keeping a warm, safe classroom environment. With incredibly diverse educational experiences in her background, Janelle walks us through how her receiving a basketball scholarship led her to attend a PWI, the inequity she’s observed in schools, including having access to grade level content, and why it is critical for educators to ask themselves hard questions about the state of education, and the role they’ve played in it.