Behind the Scenes of Learning

What does it really feel like to be a public school teacher today?

In this episode, "Doing It Alone," host Elle Sarkisian brings us into the lived experience of K–8 educators across the country as they speak candidly about a pervasive, often invisible challenge: isolation. Through powerful, unfiltered interviews, we explore how this sense of disconnection shows up across curriculum mandates, planning expectations, fractured parent partnerships, inconsistent administrative support, and one-size-fits-all professional development.

You’ll hear stories that reveal just how much teachers are expected to shoulder on their own—and what could shift if schools and systems took a more human-centered, collaborative approach.

This episode also features reflections from a participatory workshop hosted by Desklight and McGraw Hill, where educators, school leaders, and caregivers came together to reimagine what real support could look like.

Regardless of where you reside at McGraw Hill, this conversation will help you see what’s at stake, and what’s possible.
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If you are interested in learning more about the topic of teacher isolation, view additional insights and teacher testimonials here. 

Creators and Guests

Host
Chris Huizenga
Host
Elle Sarkisian

What is Behind the Scenes of Learning?

What does it actually feel like to be a teacher today?
Not just what the headlines report.
Not what the policies outline.
But the real, lived experience.
In this podcast, educators share honest, unfiltered stories from the field and what it is really like to teach today.

Elle Sarkisian:

Welcome to Behind the Scenes of Learning, realities of public school educators from the field. I'm your host, Elle Sarkisian, and in this episode, we're diving deep into a theme that continually emerged during our fieldwork this past school year, teacher isolation. In this episode, doing it alone, we'll be listening to a handful of direct interviews from k through eight educators across the country, sharing their experiences with isolation and what they feel would make the biggest difference. We'll hear how this sense of isolation shows up in a few important areas like curriculum, planning, support from parents and administrators, to professional development and coaching, and what's actually happening in the classroom day to day. Let's begin with curriculum and planning.

Elle Sarkisian:

Teachers consistently highlight the pressures of new curriculum requirements without adequate time or support to implement them effectively. This often leaves them feeling unsupported and isolated in their planning process.

Speaker 2:

But then again, you have to remember, a district hands you a curriculum. Okay. I can just tell you. I'm gonna speak from my experience. PPS hands us wit and wisdom and tells us, you have to follow this to the T.

Speaker 2:

Everything that wit and wisdom tells you to do, you have to do. Here's a smart show to help you out. Then you do the thing for a year, like they say. And then the next year they're like, Oh, whoops. You don't have to do it that way.

Speaker 2:

You can pick and choose, focus on the targets, but then they don't update the slideshow. And so sometimes when curriculum gets adopted, the way that the curriculum people want it to be used and the way the district understands it to be used and the way the teacher sees it best used are three different things. What you're hearing here is more than just frustration with curriculum. It's a

Elle Sarkisian:

window into the confusion and lack of support that teachers often experience. When decisions are handed down from the top without clear communication or ongoing collaboration, it creates a bit of a disconnect. The teacher, the district, and the curriculum developers might all have good intentions, but they're rarely on the same page. And when that happens, teachers are left to navigate this chaos alone. One year, it's strict fidelity to a scripted lesson.

Elle Sarkisian:

The next year, it's make it your own. But the tools and expectations don't necessarily evolve with the message, and it leaves teachers stuck in the middle trying to make it work without that clear support, and that can feel really isolating.

Speaker 2:

However, when you're trying to talk to me at the beginning of the year, it's it's going to be hard for me to absorb all that information because Yeah. Needs to be set up. You know? There's just so much to do at

Speaker 3:

the

Speaker 2:

beginning of the school year. And, really, the entire school year is like that. I spent two days on the couch after school got out because we are constantly overdoing it. But when I want to understand a new curriculum, I need time. So, like, Wit and Wisdom's an example.

Speaker 2:

That curriculum is like a college course. It is each pay each lesson is 12 font, about six pages of this is how to teach it every single day that you teach. My gosh. 36, lessons in one module. Right?

Speaker 2:

So it's a lot.

Elle Sarkisian:

This to me really highlights the impossible pace teachers are expected to keep up with. New curriculum, great, but when are they supposed to learn it? The beginning of the year is a sprint and honestly the whole school year never really lets up. Without protected time to really dig in and learn even the best materials can feel overwhelming And that constant overload, it's exhausting, especially when you feel like you're doing it alone. Next, let's explore parent support.

Elle Sarkisian:

We heard that parent partnerships often feel fractured with a notable lack of accountability and support when it comes to student behavior. In this next interview, AJ shares that the biggest switch in her fifteen years of teaching has been the decline in parent academic support. She also highlights the challenge of getting follow through on consequences for student behavior.

Speaker 4:

So I'd say that was the biggest switch in the fifteen years of parent academic support. And I understand too, not all kids have parents that can help them. Right? So I try to acknowledge that it's like, if you can't help your kid, can you just they get they have a computer that goes home with them. Can you just make sure they're on their reading program or their math program for twenty extra minutes at home while you're making dinner or in between their kid's soccer practice in the car ride.

Speaker 4:

Like, so trying to honor, like, the whole scope of parent involvement because I get it. Right? Not a lot of parents involved there. Not a lot of follow through on consequences. So if there's a behavior in school like, Johnny just punched, you know, Mike in the face today.

Speaker 4:

Here's what we did at school. Please have a conversation about your son. Either radio silence or thanks for letting me know. You're like, like, this needs to be a partnership. A hundred and eighty days with your kid.

Speaker 4:

And in fourth grade, I'm sure this is not the first time we've heard about it. Or, you know, a lot of times too, I'm like, I'm a parent too. I so if there's something that's sitting on the playground or if there's something that I'm not aware of, like, please please shed some insight so I can help keep an eye on it. So there's zero communication for behavior. And then, like, even just stink at things where it's like, please come to the classroom and help your kid with, like, our gingerbread party we're having.

Speaker 4:

Crickets. Like, okay. Well, can can I get some cup donations for, like, the paint we're doing? So you're like, okay. And that's Oh, no.

Speaker 4:

And we're like in an affluent school, which is even crazier to me where I'm like, you could just here's my Amazon wish list. Can you just help me get some paintbrushes? So it's just it's a lot.

Elle Sarkisian:

What you hear in this clip is a teacher who's really trying to bridge the gap. Someone who understands that not every family can be deeply involved, but is still reaching out, still asking for partnership. And yet, she's often met with silence. It raises a deeper question we heard again and again in our fieldwork. Whose job is it to do what?

Elle Sarkisian:

Teachers are being asked to do more than just teach. They're managing behavior, running events, chasing down supplies, and trying to involve families. But without shared responsibility or clear roles between school and home, teachers are left holding it all. And that imbalance doesn't just lead to frustration, it can also lead to burnout and a feeling of isolation. My conversation with AJ also highlighted challenges with administrative support, which surfaced in other interviews as well.

Elle Sarkisian:

High turnover, inconsistent follow-up, and policies that feel more like surveillance than genuine help.

Speaker 4:

I feel like it has to be safe space. Like, you and more context, I've had nine different principals and 11 different vice principals in my fourteen years in my building. Same building, same district. Right? So I've had the rigmarole of really great ones, really shitty ones.

Speaker 4:

I had corporate experience. I go through the, you know, the yearly observation process and all that stuff. And the one thing that I always felt I was powerful supported in is when I had an admin that would have my back even if, like, I messed up. They'd have my back to whoever and then come and support and talk to you in private and help you grow in private. And I think about those spaces with, like, BIPOC educators where it's like, where is that safe place?

Speaker 4:

Who are those safe people that I can figure out, a, the system, curriculum, the politics, the parents, the whatever it is. If I don't have that, then there's nothing else is gonna matter.

Elle Sarkisian:

This clip cuts right to the heart of what so many teachers told us. Without trust, nothing else works. You can have the best curriculum, the most well meaning policies, but if teachers don't feel safe, none of it matters. What really stands out here is how deeply tied that sense of safety is to leadership. Nine principals, 11 vice principals in one building, that kind of instability chips away at any foundation of trust.

Elle Sarkisian:

And for teachers, it raises an important question, who has my back? The teachers who felt most supported weren't the ones with perfect evaluations. They were the ones with leaders who stood by them, who coached in private and protected in public. That's the kind of leadership that builds real safety and a feeling of support. In another interview, a teacher noted that while he generally feels supported by their principal, he wishes administrators were more present in classrooms to see what's truly happening as they're often pulled away to put out fires.

Speaker 5:

I definitely feel supported. The the principal has to go to a lot for us. This were focus option, and and the district doesn't necessarily understand what that means because people are coming up, whatever. So so she has to go to bat for us. She has to protect us from some of the district mandates that aren't student centered.

Speaker 5:

She'll back us up with parents. Although, I will still say there is still always work to be done. I'll say that for everybody, me included. What kind of work would I like them to do more of? I would like for them to be in the classroom more.

Speaker 5:

I don't know if I've ever worked with an administrator that I that I felt like was in the classrooms enough, and it would not think that as instructional leaders, the principals should like, in the beginning of the day, they should go into every classroom and say good morning. Have a great day. They should just I mean, definitely, she's out there, and the the assistant principal is out there. But I would just love for them to be in the classrooms more, seeing what's going on and but a lot of times, they're just getting pulled to put out fires.

Elle Sarkisian:

The topic of professional development and coaching revealed a significant gap between what is offered and what teachers truly need. Many describe support as a one time PD with little relevance to real classroom needs.

Speaker 4:

It varies district to district. Right? So I think I mentioned we have required building PD, second Wednesday of every month. The third Wednesday is district directed PDs, and then the fourth Wednesday is educator directed PDs. And so that's the stuff that I do with my BIPOC work where we put on educator directed things based on feedback from, you know, our peers.

Speaker 4:

Our building directed PDs, which we all have to attend as part of our contract, that usually it's somebody in curriculum and development that hasn't been in a classroom role in twenty years, gets the slide from the districts and deliver things to us where we're like this. Like, when you ask a question and it's like, well, I don't really know. I'm like, of course, you don't know because you've not actually taught this. So, like, none of this is really helpful. We're just here watching a slideshow for an hour and a half but being in community.

Speaker 4:

So those aren't necessarily helpful. I think more professional learning communities and PLC times where, you know, grade levels again, when you start to think about variables, like Megan was new to our team this year. Four thing has bounced around different schools, different grades. What could we as experienced fourth grade teachers support her on? And then what are things that we all could collectively help support each other on?

Speaker 4:

Like, new reading curriculum we have this year. How can we talk to other fourth grade teachers across the district? That's what we usually do for those professional developments, which I always found extremely helpful in the first few years of teaching because you, a, got to know different teachers in your grade level across the district. You understood which schools have similar populations so you would share resources and Mhmm. Collaborate.

Speaker 4:

And if you needed additional help, you could go to your curriculum developer in the building and admins be like, here are some additional resources we'd need. Then it became it started being like, well, that's not equitable. You're like,

Speaker 6:

okay. Why?

Elle Sarkisian:

So what we are hearing here is a clear contrast between two versions of professional learning. On one side, there's top down PD, slides handed down from the district, delivered by someone who hasn't necessarily taught in decades, offering little room for relevance or real dialogue. It's compliance driven, not learning driven. But then there's the kind of professional development teachers actually find valuable. Peer led, grounded, and lived classroom experience shaped by real time needs.

Elle Sarkisian:

When teachers are given space to collaborate with others in their grade level, across schools, across contexts, that's when learning feels meaningful. It's also where community starts to form. And a profession that feels often isolating, that kind of authentic peer driven support really matters. And yet, even these grassroots efforts can get shut down. So it leaves us with a big question.

Elle Sarkisian:

Are we creating systems that truly empower educators or just checking boxes? And speaking of checking boxes, a topic that also came up a lot was around evaluation and mentoring. Listen to this clip from a conversation I had with a fifth grade teacher who feels like there's so much more we could do with evaluation.

Speaker 7:

I I mean, honestly, I think somebody coming in, observing, and then, like, asking me what I think I need to be successful.

Elle Sarkisian:

Okay.

Speaker 7:

Not somebody coming in and just like, the timing was off. A kid was reading a graphic novel. Another kid was doodling. I'm like, well, at least you can't hold attention anymore for more than, like, ten minutes. I don't know what to tell you.

Speaker 7:

And it's like and I take breaks with it, but just maybe more, like, problem solving as opposed to nitpicking.

Elle Sarkisian:

In another conversation, Eric shares that there isn't really a formal program set up for veteran teachers to mentor new teachers, but would love to see something like this in place.

Speaker 5:

With the district, there's, like, a there is a beginning teacher. There there's, like, a teacher on special assignment that has a number of, like, new teachers that I know they go and help with. Like, when I was first new in the district, nobody came to me to help me out, And nobody said, here's some programs available to you to help support you. And if it seems like in human resources, there should be a position where they are connecting new teachers to programs in the district. I don't know if there is anybody like that.

Speaker 5:

Nobody certainly reached out to me, and I haven't heard of anybody. But I've seen that teacher on special assignment who helped some of the new teachers here. Like, they came into my room, and I did a demonstration lesson for them all. So it's just like, robust is that? It needs to be made more robust.

Speaker 5:

Now is, again, is that a a problem of funding? Like, we can't fund that position.

Elle Sarkisian:

And if it was more robust, what would be ideal for you in terms of, like, how that would look and how it's structured?

Speaker 5:

So every every teacher that's been in the district for three years, there would be somebody who'd be checking up besides the principal. There'd be somebody from that would be like, I'm here to support you all year. I'm gonna check-in. I'm gonna come to your room once a week and check-in with you. So and maybe that's maybe that's just the first two years.

Speaker 5:

But you are a probationary teacher for three years, so why not the first three years since you're So just checking up in with you and then checking in with the principal too. I'm like, hey. How's this person doing in the like, what do you see happening? So that person would check-in with the administrator and check-in with the teacher. And since we have instructional coaches in the school, they should check-in with the instructional coach.

Speaker 5:

And then those instructional coaches should be going into the classrooms and helping the classroom, helping with those teachers. I guess that's what it would the, like, the framework would would look like. And then since and then, you know, every teacher is different. So then depending on where they're what they need help with, that person would go and help them.

Elle Sarkisian:

Finally, we're going to talk about in classroom support. This is where the impact of teacher isolation is most acutely felt as teachers manage complex situations with little to no backup.

Speaker 3:

Because there's just a I mean, there's a lot of requirements when you work in the public system. It's just mandates and data to look at. Mhmm. And we do a lot of, like, focusing on achievement groups. So, like, you know, what does the data look like for our English language learners?

Speaker 3:

What does the data look like for our black students? Is it you know, so just breaking apart the data into SPED. You know, like, just Mhmm. And then who are the students that are, like, right on the cusp, you know, where they're, like, not quite on grade level, but almost. And what are we gonna do for those students?

Speaker 3:

You know? So it's like, there's it's a lot of strategizing, but I can it can also just be pretty overwhelming too. So there's always more to do, you know. So sometimes it just feels like, oh my gosh. I'm just never gonna meet the benchmark.

Speaker 3:

You know?

Elle Sarkisian:

This sentiment was echoed across our interviews. One teacher described a scary experience at her inclusive practice school where she and six other adults received concussions from a student. She expressed deep concern that this had become the norm and that support was lacking. Another teacher pointed to insufficient funding leading to a, quote, unquote, skeleton crew in schools, with principals sometimes providing one on one coverage due to lack of staff. He highlights the increased workload, more paperwork, and a rise in neurodiverse children and unexpected behaviors without adequate support staff.

Speaker 5:

Like, we have more neurodiverse children in our schools. Our school in particular attracts a neurodiverse population. So that just increases your workload when you have like, you have more needs to meet within Mhmm. Lesson. And then you might have more you might have to, you know, do more emails because you've had more unexpected behaviors to to to deal with.

Speaker 5:

It's just a lot more unexpected behaviors. And then, you know, the when you're getting more screen time and then maybe your the way your brain is built is that is, like, the last thing that your brain should be getting, but you're just getting a ton of it anyways, and that just makes it harder for you to be in the schools as well so that the workload. Yeah. And we're just expected to teach more. Like, if we if we taught every standard, our our kids would be going to, like, school until they were 21.

Speaker 5:

Gosh. Like, really to and we need to subtract some of that because we obviously, kids aren't going to school till they're 21, so they're Yeah. Being dropped aside. And we need to start really looking that and really being honest with, like, how much days how much day there is in the school day and what we're really expecting people to do.

Elle Sarkisian:

Megan discusses the well known challenge of large class sizes, sometimes almost double that of primary grades, making it nearly impossible to meet individual student needs. She stressed that a lack of bodies in the classroom means the burden falls entirely on the teacher.

Speaker 8:

Well, I do think the lack of bodies that we do have in the classroom is huge. We used to get para support, which, for example, this last three years I've been teaching a one two combination, which means I'm teaching first and second grade at the same time, which has very different needs, especially in literacy. And in the beginning, I had an hour and a half a day where an aide would come in, and so I would choose to do my reading block then because then I could really differentiate with another body in the room. But now, now that's not there, and so we don't have that overload time, we used to call it, in our district, and that doesn't exist. So again, it's falling all on the teacher.

Elle Sarkisian:

Kelly envisions an ideal scenario where her day is split, allowing her to focus on core content and small group instruction for struggling students, with other staff handling general supervision and non instructional duties. This, of course, comes back to the need for more support staff and funding. But is that the only solution? Kelly shares what could work if funding an additional staff isn't an option in person.

Speaker 2:

It would be nice to have real time support. Wouldn't it be nice if you just Oh, right?

Speaker 5:

Call up a

Speaker 2:

hotline with IT and say, hey. This isn't working for me. This is what I'm doing. Do you have any feedback for me?

Elle Sarkisian:

The stories from this handful of teacher interviews paints a clear picture of the isolation felt by public school educators today. From curriculum pressures and fractured parent partnerships to overwhelmed administrative teams and a lack of in classroom support, teachers are consistently asked to do more with less. They carry immense responsibility often without the necessary resources, time, or human support structures. In future episodes, we'll continue to explore themes that are rising to the surface, seeking to understand what's working, what's breaking down, and where real opportunities for change exist to create systems where teachers feel trusted, supported, and not so alone. We hope you'll join us for future episodes of Behind the Scenes of Learning, realities of public school educators from the field.

Elle Sarkisian:

I'm Ellis Arkejian. Thank you for listening.

Chris Huizenga:

Hello, McGraw Hill team. My name is Chris Eisinga, and I am the head of client experience and strategy at Desklight. We wanted to share how we've already started pulling the insights from this podcast into action. In partnership with your McGraw Hill colleagues, we designed a participatory workshop focused on a critical question. How might McGraw Hill help connect teachers more effectively to the people around them in ways that truly support their realities and goals?

Chris Huizenga:

The workshop brought together teachers, school leaders and caregivers for honest dialogue around the growing challenge of teacher isolation. Through collaborative reflection and creative co design, participants explored tangible possibilities for reimagining the systems that surround teachers. Using human centered design principles, they engaged deeply with real stories from the field, surfaced the most pressing problems, generated a wide range of ideas, and by the end of the day, developed thoughtful concepts they shared directly with the McGraw Hill team. We had the opportunity to speak with a few participants before and after the workshop, and here's a glimpse of what we heard. What were some of your expectations coming in here today?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. It's exciting to be

Speaker 10:

here as a parent and former teacher and now administrator. I look forward to conversations with people in the same kind of roles as me to see what we're looking towards the future.

Speaker 5:

I don't know if there's anything better to learn from the people that are actually doing it.

Chris Huizenga:

I'm curious. If you could wrap up today's experience in just one or two words, what would they be?

Speaker 11:

Future change. I think that we are looking at creating something that doesn't yet exist, to make life easier for teachers, but also build build that community around teachers and including all the stakeholders. I thought it was amazing how you included parents, included teachers, you included admin, all the people at the table today, to really know, like, that future change we're creating. Who how does it impact each of those parties?

Speaker 6:

Well, I'm thinking about it. The one thing that kept coming up was that collaboration piece. Culture and co collaboration was very important because we got to collaborate with not only teachers from the same network, the same district, but people from all different walks in different who play different roles in education. So I think that collaboration piece was very, very helpful when it comes to identifying what's needed in education. So definitely collaboration.

Chris Huizenga:

When you say you have these ideas around collaboration, do you think that these ideas are going to stick with you as you leave here? What are you still curious about?

Speaker 6:

So, really, this really just helped to spark and inspire me to wanna get out and do more help and do more work with my students in the school, outside the school. Like, creating those, pitches really helped me to kind of put things, like, into perspective. Yeah.

Speaker 11:

I think my questions are, how are you gonna do it? And and what are my what role can I play in that? Like, what as an individual, as as an educational leader, what next step can I take for my community? And so, like, looking at the individual bullet points we created, which were much smaller than these global ideas of, can I take the first step forward in some of them, but also, like, continue to be a partner with with these bigger change makers who have the ability to do it?

Chris Huizenga:

What is your top piece of advice for the team as we proceed?

Speaker 6:

I think something that was said during the, networking the meeting was that there are no wrong answers. Like, I feel like there are so many challenges and issues and problems that need to be answered that there are there's I feel like there will be no one wrong way to go about the solutions. Like, whatever you McGraw Hill decides to focus on or pitch or whatever, I feel like that it'll also be helping in education. So that really stuck with me. Feel I like whatever work is being done, especially when you get the feedback of teachers and all the different stakeholders, it'll be good.

Speaker 11:

I think my advice would be, like, continuing to bring in the stakeholders throughout the process. I think it was neat to come in on the very ground level. But sometimes you lose sight of what that ground level is as you get into things and get into work. And especially, you know, a lot of our ideas centered around technology and AI and the use of that, but really staying grounded in in what's realistic and feasible for the people who are on the ground doing the work.

Speaker 6:

So any organization or anyone trying to help teachers, I appreciate it a lot.

Chris Huizenga:

So what's next? We are already imagining solutions, this is just the beginning. Let's ask ourselves, what steps can we take together to better support the people at the heart of education? Whether you work in product, marketing, or research, your role can help move these ideas forward. Let's keep listening, keep building, and most of all, keep acting.