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Welcome to the Exceptional Educators Podcast by FrenalyticsEDU — where innovation meets inclusion in education!
Each episode features candid conversations with district leaders, school leaders, classroom changemakers, EdTech founders, and executives — all dedicated to transforming learning for each student, especially our learners with unique abilities.
With a focus on extraordinary educators and the exceptional students they serve, we explore the latest in special education, accessible technology, and inclusive leadership. Whether you’re shaping special education policy, pioneering new EdTech tools, or looking to grow your impact in the classroom, this podcast is your front-row seat to the future of inclusive education.
Listen. Learn. Lead. Be Exceptional. 🎙️
Welcome to the Exceptional Educators Podcast by Friendlytics edu, where innovation meets inclusion and education. I'm your co host Antonia Ellis.
Matt Giovanniello:And I'm Madgelo Vannello, the CEO and co founder of Friendlytics. At Friendlytics, we put special education and English language learners front and center. Our award winning Friendlytics edu platform helps streamline progress monitoring, improve communication and compliance, and offers truly personalized learning to your students of all abilities.
Antonayah Ellis:Each episode of our podcast features candid conversations with district and school leaders, classroom change makers, ed tech founders, and industry executives, all dedicated to transforming learning for each student, especially our learners with unique abilities. With the focus on extraordinary educators and the exceptional students they serve, we explore the latest in special education, accessible technology, and inclusive leadership.
Matt Giovanniello:In this special episode, Exceptional Educators is exceptionally thrilled to welcome the Dream Team administrative team from Ohio Connections Academy, a tuition free online public school serving the exciting and diverse learning needs of students across K-twelve throughout the state of Ohio. Leading the charge and with us today is Superintendent Marie Hana and the co directors of Special Education Services, Erin Fateh and Reika Manakal. Welcome all. Thank you for joining us.
Erin Fatafehi:Thanks for having us.
Matt Giovanniello:As we begin today's episode, a question we'd like to pose all of our guests, and we're going to do so today in a round table style discussion is what is your why? We know a lot of reasons why people enter the world of education and more importantly, stay within this world. We'd love to know each of your reasons as well.
Marie Hanna:Well, as I went into the leadership roles, I liked the idea of being able to make an impact on lots and lots of students and being able to kind of be the architect of designing programming that really improves students' lives and helps them achieve what they need to achieve.
Matt Giovanniello:I love your reason. I love your why. Thank you.
Rekha Manakkal:Well, I went into education when I was in sixth grade. I had three teachers that made learning fun, and I saw me having fun, laughing a lot, but learning and even opportunities to kind of stand up in front of the classroom because they trusted us enough to to teach. Those opportunities I knew right then they had me hooked because it was kind of a stage to perform on sometime and also make a positive impact on students. And I love it. And now in the virtual sense, I can do the same, just a little different.
Rekha Manakkal:That's my way.
Matt Giovanniello:I love it. I love the transition as well.
Erin Fatafehi:There's so many reasons why. I mean, I originally started in education, I actually had a bachelor's degree in social work, I wanted to do family counseling and work with students and families that way. And I naturally fell into a charter school in a different state where I was able to work with students and families, you know, just on a different level, and it led my passion down to special education. So I pursued my master's degree in special education. And so I just felt like it was the perfect combination of being able to support students, but also being able to support families, particularly in this online setting, which I'm sure we'll get into as we talk more in detail.
Erin Fatafehi:But just being able to have that positive impact on the families as well and helping families learn how to support their students' unique learning needs. I just feel like it's really impactful. And again, it's where I feel at home, if I can use that phrase. So, yeah.
Matt Giovanniello:And I love how you feel that way, because I imagine the same for you too, as well, that if you're comfortable in the way in which you're teaching, it makes your students feel that much more comfortable in the way that they're learning and their parents that much more comfortable in the way that their students are growing in an environment that's made for them. So I'm really glad that all three of you just feel that so innately. And I think that speaks to the successes of OCA. That leads me to my first and related question to what you each brought up. Virtual schooling can sometimes be misunderstood or is not well known in many parts of The United States.
Matt Giovanniello:So let's start there. Let's get a definition down for what virtual school looks like at OCA, how that maybe has differed from what emergency remote learning looked like at the peak of the pandemic, and what a day in the life looks like for you as educators and admins, and more importantly, it looks like for your students. What does OCA look like for all of those different entities?
Rekha Manakkal:I mean, can start. I think one of the beautiful things about our virtual school is we have a wonderful online platform management system already created and ready to meet the needs of all of our different learners. So when COVID came about, we didn't have to go scrambling to go create those things. And within our management system, it is set up where we can actually think about and cater the needs to each of our different types of learners here, which then enables our families to have somewhat of a flexibility as to how they run their day. So here we definitely have set times for certain live instruction, but within those structure, the families can choose to whether or not they would like to spend extra time on a particular subject or schedule in extra time with the teacher to get more help.
Rekha Manakkal:And I think that's beautiful because it doesn't have to be done before 8AM or after 4PM. It can just be built into their natural day. Maybe I'll just turn it over to either Erin or Marie to kind of talk about what it might look like from a teacher or administrative point of view in terms of our day.
Erin Fatafehi:I'd be happy to hop in. In terms of our teachers, one of the benefits of the online instruction is they really can structure their day in a way that allows them to meet their students' needs. So again, we do have typical office hours where the teachers are working from eight to four. They're available to help all of our students. They do have a structured schedule of those live classes that Reika was just referencing.
Erin Fatafehi:But in addition to that, they will also offer open office hours where students come in to get extra help on an assignment that they may need. They may offer one of our grade bands offers a lunch bunch opportunity. So they schedule time where the students can just come in and have some social interaction time with each other in that way. So again, that live instruction is meant to support their daily lessons that are built into the online learning platform, but they offer ample opportunities to engage in that live instruction as well.
Marie Hanna:Well, and I think it's also important to talk about the training that our teachers receive and the professional development opportunities that they have, and how Pearson itself has spent time doing research on what kinds of practices are more impactful than others. So there's a lot of research and science along with the art of teaching goes into our programming and making sure our teachers are very well prepared and that they are thinking about best practices and creative ways to engage with students. Later on, maybe Reika, we can talk about PBIS programming and all the things we do to retain our staff and engage our staff and our students.
Matt Giovanniello:We absolutely need to get into that. So hold that thought real fast. I'm going to come back to it in just a moment. As each of you were speaking about what makes OCA so special, not only for students, but also for teachers, and Maria, you on the admin side, on behalf of your admin team, I'm reminded of a quote that goes something along the lines of talent is everywhere, but access to opportunity is not. And I think the fact that you're running a statewide virtual school allows you to recruit and retain teachers that really are best equipped to serve the various needs of your diverse learners, even if they're not physically located in a town or a nearby area that would otherwise prohibit you from hiring them if they were so far out.
Matt Giovanniello:Talk to me a little bit about the way in which you go through recruitment, and now we can get into our PBIS discussion of bringing the best of the best because now physical barriers are no longer at play when you're hiring virtual staff throughout the state.
Marie Hanna:Well, that's really important with our administrative team. We have a very good principal of academics that lives in in a very rural area. Actually, several members of my administrative team live in some of the more rural areas and where the Amish people live and everything else. So that's absolutely true. We have been able to get talent from all over the state.
Marie Hanna:And a lot of the people on my administrative team, probably most of them, did start here as a teacher and and then moved up into administration. So I think it's really important that they do have the teacher's heart, always trying to figure out ways to improve our math scores. At least three of my administrative team members were math teachers here. So you are right about being able to recruit from everywhere in the state, and those people are also getting that opportunity to have their talents here.
Erin Fatafehi:I was just adding to that too. One of the fun components, I think, of interviewing candidates, you know, we often can interview virtually. We've of course done in person at an office location as well. But one of the fun interview questions we sometimes will ask is, you know, what are your strengths? If the teacher's coming from a brick and mortar setting, you know, what are your strengths in a brick and mortar setting?
Erin Fatafehi:And how do you think that you would be able to apply that in an online setting? And then we can talk them through what that might look like here because they absolutely can apply their strengths. It just looks different. And it takes some time to get some comfortability with that. They have those strengths.
Erin Fatafehi:And so that's part of our job too, is to help them grow and really realize how to use those strengths here. It's a fun part and a challenge for us as well.
Marie Hanna:And we have a strong mentoring program too, and when we do our employee surveys, we get very good feedback on the support that new staff, the teachers get to learn, because it is a little bit like drinking out the fire hose in those first weeks or months. I say that even to our families too that are new that I know this feels really crazy right now, but it will get better. I promise you, you know, it will get better. So we we put a lot of effort into mentoring our new employees, whether they're experienced or new or whatever the case may be. They make sure they get a good start and have a very supportive team around them.
Marie Hanna:Absolutely. I was just
Rekha Manakkal:gonna add to that. Support is key here. I think we can all visualize all of us in our own separate places all over Ohio, but we don't let people feel isolated and we create opportunities to collaborate and really have a school culture of working together top down, not just the teachers. Literally from Marie Hannah all the way down to an admin assistant, we all have one common goal and that's student success. And we do that together.
Matt Giovanniello:That is so heartening and wonderful to hear and how a school system should function. Despite you all making it sound and seem easy and your successes making it seem so simple, we all know the reality is that it's not. And I think that one of the big pieces here is the fact that you do run an efficient, successful virtual school. It really bucks the trend of everybody thinking that schools must be in person in order for learning to be successful. For some students that may be the case, but for a lot of students, you're proving that it's not.
Matt Giovanniello:One of those subpopulations is students with disabilities. And so let's get into that a little bit more. Tell us about what the makeup of your students look like. We know you have about an eight fifty student school enrollment out of a population of about just over 5,000 students, so you're sitting at a higher than state average and higher than national average student with disability enrollment. I don't think there's a coincidence there.
Matt Giovanniello:Talk to us a little bit about the students that you support, what services you might be delivering through virtual environments, and how those services help them to be even more successful versus if they remained in a, as you call it, brick and mortar school environment.
Rekha Manakkal:I think when we really began talking to our families and listening to our families, one consistent theme we've seen over many years is they needed to be heard and listened to, and they wanted a school that was really gonna take care of their student needs and nothing against brick and mortar. It's just that in an online environment like ours, it doesn't matter what disability you have. You eliminate the building. You eliminate the noise in the classroom. You eliminate a lot of things where you can really just get down to understanding the parent concern, the student needs, and creating a partnership to make that successful.
Rekha Manakkal:And so it is amazing to our families when they share, oh, wow. I didn't know my student was able to do this or I didn't realize my student might not know this and then the team gets together and works to support either their weaknesses or strengths. And I'm just gonna pass it to Erin for a second. Maybe you can talk about all the different services that we have because we are just like a brick and mortar and we meet their needs. Definitely.
Erin Fatafehi:Absolutely. And even to go back a little bit further, of course, because we're statewide school K to 12, we do have students that qualify for all of the disability category. So we have every disability category identified with our population here. We offer small group individualized instruction that is targeted towards the student's IEP goals. So our team of teachers at each grade level, they're able to group students with similar goals, and they're able to create those small group instruction sessions where they're live together in a platform like this.
Erin Fatafehi:We use a platform called CLASS and they're able to conduct those lessons there, again, to specifically address those IEP goals and services. We also have all related services. So if a student qualifies for occupational therapy or speech therapy, we offer those virtual services as well. There are unique situations where students may require a face to face provider. We would do that then.
Erin Fatafehi:We would locate a provider in the student's residential area, and we have contracted providers that are able to do that as well. So the array of needs that students have, we absolutely can meet those needs, and we do meet those needs in that way. Again, the IEP team leads what is the priority need for the students. So that is, you know, developed when we meet annually based on each student's area of identified needs. And then the other thing Regha mentioned a little bit, the involvement of the parent.
Erin Fatafehi:That was one really eye opening thing that I noticed when I first joined OCA. And then as new teachers come in, you really get to realize what an impact you have on the family and how much of a team approach this really is because the students, certainly our population of students, they need that support at home. So, you know, while we are not homeschooling, we are schooling at home. And so we need the support. Each student has an identified learning coach.
Erin Fatafehi:Often it's the parent, but we need their support. I always explain that as a piece of the puzzle that really helps make this learning environment successful here together. So that's
Rekha Manakkal:my point. It's always lovely to have a parent be so thankful. I think that, oh my gosh, thank you. We found a place that listens to us and puts our kids need first. And we love to hear that.
Rekha Manakkal:And second, they really like our IEPs. It's, you know, it's supposed to be individualized, but it's sometimes a little easier to do it here because we know a lot about these kids a lot. And one would who might not be familiar with the virtual school might automatically think like, how could they possibly know anything about these kids? You're not sitting in a classroom all day. I think we know more and then more than we even want to know sometimes, but it's wonderful to get that kudos for our staff that's writing those documents.
Matt Giovanniello:We need to get into that more, Reka. I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard anybody in this space say, parent, staff member, whoever it is, I like this IEP. What's your secret? You know a lot about these students. How are you collecting all of this data?
Matt Giovanniello:How is the team coming together? What are the specifics beyond what that looked like that you're putting together IEPs that not only you all stand behind, but you're getting the ultimate stamp of approval and it's from the parents consistently. But what's your secret? There's got to be something.
Rekha Manakkal:Yeah. I think there's so many natural data points built in to a virtual school, and it is not just the special education teacher that's working with the student. I think that's key first. Our ability to collaborate with the general education teachers who also own these children is something that I think is unparalleled out there. There's partnerships here, collaboration, data collection, and an honest discussion about, okay, what does this look like and where shall we put our efforts?
Rekha Manakkal:And then they have to bring in a a student who might be old enough to talk about their needs, but then also a parent. I can't tell you in related services. I could go on forever, but the ability to collaborate and really get to what the student needs and prioritize that is I think the key here because that's sometimes very difficult to do when you can't talk to that related service provider very easily in a brick and mortar setting. You can't reach the parent because I'm sorry, they're not available till eight or 9PM or something like that. Like that collaboration, involvement team approach, I can't say it better than that.
Rekha Manakkal:That is what makes a quality IEP and a happy parent for sure. And
Erin Fatafehi:also just to add to that with our teachers, our special education teachers do a phenomenal job at facilitating these meetings and making sure that when the parents are here with us, some join virtually, some join on a teleconference call, but we get their input. Of course, we're required to have their input. They are a part of the IEP team. And so we do many efforts to try to get the parents involved and of course attend the meeting. And if they can't, we really try to work around their schedules so that we have them here.
Erin Fatafehi:So I think we have a lot more flexibility of being able to do that and working around a parent's schedule to make sure that we have their input. Our teachers do a phenomenal job at explaining the goals and why is this an area identified as a need for that student and how are we going to support their student and helping explain what that looks like to the parents. And then they can sort of piggyback on that at home while they're working with them through their day to day lessons as well. Thank
Rekha Manakkal:you, Eir.
Antonayah Ellis:I'm mesmerized by the relationships that you guys foster virtually. I taught during COVID. It was actually my first year teaching during COVID. So I was hybrid. I'm working for HISD and I guess it wasn't so bad to me.
Antonayah Ellis:It was my first year in the classroom, but to see the teachers around me, I mean, going through shock, it seemed daily. I mean, not knowing how to foster relationships anymore. And you guys have figured out the secret sauce to keep the relationships close. I really am intrigued. How do you get your, your teachers and your staff to be on one accord, even though you guys are in different places.
Antonayah Ellis:How does that work? Are we sending like motivational messages? You know, like how do we all just get on one page?
Rekha Manakkal:In my opinion, this school led by Marie focuses so heavy on making time to collaborate. And I'm not talking about just sitting around talking about data. For example, one simple thing, our admin team every day at 10:00, we get on something like this and we talk and we share. It doesn't have to be about data. It's about something that might be going on in the sped department and we talk, share it, get input.
Rekha Manakkal:And we do that along all of our administrative departments, elementary, middle, high. Then to extend past that, we have carved out time for TBT teacher based team meetings, staff meetings, grade level meetings. We purposely create opportunities for for that. Now that's to help us collaborate. On the flip side, we also understand that these teachers need some, some downtime to take care of themselves.
Rekha Manakkal:So creating an environment and opportunities where it isn't just an academic focus, but giving them a chance to be involved with activities or engagement opportunities that reflect back on their self care. For example, book studies, voluntary, of course, about how to work through grieving or how to work with being able to build in time for, for yourself, like things we don't think about. And so we're not just focused on one component of just teach, teach, teach. Like, you know how you talk about take care of the whole child? We take care of our whole staff, which I think is great.
Rekha Manakkal:Thank you, Marie.
Marie Hanna:Well, and we also do have policies and processes. We do require the teachers to do biweekly contacts, and we do have a way to check to be sure those are being done within our system. So we do have policies and processes in place where we, you know, we we do tell the people what they're supposed to do and how they are supposed to do it. And then all that other cool stuff Reika talked about comes in, you know, kinda behind that. But we do require, you know, the teachers to contact the students.
Marie Hanna:We have logs so we can see, you know, what the contacts look like, what the people talked about. We do have our firewalled webmail system so the students can communicate back and forth with their teacher that way. We use text to reach out to students. So we use a lot of different things to try to contact the families, contact the students and make sure that they are talking to us.
Antonayah Ellis:And just another side question. So something, especially with my experience with that fifth through eighth grade, they really go through a lot of social media pain, social media driven anxieties. Are those some issues or conversations that maybe you see still come up with your virtual school setting? Are students still having conflict even though they're in a virtual setting? Or is it even a factor considering, you know, how you guys are virtual?
Antonayah Ellis:Are there any social media issues among students? And if so, how, how do we show them these conflict resolution skills, but virtually?
Rekha Manakkal:To be quite frank, our system is pretty secure. So we don't have a lot of that harassment of students bothering other students. It's a pretty secure system. We don't really have, have that to deal with. If anything, sometimes during a session like this, if we have a chat pod going, there might be some chats that are appropriate and there's immediate protocols in which to handle that immediately.
Rekha Manakkal:And then of course take some time after that session to talk with the family or the student about appropriate ways to handle that responsibility. So I think most of our issues would be that. And I don't know if Marie or Erin feel any differently about that.
Marie Hanna:Yeah. We have an appropriate use policy, of course, in our handbook about, you know, how you use our computer and how you behave during our live sessions or, you know, etcetera. We have had handful of situations come up over the years. And again, it's a teaching moment. And of course we've had situations come up where they're actually it's another student from our school, but they're using things that are not, you know, related to the Connections Academy platforms or anything and, you know, doing something that's inappropriate.
Marie Hanna:And to me, I think that the whole social media thing is that it has to be a teaching moment for these kids and these families because we'll say that, you know, the parents today probably did not have a lot of social media as they grew up. So educating our families, using any kind of problem like that as a teaching moment, I think it's critical right now. And I'd say that just universally. It's a time where you really need to use any kind of social media accident as a teaching moment for these kids because this is unfortunately or fortunately or however you wanna look at it, all these things, social media and AI, all this is here to stay. So helping everyone learn to live within this world, it's your child at home or it's the people at the school, it's just a very important thing for everyone to learn how to be a good social media citizen and how to look at things and identify things that don't look right.
Marie Hanna:We do some of that in our curriculum as well because I think it is extremely important.
Erin Fatafehi:And to add to that too, we have a fantastic counseling department at our school. So we have a senior manager of counseling who oversees K to 12. We have a coordinator of counseling as well as I believe nine additional school counselors plus social workers as well. So sometimes we have situations where, again, you know, I think Reika shared earlier, we know a lot about our families, whether it's through, you know, documents that they provided during enrollment, a questionnaire that they filled out during enrollment. So we're able to identify maybe they've had those social media concerns, and that's one of the reasons they chose to enroll in an online setting.
Erin Fatafehi:And so we're able to be proactive with that and really set up a way, a communication tool with the grade level counselor of that student so that if they need to do a monthly check-in, a weekly check-in with that student, they can do that. So I think that's, again, maybe something that sets us apart from other schools where we can see that really in live time. If a teacher notices something during a live lesson, we have protocols and procedures where they will reach out to those counselors and the counselors will follow-up with the families right away. So there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes as well, but to support some of those needs, those social emotional needs that are going on.
Marie Hanna:And I'm glad Erin brought that up because I have been intentional with my budgeting to have not only more counselors added, especially since the pandemic, but also a couple of social workers because the needs are just so great that we needed to have people to support these families and these students in a more robust way than, you know, our teachers would be able to on their own.
Matt Giovanniello:It's unfortunately not surprising that your students have SEL needs. Across the country, SEL needs are growing among students, partially fueled by the pandemic, but I think we've been seeing a rise over the decades in it nonetheless. But fortunately, it's really great to hear the many ways that you're being proactive about it. I think that you're able to detect, mitigate, and also respond to incidences, social media or otherwise, of SEL related outbursts or outbreaks, or things that could escalate into something worse far faster than traditional school systems can. Even to your comment, Marie, of how am I thinking about the needs of what next year will bring those students, the changes just in our culture and our climate, and adjusting for that now versus kicking the can down the road a year and waiting for the shoe to drop.
Matt Giovanniello:So I'm really glad to hear that you're all thinking about it in that way. Think it's all in pursuit of not only better meeting the needs of your students, but also your staff members too. I think it just makes it way easier for them to do their jobs right and service their students better. So just kudos. And I appreciate you sharing all that.
Matt Giovanniello:It just stays very close to home, especially as we talk about our students in special education and those receiving MTSS, ELL, and related services. They tend to go hand in hand. Speaking of, we have a partner here in New York City. It is the first and only all virtual school, but it is servicing the needs of students in high school K through 12. This is a new model for New York City and it's a new model for most of the country, and yet you have all been proving the successes of this model through K-twelve for decades now.
Matt Giovanniello:I'm curious if you can point to a couple of success stories, maybe of your high school students or even your younger kids, of how OCA served them really well. For example, in the partnership we have with our virtual high school here, they're seeing around a 30% special education enrollment, which for New York, that's more than double the state average. It's more than double the national average. And yet they have an all time high attendance rate. They have an all time low expulsion and suspension rate, and they have students who are more engaged in their lessons than if they were to go to another nearby school.
Matt Giovanniello:I imagine you have similar success stories. I'd love to hear about some of them.
Rekha Manakkal:In high school specifically, oftentimes our school is their last resort. They feel like they don't have anywhere else to go. So they give us a chance and they might be coming in credit deficient and they're starting in already feeling defeated. But when we get these students in, have the assistant principals at high school and the counselors and our sped department and the gen ed department all knowing where they're starting. And for many of our students, we know exactly where they need that support and where they need to get their energies focused to earn those credits back, to get back on track.
Rekha Manakkal:And then they start feeling like, wow, I can do this. And that can't be done with just one person. That has to be a school wide effort and so critical in high school because our job really is to get these students across across the finish line. So I would say day in and day out as a high school collaborative school effort, we are always working towards improving our graduation rate and getting more students across the finish line. And these families are just thankful because they would have given up if they didn't have a opportunity or a place to school like OCA.
Erin Fatafehi:We've seen some students who have enrolled because maybe they are in a partial hospitalization program that requires them to get some intensive therapy. And so they can have their day to day lessons done around that schedule, but they're still able to have time to work on school so they can have that live session with their teachers. And we're also able to invite a lot of outside therapists and of course with the parental permission and involvement, but we're able to get team of outside therapists, related service providers that might be working with the student. Maybe they've been working with the student for years and the parents like that. They are able to join the IEP team meeting to see how we are working with the students throughout the school day.
Erin Fatafehi:And so maybe overlap a little bit so that the therapist that might be working with the student outside of the school in a private capacity can collaborate with the therapist that is working with the student in the school as well. We have a lot of those team meetings too, as easily held in a brick and mortar setting as well.
Marie Hanna:Well, and I told my staff this when it happened because I wanted to remind them that they have impact when they don't even probably realize it, but I was actually at a school choice event and this person came out of the corner and she grabbed me and she said you're Marie Hannah from Ohio connections. She said, do you know that my daughter came to your high school when she was a junior? She had extremely serious anxiety issues and we didn't think she'd ever graduate. And now, you know, because she came to you and she settled in and she got the support she needed, you know, she graduated a high school on time and now she's attending university And I was, you know, really happy because I was in, like, a rush and I was probably about to, you know, bye. But I was very glad that she was able to flag me down and say that to me because I wonder how many other families we don't necessarily hear from to tell us something like that.
Marie Hanna:But I was very proud of our staff and the support our students that have these issues with anxiety. I was very happy to hear this girl is attending a college and she seems to be on track and that mother was extremely thankful.
Matt Giovanniello:It's incredible. Oh my god. You'd be so proud.
Rekha Manakkal:That's so great. It's so nice to hear when our students gain that confidence back because they do come in sometimes beaten up. And just as we take care of them month over month and to watch their confidence grow and they see their own successes, that's huge. When they begin believing again in themselves and what they can do, that's more than we could give any family, honestly. And I love that.
Rekha Manakkal:Not just
Matt Giovanniello:it's all because of you all.
Rekha Manakkal:I don't know.
Matt Giovanniello:But it's starting from the top though, and it's going down as you said at the beginning of the episode. So it all starts with you all. I'm speechless. That's amazing to hear. Marie, my guess is that for every one story you hear from a parent, there are tens, if not hundreds more that you don't hear that I bet you wish you did, but knowing that that's the story that's reaching you is a reminder of the impact that you're all having on your students and your families.
Matt Giovanniello:I'm glad. Keep amplifying those stories. It's got to be the biggest motivator to you all to know that you're just touching the lives of these kids in such a meaningful way. And I'm just grateful to be talking to you all today, hearing a little bit about it. We are nearing the end of our time, which is insane to think.
Matt Giovanniello:I have many more questions. I don't even know where to begin, but I will wrap up for today, maybe I'll need to sign you all up for part two. We'll get to our final question that we like to ask all of our guests. Our question to each of you is what does being an exceptional educator or being an exceptional leader mean to you?
Erin Fatafehi:I feel like understanding that both students and staff, they need different things. So providing, you know, the type of instruction that students need, providing the type of support that our staff needs to be able to support their students is really a goal of ours to make sure, you know, that we're checking in on our teachers and their bandwidth and how we can support them and making sure that they're feeling okay because we are remote and we're not, we don't get the opportunity to see them down the hallway. So we make a very conscious effort to check-in on them as well. So I think just making sure that everybody feels heard. We started with that at the beginning as well.
Erin Fatafehi:Everybody feels supported. And while we might not have a solution to every problem, we're certainly here to brainstorm and to try to help our teachers and students any way we can.
Rekha Manakkal:I can definitely piggyback on that. I do think being an exceptional educator or a leader, you create a culture where you have some high expectations and you provide the scaffolding support and the nurturing that's needed to get that out of everybody, not just staff, but, but our students and families as well. I think that does start with believing that every student, every person, every staff member here can succeed. We need to give them the opportunity to begin believing that they can do that. Listening is key.
Rekha Manakkal:Constantly talking and thinking, you know it all, and then maybe not so great, but listening and working together to create an atmosphere and a culture that people feel they're a part of is what I think a good leader does and a good educator.
Marie Hanna:I think being an exceptional educator, many of the things have already been said, but communication, especially listening, is very critical. And I think you really do need to have your mission and your goals in mind and what it is we're trying to accomplish here and then bring in all the supports and the encouragement and be able to lift everybody to be able to get to those goals. So I'm goal oriented, but I try to do that with giving everybody the adequate support that they need in order to reach those goals. So I think that's very important.
Matt Giovanniello:I couldn't agree more. And in case it is not obvious to each of you, you all embody every aspect and definition of being an exceptional educator. You were and are exceptional educators and leaders, and you're now inspiring the next generation to do the exact same thing. To that, thank you for lending your voices today. It was such an honor to listen to you all and learn from each of you today, and to be able to spread the word about the huge successes that you're achieving at OCA, and hopefully also inspire other schools who are trying to spin up a virtual shop or to create a more inclusive environment for their students to do so.
Matt Giovanniello:I think you gave countless examples of how that could be done successfully, and if it reaches even one school and a handful of students, I think mission accomplished. Until then, the thousands of students that you're serving are benefiting in ways you don't even imagine, and we're so, so grateful, for your leadership in that regard as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time today.
Antonayah Ellis:You guys are the dream team, and I admire your relationships. I admire you putting parents as partners and not just people on the back burner. And I just I can't wait to see how much more you guys can do. I hope more virtual schools pick up on some of your practices because you guys are on to something good. So I'm honored to be here.
Antonayah Ellis:Thanks for being so open and willing to share some of your practices.
Rekha Manakkal:Thank you for having us.
Erin Fatafehi:Thank you so much.
Matt Giovanniello:Thank you all listening for today's episode of the Exceptional Educators Podcast. Thank you for joining us. We will catch you at the next one.