Episódios
-
Today's guest is Makenzie Oliver, host of the popular podcast Teacher, Let Your Light Shine! and its associated Facebook community. An award-winning public school teacher, Makenzie decided to leave the conventional classroom to launch her own microschool, Lighthouse Learning Microschool and Homeschool Hybrid, in 2020 in Longwood, Florida.
She now helps other teachers to let their light shine through education entrepreneurship by offering a "Microschool Masterminds" program and various coaching resources.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
In this second episode in our series, Homeschooling To College, Kym Kent and I talk about some of the common myths around college admissions and affordability, as well as how to navigate the Common App as a homeschooling family.
"A trend colleges might not want applicants to notice: It's becoming easier to get in" (The Hechinger Report, Nov. 2024)
"The secret that colleges should stop keeping" (The Atlantic, Feb. 2025)
In case you missed it, check out our first episode in this series in which Kym and I discuss preparation for college admissions during the high school years, and the pre-application process.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Estão a faltar episódios?
-
Today's guest is Lauri Muse, a mom of of 7 children who has been actively homeschooling for 27 years. She recently launched World of Wonder Hybrid Microschool and Homeschool Enrichment Program in Union, Kentucky, near Cincinnati, Ohio. Her weekly homeschool enrichment program now serves over 140 kids, while the 3-day-a-week microschool she opened last fall currently has 15 students—and counting!
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
Today's guests are Katie Kilgore and Michael Frost who are the cofounders, along with a third family, of Three Cords Academy, a student-focused, Biblically-centered microschool currently serving 2nd-6th grades which they launched in Fall 2024 in Carrollton, Georgia.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Today's guest is MacKenzie Price, cofounder of 2 Hour Learning and Alpha School, a K-12 private school in Austin, Texas which she launched in 2014. MacKenzie is currently working to scale the Alpha School model nationwide, with additional schools currently operating or opening soon in several states. A graduate of Stanford University, MacKenzie hosts the Future of Education podcast, which focuses on the advent of AI in education and its impact on student learning and discovery.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
In this episode, Kerry chats with Kym Kent, a veteran homeschooling mom of 6 and founder of a Maryland-based homeschooling program who has already graduated 4 of her children and is currently going through the college admissions process with her son Samuel. Kerry's daughter Molly is a lifelong homeschooler who is also going through the college admissions process this year. Kerry and Kym talk about their experience of homeschooling their kids to college—including things to consider regarding high school course preparation, college list creation, and what to think about in junior year and the start of senior year before completing college applications.
This episode is the first in a series of episodes with Kerry and Kym on homeschooling to college!
Check out Kerry's recent Forbes.com article about an internship for STEM-focused homeschooled high schoolers offered at MIT.
Take a peek at Kym's debut FEE.org article, Yes, You Can Homeschool Your Kids to College.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Today's guest is Maria Stalsberg, founder of Our Village School, a creative learning environment for homeschooled kids ages 6 and over in Lakeville, Minnesota.
Maria holds a Master’s degree in Teaching and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. She began her career in Corporate America before transitioning to becoming a classroom teacher in the traditional education system, but ultimately stepped away to focus on raising her four children.
After enrolling her oldest in the local public elementary school for kindergarten and first grade, Maria found herself longing for a more dynamic, hands-on approach to learning. Determined to create something different, she pulled her oldest to homeschool and launched Our Village School in 2020. It started as a single day of programming in her backyard with 18 kids and has since grown to now serve roughly 150 students with four-day-a-week programming and flexible attendance options.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
I am so excited to share the news with you that my new book, Joyful Learning: How To Find Freedom, Happiness, and Success Beyond Conventional Schooling, is now available for preorder!
Published by the big New York City publisher Hachette, under its PublicAffairs imprint, Joyful Learning is brimming with information and inspiration for parents and teachers who are seeking or building innovative schools and learning models.
Joyful Learning will be on bookstore shelves in August, and I am already scheduling book events in various cities at schools and similar learning communities, as well as with parent and policy organizations, and business and entrepreneurship groups. If you’re interested in sharing the ideas of joyful learning with your community, please email me at [email protected].
And grab your preorder copy today!
-
Today's guest is Robert Barnett, a former teacher in both public and private schools, and the cofounder and Chief Product Officer at the Modern Classrooms Project, a nonprofit teaching and professional development resource which he helped to launch in 2018.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Our guest today is Jennie Jones, a former professional ballerina, turned homeschooling mom of four, turned education entrepreneur. In September 2024, Jennie launched The Treehouse Agile Learning Community as a home-based microschool in St. George, Utah that uses agile learning tools to foster intentional community, natural learning, and independence in students ages 5-12.
Read more about Jennie's founder journey in her debut FEE.org article.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
Jake Thompson is the founder of Heroes Academy, an Acton Academy in Boise, Idaho that he opened in 2016. Jake is also now the head of the entire Acton Academy network, which includes over 300 learner-driven schools serving thousands of students worldwide.
Check out Kerry's LiberatED interview with Acton Academy network cofounder, Jeff Sandefer.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
Today's guests are Taylor Munro and Lacey Fickes, cofounders of Peak Academy, a microschool in Richmond, Texas currently serving students in grades K-8, with a high school expansion in the works. They launched Peak Academy in August 2022, but prior to that both founders worked for many years as public school teachers in Texas.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Tonya Kipe was an elementary school teacher in Florida public schools for over a decade before launching Kipe Academy, a microschool in Polk City, Florida. She grew her microschool from one student in January 2024 to 26 students today, including those with special learning needs.
Read more about Tonya's microschool in Kerry's latest article at The 74.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
Today's guest is Latoya Nelson, founder of The Attuned Community School, a hybrid homeschool program in Warner Robins, Georgia. Latoya is an experienced educator who taught in public schools and charter schools for over a decade. She has been especially interested in working with children in foster care, as well as adoptive families. Latoya launched her microschool in August 2022 after participating in the KaiPod Catalyst microschool accelerator program.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Don and Ashley Soifer of the National Microschooling Center join me to talk about some of their microschooling predictions for 2025.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
Giselle McClymont knew from second grade that she wanted to be a teacher. She went on to earn an education degree in college and taught in Florida’s Broward County public elementary schools for six years before leaving the system in 2022 to be a stay-at-home-mom with plans to homeschool her daughter. A year later, she learned about microschools and was hooked. Giselle soon launched Tree Stars Learning, a microschool in West Sunrise, Florida. She is now in the process of opening a second location in Coral Springs.
Read more about Giselle's entrepreneurial journey in Kerry's latest article at The 74.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Susan Haws is the founder and Executive Director of Insight Colearning, a private learner-centered, micro-high school located in Durham, North Carolina. She began her career as a Teach For America member in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas in 1993. She went on to teach middle school and high school in traditional public schools, until she left the classroom to earn a Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill. Insight Colearning began as a homeschooling collaborative in 2018 and is now a state-recognized private school. In 2022, North Carolina became the ninth state to enact a universal school-choice program enabling education funding to follow students to their preferred educational settings. Insight Colearning participates in the state's school-choice scholarship programs.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
-
Our guest today is Coi Morefield, founder of The Lab School of Memphis in Tennessee whose newest endeavor is Microschool Masters, a masterclass program for innovative schools and spaces that provides professional development resources for microschool teachers and leaders.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Melanie Leone is a former public school teacher with a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership. Over the course of her career, she’s worked in multiple states and spent five years as a childcare center director which changed her philosophy of education. In fall 2023, she founded Anchor Center for Learning in Stow, Ohio as a three-day-a-week, multi-age microschool that emphasizes student autonomy, academic personalization, and a sense of wonder.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated. -
Today's podcast guest is Tyler Thigpen, co-founder and CEO of The Forest School: An Acton Academy, The Forest School Online, and the Institute for Self Directed Learning in Fayetteville, Georgia. Tyler is also the Academic Director at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, a guest lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and co-author of the new book, The Playbook for Self-Directed Learning: A Leader's Guide to School Transformation and Student Agency.
***
Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly LiberatED e-newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
- Mostrar mais
