Spotlight 4 Success | "Leading Through Educational Technology" | KAST 26

4/22/2026

Educational leadership can feel like a mystery from the outside, so we wanted to make it concrete. We talk with Jessica, a vice president in a statewide education technology organization, about what her role looks like day to day, what she’s learning on the board, and how she’ll step into the president role next. Along the way, we get into why consistent communication like newsletters matters for keeping schools informed about edtech trends and what’s changing across a state. Website: spotlight4success.com

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Spotlight 4 Success | "3D Printing In Elementary Schools" | KAST 26

4/22/2026

You can feel it in the hallway conversations at KAST: schools are not asking whether technology belongs in the classroom anymore. The real question is how to make it matter. From Louisville, Kentucky, I sit down with digital learning coaches Erica and Sandy to unpack what it takes to support teachers when devices, apps, and expectations keep changing. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "Why K-12 Districts Choose Byte Speed PCs" | KAST 26

4/21/2026

A school device rollout can look perfect on paper and still fail in the real world if support is slow, warranties are short, and deployment is a slog. That’s why we sat down with Garrett, an account manager at Byte Speed, to talk about what actually makes K-12 IT feel smooth for districts, teachers, and students. Byte Speed has been working with Kentucky schools for decades, and Garrett shares what they listen for when they meet districts at conferences: the everyday pain points behind “we need computing solutions.” Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "The Tiny Box That Ends HDMI Chaos" | KAST 26

4/21/2026

A classroom should not feel like a different tech puzzle every time you walk into a new room, yet that’s the reality in many schools with a mix of projectors, older monitors, and newer interactive flat panels. From the KAST conference in Louisville, Kentucky, we sit down with Andrew, AirTame’s Education East territory manager, to talk about a simple idea with big impact: make screen sharing consistent so teachers can spend less time troubleshooting and more time teaching. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "How Schools Can Stretch Their Chromebooks" | KAST 26

4/20/2026

Chromebooks are everywhere in K 12, but keeping them working is the part no one advertises. From the CAST Conference in Louisville 2026, we sit down with Kendal Shomura from Vivacity Tech to talk about what it really takes to keep devices in students’ hands without burning out your IT team or blowing up your budget. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "What If Student Choice Is the Missing Link in Literacy Growth" | NCRA 2026

4/8/2026

Reading growth doesn’t always come from a brand-new curriculum. Sometimes it comes from one small shift: letting students have real choice in what they read. From the floor of the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with Emmie and Shantale, ECU ambassadors and graduate students focused on reading and literacy instruction, to talk about what’s working right now with real learners. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "The Water Walkers" | NCRA 2026

4/8/2026

Water is the quiet thing we all depend on, until someone treats it like it’s sacred and suddenly you can’t stop paying attention. From the floor of the NCRA conference in Winston-Salem, we talk with author and educator Carol Tremboth about the Native Water Walkers and why their prayerful, relentless miles around the Great Lakes belong in every conversation about clean water, environmental stewardship, and Indigenous activism. Carol shares how her books bring readers to the shoreline, where sacred words, tobacco offerings, and community connection turn “water protection” into something you can feel. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "Phonics You Can Hold" | NCRA 2026

4/7/2026

A lot of reading struggles aren’t about effort, they’re about abstraction. When phonics rules live only on a worksheet or a whiteboard, many kids never get a concrete “click” moment. From the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with Meagan Beam, founder of Otter Reading, to talk about a hands-on reading tool she built for the exact problems she kept seeing in her own classroom. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "Turning Letters into Friends with Letterland" | NCRA 2026

4/7/2026

Letters can be surprisingly hard for young kids. They’re just shapes until a child can link each squiggle to a sound, then blend those sounds into real words. From the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with Vicki Norris, a trainer at Letterland International, to talk about a character-based approach to phonics that helps children make that leap with less struggle and more joy. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "Why Kids Need Stories About Depression" | NCRA 2026

4/6/2026

Stories can change a kid’s life when they finally feel recognized on the page. From the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with middle grade author Bobbie Pyron to talk about why fiction isn’t “extra” in literacy work, it’s a direct path to empathy, compassion, and deeper reading engagement for young people. If you care about children’s literature, school libraries, or helping students connect with books again, this conversation lands right where the work gets real. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "An Authentic 1950 Charlotte Story" | NCRA 2026

4/6/2026

A blue-and-white teacup doesn’t sound like a doorway into history, until you hear what it unlocks in Half Truths. Recording live from the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with author Carol Baldwin to talk about her debut young adult historical novel set in Charlotte in 1950, a city shaped by segregation and the unspoken rules of the Jim Crow South. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "A Ghost Town Mystery and a Robot Tutor" | NCRA 2026

4/2/2026

AI is everywhere in students’ lives, but what if we used it to push them outside instead of pulling them deeper into screens? From the floor of NCRA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we sit down with author Jo Watson Hackl to talk about a surprisingly grounded approach to AI in education: using technology responsibly to strengthen student engagement, spark curiosity, and support reading and writing through real-world observation of nature. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "Literacy for a Reimagined World" | NCRA 2026

4/2/2026

Literacy is getting rewritten in real time and educators don’t have the option to sit it out. From NCRA in Winston-Salem, we sit down with Hiller Spires, Professor at NC State University and NCRA president-elect, to talk about what comes next for literacy instruction as technology accelerates and classrooms adapt on the fly. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "Dandelion Magic and The Power of Words" | NCRA 2026

4/1/2026

A dandelion wish sounds small until it spins into a full-blown adventure. From the NCRA floor in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we sit down with children’s author Darren Farrell to hear how Dandelion Magic turns a simple idea into a story kids want to follow all the way home. Website: spotlight4success.com

Spotlight 4 Success | "A Twitter Pitch Turns Into A Book Deal" | NCASA 2026

4/1/2026

A children’s picture book can start in a surprising place: a string quartet performing a concert for plants. From the NCRA conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we sit down with Tonnye Fletcher, a veteran educator who spent 17 years in second grade before making a big career shift into the K to 2 music room, and that pivot becomes the spark for a deeper conversation about creative risk and staying open to change. Website: spotlight4success.com

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