The 28-Year Educational Journey

From the bustling retail world to the vibrant classrooms of New Orleans and Alabama, Andre Hodges' 28-year educational journey reveals the remarkable impact of dedicated educators. Speaking from the Federal Programs Conference in Montgomery, this accomplished Educational Content Specialist shares the winding path that led her through roles as diverse as Algebra teacher, basketball coach, FBLA advisor, and ultimately to her current position with Montgomery Public Schools.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I'm Devin Pintozzi, your host.
We are here at the FederalPrograms Conference in sunny
Montgomery, Alabama.
We are here with our specialguest, Andre Hodges.
Andre Hodges is an educationalcontent specialist with the
Montgomery Public School System,so nice to see you today.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Andre, nice to meet you.
Glad to be here, wonderful.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Andre, can you tell us a little bit about what
you're doing here at the FederalPrograms Conference?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
today.
Yes, well, I'm here at ourannual Federal Programs
conference that we have everyyear for federal programs for
the state of Alabama, just tostay sharp and gain more
knowledge and new knowledge ofwhat we do every day for our
jobs, to help provideopportunities for students as
far as federal funds in theschools.

(01:00):
Montgomery Public Schools.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's great, and so can you tell us a little bit
about your journey, youreducational journey, to get to
this point?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh, wow.
So this has been a 28 yearjourney.
I started teaching as a secondprofession.
I started out in the businessworld in retail management and
went from there and moved to NewOrleans and became a teacher in
New Orleans, louisiana, where Iwas an Algebra 1 teacher and an

(01:32):
exploratory elective teacherfor eighth grade kids.
And then I went from there tocareer tech.
Well, it was a career highschool Shout out to Rob Wynn,
career Mat in high School in NewOrleans, no longer open since
Katrina.
But I was able to teachbusiness education courses and
went from there and I moved backto Alabama, my home state, and

(01:56):
taught at my home high school.
I was a basketball coach.
I was a volleyball coach.
I was a basketball coach.
I was a volleyball coach oh,look at that.
Fbla, future Business Leadersof America, shout out advisor.
And I also taught geometry andalgebra as well.
Wow.
So I did quite a bit of thingsand from there I moved back here

(02:17):
to Montgomery where I went toundergraduate school and I
taught here at Jeff Davis HighSchool, where I was a business
education teacher.
Okay, I was also a technologycoordinator and advanced into
broadcast media journalism,where I taught the JDTV class at

(02:38):
Jeff Davis High School and thenfrom there I got my
administrative break and becamean assistant principal here at
Bellingrath Middle School andafter that became a principal, a
career tech director, acurriculum director and now I'm
an education specialist forfederal programs.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Wow, that rounds out my 28-year journey.
Wow, thank you for your service.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's wonderful, Andre.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success.
I am Devin Pintosi, chiefOperating Officer of American
Book Company.
We are located here in ourheadquarters in Woodstock,
georgia.
All of our materials areprinted in USA.
We have course books, e-booksand online testing.

(03:24):
We have course books, e-booksand online testing in grades
K-12 in mathematics, ela,science and social studies.
These materials are alldesigned to help students
achieve higher scores on theirstate-specific high-stakes
assessments.
We guarantee score improvement.
You can get free samples of ourmaterials either in print or in

(03:48):
electronic formats atabck12.com.
We look forward to hearing fromyou.
Have you used American BookCompany products before?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yes, we have.
When I was assistant principalat Bellingrath Middle School, we
used your products there and itreally helped and worked with
our students.
We were working on trying tohelp students increase their
academic achievement and it wasable to kind of bridge that gap
for us to help pull up thoseacademic scores Wonderful.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
And did that work.
It worked, it worked.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
And we were able to use it as pullout during our
intervention period and advisoryperiods.
It also the students wereexcited about it because they
could monitor and see theirprogress, which was one of the
key aspects of the program.
And it was able, it was easyfor the teachers to implement
and it wasn't hard and you know,even with the computer platform

(04:47):
part of it that made it easy aswell.
It made it easy for the kidsbecause it wasn't so as they say
, it wasn't boring or lame, youknow, in the mind of a middle
schooler.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Oh yes, that's great.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's great to hear.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
I'm glad that worked well for you.
It did, it did.
Do you have anything else you'dlike to share with the federal
programs?

Speaker 2 (05:07):
community.
Just don't give up and rememberthat the kids are our main
focus and they need.
What we do daily, no matter howmuch paperwork or things that
we have to do, it's for a greatpurpose and it's for to inspire
and equip the next generation sothat they can take our place,

(05:29):
because we're getting old andit's time to go home for us in a
little while.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
You're only as old as you feel.
But yeah, you know, it's true.
Every job there's a legacy andit's wonderful to see that
legacy going forward foreducational success throughout
the years.
So that's wonderful to hearAndre Hodges once again.
She is with Montgomery PublicSchools and she is the Federal

(05:59):
programs educational specialist.
Thank you so much for joiningus today, Andreea.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Have a good one.