All Episodes

July 1, 2024 19 mins

Intro 

Jennifer Mercer, M.Ed Co-Founder of Learning Journeys Forum and she has been working with youth since she was 16 years old. She has spent the past 30 years developing and growing her skills in many different ways; as a classroom teacher, special education teacher, lead teacher, college instructor, tutor, Girl Scout leader, mentor, and group facilitator. Jennifer homeschooled her two daughters, experimenting with philosophies from “classical school-at-home” to radical Unschooling, to learner-centered co-designing.   

 

Jill Pearson-Keltner, M.Ed. Co-Founder of Learning Journeys Forum. She has taught students at each level from preschool through university and in impoverished to wealthy neighborhoods. She in taught in traditional programs and homeschooled her two children from kinder to 12th grade. She endeavors to dialogue with students and engage them in the creation of their own learning journey.  

 

In addition to the classes, workshops, and mentoring that she does through Learning Journeys Forum, Jennifer directs and facilitates middle school classes in The Home Learning Community at Innovations Academy. Jennifer strives to help learners capture and keep the "joy in learning" by supporting families in co‐design knowing that deep learning truly occurs when the student has an invested voice in the conversation. 

 

Top three takeaways 

  1. Your kids are brilliant! Let them have some power over their learning journeys 
  2. Learning Journeys Forum is focused on empowering learners by co-designing learning with their students.   
  3. Their Co-design process helps all learners access their classes in a way that works best for them.  

 

Call to Action 

Learning Journeys Forum Official Website  

 

 

What is Next! 

Thank you for supporting this show by listening and sharing with friends! If you like this podcast please rate and write a review of how this show has impacted or helped you!  

Great ratings will accelerate the show's visibility to the nation so others can learn more about homeschool and find quality curriculum and the potentially join the homeschool community thus change the face of education forever!!  

Who would have thought that we could change the education world with a click and a share! 

Also if you would like to hear more about any specific educational topic please email me at realedtalk@gmail.com I would love to support your families educational needs in all areas!!  

Bex Buzzie 

The Homeschool Advantage Podcast  

 

Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Burden

The Burden

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.