Bryan Stanton joins The Teacher’s Forum for a special Pride Month conversation about education, identity, advocacy, and belonging. An award-winning theater educator and founder of Teaching While Queer, Bryan reflects on his journey from being outed as a teenager to becoming a national voice for LGBTQ+ educators and students.

Bryan shares the experiences that shaped his commitment to creating inclusive schools, discusses the challenges facing queer educators in today's political climate, and explains how theater can help students develop empathy and a deeper understanding of others. David and Bryan also explore resilience, representation, student advocacy, and the importance of finding community in difficult times.

The episode concludes with a hopeful reflection on what today's students can teach us about authenticity, acceptance, and the future. This is a thoughtful and inspiring conversation about courage, education, and the power of being seen.

Topics discussed:
• Bryan's journey into education and theater
• Being outed as a teenager and finding community
• Challenges facing LGBTQ+ educators
• Theater, empathy, and student belonging
• Hope for the next generation

Send us a text with your thoughts or ideas, and follow and subscribe to The Teacher’s Forum so you don’t miss future episodes.

Join the Conversation:

• david@theteachersforum.org
• @theteachersforum.bsky.social
• X (formerly Twitter) @theforum1993

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Nick Makoha joins The Teacher’s Forum for a powerful conversation on poetry, exile, identity, and the transformative power of language. Born in Uganda and later settling in London, Makoha reflects on how displacement, memory, and the Black diasporic experience shaped both his life and his art.

Nick discusses why poetry remains one of the most vital forms of human expression and protest, particularly within Black communities around the world. He explores the spiritual nature of writing, the pressures many young people face to pursue conventional success over artistic passion, and the moment he chose authenticity over a corporate career he found unfulfilling.

David and Nick also discuss Makoha’s acclaimed collection The New Carthaginians, examining how mythology, history, and figures like Jean-Michel Basquiat can reimagine the Black experience beyond narratives of suffering alone. Together they explore Pan Africanism, the global Black diaspora, the “white gaze” in literature, and the role teachers play in helping students think critically and see language as a bridge toward deeper understanding.

This is a rich and thought provoking conversation about storytelling, liberation, education, and what it means to create art that speaks honestly to both pain and possibility.

Send us a text with your thoughts or ideas, and follow and subscribe to The Teacher’s Forum so you don’t miss future episodes.

Join the Conversation:

• david@theteachersforum.org
• @theteachersforum.bsky.social
• X (formerly Twitter) @theforum1993

Please subscribe, share and leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Help us amplify the voices and issues of K-12 educators all over the world.

Who is school really for? In this episode of The Teacher’s Forum, David sits down with Dr. Meisha Ross Porter, the first Black woman to serve as Chancellor of New York City Public Schools, to explore what it takes to lead for equity in a system that often resists change.

Drawing on her journey from Bronx youth organizer to leading the largest school district in the country, Dr. Porter shares how policy, power, and community shape what happens in schools. The conversation explores the realities of systemic inequity, the role of leadership in driving meaningful change, and how educators can rethink schools to better serve all students.

They also discuss the role of arts and mental health, the challenges of political shifts, and how emerging technologies like AI can support, rather than replace, teaching and learning.

Send us a text with your thoughts or ideas, and follow and subscribe to The Teacher’s Forum so you don’t miss future episodes.

Join the Conversation:

• david@theteachersforum.org
• @theteachersforum.bsky.social
• X (formerly Twitter) @theforum1993

Please subscribe, share and leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Help us amplify the voices and issues of K-12 educators all over the world.