CAMDEN – Superintendent Maria Libby of Five Town CSD / MSAD 28 is hosting a new podcast series that shares informal conversations from within public education.
In ‘Super Story: Inside Education’ she and her guests — ranging from students to teachers, bus drivers to administrators — discuss what brought them to education, what their experience has meant to them, and where they think public education is going.
To date, two episodes of “Super Story: Inside Education” have been released. In the first, “Flipping the Tassel” Libby speaks with a graduating senior and discusses his evolution as a student and his thoughts on the past four years of his high school career. In “Who’s the Boss?” the Superintendent chats with the Assistant Principal of the Camden Rockport Elementary School, examining the balance of their personal friendship and professional careers, plus the unique insight provided by teaching in another country.
New episodes of the podcast are released every two weeks on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
“For a number of years, I have been thinking that podcasts are an effective medium to relay stories and have conversations where people can learn and hear interesting perspectives,” Libby said in a press release.” I feel it is important for educators to be the narrators of the stories being told about public education,” she said.
Libby notes the idea was partly inspired by the ‘Rethinking’ podcast, hosted by Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist. After toying with the idea for the past five years, she and the district’s Director of Information Technology, Colin Sutch, made it happen.
“Earlier this year, I read an education journal article about a superintendent in another state who was doing a podcast. I tore it out, brought it to work, showed it to Colin, and the rest is history,” she said.
The Five Town CSD and MSAD #28 are two integrally connected and innovative school districts that pride themselves on nurturing an incredible array of opportunities for their 1400 students, and a great working environment. The districts serve Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville, and Rockport.