EPISODES & TRANSCRIPTIONS

Jamie and Joe discuss their personal experience with S.A.D or seasonal affective disorder and mental health issues that arise in the winter months and how to combat them. Both long time teachers try to rely on their humorous levity to get through some tough times together. Join them to celebrate Joe’s big win in his 2025 fantasy  football league and look to the future for some sweet action.

Stand up and clap for the amazing New Jersey educator, Stefanie Lachenauer. Winner of the 2025 NJ State Teacher of the Year award, mindfulness expert, passionate published author of Let the Glitter Settle, and current middle school teacher Lachenauer joins the pod to share her wisdom, experience, and positive energy setting the bar way up high for the second half of season 3 guests.

For the first episode of 2026, our hosts will explore their podcasting year in review as they look back on all the highlights from the past year, like interviews with Nick Ferroni, Tyler Tarver, Noelle Santorelli, Mo Lapus, Courtney Varner and Courtney White. Listen for their 2026 word of the year and how choosing intention can set up the year for success.

Join our hosts as they talk all things executive functioning with Dr. Lethco, an expert in the field. She shares research and daily applications of researched tools that can improve executive functioning for neurodivergent individuals and so many others who are just trying to make their way through the daily chore of existing.

Joe and Jamie talk about the current holiday season and all the trimmings to boot! Listen as they talk about what it means to teach during this hyper-busy season and how much stress can come your way in and out of the classroom. These two veteran educators discuss their tips on holiday greetings and successfully making it through as a teacher in December.

Hosts Joe and Jamie hit the road all the way to Atlantic City, New Jersey to the 2025 New Jersey Educators Association Convention. Speakers, teachers, leaders, companies and the one and only Malala Yousafzai were highlights of this year's NJEA convention and Joe and Jamie were there to cover all of it. Listen as they speak to County Teachers of the Year winners, former NJ Teachers of the Year and so many other enthusiastic educators like themselves.

Leaning into the gratitude of the season, our hosts play a fun game of Thanksgiving: Would you Rather.  The hilarity of that is just a twist and turn onto the street of the newest learning challenge for teachers everywhere: learned helplessness in students.

Listen as our hosts speak to four day school work week teacher Courtney White. Straight from the Dallas Fort Worth area of Texas, teacher sensation Courtney White shares all the benefits and positive outcomes she has encountered in her four day work week school district as a teacher and as a parent.

Join Joe and Jamie as they talk about parenting high school seniors through the steps of visiting, applying, waiting and stressing. When our hosts went to college way back in the 1900’s paper and pen was the only option, but now there are codes and apps and portals too.  Listen as they update their collective journeys to graduation, 2026.

Joe and Jamie talk to NJ Teacher of the Year, Joe Nappi. Between these three teachers they have nearly 70 years of collective teaching experience. Tune in to their “shop talk” about the changes in education and their up to the minute response to those changes. Mr. Nappi has an incredible back story that will inspire all with his impact and influence on the students and colleagues that have the pleasure to hear his journey to being the 2023-2024 New Jersey Teacher of the Year.

Let’s celebrate this very special time of year, especially one for all of the teachers, Halloween. We are posing the question to the teacher, what is your Teacher Haunted House? Kids bring the extra energy, the trick and the treats and all the excitement that comes along with Halloween season.

Sit down and listen to Kristen, aka social media influencer @teacherpaywithK as she informs  and updates hosts Joseph and Jamie about hot education topics like pension reform, the NJ Gubernatorial Race, and more pressing issues facing teachers across the country.

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Life coach,  author, app creator, Club Creator, Kelsey Sorenson is flooding the conversation with hope, tools, smiles, stickers and all the brilliant things each teacher needs to not only be able to educate, but also remember to rejuvenate. Her monthly themes and teacher tips are brilliant as community builders for teachers new and seasoned alike.

Our hosts Jamie and Joe have a real hot take on the latest news out of their neighboring state of Pennsylvania, with the announcement that student teachers will be paid, leading to incentivizing teaching in the great state of Pennsylvania. Practicing in this career for over two decades, Jamie and Joe are all over this hot topic and the future of tomorrow’s teachers.

Our hosts Joe and Jamie both have Class of 2026 seniors this year, so they are all ears for any pieces of information on how to aid in the process of college acceptance and decision making, and college counselor Jen Foldvary has so much to share.

Opening the school year can be a challenge even for the most seasoned teachers. Join our hosts as they discuss social media, handling daily schedule changes, classroom decorating, and interacting with their students each day.

Professor, comedian, mom and friend of the pod Educator Andrea is here to give us some top secret information into her new book, her comedy tour, and what it is like for her to balance her many professional responsibilities, as well as being a wife and a mom. No one can make us laugh quite like @educatorandrea and you will too.

Join our hosts as they recap their summers and share with us all the sunny weather and rain filled storms they had to endure over the past two months while on summer hiatus. Big plans are in the works for season three, so grab a cup of coffee and join us for a welcome to the new school year, summer catch up session.

Join Joe and Jamie as they review and reminisce on Season 2 episodes of the Balancing Act Podcast. They will reveal their top three moments of the season, guests that left a lasting impression, and all the ways they plan to continue this journey in September with Season 3 of the podcast that has helped them to help others like you.

One session with doctor Noelle Santorelli was simply not enough, we needed a part II. Join our hosts Joe and Jamie as they talk to Dr. Noelle Santorelli about her research and work into the topic of relational aggression, and what it means for parenting styles, relationships, and systems within families and schools as people earnestly try to navigate this new way of dealing with everyday stressors that include comparisons through technology and social media.

Join our hosts Joe and Jamie as they talk to Dr. Noelle Santorelli about her research and work into the topic of relational aggression, and what it means for parenting styles, relationships, and systems within families and schools as people earnestly try to navigate this new way of dealing with everyday stressors that include comparisons through technology and social media.

Teachers in this country are perpetually exhausted. But why?? Join our veteran host teachers with over 50 years of teaching experience between them to explore the reasons behind why teachers are so tired. Both in and out of the classroom, teachers are more tired than ever, but why? Our hosts have some strong opinions about the reasons behind this.

Is this a tech “eat” tech world? Just how much tech is too much?Listen to our hosts discuss Ed Tech, social media and cell phones in schools, with Common Sense Media’s voice of reason, Merve Lapus. Lapus has a next level approach to how to parent and teach using tech, and some strong words of advice on how to guide teens through the tech heavy world we all share.