
Teachers Passing Notes
Teachers Passing Notes is a podcast from Gen-Z Media created for educators and hosted by Donnie Piercey, a fifth grade teacher from Lexington, Kentucky and Alisa Cooper de Uribe, a first grade bilingual teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Each week, they bring on inspiring teachers to talk about some creative lessons, practices, and ideas that have been successful in their classrooms or schools.
TEACHERS PASSING NOTES SYNOPSIS
Teachers Passing Notes is a podcast from Gen-Z Media created for educators and hosted by Donnie Piercey, a fifth grade teacher from Lexington, Kentucky and Alisa Cooper de Uribe, a first grade bilingual teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Each week, they bring on inspiring teachers to talk about some creative lessons, practices, and ideas that have been successful in their classrooms or schools.
Regardless of the subject or grade level that you teach, tune in to discover some inspiring classroom ideas and discussion.
Donnie was the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, and Alisa was the 2021 New Mexico Teacher of the Year.
Level: For educators
Avg. Episode Length: 8-20 minutes
Themes: Classroom Ideas, Pedagogy, Resources

Teachers Passing Notes is a podcast from Gen-Z Media created for educators. Hosted by Donnie Piercey, a fifth grade teacher from Lexington, Kentucky (2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year), and GZM’s Education Ambassador and Alisa Cooper de Uribe, a first grade bilingual teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico and the 2021 New Mexico State Teacher of the Year.
Each week, they bring on inspiring educators to talk about some creative lessons, practices, and ideas that have been successful in their classrooms or schools.
Welcome to the first episode of Teachers Passing Notes: Gen-Z Media’s first podcast created for educators! Hosted by teachers Donnie Piercey and Alisa Cooper de Uribe, this is a show where we talk about all things education: from creative teaching strategies to deeper discussions about important topics.
John Arthur stops by on this first episode to talk about how a simple checklist helps his students enter the “Chill Zone”. If you don’t know John, he’s the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year and a 2021 National Teacher of the Year Finalist. He is in his 10th year of teaching at Meadowlark Elementary, a Title I school in Salt Lake City. He’s also a National Board Certified Teacher, a Utah Teacher Fellow with the Hope Street Group, and an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Education at Westminster College. We like Mr. Arthur.
If you’d like to connect with John and have any follow up questions about his ideas, you can find him on Twitter at @9thevermore
In our next episode, we’ll talk with John about how he helps his students advocate for themselves and their community through music.
If you like his “Workshop Checklist”, you can grab a copy of it here.
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For more great shows, visit GZMshows.com.
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Donnie Piercey is the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year and teaches fifth grade in Lexington, KY. Donnie specializes in using technology to promote student inquiry, learning, and engagement. Over the past sixteen years of teaching, these interests have given him the chance to represent his students around the world. Donnie was the recipient of a National Geographic Teacher Fellowship to Antarctica, and he also represented Kentucky on the inaugural Nat Geo Teacher Advisory Council. He is a North American lead for the Google Earth Education Experts Network, and was the first teacher in Kentucky to become both a Google Certified Innovator and a Google Certified Trainer. Donnie has been invited to keynote and present at schools in 33 states and on four continents.

Alisa Cooper de Uribe is a nine-year veteran, first grade Spanish immersion teacher who fosters international mindedness through multiple language learning. Alisa is the 2021 New Mexico Teacher of the Year. Growing up in New Mexico, she yearned to communicate in more than one language to honor the rich, multilingual traditions of her state. International travel, coupled with degrees in English and Spanish, opened the door to professional opportunities from opera to immigration. The connections among multilingualism, cultural responsiveness, and workplace excellence were poignantly evident, and when her daughter was born with dual citizenship, multilingual education became a personal and professional priority.