Teachers Like Us

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Teacher talk with receipts and fatigue.

The gist

Teachers Like Us turns late-night teacher check-ins into practical, funny, often weary conversations about the education system. Alyssa and Andre move between personal survival, school politics, student needs, and the contradictions teachers face inside urban schools.

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About Teachers Like Us

Teachers Like Us treats teaching as lived work, not a slogan. Alyssa and Andre talk from inside the pressure. Their recent episodes carry the rhythms of late-night recordings, mental health checks, teasing, missed schedules, family illness, job changes, and the exhaustion that follows educators home. The looseness is part of the point. Behind the jokes sits a steady concern for what school systems ask of teachers and what students need from adults who may already be in fight-or-flight mode. The show is especially strong when it connects personal stories to structural problems. A conversation about applying for the same position becomes a sharper discussion of friendship, competition, proximity, and professional survival. A reflection on being still fired turns into a look at itinerant roles, inclusion supports, documents, school leadership, and the strange security or insecurity of education work. Episodes about people still wanting to be teachers take the profession seriously without romanticizing it. The hosts talk about practicum experiences, social media, news coverage, workplace violence, strikes, restraints on what educators can say, and why some aspiring teachers change direction. They also return to the emotional mechanics of the job. Depression shows up as exhaustion. Joy has to be found on purpose. A snowstorm can become a staffing anxiety. Police in schools, ministry language about the Black community, picket lines, social media boundaries, and teacher visibility all land as practical questions rather than distant headlines. The tone is funny, blunt, and relational. It is not polished policy theater. It is closer to a staffroom conversation with enough trust to say the complicated part out loud, then laugh before the next hard point arrives. For listeners interested in urban education, equity, teacher burnout, and the daily tradeoffs of school life, Teachers Like Us offers a grounded view from people still close to the classroom.

Made for: For educators, school leaders, education students, and policy-curious listeners who want candid classroom-adjacent conversation grounded in urban school experience. It especially suits people interested in equity, burnout, labor, and teacher culture.

What sets it apart: Its edge comes from the friendship on mic: jokes, interruptions, mental health check-ins, and practical school-system critique arrive in the same breath. The result feels closer to trusted colleagues comparing notes than a formal education roundtable.

In their own words

What does it mean to be educated for today's modern learner? With the rise in technology, is education a dying field? Are teachers necessary?Join middle school teachers Alyssa and Andre as they explore the ins and outs of today's education system through the lens of equity and social justice. Each episode will explore relevant topics in education from the perspective of two black teachers in an urban school setting.

Why you'd press play

Alyssa and Andre make you wonder if your work bestie would survive the same job posting.

Press play if you want

  • an exhausted teacher's fight-or-flight moment to sharpen your empathy for students who cannot take in a lesson
  • the friendship test of applying for the same school position as a close colleague
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
teacher burnoutmental health check-insurban school systemsequity and social justiceteacher hiring and job changesstudent struggle and readinessstrikes and labor actionsocial media and teacher visibility

Talks about

Best episodes of Teachers Like Us

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

The Tipping PointJun 14, 2024

A candid episode about stress, school perspective, and what moving between classrooms can reveal about better practice.

Teachers Like Us frames learning first as a question of capacity, then as a question of practice. Alyssa's account of trying to listen while caught in fight-or-flight gives the episode its clearest tension, and Andre's movement between school environments opens that tension…

It's Interview Time!Feb 21, 2024

A candid look at teacher friendship under job competition.

Teachers Like Us frames a staffing shift as a quiet stress test for professional friendship. Alyssa and co-host Andre talk through what happens when colleagues who have depended on each other in education start eyeing the same roles, and whether support can hold when closeness…

Podcasts like Teachers Like Us

Episodes

  1. 1

    Be Prepared

    Jun 21, 2024·36m
  2. 2

    The Tipping Point

    Hidden gem

    ["Alyssa opens Teachers Like Us by saying she is in fight or flight and cannot learn what Andre says, which sets up the episode's focus on the tipping point.", "She and Andre compare burnout, tipping point stress, and the load of dance season, family obligations, a comprehensive exam, and school work that stretches from emails to hallway check-ins.", "The conversation then moves to school climate, community circles, a wellness day at a high school, and the idea that an ethic of care shows up in how staff respond when students melt down.", "The practical advice lands on BSA and other affinity spaces: recruit influential students, use food and a trip to get bodies in the room, and let students lead the group."]

    Jun 14, 2024·43m·3 clips
  3. 3

    WE WERKIN'!

    Apr 10, 2024·1h 1m
  4. 4

    When Did I Turn into a Dance Mom?

    Mar 13, 2024·42m
  5. 5

    Rejected

    Mar 6, 2024·31m
  6. 6

    It's Interview Time!

    Hidden gem

    Alyssa and Andre describe applying for central-board positions while existing roles are being changed, combined, or eliminated, with hiring expected within two weeks.

    Feb 21, 2024·37m·2 clips
  7. 7

    Still Fired!

    Mandatory Black history could fail if teachers reduce it to enslavement and a single February assignment.

    Feb 14, 2024·37m·2 clips
  8. 8

    We Got Fired!

    Feb 7, 2024·39m
  9. 9

    Do People Still Want To Be Teachers?

    Alyssa and Andre compare teaching's former schedule appeal with remote work's newer flexibility.

    Jan 17, 2024·41m·2 clips
  10. 10

    The Break Is Here!

    Dec 22, 2023·40m
  11. 11

    Kids Don't Need Smartphones

    Dec 8, 2023·46m
  12. 12

    Those Who Can't Do, Teach.

    Nov 1, 2023·34m
  13. 13

    The Double Disrespect!

    Oct 18, 2023·32m
  14. 14

    Teachers are Getting Doxxed?!

    Oct 11, 2023·38m
  15. 15

    High School Teachers are Boujee

    Oct 4, 2023·47m
  16. 16

    Trendy Teachers vs. One School for Life Teachers

    Two middle school teachers discuss their experiences in urban education, including a mental health check and a new job transition.

    Sep 27, 2023·42m
  17. 17

    Some Schools Are Trash!

    Sep 20, 2023·51m
  18. 18

    We Did It!

    Jun 29, 2023·43m
  19. 19

    Reboot The System

    Jun 22, 2023·39m
  20. 20

    Scream Inside Your Heart

    Hidden gem

    Teachers Like Us examines why teachers and students are struggling amid school-board crisis reports, classroom conflict, and low morale.

    Jun 14, 2023·30m·2 clips
  21. 21

    Yes, We Have Favourites

    May 25, 2023·32m
  22. 22

    Connections Over Consequences

    May 12, 2023·35m
  23. 23

    Don't Underestimate the Power of a Good Teacher

    May 5, 2023·39m
  24. 24

    The Value of Education

    Apr 28, 2023·37m
  25. 25

    The Pendulum of Change

    Apr 20, 2023·49m
  26. 26

    Actions of a Queen

    Apr 13, 2023·33m
  27. 27

    The Balancing Act of Teaching

    Mar 30, 2023·35m
  28. 28

    The Kids Are Not Alright

    Mar 22, 2023·40m
  29. 29

    Equity For Bunnies

    Mar 16, 2023·42m
  30. 30

    Who is Behind the Curtain?

    Mar 10, 2023·41m
  31. 31

    One Week Down

    Feb 23, 2023·35m
  32. 32

    I Don't Make New Friends

    Feb 16, 2023·45m
  33. 33

    Black History Month 101

    Feb 8, 2023·34m
  34. 34

    Keep Your Friends Close (and your Besties closer!)

    Jan 27, 2023·33m
  35. 35

    Topical Climates and School Climate

    Jan 11, 2023·35m
  36. 36

    Winter Break is Here!

    Dec 23, 2022·33m
  37. 37

    Find the Joy

    Two middle school teachers discuss their experiences in urban education, focusing on equity and social justice, while sharing personal anecdotes and a mental health check-in.

    Dec 15, 2022·34m
  38. 38

    Police Back in School

    Two middle school teachers discuss their week, mental health, and a sick child, setting up their podcast about education and equity.

    Dec 7, 2022·29m
  39. 39

    The Gang is Back...For Now?!

    Nov 30, 2022·35m
  40. 40

    Technology is Ruining Childhood

    Oct 21, 2022·32m
  41. 41

    Communication is Key

    Oct 14, 2022·40m
  42. 42

    Whistles and Picket Signs

    Two middle school teachers discuss mental health challenges and the exhaustion of teaching, framing it within broader issues of equity and social justice.

    Oct 6, 2022·33m
  43. 43

    The Impossibility of Being a Working Parent

    Sep 29, 2022·34m
  44. 44

    The Stuff of Fairytale

    Two black middle school teachers discuss the education system through a lens of equity and social justice, starting with a mental health check-in.

    Sep 22, 2022·34m
  45. 45

    The Kids are Back!

    Sep 15, 2022·36m
  46. 46

    Mental Health Check!

    Sep 6, 2022·34m
  47. 47

    I Put This Shoulder Up, I Put This Shoulder Up, Then I Drop 'Em

    Two middle school teachers reflect on the end of the school year and their students' graduation.

    Jun 30, 2022·23m
  48. 48

    Awards Are Off The Table

    Jun 23, 2022·31m
  49. 49

    The Fickle House Plant

    Jun 16, 2022·38m
  50. 50

    Are you Valued?

    Two middle school teachers discuss their mental health and feelings of being undervalued at work, touching on broader issues of equity and appreciation in education.

    Jun 9, 2022·36m