Beyond the Bell
A college-and-career counseling podcast designed to provide students with tools and tips to look beyond the bell of their high schools into their futures (be it, college, careers, trade schools, or gap years) where bells do not exist. Beyond the Bell is hosted by Evelyn Lauer, who has worked in education for nearly 25 years, serving primarily as a high school English teacher, but also assuming roles as an instructional coach, college writing instructor, workshop leader, and journalism/media advisor. Lauer is also currently a graduate student at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago where she is studying school counseling. She is a mother to two sons, who are in 10th and 7th grade. She also serves on the board of Friends of Amundsen High School. Topics discussed will include: college admissions, college essays, trade schools, gap years, finding one’s passions and future careers.
Lauer's work has been published in The Huffington Post, Education Week, The English Journal, Sentence, and elsewhere. She served as the PR/Publications director for the Journalism Education Association for six years and is currently serving that organization as a mentor teacher. BTB was highlighted in the New York Times Education Briefing during the pandemic. Episodes from 2020-2022 are about teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. They include interviews with educators from across the United States about their experiences teaching remote, hybrid, and in-person during the pandemic.
Beyond the Bell
Cheryl Nesbitt
World languages teacher Cheryl Nesbitt and host Evelyn Lauer discuss the complicated space of hybrid learning, including the challenges of breakout rooms and the magic of face-to-face interaction.
Nesbitt has been teaching for more than 30 years in various contexts, both domestically and overseas in Japan. She taught at private schools, but returned to college in 2014 to complete her credentials and has been teaching public school since 2016. Currently, she works at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California, teaching Japanese 1 and 2, and Spanish 1.
She has always loved school, as a student and as a teacher. She particularly loves teaching world languages, but has also taught English language and literature, ESL, and home educated her own children for a time as well. You can follow Cheryl on Twitter @teachernesbitt.
You can follow host Evelyn Lauer on Twitter @evelynalauer