Teach Middle East Podcast
Welcome to the Teach Middle East Podcast, the ultimate audio hub where educators find inspiration, share innovative ideas, and grow together! Brought to you by Moftah Publishing—the minds behind the premier Teach Middle East Magazine—this podcast is your gateway to the latest research-based practices, cutting-edge classroom strategies, and the heartwarming stories of educators from the Middle East and around the globe.
As the only podcast that interviews school leaders from across the Middle East and beyond, we offer unparalleled insights into the challenges and successes that shape educational landscapes in diverse settings. Join us as we dive deep into the fascinating world of education, where every episode promises a treasure trove of insights designed to connect, develop, and empower the brilliant minds shaping our future. Whether you’re seeking fresh perspectives, practical tips, or a dose of inspiration, the Teach Middle East Podcast is your must-listen resource. Tune in and transform the way you teach!
Teach Middle East Podcast
Reflections on Growth and Resilience With Leisa Grace Wilson
In this reflective solo episode, Leisa Grace shares the remarkable journey of the Teach Middle East podcast since its launch in 2021. From hosting major educational conferences to creating a global platform for professional development, she explores how the podcast has grown into a vital resource for educators across the Middle East and beyond.
Leisa opens up about her personal path, including her transition during COVID-19 and facing profound loss, while discussing the future of education in an AI-driven world. She shares insights on balancing motherhood with entrepreneurship and her vision for education in the UAE, where innovation meets tradition.
Teach Middle East Magazine is the premier platform for educators and the entire education sector in the Middle East and beyond. Our vision is to equip educators with the materials and tools they need, to function optimally in and out of the classroom. We provide a space for educators to connect and find inspiration, resources, and forums to enhance their teaching techniques, methodologies, and personal development. We connect education suppliers and service providers to the people who make the buying decisions in schools.
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Hosted by Leisa Grace Wilson
Connect with Leisa Grace:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/leisagrace
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leisagrace/
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast connecting, developing and empowering educators.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Teach Middle East podcast. My name is Lisa Grace and this is my first solo episode of the podcast. Now, it's crazy because I have been doing this podcast since 2021, so that's 2021, january and my first guest was Bill Turner. Shout out to Bill from Search Associates and we were talking back then about the challenges of, you know, recruiting in COVID. And since then the podcast has grown and grown and this is the first time I'm ever doing a solo episode.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of it feels strange and I feel a little bit nervous. So if you're watching this on YouTube, if I look a bit out of my depth or a little bit nervous, so if you're watching this on YouTube, if I look a bit out of my depth or a little bit unsure of myself, it's because I've never done this before. But sometimes you have to challenge yourself in order to grow, and that's what I'm doing. So I actually asked on LinkedIn for people to send me questions. I didn't get very many questions, which made me wonder guys, you don't want to know anything about me and about how we work here at Teach Middle East? I did get some, I think in total I got about eight or nine questions, but five of which was from one person. So I'm going to try and do my best to answer as many of them as much as possible, but I want to say a big thank you to everybody who has listened to this podcast. You know, it still amazes me that after starting something with my team that we weren't sure how it's going to go. It has grown. We've had tens of thousands of listeners from all across the globe, of thousands of listeners from all across the globe. I have gone to places and people have said I listen to your podcast and, like it still surprises me, it still amazes me that that happens. And what else is so cool is that I call sometimes to different places, different schools, and people go. I know your voice and I'm going, oh, and they go. Oh, yeah, you are the lady from the Teach Middle East podcast. And it is unreal to me because I sit in my little office and I interview some of the best people, the kindest people, the brightest people in education, and I'm just asking the questions. I'm here just simply remaining curious, wanting to learn, wanting to be better, wanting to grow, and I get the immense opportunity of asking questions of some of the brightest people that I know, and so when people recognize me for doing that, I get a little bit surprised, and I'm not it's not like you know the stupid humble brag like I genuinely get surprised because, let's face it, guys, it's only me. I'm Lisa, I'm a teacher in my head. That's what I am, that's what I do, and so it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:I want to say a special thank you to every guest that's ever been on the podcast since we started in 2021. It's been more than 120 episodes, so it's definitely difficult for me to name them all, so I just want to thank all of them, because every one of them brought something special. Every one of them brought something special. Every one of them brought something unique. Every one of them gave of themselves and of their time, so freely and so genuinely, and it is such a privilege. It's such a privilege.
Speaker 2:Now, the plans going forward for the podcast is that we continue to unearth some of the greatest minds and talents in education and bring them to the fore. Speak to them, give them a platform, help us learn from them each and every one of us. Put them in our AirPods, put them in our car stereo, put them on our YouTube, make it widely available to everyone. I think podcasts are just fantastic for learning and for professional development and if you are listening to this, please share the podcast. If you're listening to this and you know colleagues in your school they don't know about the podcast or they don't listen to podcasts as professional development. Please can I ask, nicely, pretty please. My sons always say, mommy, pretty please with sprinkles. Yeah, pretty please with sprinkles. That you share the podcast. Go back in the back catalog, look at the episodes that resonate with you, listen to them and share them. Okay, enough begging for the day, right.
Speaker 2:So I took some time to look back at my 2024 and it has been a year of mixed fortunes, mixed emotions. It was just ups and downs, highs and lows, and the highs were high and the lows were deeply low. So I don't plan my year based on the boring calendar, because we work according to the academic year, so this is not a natural end of year for us. Our natural end of year is actually in July. But since January of 2024, we have seen some fantastic growth in our community, here at Teach Middle East, in the work that we're doing, in our events.
Speaker 2:We started the year with the Middle East School Leadership Conference and that was in February. We carried on throughout the year with different webinars and seminars and things online, and then we also led the Middle East Teaching and Learning Conference and the Welcome Reception, which was such a fabulous event, which then led into STEM MENA. Thank you, listen. Stem MENA pause for the cause, people. Stem MENA is the best and I know I do catalog of events with our team and we love them all and they're all fantastic. But STEM teachers are great and that's just the truth. So STEM Mina was fabulous.
Speaker 2:We had it at the Expo City, at Terra Pavilion. Thank you to Dean Riley and the team there at Expo. And then we held the inaugural Middle East Language and Literacy Conference and, oh my God, how good was that event Like. We unearthed some gems at that event Gems, I'm telling you. Thank you to everybody who took part in that. That was great and I really look forward to seeing how the Middle East Language and Literacy Conference, affectionately known as MELLC, I look forward to seeing how that is going to grow and develop.
Speaker 2:You know, it's one thing to have an idea in your head, but it's a whole other thing to put that idea into the world, to give birth to it, as they say, and the M-E-L-L-C idea has been in our heads here at Teach Middle East for five years easily, and we never. We just couldn't find the right mix of venue and sponsors and all that. It takes all the good ingredients it takes to make an event fantastic until this year, and it was really really worth the wait. So looking forward to planning that in 2025 with all of our literacy and language educators across the region. And then we had this crazy brain idea of launching the AI in Education Summit. Now, I have to fess up, that was one of those crazy midnight thoughts Well, more like 3 am thoughts. I don't know if you get those. You get those 3 am thoughts that keep you awake, that, like, you get it, you're awake and that's it for the night. You can't go back to sleep. So that's what happened with the AI and Education Summit, and now it's going to be a reality. So on April 24th and 25th, we are going to be hosting that in Dubai. 24th and 25th, we are going to be hosting that in Dubai. But before that, obviously the good one, the big one MESLC 2025 is going to be on February 5th and 6th.
Speaker 2:Now I don't want this whole episode to be an announcement of events, so I'm going to get right into the questions that have been asked. Please pardon me if you're watching this on YouTube. I'm going to have to read from my phone screen, because that's where the questions are, and then I will do my best to answer them as best as possible. Okay, so question from Zubia. So, zubia, I'm going to deal with as many of your questions. First, if you're listening to this, shout out to Zubia Ahmed, she's a good egg. She's a good egg. I like her.
Speaker 2:So the first one is what inspired your journey from teaching to international school leadership and eventually podcasting? How have these roles shaped your view of international education while in the Middle East? Okay, that's a very grown up question, zubia. Was that you or AI girl? So what inspired my move from teaching? So I taught for a while. I taught in England. I taught. Well, when I came here, I didn't come as a teacher, so I never taught students per se here. Here, I taught teachers do something else with my time and my talents, and it isn't that doing teaching the students was a bad thing, or it's just that I felt like I wanted to do something else. Now here's my thing.
Speaker 2:There is I don't know if it's a stigma or if it's just a belief that when you go into teaching and you start teaching students, you should stay there forever, and I do not believe that. And you start teaching students, you should stay there forever, and I do not believe that. I believe that we should do our call of duty. You know how the army. You go in and you are in the army for a while, and then you can come out of the army and you can do something else. Not that teaching is like being a soldier although there are times, people, there are times. However, I think you give it your best when you have the best in you, and when you feel that that's decreasing or you feel like you could do something else, I think you should. I think you shouldn't stay if you are burnt out, if you are tired, because you're not giving your best to the students. And I got to that point where I wasn't giving my best to the students anymore, and so I thought it was a good time to find something else to do.
Speaker 2:Now. I will never leave education. You heard me I won't leave education. Education might leave me, but I won't leave it, and so I didn't want to go and retrain to do something else, I wanted to stay in education. Luckily for me, I got recruited to come to the Middle East as an advisor with North Anglia Education, so that kind of segued me out of the classroom. But still in education and still working in schools, and I was based in Al Ain and I loved it, and there's a whole long history of how I went back into schools after being an advisor to going back into school leadership and leading as an academic principal for Al Shaheen School. So I did that as well. So it's not as if when you leave the school or the classroom, you have to stay permanently out. You can recharge, do something else, learn some new skills and then go right back in the classroom or go right back into school or school leadership. There is no rule that says that you have to start in the classroom and stay there for 30, 40 years. If that is not what resonates with you Now, if that's what resonates with you, go ahead and do it Now.
Speaker 2:How did I get into podcasting and doing what I do? I love to write. I've always been a writer. I've written since forever. I used to walk around when I was a child, my mom told me that I used to walk around with a book. I was either always reading or I was always writing something in little exercise books, little poems, little something. And I grew up in the church so I'm taking you all the way back deep right. And so every Christmas in our church we used to do something called the Christmas program, which is like where children go up and they give, you know, speeches or they say poems or they give what we call recitations, and so I used to write mine and I would have mine written and I would go up there's a little four or five year old girl and I would say my little thing and I would come down and people used to always say, did she actually write that? Because they always used to say that it sounded more well-written than what a child could produce. So I've always had that writing bug or that thing. And so when I started teaching I would always write articles etc. And so when I started teaching I would always write articles etc.
Speaker 2:When I came here I always wrote for Teach Middle East Before I became the editor I was just a writer and for all the original people with Teach Middle East who knew the former editor, people like Chassie Selawane, all those guys they know the former editor. I took over editing full time, obviously, in 2018. And I think it was just a gradual progression. Now, how did I get into podcasting, covid? Covid got me into podcasting because we were at home, no way to have events, no way to reach out to our community. So we started the Teach Middle East podcast and, like I told you at the beginning of the podcast, it has just grown and grown, ok, guys.
Speaker 2:So question number two what do you think are the biggest opportunities for educators and school leaders right now and how can they make the most of these to empower their students oh, I told you these were big questions, zubia. To empower their students. Ooh, I told you, these were big questions, zubia. So I think biggest opportunity right now is for leaders and well, school leaders and teachers to actually step away from being didactic and being more facilitators and guides for students. I think, with the AI revolution, I think a lot of the content that we normally drill and teach is no longer necessary, because the content is available so freely to everybody online and there are AI tutors and all sorts of things happening. So now it's a time when I think school leaders and teachers can become more of guides and facilitators, and I think also when everybody's rushing towards AI and automation, it's time for teachers and school leaders to teach our students, to tap more into their human selves, what makes them better human beings, Teaching them the skills of empathy, creativity and all of those skills that will help them to become better human beings. So there are loads of opportunities for us to really. I mean, we've always talked about how heavy the content is and how carrying that content load as educators is very difficult. Well, now AI has given us the opportunity to really tap into being facilitators, because that information that we normally would have to cram is no longer necessary, since students can access that online. I don't know what everybody else thinks, but I'd love some more answers to this question from more learned folks online. Ooh, ooh, I love this question.
Speaker 2:It says what's one thing you didn't learn in schools that completely changed how you see the world. That's a good question. So the one thing I didn't learn in school was about the compound effect. Now I read this book, I think maybe seven, eight, nine years ago by Darren Hardy, called the Compound Effect, and I think that book should be a must read for every student Now. That book is about the nature of how things build and grow little by little, incrementally, and we always talk about incremental gains. But the compound effect is a fantastic thing and I learned that both for life in terms of the work that I do, how little steps amount to big change over time. But I also learned that in every aspect of my life, whether it's how I raise my kids, how I navigate my marriage, how I navigate my finances. It's all about small steps that compound over time. I think, a lot of things. Now people want it to be done fast and quick, but the compound effect, I think, is one of the greatest things. It's one of the most effective ways of building a life, making little steps towards your goals every single day, because eventually, when you look behind you, you would have reached so much further with those tiny steps that you take, instead of waiting for that big push. No, make little changes every day. So the compound effect, I think, has completely changed the way I think about life and things in general.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is a good one, zubia, and the last one I'm going to answer from you, but this one, I think, I really want to answer it. It says what's your message for anyone going through some tough stuff at the moment? Hmm, so, as you know, I went through as you know or you might not know, actually that this year I lost my brother and I spoke about it in my newsletter. But I kind of spoke about it in a way that only if you really read my newsletter line by line would you have seen where I have mentioned it. As we know, in this fast moving age, many people do not read in detail and that's unfortunate.
Speaker 2:But I lost my brother in June, on June 3rd to be exact, and it plunged me into grief, anxiety, depression, I don't know what. I didn't have Like my whole world spun. It was hard and the reason it was so hard is because my brother was my best friend. Like he was the person I would call. And I'm not going to tear up, I'm just going to power through this. He was the person I would call. I'm just going to power through this.
Speaker 2:He was the person I would call to tell everything. And I don't know if you have somebody like that in your life where I would call him to tell him stupid thing. Like I went to the shop. I was supposed to spend a hundred dirhams, I spent 200 and he would be like what's wrong with you, man? And I would be like I bought this thing and this thing is like you're not even going to use it, is it? And like just the stupidest thing. Or I would call him. I'd be like guess where I'm traveling to? And he didn't travel much. He didn't travel at all, to be honest, and he would marvel at the places I've seen in the world and I would educate him and he would make jokes and we would have fun and we would talk about life and my kids and his kids and we would talk about holidays. He made my holidays fun when I went to see him and we would just have fun and he loved my husband and my husband loved him. I lost all of that in like that. He had a stroke and he was gone. He was gone and it made me I don't know. It took the breath out of me and it also made me realize the fragility of life and it made me respect life a lot more.
Speaker 2:And for anyone going through a tough time, I would say go through it with the hope that things will look better on the other side, but also go through it with the eyes of someone searching for the lesson. What should I learn from this? What should I gain? And I know that's hard and I don't want to come off philosophical and I don't want to come off fake like, oh, I just go, I just went through it and found the lesson. That's rubbish. Like I was just crying, I was a mess. I was a mess, but at a certain point I started to say where, where do I go from here? How do I live now without having him? What's my next move? And those questions. I became more clear on the answers.
Speaker 2:Now here's something else, and you know I respect everyone's beliefs. I understand that we're not all going to follow the same beliefs, but I'm a Christian and my prayer, life and my walk with God that's what really helped me. And my family rallied around me, and my sons and my husband and my friends. They never left me, like my community. Even people on LinkedIn who read my newsletter texted me. Those things meant everything. So if you're going through a tough time, reach out. Hold the people that you have closest to you dear. Turn to them for help. Don't try to do it alone. Don't try to be a hero. Just take the help, and that's what I would say. All right, so that's it for Zubia's questions.
Speaker 2:Now I go into some that I got in my inbox. It says you were recently involved in the Women in Education Leadership Network event. What do you believe are some of the most effective ways in promoting gender equity in the field? Mmm, nice question Right Now. To promote gender equity really is down to the structures being dismantled. It really is about recognizing talent and kind of, dare I say, dismantling the boys club. Now, men and women thrive when there's equity, and I know that sounds, you know, all hair fairy, but it is true, we all thrive when there is equity. And so for this to happen, then we're going to have to start being intentional. How are we recruiting? How are we shortlisting? Who is making those decisions? Why are certain decisions being made? We have to start questioning these things, because there is no other way of changing a system than dismantling it and building it again from the ground up, and that's how I think we will start to get some equity. It is strange some of the statistics that come out, because it talks about over 80% of the workforce being female, but then, once you start going into the leadership realm, as in middle and senior leadership, the number of women at the top starts to really decrease, and so you find that it's less than 40% of those top positions are being held by women. Now that has to be something that sparks some kind of attention, because how is that possible? Are we not getting the right mentorship? Are we not getting the right opportunities as women? And then, when we start to talk about equity, we can't do it just on a gender. We have to talk about inclusion of all, talking about race, talking about neurodiversity. All of that has to come into play, can't just be for some and not for all, because the whole system benefits when we include everyone. That's how I think we ought to be able to do it.
Speaker 2:This is from one of my Roundup readers. She says you curate the latest news and trends in your newsletter. What emerging trends do you find most promising for the future of education in the Middle East? Oh, there's a lot, I know. You know I'm going to talk about AI because I am fascinated by it. But AI, yes, I think that it's going to be the biggest disruptor of any disruptions that we have seen, and I don't know how it's going to happen, and I don't, you know, purport to be some kind of AI expert or anything, but I can see it. Guys, like my little spectacles, my little glasses, are seeing it. It's coming and it's going to disrupt and I think middle-east schools are doing great at going ahead of it and trying to see how they can harness it. So I'm hopeful for our region, but I also know that globally, different schools are doing different things and we have the summit coming up where we're going to bring people together to discuss this. I also think, for this region, and especially the UAE, the ambition of the leadership and what they want to do with education, with their different strategies and action plans, makes for really hopeful reading. And I think, when you think about what we have here as a strength, we have a really dense population of international schools per capita and the will to change and the ability to do some fascinating things. So I'm really excited about what the future holds for education in this region. I've been here in the Middle East well in the UAE particularly for the past 14 years, and I'm just watching it grow and develop from strength to strength and I'm hopeful, for as long as I'm allowed to be here. I'm really excited to see where it all goes. Okay, guys.
Speaker 2:So my final question comes in, and it says balancing. Final question comes in, and it says balancing how do you balance the role of being a mother, an educator, an entrepreneur? What advice would you offer to others striving to achieve a similar balance? You ready for some honest talk? Put your earphones in. I am not balancing. I am not balancing, guys. I will not lie to you. I told you I want to be as truthful on my platforms as possible. I'm not balancing. Let me give you an idea.
Speaker 2:When we have team meetings and stuff, there are times when I work until 2 am. So I work in the morning, then I take a break. When my kids come home, then I'm with them, then I do dinner, then I do bedtime, you know, might do homework, then bedtime, etc. And then, once I have dinner with my husband and he goes off on his work he is an accountant, so he's quite busy Once that is done, I'm back in my office, from sometimes nine till midnight, sometimes till one, sometimes till two.
Speaker 2:I'm not really balancing, and it is difficult. The one thing I have to say, though, is I don't feel burnt out, I don't feel tired. I feel tired, but I don't feel tired to the point of giving up. And the reason is I enjoy every single thing that I'm doing. I really, really love it. It's not easy. I do complain about, oh I'm tired or I'm this or I'm that, but I enjoy it so much.
Speaker 2:But there are things that I've put in place and guardrails that I've put in place. First of all, I make sure I work out five days a week. I know the muscles don't show it, but they're there. I do try to eat well. So I eat very balanced. I eat very nutritious food. I'm very particular with what I eat and I do try to get some rest. Yes, I know I stay up late, but I might start my mornings a little bit later if that's the case, and I try to get six to eight hours of sleep every day. And I also try to keep myself hydrated and I try to keep my spiritual life in check, my prayer life in check, because you can't find balance. Anyone who says to you oh I'm able to do everything neatly, please send them my way. I really want to learn from them.
Speaker 2:I do make sure I take holidays. In the summer I travel with my family quite a lot. I love to travel, so that's something that we do in the winter, like this winter break. This is the last episode of this term, which therefore means for the next two weeks or so, I will not be online as much. I will schedule all my posts on LinkedIn, so there will be a post every day, but I won't be at the keyboard, I won't be on my phone. For most of the time I'll be either by the beach or cooking or entertaining friends or going out or going to go see a concert or something. So I do make time for fun. I love to dance, I love to sing, I love to have a good time, like everybody else.
Speaker 2:But it is not always like that and I feel like I don't want to mislead anyone to think I have the perfect balance to life. No, there are times when I work like a slave, like I work and work and work. When there are events, we have a small team, we're not a big team, and so when there are events, we work nonstop. So I think one of the key things I would say to anybody who's looking for balance is just try to do things you enjoy as much as possible. There is. The only balance I would say there is. That you have to create is a balance between what you enjoy and what makes you money so that you can pay your bills. If you can find that nice equilibrium with doing what you enjoy and also being able to take care of your financial obligation, then that's a sweet spot, and that doesn't mean entrepreneurship, it could mean your career, it could mean your job. So again, I appeal to anyone who's got that balance right Holler at your girl. She wants to know how you did it.
Speaker 2:Well, guys, that's the end of this episode of the podcast. How did I do for my first solo episode? Give me some encouragement. Should I do more solo episodes? Do you have more questions for me that you would like me to answer? Please leave a comment wherever you listen to this podcast. I look forward to working with you in 2025. I'm looking forward to a great year. Have a fantastic winter break, god bless, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle East podcast. Visit our website teachmiddleeastcom and follow us on social media. The links are in the show notes.
