In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie welcome Megan Zimdars to the show. Megan is in her 6th year teaching and is currently working with 4th graders at Boswell Elementary in Lebanon MO. Megan teaches Social Studies and ELA and does so in some of the most magical ways all in a classroom that is themed wonderfully to inspire students of all ages! On today’s show, Megan will share with us her story of how she became an educator and also how she became a Disney fan. We then h...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Howie and Ryan look at how Walt Disney approached taking risks and jumping into new things throughout his life. Just like teachers all over the world are doing right now as they start the New Year in their schools. As we discuss all the ups and downs of Walt’s journey to creating a magical escape that we all love and enjoy, we think you will find similarities in those ups and downs to the ones we all face as educators. In today’s show, we will start the discussion and timeline of Walt’s life rig...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 3
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan welcome back the Director of CTE at Georgetown ISD, Bretton Schulz. For the last show of Season 6, we had Bretton on and shared some interviews Howie did with some of the students in Bretton’s CTE program but we ran out of time to hear everything Bretton had to share about the incredible program and we had a couple more student interviews we knew you would want to hear as well. So we’ve invited Bretton back and we are finishing our di...
Aug 21, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 7Ep. 3
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan look at integrating career exposure and guidance into classroom teaching. Just think about all the different types of storytellers there are just working for Disney Imagineering. There are engineers of all kinds of course but they only make up a small number nowadays in the vast careers that help make the magic. Other Imagineering jobs include writers of all kinds, color and palate specialists, agricultural specialists, painters, grap...
Aug 01, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 7Ep. 1
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan welcome the Director of CTE at Georgetown ISD, Bretton Schulz. For those of you that may not know, CTE stands for Career and Technical Education. At Georgetown ISD they describe their CTE program as one that uses integrated instruction and curricula, current technologies, and state-of-the-art equipment. They also have business partnerships, creating a learning environment that empowers all their students to enter the constantly changi...
Jul 15, 2021•1 hr 33 min•Season 6Ep. 24
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan are waving their flags in celebration of the fourth of July! They love the good ol’ USA and so did Mr. Walt Disney himself! Walt was quoted saying, “Actually, if you could see close in my eyes, the American flag is waving in both of them, and up my spine is growing this red, white and blue stripe.” In the show today, Ryan and Howie are going to talk about Walt’s passion for American History, especially that of one President Abraham Li...
Jul 01, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 6Ep. 23
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan welcome their partner and pal, Brian Collins back to the show to participate in some summer dreaming! Howie was inspired by a song in the 2008 Tinkerbell Album titled, “Come Fly With Me” and in this song is a line about dreams. So on today’s show, Howie, Ryan, and Brian are going to share what their childhood dreams were and what dreams they have now for their futures and the future of My Disney Class. You will hear how Howie original...
Jun 15, 2021•56 min•Season 6Ep. 22
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie’s dreams of summer vacation are becoming real, and with that comes a fun list of to-dos to do! So in this episode, Howie and Ryan are sharing their plans for this summer and giving their thoughts on what teachers should make time to do this summer as well. These suggestions run the gamut from organizing your classroom to bingeing your favorite Disney + shows and movies. Though after the year we all had, we would be remiss if we didn’t...
Jun 01, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 6Ep. 21
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie welcome Kevin Roughton. Kevin is a middle school history teacher at Jurupa Middle School in Jurupa Valley CA not too far from Disneyland! He is an educational speaker, author, and was also selected as an Outstanding Middle School Educator of California Counsel For The Social Studies. Let’s just put it this way, he’s a great educator and he’s on a mission to share his experiences and Disney and gamification to help better our professio...
May 15, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 6Ep. 20
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie are dreaming of those lazy summer days just around the corner but with that comes the reality that school is not out yet. The last month of school can be really challenging for us educators and also for our students! In this episode, Howie and Ryan discuss activities, tips, and lessons learned that will hopefully help you tackle those last few weeks of school and leave you with enough energy to enjoy that well-deserved Disney vacation...
May 01, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 6Ep. 19
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie welcome Jaime Williams to the show. Jaime is originally from Albertville, AL. Her research interests are in the areas of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources with a primary focus on how personality characteristics, especially aggression, can have a detrimental effect on a firm or on other people within an organization. Her dissertation is titled, “The Inclusion of Aggressive Personality as an Antecedent of Abusive Supervision.”...
Apr 15, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 6Ep. 18
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie look to help educators who are still teaching remotely or may teach remotely from time to time. On the March 1st show, Howie and Ryan tried to tackle the difficult task of teaching in the new normal of social distancing, face masks, no group work, etc. that educators all over the world are trying to adjust to. They attempted to take a couple of their hands-on lessons from their book Designing Disney Inspired Classrooms and convert the...
Apr 01, 2021•58 min•Season 6Ep. 17
In today’s episode, Ryan and Howie welcome back author and friend Lou Prosperi to talk about his new book Telling Your Story the Walt Disney World Way . This is his third book in the series that started with The Imagineering Pyramid and was followed by The Imagineering Process . Before writing these books, Lou worked in the game industry for over ten years as a freelance game designer and writer where he worked on the creation of a role-playing game called Eathrdawn. Currently, Lou works as a te...
Mar 15, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Season 6Ep. 16
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie look to tackle the difficult role of the educator in our current situation due to the pandemic. Already a year into living with quarantines, masks, social distancing, and the root of it all, COVID, educators have been looking for ways to keep their students and themselves safe while still keeping the wonderment and awe of learning going for our students. Howie and Ryan have always been strong allies of the hands-on, real-world, proble...
Mar 01, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 6Ep. 15
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie welcome Dave Bakker, co-founder, and COO of Pocketlab. Pocketlab by Myriad Sensors is a group of sensors created to collect data wirelessly. When you use them in your classroom with your students you can create lab reports, analyze data, and watch your students view and collaborate about the data in real-time. Currently, there are three options of sensors. There is the Voyager which can be used to collect data like motion, altitude, l...
Feb 12, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 6Ep. 14
Howie and Ryan continue their conversation looking at E.P.C.O.T. and its inspirations for the classroom. On the January 1st show, Ryan and Howie had great intentions and ambitions to travel around the entire showcase and discuss each pavilion but they got so inspired by the great pavillions found in World Showcase that they only make it about halfway around World Showcase lagoon. In today’s episode, the goal is to finish our trip around World Showcase and stop at each of the remaining pavilions....
Jan 31, 2021•58 min•Season 6Ep. 13
Students Assemble with Cody Havard, Ph.D. In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie welcome back to the show, Dr. Cody Havard from The University of Memphis. Those that remember, we had Dr. Cody on the My Disney Class Podcast back in Season 5 Episode 20. We strongly recommend that you go back and give it a listen as Dr. Cody does a great job talking about his passion for Disney and how Disney fandom has an impact on our lives and interactions. Today on the show though Dr. Hav...
Jan 15, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 6Ep. 12
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan continue their conversation looking at E.P.C.O.T. and it’s inspirations for the classroom. On the December 1st show, Ryan and Howie had great intentions and ambitions to travel around all E.P.C.O.T. And discuss each attraction, but they got so inspired by the great attractions in Future World that they only covered that part of the park. In today’s episode, the goal is to make it around World Showcase and stop at each pavilion. Will t...
Jan 01, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 6Ep. 11
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie welcome to the show an incredible 4th-grade teacher in the Hernando School district, Brooksville FL. Howie and Ryan were lucky enough to meet Nadia as she attended the first cohort to go through the P.D. Magic experiential trip to Walt Disney World. Nadia, as well as everyone in that group, thoroughly impressed Howie, Brian, and Ryan as they all were willing to put themselves out there, have fun, and share with each other. This made t...
Dec 15, 2020•59 min•Season 6Ep. 10
EPCOT FUTURE WORLD OF EDUCATION In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie are discussing how they might approach creating lessons out of EPCOT attractions. In the show today we get a peek inside the workings of both Howie’s and Ryan’s mind and boy can that be scary! It all starts with a nightmare that Howie had that an upcoming book on EPCOT was due to the publisher and no ideas were coming to mind on how to create lessons for one of our favorite parks, EPCOT. This leads Ryan...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr•Season 6Ep. 9
Ryan and Howie welcome an extra special guest to the show, Mark DiBlasi. So, who doesn’t like playing board games? Many families regularly play board games when they gather together and many play board games when they gather for parties and such, but did you know that many educators are now using board games in their classrooms. So on today’s show, we are looking into how and why we should consider using board games in our classrooms. Here are five of the many reasons that board games can be a u...
Nov 15, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 6Ep. 8
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan are discussing how teachers can help students who are struggling with hidden hurdles. We all know that everyone has something they are dealing with and nobody’s life is perfect. We all have struggles, but how do we as teachers address all these struggles with everything else going on in school and when our students often keep these struggles to themselves? In today’s show, Ryan and Howie are discussing stories of some of their former ...
Nov 01, 2020•56 min•Season 6Ep. 7
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan are welcome their good friend Brian Collins. As most of you know by now Brian works with us to help bring magic and pixie dust to the world of education. What some of you might not know is that Brian continues to branch out into many other areas of education and technology with several different companies and groups. These groups with Brian are doing so many innovative things that we had to have him on to share all the exciting things...
Oct 15, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 6Ep. 6
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan are getting into the fall spirit and sharing their top ten biggest thrills or scary experiences at Walt Disney World! This is sure to be a wild ride through the spinning teacups of Ryan and Howie’s minds and memories. So buckle up and don’t pick up any hitchhiking ghosts as we take a journey through the scariest experiences at WDW. By this time in the school year, most of us are really ready for a break and if you’re like Ryan you par...
Oct 01, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 6Ep. 5
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie welcome a wonderful guest that is known for his hard work, leadership, customer service, and for being a guy who understands that developing a successful culture in your kingdom starts with you. Today we welcome none other than Mr. Dan Cockerell former Vice President of Magic Kingdom. Dan has had one heck of a journey inside and through the Walt Disney World Co. He started in the Walt Disney World college program before his legendary ...
Sep 15, 2020•52 min•Season 6Ep. 4
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan share ways they send stress to Neverland. Though we all would love to say that the profession of education is full of pixie dust every day, we know this isn’t always true. Especially this time of year, when most of us are just coming off of summer break and starting a new school year. This time is especially hectic and as soon as you scratch one item off of your to-do-list, you have to add six more items. If you add the fact that most...
Sep 01, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 3
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan welcome a fabulous gifted teacher from Slidell Louisanna, Monica Finch. Monica studied Gifted education at Northwestern State University and is currently teaching Gifted to 1st through 6th grades at St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana. She does travel between schools to meet her district’s need for those students needing Gifted guidance. She definitely has a very unique story and you are really going to enjoy hearing how she brings the ma...
Aug 15, 2020•57 min•Season 6Ep. 2
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan are preparing for season 6 as well as preparing for the new school year. First, we wanted to say thank you to our incredible community of listeners that have made the past five seasons of My Disney Class so wonderful and educational. We look forward to a great season 6 with more great guests and lots of talk and love for Disney. Secondly, we know that season 6 and the new school year won’t be like our last five seasons and we wanted t...
Aug 01, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 1
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Ryan and Howie welcome a few of our educators that joined us on our 1st P.D. Magic class at Walt Disney World. Like we mentioned before, we had to postpone our 2020 group due to COVID 19 but reliving some of the memories with our 1st group was an awesome way to remind ourselves how powerful the Disney educator community is. Being that it had been a year since we were all together and since we were all going through this tough period during the pande...
Jul 15, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 24
In today’s episode of My Disney Class Podcast, Howie and Ryan look back on this year starting in August 2019 and bring everyone up to our current situation. Ryan and Howie typically love to reflect back on what has transpired over the current school year and with the podcasts, but this year has definitely been a wild ride and disembarking and exiting into the gift shop has some scary question marks! Though trying to stay positive is important and we try to do our best to look back at both Disney...
Jul 01, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 5Ep. 23
