Peggy Bud and Tamara Jacobson are the voices behind Ask the Educators, bringing together over 60 years of experience as teachers and administrators. They believe that the child’s voice must be at the center of all conversations. Best practices highlight the importance of parents and educators building a strong, positive partnership to support student success.
Each episode of Ask the Educators takes a deep dive into relevant 21st Century topics. Through animated conversations, Peggy and Tamara break down the what, why, and how of each podcast by sharing their expertise and professional knowledge. They leave their listeners with practical, easy-to-use strategies to foster collaboration within the child’s community of practice. The purpose of each podcast is to equip parents and educators with tools and perspectives that can help ensure each child receives the support they need.
Host Bud and guest Jacobson demystify education's alphabet soup, clarifying confusing jargon to improve communication between educators and parents.
20 Aug 2025
Family Engagement and Its Lasting Impact on Student Learning
Host Bud and Jacobson interview Carrie Falcone, a parent, discussing family engagement's impact on student learning and the challenges parents face with school districts.
6 Aug 2025
The Importance of Early Intervention Services
Tamara Jacobson shares her experiences navigating early intervention services as a parent and educator in an interview with Peggy Bud, highlighting the profound impact of early support.
23 Jul 2025
Trust + Transparency = Authenticity
Educators explore how trust and transparency foster authenticity, emphasizing open communication to build genuine connections and data-driven conversations.
9 Jul 2025
Parent-Input and the IEP Process
Author Sivan Hong discusses the critical role of parent input in the IEP process, emphasizing how parents can effectively advocate for their child's educational needs; this is an interview episode.
25 Jun 2025
Pre-meetings Foster Engagement
Bud and Jacobson explore pre-meetings as a foundation for parent-educator collaboration in IEP processes, fostering trust and engagement.
11 Jun 2025
Consensus vs. an Unhappy Minority
Bud and Jacobson explore how educators and parents achieve consensus by meshing ideas, preventing adversarial meetings, and ensuring support for decisions even amid disagreements.
28 May 2025
Compromise: The Art of Meshing Ideas
Educators Bud and Jacobson explore compromise as a collaborative meshing of ideas, highlighting how open conversations foster creative solutions that ensure everyone feels heard and respected in addressing a child's needs.
14 May 2025
Cultivating Parent – Teacher Partnerships
Building parent-teacher partnerships leads to student success. In this episode, Bud, and Jacobson use Justin’s story, from their book Navigating Special Education, to highlight the importance of parents and teachers working together to support the student. Cultivating these partnerships is crucial for all parents.
16 Apr 2025
Unlocking Dialogues: The Art and Science of Meaningful Conversations
This episode brings to light Bud and Jacobson’s vision of parents and educators forging partnerships; working collaboratively and cooperatively to ensure the child gets what they need to be successful. It’s all about the conversation, which must be a dialogue, not a monologue. Asking questions, perspective taking, and active listening are the core elements of an effective conversation. Conversations will lead to productive meetings and encourage everyone to have a voice. Peggy and Tamara share real case studies to highlight the importance of conversations. Being willing to have open, honest, and transparent conversations will have a positive effect on student success.
16 Apr 2025
Building Bridges: An Effective Communication Framework for Success!
In this episode, Bud and Jacobson present the 5-C Model of Communication, an original communication framework, which they first introduced in their book Navigating Special Education, the Power of Building Positive Parent-Educator Partnerships. During this podcast, they discuss the key components of their model: conversations, collaboration, cooperation, compromise, and consensus. Using their framework ensures everyone’s voice is heard and valued, which will help parents be active participants in the IEP process.
15 Apr 2025
Yesterday’s Dream and the Grieving Process
This episode presents an often-overlooked aspect of parenting a child with special needs, the grieving process. Bud and Jacobson discuss the Five-Stages of Grief as outlined by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Parents grieving influences how they communicate with educators. Bud and Jacobson offer practical insights regarding the grieving process as it impacts not only families,but the education community. Awareness and empathy are the path to building collaborative parent-teacher relationships.
Who has been a guest on Ask The Educators
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Carrie Falcone
Tamara Jacobson
Sivan Hong
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 9 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
5
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
Host of Ask The Educators?
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