catchiNG up: Beyond the Classroom

Peter Ng
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

What happens to the people who shaped you — after the bell rings? catchiNG Up is a reflective podcast where educator Peter Ng reconnects with former students, colleagues, and friends to explore who they were, who they're becoming, and what they've learned along the way. Because learning doesn't stop when the bell rings. Want to be featured? linktr.ee/The_catchiNGupPodcast

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 28 - Risk to Blossom

    Former Timber Creek A&P student Izaiah Burgos joins Peter for a second conversation after the first recording was lost to file corruption. Izaiah is now a large- and small-carnivore animal care keeper on the West Coast, and his path there took him from a pre-med track that never felt right, through a zookeeping internship in Sarasota, to jobs in Arizona and California. Five years into zookeeping, Izaiah talks openly about imposter syndrome, burnout, and the frustration of advocating for animals that can’t speak for themselves. He also explains why he’s ready for what comes next. Peter shares his own early teaching years, when he had one foot out the door and felt like he wasn’t living up to expectations. The conversation also moves into bigger questions: whether hunting can be a form of conservation, what carrying capacity looks like when humans have already reshaped the land, whether zoos should exist at all, and why Izaiah thinks no one should keep a fox as a pet, no matter how cute they are. Izaiah also shares a few of the quotes he lives by, including the one this episode is named after. Growth isn’t always linear, and sometimes staying where you are hurts more than risking moving on. Follow @The_catchinguppodcast on Instagram for clips every Friday and new episodes every Wednesday.

  2. Sep 30

    Episode 27 – Crossing the White Sausage Equator

    This week I'm catching up with Marius Tesch, whom his students know as Mr. Tesch. He's a Timber Creek history teacher and musician, and one of the first teachers I met when I walked into that building as a long-term sub. Marius just wrapped Season 1 of his new podcast, Tesch Talks European History, a story-driven series built for his AP European History students (and any history buff). We look back at how we met, when a second-year teacher lectured 70 freshmen at a time in the media center to keep a class from falling apart. Marius shares what teaching his five-year-old daughter piano has taught him about the invisible struggles of learning. He also explains why Germany's cultural North–South divide is known as the "white sausage equator." Then we trace his path from East Berlin to Colonial High School, UCF, and back to Berlin for graduate school, where he built courses from scratch and once ended up holding an original Beethoven score in white gloves. We also get into why teaching isn't about holding up a bar for students to jump, how technology should be a tool and not a crutch, and the advice he'd give his younger self about finding a way to get your foot in the door. 🎧 Find Tesch Talks European History wherever you get your podcasts. 📲 Follow @The_catchinguppodcast on Instagram for clips every Friday and new episodes every Wednesday. Because growth isn't always linear

  3. Sep 23

    Episode 26 – Plot Twists & Page-Turners

    Peter reconnects with former Timber Creek student Kamila Palermo. She took his virtual class in 2021 and recently graduated from UCF with a degree in English Creative Writing, a minor in Mass Media, and a certificate in Publishing & Editing. Kamila shares how an unexpected advising curveball changed her major halfway through college. She also talks about her work as the social media specialist and event planner at Barnes & Noble on Colonial, where she coordinates author signings and works with publishing and DC Comics reps. Plus, she recounts her trip to BookCon in New York City and meeting the author who got her into romance. Along the way, they cover: How romance became one of the fastest-growing genres in booksAudiobook speeds and reading three books at once in three formatsWhy new books always release on TuesdaysCarnival, samba schools, and growing up in Brazilian schools vs. American onesWhat she'd tell her 15-year-old selfChasing a career as a book publicist in New York, and redefining growth once the checkboxes are goneHer closing advice: if you think you hate reading, you just haven't found the right book yet. Growth isn't always linear. Chapters00:00 – Welcome & catching up03:08 – Switching majors at UCF05:07 – Barnes & Noble, author events & DC Comics07:27 – BookCon in NYC09:34 – Meeting a favorite author11:25 – The rise of romance15:17 – Audiobook speeds & reading in three formats20:29 – Something I learned today26:50 – School in Brazil vs. the U.S.31:21 – High school memories40:33 – Advice to her 15/16-year-old self44:49 – What's next: publishing & New York48:40 – Defining growth52:58 – Final thoughts 📲 Follow on Instagram: @The_catchinguppodcast🔗 linktr.ee/The_catchiNGupPodcastNew episodes every Wednesday, clips every Friday

  4. Sep 17

    Episode 25 - Can You Teach That in German?

    Peter reconnects with Nabeel Kandah, who just wrapped up 33 years of teaching in North Carolina public high schools. Nabeel's path into education wasn't planned: a German & Biology double major at Michigan, a need for a job, and a local ad that led him to Southern Durham High School, where he ended up teaching German and Earth Science after his principal asked him to cover a subject he'd never formally studied. They dig into his 14 years at Southern Durham and years at Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh, the biannual student exchange trips to Germany, growing up in an Arabic-speaking household in suburban Detroit, and how learning German as an adult unlocked patterns across languages he'd absorbed informally as a kid. Now newly retired, Nabeel talks about easing into this next chapter — playing bass for his band Riffium, learning multi-track recording and producing, catching up on reading, and reconnecting with family in Michigan. The conversation closes on what growth looks like once the report cards and deadlines are gone: finding joy in the smaller things and building enough "Teflon" to let outside noise slide off without losing yourself. A reminder that growth isn't always linear — follow us on Instagram @The_catchinguppodcast for clips every Friday.

  5. Sep 9

    Episode 24 - Rewriting the Story

    In this episode of catchiNG Up: Beyond the Classroom, Peter reconnects with Jennifer Longbrake — a program specialist, curriculum writer, and fellow alum of the alternative certification program that brought them together nearly a decade ago. Jenn shares her journey from teaching middle school language arts (6th, 7th, and 8th grade) to her current role as a program specialist, where she writes curriculum, trains teachers, and supports schools in the classroom. She and Peter talk about the challenges and joys of working with middle schoolers, what it's like to shift from managing a classroom to coaching adults, and the winding paths that lead teachers toward leadership roles. The conversation turns to Jenn's biggest passion project: a novel she's been writing — and rewriting — for the past five years. Born out of a COVID-era rabbit hole of rock documentaries, her ensemble novel follows a fictional band in the late 1970s, centered on a female guitarist breaking into a male-dominated scene. Jenn opens up about what it's taken to rewrite the story three times over, her plans to self-publish, and why she's doing it purely for the love of the craft. Peter and Jenn also dig into what it means to be intentionally creative as adults, how growth stops looking like grades and starts looking like curiosity, and what they're each still becoming as they navigate their thirties. 🎧 New episodes every Wednesday, clips every Friday📱 Follow along on Instagram: @The_catchinguppodcast🔗 linktr.ee/The_catchiNGupPodcast Because growth isn't always linear.

  6. Sep 2

    Episode 23 - Objection, Overruled by a Trumpet

    This week I'm catching up with Marcus Grey — a friend I met through Julia and Hannah, and now an in-house litigation attorney for a major record label in New York. We talk about what actually changes when you go from billing hours at a law firm to being "the client" in-house, and get into the surprisingly complicated business of music: why a single song is really two separate copyrights (the master recording and the composition), how that split played out very publicly in Taylor Swift's fight over her masters, and the wave of AI-related disputes now landing on his desk. We also nerd out on word origins — where "attorney" actually comes from, and why a group of lawyers is called a "bar" — before Marcus opens up about rediscovering piano and trumpet after years of law school and job changes pulled him away from them. He closes out this episode's signature segment with some genuinely solid advice to his younger self about trusting the process through big decisions. Follow along for clips every Friday and new episodes every Wednesday. Remember: growth isn't always linear.

  7. Aug 26

    Episode 22 - Never Stop Learning

    Growth isn't always linear — and neither is the road that gets you where you're going. In this episode, Peter reconnects with Rosa Maria Weaver, his former IB Spanish teacher from high school in St. Augustine, Florida. Rosa Maria opens up about growing up in Mexico City, navigating a rigid class system, and the culture shock of studying archaeology alongside Marxist-Leninist refugee professors after a childhood in a strict, conservative Catholic school. She traces her path from arriving in the U.S. not speaking English, to decades in the classroom, to retiring... and coming right back because she "just can't quit." Along the way: the neuroscience of relearning a language in your 60s, surprising parallels between school systems across Latin America, and what it means to parent differently than you were raised. Rosa Maria's advice to her younger self says it all — travel more, don't wait, and live in the present, because it passes fast. 🎧 New episodes every Wednesday, clips every Friday.Follow @The_catchinguppodcast for more.

  8. Aug 19

    Episode 21 - Lord Randy: Music, Legends, and Living Full

    This week I'm catching up with someone I know a little differently than most of my guests—Randy Poe, my wife's uncle, a man who has genuinely lived several lifetimes in one. Randy grew up bouncing between Alabama and Missouri, fell in love with music before he was old enough to understand what that meant, and built a career most people couldn't dream up if they tried. We talk about growing up near Muscle Shoals, Alabama — the tiny cluster of towns that quietly produced some of the greatest recordings of the 20th century, from Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones — and the story of how Duane Allman's guitar solo on Wilson Pickett's "Hey Jude" may have kicked off Southern rock entirely. Randy also opens up about moving to New York City with $225 to his name, working his way from typing 110 words a minute as a temp to becoming, at 25 years old, the Executive Director of the Songwriters Hall of Fame — a job that put him in the same room as Lieber and Stoller, Sammy Cahn, and some of the biggest names in American music history. From there, we cover his career as a music publisher and author of six books (including a Grammy-nominated biography of Duane Allman), his current gig playing bass in a band with Elvis Costello's drummer, becoming an actual Scottish "Lord," and what it means to keep chasing adventure at 70 instead of slowing down. We close out with our two signature segments — what Randy learned recently, and the advice he'd give his 16-year-old self — and his answer to that second one might be the most honest piece of advice we've had on the show yet. This one's a reminder that growth isn't always linear, and sometimes the best stories come from the people already sitting at your dinner table. 🎧 New episodes every Wednesday. Clips every Friday.📱 Follow us on Instagram: @The_catchinguppodcast🔗 Linktree: linktr.ee/The_catchiNGupPodcast #catchiNGup #BeyondTheClassroom

See All (29)

Trailer

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

What happens to the people who shaped you — after the bell rings? catchiNG Up is a reflective podcast where educator Peter Ng reconnects with former students, colleagues, and friends to explore who they were, who they're becoming, and what they've learned along the way. Because learning doesn't stop when the bell rings. Want to be featured? linktr.ee/The_catchiNGupPodcast

Information

You Might Also Like