Cloudy Skies & Clear Gains

Ever wonder what flips the switch from “I don’t get it” to “I can explain it”? We sit down with educator and leader Miranda Stockton in a bustling corridor at the Continuous Improvement Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, to trace how a college love for chemistry became a mission to make learning tangible. Miranda shares the moments that changed her practice—watching students light up during hands-on labs, designing tasks that demand explanation, and leaning into NGSS-style standards that reward application over memorization.

Website: spotlight4success.com

Chapters

• 0:06 Welcome from Lexington
• 0:30 Miranda’s path into teaching
• 2:09 Hands-on learning and impact
• 2:44 NGSS-style standards in Kentucky
• 3:10 ABC materials and KSA results
• 3:45 Conference goals and connections
• 4:19 Thanks and closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:06

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I am Devin Pintozi, your host. We are here in the partly cloudy, wonderful Lexington, Kentucky at the Continuous Improvement Conference. We are so excited, excited to be here with our special guest, Miranda Stockton. Miranda, thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00: 0:25

Well, it's good to be here on this lovely cloudy day.

SPEAKER_01: 0:29

There we go. Miranda, you join us uh from the uh Stockton County High School. Is that Clinton County?

SPEAKER_00: 0:35

Clinton, Gobledogs, Gobledogs.

SPEAKER_01: 0:38

Clinton County High School. So uh that's wonderful. Uh I'd like to know uh bit about your educational journey. What decided you uh what what made you decide to become uh uh go into education?

SPEAKER_00: 0:50

Well, uh thinking back first, that wasn't my first career choice at the beginning, but I clearly had a love for chemistry when I uh was doing my c in my college career, and I realized no that I think I want to inspire other students to have that same love and the love for science and experiencing science the way I did.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15

Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success. I am Devin Pentosi, the Chief Operating Officer of American Book Company. We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, Georgia. All of our materials are printed in the USA. We have coursework, ebooks, and online testing in grades in mathematics, ELA, design, and social studies. These materials are all designed to help students achieve higher scores on their state specific and high status assessment. We guarantee score improvement. You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abck12.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06

To be engaged with it.

SPEAKER_01: 2:08

That's great. And uh do you have any special moments uh when you were uh teaching students that you felt like, gosh, this is why I got into education?

SPEAKER_00: 2:17

Oh, absolutely. When you f when you see a student connect with with what you're uh with the hands-on, specifically in science, that was like a key factor. Understanding the why was such an eye-opener. Of course, it's been a while I've moved out of the classroom, uh, and so I see it from a completely different perspective now, but it doesn't change. It's it's them seeing those that are inspired and engaged.

SPEAKER_01: 2:43

That's wonderful. Have you enjoyed the transition as Kentucky has moved into the NGSS uh style standards?

SPEAKER_00: 2:51

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01: 2:52

Yeah, more practical application.

SPEAKER_00: 2:54

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 2:55

Yeah, that's that's great. I've I've appreciated uh working with those materials myself in the company, and then just seeing uh seeing all the practical applications being added into the science, I think makes it so much more relevant. Um can you tell me a bit, Monica, about uh I understand that um uh during your career you've used ABC materials in the past?

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

Yes, we have. Uh we actually had a big decline in our social studies, and then we had sought out different sources for high quality resources, and ABC was one of those that we rolled out and then saw a big jump that very next year after utilizing the materials.

SPEAKER_01: 3:37

That's wonderful. So happy to hear that. And that was with the the KSA books?

SPEAKER_00: 3:41

That was with our KSA books. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_01: 3:44

That's so great. Um is there anything you'd like to uh is there anything uh you hope to take away from this conference that you could share with the Oh absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 3:53

It's connecting, making connections with other people while you're here, looking at best practices, seeing what others are doing, what's working, and the challenges that they face, and and just connecting in that way. That way we can maybe overcome our challenges that we're seeing by doing some of the things that other schools and districts are doing.

SPEAKER_01: 4:12

Oh, that is so wonderful. Uh wow. Well, I really appreciated uh you being able to come on to speak with us today. Again, this is Monica Stockton. She comes to us uh Miranda.

unknown: 4:24

It's okay.

SPEAKER_01: 4:24

Miranda, this is Miranda Stockton coming to us from uh Clinton High School. Thank you for joining us today, Miranda.

SPEAKER_00: 4:32

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 4:32

Bye bye.