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Season 1, Episode 3

Teaching with resilience, starring Fawn Nguyen

Today on Beyond My Years, host Ana Torres learns from Fawn Nguyen, a math educator with over 30 years of classroom experience! Fawn tells Ana the story of her near-death experience being lost at sea while escaping Vietnam, and explains how it shaped the sense of gratitude she leads with in the classroom. She also discusses what it means to be yourself in the classroom, the importance of sharing your mistakes with your students, and the merits of practicing advocacy vs. authority with students. Taking all those lessons back to the classroom, Ana and Classroom Insider Eric Cross then discuss connecting with students through shared struggles and challenges.

Portrait of a woman smiling in front of a plain background, with a circular border and a patterned backdrop of books, apples, and stars—perfect for content on how to teach resilience.

Meet Our Guest(s):

Smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a light pink collared shirt, posing in front of a plain grey background.

Fawn Nguyen

Fawn Nguyen is Director of STEM Initiatives at Amplify. Before joining our team, she was a math coach in a K–8 school district for three years, and a middle school math teacher for 30 years. She has received many accolades, including being named the 2014 Ventura County Teacher of the Year, Raytheon’s 2009 Math Teacher Hero, and the 2005 Sarah D. Barder Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. She has also been a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at math conferences nationwide. In 2012, she co-founded the Math Teacher’s Circle in Thousand Oaks, California. From 2015–2018, Fawn served as a member of NCTM’s Professional Development Services Committee.

Meet our host, Ana Torres.

Ana has been an educator for 30 years, working in both the K–8 and higher education sectors. She served as an administrator and instructor at various public and private colleges and universities and as a bilingual and dual language teacher, dual language math and reading interventionist, dual language instructional coach, assistant principal, and principal in K–8 schools. Ana is currently the Senior Biliteracy and Multilingual Product Specialist on Amplify’s Product Specialist team, and delivers literacy and biliteracy presentations across the nation. Ana’s passion and advocacy for biliteracy and multiculturalism has led her to educate leaders, teachers, and parents about the positive impact of bilingualism and biliteracy in our world.

A woman with long dark hair and hoop earrings smiles at the camera while wearing a black blazer, standing outdoors—ready to discuss classroom challenges or share insights on her teacher podcast.
A man with short, closely-cropped hair and a trimmed beard smiles at the camera against a light gray background, ready to inspire diverse learners in the math classroom.

Meet our Classroom Insider, Eric Cross.

Eric Cross is a middle school science teacher who hopes to someday be a lifelong educator, like the guests on Beyond My Years! In each episode, Eric connects with host Ana Torres to discuss her guests’ best insights gleaned from their long and rewarding careers in the classroom. Then, Eric talks about bringing some of their wisdom into his current classroom and busy life.

Transcripts and additional resources:

Subscribe to Beyond My Years
Follow us on Instagram
Connect with Eric Cross
Connect with Ana Torres
Transcript

Quotes

“In my next lifetime, I would still teach, I would go back to teaching. That’s how much I love it.’”

—Fawn Nguyen

“It has to be an exchange. We can’t be just receiving, asking kids to be [themselves] and yet we ourselves are not.”

—Fawn Nguyen

“[Seasoned educators] are experienced and experience means good and bad. We want to learn from both. I certainly didn’t want a mentor who never made a mistake, ‘cause I’m not gaining anything.”

—Fawn Nguyen

“It’s about separating the behavior from the person. And another thing, separate what they don’t know at the time from what they’re capable of.”

—Fawn Nguyen

Season 1, Special Episode

Springing forward and looking back, with Ana and Eric

Today on Beyond My Years, host Ana Torres and Classroom Insider Eric Cross reconnect with three past guests—Fawn Nguyen, Rebecka Peterson, and Simone McQuaige—to explore key challenges from their early teaching days: classroom management, decentering oneself, and time management. Ana and Eric share their own experiences with these common hurdles, then offer a quick look at what’s ahead in Season 2.

Three women smiling in individual portrait photos arranged in a triangle on a patterned background with books, apples, and stars.

Meet Our Guest(s):

Smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a light pink collared shirt, posing in front of a plain grey background.

Fawn Nguyen

Fawn Nguyen is director of STEM Initiatives at Amplify. Before joining Amplify, she was a math coach in a K–8 school district for three years and a middle school math teacher for 30 years. She has received many accolades, including being named the 2014 Ventura County Teacher of the Year, Raytheon’s 2009 Math Teacher Hero, and the 2005 Sarah D. Barder Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. She has also been a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at math conferences nationwide. In 2012, she co-founded the Math Teacher’s Circle in Thousand Oaks, California. From 2015–2018, Fawn served as a member of NCTM’s Professional Development Services Committee.

A woman with short, side-parted hair and glasses is smiling at the camera. She is wearing a black top and a beaded necklace, with a neutral background behind her.

A. Simone McQuaige

A. Simone McQuaige has dedicated 34 years to education within the Prince George’s County Public School (PGCPS) system. A proud alumna of PGCPS, she began her career as an elementary school teacher. She has since had various leadership roles, including mentor, teacher, reading specialist, and reading/English language arts instructional specialist, as well as serving as an adjunct professor. Simone is the supervisor of reading/English language arts K–5 and she leads the Elementary Literacy Support Team in the Office of Curriculum and Instruction.

Woman with wavy dark hair, wearing gold hoop earrings and a dark green blazer, smiling in front of a light-colored background.

Rebecka Peterson

Recognized as the 2023 National Teacher of the Year, Rebecka Peterson is a math teacher who loves stories. Rebecka has been teaching for 16 years, the last 12 of which at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She believes that when we learn each other’s stories, we carry a piece of each other with us, enabling us to authentically advocate for our students, teachers, and communities.

In the midst of a challenging first year of teaching, Rebecka joined other educators in a daily practice of noting “one good thing” in her classroom. Together they found inspiration by embracing the motto: “Every day may not be good, but there is one good thing in every day.” This shift in perspective transformed her work. Rebecka now collaborates with fellow educators, emphasizing the importance of cultivating intentional joy as a means of sustaining oneself in the difficult but beautiful profession of teaching.

Meet our host, Ana Torres.

Ana has been an educator for 30 years, working in both the K–8 and higher education sectors. She served as an administrator and instructor at various public and private colleges and universities and as a bilingual and dual language teacher, dual language math and reading interventionist, dual language instructional coach, assistant principal, and principal in K–8 schools. Ana is currently the bilingual and multilingual specialist on Amplify’s product specialist team, and delivers literacy and biliteracy presentations across the nation. Ana’s passion and advocacy for biliteracy and support for all students from all walks of life has led her to educate leaders, teachers, and parents about the positive impact of bilingualism and biliteracy in our world.

A woman with long dark hair and hoop earrings smiles at the camera while wearing a black blazer, standing outdoors—ready to discuss classroom challenges or share insights on her teacher podcast.
A man with short, closely-cropped hair and a trimmed beard smiles at the camera against a light gray background, ready to inspire diverse learners in the math classroom.

Meet our Classroom Insider, Eric Cross.

Eric Cross is a middle school science teacher who hopes to someday be a lifelong educator, like the guests on Beyond My Years! In each episode, Eric connects with host Ana Torres to discuss her guests’ best insights gleaned from their long and rewarding careers in the classroom. Then, Eric talks about bringing some of their wisdom into his current classroom and busy life.

Transcripts and additional resources:

Simone McQuaige episode
Rebecka Peterson episode
Fawn Nguyen episode
Subscribe to Beyond My Years
Follow us on Instagram: @amplify.education
Connect with Eric Cross
Connect with Ana Torres
Transcript

Quotes

“ My biggest mistake early on was needing to have the last word.”

Fawn Nguyen

“ Something I really struggled with and actually took me several years to feel confident in [was] how to manage my classroom in a way that felt good and true to me.”

Rebecka Peterson

“Looking back, I realized it would’ve been so helpful to have learned how to set boundaries for myself, prioritize tasks, and definitely build time for my own self-care.”

A. Simone McQuaige