Aug. 18, 2025
Small Groups, Big Impact
Born to teach. That's the phrase that comes to mind when listening to Tanara Livingston's remarkable story. Speaking from the bustling ASCD, ISTE conference in San Antonio, this Title I facilitator from Mobile County Training Middle School reveals she began her teaching career at just ten years old—running a paid tutoring program for younger children in her neighborhood. Fourteen years into her professional teaching career, that same entrepreneurial spirit and natural aptitude for education continues to define her approach.
Website: spotlight4success.com
00:00 - Welcome to Spotlight for Success
00:38 - Tanera's Purpose at ISTE Conference
01:46 - Tanera's Journey into Teaching
03:12 - Small Group Rotations Strategy
04:24 - Closing Thoughts
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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I'm Devin Pintosi, your host.
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We are here at wonderful, sunny San Antonio, texas, at the ASCD ISTE conference.
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It's the biggest conference K-12 in the United States and we're so happy here to be joined by Tanera Livingston so happy to have her here.
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She is with the Mobile County Training Middle School in Mobile County, so we're so happy to have you involved here from Mobile, Alabama.
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How was your flight or drive here?
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The flight was.
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It was smooth.
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We had a good flight here.
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Oh, that's wonderful and tell me a bit about what brings you here.
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Tanera to ISTE and ASCD.
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Okay, at my school I serve as the Title I facilitator and when we did our student surveys, one of the things that the kids wanted to see more of is technology integration.
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So we're here today to see what new programs or what new things that we can bring to the school.
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Oh, that's wonderful, and are there certain things that you're like, wow, I really want to have that in my school?
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Yes, the ABC ACAP books is the thing that I'm pushing for.
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One of my friends at a neighboring school uses those books and it's so aligned to the Alabama curriculum and the ACAP testing so I just really want those books in our school.
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Oh, that's so awesome.
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Yeah, we've got a lot of great success stories of students and teachers with the ACAP, with our program.
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That's wonderful to hear.
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So tell me a bit, to narrow, about your journey.
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What brought you into becoming a teacher?
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Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success.
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I am Devin Pintosi, chief Operating Officer of American Book Company.
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We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, georgia.
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All of our materials are printed in USA.
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We have course books, e-books and online testing in grades K through 12 in mathematics, ela, science and social studies.
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These materials are all designed to help students achieve higher scores on their state-specific high-stakes assessments.
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We guarantee score improvement.
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You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abck12.com.
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We look forward to hearing from you.
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Okay, so I always wanted to be a teacher.
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I have a funny story.
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When I was 10 years old, I had a tutoring program.
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I would get paid to teach the younger kids in my neighborhood.
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Their parents would pay me to tutor them.
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Amazing, and you were how old I was 10 years old.
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I had a working tutoring program at 10 years old and my aunt, who actually lives in San Antonio right now, she has a story.
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She worked for the government so she would come home and visit me in Mobile from Korea at that time and she had a story about how she would come in my elementary fifth grade classroom and I would be teaching the classroom.
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So I just always wanted to be a teacher.
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That is awesome, and how long have you been teaching?
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This is year 14.
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Wow, that is so great.
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And is there anything in particular you're hoping to get out of the conference today?
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You're like this is why I came here.
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Yeah, I just want to find different ways to engage my students, to build a positive culture in the classroom, things that I know.
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You know I don't like to have just a regular boring book paper classroom.
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I want things to be engaging.
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Also, this year my school we've gone into even though it's a middle school, we've gone into small group rotations.
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So technology has been a great part of those small group rotations, part of those small group rotations.
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So that's one of the reasons why I want the ABC books, because I wanted to use those lessons to reinforce the standards in my small groups.
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Oh, that's so awesome.
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Yeah, because we have the e-books and the online testing too, yes, that's so great.
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Well, tanera, that's so great.
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Is there anything else you'd like to share with the ASCD ISTE community?
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Like I said, I'm excited about this conference.
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I'm excited about being here and learning new things.
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Oh, that's so awesome.
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Well, Tanera, thank you so much for joining us today.
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Tanera Livingston is joining us from the Mobile County School System in Mobile, Alabama.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for having me.
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