June 2, 2025
The 28-Year Educational Journey
From the bustling retail world to the vibrant classrooms of New Orleans and Alabama, Andre Hodges' 28-year educational journey reveals the remarkable impact of dedicated educators. Speaking from the Federal Programs Conference in Montgomery, this accomplished Educational Content Specialist shares the winding path that led her through roles as diverse as Algebra teacher, basketball coach, FBLA advisor, and ultimately to her current position with Montgomery Public Schools.
Spotlight 4 Success: Spotlight 4 Success
00:00 - Welcome to Spotlight for Success
01:09 - Andre's 28-Year Educational Journey
03:04 - Experience with American Book Company
05:02 - Inspiring the Next Generation
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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I'm Devin Pintozzi, your host.
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We are here at the Federal Programs Conference in sunny Montgomery, Alabama.
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We are here with our special guest, Andre Hodges.
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Andre Hodges is an educational content specialist with the Montgomery Public School System, so nice to see you today.
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Andre, nice to meet you.
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Glad to be here, wonderful.
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Andre, can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing here at the Federal Programs Conference?
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today.
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Yes, well, I'm here at our annual Federal Programs conference that we have every year for federal programs for the state of Alabama, just to stay sharp and gain more knowledge and new knowledge of what we do every day for our jobs, to help provide opportunities for students as far as federal funds in the schools.
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Montgomery Public Schools.
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That's great, and so can you tell us a little bit about your journey, your educational journey, to get to this point?
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Oh, wow.
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So this has been a 28 year journey.
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I started teaching as a second profession.
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I started out in the business world in retail management and went from there and moved to New Orleans and became a teacher in New Orleans, louisiana, where I was an Algebra 1 teacher and an exploratory elective teacher for eighth grade kids.
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And then I went from there to career tech.
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Well, it was a career high school Shout out to Rob Wynn, career Mat in high School in New Orleans, no longer open since Katrina.
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But I was able to teach business education courses and went from there and I moved back to Alabama, my home state, and taught at my home high school.
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I was a basketball coach.
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I was a volleyball coach.
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I was a basketball coach.
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I was a volleyball coach oh, look at that.
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Fbla, future Business Leaders of America, shout out advisor.
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And I also taught geometry and algebra as well.
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Wow.
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So I did quite a bit of things and from there I moved back here to Montgomery where I went to undergraduate school and I taught here at Jeff Davis High School, where I was a business education teacher.
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Okay, I was also a technology coordinator and advanced into broadcast media journalism, where I taught the JDTV class at Jeff Davis High School and then from there I got my administrative break and became an assistant principal here at Bellingrath Middle School and after that became a principal, a career tech director, a curriculum director and now I'm an education specialist for federal programs.
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Wow, that rounds out my 28-year journey.
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Wow, thank you for your service.
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That's wonderful, Andre.
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Thank you.
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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.
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We have course books, e-books and online testing in grades K-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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Have you used American Book Company products before?
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Yes, we have.
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When I was assistant principal at Bellingrath Middle School, we used your products there and it really helped and worked with our students.
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We were working on trying to help students increase their academic achievement and it was able to kind of bridge that gap for us to help pull up those academic scores Wonderful.
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And did that work.
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It worked, it worked.
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And we were able to use it as pullout during our intervention period and advisory periods.
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It also the students were excited about it because they could monitor and see their progress, which was one of the key aspects of the program.
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And it was able, it was easy for the teachers to implement and it wasn't hard and you know, even with the computer platform part of it that made it easy as well.
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It made it easy for the kids because it wasn't so as they say, it wasn't boring or lame, you know, in the mind of a middle schooler.
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Oh yes, that's great.
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That's great to hear.
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I'm glad that worked well for you.
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It did, it did.
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Do you have anything else you'd like to share with the federal programs?
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community.
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Just don't give up and remember that the kids are our main focus and they need.
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What we do daily, no matter how much paperwork or things that we have to do, it's for a great purpose and it's for to inspire and equip the next generation so that they can take our place, because we're getting old and it's time to go home for us in a little while.
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Thank you so much.
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You're only as old as you feel.
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But yeah, you know, it's true.
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Every job there's a legacy and it's wonderful to see that legacy going forward for educational success throughout the years.
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So that's wonderful to hear Andre Hodges once again.
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She is with Montgomery Public Schools and she is the Federal programs educational specialist.
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Thank you so much for joining us today, Andreea.
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Have a good one.
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