Teacher Stories: Joe Vitale and Jamie Wanko, Teachers at Iselin Middle School, Woodbridge Township School District
We have been friends and colleagues for a very long time. We started The Balancing Act podcast because we had a lot of talks about what it means to be part of the ‘sandwich generation,’ people who are not only raising their children, but are also helping aid their parents, who also need some help and have different medical issues and things like that. We talk a lot about what it means to be working full-time parents, full-time teachers, and, of course, how you can balance all of that and still have some of your own personal interests and find more joy in your day-to-day life.
In September, we’re going to start our third season. In the first year we started, we had guests now and again. We were bi-weekly to start. And then last season, for season two, we had a new formula where we actually made 40 episodes throughout the school year, one a week. We dropped a new episode every Tuesday morning.
We had quite a lot of guests on. We’ve had psychologists. We’ve had people who talked about how you deal with relational aggression. We’ve talked to educators from Canada, from California, about how you deal with your children in social media, how you handle schools and technology, and how that’s impacted the kids and the adults as well.
The people that we’ve had on have been graceful and helpful, not only to our listeners, letting us pick their brains. The podcasting community is a very helpful, supportive, and friendly group that’s willing to lend its knowledge and expertise to anyone. Basically, if you ask a question, they’re willing to give you the help and the advice that you need to reach as many people and help as many people as you can.
We are on all of the major platforms. We have a website, we’re on Spotify, we are on YouTube, we’re on Apple Podcasts. We really are available on everything; it’s got to be at least 20 different places, including TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
To learn more, explore their website and listen to The Balancing Act Podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and other major podcast platforms.
Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (X), and YouTube.
For inquiries, reach out at PodTheBalancingAct@gmail.com.
Interview by Gregory Andrus
Portraits of the Jersey Shore
