Of Primary Importance Podcast by ReallySchool: Episode 15 - Taking early school education to 'the big kids'

In this episode, we are joined by Maggie Layfield. As a former teacher turned ‘EdTechie’, Maggie is passionate about seeing technology used intentionally in the classroom to help increase engagement and lead to positive learning outcomes. She serves as the VP of US Sales for NetSupport Inc, and is recognised leader in EdTech. She lives outside of Atlanta with her husband and two kids (plus one on the way!). Maggie loves to bake, solve puzzles, play word games, and read in her spare time, which is rather limited these days.

In this episode we discussed Taking early years education to 'the big kids.'

Here are just some of the questions I asked:

• Your degree was in English/Language Arts Education- why that particular subject?
• You mentioned your background in education could you tell us a bit more about that and how you moved into the world of EdTech?
• You mentioned when we talked before that your specialism was with 12–18-year-olds, but somehow you ended you working with some pre-kindergarten kids (under 7-year-olds) too. What was that experience like?
• Were there any teaching strategies you took away from that experience that you thought could be beneficial for older learners?
• Why do you think sometimes that engaging and fun learning is missing when teaching at middle and high school?
• And what about vice versa- is there anything from working with the older pupils that could be taken into those earlier grades to benefit younger learners? 
• What do you think about opportunities for mixed age-group learning? How could you see this working?
• What would be your top-tips for taking early education strategies into the higher grades?

You can follow on Maggie on Twitter at @LayfieldMaggie  or on LinkedIn
You can also email her at m.layfield@netsupport-inc.com
Check out www.netsupport-inc.com for more information about NetSupport’s solutions.   

You can follow me (Kat Cauchi) on Twitter at @ReallyschoolK
Check out #OPIP and #OfPrimaryImportance for more content 
If you are interested on coming on the show or have a topic suggestion, send me a DM!