Teacher Appreciation Week is May 8-12 this year, and it’s my favorite time of year. Although I fundamentally believe that teachers should be appreciated all year long, I love seeing the wave of appreciation from education companies, schools, and parents during the month of May.

In March, artificial intelligence (AI) made headlines across the country. In the same week, ChatGPT launched ChatGPT4, Microsoft released Copilot, and Google brought   AI to the workplace.

As we conclude Black History Month and begin Women's History Month, I thought it was the perfect time to dedicate this issue to Constance Baker Motley. Often overlooked, Motley was the first Black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court and serve as a federal judge.

The new year has certainly kicked into gear in this ever-changing world of EdTech. If EdTech had its big moment in 2021, it lost its 15 minutes of fame in 2022 and we seem to be picking up the pieces in 2023.

When you look back at your life, will you be able to say that you did what you could to make the world a more loving, kind, and better place? I think about this a lot, and although I’m not even close to doing all of the things I’d like to do before I leave this world, I can reflect proudly on the good Leoni Consulting Group (LCG) has been able to create this year.

It’s now the end of October and things are clear; educators are not ok. The best part of my job is listening to educators and uplifting their voices, but lately, it’s been completely overwhelming.

Do you happen to know the average attention span of a human? Think about it. I’ll wait. Chances are when I was waiting, you may have actually lost your attention, since the average attention span of a human is 8 seconds. Yep – that’s right. 8 little seconds, which is smaller than a goldfish's attention span!

A couple of weeks ago, I witnessed a colleague responding to the many #ClearTheList tweets and Facebook posts. She was spending a significant amount of her own money to support educators for their back-to-school needs. She inspired me. I thought to myself, “If my colleague, who I technically employ, can do this, why am I not doing this?” So I started clearing some lists and my experience brought me to tears (good…and bad).

I’m actually not sure I had COVID. I’m mostly just confused and exhausted. I never tested positive despite the exposure I experienced but testing positive now depends a lot on when exactly you test and the type of test you use. Whatever it all was, I had never felt more horrible.

Throughout my childhood, my brother used to constantly tell me that I live in a dream world. "You’ll never do that, Elana. That’s just a dream." It’s true -- I dreamt of big things. I believed that I could do anything and would do anything to help my family, who was always struggling to make ends meet.