Video clip
A practical parent–teacher conversation: understand the concern, choose a small goal and keep communicating.
A Maryland podcast hosted by Matt Rhine
Full Interview · November 6, 2023 · Ep. 20
From classroom planning to a child’s first day, Megan shares practical ways teachers and parents can help children learn, connect and grow.
Prefer audio? Listen to the original podcast recording below. Video and audio use different timestamps.
Educator · Matt Rhine’s sister
Video clip
A practical parent–teacher conversation: understand the concern, choose a small goal and keep communicating.
Recorded in November 2023. Megan’s teaching roles and school policies are described as they were then; confirm current school arrangements locally.
Megan Winkler, formerly Megan Rhine, is Matt’s sister and an educator. While still in school, she found that she enjoyed helping teachers and teaching math to students who needed extra support.
She went on to teach fourth and fifth grades, then worked as a math resource teacher. At the time of this November 2023 conversation, she was teaching preschool. Megan is candid about the planning and energy the job takes—and about the creative problem-solving she still loves when she helps a child learn.
Her perspective is warmly practical: give children room to try small tasks on their own, keep parents and teachers talking when a concern comes up, and notice the ways a classroom can help a child feel welcome. A parent once wrote to thank her for the culture in her preschool room. That simple note stayed with her.
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Megan describes the work that follows teachers out of the classroom and the difficulty of protecting time at home.
A practical parent–teacher conversation: understand the concern, choose a small goal and keep communicating.
Megan explains why staying calm, understanding a child’s development and following through matter more than a big threat.
From the interview
Watch each answer at its matched video timestamp, or read the source transcript.
Megan suggests asking the teacher whether they see the same issue and agreeing on next steps together, rather than assuming either side has all the answers.
Talk through the day, visit the classroom when the school offers that chance, practice the routine and have supplies ready and labeled.
Megan recalls a parent thanking her for a preschool culture that helped her child connect with a classmate. The specific note showed Megan the effect of her work.
While still in school, she helped teachers and especially enjoyed teaching math and working with students who needed extra support.
Megan says she began with fourth- and fifth-graders and loved upper elementary; by the 2023 interview she was teaching preschool, an age group she once found daunting.
Megan describes planning for many different learners, preparing lessons and attending meetings—work that can take time away from the classroom.
Megan remembers devoting Sundays to lesson plans and grading when she taught in public elementary school. Her preschool role gave her a different balance in 2023.
Megan says a love of children and the chance to affect their lives matter to her; she also cautions that the work is not a route to high pay.
Megan says she wants children to be kind, make good decisions and grow into good people—not focus only on schoolwork.
Megan suggests gradually letting a child try everyday tasks, such as putting on their own shoes, rather than always doing those tasks for them.
Megan talks about looking for why a particular assignment causes friction, instead of reacting only to the behavior around it.
Megan worried that a proposed 2023 change could turn her family’s short school drive into a much longer one. It was a personal example, not a current district plan.
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