Dr. Josh Prieur was a former Vice Principal, and now works for Prodigy Education as the Director of Education Enablement. In this episode, Dr. Prieur shares his journey, highlighting the differences between Canadian and American education systems, and offers practical advice for educators looking to pivot careers. He emphasizes the importance of networking, leveraging transferable skills, and maintaining a growth mindset.
Join us to learn more about Dr. Prieur, Prodigy, and his EdTech journey!
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https://pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/4G278/traffic.megaphone.fm/ESAIH3630085500.mp3?updated=1738011216Explore the course that has helped thousands of teachers successfully transition out of the classroom and into new careers: The Teacher Career Coach Course
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- Explore the course that has helped thousands of teachers successfully transition out of the classroom and into new careers: The Teacher Career Coach Course
Episode Transcript:
Elizabeth: Hi, and welcome back to this week’s episode as educators. I think you’ll find our next guest familiar as you might’ve had some experience with his company’s program in your school. Dr. Josh Pryor is the director of educator enablement at prodigy education. Josh oversees educator enablement, supporting schools and districts and harnessing the power.
Of game based learning in their classrooms. Today, we discuss his current role and learn about his path from teacher to administrator, to where he is now. Hope you enjoy this episode.
welcome back, everyone. Today we’re so excited to have Josh Pryor with us. Welcome Josh.
Dr. Josh Prieur: Thank you so much.
Elizabeth: Well, we’d love to kick this off by learning a bit about your educational experience. Can you tell us about your background?
Dr. Josh Prieur: Yeah, absolutely. So, I am from the Toronto, Ontario, Canada region originally, and absolutely loved going through the school district that I went through here. That’s what ignited my passion for education and sparked my love of teaching and wanting to go into teaching. So I went for a degree in education so that I could teach high school English.
That was always my dream. And I was able to accomplish that dream. Landed a contract at a school district in South Florida. Being a dual citizen allowed me to cross the border without any real issues and was absolutely elated. Had a phenomenal experience which, which we can dig into. But that was sort of my background leading into my career in education.
Elizabeth: Thank you for sharing that. And I’m excited. We have some listeners who are located in Canada, so they’ll, they’ll like to hear this. So tell us, I’m curious to know, are there any differences that you noticed going in, growing up in the school system in Canada or Ontario? And then teaching in Florida was, was there anything that stood out to you as difference?
Dr. Josh Prieur: I think the, the primary difference is vernacular. You know, in education, we love our acronyms and on the Canadian side and the American side, there are just little nuances. So. I wouldn’t say there are major differences. I would say it’s just these little edge cases where You know, in, in Canada, we often say like, Hey, I’m, I’ve got a child who’s in grade one, whereas in the States, it most typically would say first grade and just little nuances like that.
Elizabeth: What brought you from Canada to teaching in the States?
Dr. Josh Prieur: Yeah. So we went to a teacher recruitment day that was offered in Buffalo, which was fantastic, gave prospective teachers the opportunity to meet with lots of different districts and my wife, who was, you know, then my girlfriend and I were both going into education and we thought, you know, moving, if we were going to move from the Buffalo area, where would we go?
And the Sunbelt sounds like a really nice destination. So we met with some districts down there and flew down shortly after. And the rest was history. We landed contracts and started our teaching career.
Elizabeth: I love to hear that. And it makes sense from going from maybe extreme cold to a little nice contrast of some sunshine.
Dr. Josh Prieur: Definitely.
Elizabeth: And how long were you in the classroom? And can you tell us about that pivotal point where you decided to try something new.
Dr. Josh Prieur: Sure. Absolutely. So I was in the classroom for two years. I already had had the bug to become an administrator and I went to school to get my degree in administration. And I was elated when I got asked to join the administration team. And so I jumped right into that pretty early in my education career.
So after spending two years in the classroom, I ended up serving as an administrator for six and a half years. And right around the six year mark is when I started to think about, you know, the, the passion that I have for education. And the notion that, although I loved the school and district I was working for, that I might be able to impact millions of students lives through my work.
And, and tech was sort of the solution for that. So, I remember being in class, I was wrapping up my doctorate in education, and I thought, why don’t I do some research on some firms that might be a good match for me? And that’s how it all sort of began.
Elizabeth: That’s so great to hear, and I’m excited to kind of talk about where you are now. You’re the Director of Education Enablement for Prodigy, and I know a lot of teachers will hear that name and think that’s familiar. I remember using it with my students. So, before we dive Where you are now, can you talk about that transition point and how you really transitioned out of the classroom to that initial first career outside of the traditional classroom?
Dr. Josh Prieur: Sure, absolutely. I remember it being an emotional moment because I had aspired to be a teacher and an administrator for so long. And when I sort of finished the, the moving out process and, and just took a look around my office for the last time, I thought, You know, this is it’s bittersweet because I was excited about the opportunity that was ahead but certainly missed a lot of the students and thought about how I would, you know, keep in touch with them and some of the families that I was connected with.
So it was a, it was a big transition and adding to that was the big move, right? From South Florida up to Toronto. That was really far. we had three very young kids at the time. So transitioning into prodigy was an interesting experience. I ended up landing a job that didn’t exist. They created a job for me and I’m happy to unpack that if that’s of interest.
Elizabeth: Oh, absolutely. We’d love to hear, you know, we have lots of educators who are looking to make a bigger impact and, you know, there’s so many different ways to get into industry. So we’d love to hear a little bit about. You know, how you connected with them in the first place and also what interested you about them.
Dr. Josh Prieur: Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things that I noticed pretty quickly as I started my search was that the job titles that I saw were very unfamiliar to me. You know, customer success manager and account executive and business development rep and data scientist. And I was like, Oh my God, like, I don’t know what any of this even means.
And so prodigy was already at the very top of my list, being a lover of digital games from a really young age. And I reached out to the, one of the co CEOs on LinkedIn. I just sent him a message and I said, Hey, I love what you’re doing. It’s very, very exciting. None of the job descriptions seem to match my background, but you know, I’m an assistant principal and I’ve got almost 10 years in public education.
It seems like maybe there’s, there’s work that we could do together. And he, he agreed. He connected me with their sales team and thought this might be a really good opportunity. So there were definitely some extra rounds of interviews as they sorted through what, what kind of a role would make sense for someone with a degree and a background like I had and landed as sort of a consultant where I was on the sales team and embedded and helping them really speak authentically to the needs of educational leaders.
And it was a really great start.
Elizabeth: That’s so interesting to hear that. Just hearing the different atypical ways that can get into these different roles, you know, thinking kind of outside the box. If there’s not a role there, just, you know, networking, being curious communicating. What type of skills did you bring to that first role that you had used in the classroom?
What were some of those transferable skills?
Dr. Josh Prieur: So one that immediately comes to mind is professional development and sort of that teaching aspect, so to speak, right? They really valued the background that I had being immersed as a teacher and an administrator. And I was able to very quickly sort of pinpoint the key areas that the team needed to bolster their background in and really just bring everybody together in various ways and leveraging fun tools to make it not so much a stage on the stage, stage on the stage environment and bring us together and really just rally around the kind of the key terms they needed to know the hot button issues in education.
And how to just connect effectively with administrators or with teachers.
Elizabeth: I’d love to hear a little bit more about the company about what you do. And then, you know, there’s a lot of ed tech companies out there. So what makes Prodigy special?
Dr. Josh Prieur: Absolutely. So, like I said, prodigy was at the top of my list really early on. And that was for a few reasons. I think the biggest one was that the business model that prodigy has is really unique. So all anyone needs is an internet connection and a device, and they can hop on either of our games.
Prodigy math is first through eighth grade. Prodigy English is first through sixth grade. And what we do is help learners just be really motivated, really engaged in their learning. So it’s critical that they do those standards aligned math and English skills that they need to know, but the adaptive nature of the platform, the algorithm running in the background helps them stay in their zone of proximal development.
But beyond that. The game based wrapper that surrounds the learning is what really gets them excited and captures their attention. So they feel compelled to do their best work and. What Prodigy does is offer all of that, the basic gameplay, the in game educational content at no cost. So teachers can sign up and use it for free, students can jump on and play it for free, and the vast majority do.
And what powers our business is optional parent memberships. And I just thought that was so compelling because For products that charge quite a bit per student per year. If a child lives in a district that can’t afford that tool, they just don’t get access to it. So that’s what really drew me into prodigy was that anyone anywhere can use it.
And that’s a mission that I feel happy to stand behind.
Elizabeth: That’s, thank you for sharing that. And that’s reminding me now, I worked at a Title I school district for a while, but then moved to a very different neighborhood. And in both communities, they both used Prodigy. So that, I appreciate you sharing, you know, how the business model works and that it’s accessible all students. And can you walk us through kind of your day to day, you know, now that you’re director of education enablement tell us what that is and what you do. Sure.
Dr. Josh Prieur: Sure. So I lead our work to make it easy for teachers to use prodigy to get trained on prodigy. So one aspect of that is partnering with schools and districts. And again, at no cost to them, really the important piece is that. We’re providing that teacher training because one thing that Prodigy does really well is allows teachers to connect the in game educational content to what they’re teaching in under 30 seconds, and that’s an important step that teachers can, can use to make the Prodigy use really impact.
And so we, uh, On the educator enablement team go through sort of that whole flow from, you know, awareness to driving a partnership and then to training the teachers. And we’ve got an amazing team that’s doing the work and shout out to them. And it’s highly cross functional, right? Like, my team couldn’t do what it does without.
The educator team on product or the game team or the data team. Like there’s just so many moving parts. So on a day to day basis, I’m thinking strategically about what can we do to help as many teachers get trained on prodigy as possible so that they’re using it with high intent. Certainly
Elizabeth: And then can you talk a little bit about growth? Because when you started you had a different position, if I’m correct, and you know, a lot of teachers when they’re leaving the classroom, Might start in a more, less senior level position. So I’m curious to know, you know, you’ve shown all of the growth you’ve made there so far, and I’m sure there’s even opportunity for more growth, but walk us through kind of where you started and, and how you progressed in your career.
Dr. Josh Prieur: I’d say, you know, growth mindset is one of our cultural prodigy and it resonates with me. Because to your point, 100 percent the education specialist role that I jumped into was very junior. And it was, let’s, let’s see what you can do. We’re making a bet on you. You’re making a bet on us. And so there was a lot of on the job training that happened where in the business environment.
I just wasn’t familiar with all of the acronyms and the way that things operate. And so one thing I did pretty early on was microcourses on things like Coursera and on LinkedIn to just try and quickly level up my business knowledge. And as my career progressed a little bit, um, I moved into doing a master of business administration degree to really You know, upscale so that I could feel my growth and continue along that trajectory.
Elizabeth: Oh, that’s very helpful here. And earlier you mentioned some of those transferable skills that you already had, and then now you’ve mentioned some newer skills. So what were some of those specific new skills that you had to learn to be able to in this?
Dr. Josh Prieur: One of the biggest was the financials and data and forecasting side. the great news to your point is that so many skills are transferable. I just, I think it’s the best kept secret ever that educators Make phenomenal employees, and that’s because they’re they’re selling, so to speak, on a day to day basis.
If they’re not selling what they’re teaching and the kids aren’t buying it, then they’re not going to be a great teacher. Right? And organization is another one. That’s absolutely critical. So at the baseline, I would say there are so many transferable skills, which is great. And then beyond that, Yeah, I think it’s thinking strategically.
It’s that long term planning people management. If you haven’t done it before that, I was fortunate to have had that experience. But I, I would say that sort of the data forecasting goal setting element, that’s, that’s something that took me some time to develop. And even in my current role, I’m still very much developing.
Elizabeth: That’s so good to hear. And what’s, your favorite part of the job.
Dr. Josh Prieur: I think one thing that I love is that every day presents a really unique challenge. And that’s something that gets me excited. Especially on the learning side, like we’re always looking for ways to innovate and do things in a new and different way. And it excites me that I get to connect with educational leaders from across the country.
It excites me that I’ve got a phenomenal team that just works so hard and that every day to bring our goals to life. So there are so many challenges, and I think it’s the sort of the love of the challenge. It’s the hard that makes it great, so to speak, to quote one of my favorite baseball movies.
Elizabeth: And on the flip side, I was going to ask you a challenge, which is interesting. Cause you said the love of the challenge. So what are some of those challenges?
Dr. Josh Prieur: I think one of the biggest challenges that, that I face and probably many people in similar roles is that there are a lot of moving pieces. There are always a lot of different things to keep track of, and you’ve got to be really detail oriented to make sure that you are not letting things slip through the cracks.
And so I would say being highly organized is a great way to do that. And another sort of trick that I’ve learned that brings me some peace in my life is I have a coffee and email block in my schedule every morning. So I get up a little extra early, just like I did when I was an administrator. And I come in and I answer my emails and I have a couple of cups of coffee and I just get ready for the day.
Elizabeth: That’s, that’s helpful to hear. And since we’re kind of on that topic of, you know, blocking calendars and, and building your schedule, can you tell us a little bit about your work life balance and how it’s different from being in the classroom or in the school district, if
Dr. Josh Prieur: Sure, yeah, I would say, I would say my job keeps me very busy. I would say certainly more so than when I was a teacher, although I remember very well all the extra hours, uh, that I put in. I would say my current role, since it’s a little more senior, aligns more with my role as an administrator. Where often there were a lot of like after school events and supervision and things like that.
So in terms of work life balance, I would say it’s a good work life balance, but you’ve got to be conscious, uh, or at least I try to be very conscious of when I’m working so that I’m around for the family. So, for example, my early morning work block allows me to be around in the evenings. And then, while certainly my wife and I both have work to do on the weekends, we try and time box it.
So that one of us is with the kids and then the other can get the work done that needs to be done.
Elizabeth: that makes sense, thank you for sharing that. And another thing I’m just kind of curious about the EdTech space. You know, a lot of teachers are familiar. They’re working with students and there’s all of these softwares in the classroom. And then, then I remember at one point being on a curriculum committee, you know, trying to decide what we were going to purchase, what we were going to use in the classroom. So when you’re in this space and there’s so many different softwares out there how do you go into these? So how do you work with these districts and work with these educators, you know, kind of what you do with enablement or post, you know, getting them to adopt it. How do you kind of that, that your program is going to support their students?
Dr. Josh Prieur: I think what, what needs to happen at the ground level is. Really that it is a true partnership. So there’s certainly an element of, you know, cold outreach where, you know, I’ve heard you on the show in the past, talk about that BDR role, the business development rep. And that’s something that I’ll touch on briefly, right?
Those are the folks that are doing cold calling and cold emailing on our behalf. Really. Aiming to get administrators excited about who we are and what we offer. And thankfully, we’ve got strong recognition in that regard from there. It layers into the account executives. These are the people who make the initial presentation to those school or district leaders to cover.
You know who we are and what we do and how we do it and really tell our story. And then comes in the training element where, you know, we’ve got an experienced educator on our team and she used Prodigy in her classroom for nine years. She’s the one who developed our training and she delivers it. And so all of those pieces need to come together.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that awareness piece too, where, you know, we work hard to blend in and Help district administrators know through channels that they love through whether it’s email campaigns or, or other work like that to help them get excited about what we offer.
Elizabeth: Thank you for laying that out for us. And one other thing I wanted to touch on in your title as director of education enablement, it says B2C and B2B. Would you elaborate for those who are unfamiliar with those acronyms what that means in your space?
Dr. Josh Prieur: Sure, absolutely. So, on the B to C side, so that would be business to consumer. That’s where you know, we sort of are a great business for the direct to teacher approach because prodigy is free. Any teacher anywhere can pick it up. And so one element of our work is making sure that teachers know about that and they can just pick it up and use it.
No issues there, and certainly no cost behind it. And then B2B would be business to business. And that’s where we, Aim to partner with schools and districts. So although a district isn’t technically a business, they, they really are. They operate like one. And so that would be the, the, the background of the B2B and B2C information.
Elizabeth: Thank you. do you have any advice out there for the community? You know, we’ve got teachers, administrators, and then also a few superintendents, you know, to change careers. So what would be your advice? piece of advice to those looking to get into this space,
Dr. Josh Prieur: Definitely. I’ll start with the superintendent side and that’s often a consultancy type of role. That’s pretty common in that space. Um, they can leverage their expertise and, and often work for a few different companies, which is an interesting An interesting opportunity on the teacher side. I I’ll tell a very brief story.
About Cassandra, who is our teacher trainer, and she stood out as a huge brand advocate, and that’s what landed her sort of on our radar, so to speak. And when we had a chance to do a school visit, uh, at her school, we did a tournament there. 500 students. They answered 14, 000 math questions in that one day alone.
So that was really impactful. She came with us to a conference and presented with us and man, I knew if we had the opportunity to hire her, that we should, and she made such a positive impression and I was thrilled to give her the chance to join our team and elated when she accepted. So I think. That’s really an important opportunity for teachers is leaning into the programs that you really love and letting the companies know that because you never know what opportunities exist, whether it’s starting at a conference and presenting with them, supporting them at their exhibitor booth or what let them know you love their products and get on their radar.
Elizabeth: that makes sense to kind of be that brand ambassador so they can see, cause they, you know, they want someone who loves the product. And, that’s great advice. And I know you mentioned earlier, you reached out on LinkedIn to the CEO. When networking and reaching out on LinkedIn. You know, there’s the different levels of seniority.
Do you kind of recommend reaching out to the position that you’re going for if you want customer success to try to, connect with them or your strategy there?
Dr. Josh Prieur: I, so I think it depends. The strategy that I had was to aim high, to try and put downward pressure on the organization. Because if I could get a CEO excited, then that might mean that I am able to get around the, the robot inbox of job applications. The other was that it was just very curious. Like I did reach out to a few different places and asked if I could just have a conversation to learn more about the sector and just, what is it like to be in edtech.
Or in their specific environment. And that was often met with, with a positive response and a curiosity on their behalf as well. So my biggest advice on that strategy is yeah, to be curious and aim high.
Elizabeth: Awesome. And I’ve loved getting to know you and hear your story and especially the part where Prodigy values educators. And administrators and people who’ve been in that space to help continue to build and improve your product. And then also it’s been great to hear all of your career growth and at where you started and where you are now. And we kind of love to wrap these up by hearing about what you’ve learned about yourself, um, in this journey, in this big career journey.
Dr. Josh Prieur: Sure. I think one thing, one thing I knew was that I was a go getter. And so that kind of stuck with me, but I wasn’t ready to make a move until I saw someone else do it and do it successfully. And I thought. Okay. Maybe that could be me. And then the thing that I think I learned along the way was that I could learn a whole different sector and a whole different vertical, like, right.
Like coming from education, I understand that background, but learning the business side of things was a beast and it continues to be so, I think if people are ever in doubt. You know, just know that they can do it. You, you can get in and you can learn if you really apply yourself and, uh, and be successful for sure.
Elizabeth: Well, thank you so much for joining us and I can’t wait for everyone to listen.
Dr. Josh Prieur: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
