Episode 2: After Hours: Avocado Gate & Alternative School | The Edu20/20 Podcast
Courtney Dumas
January 13, 2026
In this After Hours episode, Courtney’s infamous “Avocado Gate” write-up and Shannon’s alternative-school and playground-spider stories show how school culture often focuses on the wrong things — and why a sense of humor is an educator’s best survival tool.
Welcome to the After Hours edition of the Edu20/20 Podcast. Think of this as the space where we tell the stories that don’t usually make it into our trainings but absolutely shaped who we are as educators.
In today’s episode, it’s all things Courtney. Specifically, the era we now lovingly call Avocado Gate. Yes, she really got written up for a dancing Snapchat avocado during a leadership meeting. Yes, it was as ridiculous as it sounds. But it also raised a real question about how often schools focus on the wrong things.
Shannon jumps in with two stories of her own. One involves alternative school and the other involves a spider at recess that led to a very unexpected PG-13 vocabulary lesson for an entire playground. Both are peak educator humor and peak educator resilience.
If you’ve ever worked in a school, you probably have a few stories like these. This episode is for teachers, mentors, coaches, and anyone who survived school culture with a sense of humor still intact.
We’re just getting started with these. Both in the hours and after hours.
