Season 2, Episode 39: Imparting Joy in Education with Jill Dubois

What does it look like to reinvent your career without losing the parts of yourself that matter most?

Jill Dubois spent 22 years in elementary classrooms before stepping into what she calls her ”Act Two” — and she hasn't slowed down since. Now a professional learning specialist with Forward Edge, author, illustrator, artist, and the creator behind Imparted Joy, Jill brings warmth, creativity, and genuine human connection to everything she does. This summer she attended the Google Innovator Academy in Atlanta and came home and immediately started building GEG Tampa to connect educators across the Tampa Bay area and beyond.

This week we talk about joy, AI, career reinvention, and what happens when you stop waiting for permission to do the things that light you up.

In this episode:

• How Jill went from volunteering at her son's school to 22 years in the classroom — and why homeschooling him through middle and high school changed the way she taught everyone else

• What Imparted Joy is, where it came from, and why it still drives everything she does

• Her ”Act Two” — how she landed at Forward Edge, became a Google Certified Trainer, and then applied to the Google Innovator Academy

• What AI actually looks like in professional learning right now — the good, the messy, and the teachers who accidentally submitted their entire AI prompt instead of their reflection

• Why AI is your passenger, not your driver

• How joy shows up in professional development — and why setting boundaries is part of it

• Colored pencils, crocheting, unfinished projects, and why none of that matters as long as you're doing something for yourself

Plus: We play Sparks Joy or Hard Pass — Jill weighs in on laminators, conference swag, QR codes, Bitmoji classrooms, Canva, paper planners, Chrome extensions, educator conference selfies, Google Forms for everything, mandatory icebreakers, Teachers Pay Teachers, badges and micro-credentials, the Google waffle, Sunday night lesson planning, and ”remember your why.”

Connect with Jill:

• Website: impartedjoy.com

• LinkedIn: Jill Dubois

• Find her — she's everywhere, but LinkedIn is home base right now

If this episode gave you a little spark, share it with someone who needs a reminder that Act Two is allowed to look completely different. Subscribe and leave a review.