Hello! My name is Peter Miley, and I’ve been with IDLA for three years now. Since joining IDLA, I’ve been given countless opportunities to grow, learn, and flourish. One of the coolest parts of the job has been traveling throughout my region! Which is from the Canadian border all the way down to St. Maries, and getting to know the amazing people I support. It’s honestly so refreshing to work somewhere you don’t have to remind yourself to “assume best intentions” because it’s obvious that everyone just has the best intentions.
Unmuted: IDLA Q&A
Q: What does a typical day look like in your role?
A: Honestly, I’m kind of an air traffic controller for the intersection where IDLA meets Region 1 schools. I spend a lot of my day answering emails, helping schools solve problems, and getting everyone where they need to go.
Q: What’s one thing about your job that might surprise people?
A: Probably how much time I spend on the road. One day, I’m answering emails from my home office, and the next I’m driving across some of the prettiest parts of Idaho to visit schools and work with counselors, teachers, and students face-to-face.
Q: What’s one project or achievement at IDLA that you’re especially proud of?
A: Hmmm… It’s the trust I’ve built with schools. I try to keep it honest, keep it real, and be someone they can call without feeling like they’re about to get a corporate canned response. Like, I’ve worked in a school before, and I know it’s often an uphill battle, so if I can make someone’s day a little easier, I’m stoked!
Q: What do you love most about working in online education?
A: I think what makes online education so cool is that it quietly embraces constructivism. We’re not standing there with a knowledge funnel trying to pour information into students’ heads. Instead, we do our best to create the conditions in which students can figure things out for themselves.
Q: What’s one unique aspect of IDLA that people might not realize?
A: We as an organization are all pretty tight! Like, I’d take a small bullet in a non-vital location for any and every member of my team here at IDLA. We truly are squad goals!
Q: If you could swap roles with someone at IDLA for a day, who would it be and why?
A: Ooooh! Kristin Binder! I feel like doing her job for a day would be like training at altitude. I call her the leader of the shadow government of IDLA for a reason!
Q: What’s a favorite memory you’ve had while working at IDLA?
A: I got to be a camp counselor for our IDLA Everyone Can Create camp in McCall this summer, and it was amazing getting to see students cook up and tangibalize amazing ideas in real time!
Q: What’s one fun fact about you that most people don’t know?
A: I kinda love over-intellectualizing things that I’m doing so that it makes whatever it is feel more intense and meaningful. For example, in the morning, I’m not hitting the snooze button five times every weekday morning, I am actually just renegotiating the social contract between my consciousness and the obligations that exist for the day.
Lightning Round!
Q: What’s your go-to coffee (or tea) order?
A: Honestly, it is a White Monster Energy Drink.
Q: If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be?
A: Carl Jung! I feel like he also overintellectualizes the benign, and we could definitely bond on that fact!
Q: What’s the best book, TV show, or podcast you’ve enjoyed recently?
A: I just finished reading Reality+ by David Chalmers. The book explores the possibility that we may be living inside a simulated or virtual reality, while also examining philosophical questions about meaning, consciousness, and what it would actually mean if simulation theory were true.
Q: What’s one piece of technology you couldn’t live without?
A: 4G LTE, I could live without 5Gs, but if you put me in a location with even more limited cell service my heart rate increases a smidge.
Q: If you could work remotely from anywhere in the world, where would it be?
A: Air Force 1, I think it would be cool to just fly around in the ultimate and most powerful remote office to put in some work.
I guess in closing, I just want to say it has been so nice to see how fantastic the people in the IDLA community are! We have dedicated educators, charismatic leaders, and just baller people who pour their hearts into helping students succeed no matter what. You know, I walk into a lot of schools throughout the year, and every time I witness school staff fighting what is often an uphill battle for student success, and time and time again, they somehow manage to take that hill and set their students up for a bright future! It has been an absolute honor to get to support what schools are already doing day in and day out, and I’m grateful to be a small part of a community that believes so deeply in students and in each other.
