January 5, 2023 • 19 mins
In this episode, Eric Cross sits down with TikTok star and podcast host Lauran Woolley about her experience teaching science content within her K–5 classroom. Lauran shares how she’s learned how to make time for science, and what most K–5 teachers experience when creating their own science curriculum. Lauran also talks about her rise in popularity on TikTok, her podcast, Teachers Off Duty, and establishing strong relationships with her 5th-grade students.
Follow Lauran on Tiktok!
You can listen and watch the Teachers Off Duty podcast here!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I wanna make sure that they're ready for the real
world, and I wanna make surethat they're able to apply these
things that I'm teaching them intheir life, not on a multiple
choice test.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to Science Connections.
I'm your host Eric Cross.
My guest today is Lauren Wooley.
Lauren is a full-time fifthgrade teacher in Latonia, Ohio,
who is a master following of 5.5million subscribers on TikTok
and over 1 million followers onYouTube.
She's also co-host of thepodcast teachers off duty.
Lauren has combined her teachingvocation and her talent for
entertaining to connect with herstudents and encourage teachers
(00:33):
across the world using her ownunique style of entertainment.
My most vivid memory from ourdiscussion was her sincerity and
openness about her experiences.
It quickly became obvious to methat her personal transparency
was a characteristic that shehas remained grounded in despite
her social media success.
And now please enjoy mydiscussion with Lauren Wooley.
(00:53):
You're currently teaching fifthgrade?
Yes.
What is it like to teach allcontent areas?
Cause I'm a middle schoolscience teacher.
I
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Didn't always teach all content areas first.
I started in second grade, so Iused to teach like primary.
I taught that for about threeyears.
And, um, I only really got myfour or five endorsement because
it was told to me that it wouldmake me more marketable as a
teacher.
So I got it.
I was like, I'm never gonna usethat.
And then, um, my second yearteaching my class had low
(01:23):
numbers and they collapsed mysecond grade classroom, split up
my students and then moved me tofifth grade.
In January.
I had to take over a fifth gradeclass with all content areas in
the middle of a school year.
And it was really hard.
It was like probably one of themost challenging things I've
ever had to do teaching.
Um, when I got my job at mycurrent school, it was only
(01:45):
language arts, social studies.
So we only have two fifth gradeclasses.
My other teacher would teachmath science.
I taught language arts, socialstudies, and then the timeframes
weren't matching up.
Like we, I didn't have enoughtime in my, my schedule for all
the things we had to do in ourcurriculum.
And she had like a little bittoo much time.
We realized as a district thatit would be better for our fifth
(02:06):
grade classes to just beself-contained.
And last year was the first yearI taught all five subjects.
And I liked the variety ofteaching everything because I,
when I taught just languagearts, social studies, I just
felt like I was repeating myselftwice a day.
.
Mm-hmm.
.
It was kind of boring for me.
So like, I like doing all of it.
.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
With all of your talents and like your background
and what I've seen, I, I couldtotally see why having all the
different content areas wouldlike make sense.
Are you using a set curriculum?
How do you come up with what toteach?
Do you do it with teams?
Like who comes up with that?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Uh, me, myself and I,
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well done
Speaker 1 (02:39):
My school for literacy.
We're using literacycollaborative.
Okay.
Then for math, we just adoptedbridges, which I love and it's
very hands-on, very like studentled for science.
We had nothing.
And I am not a science or wasnot a science teacher at the
time when I took over.
So I panicked a bit and I waslike, Hey, can we have some kind
(03:02):
of science curriculum?
Cuz I got nothing.
And it's not hard to look at thestate standards and figure out
what you need to teach them, buthaving no resources to go off of
is extremely difficult.
And luckily I have, um, an olderbrother, he's like three years
older than me and he's also ateacher.
He actually is a scienceteacher.
(03:24):
Cause that first year that I wasteaching all subjects, I was
like, Hey Ryan, can you justlike send me all of your Google
Drive files for Science?
And he's like, yeah, sure.
So he kind of was like a mentorfor like the first year that I
taught science.
And this year being that mysecond full year teaching
science, I feel much moreconfident.
I'm still using his resources.
(03:45):
We don't have a dedicatedcurriculum at my school.
So that's like one thing I'vebeen fighting, um, my school on.
And not that they don't wannaget us one, but like they were
focused on getting the mathcurriculum last year.
And then I was told, okay, thisyear will be science because in
my state, fifth grade is a, atested area for science and we
have no curriculum.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Ryan, keep doing what you're doing big bro.
Second thank you to everyteacher Yes.
Who's had a Google Drive folderfull of curriculum that you
graciously shared to a newteacher or someone else that
they could have.
Can
Speaker 1 (04:18):
We just say like, can schools like schools please get
your teacher's sciencecurriculums like
Speaker 2 (04:24):
?
No, absolutely.
Right.
And there is this way ofthinking that, that, especially
as a science teacher, it'ssomething that is dear to my
heart, but mm-hmm.
, we do want todevelop these math and English
skills that's important and, andwe need that for science, but
we've always taught so siloedfor so long mm-hmm.
, but that's notthe way that we learn and that's
not the way life works.
The, the something thatintrigued me about what you
said, and I think a lot ofpeople can relate to it, and I
(04:46):
know I can because that was me,is you created your own content
or your science content.
Like you're kind of piecing thattogether from, from what Ryan
had shared with you.
How do you make time for thatwith all of the other things
that you're going in?
Pressures of state testing andthings like that.
Like how do you, how do youweave that into your, your
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Teaching?
So we have like things that arenon-negotiable in our schedules.
Like we have to have so manyminutes of this, so many minutes
of that, so many minutes ofwhatever else.
Well, the first year, the firstyear I was, uh, self-contained.
I was like, okay, uh, my maingoal, because science is a
tested area, I wanna make surethat I get in science every
single day.
90% of the time I'm able to getanywhere from 30 to 45 minutes
(05:25):
of science every day.
But this year it was my goal tomake sure that I was getting
science done and like we weredoing meaningful lessons.
And last year I didn't do this,but this year I'm doing a
Christmas center for stem.
So I got it off of teachers payteachers.
I, I'm sorry, I can't rememberwho it was made by, but it's
called Jingle All the Way andit's like building Santa's new
sleigh.
And so like the kids haveactivity where they have
(05:48):
popsicle sticks, straws, aplastic cup and then like tape.
And they have to build a newsleigh for Santa and see how
many pennies their sleigh canhold.
Um, like talk about, uh, a, asleigh being lightweight but
also strong and like what wouldmake it strong and different
things like that.
So I've been trying toincorporate a lot more STEM
activities.
And then something I really liketo use for experiment days, I
(06:11):
call them lab days, is gizmo.
Have you heard of Gizmo?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
The simulations.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah.
Uh, my brother showed me thattoo and he was using it in his
class.
I mean there's so many differentones that they have that align
with the standards and they havelike student lab sheets that go
with them and teacher guides andstuff.
I've just been trying to like upmy game a little bit more this
year because last year I waslike struggling to get all of
(06:37):
the standards in before statetesting came around because can
we agree state testing shouldnot be as early as it is.
Our state test happens in likeMarch and we have two months of
school left.
So like we better be done withstandards by February so we
could review because otherwisewe're kind of outta luck because
(06:58):
we run outta time.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yes.
It that And there's all kinds ofother things that state testing
brings with it that we couldspend a lot of time probably
critiquing and, and talkingabout like as far as what's yes,
what's ideal for kids and what'sthe best way to measure and
assess learning that that's,that is one question I wanna ask
you though, because I know withyour work on TikTok and
Instagram and, and and YouTube,you must be connected to a
(07:20):
pretty vast heat network and I'm, and maybe you have like a
kinda like more of an innercircle of, of people, but you
must come across so manydifferent perspectives and, and
get into great discussions.
Oh yeah.
Is there, is thereanything that kind of stands out
to you as far as if you were incharge of what we're doing?
Because that's kind of thesystem that we all live in and
we kind of are trying tointernally change it, but it's
(07:43):
been that way for a long timeand we just kind of have to work
within it until we can makechanges.
But if you were to, I dunno froman elementary school
perspective, change or modifythe way kids are learning, what
would you do if you had Monarchability or
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Like first things?
Okay, I got three main thingsI'm thinking in my head.
Okay, first things first we gotMaslow's hierarchy of needs.
Okay.
If kids are coming to schoolhungry, if they're coming to
school and don't have, you know,fresh clothing to put on, if
they're coming to school andthey have issues at home that
they are dealing with, that theyare not okay with, the learning
is not happening.
(08:15):
It that's secondary.
They don't, it doesn't matter tothem.
It doesn't matter to me becausewhat's most important is that
child as a human being andwhether or not they're okay.
If I had unlimited resources, Iwould love to be able to build
like a little mini villageinside a school and have like,
like a clothing store that kidscould grab stuff from.
(08:36):
Or like a, you know how I knowhow school have like closets and
food pantries, but like a, areal place.
They could get some new clothes,not like hand me down clothes
like a store.
They could go and grab some foodif they needed food for their
homes or whatever.
Um, we have like an onsitecounselor but not like a school
counselor, like a therapist typecounselor for like mental
(08:59):
health.
Um, having some kind of likehealth clinic, not just like a
school nurse because let's,let's be real, our school nurses
see everything and theydo not get enough credit, but
like to have like a little likeurgent care clinic, like
basically a small towninside a school that like kids
would have all of the resourcesthat they need met.
(09:21):
Like that would be my number onething that I would love to do.
I, I have taught in, you know,I've only taught in two
different schools, but like I'veseen a lot of things and the
number one thing that keepscoming back is just like home
lives and mental health andhaving someone to talk to.
And I think our kids don't haveenough of that.
(09:43):
Second of all would be obviouslystate testing because I mean,
it's good to see like where ourkids are at.
I don't think it should be usedpunitively and I don't think
that it should be putting asmuch pressure on teachers and
students the way that it is.
It's like, it's not effectivethat way at all.
(10:04):
Let teachers do their jobswithout us having to, like, cuz
honestly, who is, who's notgonna say that?
They're not trying to set theirstudents up to do the best on
that test.
Our evaluation depends on it.
I'm gonna make sure my studentsare prepared for it.
I'm gonna teach all thestandards, but like, I shouldn't
have to be teaching so that theycould do well on a test.
I wanna make sure that they'reready for the real world and I
(10:25):
wanna make sure that they'reable to apply these things that
I'm teaching them in their life,not on a multiple choice test.
Third of all,,
Speaker 2 (10:33):
This, this is great.
And I think a lot of teachersthat listen will listen and, and
be like, that's what I'm talkingabout right there.
Keep going.
You're on, you're on three.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
That would be two teachers in every classroom.
Either two teachers in each roomor like a teacher and uh, a
paraprofessional in each roombecause there's not even an
argument that teachers are moreeffective when they have help.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I would even carry the math on further and say that
it's a force multiplier.
Mm-hmm.
like exponentiallythat, that it's not just, it's
not just like a one plus oneequals two teachers.
It's almost like you have, youcan almost have like three or
four mm-hmm.
just because ofthe energy and the synergy that
can be created between the twomm-hmm.
and you can pushoff of each other, encourage one
another and both supportdifferent types of students.
(11:15):
Mm-hmm.
.
So I I agree a hundred percent.
I I I think that mm-hmm.
, if you had twoteachers that were in sync and,
and planning together andtalking about kids all of the
time, you would be able to godeeper with students.
You'd be able to find out thosethings that you talked about in
Maslow's because sometimes wedon't find out about it until a
parent-teacher conference orkids left our classroom.
(11:35):
I wish I would've known that.
Yeah.
The student was without thesethings in the very beginning.
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
.
Wh so when do you start in theschool and there're gonna be, do
we, do we go on LinkedIn to signup and apply or is it like a
lottery system?
Like, cuz you know, I was gonnaget a lot of attention.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I would love to, to Oprah Winfrey this and like
build my own school.
Like
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I, we gotta get those followers up.
We gotta build up thesponsorships.
We gotta get you up to a hundredmillion.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Listen, if all of I know, if all of my followers
across all my platforms donatedlike$2, we could have$12 million
to build a school.
.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Think about like, donors choose, right?
People do that.
Yeah.
And I know there's mixedfeelings about it because we
need stuff in our classroom.
I'm just gonna say that.
All right.
So yeah.
Whether I have to ask for it ona website or whatever, but
people want to give directly tokids, they, or people who need
it.
Mm-hmm.
.
And I think when there'sopportunities like that, that
are visible, people are morelikely to want to,
Speaker 1 (12:29):
In reality, should other people have to fund
education in classrooms.
No.
That's literally what your taxesare for a government funded
classroom versus a teacherfunded classroom are two
different things.
And we know that, but teachers,like if teachers are asking for
things or asking for donationson Amazon or on donors, choose,
(12:51):
just knowing your heart thatthat teacher has probably
already shelled out out a lot oftheir own cash to do that.
It's not that they're, you know,asking for handouts or anything
like that.
They're trying to give theirstudents the best that they can
and that that's the thoughtprocess behind it.
And until we get changes in oureducation system or changes in
(13:12):
legislature that will allow usto do that or will allow
classroom budgets, I mean, ourhands are tied.
Like there's only so muchteachers can do.
I'm very fortunate to teach in adistrict that sees the value in
spending money on their teachersand students.
And, um, like my school, like Isaid, we just, they just shelled
(13:34):
out thousands of dollars on anew math curriculum.
They bought school supplies.
Literally every teacher madetheir school supply list this
year.
And then the district went inand paid for every single
student's school supplies in theentire district.
Can
Speaker 2 (13:49):
We get a shout out to your district real quick?
Uh,
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah.
I mean, shout out latoniaschools like I, I mean, you guys
are awesome and I like, I'll,I'll shout that from the
rooftops.
I love where I teach.
Like I, I really do think thatthey, they value our students
and they care about our studentsand our admin is great.
We got a new superintendent acouple years ago.
He's been doing a phenomenal joband I, I really love it and I'm,
I'm glad I teach there.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
When you move out of the classroom, you know, in any
position of leadership, you dohave the microscope or
magnifying glass on you and alot of times it's critical.
Mm-hmm.
and, and notunjustifiably.
So, I mean, there's a lot ofthings that can be critiqued.
However, what we don't alwayshear is the success stories or
where it's working for teachersand why.
(14:32):
And we need leaders to be ableto talk to each other and fi
Hey, it's working in yourdistrict.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, I just heard, I just heardthis district get shot out.
I'm gonna go reach out to thosepeople.
Hey, what are you doing?
Yeah.
Because we, we, we connect witheach other, but I think when you
go like a level up, that kind ofgetting up the top of the
mountain mm-hmm.
The, the connection sometimescan become more difficult for,
for people.
There's not a, a lot of, I don'tknow, maybe there are, but admin
(14:54):
influencers.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Oh yeah, there are definitely are.
And I've met some reallyincredible ones.
There's, I'm, I'm on a committeeat my school, it's called N nps,
it's the National Network ofPartnership Schools.
Um, it was started out of OhioState University.
Essentially it is a committee inthe school that's dedicated to
bringing together the communityand businesses and partnering
(15:16):
with people to make our, ourschool as strong as it can be.
We started last year and um, wedid, uh, a bear breakfast cuz
our mascot is a bear.
And we had Christmas things andwe had the choir, Caroline, and
we had pancake breakfast foreverybody and it was completely
free.
It was just really nice to seeeverybody come together.
(15:38):
And it feels like the culturechanges when people work
together and come together forthe betterment of the school and
for the students.
And I think what's challengingis that so many people have such
a negative experience from theirschooling that they're hesitant
to get involved in their kids'schooling.
I urge any parents out there,any guardians out there that
(16:00):
are, you know, in that mindsetwhere you're like, I didn't like
my teachers in school, or I hadthis, this, this and happened to
me at school.
Give it a chance to know thatthings have changed and things
are changing.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I definitely agree with, with you about parent
engagement and getting involvedand sometimes parents, they just
don't know that they should.
But wow, your voice is sopowerful, especially at board
meetings and things like that.
Mm-hmm.
gettingstakeholders involved, creating
community, which it sounds likeyour school did a great job or
your district did a great job of, um, the last question I wanna
ask you, and it's kind of goingback to who your influencer was
mm-hmm.
is you now are ina position where your impact
(16:35):
exceeds more than, you know,you're planting so many seeds
you're sharing, and you'll hearmaybe a few, or I'm sure you'll
hear, hear the things that kindof come back to you, but that's
only a fraction.
Um, but I wanted to ask you,like, as you think back on your
career as an educator or whenyou were in school K through
five or K through 12, is thereanyone who stands out to you or
who, who was maybe yourinfluencer or teacher who made a
(16:55):
big difference that, that wasmemorable?
And, and if so, what, who was itand what was it about them or
what did, did they do?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
So I had a lot of teachers that I, I really had
good relationships with and I, Iloved school growing up, but one
always stood out in particular,and that was my ninth grade
English teacher and her name isAndrea Reid.
She was the first person whoreally told me that I was
talented at something and that Icould succeed in something
(17:22):
because she was the Englishteacher.
She was also a coach of thespeech and debate team at my
high school.
Just one day after school.
She was like, Hey, like youshould come to speech tryouts.
So I went to tryouts, like I didit not thinking like I cared if
I made it or didn't, and then Imade the team.
And honestly, I feel like speechwas the starting point of all of
(17:44):
it.
I competed in speech and debatefor four years of high school
and she was my coach.
I always have, I have horriblenervousness with public
speaking, even though I do it alot.
And she would always give melike the best hype speeches and
the best confidence boosters.
And I feel like speech, um,started my love of acting and
started my love of like, youknow, comedy and stuff like
(18:07):
that.
And so therefore TikTok happenedand I don't think any of this
would've happened had it notbeen for her and her opening
that door for me and telling me,Hey, you would be good at this.
You should try it.
Uh, we're still friends to thisday, 15 years later, and she is
like an older sister to me and Ilove it.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
That's amazing.
Andrea Reed, that's her name.
Andrea, yep.
Andrea.
Andrea Reid.
Uh, Ms.
Reid, thank you, uh, forinspiring Lord and
because of your impact now it'simpacting so many others and as
teachers, like, we don't even,we don't know, but it's, and
it's so humbling to know thatlike the words that we say to
people have that impact andpower.
(18:46):
It's so, it's, it's so inspiringto me.
Mm-hmm.
, uh, one of thethings that resonate with you so
much is your transparency.
Like in your depth.
Like even as just listening toyou talk, you normalize and
humanize so many things that weexperience and I'm sure that's
what a lot of the people thatwatch you connect with.
Thank you.
You show your life, your family,your house, your, all these
things that are happening.
And I was just looking throughthe comments and there's just so
(19:08):
many people that are warm.
Not just your students, but likeso many teachers.
So thank you for doing whatyou're doing and I, I I wish you
tremendous success.
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
No, thank you so much for having me.
This was awesome.
I just wish everybody a greatschool year and I hope that we
all make it through Winter Yourbreak.
,
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Thanks so much for listening to this season of
Science Connections.
I love learning about scienceeducators just like you.
You can nominate educators thatinspire you to become a future
guest on Science Connections byemailing stem amplify.com.
That's sst eem amplify.com.
Make sure to click subscribewherever you listen to podcasts
and tune in for a brand newseason of Science Connections
(19:50):
coming soon.
I wanna make sure that they're ready for the real
world, and I wanna make surethat they're able to apply these
things that I'm teaching them intheir life, not on a multiple
choice test.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to Science Connections.
I'm your host Eric Cross.
My guest today is Lauren Wooley.
Lauren is a full-time fifthgrade teacher in Latonia, Ohio,
who is a master following of 5.5million subscribers on TikTok
and over 1 million followers onYouTube.
She's also co-host of thepodcast teachers off duty.
Lauren has combined her teachingvocation and her talent for
entertaining to connect with herstudents and encourage teachers
(00:33):
across the world using her ownunique style of entertainment.
My most vivid memory from ourdiscussion was her sincerity and
openness about her experiences.
It quickly became obvious to methat her personal transparency
was a characteristic that shehas remained grounded in despite
her social media success.
And now please enjoy mydiscussion with Lauren Wooley.
(00:53):
You're currently teaching fifthgrade?
Yes.
What is it like to teach allcontent areas?
Cause I'm a middle schoolscience teacher.
I
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Didn't always teach all content areas first.
I started in second grade, so Iused to teach like primary.
I taught that for about threeyears.
And, um, I only really got myfour or five endorsement because
it was told to me that it wouldmake me more marketable as a
teacher.
So I got it
I was like, I'm never gonna usethat.
And then, um, my second yearteaching my class had low
(01:23):
numbers and they collapsed mysecond grade classroom, split up
my students and then moved me tofifth grade.
In January.
I had to take over a fifth gradeclass with all content areas in
the middle of a school year.
And it was really hard.
It was like probably one of themost challenging things I've
ever had to do teaching.
Um, when I got my job at mycurrent school, it was only
(01:45):
language arts, social studies.
So we only have two fifth gradeclasses.
My other teacher would teachmath science.
I taught language arts, socialstudies, and then the timeframes
weren't matching up.
Like we, I didn't have enoughtime in my, my schedule for all
the things we had to do in ourcurriculum.
And she had like a little bittoo much time.
We realized as a district thatit would be better for our fifth
(02:06):
grade classes to just beself-contained.
And last year was the first yearI taught all five subjects.
And I liked the variety ofteaching everything because I,
when I taught just languagearts, social studies, I just
felt like I was repeating myselftwice a day.
Mm-hmm.
It was kind of boring for me.
So like, I like doing all of it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
With all of your talents and like your background
and what I've seen, I, I couldtotally see why having all the
different content areas wouldlike make sense.
Are you using a set curriculum?
How do you come up with what toteach?
Do you do it with teams?
Like who comes up with that?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Uh, me, myself and I,
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well done
Speaker 1 (02:39):
My school for literacy.
We're using literacycollaborative.
Okay.
Then for math, we just adoptedbridges, which I love and it's
very hands-on, very like studentled for science.
We had nothing.
And I am not a science or wasnot a science teacher at the
time when I took over.
So I panicked a bit and I waslike, Hey, can we have some kind
(03:02):
of science curriculum?
Cuz I got nothing.
And it's not hard to look at thestate standards and figure out
what you need to teach them, buthaving no resources to go off of
is extremely difficult.
And luckily I have, um, an olderbrother, he's like three years
older than me and he's also ateacher.
He actually is a scienceteacher.
(03:24):
Cause that first year that I wasteaching all subjects, I was
like, Hey Ryan, can you justlike send me all of your Google
Drive files for Science
And he's like, yeah, sure.
So he kind of was like a mentorfor like the first year that I
taught science.
And this year being that mysecond full year teaching
science, I feel much moreconfident.
I'm still using his resources.
(03:45):
We don't have a dedicatedcurriculum at my school.
So that's like one thing I'vebeen fighting, um, my school on.
And not that they don't wannaget us one, but like they were
focused on getting the mathcurriculum last year.
And then I was told, okay, thisyear will be science because in
my state, fifth grade is a, atested area for science and we
have no curriculum.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Ryan, keep doing what you're doing big bro.
Second thank you to everyteacher Yes.
Who's had a Google Drive folderfull of curriculum that you
graciously shared to a newteacher or someone else that
they could have.
Can
Speaker 1 (04:18):
We just say like, can schools like schools please get
your teacher's sciencecurriculums like
Speaker 2 (04:24):
No, absolutely.
Right.
And there is this way ofthinking that, that, especially
as a science teacher, it'ssomething that is dear to my
heart, but mm-hmm.
skills that's important and, andwe need that for science, but
we've always taught so siloedfor so long mm-hmm.
not the way life works.
The, the something thatintrigued me about what you
said, and I think a lot ofpeople can relate to it, and I
(04:46):
know I can because that was me,is you created your own content
or your science content.
Like you're kind of piecing thattogether from, from what Ryan
had shared with you.
How do you make time for thatwith all of the other things
that you're going in?
Pressures of state testing andthings like that.
Like how do you, how do youweave that into your, your
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Teaching?
So we have like things that arenon-negotiable in our schedules.
Like we have to have so manyminutes of this, so many minutes
of that, so many minutes ofwhatever else.
Well, the first year, the firstyear I was, uh, self-contained.
I was like, okay, uh, my maingoal, because science is a
tested area, I wanna make surethat I get in science every
single day.
90% of the time I'm able to getanywhere from 30 to 45 minutes
(05:25):
of science every day.
But this year it was my goal tomake sure that I was getting
science done and like we weredoing meaningful lessons.
And last year I didn't do this,but this year I'm doing a
Christmas center for stem.
So I got it off of teachers payteachers.
I, I'm sorry, I can't rememberwho it was made by, but it's
called Jingle All the Way andit's like building Santa's new
sleigh.
And so like the kids haveactivity where they have
(05:48):
popsicle sticks, straws, aplastic cup and then like tape.
And they have to build a newsleigh for Santa and see how
many pennies their sleigh canhold.
Um, like talk about, uh, a, asleigh being lightweight but
also strong and like what wouldmake it strong and different
things like that.
So I've been trying toincorporate a lot more STEM
activities.
And then something I really liketo use for experiment days, I
(06:11):
call them lab days, is gizmo.
Have you heard of Gizmo?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
The simulations.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah.
Uh, my brother showed me thattoo and he was using it in his
class.
I mean there's so many differentones that they have that align
with the standards and they havelike student lab sheets that go
with them and teacher guides andstuff.
I've just been trying to like upmy game a little bit more this
year because last year I waslike struggling to get all of
(06:37):
the standards in before statetesting came around because can
we agree state testing shouldnot be as early as it is.
Our state test happens in likeMarch and we have two months of
school left.
So like we better be done withstandards by February so we
could review because otherwisewe're kind of outta luck because
(06:58):
we run outta time.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yes.
It that And there's all kinds ofother things that state testing
brings with it that we couldspend a lot of time probably
critiquing and, and talkingabout like as far as what's yes,
what's ideal for kids and what'sthe best way to measure and
assess learning that that's,that is one question I wanna ask
you though, because I know withyour work on TikTok and
Instagram and, and and YouTube,you must be connected to a
(07:20):
pretty vast heat network and I'm, and maybe you have like a
kinda like more of an innercircle of, of people, but you
must come across so manydifferent perspectives and, and
get into great discussions.
Oh yeah.
Is there
to you as far as if you were incharge of what we're doing?
Because that's kind of thesystem that we all live in and
we kind of are trying tointernally change it, but it's
(07:43):
been that way for a long timeand we just kind of have to work
within it until we can makechanges.
But if you were to, I dunno froman elementary school
perspective, change or modifythe way kids are learning, what
would you do if you had Monarchability or
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Like first things?
Okay, I got three main thingsI'm thinking in my head.
Okay, first things first we gotMaslow's hierarchy of needs.
Okay.
If kids are coming to schoolhungry, if they're coming to
school and don't have, you know,fresh clothing to put on, if
they're coming to school andthey have issues at home that
they are dealing with, that theyare not okay with, the learning
is not happening.
(08:15):
It that's secondary.
They don't, it doesn't matter tothem.
It doesn't matter to me becausewhat's most important is that
child as a human being andwhether or not they're okay.
If I had unlimited resources, Iwould love to be able to build
like a little mini villageinside a school and have like,
like a clothing store that kidscould grab stuff from.
(08:36):
Or like a, you know how I knowhow school have like closets and
food pantries, but like a, areal place.
They could get some new clothes,not like hand me down clothes
like a store.
They could go and grab some foodif they needed food for their
homes or whatever.
Um, we have like an onsitecounselor but not like a school
counselor, like a therapist typecounselor for like mental
(08:59):
health.
Um, having some kind of likehealth clinic, not just like a
school nurse because let's,let's be real, our school nurses
see everything
like to have like a little likeurgent care clinic, like
basically a small town
would have all of the resourcesthat they need met.
(09:21):
Like that would be my number onething that I would love to do.
I, I have taught in, you know,I've only taught in two
different schools, but like I'veseen a lot of things and the
number one thing that keepscoming back is just like home
lives and mental health andhaving someone to talk to.
And I think our kids don't haveenough of that.
(09:43):
Second of all would be obviouslystate testing because I mean,
it's good to see like where ourkids are at.
I don't think it should be usedpunitively and I don't think
that it should be putting asmuch pressure on teachers and
students the way that it is.
It's like, it's not effectivethat way at all.
(10:04):
Let teachers do their jobswithout us having to, like, cuz
honestly, who is, who's notgonna say that?
They're not trying to set theirstudents up to do the best on
that test.
Our evaluation depends on it.
I'm gonna make sure my studentsare prepared for it.
I'm gonna teach all thestandards, but like, I shouldn't
have to be teaching so that theycould do well on a test.
I wanna make sure that they'reready for the real world and I
(10:25):
wanna make sure that they'reable to apply these things that
I'm teaching them in their life,not on a multiple choice test.
Third of all,
Speaker 2 (10:33):
This, this is great.
And I think a lot of teachersthat listen will listen and, and
be like, that's what I'm talkingabout right there.
Keep going.
You're on, you're on three.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
That would be two teachers in every classroom.
Either two teachers in each roomor like a teacher and uh, a
paraprofessional in each roombecause there's not even an
argument that teachers are moreeffective when they have help.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I would even carry the math on further and say that
it's a force multiplier.
Mm-hmm.
not just like a one plus oneequals two teachers.
It's almost like you have, youcan almost have like three or
four mm-hmm.
can be created between the twomm-hmm.
another and both supportdifferent types of students.
(11:15):
Mm-hmm.
So I I agree a hundred percent.
I I I think that mm-hmm.
and planning together andtalking about kids all of the
time, you would be able to godeeper with students.
You'd be able to find out thosethings that you talked about in
Maslow's because sometimes wedon't find out about it until a
parent-teacher conference orkids left our classroom.
(11:35):
I wish I would've known that.
Yeah.
The student was without thesethings in the very beginning.
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Wh so when do you start in theschool and there're gonna be, do
we, do we go on LinkedIn to signup and apply or is it like a
lottery system?
Like, cuz you know, I was gonnaget a lot of attention.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I would love to, to Oprah Winfrey this and like
build my own school
Like
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I, we gotta get those followers up.
We gotta build up thesponsorships.
We gotta get you up to a hundredmillion.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Listen, if all of I know, if all of my followers
across all my platforms donatedlike$2, we could have$12 million
to build a school.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Think about like, donors choose, right?
People do that.
Yeah.
And I know there's mixedfeelings about it because we
need stuff in our classroom.
I'm just gonna say that.
All right.
So yeah.
Whether I have to ask for it ona website or whatever, but
people want to give directly tokids, they, or people who need
it.
Mm-hmm.
And I think when there'sopportunities like that, that
are visible, people are morelikely to want to,
Speaker 1 (12:29):
In reality, should other people have to fund
education in classrooms.
No.
That's literally what your taxesare for a government funded
classroom versus a teacherfunded classroom are two
different things.
And we know that, but teachers,like if teachers are asking for
things or asking for donationson Amazon or on donors, choose,
(12:51):
just knowing your heart thatthat teacher has probably
already shelled out out a lot oftheir own cash to do that.
It's not that they're, you know,asking for handouts or anything
like that.
They're trying to give theirstudents the best that they can
and that that's the thoughtprocess behind it.
And until we get changes in oureducation system or changes in
(13:12):
legislature that will allow usto do that or will allow
classroom budgets, I mean, ourhands are tied.
Like there's only so muchteachers can do.
I'm very fortunate to teach in adistrict that sees the value in
spending money on their teachersand students.
And, um, like my school, like Isaid, we just, they just shelled
(13:34):
out thousands of dollars on anew math curriculum.
They bought school supplies.
Literally every teacher madetheir school supply list this
year.
And then the district went inand paid for every single
student's school supplies in theentire district.
Can
Speaker 2 (13:49):
We get a shout out to your district real quick?
Uh,
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah.
I mean, shout out latoniaschools like I, I mean, you guys
are awesome and I like, I'll,I'll shout that from the
rooftops.
I love where I teach.
Like I, I really do think thatthey, they value our students
and they care about our studentsand our admin is great.
We got a new superintendent acouple years ago.
He's been doing a phenomenal joband I, I really love it and I'm,
I'm glad I teach there.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
When you move out of the classroom, you know, in any
position of leadership, you dohave the microscope or
magnifying glass on you and alot of times it's critical.
Mm-hmm.
So, I mean, there's a lot ofthings that can be critiqued.
However, what we don't alwayshear is the success stories or
where it's working for teachersand why.
(14:32):
And we need leaders to be ableto talk to each other and fi
Hey, it's working in yourdistrict.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, I just heard, I just heardthis district get shot out.
I'm gonna go reach out to thosepeople.
Hey, what are you doing?
Yeah.
Because we, we, we connect witheach other, but I think when you
go like a level up, that kind ofgetting up the top of the
mountain mm-hmm.
The, the connection sometimescan become more difficult for,
for people.
There's not a, a lot of, I don'tknow, maybe there are, but admin
(14:54):
influencers.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Oh yeah, there are definitely are.
And I've met some reallyincredible ones.
There's, I'm, I'm on a committeeat my school, it's called N nps,
it's the National Network ofPartnership Schools.
Um, it was started out of OhioState University.
Essentially it is a committee inthe school that's dedicated to
bringing together the communityand businesses and partnering
(15:16):
with people to make our, ourschool as strong as it can be.
We started last year and um, wedid, uh, a bear breakfast cuz
our mascot is a bear.
And we had Christmas things andwe had the choir, Caroline, and
we had pancake breakfast foreverybody and it was completely
free.
It was just really nice to seeeverybody come together.
(15:38):
And it feels like the culturechanges when people work
together and come together forthe betterment of the school and
for the students.
And I think what's challengingis that so many people have such
a negative experience from theirschooling that they're hesitant
to get involved in their kids'schooling.
I urge any parents out there,any guardians out there that
(16:00):
are, you know, in that mindsetwhere you're like, I didn't like
my teachers in school, or I hadthis, this, this and happened to
me at school.
Give it a chance to know thatthings have changed and things
are changing.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I definitely agree with, with you about parent
engagement and getting involvedand sometimes parents, they just
don't know that they should.
But wow, your voice is sopowerful, especially at board
meetings and things like that.
Mm-hmm.
community, which it sounds likeyour school did a great job or
your district did a great job of, um, the last question I wanna
ask you, and it's kind of goingback to who your influencer was
mm-hmm.
(16:35):
exceeds more than, you know,you're planting so many seeds
you're sharing, and you'll hearmaybe a few, or I'm sure you'll
hear, hear the things that kindof come back to you, but that's
only a fraction.
Um, but I wanted to ask you,like, as you think back on your
career as an educator or whenyou were in school K through
five or K through 12, is thereanyone who stands out to you or
who, who was maybe yourinfluencer or teacher who made a
(16:55):
big difference that, that wasmemorable?
And, and if so, what, who was itand what was it about them or
what did, did they do?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
So I had a lot of teachers that I, I really had
good relationships with and I, Iloved school growing up, but one
always stood out in particular,and that was my ninth grade
English teacher and her name isAndrea Reid.
She was the first person whoreally told me that I was
talented at something and that Icould succeed in something
(17:22):
because she was the Englishteacher.
She was also a coach of thespeech and debate team at my
high school.
Just one day after school.
She was like, Hey, like youshould come to speech tryouts.
So I went to tryouts, like I didit not thinking like I cared if
I made it or didn't, and then Imade the team.
And honestly, I feel like speechwas the starting point of all of
(17:44):
it.
I competed in speech and debatefor four years of high school
and she was my coach.
I always have, I have horriblenervousness with public
speaking, even though I do it alot.
And she would always give melike the best hype speeches and
the best confidence boosters.
And I feel like speech, um,started my love of acting and
started my love of like, youknow, comedy and stuff like
(18:07):
that.
And so therefore TikTok happenedand I don't think any of this
would've happened had it notbeen for her and her opening
that door for me and telling me,Hey, you would be good at this.
You should try it.
Uh, we're still friends to thisday, 15 years later, and she is
like an older sister to me and Ilove it.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
That's amazing.
Andrea Reed, that's her name.
Andrea, yep.
Andrea.
Andrea Reid.
Uh, Ms.
Reid, thank you, uh, forinspiring Lord and
because of your impact now it'simpacting so many others and as
teachers, like, we don't even,we don't know, but it's, and
it's so humbling to know thatlike the words that we say to
people have that impact andpower.
(18:46):
It's so, it's, it's so inspiringto me.
Mm-hmm.
much is your transparency.
Like in your depth.
Like even as just listening toyou talk, you normalize and
humanize so many things that weexperience and I'm sure that's
what a lot of the people thatwatch you connect with.
Thank you.
You show your life, your family,your house, your, all these
things that are happening.
And I was just looking throughthe comments and there's just so
(19:08):
many people that are warm.
Not just your students, but likeso many teachers.
So thank you for doing whatyou're doing and I, I I wish you
tremendous success.
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
No, thank you so much for having me.
This was awesome.
I just wish everybody a greatschool year and I hope that we
all make it through Winter Yourbreak.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Thanks so much for listening to this season of
Science Connections.
I love learning about scienceeducators just like you.
You can nominate educators thatinspire you to become a future
guest on Science Connections byemailing stem amplify.com.
That's sst eem amplify.com.
Make sure to click subscribewherever you listen to podcasts
and tune in for a brand newseason of Science Connections
(19:50):
coming soon.
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