S1-10. Empowering the science educator: Jessica Kesler

In the final episode of the season, Eric sits down with his friend and professional development facilitator, Jessica Kelser. During the episode, Jessica describes her passion for sharing high-quality, empathy-centered professional development for K–12 educators. The conversation also dives into Jessica's experiences teaching in Philadelphia, and how teachers' roles often involve more than just delivering content.

Find free professional development with the TGR Foundation!

Join Science Connections: The Community on Facebook!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
One student at a time, isn't gonna bring a
million students through thedoor.
But if we focus on theirteachers, then they can
implement it in their classroomand have this multiplicative
effect that can continue on andhelp us to reach those millions
of kids and helping them beprepared for future careers.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to science connections.
I'm your host.
Eric Cross.
My guest today is JessicaKessler.
Jessica's director ofprofessional learning at TGR
foundation, which is a tigerwoods charity.
There she creates and leads freestem, professional learning
opportunities for educatorsacross the country.
Prior to working at TGR, Jessicaworked as an elementary, middle

(00:40):
and high school science teacherwhile fulfilling several
leadership roles, includingscience department, chair and
principal intern.
In this episode, Jessica sharessome of her classroom
experiences while working inPhiladelphia, where she was in
classrooms, where her studentsneeded her to be more than just
her content.
She also addresses how designingprofessional learning with
empathy for teachers in mindcreates better experiences for

(01:03):
teachers.
And now please enjoy mydiscussion with Jessica Kessler.
So let's, let's start off withSt.
Joseph's chemistry college tothe classroom, like your origin
story.
What led you to ultimately getinto the classroom and being
successful, even just lookingat, at your kinda like your
resume or your CV of all of thethings that you've done.
You definitely weren't idle, butstart off with chem.

(01:25):
Yeah.
Like where did that passion comefrom?

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah.
So when I was younger, I justhad this burning passion to help
people.
Right.
And when you're young and youthink about helping people, you
think about doctors, doctorshelp people.
Right.
So I had this idea that I wannabe a surgeon.
I wanna be a black surgeon.
I wanna be a young girl, femaleCharles drew, and I just wanna
go out there and do it.

(01:47):
And so my mom is actually analum of St Joe's.
So I spent a lot of time oncampus cuz as she was getting
her mini master's degrees, um, Iwill visit campus with her
often.
And so when I applied, I had thescholarships, had everything and
I went in ready to be bio readyto be a surgeon.
I took my first bio class and Iwas like, yes, let's talk about

(02:08):
the human body.
And let's get into dissectionsand sections.
And they were like, okay, so aplant so has this.
And I was like, Ooh I waslike, this is not what I was
expecting at all.
It just felt so detached fromthe trajectory that I wanted to
take.
And it just did not feed thatpassion of helping people in the

(02:30):
immediate moment.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Did it, did it feel too abstract?

Speaker 1 (02:33):
It felt abstract.
It felt boring.
Okay.
And one thing I didn't want wasto be like stuck, bored.
Like if I'm not being stimulatedin a good way, mm-hmm
then it's notgonna last, but I love science.
So I switched over to chemistrycuz I'm like this chemistry is
exciting.
I'm mixing things together.
I'm producing new things.
I'm doing extractions.
I'm being introduced tomachinery that I haven't seen

(02:55):
before.
I'm loving it.
I'm doing a math.
The math is awesome.
And so I switched over to chemand I started doing research in
the summers and things likethat.
My research was around waterquality in Philadelphia and
looking at different naturalwater sources and comparing them
and all those great things.
But I was in a lab and the labhad no windows and I was stuck

(03:19):
talking to this atomicabsorption specter every day.
And I hit that, that wall again,where it was like, is this the
rest of my life?
Like talking to these machinesand not having windows and not
being able to interact withpeople.
What is this?
This can't be life.
And so I was, uh, seeking outsome new opportunities that

(03:41):
said, Hey, I need more money.
First of all.
So I'm like, I call thefinancial aid office like every
week, like, Hey, what's outtoday.
What new scholarships do youhave?
I'm applying for everything.
Like it was my goal to not haveto pay for much of my education.
And so I was talking to them andthey're like, Hey, you're in
science.
There's this awesome opportunitycalled a noise scholarship where

(04:02):
they'll pay for your last yearand your master's degree.
If you go into education mm-hmm and I sat on it
and I was like, this makes somuch sense to me.
I was like, I've been literallytutoring my peers and teaching
in churches and all this otherkind of stuff.
My whole life.
It makes so much sense.
How come nobody ever said thisbefore?

(04:22):
and so I applied for thenoise scholarship, got in and
started, you know, mm-hmm, doing practicums
in the classroom as I wentthrough my last year as a
chemistry major and my firstyear for my masters and it just
felt so right.
And I was like, I can do this.
And of course there were a lotof people who told me, no, Josh,

(04:43):
you can't do that.
Like these kids will eat youalive.
And I'm like, uh, I don't thinkso.
but, but that's give ita go.
And I stepped into the classroomand it, it just felt like, felt
like it was always meant to bethere.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
So you were able to, you were able to make that
connection between, I mean, ifyou're, if you're studying
chemistry and bio and going intostem, I mean, there's, there's
an aptitude there, but then yourealize that this there's a road
that you could take that leadsyou into a room with no windows.
And you're just hanging out withmachines all day

Speaker 1 (05:14):
And I'm not helping people.
Right.
Right.
And that was, my passion waslike, I'm not helping people
sitting in this room.
I need to be a person that'soutside telling people about
what happens in the room.
Right.
And how they can get involvedand like what's going on in
here.
Like that's, that's where I canbe useful.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
When you were, you were in Philly when you were
teaching, what were you teachingwhen you were there?

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Um, so I started off teaching eighth grade science,
uh, first job in northPhiladelphia, teaching eighth
grade science and just a, afunding tangent that first day a
student called me a B

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Trial by fire

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Trial by fire called me out in front of like the
whole floor.
We were outside doing linedrills and just was like, I hate
you miss Kusa your B.
And I was like, oh, this is it.
This is it.
This is where you stand yourground and you take it or you,
you bail out and you goback into the lab mm-hmm
.
And of course at the end ofthat, that traumatic experience
between all the kids, like twomonths later, she wanted me to

(06:07):
adopt her.
So like everything comes fullcircles.
Right.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
That's how it is.
Right.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
But, um, I started teaching eighth grade science.
There's not a lot of scienceteachers at that level who
actually have a sciencebackground.
Most of them have elementaryschool background.
So I'm the only scientistwalking into the science
classroom and saying, this ishow science actually works.
And so I ended up, um, taking alot of onus of science while I

(06:32):
was there.
Ended up building out the Kthrough eight curriculum for
science.
I ended up doing like a sciencestrategic plan to submit to the
district.
I ended up, um, leading out ourfirst couple stem nights and
like really leading the stemdepartment and kind of our
science department.
And this was as like a second,third year teacher know,
but nobody else had the sciencemm-hmm, the way

(06:55):
that I had the science and theeducation.
Um, so it really opened up adoor for me to be able to, to
run full steam with all thosethings.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
So MI was it primarily middle school during
those, those years that you werethere?

Speaker 1 (07:07):
So there, I started with middle school, um, and I
did that purposefully because Iwas still young and I wanted
there to be a good age gap, um,between me and the students.
And then I moved up to highschool and taught, uh, high
school chemistry, also taught acouple other different subjects
while I was at that school.
Uh, but primarily high schoolchemistry.

(07:28):
Then I actually took a big leapdown and I said, okay.
Um, I was going for my secondmaster's degree in educational
leadership.
And I was going for my principalcert.
And I said, if I'm gonna be aprincipal of a school, then I
need to understand all thelevels of education and how they
operate, cuz they operate reallydifferently.
So I said, I started in middleschool, went to high school.
I don't have elementary schoolexperience.

(07:48):
In fact, I'd spent a day in akindergarten classroom and I was
like this never again, but I waslike, I need to go back down
there and I need to figure outhow this system works because
you know, I never know where I'mgonna land as far as
principalship.
So I went and taught fourthgrade.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
How was that experience?

Speaker 1 (08:05):
So imagine me going from teaching high school,
seniors and juniors Uhhuh andlike they're self-sufficient and
you know, they're independent,they're driving to school and
all these things.
And then I immediately drop downand go into fourth grade where
these kids are crying every fiveseconds.
They still have like a lot ofbodily fluids, like there's
noses running and things.

(08:26):
And like, I was like afish outta water.
I was like, what is this?
What's going on down here.
But those kids pour out so muchlove.
And they, you, you becomeanother parent to them.
Mm-hmm your highschoolers know who their parents
are.
They kind of are finding theirplace in society, but the little
ones, they only know big peopleas parents, small people as

(08:46):
equal.
So they see you as anotherparent.
So it taught me a lot about, youknow, patience and uh, breaking
information down, even smaller.
I had to figure out new andinventive ways to teach science
and bring it down so far thatthey would be able to grab onto
it and achieve it.

(09:06):
And it was a challenge, but atthe end it paid off, we were
running, we were hitting likegreat markers for all of our
PSSA goals that year.
I mean, we were really knockingit out the park

Speaker 2 (09:17):
And this backstory leads into how we met and adds
to the picture as to why Ireally want to have you on,
because your involvement withTGR, which is where I want to go
next for the folks listening.
I bet a lot of them have no ideawhat it's about, just like I
did.
Uh, and now me learning about,uh, TGR foundation and meeting
you, um, I would love to makesure that everyone knows about

(09:39):
it and what they offer.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Absolutely.
So TGR foundation, a tiger woodscharity, uh, was founded by
tiger woods and his father witha mission to really, um,
introduced them education tostudents in low income minority
populations and prepare them forsuccess in their world and their
future careers moving forward.
And so was founded in 1996 andwent through several, uh,

(10:02):
changes in iterations since1996.
Um, but eventually opened up itsfirst learning lab, which is in
Anaheim, California.
And through the learning lab,they opened up these satellite
sites.
So they basically partner withschools to provide after school
education and robotics and um,wearable electronics and things

(10:24):
like that.
And they would partner withschools to teach these courses
after school, they would pay theteacher, pay for the materials
and stuff like that to providemore opportunity for students in
different areas.
And so that's how I wasintroduced to the foundation
because while I was teachinghigh school, um, my good friend
and uh, previous manager, JasonPorter shout out to JP, um,

(10:45):
Jason Porter used to, uh, leadthe tiger woods foundation when
it was the tiger woodsfoundation.
He used to lead the afterschoolprogram.
And when I joined that highschool, he said, Jess, you got
all this great content,knowledge, all this great
enthusiasm, and we wanna getmore women into this robotics.
We wanna get them engaged inthis process of, of stuff.

(11:07):
And you will be a great rolemodel to start bringing in more
of our female students.
And I was like, great, sign meup.
And that's where I startedworking with the TGR foundation,
right after school programs,getting my students into
robotics, competitions andclubs, doing different, uh,
challenges and designchallenges.
And then after some time, a fewyears, they actually needed

(11:28):
someone to come to the DC areaand support the development of
professional learning andpartnerships here in DC, as they
were continuing to expand.
And really it came out of theidea that tiger, um, gave this
big mission to the organizationthat he wanted to reach millions
of kids.

(11:48):
He said millions and everybodysaid, what millions, what M
.
So the foundation was like,okay, well we can't reach
millions by just tackling onestudent at a time, right?
Not one student at a time, isn'tgonna bring a million people or
students through the door.
But if we focus on theirteachers, mm-hmm,
then those teachers not onlyspend most of their day with

(12:09):
these students and learn thebasics of their skills with
these students.
But each one of those teachershas 30 to 150 200 students that
they see every day.
And that's how we multiply thiseffect.
So we train the teachers on allthe stem competencies and the
pedagogical tools and strategiesto implement the stem that we're

(12:30):
doing in our learning labs.
And then they can implement itin our classroom and have this
multiplicative effect that cancontinue on and help us to reach
those millions of kids, um, andhelping them be prepared for
future careers.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
And so D divide the effort, multiply the effects.
Exactly.
And then when I was exposed toit, this was over zoom.
Now, how long has it been goingon?
Has it always been virtualizedor did you do the, were you all
doing this before?
We all went online

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Before the pandemic man, the glory days, right
before pandemic, it feels likeI'm talking about prehistoric
times, right?
Like back in the dinosaur, likeera, like, I don't know, pre we
actually did these workshops ina person.
So we would invite people tocome to DC, invite teachers in
Philadelphia to do a Philly one.
We were in New Mexico.
We were in Florida.

(13:18):
We were, I mean, we wereeverywhere and this would be a
extremely hands on engagingworkshops.
So not only do we focus on thisis the theory and the philosophy
behind the pedagogy, but wewould also focus on like
creating a student experiencefor the teacher, having the
teacher flip into student modeand put on that student hat and

(13:40):
actually go through samplelessons, model lessons and
activities as the student sothat they can feel it.
So you can feel if, if you feelconfused, your students are
gonna feel confused.
If you feel like this ischallenging, you, your students
are gonna feel the challenge.
If you are, don't understand theinstructions, your students will
understand the instructions.

(14:00):
So it gives us a differentperspective and it puts us in
their shoes.
So we can better empathize withthem and create more responsive
lesson planning.
Um, so we flipped them into thatstudent role for that purpose.
Um, when COVID hit, we wentvirtual, but virtual allowed us
to reach teachers that weprobably would've never hit.
So it was kind of that blessingand disguise, right?

(14:21):
It was like, um, we didn't keeppeople as long cuz obviously
virtually you're not, you don'twanna stare at a screen for
eight hours.
Um, so we cut it down.
We revised it a little bit, butwe kept the hands on, uh,
philosophy and feel of it goingby, you know, using materials
that they could find at homereally modeling what education
could look like.

(14:41):
Mm-hmm if you usedyour Z zoom room to capacity, or
if you had these materials andresources or rethought your
lesson plans and structures.
So we went virtual and not onlywere we able to hit, um, so many
more thirst that first yearthirsty educators ready to get,
dive into it, ready for somecomradery with fellow educators.

(15:03):
But we were also able to expand,um, our international network.
We were able to get so manyinternational educators through
our global work, um, that it was, it was beyond what we had when
we were in person.
So it really had thisskyrocketing effect.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
There's professional learning pathways and then
virtual stem studio.
Is that right for professionaldevelopment for like teachers
who are listening, are those thetwo kind of main prongs?

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah.
So a stem studio is basicallyjust one, right?
And a pathway is a collection.
So we now offer four stemstudios, four separate stem
studios.
The first one is on inquirymindset.
You attended that one area.
And it's really about forteachers who are changing their
perspective on what theclassroom should look and feel

(15:50):
like, especially administratorstoo.
Um, it's about developing thatinquiry mindset.
So you understand and you feel,and you practice and you learn
the tools that are necessary forinquiry to happen in your
classroom.
We never promote overhaulingyour classroom.
We're just saying, add a littlebit here and there and see how
it impacts your students.
The second one is on makinginquiry, visible, making inquiry

(16:15):
visible is all about makingstudents thinking visible in the
moment.
What are tools and strategiesthat you use so that students
can illuminate their thinkingfor themselves, but for you and
their peers as well and how webenefit from that.
So not only do the students getto see their own thinking as
they progress and you get totell the story of how their

(16:35):
minds have evolved, but you, asthe teacher get to see, oh, this
is where everyone is making themistake, or this is how this
misconception came about.
Or this is where I need totarget for my next lesson.
So it makes you more responsivein the moment.
And then the third and fourthone where we're actually
launching for a small group thissummer, it won't be available to

(16:55):
the masses until maybe a year ortwo down the line.
We have one small group thatwe're just going to test it out
with.
The third one is aboutdeveloping your inquiry
environment.
So thinking not just about yourphysical space, but thinking
about your intellectual spacetoo.
So what are the things that youcan embed into your physical
space and develop in a student'sintellectual space that will

(17:19):
help you create a holisticinquiry environment?

Speaker 2 (17:22):
So this is this inquiry space, not just
physical, but then also theintellectual environment

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Intellectual.
Exactly.
And it focuses in on the designprocess and how we design
spaces.
Because as a teacher, we take alot of background, uh, in the
background, um, onus of decreating these spaces.
If you take someone out of anold habit or space and tell
them, oh, we are gonna change inyour minds and teach inquiry,

(17:46):
but put them back in the sameenvironment, they're gonna be
conflicted, right?
Their bodies wanna do one thing,their minds wanna do another
thing.
And they don't know how tobridge the gap between the two.
So this is a reallyilluminating, like how do you
change all the spaces?
How do you design a flow inspace in your classroom and in
your students thinking thatallows them to be, uh,

(18:08):
productive in that inquiryenvironment.
It's really good stuff

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Who creates these experiences for teachers.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
We do.
So, uh, me and my teammate,Holly, Dard shout out HD.
Um, Holly Dard, we really putour brains together and
developed these.
So it's a really a team effortbecause like Jason Porter, Eric,
um, even David Tong when he waswith us, really collectively
thought about what it is that wewanted educators to experience.

(18:35):
And then, um, Holly and I do alot of the grunt work, but then
we really collectively put itall together and make it what it
is.
So, um, I have a heavy hand anda lot of that.
And in fact, inquiry four is allabout the entrepreneurial
mindset.
So oftentimes educators don'tconsider themselves
entrepreneurs, but if you take alook at what an entrepreneur is

(18:57):
and what they do on a regularbasis, educators are
entrepreneurs, but we aremissing an opportunity to use
our entrepreneurialship in theclassroom to drive for stem
competencies in inquiry basedpractices.
And so in, in stem studio, four,we really focus in on how the

(19:18):
educator is the entrepreneur oftheir classroom, but also uses
entrepreneurial techniques totackle issues in their schools,
districts, and spheres ofinfluence.
Um, so it's really taking theeducator to the next level of
their teaching practice throughentrepreneurship.
This is some deep stuff.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
It is, well, this entrepreneurial mindset is, is
something that I've heardbefore.
And I definitely see the linkbetween even the term
teacherpreneur beyond justselling lessons on teachers, pay
teachers.
it's way bigger thanthat,

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Where entrepreneurs actually in the classroom, not
just because we do things on theside to make money.
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
A lot of teachers hear that.
They're like, yeah, I got, youknow, I got, got a few jobs
going on.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And, and I think one thing we, Ishould have said this earlier,
and I'll, I'll say the intro,but these are all free.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
This is largely sponsored by do OD stem as well.
So we have a partnership with DO D stem and they have been
driving forth the department ofdefenses, strategic stem plan,
um, for years.
And as a part of that, they giveus funding in order to provide
these opportunities foreducators for free.
So literally educators don'thave to come with anything.

(20:29):
Um, and we are giving you notonly the content of our, our
lessons and our instruction, butwe're also going give you a
chance to earn a free microcredential.
So people, um, are spending 12plus hours with us in a workshop
, um, which sounds like a lot oftime, but it's over a series of
time and days.
Um, but we wanna give yousomething that means something

(20:49):
after that, we wanna give you amicro credential to add to your
resume, to show youradministrator, to show that you
have achieved the next level inyour professional learning
career.
Right?
And if you finish the pathway,which is all for, then we give
you our TGR foundationcertificate that says that
you've completed so muchprofessional learning in these

(21:10):
areas that you are basically awarrior of inquiry, um, that you
are ready to go out and reallylay, um, inquiry out in new
creative ways, not in your CLAjust in your classroom, but
everywhere you go in yourdistrict, in your school.
And on top of that, we justoffer so many other great free,
um, partnership incentives likediscovery, education, experience

(21:30):
licenses.
We're doing raffles this summer.
We're giving out free a freemeal voucher so that you can get
some lunch.
One of these days we're offering$50 gift cards so that people
can get school supplies.
So anything you do with us, andyou're like, man, I really wish
I could have this so that I cando that in my classroom.
We wanna break down all thebarriers that prevent teachers

(21:50):
from doing this stuff in theirclassroom, actively engaging in
this stuff.
And we give you a free copy ofthe books that we reference.
Um, again, trying to break downthe barriers,

Speaker 2 (22:00):
What are some of the things that you've noticed kind
of being on both sides ofscience teaching in the
classroom, and then in trainingtrends with teachers, things
like moments that have beengreat or, or challenges that
you're noticing teachersexperiencing, especially maybe
changes in differences from a,from, you know, an outsider's
perspective.
Seeing what teachers areexperiencing are like, since
you've been doing PDs for folks.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah.
So it's actually reallyinteresting being on both sides
of the fence.
You know, what I always noticedis that teachers are eager, but
they're tired.
They're wanting to learn, butthey can't take advantage of
every opportunity to learn.
And especially during COVIDtime, if you take a look at even

(22:43):
all the professional learningthat's happening across the
world right now, attendance isgoing down because teachers are
so burnt out this hybrid space,this either we're in person, but
we're still wearing masks andstill social distancing and all
this other stuff, or I'm stillvirtual or I'm virtual some days
and I'm in person other days,it's just wearing our teachers
out.

(23:03):
And I think we notice that as wesee, uh, a large numbers of
friends and family just start toretire, right?
Like people are just like, Idon't know if I can adapt to
another change in education.
Like education goes throughthese waves of big changes and
it's hard for everybody to adaptto, but for those who are
willing to stick it out andthose who are able to stick it

(23:23):
out and, and still have that, um, energy and enthusiasm to
learn, they come in so hungryfor more resources, so hungry to
learn more and they still havetheir why, um, at the top of
their minds, as they think aboutwhy they do this, uh it's for
the kids it's to drive thismission is to get more kids
excited about this.

(23:44):
And they just come in sopassionate.
So once they come in, once wecan get them to come in, um,
they stick with us for a reallylong time.
They're like, what else do youhave?
What else do you have?
What else do you have?
But we hear, still hear thecommon threads of like, do I
have time for this?
Do I have the funding for this?
Do I have the energy for this?
Do, will my students understandthis?
And we are constantly facingthat challenge of trying to

(24:07):
address those things by, butkeeping the excitement going,
like we know you don't haveenough time.
We're gonna call it out from thestart.
I know you don't have enoughtime to try to do 29 extra
things.
Mm-hmm.
But my advice is always, but doone thing at a time, start with
something small, asking yourstudents a few questions rather
than lecturing to them.

(24:28):
Doesn't take a whole lot ofextra time, but it gives you so
much extra insight.
So let's not work, you know,harder, let's work smarter.
Let's embed this into our, ourwork together.
And I always say that we're notasking you to add to your plate.
You know, it's not Thanksgivingwhere you just pile, keep piling
on a plate.
It's it's a time where youorganize the plate.

(24:49):
It's allowing inquiry torestructure your plate so that
everything has its place and itstime mm-hmm do you
wanna leave room so that theeducator feels comfortable
trying some new initiative?
That's why we encourage admin.
We have librarians attendelementary school teachers,
administrators, we, and weencourage it because everyone
can support the classroom.

(25:09):
And if administrators are morein touch with these new
practices and tools andstrategies, then they can help
facilitate the learning.
As the teachers are trying newthings and coaching them in
specific areas.
So we really opened the door forsome studios, for any and all
who are gonna participate inthat child's education, because
us all rallying around them asthat three-legged stool helps to

(25:31):
create that environment and, um,helps support the teacher.
The teachers need support, andwe're trying to do our part by
providing the resources and thetools, but they need everyone
else to.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
We don't always think about it as a way to support, to
get support in our classroomsfor ourselves.
But I agree with you by, byeducating vertically up the
chain, you know, vice principal,principal, whoever it is, mm-hmm
superintendentgetting them on boarding and,
and educating them to see what'sex expected.
We'll open up doors and morefreedoms for you because now you

(26:03):
just have this verticalalignment of folks kind of on
the same wave length.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yep.
And that's why we lovedistricts.
Anaheim union school district isactually one of our partners
this year, where they haveinvited their teachers to
participate in the whole pathwaybecause they know how important
it is that we practice thesetools and strategies.
And they want as many educatorsin the same space going through
this at the same time aspossible so that we can support

(26:30):
each other through it.
Um, and so that we don't feellike islands, oftentimes as
educators, we feel like islandswe're in our classroom day in
and day out.
And we don't feel like there'sanybody else who's doing the
same things we're doing andsupporting the work that we're
doing.
So when we get administratorswho support it, it's magical.
It can be magical.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
What are some opportunities that are coming up
if somebody's listening andthey, they wanna sign up for
something, are there thingscoming up this month or next
month or in the summer that theycan participate in?

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, for sure.
So we've been doing our, uh,monthly workshops.
And if you go to our website, soif you actually go to TGR
foundation.org and slash stemstudio, um, you'll actually see
our summer events alreadyposted, already live for
everybody to start engaging in.
And again, everything is free.
So registration is open andavailable for everybody to

(27:17):
participate.
Um, we are offering that firstinquiry stem studio inquiry
mindset twice the week of June21st and the week of June 28th,
two opportunities for educatorsto join us for inquiry mindset
for the first one.
And then also in July, we'reoffering the second one making
inquiry visible, and that's theweek of July 12th.

(27:37):
So again, all free stuff, raffleprizes are available for those
who, uh, register early and getin there and reserve their seat.
It is limited seating.
And so, yeah, a bunch ofopportunities coming up this
summer and guess what all youhave to do is sign up and then
you get all these free thingscoming your way.
You get to look forward to allthis exciting stuff.

(27:57):
So TGR foundation.org/studio.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
And if folks wanna follow you in, uh, your career,
your journey.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah.
I'm on, uh, Twitter andLinkedIn, for sure.
And it's Jessica Kessler, K E SL E R one S

Speaker 2 (28:12):
I wanna honor your time.
And as we close, you've been aneducator of impact in, in your
own classroom.
And I know you're still teachingactively now, and you've also
made an impact on me and othereducators through your
professional development.
And, and the last question I'dlike to end with is who's the
most memorable teacher orlearning experience that you had

(28:33):
during K eight.
When you think about you, yourtime in school, who was a
memorable teacher or a momentthat kind of stands out to you
and what was it that they didthat made them memorable?

Speaker 1 (28:44):
It was that one teacher who brought me my first
T I, 84.
You remember when a newcalculators came out, I had a
teacher give me one amazing, butI think in high school, there
was really a turn about where Ihad, um, miss Caroline and Mr.
Canello math and Spanishteacher.
So two opposite wings of the,the education spectrum there.

(29:04):
But most of all, they listened.
They listened to me.
I felt seen with those teachers,they supported me.
They listened to me, they saw mypotential.
Um, and they just rallied aroundme and continued to support me
thereafter.
Even afterwards, I continued toreach out to those educators.
And I think that's what drivesme to be that force for, for my

(29:27):
students.
And I remember my most memorableheart touching education
experience was probably, I had ahigh school student get
interviewed by the newspaper.
And they were like, oh, what'syour favorite classes?
And what's your favorite this,and what's your favorite of
that?
And he was like, well, I lovechemistry, which is what I was
teaching.
It was like, and I love my afterschool robotics team.

(29:49):
I was leading and I love thisand this and this.
And he basically listed all thestuff that I was doing that I
was teaching and that I wasleading in the school.
And I was like this one student,literally out of all the classes
and experiences he'sexperiencing is really just
calling out everything that I'mdoing.
And I feel like it's because hefelt seen, he felt heard.
He was like, this person islistening to me.

(30:09):
And no matter what space we'rein this teacher is, is there for
me.
And so I try to be that whereverI go,,

Speaker 2 (30:16):
It's amazing how making someone feel seen and,
and making them feel importantand heard, and, and being
present for them.
All of a sudden opens up theirinterests into the subjects that
you're teaching.
Thank you for, for making timefor serving our kids for serving
teachers during a hard time, andfor making PD one, being part of
an organization that made itfree and serve teachers, but
also making PD fun andenthusiastic.

(30:38):
I think that was one of thethings in addition to the
empathy that you led with, butalso your enthusiasm and passion
was something that reallyresonated with me.
And it made our time together.
Feel like something that was,was making me a better teacher
for my kids.
And so, thanks for making timefor us tonight.
Oh,

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Bless face.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Thanks so much for joining me and Jessica today.
If you have any great lessons orways that you connect with
students, please [e-mail].
That's S TM amplify.com.
And please remember to supportthe podcast by clicking
subscribe, wherever you listento podcasts, you can also hear

(31:18):
more about the podcast in ourFacebook group, science
connections, the community untilnext time.