August 23, 2022 • 20 mins
In this special solo episode, Eric Cross starts the season by sharing his personal journey as an educator, and how the difficulties of the last few years have shaped his mindset going into the upcoming school year. Eric also addresses teacher burnout and what inspires him to continue working as a classroom educator.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to science connection.
Season two, as we begin the nextseason, I thought it would be a
good time to share my story.
As the host, I get to ask peoplequestions about their journey,
but I've actually never sharedmuch about my own.
So I've taken some of my mostfrequently asked questions to
guess and asked them to myself.
I hope you enjoy.
(00:23):
So the origin story question, Ithink really gets to the heart
of why a person does what theydo, because so much of who we
are, especially as adults andteachers is a result of
experiences that we had in ourlives when we were kids or in
school with other teachers.
And my life's no different.
Um, I was born to a 19 year oldsingle mom.
And when you're a young boygrowing up, especially with a
(00:44):
young single mom, you often lookto older men in different
positions as like, kinda like asurrogate or like a mentor.
And you may not even tell themthat they are that to you.
You kind of keep it close to thechest.
And, and that's what I didgrowing up.
One of the ones that reallystood out to me is in seventh
grade, uh, I went to a middleschool here in San Diego that
was called Keer middle school.
And we were a magnet programthat specialized in science.
And they had this program thatbrought professors from the
(01:06):
local universities and they didthis high level enrichment.
They would even take us to thecollege campus and we would work
in these labs as seventhgraders.
It was amazing.
And one of the, the peoplethere, his name was Dr.
TRS, and he was a professor andDr.
TRS took a liking to me.
I reminded him of his son.
We were doing these like greatembryology, uh, experiment.
We would take, uh, purple seaurchins.
(01:28):
And we would inject them withpotassium chloride, which would
cause them to spawn.
And we would fertilize theseembryo, uh, these eggs, and then
we would run differentexperiments using them.
And these were things that I hadnever done before.
I would always love science.
I'd always love tinkering andbuilding things, but this was my
introduction, really to highlevel biology and to higher
levels of education.
I didn't, I didn't have many,uh, figures like that in my life
(01:50):
growing up.
I mean, I'm a first generation,you know, high school college
that graduated.
Many of those are firstgenerations for me.
So, uh, this was a newexperience.
And so Dr.
TRS really unlocked a corememory and was one of my first
mentors, as far as academics areconcerned.
And during my seventh gradeyear, I entered the science fair
in, in one first place, whichwas a huge deal.
They took us out to Babbo park.
(02:11):
We got to miss miss school for aweek.
We got to go to all the museumsfor free.
It was the best.
And I think at that point intime, it really solidified
something in me that I, thatwould lay dormant until later on
in my adult life high school.
Uh, uh, I was really fortunate.
The high school I went to wasMorris high school, not too far
from, from Keeler.
And they had an aeronauticsprogram.
(02:31):
So I was able to enroll in thataeronautics program.
And I learned how to fly beforeI learned how to drive.
And I had this great instructornamed Mr.
Klon, who was this like 6, 4,250 pound and hippie guy.
And he, we would, we would getin the plane and we would have
these like philosophicalconversations.
And, and through that,especially looking back now as a
(02:52):
teacher, I realized that he wasmaking connections with me and
investing into who I was as aperson.
And it was something that I soneeded at the, the time.
Um, because at, at home I didn'thave that, you know, my safe
place, a lot of times wasschool.
It was my only structure.
It was where I knew I would getencouragement.
It was where I, I knew thingswere reliable and consistent for
a lot of people.
And a lot of kids, their homelife isn't like that school was
(03:14):
that for me.
So Mr.
Klon, I mean, he was thisauthentic, you know, consistent
person in my life and made ahuge difference at this time
after I graduated high school, I, I left home just to, to get
away from a difficultenvironment.
And I was homeless for a littlewhile and, and that was a huge
moment in my life.
And, and around that time, uh,an aunt found out and she said,
you're gonna come stay with us.
(03:35):
And this was like, at this threeyear process of me living with
them in this like functionalfamily that ate dinner together.
And they, they went to like thezoo, they had family passes and
they like took family photos atChristmas time.
This was all weird stuff.
Like, I didn't know, I didn'tknow who did these things.
It was, I felt like a puppy thatlike lived in a home that was
like, it was a home that wasjust always kind of like violent
or, or, or like just reallytoxic.
(03:55):
And then it gets put into ahealthy home and doesn't know
how to act.
That's how it felt.
And this was around like 19, 20years old.
Um, during that time I, Istarted putting myself through
school.
So I went to community collegeand I was broke as a joke.
And so I couldn't afford thetextbooks while I was going.
So I would just go to thebookstore, uh, the Barnes and
noble books store and mirrorMesa here in San Diego.
(04:15):
And I would stay there all nightusing the textbooks or using the
books there for doing my work.
And then I would just put thebooks back on the shelves, um,
because let's just face it.
Textbooks are expensive.
My brother wasn't trying to payfor all that.
So I really had to earn, earnthat time.
So I was working full time.
I was going to school and, uh,eventually, uh, I got a job in
working in finance, uh, with a,a really great friend who, who
(04:38):
mentored me, um, during myyounger twenties and I didn't
wanna be broke and finance madesense.
And so I did that for a littlewhile, until I got to a point in
my career where I was watchingan episode of the office, the,
the UK version, the rookieDravet's version, and a
character said, I'd rather be atthe bottom of a ladder.
I want to climb than, thanhalfway went up.
(04:59):
I don't.
And I realize working financethat I was halfway up a ladder.
I never wanted to climb.
So I, I wanted to move intosomething that I, if I was gonna
spend eight hours a day or 10hours a day doing something, I
wanted to be something thatactually filled me up inside.
And this is how I got intoteaching.
So I had always been workingwith young people, specifically
12 to 18 year olds, like anon-profit or volunteering,
(05:20):
mentoring after school programs.
And I've always managed torationalize my job in the
finance world as meaningfulbecause it let me do the real
work that fulfilled me.
So the real work was workingwith the kids, but my day job, I
like Clark Kent type job wasjust, you know, doing the
finance thing of like helpingpeople that have a lot of money,
make more money, which at theend of my, the end of my life, I
(05:41):
look back and I said, that's notwhat I want my legacy to be.
And when, when the finance crashhappened in 2008, that's what I
think.
I started looking back on it andsaid, if I, if I'm gonna spend
all my time doing something andspending 40 or 60 or 80 hours of
my day of my, of my week doingthings, um, I wanted to matter.
And that's when I decided to, topivot and, uh, leave that field
(06:03):
and go and get my master's in,uh, education and get my
teaching credential, teachingscience specifically.
Now, one of the questions we getasked, um, a lot and I've been
asked is, is how is teachingchanged as a result of the
pandemic?
And I feel like this could beseveral podcasts in and of
itself, and it's also regionalbecause everybody's experienced
(06:24):
it differently and we're stillexperiencing it.
That's the, that's the crazything is like, it's not over,
we're still in it.
And some places have innovatedand pivoted and some places just
did what they needed to.
And, and they are trying to goback to business as usual.
But if anything has happened,the pandemic revealed how much
more, how much schools are morethan places of just content
(06:46):
learning for many students.
It's where they have their onlycommunity, their structure,
their emotional wellness, uh,they get regular meals, access
to tech and adults that careabout them that are outside of
their family.
The it schools are so much morethan that.
I mean, my school, they were aplace like a hub that was giving
out food every single day duringthe pandemic to families that
would kind of drive by.
So for a lot of schools, theybecame places like that.
(07:08):
It also, the pandemic revealedthe intensity of the educated
workload.
I mean, being able to manageyour family, having the
capacity, to be a contentexpert, you need to be a
counselor, a trauma carespecialist, a coach, an
encourager, a tech expert.
I mean, the term mental healthis now more common and starting
to become prioritized.
Now we're focusing so much moreon the whole child.
(07:30):
And we know from research thathow a child feels about
themselves and their safety andtheir security impacts their
ability to learn.
So the more comfortable and safea student feels in the classroom
with teachers and with friends,the better they're gonna be able
to learn.
And ultimately the higherthey're gonna be able to achieve
you can't, you can't have onewithout the other.
In addition, I think lessteachers, uh, see themselves
(07:52):
teaching into retirement.
I think that's a big thing.
Um, I, I read these articlesabout teacher shortages and, and
I think the reality is it's,it's actually teacher Exodus,
it's teachers leaving, andthat's been really difficult.
I've had many friends who'veleft for the private sector, and
I get it, especially if you'reone that has, if you're the
first in your family to graduatefrom college, with a stem degree
(08:14):
, um, to them taking a teachingposition can mean walking away
from a salary in the privatesector that pays two or three
times more.
And in many places around thecountry, in order to be a
teacher and maintain a medianstandard of living, you need
either dual income, multiplejobs, or a multi-generational
household for a lot of people.
It just doesn't make sense.
(08:35):
And even right now, today, asI'm recording this, I'm, I'm
reading articles and gettingtext messages.
And, and I received a textmessage three days ago from a
teacher that said my goal thisyear is to just not resign.
And that's where a lot ofteachers are feeling right now,
isolated, challenged, andunderappreciated.
And Plato said, what's honoredin a country is cultivated
(08:56):
there.
And I I've been looking at howteachers are honored and, and
one of the ways is just likepractical.
Like, look, I gotta pay mybills.
You know, love the Starbucksgift card.
Love the, the CPK, the giftcard, the cards, those are the
things, but brother got a carpayment.
And at, at the end of the day,if we care about our kids, we
need to take care of the peoplethat take care of them.
And there's very practical waysfor that to happen.
(09:19):
And, and everybody in differentsectors around the country is,
is dealing with that indifferent ways.
I think the pandemic alsorevealed now the public can see
how our kids don't receive thesame quality of education.
And once you're aware of that,you can't put the genie back in
the bottle.
So once you see on zoom or onceyou see in a meeting, or once
you see on the news thatstudents were in different
(09:42):
areas, whether it's the ruralsouth or a suburb in Seattle are
not getting equitableeducations.
Well, ultimately that impactsall of us.
Now.
It's not all doo and gloom.
Good things have come from, uh,as a result of the pandemic.
Many schools have made progresstowards narrowing the technology
gap, cuz they had to cause you,you can't do zoom and you can't
(10:02):
do Google meet and all thatstuff, uh, with a packet, you
gotta get those Chromebooks andChromebooks and the internet and
access to tech is not a newthing.
It's been out for a long time.
Uh, the technology gap is not anew thing.
It's been written aboutextensively, but all of a sudden
districts and schools startedfiguring out how to close that
gap.
And that's awesome.
We didn't want a pandemic to bethe catalyst for that to happen.
(10:25):
But at the end of the day, westarted closing it.
A lot of schools did an amazingjob and districts did an amazing
job with deploying the hardware,sending out buses with wifi,
putting lessons and videos onUSB sticks and, and dropping
them off to parents who, wholive in, in sparsely populated
areas.
I mean, there were so manystories that I've heard about
schools and teachers just doingamazing things going above and
(10:49):
beyond what they needed to onbehalf of kids.
I think, uh, in, in addition tothat, there's also been, uh,
students and families are nowhaving more options to
personalize their learning.
So we have this in person model,we have this zoom or kind of
online model and this hybridmodel and, and it, it hasn't all
been perfect, you know, at all.
But some families have come outand said, you know what actually
(11:10):
doing this hybrid model isbetter for my son or better for
my daughter or better for mystudent, uh, because they're
able to, to get thesocialization, but also able to
focus better at home than theyare in a classroom of 36.
And that's legitimate, you know,we talk about personalized
learning, but it's not exactlypersonalized when everybody has
to wake up at the same time,same schedule go to the same,
the, the, the same classroom of,you know, over up to 40 kids and
(11:33):
do the same lesson.
I mean, we have to be honestabout our limitations with
personalizing learning forstudents and when we can provide
more options and we giveteachers the infrastructure to
be able to use differentplatforms, um, then we're able
to personalize learning a lotmore.
There's also been an emphasis onthe whole child wellness.
(11:53):
Um, I think the spotlight on,uh, mental wellbeing heavily
impacts their academic success,but counseling teams, social
workers, uh, schoolpsychologists, I think more than
ever we've realized the valuethat they bring to the schools.
And, and unfortunately many ofthem have caseloads of 200
students or more.
(12:14):
And they're seeing students mostoften that are in crisis.
And especially after thepandemic, um, we're realizing
how valuable they are and howmuch we need to, to one honor
them and give them the supportthat they need.
And also recruit more because aswe start recognizing that how
our brains are impacted by thethings that we're dealing with,
(12:34):
um, we're also gonna see howthat's gonna impact our
students' performance.
And we need the specialists inthose positions to be able to
support our kids.
Uh, I think last, I think moreinnovation and lesson design and
how we assess students.
And so we've been talking aboutin education, just kind of
critiquing, how, how do weassess what a student knows?
How do we make what a studentactually does at school relevant
(12:58):
to real life?
I mean, so many times I havelike students who've graduated
that are like, I feel like thethings I learned in school, like
they're not always transferableto real life.
It helped me on a test, butlike, I don't know how to do my
taxes or I, I memorize thesefacts, but I don't really apply
it in my job or the facts that Ilearned I could have actually
learned on the fly in my job.
I wish I would've actuallyfocused on the skills or had an
(13:20):
earlier opportunity to, to getsome experience because when I'm
trying to apply for a job, uh, they ask for experience
and I'm 22 years old.
And, and so all these thingskind of come up.
And so I think there's been somegreat conversations around how
do we rethink what educationlooks like and there's different
pockets around the country, um,that have been doing that, I
think really well.
And I think it's important forus as teachers to stay connected
(13:42):
to those people who are kind ofpushing the boundaries and
thinking outside the box,because when we get siloed, it's
really easy to get calcified andcynical.
I get it.
And it impacts me too.
But when we're around thosepeople who have those fresh
ideas who are really pushing thelimits, it inspires us.
And that's something I think,during the pandemic that I've, I
I'm grateful that I wasintentional about is staying
(14:04):
connected with other teachers.
There's a big question.
Uh, why do you continue yourwork in the classroom and what
keeps you motivated?
And I, I was, I was thinkingreally hard about this question
because depending on,depending on my day, I feel like
my answer's gonna be a littlebit different.
So I've had to step back fromthis 30 foot thousand foot
perspective and, and answer thequestion.
(14:25):
And, and my answer is this, Ithink because I still feel like
I can be effective to influencepositive change in my classroom
with my students and within thelarger education system as a
whole.
I think if I lost either ofthose two, then I'd rethink my
profession.
Look, I'm an innovator.
Like I like asking why questionsand things like that.
(14:46):
I, I, so, and not only the mostpopular person when you do that,
but education is like, is like,like a, just a huge ship.
It doesn't pivot on a dime andasking why questions and pushing
for change on behalf of kids,isn't easy, fun, or glamorous,
but it's it's necessary.
And I feel like over the lastfew years, I've been able to see
(15:07):
these kind of glimmers of atrajectory change, um, at least
where I am locally.
And that's something that, thathas given me a lot of hope.
I'm very fortunate to, to beconnected to educators and
people in leadership that arereally about making a difference
beyond just kind of the, the,the, the cliche platitudes.
They actually wanna makesystemic change, um, in a way
(15:30):
that's positive.
And that's been really helpfulfor me.
So as long as I feel like I'museful in the classroom for
students, and as long as I feellike I'm bringing, I think
change on behalf of teachers andstudents and administrators and
our community in a way thatmoves the ball down the field.
That's what keeps me motivated.
And what I like to ask teacherswhen I close in the podcast is,
(15:52):
is what teacher or teachers haveinspired you.
And for me, I think it wouldstart off with the teachers who
cared about me when they didn'thave to in elementary school all
the way through college.
And there are numerous teachers,my science teacher, community of
practice for the last two years.
I've been fortunate to spendevery month, once a month
(16:13):
meeting with just a core groupof science teachers that really
care about some of the thingsthat we are impacted by in the
classroom.
And when the pandemic was goingon, we still met regularly.
And because we're not allteaching in the same place, we
kind of were able to bringdifferent perspectives to the
table.
I think the current classroomteachers and former classroom
teachers that I have in my, inmy community really inspire me.
(16:36):
The ones who are, who arededicated to opening doors for
students, the graduate studentsthat I teach at the university
of San Diego, they keep mefresh.
I love leaving teaching my 12and 13 year olds, and then
driving down the street to theuniversity and teaching 20
somethings who are all about tobe in the classroom.
They come with new ideas,they're asking questions, and I
get to actually share thingsthat I just did three hours ago.
(16:58):
I think that's one thing thathas, has continues to inspire
me.
And it's one of the reasons whyI love teaching at the
university of San Diego.
Their energy and enthusiasm issuper refreshing.
And then all the teachers thatare willing to take risks and
fail forward, to try thingsdifferent, to ask hard
questions, to push the envelope.
Teaching's hard, it's easy topoint out the problems in
education as a whole, but afterwe do that, it's important to
(17:20):
figure out the practical ways wecan make the changes that we
wanna see.
Now, that's, that's to say thatif you have the capacity for it
and the resources and thesupport, some of us, we don't,
some of us, we are on an island,and that's a really, really
difficult place to be,especially when you have family
and kids to take care of.
And, and you have to makedecisions on what's best, best
(17:40):
for you and for your ownstudents.
We do this work on behalf ofkids, and it's one of the most
honorable services a person canprovide to our community.
But one area for growth that Ithink we have kind of as a
society is teachers spend theirlives daily.
On behalf of the future of ourcountry for other people's
(18:01):
children, they fall asleep atnight, worrying about other
people's kids.
They spend their own money tocreate opportunities and
experiences that students mightnot otherwise have.
And it's important that wecollectively, and I know I'm
preaching the choir when I saythis, but this is one of my
messages is that we honor themin turn.
We create programs that allowthem to be able to afford
(18:21):
housing.
We create opportunities for themto be able to generate wealth.
We create ways for them to beable to find rest, to get
connection.
And then internally we createsystems where they can just work
on themselves, fill themselves,get trained and be whole so they
can bring their best self to thekids in front of them.
Um, that's my, that's one of mypersonal platforms.
(18:44):
It, it, it's something that Ithink is, is vital.
We gotta take care of the peoplethat take care of our kids.
So there's a saying that saysit's better to light a candle
than the curse to the darkness.
And it takes one person to blowout a candle, but one candle can
light thousands of other candleswithout diminishing its own
light.
And that's what we have to be.
So my encouragement teachers isyou're going into this new
(19:06):
school year, and you're, you'rethinking about what's going on.
You're thinking about all thechallenges and they're there,
and they're real.
And trust me, it's not like somePollyanna, like, Hey, just be
positive mindset andeverything's gonna be great.
No, no, no, no, no.
It's not that.
But my encouragement, if I cantell you one thing, that's
helped me more than anythingelse.
It's being connected to otherpeople who are candle lighters,
because there are a lot ofplaces that are gonna blow out
(19:28):
the candle.
It could be the staff lounge.
It can be Twitter, it could beready.
It could be Instagram.
It could be TikTok.
It could be, you know, anybody,someone next door to you.
There's a lot of folks that aregonna be willing to point out
and say, look, this is what'swrong.
But find the helpers.
Find the people that are candlelighters and stay connected with
them.
Um, find that community.
I can tell you for me, that'sbeen the thing that's been able
(19:48):
to help me sojourn through allof this.
Um, I couldn't do this by myselfis being able to share my story
with other teachers and knowingthat I'm doing this work
alongside of other folks who aredoing this work and I can share
my story with them and listen totheir stories is something
that's been able to fill my cup.
And so I hope I can do the samefor you and for other people
listening to other people.
I come in contact with teachers.
(20:09):
I wish you a great school year.
Hang in there.
Be those can lighters and bringyour best self on behalf of the
students.
Thanks so much for listening.
Now, we wanna hear more aboutyou.
If you have any stories youwanna share about the classroom,
please email stem, amplify.com.
That's SST E M amplify.com andmake sure to click, subscribe
(20:34):
wherever you listen to podcastsand join our Facebook group
science connections, thecommunity until next time.
Welcome to science connection.
Season two, as we begin the nextseason, I thought it would be a
good time to share my story.
As the host, I get to ask peoplequestions about their journey,
but I've actually never sharedmuch about my own.
So I've taken some of my mostfrequently asked questions to
guess and asked them to myself.
I hope you enjoy.
(00:23):
So the origin story question, Ithink really gets to the heart
of why a person does what theydo, because so much of who we
are, especially as adults andteachers is a result of
experiences that we had in ourlives when we were kids or in
school with other teachers.
And my life's no different.
Um, I was born to a 19 year oldsingle mom.
And when you're a young boygrowing up, especially with a
(00:44):
young single mom, you often lookto older men in different
positions as like, kinda like asurrogate or like a mentor.
And you may not even tell themthat they are that to you.
You kind of keep it close to thechest.
And, and that's what I didgrowing up.
One of the ones that reallystood out to me is in seventh
grade, uh, I went to a middleschool here in San Diego that
was called Keer middle school.
And we were a magnet programthat specialized in science.
And they had this program thatbrought professors from the
(01:06):
local universities and they didthis high level enrichment.
They would even take us to thecollege campus and we would work
in these labs as seventhgraders.
It was amazing.
And one of the, the peoplethere, his name was Dr.
TRS, and he was a professor andDr.
TRS took a liking to me.
I reminded him of his son.
We were doing these like greatembryology, uh, experiment.
We would take, uh, purple seaurchins.
(01:28):
And we would inject them withpotassium chloride, which would
cause them to spawn.
And we would fertilize theseembryo, uh, these eggs, and then
we would run differentexperiments using them.
And these were things that I hadnever done before.
I would always love science.
I'd always love tinkering andbuilding things, but this was my
introduction, really to highlevel biology and to higher
levels of education.
I didn't, I didn't have many,uh, figures like that in my life
(01:50):
growing up.
I mean, I'm a first generation,you know, high school college
that graduated.
Many of those are firstgenerations for me.
So, uh, this was a newexperience.
And so Dr.
TRS really unlocked a corememory and was one of my first
mentors, as far as academics areconcerned.
And during my seventh gradeyear, I entered the science fair
in, in one first place, whichwas a huge deal.
They took us out to Babbo park.
(02:11):
We got to miss miss school for aweek.
We got to go to all the museumsfor free.
It was the best.
And I think at that point intime, it really solidified
something in me that I, thatwould lay dormant until later on
in my adult life high school.
Uh, uh, I was really fortunate.
The high school I went to wasMorris high school, not too far
from, from Keeler.
And they had an aeronauticsprogram.
(02:31):
So I was able to enroll in thataeronautics program.
And I learned how to fly beforeI learned how to drive.
And I had this great instructornamed Mr.
Klon, who was this like 6, 4,250 pound and hippie guy.
And he, we would, we would getin the plane and we would have
these like philosophicalconversations.
And, and through that,especially looking back now as a
(02:52):
teacher, I realized that he wasmaking connections with me and
investing into who I was as aperson.
And it was something that I soneeded at the, the time.
Um, because at, at home I didn'thave that, you know, my safe
place, a lot of times wasschool.
It was my only structure.
It was where I knew I would getencouragement.
It was where I, I knew thingswere reliable and consistent for
a lot of people.
And a lot of kids, their homelife isn't like that school was
(03:14):
that for me.
So Mr.
Klon, I mean, he was thisauthentic, you know, consistent
person in my life and made ahuge difference at this time
after I graduated high school, I, I left home just to, to get
away from a difficultenvironment.
And I was homeless for a littlewhile and, and that was a huge
moment in my life.
And, and around that time, uh,an aunt found out and she said,
you're gonna come stay with us.
(03:35):
And this was like, at this threeyear process of me living with
them in this like functionalfamily that ate dinner together.
And they, they went to like thezoo, they had family passes and
they like took family photos atChristmas time.
This was all weird stuff.
Like, I didn't know, I didn'tknow who did these things.
It was, I felt like a puppy thatlike lived in a home that was
like, it was a home that wasjust always kind of like violent
or, or, or like just reallytoxic.
(03:55):
And then it gets put into ahealthy home and doesn't know
how to act.
That's how it felt.
And this was around like 19, 20years old.
Um, during that time I, Istarted putting myself through
school.
So I went to community collegeand I was broke as a joke.
And so I couldn't afford thetextbooks while I was going.
So I would just go to thebookstore, uh, the Barnes and
noble books store and mirrorMesa here in San Diego.
(04:15):
And I would stay there all nightusing the textbooks or using the
books there for doing my work.
And then I would just put thebooks back on the shelves, um,
because let's just face it.
Textbooks are expensive.
My brother wasn't trying to payfor all that.
So I really had to earn, earnthat time.
So I was working full time.
I was going to school and, uh,eventually, uh, I got a job in
working in finance, uh, with a,a really great friend who, who
(04:38):
mentored me, um, during myyounger twenties and I didn't
wanna be broke and finance madesense.
And so I did that for a littlewhile, until I got to a point in
my career where I was watchingan episode of the office, the,
the UK version, the rookieDravet's version, and a
character said, I'd rather be atthe bottom of a ladder.
I want to climb than, thanhalfway went up.
(04:59):
I don't.
And I realize working financethat I was halfway up a ladder.
I never wanted to climb.
So I, I wanted to move intosomething that I, if I was gonna
spend eight hours a day or 10hours a day doing something, I
wanted to be something thatactually filled me up inside.
And this is how I got intoteaching.
So I had always been workingwith young people, specifically
12 to 18 year olds, like anon-profit or volunteering,
(05:20):
mentoring after school programs.
And I've always managed torationalize my job in the
finance world as meaningfulbecause it let me do the real
work that fulfilled me.
So the real work was workingwith the kids, but my day job, I
like Clark Kent type job wasjust, you know, doing the
finance thing of like helpingpeople that have a lot of money,
make more money, which at theend of my, the end of my life, I
(05:41):
look back and I said, that's notwhat I want my legacy to be.
And when, when the finance crashhappened in 2008, that's what I
think.
I started looking back on it andsaid, if I, if I'm gonna spend
all my time doing something andspending 40 or 60 or 80 hours of
my day of my, of my week doingthings, um, I wanted to matter.
And that's when I decided to, topivot and, uh, leave that field
(06:03):
and go and get my master's in,uh, education and get my
teaching credential, teachingscience specifically.
Now, one of the questions we getasked, um, a lot and I've been
asked is, is how is teachingchanged as a result of the
pandemic?
And I feel like this could beseveral podcasts in and of
itself, and it's also regionalbecause everybody's experienced
(06:24):
it differently and we're stillexperiencing it.
That's the, that's the crazything is like, it's not over,
we're still in it.
And some places have innovatedand pivoted and some places just
did what they needed to.
And, and they are trying to goback to business as usual.
But if anything has happened,the pandemic revealed how much
more, how much schools are morethan places of just content
(06:46):
learning for many students.
It's where they have their onlycommunity, their structure,
their emotional wellness, uh,they get regular meals, access
to tech and adults that careabout them that are outside of
their family.
The it schools are so much morethan that.
I mean, my school, they were aplace like a hub that was giving
out food every single day duringthe pandemic to families that
would kind of drive by.
So for a lot of schools, theybecame places like that.
(07:08):
It also, the pandemic revealedthe intensity of the educated
workload.
I mean, being able to manageyour family, having the
capacity, to be a contentexpert, you need to be a
counselor, a trauma carespecialist, a coach, an
encourager, a tech expert.
I mean, the term mental healthis now more common and starting
to become prioritized.
Now we're focusing so much moreon the whole child.
(07:30):
And we know from research thathow a child feels about
themselves and their safety andtheir security impacts their
ability to learn.
So the more comfortable and safea student feels in the classroom
with teachers and with friends,the better they're gonna be able
to learn.
And ultimately the higherthey're gonna be able to achieve
you can't, you can't have onewithout the other.
In addition, I think lessteachers, uh, see themselves
(07:52):
teaching into retirement.
I think that's a big thing.
Um, I, I read these articlesabout teacher shortages and, and
I think the reality is it's,it's actually teacher Exodus,
it's teachers leaving, andthat's been really difficult.
I've had many friends who'veleft for the private sector, and
I get it, especially if you'reone that has, if you're the
first in your family to graduatefrom college, with a stem degree
(08:14):
, um, to them taking a teachingposition can mean walking away
from a salary in the privatesector that pays two or three
times more.
And in many places around thecountry, in order to be a
teacher and maintain a medianstandard of living, you need
either dual income, multiplejobs, or a multi-generational
household for a lot of people.
It just doesn't make sense.
(08:35):
And even right now, today, asI'm recording this, I'm, I'm
reading articles and gettingtext messages.
And, and I received a textmessage three days ago from a
teacher that said my goal thisyear is to just not resign.
And that's where a lot ofteachers are feeling right now,
isolated, challenged, andunderappreciated.
And Plato said, what's honoredin a country is cultivated
(08:56):
there.
And I I've been looking at howteachers are honored and, and
one of the ways is just likepractical.
Like, look, I gotta pay mybills.
You know, love the Starbucksgift card.
Love the, the CPK, the giftcard, the cards, those are the
things, but brother got a carpayment.
And at, at the end of the day,if we care about our kids, we
need to take care of the peoplethat take care of them.
And there's very practical waysfor that to happen.
(09:19):
And, and everybody in differentsectors around the country is,
is dealing with that indifferent ways.
I think the pandemic alsorevealed now the public can see
how our kids don't receive thesame quality of education.
And once you're aware of that,you can't put the genie back in
the bottle.
So once you see on zoom or onceyou see in a meeting, or once
you see on the news thatstudents were in different
(09:42):
areas, whether it's the ruralsouth or a suburb in Seattle are
not getting equitableeducations.
Well, ultimately that impactsall of us.
Now.
It's not all doo and gloom.
Good things have come from, uh,as a result of the pandemic.
Many schools have made progresstowards narrowing the technology
gap, cuz they had to cause you,you can't do zoom and you can't
(10:02):
do Google meet and all thatstuff, uh, with a packet, you
gotta get those Chromebooks andChromebooks and the internet and
access to tech is not a newthing.
It's been out for a long time.
Uh, the technology gap is not anew thing.
It's been written aboutextensively, but all of a sudden
districts and schools startedfiguring out how to close that
gap.
And that's awesome.
We didn't want a pandemic to bethe catalyst for that to happen.
(10:25):
But at the end of the day, westarted closing it.
A lot of schools did an amazingjob and districts did an amazing
job with deploying the hardware,sending out buses with wifi,
putting lessons and videos onUSB sticks and, and dropping
them off to parents who, wholive in, in sparsely populated
areas.
I mean, there were so manystories that I've heard about
schools and teachers just doingamazing things going above and
(10:49):
beyond what they needed to onbehalf of kids.
I think, uh, in, in addition tothat, there's also been, uh,
students and families are nowhaving more options to
personalize their learning.
So we have this in person model,we have this zoom or kind of
online model and this hybridmodel and, and it, it hasn't all
been perfect, you know, at all.
But some families have come outand said, you know what actually
(11:10):
doing this hybrid model isbetter for my son or better for
my daughter or better for mystudent, uh, because they're
able to, to get thesocialization, but also able to
focus better at home than theyare in a classroom of 36.
And that's legitimate, you know,we talk about personalized
learning, but it's not exactlypersonalized when everybody has
to wake up at the same time,same schedule go to the same,
the, the, the same classroom of,you know, over up to 40 kids and
(11:33):
do the same lesson.
I mean, we have to be honestabout our limitations with
personalizing learning forstudents and when we can provide
more options and we giveteachers the infrastructure to
be able to use differentplatforms, um, then we're able
to personalize learning a lotmore.
There's also been an emphasis onthe whole child wellness.
(11:53):
Um, I think the spotlight on,uh, mental wellbeing heavily
impacts their academic success,but counseling teams, social
workers, uh, schoolpsychologists, I think more than
ever we've realized the valuethat they bring to the schools.
And, and unfortunately many ofthem have caseloads of 200
students or more.
(12:14):
And they're seeing students mostoften that are in crisis.
And especially after thepandemic, um, we're realizing
how valuable they are and howmuch we need to, to one honor
them and give them the supportthat they need.
And also recruit more because aswe start recognizing that how
our brains are impacted by thethings that we're dealing with,
(12:34):
um, we're also gonna see howthat's gonna impact our
students' performance.
And we need the specialists inthose positions to be able to
support our kids.
Uh, I think last, I think moreinnovation and lesson design and
how we assess students.
And so we've been talking aboutin education, just kind of
critiquing, how, how do weassess what a student knows?
How do we make what a studentactually does at school relevant
(12:58):
to real life?
I mean, so many times I havelike students who've graduated
that are like, I feel like thethings I learned in school, like
they're not always transferableto real life.
It helped me on a test, butlike, I don't know how to do my
taxes or I, I memorize thesefacts, but I don't really apply
it in my job or the facts that Ilearned I could have actually
learned on the fly in my job.
I wish I would've actuallyfocused on the skills or had an
(13:20):
earlier opportunity to, to getsome experience because when I'm
trying to apply for a job, uh,
and I'm 22 years old.
And, and so all these thingskind of come up.
And so I think there's been somegreat conversations around how
do we rethink what educationlooks like and there's different
pockets around the country, um,that have been doing that, I
think really well.
And I think it's important forus as teachers to stay connected
(13:42):
to those people who are kind ofpushing the boundaries and
thinking outside the box,because when we get siloed, it's
really easy to get calcified andcynical.
I get it.
And it impacts me too.
But when we're around thosepeople who have those fresh
ideas who are really pushing thelimits, it inspires us.
And that's something I think,during the pandemic that I've, I
I'm grateful that I wasintentional about is staying
(14:04):
connected with other teachers.
There's a big question.
Uh, why do you continue yourwork in the classroom and what
keeps you motivated?
And I, I was, I was thinkingreally hard about this question
because depending on
my answer's gonna be a littlebit different.
So I've had to step back fromthis 30 foot thousand foot
perspective and, and answer thequestion.
(14:25):
And, and my answer is this, Ithink because I still feel like
I can be effective to influencepositive change in my classroom
with my students and within thelarger education system as a
whole.
I think if I lost either ofthose two, then I'd rethink my
profession.
Look, I'm an innovator.
Like I like asking why questionsand things like that.
(14:46):
I, I, so, and not only the mostpopular person when you do that,
but education is like, is like,like a, just a huge ship.
It doesn't pivot on a dime andasking why questions and pushing
for change on behalf of kids,isn't easy, fun, or glamorous,
but it's it's necessary.
And I feel like over the lastfew years, I've been able to see
(15:07):
these kind of glimmers of atrajectory change, um, at least
where I am locally.
And that's something that, thathas given me a lot of hope.
I'm very fortunate to, to beconnected to educators and
people in leadership that arereally about making a difference
beyond just kind of the, the,the, the cliche platitudes.
They actually wanna makesystemic change, um, in a way
(15:30):
that's positive.
And that's been really helpfulfor me.
So as long as I feel like I'museful in the classroom for
students, and as long as I feellike I'm bringing, I think
change on behalf of teachers andstudents and administrators and
our community in a way thatmoves the ball down the field.
That's what keeps me motivated.
And what I like to ask teacherswhen I close in the podcast is,
(15:52):
is what teacher or teachers haveinspired you.
And for me, I think it wouldstart off with the teachers who
cared about me when they didn'thave to in elementary school all
the way through college.
And there are numerous teachers,my science teacher, community of
practice for the last two years.
I've been fortunate to spendevery month, once a month
(16:13):
meeting with just a core groupof science teachers that really
care about some of the thingsthat we are impacted by in the
classroom.
And when the pandemic was goingon, we still met regularly.
And because we're not allteaching in the same place, we
kind of were able to bringdifferent perspectives to the
table.
I think the current classroomteachers and former classroom
teachers that I have in my, inmy community really inspire me.
(16:36):
The ones who are, who arededicated to opening doors for
students, the graduate studentsthat I teach at the university
of San Diego, they keep mefresh.
I love leaving teaching my 12and 13 year olds, and then
driving down the street to theuniversity and teaching 20
somethings who are all about tobe in the classroom.
They come with new ideas,they're asking questions, and I
get to actually share thingsthat I just did three hours ago.
(16:58):
I think that's one thing thathas, has continues to inspire
me.
And it's one of the reasons whyI love teaching at the
university of San Diego.
Their energy and enthusiasm issuper refreshing.
And then all the teachers thatare willing to take risks and
fail forward, to try thingsdifferent, to ask hard
questions, to push the envelope.
Teaching's hard, it's easy topoint out the problems in
education as a whole, but afterwe do that, it's important to
(17:20):
figure out the practical ways wecan make the changes that we
wanna see.
Now, that's, that's to say thatif you have the capacity for it
and the resources and thesupport, some of us, we don't,
some of us, we are on an island,and that's a really, really
difficult place to be,especially when you have family
and kids to take care of.
And, and you have to makedecisions on what's best, best
(17:40):
for you and for your ownstudents.
We do this work on behalf ofkids, and it's one of the most
honorable services a person canprovide to our community.
But one area for growth that Ithink we have kind of as a
society is teachers spend theirlives daily.
On behalf of the future of ourcountry for other people's
(18:01):
children, they fall asleep atnight, worrying about other
people's kids.
They spend their own money tocreate opportunities and
experiences that students mightnot otherwise have.
And it's important that wecollectively, and I know I'm
preaching the choir when I saythis, but this is one of my
messages is that we honor themin turn.
We create programs that allowthem to be able to afford
(18:21):
housing.
We create opportunities for themto be able to generate wealth.
We create ways for them to beable to find rest, to get
connection.
And then internally we createsystems where they can just work
on themselves, fill themselves,get trained and be whole so they
can bring their best self to thekids in front of them.
Um, that's my, that's one of mypersonal platforms.
(18:44):
It, it, it's something that Ithink is, is vital.
We gotta take care of the peoplethat take care of our kids.
So there's a saying that saysit's better to light a candle
than the curse to the darkness.
And it takes one person to blowout a candle, but one candle can
light thousands of other candleswithout diminishing its own
light.
And that's what we have to be.
So my encouragement teachers isyou're going into this new
(19:06):
school year, and you're, you'rethinking about what's going on.
You're thinking about all thechallenges and they're there,
and they're real.
And trust me, it's not like somePollyanna, like, Hey, just be
positive mindset andeverything's gonna be great.
No, no, no, no, no.
It's not that.
But my encouragement, if I cantell you one thing, that's
helped me more than anythingelse.
It's being connected to otherpeople who are candle lighters,
because there are a lot ofplaces that are gonna blow out
(19:28):
the candle.
It could be the staff lounge.
It can be Twitter, it could beready.
It could be Instagram.
It could be TikTok.
It could be, you know, anybody,someone next door to you.
There's a lot of folks that aregonna be willing to point out
and say, look, this is what'swrong.
But find the helpers.
Find the people that are candlelighters and stay connected with
them.
Um, find that community.
I can tell you for me, that'sbeen the thing that's been able
(19:48):
to help me sojourn through allof this.
Um, I couldn't do this by myselfis being able to share my story
with other teachers and knowingthat I'm doing this work
alongside of other folks who aredoing this work and I can share
my story with them and listen totheir stories is something
that's been able to fill my cup.
And so I hope I can do the samefor you and for other people
listening to other people.
I come in contact with teachers.
(20:09):
I wish you a great school year.
Hang in there.
Be those can lighters and bringyour best self on behalf of the
students.
Thanks so much for listening.
Now, we wanna hear more aboutyou.
If you have any stories youwanna share about the classroom,
please email stem, amplify.com.
That's SST E M amplify.com andmake sure to click, subscribe
(20:34):
wherever you listen to podcastsand join our Facebook group
science connections, thecommunity until next time.
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