What if classrooms were built on intuition, curiosity, and trust?
In this episode, I sit down with Jeromie Whalen, a passionate educator at Northampton High School, reimagining what learning can be. We explore his unconventional path into teaching, the impact of technology in the classroom, and how intuitive, real-world learning empowers students to find and use their voices.
Jeromie shares his approach to creating engaging, student-driven experiences, such as the innovative The Transcript program, while offering honest insights into what it takes to build a safe, authentic, and collaborative learning space. From community engagement to creative risk-taking, this conversation is a blueprint for heart-centered education that truly prepares students for life.
✨ Tune in to hear how education can become a space for growth, purpose, and connection—one classroom at a time.
🎓 Update: Since the recording of this episode, Jeromie Whalen has officially earned his doctoral degree. Congratulations, Dr. Whalen! 👏✨
Find me on Instagram @ToHumisHuman and www.sonorouslight.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
Hi, friends.
Welcome to another episode of ToHum is Human, the podcast where
we explore the transformativepower of tuning into our inner
wisdom to express our passionatepurpose.
I'm your host, Donabelle, andtoday we're going to explore the
intuitive classroom, harnessinginsight to shape
(00:28):
student-centered and real-worldlearning.
into our instincts to beinnovative and engaging.
Today, we are joined by awonderful, incredible teacher.
Jeremy Whalen is a PhD candidatein the College of Education's
(00:50):
Mathematics, Science, andLearning Technologies program.
Jeremy also has an MED inLearning Media and Technology
from the University ofMassachusetts College of
Education, and he is currently atechnology teacher at
Northampton High School inNorthampton, Massachusetts, and
works on connecting studentswith meaningful educational
(01:14):
opportunities within the localcommunity through innovative
project-based learning.
Welcome, Jeremy.
SPEAKER_01 (01:21):
Thanks for having me.
Listening to all of that rightthere was like, oh man, that's a
lot of title.
SPEAKER_00 (01:28):
That's you.
That's you.
And that's all you.
Well, not all of you, actually.
But I learned about you when mysons went to Northampton High
School a few years back.
And of course, one of them tookyour Communications and Media
Production class, otherwiseknown as CAMP.
And he couldn't stop ravingabout how exciting, challenging,
(01:52):
but fun, you know, that thisclass was.
And in fact, this is a commonsentiment about your teaching
practices.
I mean, you've been nominatedfor several Teacher of the Year
awards.
So congratulations on that.
SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
Thank you.
Yeah.
And your son was an amazingstudent.
You know, that's, you know, timeand time again, that's why I'm
so passionate about it.
You know, what the studentsbring to the table is just so
inspiring in and of itself.
So, you know, makes my job a loteasier when it comes to
SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
that too.
Well, you know, you startedteaching at Northampton High
School.
Was it around 2014, 2014, 2015school year.
Yep.
Okay.
But your path to teaching wasnot the conventional route.
Could you speak a little bitabout that?
SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
Yeah.
So, so I started out incommunity media and actually to
even step back even further, Ialways had a passion for media.
And I remember when we werebuilding, I graduated from
Belchertown high school, whichis right down the road from us.
And I I remember the new schoolwas asking for input for
(03:02):
students on what they wanted.
And I was really passionateabout building an AV studio.
And I went to all the meetingsand I was on the student council
and I brought the organizationstuff up, just tried to really
advocate for getting equipment.
And so what ultimately happenedwas we got these great new
(03:23):
cameras and they were veryexpensive in this brand new
school.
But we didn't have classes thatwere available.
And the other problem was therewasn't anyone that wanted to
take accountability or liabilityto rent out these cameras.
So they kind of sat in a cabinetlocked.
And I did all the advocacy toget these equipment, but I
(03:46):
couldn't use it.
So I went to UMass and I pursuedundergraduate history degree.
And from there, I startedlooking at, you know, how can I
do media and how can I bring thestories that I'm hearing in our
local community?
I did a documentary on theBelchtown State Schools because
(04:07):
I knew the camera equipment wasthere.
I was like, okay, I know wheretheir cameras are.
Like, I can go get these camerasfrom Belchtown High School.
I can make this work.
And I remember going...
and saying that I was doing thisproject on the Bustard State
Schools.
And can I use these cameras?
After kind of a back and forth,the principal allowed me to use
the cameras.
(04:27):
We opened up the case and thecamera was gone.
And it had been sitting therefor years and no one wanted to
take any accountability orliability for renting them out.
And so they kind of sat thereand because no one was paying
attention to them, it wasultimately stolen.
From that point, two thingshappened that really changed my
life.
One, It changed my philosophy onif I'm ever in a position where
(04:52):
I can offer access to equipmentor to having people just tell
their stories and just, youknow, living their true
identities, I'm going to takeevery opportunity to do so.
And two, in the practicalmoment, I said, I need to find
cameras and find equipment and,you know, and tell the story
that I'm trying to right now.
And so that got me startedvolunteering at North Hampton
(05:15):
Open Media.
Back then it was called NorthHampton Community Television.
I was a UMass student and Icould get stuff out from UMass,
but their camera equipment was alittle outdated and the things
that were going on at NorthHampton Open Media were just, I
was able to take courses thereand take out gear.
(05:35):
And eventually I created thedocumentary that I did,
Purgatory.
on the Belchtown State Schoolswith the stuff that I learned
from Northampton Open Media andwith the gear that I was taking
out.
And I kept on saying to myself,you know, what's the catch?
You know, they were educating meand they were giving me, you
know, at times thousands ofdollars worth of equipment for
(05:56):
free to lend out.
And I said, you know, what's thecatch here?
And there really wasn't a catch.
It was just a really proactiveand progressive nonprofit
organization that was providingeducation and access to
equipment.
I really thrived there.
And from there, I said, they'redoing a lot for me.
I want to give back to them.
I started volunteering on citycouncil shoots and school
(06:20):
committee shoots and anythingthat they really needed.
Eventually, that led to myemployment at Northampton Open
Media.
That was really my kind offootprint.
in the door to creating a careerin media so a lot of things that
we were doing were kind of likecutting edge tech but done on
the cheap and so we're usingdigital slr cameras and a whole
bunch of ways that we couldcreate high quality stories and
(06:44):
experiences while at the sametime do it in a budget conscious
way and provide that to thecommunity and so for a few years
i I was working at NorthamptonOpen Media.
I went to the West Coast for ayear and I was a director of a
nonprofit media center overthere.
I came back and that's when theteaching opened up.
(07:07):
I had previously beencollaborating with the school
when I was working atNorthampton Open Media because
it's physically attached to theschool.
And so during that time, Iwas...
working and interacting withstudents.
And I was also interacting withsome of the administration
there.
The vice principal became theprincipal and remembered the
cool things that we were doingand all of the passion and
(07:30):
enthusiasm that we all had.
And remembered that when Iapplied to the job at
Northampton, this was my dreamjob.
really.
And, you know, I let them knowthat.
I put a lot of time and energyinto the community and the
community gives me a lot backtoo.
So it's a special place in myheart.
And so that's what I expressedin the job interview.
(07:51):
I told them all that.
I said, you know, whoever getsthis job, I hope that they take
it seriously because communitymedia is a big part of this
community.
My interview, I walked out thedoor, I shut the door.
I walked three feet down thehall and the door opened up and
they offered me the job on thespot.
And from that point on, I fellin love with the school.
I fell in love with thestudents.
(08:11):
I fell in love with the workthat they were creating.
And every year gets better andbetter and better.
Better mindsets for thestudents, better production
quality, thinking criticallyabout things.
It's just, it's an amazingexperience.
I'm just very blessed.
SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
I want to just backtrack a little bit because
what I've read about you is thatyou had a history of degree and
you also studied film, but whatwas it really your interest in
media?
Was there something when youwere younger, like what tapped
you then?
SPEAKER_01 (08:43):
So my brother and my friends and I, when we were
really young, we used to makeskits all the time.
We used to take the big old AV,you know, VCR recorder.
I remember those.
And we'd just make funny skits.
And from there, it was reallythinking about Thinking about
just media in general, I thinkthat it was so inaccessible when
(09:03):
prosumer stuff was so out ofbudget and out of range to
create really authentic and highquality productions that Wow.
That's cool.
Right.
(09:42):
when I started to think aboutcareer and also just think about
adulthood in general.
Documenting the things in mylife was important to me, but
also that was a platform for meto express myself.
But there's also ways to developand express those stories of
others as well.
And at the time when I was incollege, I was working with a
(10:07):
young adult with autism.
I was doing tech consultationwith them and they're a very
dear friend of mine.
They were actually my best manat my wedding.
And I could see how the storiesof his life were intertwined
with mine and I wanted to tellthat story and intertwined it
into the history of that, youknow, was right down the road
(10:29):
for me in the state schools, youknow, the heartache that was
experienced there, you know, andalso just the triumphs of
individuals with developmentaldisabilities.
I wanted to kind of bring allthat around and it transitioned
from just me telling my story tohelping others tell their
stories.
SPEAKER_00 (10:49):
That's so beautiful and so valuable in these days
when most of the time we're sortof taught to assimilate and not
really speak about ourdifferences, where you're really
giving people the opportunity toshine in the individual ways
that they are.
And that's just such a powerfulstatement in both expression,
(11:11):
but also in your teaching.
So I want to go back to thinkingabout technology and education.
Do you feel like these newtechnologies are influencing our
educational system in general?
SPEAKER_01 (11:24):
So my studies in my master's and my doctorate, I
really have been observing howeducators interact with
technology.
I think that there's good andbad, and it's a spectrum of
everything that we're trying tograpple with in society.
The thing about technologythat's difficult is that it
(11:46):
moves at such breakneck speeds,and we as a society don't
necessarily have time to sitback, reflect, and discuss
what's going on with thesetechnologies.
And that can be reallydifficult.
It can be really difficult forproduction.
It can be really difficult foranalysis of it and the
implications of what happens.
I think that when we're thinkingof technology and education, we
(12:10):
can often see it through thelens of the mandatory use of
technology in unprecedentedshift from COVID in the
pandemic.
A lot of teachers had to adoptthings really quick on the fly,
try to kind of patch thingstogether.
And that left a bad taste in alot of people's mouths,
(12:30):
unfortunately.
It wasn't the best introductionto how to use technology
effectively.
That being said, there was a lotof skills that were learned
during that.
And I hope that educators don'tabandon those skills.
I think that even though it wastrial by fire, I hope that we
actually think of how technologycan be leveraged in the
(12:51):
classroom.
The idea that, for instance, Wecan have an expert from across
the world be in your classroomvia Zoom.
That's just so powerful.
It's so empowering.
The idea that you can take yourphone and with your phone, you
can record a message that can beseen globally and tell your
story.
These things are reallypowerful.
(13:12):
And again, if usedinappropriately, can create
unfortunate situations.
But overall, I think that theeducation in general, is moving
towards a way where you can usetechnology in a really elevated
ways, in ways that supportslearning rather than become an
(13:33):
ultimate distraction or detractsfrom it.
SPEAKER_00 (13:36):
Right.
And also just another way ofconnection, like speaking about
stories, culturally significantstories from other parts of the
world, different roles insociety is such a powerful tool.
Now, your focus in the classroomis on experiential learning and
real world experience.
(13:57):
Why is that so important to you?
SPEAKER_01 (14:01):
I think that somewhere along the way with
standardized testing or thepressures of college, the idea,
the philosophy of education haslost its way a little bit.
The idea that you need toproduce certain things for a
grade.
Anybody that takes my classesknows that grades– I don't hide
(14:23):
the fact that your grade isbased on your efforts.
It's not on getting somethingright because life is about
slowly moving the needle intothe right direction and
progressing.
It's a lot of accumulativeknowledge.
It's okay to make mistakes.
Shout out to Steve Eldridge.
He was a wonderful theaterteacher at the high school.
(14:44):
He used to call it failinggloriously.
The ability to be in a situationand make that mistake and then
learn from that mistake issomething that is really
embedded into my teaching.
And when it comes to the realworld elements, I think what's
important is when the studentsare watching their media or
having the entire school,sometimes It's not just the
(15:09):
school, it's administrators orit's people outside of class.
It's people in our localcommunity.
There is a level ofaccountability for them and a
level of this goes beyond justgetting an A.
It's something where if theyscrew up the lighting or if they
ask a question that's a littleoff or something like that,
(15:32):
there's much more power in thelearning experience when you
have a healthy critique from anoutside source rather than a
letter on a piece of paper.
And I think that time and timeagain, the students understand
that.
They gravitate towards the ideathat we don't ever really talk
about grades.
(15:52):
What we talk about is theimplications of what they're
creating and how it's perceivedby the larger community.
SPEAKER_00 (16:00):
Now, it sounds to me what I'm hearing is that moving
into the world and takingaccountability for what you're
doing in the world or even justhow you process navigating what
you see is happening in theworld.
How did this come into yourteaching philosophy?
Because this seems to me likesomething that you've learned
(16:22):
yourself.
SPEAKER_01 (16:24):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, going back to the, theidea of, of helping people tell
stories, um, and connecting andgrouting with your own personal
experience.
I think that, especially withthe transcript, it's a weekly
video news magazine that thestudents produce.
One real example of this thatsticks out in my mind, I had a
(16:46):
young woman come up to me, andthis was several years ago, and
she was a black student, and shecame up, and I didn't know her
well at the time, and she said,are you Jeremy?
I was like, yeah.
She goes...
I don't think that we haveenough black perspective shown
on the transcripts.
And I love this.
I love it because what she isdoing is saying, when I'm
(17:10):
watching the transcripts, Idon't identify with everything
that's going on here.
In fact, I think that thereshould be a segment about this.
And I just looked at her and Isaid, I absolutely agree.
So what should we do about that?
She ended up taking the class.
She ended up having a awesome,awesome segment called Hit It or
(17:33):
Miss It.
It was kind of an intertwiningof pop culture and fashion and
reference, but with Blackidentity.
And just being able to groundyourself in your self-identity,
realize that one, your voice isnot being heard, but two, using
the platform that you have inorder to tell your story and to
share your experiences, that'spowerful.
(17:55):
And it's a thing thing that Ireally hold sacred for these
students too, because it takesvulnerability to do that.
It takes some bravery to get infront of the camera and say,
this is my culture.
This is my identity.
This is what I want to show youand share with you, especially
when you might think that, youknow, that you don't necessarily
(18:15):
have somewhere that is fittingin or you're telling your story.
So just grounding that in my ownpersonal experience, but having
students do that is reallyawesome to watch.
SPEAKER_00 (18:26):
And so empowering for the student in ways that
they probably would never haveimagined had they not even
trusted their own instinct toeven say that to you.
Now, what I find reallyfascinating, well, not
fascinating because I imaginethis is how you work, is how
open you are to receiving quoteunquote criticism or opinion
(18:50):
because being a student-centeredteacher you're very much aware
about all the individual, uniqueperspectives of each and every
student.
And the fact that you arewilling to take the risk and
just say, well, how can weaddress the situation is so
(19:10):
compelling.
And I probably would think thatperhaps most teachers may not be
as open.
Would you think that's a fairstatement to say?
SPEAKER_01 (19:24):
I think that for teaching, it's a very difficult
profession because what you'realways trying to do is provide
parameters under the learningconditions while at the same
time opening and expandingopportunities for students.
If you come in with an idea forsomething and have too many
(19:47):
restrictions on it or you'reinvolved too much, then you're
going to take away from thelearning aspects of that
student.
For instance, one of the thingsthat it's a very small thing,
but it really matters.
Whenever I'm teaching andwhenever the students are
teaching others, I say you can'ttouch the mouse for the person.
Do not ever touch the keyboardor the mouse for the person.
(20:09):
And it can be frustrating,right?
Because the parameters thatyou're setting are that they
need, they're going to expandtheir, you know, it can be
frustrating, you know, go tofile, save as, and you know,
they're going around and doingall this stuff.
But if you set those guidelines,one for yourself, but to give
the opportunity to the studentto do that, there's going to be
(20:30):
learning involved.
I think it's easy because theother part of this is that
there's so many anxieties as ateacher, you want to succeed.
And it's so easy to get stuck inthe mindset of I'm going to do
this for the student or I'mgoing to make the instructions
so rigid that there is littleroom for creativity.
(20:51):
And that's where, if you dothat, it removes the idea of
making the mistakes that we weretalking about.
It removes the idea of what thatstudent wants to do in that
creative product.
How do they want to tell thatstory?
The story can be told in manydifferent ways.
And so just going back to yourquestion, I think that most
teachers want to give thatleniency and to give those
(21:15):
open-ended parameters tostudents.
I remember when I was a youngerteacher, I would say, okay,
we're going to create this film,not have some of those
parameters set, and there wouldbe chaos because you also need
to have those guidelines andguide rails for the students.
And as I progressed as ateacher, I could take those, you
know, take the bumpers, youknow, the bumper lanes, and I
(21:36):
could just slowly peel them backand let the ball go into the
gutter because that's a learningexperience, right?
So my advice to younger teachersor or individuals that are
interested in doing this, buthave anxieties behind what
actually, if it all falls apart,is just try it, you know, just
to have that ability to put thestudents in control, put them in
(22:00):
the driver's seat, see whathappens.
It's all right to, like I said,fail gloriously, even for
teachers.
It's okay, you know, not everyday is the best day in my
classroom of my practices, youknow, that's just the way it
goes.
SPEAKER_00 (22:12):
Can you tell us a story about when you thought to
try something really unique andexciting, but it sort of felt
flat?
SPEAKER_01 (22:23):
Oh, yeah.
Right now we're working onscripts, right?
As a young teacher, I rememberwe went extensively through the
formatting.
There's a very specific way thatyou need to format scripts.
And I thought, you know, once Ishow them the technical aspects
of this, they're going to runwith it, right?
And so I was very excited.
rigid.
(22:43):
I was teaching very specificallyto all the technical aspects and
everything like that.
I forgot to tell them what thethree act structure was.
I didn't give them any promptsto it.
So I said, you know, here's howyou write a script, go write a
script.
And I just have a lot of blankstares, right?
They're just, you know,anything, anything.
(23:04):
Dealer, dealer.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
It's not like they're not goodwriters.
It's not like they don'tunderstand.
But given that right there and.
Understanding the dynamicbetween the teacher and the
student and understanding thatit's an adult, an authoritative
figure that's telling them to dosomething without really clear
(23:25):
instructions, because in thetraditional educational
frameworks, you're told to dovery specific things, you know?
So it was good and it was bad.
I mean, it was good in the senseof, you know, once we got the
juices flowing, once Iunderstand, so now I do the same
thing, but I go, here is theparameters.
We have to shoot these films inchild's park.
It's a local park.
(23:47):
We're going to shoot in thepark.
That's your scene.
There's the parameter.
You have that location.
So now you can take and runwith, I'm going to give you a
couple of characters.
We're going to do a spy film.
There's spy one and spy two.
And it still gives them thecreative license to create what
they want, but it gives them alittle bit of a push along the
way.
And then the other part is, Ihave students that go, oh, I
(24:10):
don't want to make them spies.
I want to make them friends.
And I'm like, yes, okay.
I can work with this.
This is not a hard and fastthing.
And so there's certain timeswhere things can fall flat for
either being too strict or nothaving enough parameters.
And it's a kind of constant giveand take.
And it's what I call educationaljujitsu.
(24:31):
The minute that you see thepassion in the student, you just
roll with it.
You just want to take that andyou just want to keep on going.
ongoing.
Going back to the idea when Iwas working at Northampton Open
Media before I started as ateacher, one of my favorite
things was we were going tocreate a television show, but I
gave them the opportunity topick what they wanted to do.
(24:53):
These kids, they don't have anyrelationship with me at this
moment.
It's just this young kid that'sacross the hall because that's
where the studio was.
They're taking out a class.
I said, what do you want to makea television show about?
They said, Video games.
And they all started laughing.
And I go, I love that idea.
That's what we're going to do.
(25:13):
So we created a video gameversion of the administrators
playing students on Wii Bowlingand things like that.
It was like one of those thingswhere they were like, We're
going to play video games duringclass.
But then it was, OK, we playedvideo games for 15 minutes.
And now you're all editing thisthing for a week, you know, and
(25:34):
it was video games that excitedthem.
But you could take that run withit and then create that into a
passion or into something thatmake it great work.
SPEAKER_00 (25:42):
It sounds like almost anything goes to some
degree in your classroom, butnot every student who comes into
your classroom may benecessarily savvy or versed in
anything that you're presentingto them.
So for example, when a studentis struggling to find their
passion or their purpose in aproject, how do you use your
(26:06):
instincts to help them find aconnection to something that
excites them or inspires them?
SPEAKER_01 (26:12):
The other part of this is that there's a couple of
different connections that theyneed to create or may not have
when they come into the class.
The first connection isobviously with technology or the
skills.
We have the really awesome thingabout the class is that it's
student-centered learning andit's different tiers of
knowledge.
(26:32):
If you are brand new to theclass, we call you a newbie.
You might have taken my video orphoto class, and you know some
of the settings, but you haven'tbeen introduced to journalism.
We're going to pair you withsomebody that has taken the
class, which is the veterans.
So you can take multiplerenditions of this, and it's a
(26:52):
tracked path of classes.
On top of that, when we pair theveterans with the newbies,
there's associate leaders.
And associate leaders areresponsible for checking in with
different groups, withunderstanding what part of the
production process people areat.
The veterans and the associateeditors are working with
somebody if they don't know howto set up the camera or need a
(27:16):
refresher on how to move files.
That person, it's not me.
They're not coming to me.
You know, I'm there to superviseand facilitate and look at some
of the larger orderinterpersonal things, but
they're going to each other.
And then there's the seniorleadership, which is looking at
larger picture things, helpingout in the general class, making
(27:36):
forward to what we want tobecome or what things are down
the line.
So there's the technical aspectsthat they need the connections
for.
On top of that, you also have tothink about it's high schoolers
in social environment.
And we operate in a newsroomenvironment, but there are
certain students who will comeinto the class without
necessarily a friend group thatthey're with.
(27:58):
And where are they situatedwithin the social dynamic of the
class and the school and theiridentity in general?
That can be even morechallenging than the technical.
The technical is, you know,here's how you put the lens on
the camera, but where are yourpassions and Where do they fit
in and into the larger group?
And I find myself trying tofoster those relationships quite
(28:19):
a bit for students.
And once they take, it's reallyamazing to watch because you see
that the catalyst can become thepassions of students that might
not know each other, but thenthey start working on something
together.
And they're both passionateabout that segment topic.
For instance, a segment on foodreview, right?
(28:41):
Student...
is trying to find a place.
They're a foodie and, you know,putting them in with that group,
getting them trained with thatgroup.
There's a bonding experiencethat happens in class.
And there's a, and there's,they're developing not only
their confidence in technology,but their confidence in
interpersonal dynamics of theclass and finding themselves.
But you have that catalyst,which is the actual production,
(29:05):
you know, and this production,oh, we're going to film on
Saturday or we're going to filmon Sunday at so-and-so's house.
And now that's an invite over totheir actual house.
And now you're eating, you know,you're, you're, you're filming
for class, but you're in, you'reeating food together.
And now you're going to watch amovie together afterwards.
You know, it becomes an excusefor students to hang out and it
(29:27):
becomes a reason for students tobond.
And I think that that's what Ireally like too.
A lot of people will say my roomis a safe space.
And it is.
And I laugh when people saythat, too.
They're outspoken.
They're joking.
They're laughing.
They're asking me if they couldput this joke in.
(29:49):
No, it's inappropriate orsomething like that.
It's very real.
It's very raw.
It's very authentic.
I think that the general societyhas of the idea of safe space is
that everybody's walking oneggshells because they don't
want to offend anybody or thingsof that nature.
This is the best of America.
This is the best of society.
(30:10):
It's just people being...
themselves in bonding in waysthat is just really beautiful.
So I think that that's where theconnections that are
established, having the excuseto be in the same room, to work
on the same things, to followthe passions together, all as a
class too, because it all comestogether in the same episode.
SPEAKER_00 (30:31):
Well, and of course you've created that environment.
Let's just say that too.
The students do one thing, butwhen you become the catalyst for
this type of space wherestudents feel really free to be,
who they are, that in itself isan inspiration.
I'm wondering, have you ever hadany students come back to you,
(30:52):
perhaps after they've graduated,saying that they put something
into practice, something thatthey learned in your class, not
necessarily towards mediaproduction or anything, but just
something that they learned inyour class that helped them in
their real life?
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
All the time.
I think that that's the bestperk of being a teacher is that
you form relationships that gobeyond the classroom.
you know, your son inparticular, you know, reaching
out, whatever, whatever,whatever he needs, I'm there for
him, whatever, you know, I'm,you know, sending me stuff,
looking at different, Oh, Icreated this for school.
(31:28):
Um, I, I've been working onthis, you know, project.
Here's some of my photographythat I've been doing on the
side.
You know, I have, I havestudents that come through that
are, you know, go into entirelydifferent careers.
I have a student that is, uh, ison their way to being a medical
doctor and they still check inand I still check in because I
always tell my students, youknow, you may forget shutter
(31:50):
speed, aperture, and ISO, youknow, you, But I hope that you
never forget to be a goodperson.
and to connect with people andhave good intent and be
compassionate.
These are the things that you'relearning at that age.
If you make a mistake, you canapologize and you can say sorry.
(32:10):
And I think that accountability,self-awareness, all of these
other skills that are sofundamental that are being
learned along the way, that'swhat I like to hear from
students that check in.
In addition to all the awesomeawards that they're winning, I
get students are making stuff,media products in college and
I'm sponsoring them fordifferent awards and festivals
SPEAKER_00 (32:31):
and things.
That's incredible.
I'm
SPEAKER_01 (32:33):
like, if you don't have a professor, just come back
to me.
I'll vouch for you.
I'll sponsor you.
And they're winning awards.
And it's just awesome.
It's awesome to see themsucceed.
SPEAKER_00 (32:43):
That's how the learning continues beyond the
classroom, which I feel like anygood teacher does for a student.
But I want to talk a little bitabout the transcript because
most of the stuff we're talkingabout here really goes towards
the transcript.
Is that fair to say?
Yeah.
So how did you come up with thatprogram?
(33:05):
Because it feeds so much of the
SPEAKER_01 (33:06):
school's culture.
So the best part of it is that Ididn't come up with it.
The students did.
So we had two students.
Shout out to Elena Frogerminiand Joe Marks.
I'm still very, very close tothem.
They'll appreciate that shoutout.
They came up to me one day andthey said, you know, we want to
do student news.
I was like, absolutely.
(33:28):
Like we can, we can really makethis work.
I had previously been doing thatat Northampton Open Media.
So this is about two years intoteaching at Northampton High
School.
I had my feet on the ground.
I was learning how to be a youngteacher, new teacher, do all
this stuff.
Now I have everything under mybelt.
Okay, let's do it.
They said, we want to read theschool bulletin and dress in a
(33:49):
suit and tie and a green screen.
And I go, no,
SPEAKER_00 (33:55):
really.
SPEAKER_01 (33:56):
And I go, I will, I will do that with you if that's
what you choose.
But there's also other ways thatwe can get out of this building
and we can tell stories and wecan be authentic without having
to key out the background.
And do you, you know, We cantell these authentic stories and
tell the news in a way that youcome to school every day dressed
(34:19):
as you are.
That is absolutely fine.
If you're sticking to yourjournalistic integrity, doing
your research, conductingyourself in a professional
manner, that suit is not doinganything for you and it's not
connecting with the students.
You're creating student news fora student audience.
And from there...
They said, yeah, let's try it.
(34:39):
Let's do some field journalism.
Let's do some stuff that'soutside of the classroom.
And it started as anextracurricular activity.
And bless that first crew ofstudents because they were in my
room until 9, 10 o'clock atnight getting ousted by the
janitors because the school wasgetting alarmed.
(35:00):
They were doing everything.
Everything that we do day in,day out in a classroom
environment after school.
I appreciate the hard work thatthey put in because that was
very difficult.
Seeing how successful it was ledto it being an actual class.
And from there, the class wassmall.
We probably had our first crewabout 12 to 16, depending on the
(35:22):
semester.
But students started watchingit.
And when students start seeingthings, they want to do that.
So now...
We have 37 kids in the class.
And I say, if I have a computer,if I have a camera, I will take
a student because it operates insuch a nice kind of chaotic,
(35:42):
fast-paced environment.
Yeah, it was allstudent-originated.
Once they saw that vision andonce they saw how to present to
their peers, it took off in areally cool way.
SPEAKER_00 (35:56):
It's such a successful program.
I've watched several episodes ofthe transcript and have been
floored by the quality and theinvestigative reporting that has
come through these students.
And it's hard to believe thatthey're high school students.
I mean, they're soprofessionally done.
And it's been nominated andawarded several of the Student
(36:18):
Emmy Awards.
That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01 (36:20):
Yeah.
What I always tell them is...
Bat your eyes as students andbare your teeth as journalists.
What I mean by that is thatthere is a outside perception
that because they're students,they can't do really
professional or intriguing work.
And it's not always the case.
But the general perception is ahigh schooler is a high schooler
(36:43):
and they're immature and they'rekind of still learning the world
and they're naive and all ofthis stuff.
I remember a time when we hadthe Secretary of Education for
Massachusetts was visitingNorthampton High School.
And again, shout out to AmeliaSamayo, amazing student.
She reached out to the Secretaryof Education and said, hey, can
(37:03):
I interview you for our studentnews?
And of course, you know, part ofthe Secretary of Education
coming was little PR, minglewith the students, all this
stuff.
Amelia spent two weeksresearching in-depth school
budgets, how the budget impactedour local community, our
(37:26):
minority students.
She went above and beyond in thequestions that she created.
And when the Secretary ofEducation came in and sat down,
he was thinking, oh, how do youlike your job?
Right, no.
She's got a book of questionsjust ready to go.
I love it.
(37:47):
And it was a room filled withour state representatives, who
are amazing too, by the way.
They're just super accessible.
Oh, yes.
And they're always gettinginterviewed by the students.
And everybody in that room justwalked away with, wow, that was
real journalism.
That was not a student saying,how do you like your job?
(38:09):
It was real.
And they do that day in and dayout.
They get these big interviews.
There's students last semester,especially before, interviewed
Rachel Maddow.
Just going above and beyond andtaking it really seriously in
ways that go really in depth tothe stories.
Sometimes we cover stories.
They have three minutes fortheir segments.
(38:29):
OLP or our local newsaffiliates, they usually run 60
to 90 second things.
There's usually whatever getsout of the Western mass
community often gets manipulatedin the news.
You know, if it leashes anational stage and it's used in
punditry and things.
I remember an example.
There was a big uproar inconservative media news when
(38:49):
Northampton made the news forHigh Five Friday, which police
were giving high fives to thelocal middle school.
The conservative media took itand they took a soundbite and
they blew it out of proportion.
The students went back and theyactually talked to the police
chief.
They talked to the principals atthe school.
They got to the bottom of it andAt the end of the day, the story
(39:11):
in the national media, no oneactually had any journalistic
integrity and research at allwas completely different.
And it was brought to light bythe students, you know?
So just being able to, you know,go and share that and be able to
research and do that in anin-depth way, in a factually
correct way, you know?
(39:32):
Media, news in general isdifficult, but for students to
do that, it's just superimpressive.
SPEAKER_00 (39:38):
It just teaches them real critical thinking skills
and to deliver information in away that is non-biased, factual.
Like right now, I know a lot ofpeople are having problems even
watching the news and trying todiscern what's being presented
to them.
When you can teach a way andinspire students to deliver the
(39:59):
real stuff in a reallyinformative way, it's just next
level.
And I think, you know, when youraise the bar in the class to
say, anything goes, whatever youcan make possible, show me.
That just...
brings such a different level ofcuriosity into the classroom.
Now, if you were to talk to anaspiring teacher or maybe a
(40:23):
teacher that's just nowbeginning, how would you talk to
them to explore different waysto inspire and innovate in their
classroom?
Just some small accessiblechanges or practices that they
can use.
SPEAKER_01 (40:40):
If I were talking to younger me is one, leave room
for a little grace for yourself.
I think that I wanted to be thebest teacher straight out the
gate so bad.
And that passion was there, butthere was a dissonance between
that and my actual practicesbecause I was still learning how
to have the relationships withstudents, just the technical
(41:01):
aspects of curriculum, thingslike that.
Give yourself a little grace inthose situations.
And with that, give yourselfroom for experimentation.
Give yourself And the students,the ability to say, okay, we're
going to be learning this today.
But if you want to, you can, youknow, if you finish, experiment
with this, you know, sometimesmy younger self was so excited.
(41:23):
stuck in the idea of, okay, thisis what we're going to learn
today and everybody's going tolearn this.
But that's not the way everysingle person learns.
There's so many different waysand ways in which you can spark
that passion.
You also don't want to limit thepassion of somebody as well,
being like, okay, well, we'reonly covering this today, so you
(41:45):
can't do this.
You have to wait for this.
Go off to the races.
If you see a button that youdon't know, let's Let's sandbox
it.
Let's press it.
You can't break this software.
The grace, definitely.
The experimentation.
And also the connection...
the connections with students.
I think that that was somethingthat straight from the get-go, I
(42:07):
was really blessed to have.
The hard part was changing theculture.
I think that for a while at theschool, it was expected that it
was a easy class.
It was something where therewasn't really high demands or
expectations for students.
In fact, And this is to no one'sfault.
(42:28):
There was a long-term sub beforeI was there.
The students that first signedup for the classes that I taught
were coming in thinking thatthey were going to get an EZA
for playing video games all day.
To change that culture takesfour years because you have
freshmen to seniors.
And to really change theexpectations and to have that
while at the same time doing soin a way that's fun and engaging
(42:52):
and students want to be therefor that.
That's what what I wouldprobably tell younger teachers
too, is that the culture takes awhile.
There's a lot of teachers thatleave the profession within
three years.
It's a stark number.
I hope that, especially at thehigh school level, you give it
some time and you give yourselfa little bit of, you know, able
to take the mistakes and dothat, do that in a kind of
(43:14):
graceful manner.
SPEAKER_00 (43:16):
I know you spoke about teaching being like
educational jujitsu.
Like how much do you trust yourinner wisdom?
to guide you on what to do inclass?
Like, do you feel like it's acertain percentage?
SPEAKER_01 (43:29):
So my thing is that I trust the, I trust myself to
trust the students.
if that makes sense.
There are times where a student,because they're making student
news.
The interesting part of thetranscript is that they often
will intertwine what we callnarrative news.
They'll make skits based on thenews and things like that.
(43:49):
And some of them, they'reteenagers.
They cross the line sometimesand they're never trying to be
mean or offensive, but we'restill producing something for
the school.
So you have to work within theguidelines of that.
At this point, I trust myself totrust those students.
And if there's something thatthey say, I have this
discussion.
Okay.
You want to make this joke oryou want to say this, or you
(44:10):
want to have this on at the endof the day, you know, I might
have a conversation withadministration about it, but I'm
going to turn your right one,your right to cover what you
want.
They cover a lot of oftentimescontroversial things, but two,
the consequences of that aregoing to be you more, more so
(44:32):
than me.
Right.
(45:02):
passionate, with good intention.
And sometimes it's unintendedconsequences too.
You might say something orsomebody might be interviewing
and then they don't want you tointerview or things of that
nature.
I've built a lot of trust inthat and confidence in myself to
have that trust in students.
And I think ultimately whengiven the opportunity and given
(45:25):
that freedom of choice, ofexecutive decision makings, they
make the right choice more oftenthan not.
SPEAKER_00 (45:30):
Well, you lead by example.
So I imagine that has someaspect to it as well.
So what's next for you?
Is there anything exciting onthe horizon that you're
particularly excited about?
SPEAKER_01 (45:43):
I'm excited about finishing my doctorate.
Yes, I have it.
I have it scheduled.
It's the fences next month.
I'm really, really grateful forthe support from both the
district in Northampton ingeneral, the academic support,
interviewing teachers, gettingperspectives.
All of this is intertwined withmy teaching practice, but also
(46:05):
my academic perspective and thewriting of my dissertation.
All of that is just an amazingexperience.
So When I'm thinking about thenext steps or the next phases, I
don't know exactly what that'sgoing to be, but I know that
it's going to involve takingcare of my community and taking
care of my students, bothpresent and former students,
(46:25):
staying engaged with them andmaking some positive change in
the world.
I think that everybody wouldagree that we're living in times
that they just don't feel thebest.
And when we're talking aboutIt's easy to get discouraged
when you open up the news orwhen you, you know, have these
interactions, you know, in thecommunity.
I think that the next steps aretaking that to the next level
(46:46):
of, you know, hopefully thatlove overcomes any of the hate
or anxieties.
I get to get to do that with 100students in my classroom, 900 in
my building every single day.
I hope that, you know, that caneven expand in the future, but
I'm pretty happy right now.
You know, I have, I have a lotof love and support and yeah,
(47:07):
we'll see what's next.
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (47:10):
I mean, one student at a time, right?
It really comes down to that.
Jeremy Whalen, thank you so muchfor sharing your story and your
insights about teaching.
You've really shown thatinnovation comes from
inspiration and passion.
There's no shortage of that inyou.
I could just feel it as youspeak, and I'm sure that
emanates in your classroom.
(47:30):
And I love that the classroom ismore than just a place for
teaching.
It's more of a hub for wherestudents can connect and learn
and engage and most of allreally contribute to the
community because it's likewe're not just in school we live
out in the world and how do youpresent yourself in that way and
how do you show it withcompassion with love with
(47:52):
thoughtfulness with empathy it'sbeen such a pleasure speaking
with you today i
SPEAKER_01 (47:56):
was i mean what we were talking about giving this
in and of itself is a greatplatform to bring up people
instead of tearing them down youknow that we just need more of
this it's been wonderful yourcreativity and Your positivity
just shines through and Iappreciate it.
The minute that you sent me thatemail, I was like, yep, I'm
SPEAKER_00 (48:13):
going to go.
Oh my gosh, you said yes.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
I wish you the best of luck onyour doctorate.
Congratulations on anothermilestone.
Thanks so much for tuning intoday.
I'm so glad you spent this timewith me.
If something in this episoderesonated, feel free to share it
or pass it along to someone whomight need that little spark.
(48:36):
Until next time, keep humming.
Hi, friends.
Welcome to another episode of ToHum is Human, the podcast where
we explore the transformativepower of tuning into our inner
wisdom to express our passionatepurpose.
I'm your host, Donabelle, andtoday we're going to explore the
intuitive classroom, harnessinginsight to shape
(00:28):
student-centered and real-worldlearning.
into our instincts to beinnovative and engaging.
Today, we are joined by awonderful, incredible teacher.
Jeremy Whalen is a PhD candidatein the College of Education's
(00:50):
Mathematics, Science, andLearning Technologies program.
Jeremy also has an MED inLearning Media and Technology
from the University ofMassachusetts College of
Education, and he is currently atechnology teacher at
Northampton High School inNorthampton, Massachusetts, and
works on connecting studentswith meaningful educational
(01:14):
opportunities within the localcommunity through innovative
project-based learning.
Welcome, Jeremy.
SPEAKER_01 (01:21):
Thanks for having me.
Listening to all of that rightthere was like, oh man, that's a
lot of title.
SPEAKER_00 (01:28):
That's you.
That's you.
And that's all you.
Well, not all of you, actually.
But I learned about you when mysons went to Northampton High
School a few years back.
And of course, one of them tookyour Communications and Media
Production class, otherwiseknown as CAMP.
And he couldn't stop ravingabout how exciting, challenging,
(01:52):
but fun, you know, that thisclass was.
And in fact, this is a commonsentiment about your teaching
practices.
I mean, you've been nominatedfor several Teacher of the Year
awards.
So congratulations on that.
SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
Thank you.
Yeah.
And your son was an amazingstudent.
You know, that's, you know, timeand time again, that's why I'm
so passionate about it.
You know, what the studentsbring to the table is just so
inspiring in and of itself.
So, you know, makes my job a loteasier when it comes to
SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
that too.
Well, you know, you startedteaching at Northampton High
School.
Was it around 2014, 2014, 2015school year.
Yep.
Okay.
But your path to teaching wasnot the conventional route.
Could you speak a little bitabout that?
SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
Yeah.
So, so I started out incommunity media and actually to
even step back even further, Ialways had a passion for media.
And I remember when we werebuilding, I graduated from
Belchertown high school, whichis right down the road from us.
And I I remember the new schoolwas asking for input for
(03:02):
students on what they wanted.
And I was really passionateabout building an AV studio.
And I went to all the meetingsand I was on the student council
and I brought the organizationstuff up, just tried to really
advocate for getting equipment.
And so what ultimately happenedwas we got these great new
(03:23):
cameras and they were veryexpensive in this brand new
school.
But we didn't have classes thatwere available.
And the other problem was therewasn't anyone that wanted to
take accountability or liabilityto rent out these cameras.
So they kind of sat in a cabinetlocked.
And I did all the advocacy toget these equipment, but I
(03:46):
couldn't use it.
So I went to UMass and I pursuedundergraduate history degree.
And from there, I startedlooking at, you know, how can I
do media and how can I bring thestories that I'm hearing in our
local community?
I did a documentary on theBelchtown State Schools because
(04:07):
I knew the camera equipment wasthere.
I was like, okay, I know wheretheir cameras are.
Like, I can go get these camerasfrom Belchtown High School.
I can make this work.
And I remember going...
and saying that I was doing thisproject on the Bustard State
Schools.
And can I use these cameras?
After kind of a back and forth,the principal allowed me to use
the cameras.
(04:27):
We opened up the case and thecamera was gone.
And it had been sitting therefor years and no one wanted to
take any accountability orliability for renting them out.
And so they kind of sat thereand because no one was paying
attention to them, it wasultimately stolen.
From that point, two thingshappened that really changed my
life.
One, It changed my philosophy onif I'm ever in a position where
(04:52):
I can offer access to equipmentor to having people just tell
their stories and just, youknow, living their true
identities, I'm going to takeevery opportunity to do so.
And two, in the practicalmoment, I said, I need to find
cameras and find equipment and,you know, and tell the story
that I'm trying to right now.
And so that got me startedvolunteering at North Hampton
(05:15):
Open Media.
Back then it was called NorthHampton Community Television.
I was a UMass student and Icould get stuff out from UMass,
but their camera equipment was alittle outdated and the things
that were going on at NorthHampton Open Media were just, I
was able to take courses thereand take out gear.
(05:35):
And eventually I created thedocumentary that I did,
Purgatory.
on the Belchtown State Schoolswith the stuff that I learned
from Northampton Open Media andwith the gear that I was taking
out.
And I kept on saying to myself,you know, what's the catch?
You know, they were educating meand they were giving me, you
know, at times thousands ofdollars worth of equipment for
(05:56):
free to lend out.
And I said, you know, what's thecatch here?
And there really wasn't a catch.
It was just a really proactiveand progressive nonprofit
organization that was providingeducation and access to
equipment.
I really thrived there.
And from there, I said, they'redoing a lot for me.
I want to give back to them.
I started volunteering on citycouncil shoots and school
(06:20):
committee shoots and anythingthat they really needed.
Eventually, that led to myemployment at Northampton Open
Media.
That was really my kind offootprint.
in the door to creating a careerin media so a lot of things that
we were doing were kind of likecutting edge tech but done on
the cheap and so we're usingdigital slr cameras and a whole
bunch of ways that we couldcreate high quality stories and
(06:44):
experiences while at the sametime do it in a budget conscious
way and provide that to thecommunity and so for a few years
i I was working at NorthamptonOpen Media.
I went to the West Coast for ayear and I was a director of a
nonprofit media center overthere.
I came back and that's when theteaching opened up.
(07:07):
I had previously beencollaborating with the school
when I was working atNorthampton Open Media because
it's physically attached to theschool.
And so during that time, Iwas...
working and interacting withstudents.
And I was also interacting withsome of the administration
there.
The vice principal became theprincipal and remembered the
cool things that we were doingand all of the passion and
(07:30):
enthusiasm that we all had.
And remembered that when Iapplied to the job at
Northampton, this was my dreamjob.
really.
And, you know, I let them knowthat.
I put a lot of time and energyinto the community and the
community gives me a lot backtoo.
So it's a special place in myheart.
And so that's what I expressedin the job interview.
(07:51):
I told them all that.
I said, you know, whoever getsthis job, I hope that they take
it seriously because communitymedia is a big part of this
community.
My interview, I walked out thedoor, I shut the door.
I walked three feet down thehall and the door opened up and
they offered me the job on thespot.
And from that point on, I fellin love with the school.
I fell in love with thestudents.
(08:11):
I fell in love with the workthat they were creating.
And every year gets better andbetter and better.
Better mindsets for thestudents, better production
quality, thinking criticallyabout things.
It's just, it's an amazingexperience.
I'm just very blessed.
SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
I want to just backtrack a little bit because
what I've read about you is thatyou had a history of degree and
you also studied film, but whatwas it really your interest in
media?
Was there something when youwere younger, like what tapped
you then?
SPEAKER_01 (08:43):
So my brother and my friends and I, when we were
really young, we used to makeskits all the time.
We used to take the big old AV,you know, VCR recorder.
I remember those.
And we'd just make funny skits.
And from there, it was reallythinking about Thinking about
just media in general, I thinkthat it was so inaccessible when
(09:03):
prosumer stuff was so out ofbudget and out of range to
create really authentic and highquality productions that Wow.
That's cool.
Right.
(09:42):
when I started to think aboutcareer and also just think about
adulthood in general.
Documenting the things in mylife was important to me, but
also that was a platform for meto express myself.
But there's also ways to developand express those stories of
others as well.
And at the time when I was incollege, I was working with a
(10:07):
young adult with autism.
I was doing tech consultationwith them and they're a very
dear friend of mine.
They were actually my best manat my wedding.
And I could see how the storiesof his life were intertwined
with mine and I wanted to tellthat story and intertwined it
into the history of that, youknow, was right down the road
(10:29):
for me in the state schools, youknow, the heartache that was
experienced there, you know, andalso just the triumphs of
individuals with developmentaldisabilities.
I wanted to kind of bring allthat around and it transitioned
from just me telling my story tohelping others tell their
stories.
SPEAKER_00 (10:49):
That's so beautiful and so valuable in these days
when most of the time we're sortof taught to assimilate and not
really speak about ourdifferences, where you're really
giving people the opportunity toshine in the individual ways
that they are.
And that's just such a powerfulstatement in both expression,
(11:11):
but also in your teaching.
So I want to go back to thinkingabout technology and education.
Do you feel like these newtechnologies are influencing our
educational system in general?
SPEAKER_01 (11:24):
So my studies in my master's and my doctorate, I
really have been observing howeducators interact with
technology.
I think that there's good andbad, and it's a spectrum of
everything that we're trying tograpple with in society.
The thing about technologythat's difficult is that it
(11:46):
moves at such breakneck speeds,and we as a society don't
necessarily have time to sitback, reflect, and discuss
what's going on with thesetechnologies.
And that can be reallydifficult.
It can be really difficult forproduction.
It can be really difficult foranalysis of it and the
implications of what happens.
I think that when we're thinkingof technology and education, we
(12:10):
can often see it through thelens of the mandatory use of
technology in unprecedentedshift from COVID in the
pandemic.
A lot of teachers had to adoptthings really quick on the fly,
try to kind of patch thingstogether.
And that left a bad taste in alot of people's mouths,
(12:30):
unfortunately.
It wasn't the best introductionto how to use technology
effectively.
That being said, there was a lotof skills that were learned
during that.
And I hope that educators don'tabandon those skills.
I think that even though it wastrial by fire, I hope that we
actually think of how technologycan be leveraged in the
(12:51):
classroom.
The idea that, for instance, Wecan have an expert from across
the world be in your classroomvia Zoom.
That's just so powerful.
It's so empowering.
The idea that you can take yourphone and with your phone, you
can record a message that can beseen globally and tell your
story.
These things are reallypowerful.
(13:12):
And again, if usedinappropriately, can create
unfortunate situations.
But overall, I think that theeducation in general, is moving
towards a way where you can usetechnology in a really elevated
ways, in ways that supportslearning rather than become an
(13:33):
ultimate distraction or detractsfrom it.
SPEAKER_00 (13:36):
Right.
And also just another way ofconnection, like speaking about
stories, culturally significantstories from other parts of the
world, different roles insociety is such a powerful tool.
Now, your focus in the classroomis on experiential learning and
real world experience.
(13:57):
Why is that so important to you?
SPEAKER_01 (14:01):
I think that somewhere along the way with
standardized testing or thepressures of college, the idea,
the philosophy of education haslost its way a little bit.
The idea that you need toproduce certain things for a
grade.
Anybody that takes my classesknows that grades– I don't hide
(14:23):
the fact that your grade isbased on your efforts.
It's not on getting somethingright because life is about
slowly moving the needle intothe right direction and
progressing.
It's a lot of accumulativeknowledge.
It's okay to make mistakes.
Shout out to Steve Eldridge.
He was a wonderful theaterteacher at the high school.
(14:44):
He used to call it failinggloriously.
The ability to be in a situationand make that mistake and then
learn from that mistake issomething that is really
embedded into my teaching.
And when it comes to the realworld elements, I think what's
important is when the studentsare watching their media or
having the entire school,sometimes It's not just the
(15:09):
school, it's administrators orit's people outside of class.
It's people in our localcommunity.
There is a level ofaccountability for them and a
level of this goes beyond justgetting an A.
It's something where if theyscrew up the lighting or if they
ask a question that's a littleoff or something like that,
(15:32):
there's much more power in thelearning experience when you
have a healthy critique from anoutside source rather than a
letter on a piece of paper.
And I think that time and timeagain, the students understand
that.
They gravitate towards the ideathat we don't ever really talk
about grades.
(15:52):
What we talk about is theimplications of what they're
creating and how it's perceivedby the larger community.
SPEAKER_00 (16:00):
Now, it sounds to me what I'm hearing is that moving
into the world and takingaccountability for what you're
doing in the world or even justhow you process navigating what
you see is happening in theworld.
How did this come into yourteaching philosophy?
Because this seems to me likesomething that you've learned
(16:22):
yourself.
SPEAKER_01 (16:24):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, going back to the, theidea of, of helping people tell
stories, um, and connecting andgrouting with your own personal
experience.
I think that, especially withthe transcript, it's a weekly
video news magazine that thestudents produce.
One real example of this thatsticks out in my mind, I had a
(16:46):
young woman come up to me, andthis was several years ago, and
she was a black student, and shecame up, and I didn't know her
well at the time, and she said,are you Jeremy?
I was like, yeah.
She goes...
I don't think that we haveenough black perspective shown
on the transcripts.
And I love this.
I love it because what she isdoing is saying, when I'm
(17:10):
watching the transcripts, Idon't identify with everything
that's going on here.
In fact, I think that thereshould be a segment about this.
And I just looked at her and Isaid, I absolutely agree.
So what should we do about that?
She ended up taking the class.
She ended up having a awesome,awesome segment called Hit It or
(17:33):
Miss It.
It was kind of an intertwiningof pop culture and fashion and
reference, but with Blackidentity.
And just being able to groundyourself in your self-identity,
realize that one, your voice isnot being heard, but two, using
the platform that you have inorder to tell your story and to
share your experiences, that'spowerful.
(17:55):
And it's a thing thing that Ireally hold sacred for these
students too, because it takesvulnerability to do that.
It takes some bravery to get infront of the camera and say,
this is my culture.
This is my identity.
This is what I want to show youand share with you, especially
when you might think that, youknow, that you don't necessarily
(18:15):
have somewhere that is fittingin or you're telling your story.
So just grounding that in my ownpersonal experience, but having
students do that is reallyawesome to watch.
SPEAKER_00 (18:26):
And so empowering for the student in ways that
they probably would never haveimagined had they not even
trusted their own instinct toeven say that to you.
Now, what I find reallyfascinating, well, not
fascinating because I imaginethis is how you work, is how
open you are to receiving quoteunquote criticism or opinion
(18:50):
because being a student-centeredteacher you're very much aware
about all the individual, uniqueperspectives of each and every
student.
And the fact that you arewilling to take the risk and
just say, well, how can weaddress the situation is so
(19:10):
compelling.
And I probably would think thatperhaps most teachers may not be
as open.
Would you think that's a fairstatement to say?
SPEAKER_01 (19:24):
I think that for teaching, it's a very difficult
profession because what you'realways trying to do is provide
parameters under the learningconditions while at the same
time opening and expandingopportunities for students.
If you come in with an idea forsomething and have too many
(19:47):
restrictions on it or you'reinvolved too much, then you're
going to take away from thelearning aspects of that
student.
For instance, one of the thingsthat it's a very small thing,
but it really matters.
Whenever I'm teaching andwhenever the students are
teaching others, I say you can'ttouch the mouse for the person.
Do not ever touch the keyboardor the mouse for the person.
(20:09):
And it can be frustrating,right?
Because the parameters thatyou're setting are that they
need, they're going to expandtheir, you know, it can be
frustrating, you know, go tofile, save as, and you know,
they're going around and doingall this stuff.
But if you set those guidelines,one for yourself, but to give
the opportunity to the studentto do that, there's going to be
(20:30):
learning involved.
I think it's easy because theother part of this is that
there's so many anxieties as ateacher, you want to succeed.
And it's so easy to get stuck inthe mindset of I'm going to do
this for the student or I'mgoing to make the instructions
so rigid that there is littleroom for creativity.
(20:51):
And that's where, if you dothat, it removes the idea of
making the mistakes that we weretalking about.
It removes the idea of what thatstudent wants to do in that
creative product.
How do they want to tell thatstory?
The story can be told in manydifferent ways.
And so just going back to yourquestion, I think that most
teachers want to give thatleniency and to give those
(21:15):
open-ended parameters tostudents.
I remember when I was a youngerteacher, I would say, okay,
we're going to create this film,not have some of those
parameters set, and there wouldbe chaos because you also need
to have those guidelines andguide rails for the students.
And as I progressed as ateacher, I could take those, you
know, take the bumpers, youknow, the bumper lanes, and I
(21:36):
could just slowly peel them backand let the ball go into the
gutter because that's a learningexperience, right?
So my advice to younger teachersor or individuals that are
interested in doing this, buthave anxieties behind what
actually, if it all falls apart,is just try it, you know, just
to have that ability to put thestudents in control, put them in
(22:00):
the driver's seat, see whathappens.
It's all right to, like I said,fail gloriously, even for
teachers.
It's okay, you know, not everyday is the best day in my
classroom of my practices, youknow, that's just the way it
goes.
SPEAKER_00 (22:12):
Can you tell us a story about when you thought to
try something really unique andexciting, but it sort of felt
flat?
SPEAKER_01 (22:23):
Oh, yeah.
Right now we're working onscripts, right?
As a young teacher, I rememberwe went extensively through the
formatting.
There's a very specific way thatyou need to format scripts.
And I thought, you know, once Ishow them the technical aspects
of this, they're going to runwith it, right?
And so I was very excited.
rigid.
(22:43):
I was teaching very specificallyto all the technical aspects and
everything like that.
I forgot to tell them what thethree act structure was.
I didn't give them any promptsto it.
So I said, you know, here's howyou write a script, go write a
script.
And I just have a lot of blankstares, right?
They're just, you know,anything, anything.
(23:04):
Dealer, dealer.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
It's not like they're not goodwriters.
It's not like they don'tunderstand.
But given that right there and.
Understanding the dynamicbetween the teacher and the
student and understanding thatit's an adult, an authoritative
figure that's telling them to dosomething without really clear
(23:25):
instructions, because in thetraditional educational
frameworks, you're told to dovery specific things, you know?
So it was good and it was bad.
I mean, it was good in the senseof, you know, once we got the
juices flowing, once Iunderstand, so now I do the same
thing, but I go, here is theparameters.
We have to shoot these films inchild's park.
It's a local park.
(23:47):
We're going to shoot in thepark.
That's your scene.
There's the parameter.
You have that location.
So now you can take and runwith, I'm going to give you a
couple of characters.
We're going to do a spy film.
There's spy one and spy two.
And it still gives them thecreative license to create what
they want, but it gives them alittle bit of a push along the
way.
And then the other part is, Ihave students that go, oh, I
(24:10):
don't want to make them spies.
I want to make them friends.
And I'm like, yes, okay.
I can work with this.
This is not a hard and fastthing.
And so there's certain timeswhere things can fall flat for
either being too strict or nothaving enough parameters.
And it's a kind of constant giveand take.
And it's what I call educationaljujitsu.
(24:31):
The minute that you see thepassion in the student, you just
roll with it.
You just want to take that andyou just want to keep on going.
ongoing.
Going back to the idea when Iwas working at Northampton Open
Media before I started as ateacher, one of my favorite
things was we were going tocreate a television show, but I
gave them the opportunity topick what they wanted to do.
(24:53):
These kids, they don't have anyrelationship with me at this
moment.
It's just this young kid that'sacross the hall because that's
where the studio was.
They're taking out a class.
I said, what do you want to makea television show about?
They said, Video games.
And they all started laughing.
And I go, I love that idea.
That's what we're going to do.
(25:13):
So we created a video gameversion of the administrators
playing students on Wii Bowlingand things like that.
It was like one of those thingswhere they were like, We're
going to play video games duringclass.
But then it was, OK, we playedvideo games for 15 minutes.
And now you're all editing thisthing for a week, you know, and
(25:34):
it was video games that excitedthem.
But you could take that run withit and then create that into a
passion or into something thatmake it great work.
SPEAKER_00 (25:42):
It sounds like almost anything goes to some
degree in your classroom, butnot every student who comes into
your classroom may benecessarily savvy or versed in
anything that you're presentingto them.
So for example, when a studentis struggling to find their
passion or their purpose in aproject, how do you use your
(26:06):
instincts to help them find aconnection to something that
excites them or inspires them?
SPEAKER_01 (26:12):
The other part of this is that there's a couple of
different connections that theyneed to create or may not have
when they come into the class.
The first connection isobviously with technology or the
skills.
We have the really awesome thingabout the class is that it's
student-centered learning andit's different tiers of
knowledge.
(26:32):
If you are brand new to theclass, we call you a newbie.
You might have taken my video orphoto class, and you know some
of the settings, but you haven'tbeen introduced to journalism.
We're going to pair you withsomebody that has taken the
class, which is the veterans.
So you can take multiplerenditions of this, and it's a
(26:52):
tracked path of classes.
On top of that, when we pair theveterans with the newbies,
there's associate leaders.
And associate leaders areresponsible for checking in with
different groups, withunderstanding what part of the
production process people areat.
The veterans and the associateeditors are working with
somebody if they don't know howto set up the camera or need a
(27:16):
refresher on how to move files.
That person, it's not me.
They're not coming to me.
You know, I'm there to superviseand facilitate and look at some
of the larger orderinterpersonal things, but
they're going to each other.
And then there's the seniorleadership, which is looking at
larger picture things, helpingout in the general class, making
(27:36):
forward to what we want tobecome or what things are down
the line.
So there's the technical aspectsthat they need the connections
for.
On top of that, you also have tothink about it's high schoolers
in social environment.
And we operate in a newsroomenvironment, but there are
certain students who will comeinto the class without
necessarily a friend group thatthey're with.
(27:58):
And where are they situatedwithin the social dynamic of the
class and the school and theiridentity in general?
That can be even morechallenging than the technical.
The technical is, you know,here's how you put the lens on
the camera, but where are yourpassions and Where do they fit
in and into the larger group?
And I find myself trying tofoster those relationships quite
(28:19):
a bit for students.
And once they take, it's reallyamazing to watch because you see
that the catalyst can become thepassions of students that might
not know each other, but thenthey start working on something
together.
And they're both passionateabout that segment topic.
For instance, a segment on foodreview, right?
(28:41):
Student...
is trying to find a place.
They're a foodie and, you know,putting them in with that group,
getting them trained with thatgroup.
There's a bonding experiencethat happens in class.
And there's a, and there's,they're developing not only
their confidence in technology,but their confidence in
interpersonal dynamics of theclass and finding themselves.
But you have that catalyst,which is the actual production,
(29:05):
you know, and this production,oh, we're going to film on
Saturday or we're going to filmon Sunday at so-and-so's house.
And now that's an invite over totheir actual house.
And now you're eating, you know,you're, you're, you're filming
for class, but you're in, you'reeating food together.
And now you're going to watch amovie together afterwards.
You know, it becomes an excusefor students to hang out and it
(29:27):
becomes a reason for students tobond.
And I think that that's what Ireally like too.
A lot of people will say my roomis a safe space.
And it is.
And I laugh when people saythat, too.
They're outspoken.
They're joking.
They're laughing.
They're asking me if they couldput this joke in.
(29:49):
No, it's inappropriate orsomething like that.
It's very real.
It's very raw.
It's very authentic.
I think that the general societyhas of the idea of safe space is
that everybody's walking oneggshells because they don't
want to offend anybody or thingsof that nature.
This is the best of America.
This is the best of society.
(30:10):
It's just people being...
themselves in bonding in waysthat is just really beautiful.
So I think that that's where theconnections that are
established, having the excuseto be in the same room, to work
on the same things, to followthe passions together, all as a
class too, because it all comestogether in the same episode.
SPEAKER_00 (30:31):
Well, and of course you've created that environment.
Let's just say that too.
The students do one thing, butwhen you become the catalyst for
this type of space wherestudents feel really free to be,
who they are, that in itself isan inspiration.
I'm wondering, have you ever hadany students come back to you,
(30:52):
perhaps after they've graduated,saying that they put something
into practice, something thatthey learned in your class, not
necessarily towards mediaproduction or anything, but just
something that they learned inyour class that helped them in
their real life?
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
All the time.
I think that that's the bestperk of being a teacher is that
you form relationships that gobeyond the classroom.
you know, your son inparticular, you know, reaching
out, whatever, whatever,whatever he needs, I'm there for
him, whatever, you know, I'm,you know, sending me stuff,
looking at different, Oh, Icreated this for school.
(31:28):
Um, I, I've been working onthis, you know, project.
Here's some of my photographythat I've been doing on the
side.
You know, I have, I havestudents that come through that
are, you know, go into entirelydifferent careers.
I have a student that is, uh, ison their way to being a medical
doctor and they still check inand I still check in because I
always tell my students, youknow, you may forget shutter
(31:50):
speed, aperture, and ISO, youknow, you, But I hope that you
never forget to be a goodperson.
and to connect with people andhave good intent and be
compassionate.
These are the things that you'relearning at that age.
If you make a mistake, you canapologize and you can say sorry.
(32:10):
And I think that accountability,self-awareness, all of these
other skills that are sofundamental that are being
learned along the way, that'swhat I like to hear from
students that check in.
In addition to all the awesomeawards that they're winning, I
get students are making stuff,media products in college and
I'm sponsoring them fordifferent awards and festivals
SPEAKER_00 (32:31):
and things.
That's incredible.
I'm
SPEAKER_01 (32:33):
like, if you don't have a professor, just come back
to me.
I'll vouch for you.
I'll sponsor you.
And they're winning awards.
And it's just awesome.
It's awesome to see themsucceed.
SPEAKER_00 (32:43):
That's how the learning continues beyond the
classroom, which I feel like anygood teacher does for a student.
But I want to talk a little bitabout the transcript because
most of the stuff we're talkingabout here really goes towards
the transcript.
Is that fair to say?
Yeah.
So how did you come up with thatprogram?
(33:05):
Because it feeds so much of the
SPEAKER_01 (33:06):
school's culture.
So the best part of it is that Ididn't come up with it.
The students did.
So we had two students.
Shout out to Elena Frogerminiand Joe Marks.
I'm still very, very close tothem.
They'll appreciate that shoutout.
They came up to me one day andthey said, you know, we want to
do student news.
I was like, absolutely.
(33:28):
Like we can, we can really makethis work.
I had previously been doing thatat Northampton Open Media.
So this is about two years intoteaching at Northampton High
School.
I had my feet on the ground.
I was learning how to be a youngteacher, new teacher, do all
this stuff.
Now I have everything under mybelt.
Okay, let's do it.
They said, we want to read theschool bulletin and dress in a
(33:49):
suit and tie and a green screen.
And I go, no,
SPEAKER_00 (33:55):
really.
SPEAKER_01 (33:56):
And I go, I will, I will do that with you if that's
what you choose.
But there's also other ways thatwe can get out of this building
and we can tell stories and wecan be authentic without having
to key out the background.
And do you, you know, We cantell these authentic stories and
tell the news in a way that youcome to school every day dressed
(34:19):
as you are.
That is absolutely fine.
If you're sticking to yourjournalistic integrity, doing
your research, conductingyourself in a professional
manner, that suit is not doinganything for you and it's not
connecting with the students.
You're creating student news fora student audience.
And from there...
They said, yeah, let's try it.
(34:39):
Let's do some field journalism.
Let's do some stuff that'soutside of the classroom.
And it started as anextracurricular activity.
And bless that first crew ofstudents because they were in my
room until 9, 10 o'clock atnight getting ousted by the
janitors because the school wasgetting alarmed.
(35:00):
They were doing everything.
Everything that we do day in,day out in a classroom
environment after school.
I appreciate the hard work thatthey put in because that was
very difficult.
Seeing how successful it was ledto it being an actual class.
And from there, the class wassmall.
We probably had our first crewabout 12 to 16, depending on the
(35:22):
semester.
But students started watchingit.
And when students start seeingthings, they want to do that.
So now...
We have 37 kids in the class.
And I say, if I have a computer,if I have a camera, I will take
a student because it operates insuch a nice kind of chaotic,
(35:42):
fast-paced environment.
Yeah, it was allstudent-originated.
Once they saw that vision andonce they saw how to present to
their peers, it took off in areally cool way.
SPEAKER_00 (35:56):
It's such a successful program.
I've watched several episodes ofthe transcript and have been
floored by the quality and theinvestigative reporting that has
come through these students.
And it's hard to believe thatthey're high school students.
I mean, they're soprofessionally done.
And it's been nominated andawarded several of the Student
(36:18):
Emmy Awards.
That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01 (36:20):
Yeah.
What I always tell them is...
Bat your eyes as students andbare your teeth as journalists.
What I mean by that is thatthere is a outside perception
that because they're students,they can't do really
professional or intriguing work.
And it's not always the case.
But the general perception is ahigh schooler is a high schooler
(36:43):
and they're immature and they'rekind of still learning the world
and they're naive and all ofthis stuff.
I remember a time when we hadthe Secretary of Education for
Massachusetts was visitingNorthampton High School.
And again, shout out to AmeliaSamayo, amazing student.
She reached out to the Secretaryof Education and said, hey, can
(37:03):
I interview you for our studentnews?
And of course, you know, part ofthe Secretary of Education
coming was little PR, minglewith the students, all this
stuff.
Amelia spent two weeksresearching in-depth school
budgets, how the budget impactedour local community, our
(37:26):
minority students.
She went above and beyond in thequestions that she created.
And when the Secretary ofEducation came in and sat down,
he was thinking, oh, how do youlike your job?
Right, no.
She's got a book of questionsjust ready to go.
I love it.
(37:47):
And it was a room filled withour state representatives, who
are amazing too, by the way.
They're just super accessible.
Oh, yes.
And they're always gettinginterviewed by the students.
And everybody in that room justwalked away with, wow, that was
real journalism.
That was not a student saying,how do you like your job?
(38:09):
It was real.
And they do that day in and dayout.
They get these big interviews.
There's students last semester,especially before, interviewed
Rachel Maddow.
Just going above and beyond andtaking it really seriously in
ways that go really in depth tothe stories.
Sometimes we cover stories.
They have three minutes fortheir segments.
(38:29):
OLP or our local newsaffiliates, they usually run 60
to 90 second things.
There's usually whatever getsout of the Western mass
community often gets manipulatedin the news.
You know, if it leashes anational stage and it's used in
punditry and things.
I remember an example.
There was a big uproar inconservative media news when
(38:49):
Northampton made the news forHigh Five Friday, which police
were giving high fives to thelocal middle school.
The conservative media took itand they took a soundbite and
they blew it out of proportion.
The students went back and theyactually talked to the police
chief.
They talked to the principals atthe school.
They got to the bottom of it andAt the end of the day, the story
(39:11):
in the national media, no oneactually had any journalistic
integrity and research at allwas completely different.
And it was brought to light bythe students, you know?
So just being able to, you know,go and share that and be able to
research and do that in anin-depth way, in a factually
correct way, you know?
(39:32):
Media, news in general isdifficult, but for students to
do that, it's just superimpressive.
SPEAKER_00 (39:38):
It just teaches them real critical thinking skills
and to deliver information in away that is non-biased, factual.
Like right now, I know a lot ofpeople are having problems even
watching the news and trying todiscern what's being presented
to them.
When you can teach a way andinspire students to deliver the
(39:59):
real stuff in a reallyinformative way, it's just next
level.
And I think, you know, when youraise the bar in the class to
say, anything goes, whatever youcan make possible, show me.
That just...
brings such a different level ofcuriosity into the classroom.
Now, if you were to talk to anaspiring teacher or maybe a
(40:23):
teacher that's just nowbeginning, how would you talk to
them to explore different waysto inspire and innovate in their
classroom?
Just some small accessiblechanges or practices that they
can use.
SPEAKER_01 (40:40):
If I were talking to younger me is one, leave room
for a little grace for yourself.
I think that I wanted to be thebest teacher straight out the
gate so bad.
And that passion was there, butthere was a dissonance between
that and my actual practicesbecause I was still learning how
to have the relationships withstudents, just the technical
(41:01):
aspects of curriculum, thingslike that.
Give yourself a little grace inthose situations.
And with that, give yourselfroom for experimentation.
Give yourself And the students,the ability to say, okay, we're
going to be learning this today.
But if you want to, you can, youknow, if you finish, experiment
with this, you know, sometimesmy younger self was so excited.
(41:23):
stuck in the idea of, okay, thisis what we're going to learn
today and everybody's going tolearn this.
But that's not the way everysingle person learns.
There's so many different waysand ways in which you can spark
that passion.
You also don't want to limit thepassion of somebody as well,
being like, okay, well, we'reonly covering this today, so you
(41:45):
can't do this.
You have to wait for this.
Go off to the races.
If you see a button that youdon't know, let's Let's sandbox
it.
Let's press it.
You can't break this software.
The grace, definitely.
The experimentation.
And also the connection...
the connections with students.
I think that that was somethingthat straight from the get-go, I
(42:07):
was really blessed to have.
The hard part was changing theculture.
I think that for a while at theschool, it was expected that it
was a easy class.
It was something where therewasn't really high demands or
expectations for students.
In fact, And this is to no one'sfault.
(42:28):
There was a long-term sub beforeI was there.
The students that first signedup for the classes that I taught
were coming in thinking thatthey were going to get an EZA
for playing video games all day.
To change that culture takesfour years because you have
freshmen to seniors.
And to really change theexpectations and to have that
while at the same time doing soin a way that's fun and engaging
(42:52):
and students want to be therefor that.
That's what what I wouldprobably tell younger teachers
too, is that the culture takes awhile.
There's a lot of teachers thatleave the profession within
three years.
It's a stark number.
I hope that, especially at thehigh school level, you give it
some time and you give yourselfa little bit of, you know, able
to take the mistakes and dothat, do that in a kind of
(43:14):
graceful manner.
SPEAKER_00 (43:16):
I know you spoke about teaching being like
educational jujitsu.
Like how much do you trust yourinner wisdom?
to guide you on what to do inclass?
Like, do you feel like it's acertain percentage?
SPEAKER_01 (43:29):
So my thing is that I trust the, I trust myself to
trust the students.
if that makes sense.
There are times where a student,because they're making student
news.
The interesting part of thetranscript is that they often
will intertwine what we callnarrative news.
They'll make skits based on thenews and things like that.
(43:49):
And some of them, they'reteenagers.
They cross the line sometimesand they're never trying to be
mean or offensive, but we'restill producing something for
the school.
So you have to work within theguidelines of that.
At this point, I trust myself totrust those students.
And if there's something thatthey say, I have this
discussion.
Okay.
You want to make this joke oryou want to say this, or you
(44:10):
want to have this on at the endof the day, you know, I might
have a conversation withadministration about it, but I'm
going to turn your right one,your right to cover what you
want.
They cover a lot of oftentimescontroversial things, but two,
the consequences of that aregoing to be you more, more so
(44:32):
than me.
Right.
(45:02):
passionate, with good intention.
And sometimes it's unintendedconsequences too.
You might say something orsomebody might be interviewing
and then they don't want you tointerview or things of that
nature.
I've built a lot of trust inthat and confidence in myself to
have that trust in students.
And I think ultimately whengiven the opportunity and given
(45:25):
that freedom of choice, ofexecutive decision makings, they
make the right choice more oftenthan not.
SPEAKER_00 (45:30):
Well, you lead by example.
So I imagine that has someaspect to it as well.
So what's next for you?
Is there anything exciting onthe horizon that you're
particularly excited about?
SPEAKER_01 (45:43):
I'm excited about finishing my doctorate.
Yes, I have it.
I have it scheduled.
It's the fences next month.
I'm really, really grateful forthe support from both the
district in Northampton ingeneral, the academic support,
interviewing teachers, gettingperspectives.
All of this is intertwined withmy teaching practice, but also
(46:05):
my academic perspective and thewriting of my dissertation.
All of that is just an amazingexperience.
So When I'm thinking about thenext steps or the next phases, I
don't know exactly what that'sgoing to be, but I know that
it's going to involve takingcare of my community and taking
care of my students, bothpresent and former students,
(46:25):
staying engaged with them andmaking some positive change in
the world.
I think that everybody wouldagree that we're living in times
that they just don't feel thebest.
And when we're talking aboutIt's easy to get discouraged
when you open up the news orwhen you, you know, have these
interactions, you know, in thecommunity.
I think that the next steps aretaking that to the next level
(46:46):
of, you know, hopefully thatlove overcomes any of the hate
or anxieties.
I get to get to do that with 100students in my classroom, 900 in
my building every single day.
I hope that, you know, that caneven expand in the future, but
I'm pretty happy right now.
You know, I have, I have a lotof love and support and yeah,
(47:07):
we'll see what's next.
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (47:10):
I mean, one student at a time, right?
It really comes down to that.
Jeremy Whalen, thank you so muchfor sharing your story and your
insights about teaching.
You've really shown thatinnovation comes from
inspiration and passion.
There's no shortage of that inyou.
I could just feel it as youspeak, and I'm sure that
emanates in your classroom.
(47:30):
And I love that the classroom ismore than just a place for
teaching.
It's more of a hub for wherestudents can connect and learn
and engage and most of allreally contribute to the
community because it's likewe're not just in school we live
out in the world and how do youpresent yourself in that way and
how do you show it withcompassion with love with
(47:52):
thoughtfulness with empathy it'sbeen such a pleasure speaking
with you today i
SPEAKER_01 (47:56):
was i mean what we were talking about giving this
in and of itself is a greatplatform to bring up people
instead of tearing them down youknow that we just need more of
this it's been wonderful yourcreativity and Your positivity
just shines through and Iappreciate it.
The minute that you sent me thatemail, I was like, yep, I'm
SPEAKER_00 (48:13):
going to go.
Oh my gosh, you said yes.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
I wish you the best of luck onyour doctorate.
Congratulations on anothermilestone.
Thanks so much for tuning intoday.
I'm so glad you spent this timewith me.
If something in this episoderesonated, feel free to share it
or pass it along to someone whomight need that little spark.
(48:36):
Until next time, keep humming.
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