October 17, 2022 • 9 mins
In this episode, Michael Bridges talks allergies, deep voices, hard work, teachers, Ric Flair, and.......Bigfoot? Let it never be said that the GT world is dull or boring. Thanks for listening, and don't forget to embrace your inner weirdo. It MIGHT just be your superpower!
Mr. B's email: mbridges@almasd.net
Mr. B's email: mbridges@almasd.net
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
What did you think we were gone? We left, if you weren't coming
back, I don't think the worldcould take it if we were to leave.
Such an avoid a big chasm.Okay, maybe just a small,
tiny pinhole in the GT podcasting community. But hey, thanks for coming back.
(00:33):
We are back. I want towelcome you in again. My name
is Michael Bridges, and I'm theGT and AP coordinator for the Alma School
District here in Elma, Arkansas,and I just want to welcome you in
from the land of allergies, becauseI don't know where you're listening to us
(00:54):
from, but if you're here inthe South, we haven't had much rain
in a while, and allergies anddust and pollen are something else. To
say the least we were worried aboutCOVID might even be worried about a zombie
apocalypse. Forget about it. It'sthe dust and pollen. It's coming to
(01:15):
get us all. But we don'tstand a chance that none of us.
I was giving a PSAT test withabout I don't know. There were roughly
forty students in the room and itsounded like a sniffle factory all day long.
I felt so sorry for those kidshaving to bend over and you know,
right on the test and everything theywere, it was doing them in
for sure. And then, youknow, my lovely wife Kelly called me
(01:38):
in this morning and we come in, we kind of have a joke,
you know, whenever she kind ofgets sick and you know, congested.
She has what we call the gothlineturner voice, you know, gets very
very deep. And she called methis morning and I honestly couldn't tell that
it was my wife. I thoughtit was my son. And if you've
(02:00):
ever met my wife, you knowshe's a very very beautiful woman. And
you know, you can pretty muchtell that I'm married up. And you
may be wondering, you know,how in the world at a guy like
this get a woman like that,And I'll tell you it's because I'm very
charming and yes, some would sayhumble as well. In all seriousness,
(02:22):
I've done quite a few shout outson the show and everything, but I
could not be where I am todaywithout my wife, who is the most
awesome woman I have ever met.So, you know, I give a
shout out to a lot of people, but probably the most important shout out
I'm going to give is to mywife, So to her, I say
thank you very much, and Ipromise that is the only shout out where
(02:49):
I will do a kissy kissy sound. And one thing you've probably noticed is
that we're doing quite a bit ofsound effects here. I actually encountered a
couple of kids in the hallway thatsaid, hey, I've listened to your
podcast and my favorite part is yoursound effects. So I'm kind of serving
our community here, so there maybe a few more sound effects in this
(03:09):
episode than normal. So I justwanted to come on and kind of tell
you why we haven't been able torelease an episode like we normally hoped.
We were hoping it could be aweekly thing, and we may not get
to do that. I'm hoping whenI get kids in here, it's going
to be a more regular schedule andthat can happen. But the previous week
we had in a GEA conference,which is kind of our state conference for
(03:31):
gifted and Talented administrators, and itwas really successful and great. Kim Bearden,
who helped the found the Ron ClarkAcademy, came and spoke and was
incredible, as was doctor Brandy Kepler, who was also there. That kind
of talked about the social emotional needsof the gifted and talented student and kind
(03:51):
of what we're dealing with after COVIDand everything that's happened, and she was
very, very informative, and Iappreciate both of them from coming out.
As I mentioned before, I hadthe PSAT going on, I'm doing Quizzbold
triounts, I'm getting ready to domy first round of GT placement testing for
the year, still setting up advancedplacement stuff. Plus now I'm taken on
(04:14):
PODAC casting, which I know absolutelylove, but there's a whole learning curve
there, so I'm kind of coveredup and stuff. But the deal is
pretty much everybody in education is rightnow. We're all busy in trying to
catch up. And I do notthink I'm I'm the lone person there.
I come from a very old schoolbackground, kind of knows to the grindstone,
(04:35):
get with it and do it typeof mentality, and a motto that
I kind of live by is nobodycares work harder. I remember I was
in a PD and it was abunch of administrators around the room and they
asked us to come up with,well, what's what's your motto? And
(04:57):
I said that, and they allkind of look that me funny. Now,
let me be clear, I don'thold other people to this standard.
Just myself. I kind of believein I've just got to do the job
and get in there and get itdone. That's what they pay me for.
And some people who were definitely workingharder right now are the teachers out
(05:18):
there. It's difficult right now,still dealing with COVID. You may think
COVID's kind of out and gone,but there are still effects from when we
kind of had to shut down schooland go remote. There are still things
that we're dealing with. Crazy thingis I can I can sit back and
remember, do you remember when youknow, teachers and the nursing community and
(05:41):
the medical community were like heroes whenCOVID hit because the kids were going home,
the parents were having to instruct them, and then the nurses and the
doctors were working through this whole periodof uncertainty, and everybody was just like,
oh, these people are heroes.And then like, I don't know,
eight eight months later, it's somebodyflicked a switch and all of a
sudden, the teachers weren't working hardenough, and the medical community was kind
(06:05):
of out to get you, nomatter what side of the COVID argument you
might have been on, but itjust it changed so quickly, and I
think teachers are still dealing with thatto some point. And I'm here to
tell you right now, teachers workreally, really hard, and I don't
think they get near enough credit.Granted I'm in that community and I consider
(06:30):
myself more of a teacher than Ido an administrator, but I'd just like
to ask, you know, ifif you've got a kid in a teacher's
class and maybe there's some miscommunication thereand you don't know what's going on,
maybe if you would just give thatteacher some grace and sit down have a
conversation with them. I know mostteachers would be glad to talk to you
if there's an issue or something's goingon. But I just want you,
(06:51):
everybody out there in the audience tounderstand that teachers are working hard and they're
doing the best they can. AndI'm to work with the teachers that I
work with, and I'm sure mostbuildings there are people in there that could
say the same. So teachers,I just wanted to give you a shout
out because you richly and truly deserveit. Hey, last week it was
(07:13):
ice Cube. I gave you guys, Rick Flair. I'm up in my
game here. That's pretty high praise. So I just wanted to touch base
with you. Come on here,just let you know we're not done.
We're still podcasting, and I havesome great news. The next podcast you
here, because I know you're gettingtired of listening to me and all my
(07:34):
silly sound effects, will actually havea GT student and honest to goodness,
bona fide gifted kid, and Ican't be more excited. His name is
Zeke, and he's a fifth graderhere, and he is going to be
coming on and talking to you aboutBigfoot. Yes, I said Bigfoot.
(08:01):
As I found out when we weresearching for topics and subjects for our GT
podcast, Zeke is a very verybig, no pun intended, Bigfoot fan,
so he knows a lot of informationabout it. And that's what I've
been encouraging my students to do,is pick something that you know a lot
about so we can sit and havea conversation and be able to talk about
(08:22):
these things. So I don't thinkZeke's going to have a problem with that.
And I really really think you willwant to tune in to our next
podcast, in our next episode,because I think Zeke is really going to
bring some interesting stuff and you're notgoing to have to listen to just me
anymore. So once again, Iwould like to thank you for tuning in
(08:45):
to Hey, What's your Deal?And I really hope that next week you
tune in to listen to what Zekehas to tell you about Bigfoot. See
you then, A distance foot,a distance, a distant at dist
What did you think we were gone? We left, if you weren't coming
back, I don't think the worldcould take it if we were to leave.
Such an avoid a big chasm.Okay, maybe just a small,
tiny pinhole in the GT podcasting community. But hey, thanks for coming back.
(00:33):
We are back. I want towelcome you in again. My name
is Michael Bridges, and I'm theGT and AP coordinator for the Alma School
District here in Elma, Arkansas,and I just want to welcome you in
from the land of allergies, becauseI don't know where you're listening to us
(00:54):
from, but if you're here inthe South, we haven't had much rain
in a while, and allergies anddust and pollen are something else. To
say the least we were worried aboutCOVID might even be worried about a zombie
apocalypse. Forget about it. It'sthe dust and pollen. It's coming to
(01:15):
get us all. But we don'tstand a chance that none of us.
I was giving a PSAT test withabout I don't know. There were roughly
forty students in the room and itsounded like a sniffle factory all day long.
I felt so sorry for those kidshaving to bend over and you know,
right on the test and everything theywere, it was doing them in
for sure. And then, youknow, my lovely wife Kelly called me
(01:38):
in this morning and we come in, we kind of have a joke,
you know, whenever she kind ofgets sick and you know, congested.
She has what we call the gothlineturner voice, you know, gets very
very deep. And she called methis morning and I honestly couldn't tell that
it was my wife. I thoughtit was my son. And if you've
(02:00):
ever met my wife, you knowshe's a very very beautiful woman. And
you know, you can pretty muchtell that I'm married up. And you
may be wondering, you know,how in the world at a guy like
this get a woman like that,And I'll tell you it's because I'm very
charming and yes, some would sayhumble as well. In all seriousness,
(02:22):
I've done quite a few shout outson the show and everything, but I
could not be where I am todaywithout my wife, who is the most
awesome woman I have ever met.So, you know, I give a
shout out to a lot of people, but probably the most important shout out
I'm going to give is to mywife, So to her, I say
thank you very much, and Ipromise that is the only shout out where
(02:49):
I will do a kissy kissy sound. And one thing you've probably noticed is
that we're doing quite a bit ofsound effects here. I actually encountered a
couple of kids in the hallway thatsaid, hey, I've listened to your
podcast and my favorite part is yoursound effects. So I'm kind of serving
our community here, so there maybe a few more sound effects in this
(03:09):
episode than normal. So I justwanted to come on and kind of tell
you why we haven't been able torelease an episode like we normally hoped.
We were hoping it could be aweekly thing, and we may not get
to do that. I'm hoping whenI get kids in here, it's going
to be a more regular schedule andthat can happen. But the previous week
we had in a GEA conference,which is kind of our state conference for
(03:31):
gifted and Talented administrators, and itwas really successful and great. Kim Bearden,
who helped the found the Ron ClarkAcademy, came and spoke and was
incredible, as was doctor Brandy Kepler, who was also there. That kind
of talked about the social emotional needsof the gifted and talented student and kind
(03:51):
of what we're dealing with after COVIDand everything that's happened, and she was
very, very informative, and Iappreciate both of them from coming out.
As I mentioned before, I hadthe PSAT going on, I'm doing Quizzbold
triounts, I'm getting ready to domy first round of GT placement testing for
the year, still setting up advancedplacement stuff. Plus now I'm taken on
(04:14):
PODAC casting, which I know absolutelylove, but there's a whole learning curve
there, so I'm kind of coveredup and stuff. But the deal is
pretty much everybody in education is rightnow. We're all busy in trying to
catch up. And I do notthink I'm I'm the lone person there.
I come from a very old schoolbackground, kind of knows to the grindstone,
(04:35):
get with it and do it typeof mentality, and a motto that
I kind of live by is nobodycares work harder. I remember I was
in a PD and it was abunch of administrators around the room and they
asked us to come up with,well, what's what's your motto? And
(04:57):
I said that, and they allkind of look that me funny. Now,
let me be clear, I don'thold other people to this standard.
Just myself. I kind of believein I've just got to do the job
and get in there and get itdone. That's what they pay me for.
And some people who were definitely workingharder right now are the teachers out
(05:18):
there. It's difficult right now,still dealing with COVID. You may think
COVID's kind of out and gone,but there are still effects from when we
kind of had to shut down schooland go remote. There are still things
that we're dealing with. Crazy thingis I can I can sit back and
remember, do you remember when youknow, teachers and the nursing community and
(05:41):
the medical community were like heroes whenCOVID hit because the kids were going home,
the parents were having to instruct them, and then the nurses and the
doctors were working through this whole periodof uncertainty, and everybody was just like,
oh, these people are heroes.And then like, I don't know,
eight eight months later, it's somebodyflicked a switch and all of a
sudden, the teachers weren't working hardenough, and the medical community was kind
(06:05):
of out to get you, nomatter what side of the COVID argument you
might have been on, but itjust it changed so quickly, and I
think teachers are still dealing with thatto some point. And I'm here to
tell you right now, teachers workreally, really hard, and I don't
think they get near enough credit.Granted I'm in that community and I consider
(06:30):
myself more of a teacher than Ido an administrator, but I'd just like
to ask, you know, ifif you've got a kid in a teacher's
class and maybe there's some miscommunication thereand you don't know what's going on,
maybe if you would just give thatteacher some grace and sit down have a
conversation with them. I know mostteachers would be glad to talk to you
if there's an issue or something's goingon. But I just want you,
(06:51):
everybody out there in the audience tounderstand that teachers are working hard and they're
doing the best they can. AndI'm to work with the teachers that I
work with, and I'm sure mostbuildings there are people in there that could
say the same. So teachers,I just wanted to give you a shout
out because you richly and truly deserveit. Hey, last week it was
(07:13):
ice Cube. I gave you guys, Rick Flair. I'm up in my
game here. That's pretty high praise. So I just wanted to touch base
with you. Come on here,just let you know we're not done.
We're still podcasting, and I havesome great news. The next podcast you
here, because I know you're gettingtired of listening to me and all my
(07:34):
silly sound effects, will actually havea GT student and honest to goodness,
bona fide gifted kid, and Ican't be more excited. His name is
Zeke, and he's a fifth graderhere, and he is going to be
coming on and talking to you aboutBigfoot. Yes, I said Bigfoot.
(08:01):
As I found out when we weresearching for topics and subjects for our GT
podcast, Zeke is a very verybig, no pun intended, Bigfoot fan,
so he knows a lot of informationabout it. And that's what I've
been encouraging my students to do,is pick something that you know a lot
about so we can sit and havea conversation and be able to talk about
(08:22):
these things. So I don't thinkZeke's going to have a problem with that.
And I really really think you willwant to tune in to our next
podcast, in our next episode,because I think Zeke is really going to
bring some interesting stuff and you're notgoing to have to listen to just me
anymore. So once again, Iwould like to thank you for tuning in
(08:45):
to Hey, What's your Deal?And I really hope that next week you
tune in to listen to what Zekehas to tell you about Bigfoot. See
you then, A distance foot,a distance, a distant at dist
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