Season 3/EP.3:Hall Pass featuring Mike W.

What if the students were in charge? In this powerful and eye-opening episode, we’re joined by special guest Mike W. as we dive into real conversations about identity, education, and the student experience — all From da Bottom.We explore:

• Who are you, really? The importance of self-awareness in and out of the classroom.
• Why representation matters: The impact of Black men in education and why students need to see them leading.
• Student report cards... for teachers? What grades would YOU get if your students were handing them out?
• And if kids ran the school for a day… What would stay, what would go, and what would really change?

🔥 Raw. Honest. Insightful. Mike W. brings the heat, and this convo will have you reflecting, laughing, and thinking twice about the classroom experience.Tap in, share with a friend, and keep building — From da Bottom.

We're more than thankful for everyone who tunes in to the show.  There would be no us without y'all. You yeah you reading this. Thanks for tuning in. We appreciate it!!!  We just wanted to let you know. Now carry on lol!!! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
From them from the bottom.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
You know, we got up from the bottom.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Oh yeah, uh, thank y'all for tuning in. You know,
we got very special guests on this episode. We got
Big Mike, you know, one of the persons. Uh, I go,
I go to church with him and stuff like that.
And you know, he's a dope individual. And you know,
he work in the school system. You know, ain't too

(00:43):
many ain't too many black people working in the school
system up here, you know where I'm at, and stuff
like that. So I had to get him home, you know,
so he can share more about you know, himself and
like what he do and stuff like that, because I
thought it was pretty cool on what he do. Plus,
you know, he one of the first guests back on

(01:05):
from the bottom episode, you know, and I really appreciate
you coming on. Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
You know, hey, Wen, I appreciate having me man.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
You know, so, uh we're gonna go get right into it, Mike.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
You know, yeah, I mean, man, you hear me with
a great introduction. Man, I appreciate you. Man, thank you
for having me on. It's dope. Uh yeah. Michael Williams, Uh,
I work in education, Uh, Christian husband, father, got three children,

(01:43):
one on the way, So four total, h and Bay,
thank you, thank you? Uh shoot, man trying to work
in education with kids come home with the kids though.
It's a fun job though, and then yeah, I appreciate

(02:04):
it cow working education. I've been working in education for shoot.
It's crazy to say. Man eighteen years eighteen years started out, yeah,
man eighteen years. Started out as a teaching assistant, para educator,
and then you know, went back to school, went got

(02:24):
some certifications, started working and behavior really with students with
challenging behavior, and then that got me into like classing
lead positions. Then I went to the district office and uh, yeah,
so what I'm doing now, Yeah, we really talking about

(02:46):
you really talking about from the bottom?

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well they I guess the title, you know the shoes,
I guess this you on the perfect episode. Then you know, yeah,
what what made you get into teaching? Man?

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Crazy? Crazy Man? Didn't even think that I would every
step foot in the classroom. Again. I barely graduated high school,
and you know, my next opportunity was to play basketball.
So I got a second chance to go play community
college basketball. And during that time I started running camps.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
He nice on the court, he nice, I mean he
goes with slow motion.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
You know you got you got bad knees and bad back.
You gotta go slow motion. It's all about the game
up here and now. Um, so I got the go ahead? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Was it? Anybody like did you have any family in education,
like teachers in your family?

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Noah, My grandfather worked with individuals with disabilities, doing like
community in home care, and so that was kind of
a little bit of what I did before I got
an education, ended up running mini camps. And then an
actual old old head, a guy that knew me when

(04:20):
I was a youngster and he was out hooping so
he saw me as a kid, brought me in and
told me about being a pair of educator working in
education and just being able to work with individuals with
special needs, help kids with their school work during the day.
And then that way I got summers off and we

(04:41):
can run all the mini camps we want. And so
I was like, man, I'll try to do it.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
See because you know, Mike is a he one of
the biggest Seahawks fans. I know from the baby.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Come on, man like that, don't do me like that.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
So the reason I ask is down in the bay,
you know where they go Hyphi. Well, it's a lot
of black teachers down there.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
In the bank. Yeah, there's all the black teachers in
the Bay. Not Washington though, m.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, you got a point there. Yeah, it's not it's
not a lot of Washington. The reason I act because
that's funny. It goes into the second, you know, the
second question that I had, you know for.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
You you know, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
And I think that it's important that people see somebody
who look like them, no matter what nationality it is,
you know, and whatever field they want to go to.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, I agree, And.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
So up here I just learned this. I did not know,
you know, this whole time. I thought it was a
teacher shortage and stuff like that, but I didn't know
it was so hard to get a job as a
teacher up here.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yes and no. Yes, and now like.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
People well I heard the people like they'd be like,
it's like four hundred applicants, but two positions.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
It could be. It could be if you want to
be specific to your role, like if you only want
to teach third grade, then yes, But if you're trying
to just be an educator and you just want to
work with kids, there are educated positions out there. You
might not have gone to school to teach like high

(06:53):
school science, you know, but there might be a high
school science position open. Are you to take it?

Speaker 1 (07:01):
See? But but can they? Can they do that? Though?
Like if you if you're a kindergarten first grade teacher
and the position come open in high school, can you
even go for that or do you need other certifications?

Speaker 3 (07:18):
So the only certification you really need beyond just a
bachelors and K through twelve education would just be a
bachelor's and something specific like science. But for the most part,
if you have a bachelor's degree in K twelve education,
you can teach any grade level. Some do specify the

(07:38):
K where they're only teaching up to middle school, but
for the most part, most educators can teach K twelve.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
MM. So how many other black teachers have you seen
out there since you've been doing this, Because I know
it can't be it can't be a lot of them.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's drastically improved, but again, yeah, the numbers are still short.
Numbers are still small. I mean, we're in Washington and
there's eighty eight percent eighty five eighty eight percent white educator.
So there's a small percentage of people of color and education.

(08:21):
But the numbers are grown because of that same belief.
Having kids see more individuals, more educators that look like them,
that come from the same community, that can identify with
their background and really tap into who they are. We're
spending more time in education, more money education, talking about
the whole student, so really where they come from, what

(08:41):
is their cultural how do they enter the classroom. They're
not just there to be a vessel to be filled,
all right. We want to talk to the whole individual.
We want to support the whole student. And it does
get scarce out there for educators of color, so we
try to stick together. But the versus small.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
So I do know that. You know, somebody told me
that if you want to be a teacher, you have
to really love it because this show is not about
the money.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Its show is not about the money. It's showing and
that's true. I mean, and I feel like that's with
any profession, you know, even the ones where people make
a lot of money, they can get burnt out real
easy because you're working with humans, Because you're working with
individuals that come from various backgrounds and cultures and identities.

(09:37):
It's it's a little more mentally and emotionally exhausting. You
have to really invest a lot of emotion and a
lot of mental versus other jobs where you got to
invest a lot of physical You know you can you
can tap out mentally and really just physically kind of
grind your way through it. Education takes a lot of heart,
a lot of heart.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
So so for a person in college right now who
dreams is to be a teacher, well, what would you
tell they? They say, they say, mister Mike, is it
still worth it to become a teacher in today's climate?

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah? If you love if you love people, Uh, if
you love investing and in the future, in the next
generation and really having an impact the next generation. Uh,
education is the way to go because you get more
access to students and minds that you can help facilitate growth.

(10:42):
I would say, do it if you really love people,
if you really love investing in the next generation.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Mmmm. But what about uh? What about the hard to
deal with parents? Though I heard a lot about a
lot of parents that I love to expect. You know,
he worked in the school system and he told me
about this one kid. He got son home and the

(11:11):
mom sent him back to school and said he's not
my problem until after this time. Oh so that must
be true, I say, you laugh, that was yeah, ye.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Too, yes sir, man, I man, there was this time.
So this was early on in my career. Man, Like
I said, I working primarily with kids are challenging behavior.
And uh there was a time where a kid had
a really rough time during the day man fights, not
following expectations, you know, not willing to cooperate and even

(11:49):
just even just try to meet this halfway man. And
it got to the point to where they had crossed
the school expectation and district expectation. Had to be sent home.
And uh so later on that same day, I used
to have to work security at a bar part time
just to make hits me. And that same night, that

(12:10):
same night, their dad came in and we had to
put him at the bar.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
You know, did the.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
No, now we knew, we knew who the dad was
to the kid, like, yeah, they didn't. They put two
and two together.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Wow, So uh, I guess you see why the kid
was the way the kid was If the dad got
the bar.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
All right, wow? So right, so if the kid already
feels unwanted, kid already feels unwanted by the parents, and
then they go to school and feel unwanted by the
school staff. You know, what do you expecting from the students?
They's gonna show out there they don't matter, you know.

(13:02):
So that's why, you know, if you're going to get
an education, it's more than just teaching kids about history,
about science, about numbers and math, and teaching them about
how to write a paragraph, like you're teaching the human
you know, and really tapping into who they are. Because
the things that kids are exposed to these days, it

(13:23):
is hard as an educator because they think, you know,
for the most part, like our own kids, you know,
they already got the information, So what do they need
you for? So really, with really, with anything, it comes
down to the relationship. You know, if you can build
relationships with people, you care about people, especially the ones
that come from challenging backgrounds and have challenging behavior. Right,

(13:45):
behavior is neutral until you put it into a context. Right,
Yelling is cool at a football game, at a sporting event.
Yelling is not cool in the middle of a orchestra event.
All right, same behavior, but the context is different. And

(14:05):
so working with a lot of kids a challenging behavior,
it's really deeper than what the behavior is displaying, and
that's what you really got to tap into. So yeah,
kids definitely are more challenging these days because like you
just you you just shared their parents out there that
aren't setting great examples because they come from a generation

(14:28):
that necessarily didn't set a great sample, and that's it's
a cycle.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Hey, but do you think that's a lot to put
on a teacher though, because the teacher only got so
much time to mess with one student compared to they
got a classroom of twenty five and thirty kids with
no teacher aid.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah, so that's what I love about my role, I said.
I started as a parent educator, just as a classroom
aid working and what we call a self contained class
serone where students with disabilities, highly impacted students with wheelchairs,
low cognitive ability output, and two becoming now somebody who

(15:16):
travels across the state working with various educators from new
first year educators to veteran educators who've been doing this
for fifteen twenty years and giving them some of these strategies,
giving him some of these tools, really helping them understand
like again, it's about relationship, it's about tapping into the
brain and really getting students out of that survival you know,

(15:42):
survival brain where they're really just focused on keeping themselves
safe and really just doing what they need to do
to meet their own needs to where they're willing to learn.
And it's a tough job, but I enjoy it being
able to go across the state and give support to educators,
to give teachers. You're right, it's not easy when you
have a kid who's person person you out a kid

(16:07):
who's not engaged in the instruction and just withdraws, maybe
puts their hood on, maybe just leans back, shows up late,
doesn't tap into the potential you may see they have.
So so it is a lot when you have twenty three,
twenty four to twenty five, sometimes twenty eight students in
the classroom. And it's not just one. It's a small

(16:29):
group of students, so four or five, you know, sometimes
depending on the community, depending on the school and the environment,
sometimes it's the whole class that have disruptive, challenging behavior.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
So so now you just say, you said you travel
all over the state. Now, yeah, now I just learned
this about Mike around July. You know, you know what
I'm about to say, Oh, you ain't traveling around the state.
Think you're traveling around the state. I know you can't be.

(17:06):
I know you not Mike like a black knight, you know,
and he got he got it. Hey, he got his mopad.
You know, if you see anybody in a black on
black mopad riding up and down the highway, there's probably

(17:31):
and yeah off the state.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah, black on, black man, black man on a black bike. Right,
that's black on.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Why if y'all seen a picture of me on the
mopad and the guy in the background that was Mike
and that was his mopad that I was on. Yes,

(17:59):
are you traveler on that head?

Speaker 3 (18:03):
Uh? So some of the schools that I go see,
like I take the othad. Yeah, I got a couple
of local contracts with schools that I can get to
on the moped. It goes sixty five, man, it goes
sixty five. It gets up.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
You know, it's fun, but it's the game.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
It is. Man. It cost me six dollars and I
get a hundred miles.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Say then one more time, Mike says, so they can
hear you in the back, save one more time.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
It cost me six dollars to fill up the mopad
and I get one hundred miles.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Right now, Mike is take an application to join his mopad.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Game Let's go.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
You know, I'm gonna i'ma be the starting water boy
for the game, you know. For the biker club, can
call the biker club.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
It is man, I get bro. I get real love
out there. I get real love. You know. When you
see the motorcycles do like this, they give it a
peace on each other. Man. They throw it at me, bro,
I'm apart.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
I was one. They never when I'm about to ride
my bicycle, they never throw the peace and I'd be
throwing a peace on everybody on the motorcycle, you know,
but without two reels supposed to stick together. But I
guess it's just.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Motorized the club.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
So for you to travel around the state, what exactly
do you do in the school, So.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
It depends on the contract and the and the school
need or the educator need. So right now I'm working
with a special education teacher, teaching and supporting them on
how to write skill based i EPs or individual education
plans for students that receive social education services and so

(19:56):
having a skill based educational plan, whether that be for
behavior or academic Having a skill based plan really helps
all everybody who's involved, the genet teacher, the special education teacher,
the assistants who support that student in various environments. Really

(20:17):
target the skill as opposed to just the subjective idea
of what the kids should be doing or learning. It's
more based on this skill or actually help them access
the math curriculum better. Right. So it's like they're struggling
with recognizing certain components of the math process, and so

(20:42):
by teaching them how to use a math journal, we
can help them access more than just one content area
in math, not just multiplication. They're abody to use that
for multiplication and everybody use it for divisions for decimals. Right,
So you teach them skill as opposed to focusing just

(21:02):
on the content. With another school, we're working on reducing
isolation and restraint or really this year is going to
be deeper than last year. Last year we worked on
educator mind frame. We worked on identifying behavior criteria and

(21:25):
having common language around what behavior looks like because we've
all come from different backgrounds, different upbringings, and so we
all have our own idea of what behavior is and
isn't and what is good and what is bad or
what's appropriate and not appropriate right depending on the context.
And so last year we worked on a lot of
educator mind frame and just creating common language. This year

(21:48):
we're really going to focus on how do we reduce
incidences of negative behavior for students of color. There's higher
numbers where educators are using unsavory strategies to try to
curb or change behavior, and it tends to be because

(22:13):
again it's just the numbers look odd. The numbers look
weird when you have an educator workforce of like say
eighty five to eighty eight percent white, and then you
have a community of students that they support that's sixty
five percent students of color some places eighty percent students

(22:33):
of color. When you use some of these strategies, the
numbers just don't look good. It looks like you have
white folks kicking black kids at or kids of color
out of class. And so working with this school in
that area to really target how they are supporting again
the students in the classroom through those challenging behaviors and

(22:54):
situations to get them to get everybody to a place
of safety and learning.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
What grade you're doing is just like K through twelve.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
Yeah, so two of the contracts that I have this
year are K eight well sorry, one is K eight
which is in Yaka, like an hour south of Yakama,
and then another school is K through five elementary. And
then another school that I'm working with down the south

(23:25):
in Vancouver is middle school to high school six to twelve.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Oh, now that boy be moving.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
You know. It's one of those things, man, Like I said,
I didn't think i'd get an education. It wasn't something
that I looked into. You know, like a lot of
a lot of black youth grow up thinking their their
next dream is going to be playing some sport and
so not having a backup plan, not having an idea
of what I was going to do, get kicked off

(23:59):
the team junior year for grades, lose some scholarships and opportunities.
Like I said, I was able to get a second
chance to play community basketball, or just didn't have a
really good support system. So for me, man, I did
so many other things after I left college, and sure
I not to do anything in education, and then like
I said, and didn't running into an old head who

(24:23):
got me back into education. Trying to continue to keep
in touch with basketball, becoming a coach and working with
youth and now man years later.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
So when the kids out there of color SeeU, like,
do they what do they say to you? Like our
parents like when they see you?

Speaker 3 (24:52):
You know, sometimes depends you know, like I said, working
with kids. A lot of my career has been working
with kids and challenging behaviors of all races and backgrounds.
But when we're talking about the kids of color, it
depends on what the parents and me are are finding,

(25:15):
what we're what we're having a conversation about. You know,
if you kids that your kid is fucking up, it's
not a good conversation to start out with. It's not
a good introduction necessarily, you know what I'm saying. But
over the years, I've I've gotten better at managing those situations. Uh,
but you know, not go I bro. There's times where

(25:37):
I've been I've been definitely pursed out, you know, where
I've been accused of, you know, not supporting my own community,
thinking that you know, thinking that I'm more for the
white educator than I am for the for the student
of color, and just being clear about my position. And again,

(25:59):
my job is to support your student and keeping them
in class, and there are things that are above my
pay grade that I don't have control over. And when
you know, I tried all these strategies, and I walk
them through the strategies that I've tried, and I've walked
through the strategies that we've tried as a school team.
And when your student crosses a boundary that we can't

(26:21):
go back from, we gotta part ways. We got to separate,
we got to readjust and sometimes that's through us three day,
five day, one day, ten day suspension where we all
can kind of get our heads together and come up
with the plan. And that's where I really take pride
in the job that I do, because so many students

(26:41):
are labeled and don't get an opportunity to really learn
the skills necessary to function in those environments. And so
educators teams end up labeling students and then those meetings
never happen. The team doesn't come together and come up
with the plan of support, doesn't refine their strategies, they

(27:03):
start to label and blame students, they start to label
in blame families. And so that's why I'm like, what
is the debrief process that's come up with the planning
support because you're not off the hook as educated.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Mm, that's what I thought, man, I ain't gonna lie
back in school, boy, I just get in trouble so much.
I already had a seat in the office, you know,
you know, but but as I got older, you know,

(27:35):
to hear about what everybody, a lot of teachers have
to go through and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
Just the question I want to you're good compared hr.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Hey man, you know it was different back then, but
it isn't about me. Do you think teachers get paid enough?
Because to me and the more I learned about it,
I don't think they get paid. They don't get paid
enough to put up with some of this stuff. There's

(28:09):
a lot, it's a lot behind the scenes, you know
that people don't know.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
You know, so there are I'm.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Like, I don't think teacher get paid enough in my opinion.
You know, some people think teacher get paid too much.
But you know, to try to do you know, depend
on what grade they're in. You know, you got twenty
five students of class and you got six periods a day.
That's a lot of different personalities to deal with in

(28:42):
one day, you know, So what do you think as
far as like teachers getting paid.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Man, that's a lot of question. Bro, this you're trying
to set me up.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Man, come on, before you say something. Don't get in trouble.
You know, I don't want you to get in trouble.
You know they're gonna be like, hey, you know, Mike,
we've seen you on this podcast and you don't think
you get paid.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
You know, Hey, it's just an opinion.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yes, it's just opinion, you know.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
I think it's a little it's it's it's a lot
of questions in terms of yes and no, because there
are opportunities for educators to make the pretty penny. Yeah,
but it's again, it goes back to the emotional mental investment.
It is emotion mentally exhausting. They're educators who put in

(29:46):
a ton of hours, and then they're educators who work
the regular contract. They put in their time, and then
they go home at the end of the contract and
they leave the way lies. And so I think for
the hours and the days, there's a lot of breaks.

(30:07):
You know, there's a lot of breaks where educators have
an opportunity where other professions don't, to really get their
ducks in the road, to plan and prepare themselves for
the year, and then there are times where they You know,
you have educators that don't they spend a lot of
time doing that during the year, and so they put

(30:29):
in a lot of extra hours during the year. And
so you know when you put in hours and you
really look at the salary. Now, now you don't get
paid a lot.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Well I didn't, Yeah, I didn't know every teacher was
salary until I be hearing about some teachers stay till
nine o'clock at night. Then they turn around and be
right back in the morning, and you'd be like, what
in the world could they be doing till nine o'clock
at night if school get out at like two o'clock.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
But it's not requirement, you know what I mean, Like,
it's not a requirement. Nobody's telling you you have to
stay till nine. So because you choose to stay till nine,
because you have those educators who are like, you know what,
I'm more of a night person. I don't really have
much to go home to, so I can be here
until that time to prep myself for the next day

(31:20):
because I don't want to do it the next day.
And then you have educators who are like man I'm out,
I'm out of sinners. The bill rings, I'm out soon
as the contract dans. But I'll be in two hours
before my contract time to prepare myself for the day.
So you really don't get paid for that for that
prep time, which is where again, right, you work one

(31:43):
hundred and ninety days a year. Most professions are working
two sixty.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Okay, Well, I ain't think about that. I didn't think about.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
That, So it's hard to say. And again, I know
I know some educators who are you know, five six
years in, make it one thirty.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
He let me be here now'll be on here like
snitching nothing, Mike, you know.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
I'm just there. There, there's a way, there's a way,
And and again it's just it's it's how much is
your time worse? And that's with any profession, right, how
much is your time worth? We're all at the end
of the day trading our time for money. We can
always argue how much that time is worse. So I

(32:40):
think educators could get paid more. I don't have a number,
but I also know that there are educators who are
taking advantage and maybe they could, maybe they could share
some of their salary with some of the educators who
put in that time and stay till out.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
What.

Speaker 5 (33:01):
I don't know, you know, they all got the same
amount of time in the day, you know, I don't
I don't know about you know, and that'd be pretty.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Hard, you know, you know, to share with Jenny, you know,
and Craig over here, you know, working one hundred and
twenty hours a week, you know, Virginny only working hug
contract hours.

Speaker 6 (33:25):
You know, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
It's like you you know, you know there is a loophole.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
You always wondered, you know what, teachers.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
I here's something that I've been curious about. Just throwing
it out there again, the opinion. I mean, if there
were if there was an opportunity to receive bonuses in
terms of skid growth. And that's not just that's not

(34:01):
just academic girls. That could be social behavioral growth. A
student that started the school year who had a seat
in the principal's office, who didn't have many friends, or
who had a seat in the principal's office and had
a lot of friends. Either way, right, the growth of
that student from going from being in the office once

(34:21):
a week to once a month, there should be bonus.
So where should receive bonus for that growth.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
But then I guess the question I would ask you is,
how would you determine on who get that bonus? Because
would it be a teacher, would it be a principal,
would it be the counselor, or would it be the
custodian that he talked to a lot like, how would
y'all determine who was the person to make him do
the three sixty by the end of the year?

Speaker 3 (34:51):
We do we runted like Starbucks? Okay, we just split
the tip and then what they do split the bonus? Yeah,
not out like a week ago. No matter, no matter
who's earning tips, no matter how social you are, you
might be the best barista that starbus got at your
location where people just love you. They come in just

(35:12):
to talk to you and get their coffee from you
daily and they tip you five outs. Oh Joe Scholl
over there, who's disgruntled? Who just throws your sugar packets
on the counter when you ask for extra sugar and
tell just over there?

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah you.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Too?

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Okay, So since you said that, then sind you said,
everybody's at the moments right, How would you okay say this?
Kids in the say sixth grade. Would that be every
one of his teachers and the administrators in the sixth
grade or would this beat like how would you?

Speaker 3 (35:55):
So this is where it could be. It could be
this is where educational plan comes in. If you're part
of the educational planning team.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah, then you you.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
In doctor for that bonus. You went doctor for that bonus.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Okay, okay, that makes sense. That makes sense now that
mays okay mm hm.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
As As as a principle, if you could reduce the
number of students who need an educational plan, man, you
get a bonus student, your whole school gets a bonus,
the whole, the whole, everybody, everybody gets get a bonus
keeping kids from qualified.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
What about a bonus for say your your your test
grades get better, you know, because y'all they test every
year in school, right, right, So if they test grades
get like say they're in the eighty they go to
eighty two? Did they can do you think they need
a bonus?

Speaker 3 (36:53):
But that maybe maybe we come from when like a
tiered system, you know, there's zero to five gets you
so much. If there's so much growth from there from
eighty percent to eighty five percent, that's good from eighty
six to ninety ninety one to ninety you know what

(37:15):
I mean, like might come on with a tiered system.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
I think that would be pretty cool to have a
bonus system within the school. But I think I think
it'll be hard though, because it's like certain people would
be able to get the bonus, you know, like the

(37:41):
account Like the secretaries in the office. They don't particularly
do you know, teach the students or nothing, but they're
there as part of the school. But like say, like
the teachers and the principal and them they get the bonus.
Like the secretary they don't really get a chance to

(38:02):
give a bonus, or like the custodian or the lunch
room people are.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
Like, hey man, not everybody gets your bonus either when
you're not on part of the sales team.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Mmmm, I gotta give it to you'all know, give it
to you. That was a good I wondered, like how
would you do the bonus is? Like could they get
like n I L or something? You know, I don't know,
like the teachers, like you know, you know, just thinking

(38:41):
like you know, say you a popular teacher on social
media or something.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
You know, kids, Hey, maybe maybe that's where maybe that's
where they could get nil deals from, like Sharpie. You know,
that's all that Crayola, Crayola markers just sending them just
all the markets. Crayola, they got crowns, they just rain.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Hey, man, like you've been thinking about this this.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
A little man, because there is Like I said, man,
that's your fine line between getting paid enough and not
getting paid enough and just trying to be creative.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Man.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
That's the big part of my job is just trying
to help educators think creatively in different ways they can
support students academically and behaviorally.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Yeah. Sure, I think I want to be teaching fun opponent.
A bonus problem would be a perfect solution, you know,
to help people be more inspired to become teachers and
be better teachers. You know, crazy thing gives it some
people teachers and they hate kids, right.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Right, No, yeah, many of those.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (39:57):
So, well we're gonna we're gonna keep it moving alone.
You know, so did this question right here? You know,
if kids were in charge for one day, what do
you think school would look like?

Speaker 1 (40:10):
In my opinion, I think school would be like pajamas
and everybody sitting around on their phones eating snacks for
the whole day.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
You know, it would definitely depend on what they had
access to, you know, in elementary school, if kids had
access to glaptops, definitely.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
I think it'd be Minecraft roadblocks.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
It would be roadblocks Minecraft all day. It would be
a free for all babies.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Well, how did you say that? Do you think they
would be on the laptop or if you give them recess,
would they be outside the whole day?

Speaker 3 (40:52):
They'd be outside on the laptop.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, oh god, come on, you think kids would go
outside and play if you're like everybody out there playing together?

Speaker 3 (41:06):
Uh? You you would have, you would have a I'd
probably say they'd be up and down with kids tapping
in and out of playing the game, doing an activity,
playing the game, doing activity. But there'd be a lot,
a high majority of just kids and gross from the
technolog technological part of it.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Yeah, you're right, because kids don't play outside no more.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
Not without it, not without it being structured. Master.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Probably Yeah, if you give them a phone or a laptop, yeah,
probably eighty five kids not coming out to play outside
if they I ain't even think about that.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
But if you but if you don't allow them, yeah, yeah, oh.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
I'm old now.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
But again but if you don't, if you don't allow
them access to the technology, you don't find something to do,
no play. Kids are pretty still creative when they have to.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Be mm okay, well yeah, I don't know. I was
just thinking, like, what if a kid was in charge
for one day? What would the school look like? The
cleaning up?

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Nah, I look chaotic. You give him about but you
give them about three Give about three days of just
unstructured chaos. You are going to have kids who are like, Okay,
I've gotten my fix. I do actually want to learn
M but one day, just one day. Yeah, it's a

(42:52):
free for all. If you were like, man, what would
it look like if you gave him a week you
have kids, you'd have kids leading class rooms within a
week way small groups farm Oh yeah, small groups of
farm kids start to really learn from one another and
start to engage one another and some sort of knowledge. Girls.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Wait, so you think that if it's if kids running
the school after three days, they'll be like, hey, I
want to get back to learning.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
That's why I say within that week, probably say three
to four days.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Yeah, So in a classroom of twenty five kids, how
many you think would be like I'm written to learn.
I'm just thinking when I was in school, I'm like, nigga,
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (43:46):
I'll probably say again, small groups would start to form.
Every kid wouldn't be learning the exact same thing, but
they would be learning and disengagement from the tech. From
the tech, kids would put phones away. You probably get
a good third, A good third of the classroom will
probably be like, hey, let's start learning, which then right,

(44:07):
Depending on the influence of that third, you might get half.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
I had never thought about. I don't know. Shoot, I
adn't think kids that want to learn if nobody's around
to make them learn.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
It's more of what are they learning? How are they learning?
All right? And that's where again helping educators be more
creative and their approach to education and teaching. Yeah, is
a big part of my job that I enjoy is
really again thinking about how and what you know. It's

(44:44):
not just about learning about history, it's how do you
bring history to life these days and really get them
to maybe experience it where just sitting and watching an
old video and answering questions worksheet like we did is
not effective these days. You're losing kids, all right. I

(45:05):
worked as an educator last year, and this is where
really understanding the culture of students, such are the students
that you work with for the one hundred and eighty
days that you are an educator for that school year.
Is these kids really love the debate. They really loved
to have arguments and discussion, and they weren't on topic

(45:26):
arguments and discussion. A lot of stuff from the neighborhood
or what happened during lunch or before school on social media,
blah blah blah. Right, they're always finding something to argue about.
So working with its educator really trying to be creative. Right,
he would play videos and then have the kids answer
workshop worksheets, workshop questions. So then it was Okay, I'm

(45:51):
not getting much from them. The same kids keep asking
or answering the questions. So I'm going to do more
of a discussion. I'm going to ask the question, the
kids are going to give me a response. Okay to
thinking about, how about we turn it into a debate
and the students can debate. You can throw the questions

(46:14):
out there, but you can give the students an opportunity
to debate their side of the question. So now you're
taking the culture of the students who love to discuss
and argue and engage with one another, and you're bringing
that into the classroom or making a part of the
learning so you can guide it, the structure it in

(46:34):
a way that brings it to life and keeps kids
on task and focus, so you as the educator can
get an understanding of what they know, and the students
get their outlet and the same need met by arguing
with nothing on one another about something stupid. Right. So
it's really when educators think about education and creative ways

(46:58):
and thinking, man, how do you type into the kids
to get them to learn?

Speaker 1 (47:04):
So debate because people like arguing with each.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
Other with this particular work.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Hey, you see, this is the type of This is
the type of game that you learn from people who've
been in the trenches. You know, he learned this over
time right here, because I was not even thinking that way,
you know, I was thinking, like some of the stuff
like what he just said, It would have never crossed
my mind, you know. But this is what he do.

(47:32):
This is why he get paid the big Bucks people.
Y'all A got to learn from big mic you know,
I ain't not so this this this next topic, I
need your honest answer.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
No. Oh, so now I feel like it gets deeper.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
It ain't gonna be there, ain't gonna be that bad.
You know, if students wrote report cards for teachers, what
grade would you get?

Speaker 3 (48:01):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Come on, now, don't don't you just say I'm gonna
get all I'm gonna.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
Nah. No, I probably get a B. I get it B.
I say a solid B.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Mm h you sure you should? The kids?

Speaker 3 (48:19):
The kids will give me a solid B.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Man.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
I've built a lot of I've bet a lot of
really good relationships with students and families over the years.
I'm not saying that every relationship has been perfect, you know,
because with anything that you invest timon energy into, there's
gonna be growth, there's gonna be ups and down. So
I definitely wouldn't give myself an A or an A minus.

(48:45):
I would probably float around a B B plus. I
probably say, mister Williams, mister Williams is a guy.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Okay, okay, I thought you were gonna be like, man,
I'm gonna tell you get all age. You know, I
get all as all the kids with.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Me again, you know, going back, I work with kids
primarily with a lot of challenging behaviors, and so there
are things that they've learned from other adult relationships that
mister Williams don't put up with that Mister Williams is
not that adult. So when I got to draw a

(49:20):
hard line, it's tough for some kids. And I'm not
the favorite, not the favorite ud.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
So when you just said that, do kids not know
how to talk to adults these days? Or they think
you're there equal?

Speaker 3 (49:37):
Oh? Yeah, there's definitely kids think that they're there's an
equal playing field. And again a lot of it is
coming from the things that they've experienced, they've learned from
their own interactions with other adults. Do you have a
lot of parents out here who are talking to their
kids like their adults, like they're like they're equals. You

(49:59):
have a lot of kid a lot of parents who trying, yeah,
who want to be more friends, who are having uh,
you know, more adult conversations when their kids are around,
you know, not thinking about who's listening or what they're
picking up. And a lot of that stuff is mirrored

(50:21):
in schools.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
So what now you got man see every time you
be talking about stuff to get to going, What about
what about those parents who feel their kid can do
no wrong. That whatever happened is not It's not their
kid fault is the teacher is somebody else's fault. You know,

(50:45):
they can't fail somebody else fault. They can't get in
trouble is somebody else, Like everything is. You know, it's
put on the teachers and the administrators. You know.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
Yeah, like I said, man, that's why I give myself
a beat. You there are kids and parents that aren't
quite hip to the game. Mister Williams again doing this
a while. My job for a lot of these when
I go into a lot of these schools is to
help educate. Our teams come up with plans of support

(51:20):
and intervention, and so when we include parents, we make
sure the parents are part of that conversation as well,
especially those parents who the other kids can do no
wrong wrong. We bring them in on the strategies and
tools that we're using, and if you feel like it's

(51:41):
not going to work for your student, please speak up
now forever Huach peaks. And then we'll track data and
that's where the data comes in, and that's where I
work with school teams on analyzing and looking at that data,
making sure that we prioritize the data that we're collecting,
and then we can look in at behavior trends and patterns,

(52:01):
and we can I can hold because I'm an outside
agency where I wasn't able to do before when I
was a part of the school team, a part of
the school district. Now that I'm an outside agency, I
have a little more flexibility and the way that I
can push educators in the whole school teams accountable and
really be like, hey, this was the plan for intervention.

(52:22):
The intervention is for the school team to follow. It's
a plan for the staff. And we have people that
aren't following the intervention plan, and there are gaps in
data that are showing there's inconsistencies in the data. It's
not being implemented with fidelity. Let's tighten things up.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Wait, yeah, I never thought about school system using analytics.
Only time I think about analytics is sports. That's kind
of better. I guess I never put two and two together.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Yeah, it's all behavior, yeah, well just behavior repetition.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Yeah, but I never thought about like analytics within the
school system, Like you know, so with the analytics in
the school system, is disavailable for every teacher or did
just for problem students?

Speaker 3 (53:21):
It's available for every teacher who works with those individuals,
whether those individuals are behavioral students who receive additional support,
or students who are just in the regular genet classroom
who are having challenges, students who are in a recess,
like whoever is supporting these students, everybody will have access

(53:42):
to that and should have access to that, and sometimes
teams don't. There are gaps definitely in those systems, and
so that's where my team comes in and we help
minimize those gaps, tighten up those systems because ultimately we
want to these students successful. We want educators to enjoy teaching,

(54:04):
and so we can come in and can't argue with
the analytics, can't argue with the data, and we can
only look at it. We can only look at it
and refine it. And so that's also to go back
to your question about the parents who feel like their
kids can't do no wrong, is when we get as
a team, we get our systems tight, then the parent

(54:25):
really doesn't have any grounds for discussion. They can just
look at the data, like the data speak for ourselves.
With these tools and strategies, we've either seen an increase
or decrease and what we were looking for. What changes
can we make? What change do you recommend? How can
you be a part of the process. Sometimes I've worked
with families where I've had to do parent training essentially

(54:49):
where we come up with a plan and I've gone
into the home, especially during COVID, where I've gone into
the home and help families, help parents, developed systems of support, intervention.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
You as a parent home.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
There are some students where I've had to go into
the parent home. Yeah, oh.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
Is that in your contract?

Speaker 3 (55:23):
It was there. Yeah, there was a lot of conversation
around what that looked like, making sure that there weren't
any like legal laws or anything like that broke in.
And again, it's about student success, right, It's about students
making sure that they have positive school experiences and outcomes,
and some of that starts at home. So if I

(55:44):
can support a family to help the student success be
more successful in the school setting, that's that's all. It's
all worth it. You know, I didn't have the best
school career, so that's a lot of reason why I
stay in education state education is the kids don't have
the same school experience that I had.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Dang, my dog went above and be young. Wow. You know,
but uh, Mike, I gotta say, man, thank you for
coming on.

Speaker 5 (56:19):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
I know it was the last second. I just had
talked to him about this yesterday, you know, and he
was like, let's do it, and he came home, you know,
to share with y'all more about, you know, what it's
like being a man of color within the you know,
the teaching section of where we're at, you know, up

(56:40):
here in Seattle and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
Shoot, a lot of a lot of work to do
from people of color. There's still a lot of work
to do for students of color. But uh, you know,
if we can get some young educators into the system, man,
we can really start to make some good, big, impactful changes.
So I appreciate you man, thanks for having me on. Bro.
I love good dude.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
Well, shoot, well, hopefully this ain't the last time y'all
gonna see them. Next time, it probably ain't gonna be
about teaching. It probably wall topic.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
You know.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
I just thought that, you know, this this one is
like he I think, I don't know many teachers of
color up here compared to like down South. When I
was growing up, most of all my teachers was you know,
people of color, like, you know, black or sure. I
don't know if I had a little team. I don't

(57:36):
even know if I had any other color. I think
it was just black and white, you know. But the
section of town I was in, it was, you know,
mostly black. So to come up here is like a
total reversal than what I grew up with, you know.
And you know, for him to be a teacher of
color to me, I thought that was pretty awesome, you know,

(57:58):
because you don't just see them every day up here.
And then he's a man at that, you know, out
here helping kids, and he's from the Bay Area. You know,
he has got some kids and parents, you know.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
You know, I'm not I'm not for the Bay, man,
I'm not from the Day.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Wait where are you from, Mike?

Speaker 3 (58:22):
I'm right here, Washington.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Man, what I thought you were from the Bay this
whole time? Why don't you tell me I sent you
from the Bay?

Speaker 3 (58:30):
I was because you do as the San Francisco fan.
So I was like, okay, he's clouding now. Then I'm
not the Day bro. Washington went through. Man, I've been
here pretty much my whole life.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Man, Like wait, wait a minute, wait.

Speaker 3 (58:47):
Spoken to Olympia Aberdeen, Tacoma. Uh, camp in between you stay.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Well, that's a whole different Now, that's a whole different episode.
We're gonna have to talk about that, you know, because
now I'm really confused as to why he's a forty
nine er fan and he was born and raised up
here in Washington and see Seahawks Land. You know, Man,
get into it, get arrested for worrying that that forty
nine stuff up here.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
I can tell you a lot of some fun times. Man,
Let's get into it. Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
You know, too much of your time.

Speaker 6 (59:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
I just gotta say thank you for coming on again.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Man, is there anything you want the people to know?
You know, any shoutouts? You want to do? Anything you
have coming up? You know what's what's next for Mike? Man?

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Shout out to all the educators out there. Man, keep
your heads up. You're not alone. Uh. It's it's a
definitely a thankless job. But do it for the heart,
do it for the love. I appreciate you having me
on here.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Next thing coming up is just number four, the end
of the Severn.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Just more thing you know while we're on here. I
forgot to say again congratulations, because you know Mike got
a house, you know, and he got you know, he
got he doing big things out there. He's saving on gas.
I can tell you that. Uh. You know, anytime anybody

(01:00:29):
doing anything cool, you gotta sometimes give them their props.
And like I told y'all before, you ain't gotta be
a celebrity to have a dope story, you know. Looking
Mike for example, he out here changing people lives and
helping people. But then a lot of people won't probably
ever know what he do, you know, unless you know

(01:00:50):
on and you know how he get down. So Mike,
once again, thank you. Is there any other shoutouts you
want to do?

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
You know, it's good glory to God. Man, God, he's good.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
He doesn't yeah, you know, and he got four kids coming,
you know next year probably you know he's gonna be
on this fifth. You know, he tried to start in five.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
He tried to huh white, you put that on me, man, God,
shout out, shout out to front of the bottom. I
appreciate y'all, just me an cow man, all of appreciate
your big dog.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Oh no, it was all on you, you know, this,
this whole thing, this probably like it. Even when I
used to do it back in the day, I learned
that this is bigger than me. You know, this stuff
is way bigger than me. It is way bigger than
me and my co host. Uh, I don't know. It
just sometimes people have a dope story, you know, sometimes

(01:01:54):
they shoot. They just need to get it out there.
So I don't mind learning and listening to people and
learn more about them and shoot. Sometimes the best way
to do that is shoot. They have a podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
Hey, that's it, that's real. So you got that Spoken
who fested on Man many many years playing, and those
I got me a couple of Spoken who fast championships
out of Death the Belt, you know, other boys without there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Oh yeah, well okay, now now you're taking it there Now,
I ain't getting none of championship now. I ain't gonna yeah,
you know, there was some alone with a lot of
hot days over there, you know, but uh, shoot, I'm
gonna have to say that for another episode.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
Shure don't beyond Girl Beyond here.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Yeah, man, thank you again for coming on. You know,
don't forget to like and subscribe and leave a review.
All our old episodes are still up on all major platforms.
You know, you can always go back and listen to him,
and uh, one thing I would say, Mike is that's
what I used to always tell people, is you know,

(01:03:03):
by you doing this, like your voice's gonna forever be around,
you know, because this is probably gonna be around long
after week gone, you know, so your kids be able
to see this stuff. You know, they want to see, like, man,

(01:03:25):
what was Dad talking about? Just like you know, we
had certain guests who you know transition you know, since
they've been on since we used to do it back
in the day. But even now, you know, we can
still go back and listen to like what people said
they wanted to do in the future, and you can

(01:03:45):
see if they did it or not. You know, so good,
you know, I never, uh we know, never realized you know,
how important it was sometimes to just do this stuff.
But then they did hit us that man, shoot, you're
gonna always be around just because of it's stuff right here,

(01:04:06):
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
That.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Yeah, you know, so they don't forget to go back
and you can listen to all our old episodes if
you want to catch up on anything. You can even
go back and see what we used to talk about
back then, because you know right now. Like I said,
it's way easier to do podcasts than when we did
it back in the day. And uh, like we always say,

(01:04:32):
Cayl and J every day, come and we out. Thank
you again, Mike