January 22, 2024 • 22 mins
Here are two new twists...firstly, I'm the one getting interviewed on this episode, and secondly, it's my wife asking the questions!
Yes, I invited Sheryl to turn the mic on me after I was inspired to do so when my guest from episode 88 said she was curious about why I got into teaching. That was Marika Cullis-Suzuki so be sure to check that episode out.
This episode is a bit of an experiment. I hypothesize that behind every great podcaster is an even greater spouse. I'd love to do this sort of episode regularly. I'm not oblivious to the fact that there have been many times when I thought I was saying something intelligent, only to have Sheryl shed so much more light on it! I guess we all need someone in our lives to point out that we don't know it all.
Please connect with me to let me know if you want Sheryl to come on with me regularly. You can email me and give me some feedback on this:
astrostephenson11@gmail.com
As usual, please rate, review and subscribe on Apple or Spotify to help with the algorithms.
Yes, I invited Sheryl to turn the mic on me after I was inspired to do so when my guest from episode 88 said she was curious about why I got into teaching. That was Marika Cullis-Suzuki so be sure to check that episode out.
This episode is a bit of an experiment. I hypothesize that behind every great podcaster is an even greater spouse. I'd love to do this sort of episode regularly. I'm not oblivious to the fact that there have been many times when I thought I was saying something intelligent, only to have Sheryl shed so much more light on it! I guess we all need someone in our lives to point out that we don't know it all.
Please connect with me to let me know if you want Sheryl to come on with me regularly. You can email me and give me some feedback on this:
astrostephenson11@gmail.com
As usual, please rate, review and subscribe on Apple or Spotify to help with the algorithms.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm so curious why you became aneducator. Uh yeah, well, I
mean why I got into it andwhy I do what I do today are
two different things. But when Ifirst got my science degree Drea in biology
and chemistry, I always like totell the story about how we were studying
for an exam at university. Abunch of us got together in a classroom
(00:25):
and somebody was explaining something on theboard. I can't remember what it was,
and I said, wait, wait, wait here, let me get
up there and do that. AndI said, I think more, it's
clear if you just do this,this, and this. There was one
fellow in the group with us.His name was Dominic Kelly. He was
the old guy. He was likethirty five years old. He was the
old guy. We're all about twentyancient. Yeah, And he said,
(00:47):
you know, you ought to bea teacher, and I said, really,
huh. I never thought of that. And that really stuck with me.
And I'll always credit Dominic Kelly forbeing my original inspiration. Welcome back
to this episode of Science three sixty. This is Tim Stevenson. You're a
(01:07):
host, and on this episode Ihave my wife, Cheryl. She's come
on to join me and follow upto that question that Marika Cullis Suzuki asked
me in episode eighty eight, whichwas what got you into teaching and what's
your motivation behind what you do?So a little less talk about science and
(01:30):
a lot more to talk about beinga teacher. This podcast is a proud
member of the Teach Better podcast Network, Better Today, Better Tomorrow, and
the Podcast to Get You There.Explore more podcasts at www dot Teach Better
Podcastnetwork dot com. Now let's getonto the episode thank you for a long
(01:57):
time. You are to go toschool, and I like, I kind
of know some of the reasons asto why, But why don't you just
share? Why are you excited aboutgoing to school every day? Or most
days? Maybe not every day,but I would I would say most days,
you're pretty excited to go to school, and I think your students can
(02:20):
see that. So what are thingsthat get you excited? Well, generally
speaking, the reason I look forwardto getting to school is because I've I've
probably recently learned something that I'm excitedto share with the students. Generally speaking,
when I when I come across aninteresting article or video, or I
read something, or I see somethingsomewhere that I think relates to what I'm
(02:45):
trying to get across to my students. I'm excited to get there and tell
them what I've learned. So howdo you How do you find these articles
and different tidbits of information that causeyou to want to share? I don't
even really know. I come acrosssome on various platforms, and I don't
(03:06):
always necessarily go looking for them.I guess when you do what I've been
doing for as long as I havebeen, it seems like your AI gets
to know you, and Google feedsme articles on the regular. So does
YouTube feeds me videos that it thinksI'm going to be interested in. My
Instagram algorithm feeds me videos that,you know, some of my favorite astronomers.
(03:31):
And so I think in a worldthat we live in where there's so
many bits and pieces of technology thatare kind of listening to us and they
know what our search history is,these things kind of come your way.
I don't know. Maybe it's justgood honest living. Maybe maybe, But
(03:51):
I mean, we haven't always hadtechnology, and I feel like your basic
teaching philosophy hasn't really changed changed.Maybe how you come across things has changed,
or correct me if I wrong.Maybe it has changed, but I
feel like it hasn't changed. Soyou know, you didn't always have AI
to help you out. No,so what I initially that you hit the
(04:16):
nail on the head because, onthe one hand, I haven't changed my
teaching philosophy right from the word go. I believe that teaching should be a
certain way, and without a doubt, the thing that drove my teaching was
it's supposed to be for the students. Would I would sub a lot,
(04:38):
I would be on the TOC listback in those days we call the sub
list. But then I still remembersomebody said I have not an underwater marine
vessel. I thought, okay,sorry, I mean teacher on call.
You're not a submarine. Okay,I get it. But you'd hear from
various people how so and so didn'tleave me a lesson plan. What was
(05:00):
I supposed to do? I wascaught off guard, and I always thought,
no, those are the best moments. I loved that because to me,
it was a blank slate. Iwould look at these students and think,
well, I've had a minimum offive years of university, I've got
some knowledge of science. I've gotsome knowledge of math, for Pete's sake.
(05:25):
I've got knowledge of probably a lotof different things. I've watched the
news, I've voted in elections,you know, I've seen things happen over
the years, and now I've gota platform to teach them. And many
times i'd go into those classrooms backin the nineties and I'd say, well,
you guys, what do you wantto learn? Like this is something
you've been talking about? Is theresomething? And if I didn't get anything
(05:46):
kind of obvious in response, I'dsay, well, you know what you're
gonna find really interesting? This isreally interesting. And I would just go
and where would I come up withthese things? Honestly, it's out of
the creative imagination. It's it's fromnot being inhibited. It's it's from not
thinking, oh, they'll probably thinkthis is dumb. It's like, no,
(06:06):
this is interesting. I guess Iwould go into this preconceived notion that
you're going to find this interesting.I guess it was a positive outlook,
you know, thinking, positive powerof positive thinking, I suppose. But
that's how I would always teach.It's what do the students want to learn,
not what do I want to teachthem is what do you want to
learn? And as it evolved,it's become what do I think they should
(06:30):
know? In addition to what dothey want to know? But what do
I think they should know? Ifthey're moving into the twenty twenties and twenty
thirties and twenty forties, what shouldthey know that will benefit them as they
become adults? And I've had tolearn how to discern that over the years.
So what does a what would asuccessful lesson or class look like?
(06:57):
For you? Almost always all Iguess I could equate it to an old
uh, you know, the JohnnyCarson or whoever the late night show host
would they'd come on and do alittle opening preamble, like a sort of
a monologue on various current events.And to be honest, I've often thought
that my classes start that way.I get up and I say, okay,
(07:20):
everybody, you know, welcome here, glad you hear, how's it
been going? Well? How wasyour weekend? Those are opening preliminaries,
And then I would get going onsomething that I've seen or heard, and
no question, as a teacher,you're you know, you're going to be
a lot better off if you're payingattention to the news, if you're paying
attention to what's going on in yourspecific subject area. And so I do
(07:45):
those things, and then I've alwayssort of got something to go with.
It's like I've got my my myopening monologue, my preamble is sort of
ready to go, and and it'snot box, it's it's it's kind of
there. But look, I'm notinhibited. I'm not thinking to myself,
oh, maybe I shouldn't, orI wonder, or I wonder if I
should. I just do. AndI think the students have benefited from that
(08:11):
because I bring them all kinds ofdifferent topics that they probably wouldn't have got
otherwise. I'm just willing to thatexpression. I heard our son Cody say
the other day something about start beforeyou're ready. So I'm not looking for
a perfect scenario or a perfect lesson. I'm just willing to engage the students
(08:33):
in conversation. And that's how Istart class almost all the time. And
you know what's funny about that issometimes I'll think to myself, oh,
that was good, I gotta rememberthat one, and then the next class
rolls in. Maybe it's the samesubject area and something else comes up,
and it could be something that somebodyhas said. It may be slightly influenced
by what I had done in theprevious hour, but not always. These
(08:58):
things just sort of pop into myhead. But you to allow them to
pop into your head, and yougot to believe that you're capable of these
things popping into your head. Sohow do how do you find as students
respond, do you ever get anykind of pushback from that? Or or
how are they You know, atthe moment, the response is neutral to
(09:22):
good, okay, It's never negative, okay. But what I find is
is the number of times years laterwhen I hear a student come back and
they're visiting, or they'll send mea note and they'll say things, you
know, like I always really enjoyedthose random things. I remember one girl
wrote me a note at the endof the year and she said, one
(09:45):
of the things I loved about yourclass was the random stuff. I like
the random stuff. What do youmean by the random stuff? But then
I think, oh, I knowwhat she's talking about. The random stuff.
Of course, this is the stuffthat it is my responsibility as an
educator. I come in and Ibring random stuff that's what I'm supposed to
do. I'm supposed to educate,and what is that education? It's random
(10:09):
stuff that I've heard. It's myjob. See, back when I was
a student teacher, my sponsored teacher'sname was John Maschak, and I'll never
forget something he said to me,which was teaching is a twenty four hour
a day job for ten months ofthe year. And I thought, I
see that's true. I have tobe eyes and ears open all the time
(10:31):
for stuff. That random stuff thatI think students should know is my professional
discernment to decide what I think theyshould know and what they well, you
know, and so I bring thosethings. So if you're away from class
and you're just I don't know,doing whatever it is you're doing, and
you come across something or you hearsomething, you're always thinking about, is
(10:56):
this something that would be worthwhile toshare with my students? Like literally,
yeah, I'm always thinking that,how can this relate to my classroom?
How can this relate to my students? Yeah, whether it's something in nature,
something you hear on the television,something your wife says to you,
that's probably comes up a lot alot. Yes, yeah, podcasts,
(11:22):
Yeah, you know, like nowthat we're you know, empty nesters,
podcasting has become a major part ofour lives. Not only do I run
this podcast, and I the numberof contacts I've made from the guests I've
had. I mean, these peopleI would never speak with, Marcello Gleiser,
Maria van Vallis, Marika Suzuki.I mean, these are people that
(11:46):
I would never talk to in otherany other situation, but I have.
And so what has happened in theempty nest. Point is going to make
is that you also listen to alot of podcasts. We enjoy people like
Jordan Harbinger, Rich Role. Whoelse do we listen to a lot?
Huberman? Yeah, I have afew that you don't listen to. But
(12:09):
yeah, that's okay. But atthe end of the day, when we're
sitting at the dinner table, wedon't honestly have kids. We don't have
to hurry through dinner and get themoff to practice. I mean, we
did twenty years of that, sobeen there, done that. Yeah,
more than that, yeah, likedance and hockey and all that kind of
stuff. But now we don't.So what do we do. We sit
down at the dinner table and wesay, so, what podcasts did you
(12:30):
listen to today? What were theytalking about? And we discussed the things
we've learned, and a lot ofthat stuff I A'll end up taking to
my class. I think one ofthe most common expressions I say in my
classroom these days is, you know, I was listening to a podcast the
other day and I heard this personsay, or I interviewed this person on
(12:52):
my podcast, and here's what theysaid, and here's how it's influenced me,
and now it's going to influence you. Just the whole mindset of learning
all the time. That's what's kindof fun about the podcast too, is
you would take the time to learnabout something that maybe you wouldn't have if
(13:15):
it wasn't in that kind of aformat. Also, yeah, yeah,
go ahead. I was just tryingto think back of your passion for learning
and kind of where does that comefrom. So, yes, you're paying
attention all the time. But Ithink a common thing with anybody who's been
(13:39):
in your class and you have Iteach at university a little bit, and
you have guest lectured in my classa couple of times, and an overwhelming
response that students have to you isyour passion for whatever it is you happen
to be talking about and to havethat Now, you probably don't have it
(14:01):
maybe every single day for whatever itis you're talking about, but I feel
like you probably have it a lotin more classes than you don't. Is
that something that you can explain orwhatso? You know, are there days
maybe when you don't feel that passion? But is there something that you can
(14:22):
do to kind of stir up thatpassion in yourself? Like a simple thing
for me, for example, I'ma personal trainer. Sometimes if the energy
is low, I'll just start speakinglouder or faster, or start queueing more
or that kind of thing, andit doesn't really change anything, but it
just kind of helps drive up theenergy in the room for the person.
(14:45):
So that's not necessarily passion. Butor is that something you think about when
you're teaching? Does it just happennaturally for you? Because passion it is
definitely a key aspect of your teaching. Well, definitely those teaching points you
learned in teachers college. You know, where are you standing in the room,
(15:07):
proximity, cadence of your voice,tone of your voice, a voice
level, pacing, all those thingsthey teach you in teachers college, and
they're all so important. For example, I rarely teach from the front of
the classroom. If there's an emptydesk in the room, I'll use it.
(15:31):
I have my desk arranged in sortof a circle, so everybody's facing
everybody else around the perimeter of theclassroom, and so I use that middle
area to sit on a stool,kind of like grandpa teachers sitting in the
middle telling stories. But aside fromthose things, though, this idea about
Wow, mister Stevenson, you're sopassionate about I've heard that a lot too,
(15:56):
and I think it comes from twothings. One I've already mentioned,
which is a willingness to let thesituation go, not be inhibited by what
will they think of me? Okay, not to worry about that kind of
thing. I am the adult inthe room. They are kids. They're
(16:18):
not I'm not going to be friendswith them. I mean they're a friendly
of course, but you know whatI mean, yes, and so I'm
doing it for their benefit. Butthen the second thing is the passion is
because I know what I'm competing with, I know what they're I know what
the kids are watching, and theI'll just go into a like I'll watch
(16:44):
a Marvel movie and think, howam I going to compete with that?
I just can't. You know,professional sports, the level of production quality
is just enormous. How am Igoing to compete with that kind of thing?
And but then I think also ofwhat about some of my favorite teachers
(17:07):
that I've had over the years,and what about the people who I continue
to learn from as an astronomy teacher, I got my favorites like Brian Cox
and Brian Green and Alex Philip Penco, and these guys are great, great
teachers, and I see how theydeliver the material. They're not monotone,
They're not They change their pace.They have these certain inflections in their voice
(17:33):
that that work and I and Icopy them. Honestly, I'm I'm the
product of a multitude of inputs.I listen to others and I amalgamate within
my own presentation style the things thatI think are the positive qualities that are
(17:55):
effective. And and I do itbecause I know I'm teaching teenagers. If
I'm dull, I'm going to losethem. Because look what the movies have
to do to hang on to theirattention. I can't do that, but
I can be excited about what Ilearned, and I can make them leave
(18:15):
thinking, you know what, learning'snot that bad, that was kind of
cool. What we learned today actuallythat kind of thing. So it seems
like you're saying you actually use techniquesin practice and you think about how you're
delivering it, but at the sametime, you actually are excited about what
you're teaching because you've been learning somethingnew and that news that kind of bubbles
(18:40):
up in you. Right, Thatexcitement for learning is something that they can
see and sense, and I thinkthat comes across for you as well.
So both of those things, Yeah, both of those things. I am
generally excited about a lot of thingsthat I teach because I find them quite
interesting. But I also I alsodo have a style of presentation that I've
(19:07):
worked on over the years. Withouta doubt, I've I've crafted a particular
style for the sake of the student'sengagement. Yeah. Okay, So,
if if there's a new teacher whowanted to be more passionate in their teaching,
(19:30):
what what's one piece of advice thatyou would give them. It's hard
to boil it down to this onebut I guess. I guess, like
like Aladdin said to who's the guy, who's the prince? That was Aladdin?
Oh yeah, okay, the genieOkay, who is the prince?
(19:52):
That was? Okay? No,no, what did the genies say to
the prince Aladdin? He said,be yourself? Right, yep, he
did. You just got to beyourself. Don't try to be something you're
not. Allow yourself to be excitedand passionate and vulnerable. Allow that to
(20:18):
happen, and let yourself come through. Picture yourself on a Friday night at
the cag you know, having dinnerwith friends, like the commercials. Yeah,
like the commercials, you know,smiling and having fun. And bring
an aspect of that into your classroom. Maybe don't bring the glass of beer,
(20:41):
but bring the kind of the enjoymentof the moment that you experienced when
you're with friends on the weekend andbring it into your classroom. I like
that. And just be yourself.I like that. Yeah, And I
can I add on a little bitof something that I I've learned from you
over the years. So I teacha little bit at UFE and Trinity Western,
(21:04):
usually one or two classes a year, kind of thing, simple thing.
I find the more I know mysubject area and the more prepared I
am, the more confident I amand what I'm teaching as well. So,
especially for myself being sessional, Idon't always get to repeat the same
course or maybe I haven't taught itfor three years and then they asked me
(21:26):
to teach it again. But ifI know my material well, then that
obviously helps me to speak more confidentlyabout it. But at the same time,
if you don't know something, wehave all these tools that we can
get our students to use now tohelp us, which is pretty cool.
But yeah, well this is fun. Okay, yeah, do you find
(21:52):
it fun? I think it wasfun. We have our doggie snuggling here
with us, and yeah, allright, well there's a little bit about
Astro Stevenson, the voice behind Sciencethree sixty. Do you think we should
do this again sometime? I wouldlove to If you think we should do
this again, maybe maybe reach outto me on Astro Stevenson eleven at gmail
(22:18):
dot com and let me know ifyou want to hear another conversation between myself
and my wife, missus Cheryl Stevenson, and we'll do so. But thanks
for listening cool cool, okay choo,
I'm so curious why you became aneducator. Uh yeah, well, I
mean why I got into it andwhy I do what I do today are
two different things. But when Ifirst got my science degree Drea in biology
and chemistry, I always like totell the story about how we were studying
for an exam at university. Abunch of us got together in a classroom
(00:25):
and somebody was explaining something on theboard. I can't remember what it was,
and I said, wait, wait, wait here, let me get
up there and do that. AndI said, I think more, it's
clear if you just do this,this, and this. There was one
fellow in the group with us.His name was Dominic Kelly. He was
the old guy. He was likethirty five years old. He was the
old guy. We're all about twentyancient. Yeah, And he said,
(00:47):
you know, you ought to bea teacher, and I said, really,
huh. I never thought of that. And that really stuck with me.
And I'll always credit Dominic Kelly forbeing my original inspiration. Welcome back
to this episode of Science three sixty. This is Tim Stevenson. You're a
(01:07):
host, and on this episode Ihave my wife, Cheryl. She's come
on to join me and follow upto that question that Marika Cullis Suzuki asked
me in episode eighty eight, whichwas what got you into teaching and what's
your motivation behind what you do?So a little less talk about science and
(01:30):
a lot more to talk about beinga teacher. This podcast is a proud
member of the Teach Better podcast Network, Better Today, Better Tomorrow, and
the Podcast to Get You There.Explore more podcasts at www dot Teach Better
Podcastnetwork dot com. Now let's getonto the episode thank you for a long
(01:57):
time. You are to go toschool, and I like, I kind
of know some of the reasons asto why, But why don't you just
share? Why are you excited aboutgoing to school every day? Or most
days? Maybe not every day,but I would I would say most days,
you're pretty excited to go to school, and I think your students can
(02:20):
see that. So what are thingsthat get you excited? Well, generally
speaking, the reason I look forwardto getting to school is because I've I've
probably recently learned something that I'm excitedto share with the students. Generally speaking,
when I when I come across aninteresting article or video, or I
read something, or I see somethingsomewhere that I think relates to what I'm
(02:45):
trying to get across to my students. I'm excited to get there and tell
them what I've learned. So howdo you How do you find these articles
and different tidbits of information that causeyou to want to share? I don't
even really know. I come acrosssome on various platforms, and I don't
(03:06):
always necessarily go looking for them.I guess when you do what I've been
doing for as long as I havebeen, it seems like your AI gets
to know you, and Google feedsme articles on the regular. So does
YouTube feeds me videos that it thinksI'm going to be interested in. My
Instagram algorithm feeds me videos that,you know, some of my favorite astronomers.
(03:31):
And so I think in a worldthat we live in where there's so
many bits and pieces of technology thatare kind of listening to us and they
know what our search history is,these things kind of come your way.
I don't know. Maybe it's justgood honest living. Maybe maybe, But
(03:51):
I mean, we haven't always hadtechnology, and I feel like your basic
teaching philosophy hasn't really changed changed.Maybe how you come across things has changed,
or correct me if I wrong.Maybe it has changed, but I
feel like it hasn't changed. Soyou know, you didn't always have AI
to help you out. No,so what I initially that you hit the
(04:16):
nail on the head because, onthe one hand, I haven't changed my
teaching philosophy right from the word go. I believe that teaching should be a
certain way, and without a doubt, the thing that drove my teaching was
it's supposed to be for the students. Would I would sub a lot,
(04:38):
I would be on the TOC listback in those days we call the sub
list. But then I still remembersomebody said I have not an underwater marine
vessel. I thought, okay,sorry, I mean teacher on call.
You're not a submarine. Okay,I get it. But you'd hear from
various people how so and so didn'tleave me a lesson plan. What was
(05:00):
I supposed to do? I wascaught off guard, and I always thought,
no, those are the best moments. I loved that because to me,
it was a blank slate. Iwould look at these students and think,
well, I've had a minimum offive years of university, I've got
some knowledge of science. I've gotsome knowledge of math, for Pete's sake.
(05:25):
I've got knowledge of probably a lotof different things. I've watched the
news, I've voted in elections,you know, I've seen things happen over
the years, and now I've gota platform to teach them. And many
times i'd go into those classrooms backin the nineties and I'd say, well,
you guys, what do you wantto learn? Like this is something
you've been talking about? Is theresomething? And if I didn't get anything
(05:46):
kind of obvious in response, I'dsay, well, you know what you're
gonna find really interesting? This isreally interesting. And I would just go
and where would I come up withthese things? Honestly, it's out of
the creative imagination. It's it's fromnot being inhibited. It's it's from not
thinking, oh, they'll probably thinkthis is dumb. It's like, no,
(06:06):
this is interesting. I guess Iwould go into this preconceived notion that
you're going to find this interesting.I guess it was a positive outlook,
you know, thinking, positive powerof positive thinking, I suppose. But
that's how I would always teach.It's what do the students want to learn,
not what do I want to teachthem is what do you want to
learn? And as it evolved,it's become what do I think they should
(06:30):
know? In addition to what dothey want to know? But what do
I think they should know? Ifthey're moving into the twenty twenties and twenty
thirties and twenty forties, what shouldthey know that will benefit them as they
become adults? And I've had tolearn how to discern that over the years.
So what does a what would asuccessful lesson or class look like?
(06:57):
For you? Almost always all Iguess I could equate it to an old
uh, you know, the JohnnyCarson or whoever the late night show host
would they'd come on and do alittle opening preamble, like a sort of
a monologue on various current events.And to be honest, I've often thought
that my classes start that way.I get up and I say, okay,
(07:20):
everybody, you know, welcome here, glad you hear, how's it
been going? Well? How wasyour weekend? Those are opening preliminaries,
And then I would get going onsomething that I've seen or heard, and
no question, as a teacher,you're you know, you're going to be
a lot better off if you're payingattention to the news, if you're paying
attention to what's going on in yourspecific subject area. And so I do
(07:45):
those things, and then I've alwayssort of got something to go with.
It's like I've got my my myopening monologue, my preamble is sort of
ready to go, and and it'snot box, it's it's it's kind of
there. But look, I'm notinhibited. I'm not thinking to myself,
oh, maybe I shouldn't, orI wonder, or I wonder if I
should. I just do. AndI think the students have benefited from that
(08:11):
because I bring them all kinds ofdifferent topics that they probably wouldn't have got
otherwise. I'm just willing to thatexpression. I heard our son Cody say
the other day something about start beforeyou're ready. So I'm not looking for
a perfect scenario or a perfect lesson. I'm just willing to engage the students
(08:33):
in conversation. And that's how Istart class almost all the time. And
you know what's funny about that issometimes I'll think to myself, oh,
that was good, I gotta rememberthat one, and then the next class
rolls in. Maybe it's the samesubject area and something else comes up,
and it could be something that somebodyhas said. It may be slightly influenced
by what I had done in theprevious hour, but not always. These
(08:58):
things just sort of pop into myhead. But you to allow them to
pop into your head, and yougot to believe that you're capable of these
things popping into your head. Sohow do how do you find as students
respond, do you ever get anykind of pushback from that? Or or
how are they You know, atthe moment, the response is neutral to
(09:22):
good, okay, It's never negative, okay. But what I find is
is the number of times years laterwhen I hear a student come back and
they're visiting, or they'll send mea note and they'll say things, you
know, like I always really enjoyedthose random things. I remember one girl
wrote me a note at the endof the year and she said, one
(09:45):
of the things I loved about yourclass was the random stuff. I like
the random stuff. What do youmean by the random stuff? But then
I think, oh, I knowwhat she's talking about. The random stuff.
Of course, this is the stuffthat it is my responsibility as an
educator. I come in and Ibring random stuff that's what I'm supposed to
do. I'm supposed to educate,and what is that education? It's random
(10:09):
stuff that I've heard. It's myjob. See, back when I was
a student teacher, my sponsored teacher'sname was John Maschak, and I'll never
forget something he said to me,which was teaching is a twenty four hour
a day job for ten months ofthe year. And I thought, I
see that's true. I have tobe eyes and ears open all the time
(10:31):
for stuff. That random stuff thatI think students should know is my professional
discernment to decide what I think theyshould know and what they well, you
know, and so I bring thosethings. So if you're away from class
and you're just I don't know,doing whatever it is you're doing, and
you come across something or you hearsomething, you're always thinking about, is
(10:56):
this something that would be worthwhile toshare with my students? Like literally,
yeah, I'm always thinking that,how can this relate to my classroom?
How can this relate to my students? Yeah, whether it's something in nature,
something you hear on the television,something your wife says to you,
that's probably comes up a lot alot. Yes, yeah, podcasts,
(11:22):
Yeah, you know, like nowthat we're you know, empty nesters,
podcasting has become a major part ofour lives. Not only do I run
this podcast, and I the numberof contacts I've made from the guests I've
had. I mean, these peopleI would never speak with, Marcello Gleiser,
Maria van Vallis, Marika Suzuki.I mean, these are people that
(11:46):
I would never talk to in otherany other situation, but I have.
And so what has happened in theempty nest. Point is going to make
is that you also listen to alot of podcasts. We enjoy people like
Jordan Harbinger, Rich Role. Whoelse do we listen to a lot?
Huberman? Yeah, I have afew that you don't listen to. But
(12:09):
yeah, that's okay. But atthe end of the day, when we're
sitting at the dinner table, wedon't honestly have kids. We don't have
to hurry through dinner and get themoff to practice. I mean, we
did twenty years of that, sobeen there, done that. Yeah,
more than that, yeah, likedance and hockey and all that kind of
stuff. But now we don't.So what do we do. We sit
down at the dinner table and wesay, so, what podcasts did you
(12:30):
listen to today? What were theytalking about? And we discussed the things
we've learned, and a lot ofthat stuff I A'll end up taking to
my class. I think one ofthe most common expressions I say in my
classroom these days is, you know, I was listening to a podcast the
other day and I heard this personsay, or I interviewed this person on
(12:52):
my podcast, and here's what theysaid, and here's how it's influenced me,
and now it's going to influence you. Just the whole mindset of learning
all the time. That's what's kindof fun about the podcast too, is
you would take the time to learnabout something that maybe you wouldn't have if
(13:15):
it wasn't in that kind of aformat. Also, yeah, yeah,
go ahead. I was just tryingto think back of your passion for learning
and kind of where does that comefrom. So, yes, you're paying
attention all the time. But Ithink a common thing with anybody who's been
(13:39):
in your class and you have Iteach at university a little bit, and
you have guest lectured in my classa couple of times, and an overwhelming
response that students have to you isyour passion for whatever it is you happen
to be talking about and to havethat Now, you probably don't have it
(14:01):
maybe every single day for whatever itis you're talking about, but I feel
like you probably have it a lotin more classes than you don't. Is
that something that you can explain orwhatso? You know, are there days
maybe when you don't feel that passion? But is there something that you can
(14:22):
do to kind of stir up thatpassion in yourself? Like a simple thing
for me, for example, I'ma personal trainer. Sometimes if the energy
is low, I'll just start speakinglouder or faster, or start queueing more
or that kind of thing, andit doesn't really change anything, but it
just kind of helps drive up theenergy in the room for the person.
(14:45):
So that's not necessarily passion. Butor is that something you think about when
you're teaching? Does it just happennaturally for you? Because passion it is
definitely a key aspect of your teaching. Well, definitely those teaching points you
learned in teachers college. You know, where are you standing in the room,
(15:07):
proximity, cadence of your voice,tone of your voice, a voice
level, pacing, all those thingsthey teach you in teachers college, and
they're all so important. For example, I rarely teach from the front of
the classroom. If there's an emptydesk in the room, I'll use it.
(15:31):
I have my desk arranged in sortof a circle, so everybody's facing
everybody else around the perimeter of theclassroom, and so I use that middle
area to sit on a stool,kind of like grandpa teachers sitting in the
middle telling stories. But aside fromthose things, though, this idea about
Wow, mister Stevenson, you're sopassionate about I've heard that a lot too,
(15:56):
and I think it comes from twothings. One I've already mentioned,
which is a willingness to let thesituation go, not be inhibited by what
will they think of me? Okay, not to worry about that kind of
thing. I am the adult inthe room. They are kids. They're
(16:18):
not I'm not going to be friendswith them. I mean they're a friendly
of course, but you know whatI mean, yes, and so I'm
doing it for their benefit. Butthen the second thing is the passion is
because I know what I'm competing with, I know what they're I know what
the kids are watching, and theI'll just go into a like I'll watch
(16:44):
a Marvel movie and think, howam I going to compete with that?
I just can't. You know,professional sports, the level of production quality
is just enormous. How am Igoing to compete with that kind of thing?
And but then I think also ofwhat about some of my favorite teachers
(17:07):
that I've had over the years,and what about the people who I continue
to learn from as an astronomy teacher, I got my favorites like Brian Cox
and Brian Green and Alex Philip Penco, and these guys are great, great
teachers, and I see how theydeliver the material. They're not monotone,
They're not They change their pace.They have these certain inflections in their voice
(17:33):
that that work and I and Icopy them. Honestly, I'm I'm the
product of a multitude of inputs.I listen to others and I amalgamate within
my own presentation style the things thatI think are the positive qualities that are
(17:55):
effective. And and I do itbecause I know I'm teaching teenagers. If
I'm dull, I'm going to losethem. Because look what the movies have
to do to hang on to theirattention. I can't do that, but
I can be excited about what Ilearned, and I can make them leave
(18:15):
thinking, you know what, learning'snot that bad, that was kind of
cool. What we learned today actuallythat kind of thing. So it seems
like you're saying you actually use techniquesin practice and you think about how you're
delivering it, but at the sametime, you actually are excited about what
you're teaching because you've been learning somethingnew and that news that kind of bubbles
(18:40):
up in you. Right, Thatexcitement for learning is something that they can
see and sense, and I thinkthat comes across for you as well.
So both of those things, Yeah, both of those things. I am
generally excited about a lot of thingsthat I teach because I find them quite
interesting. But I also I alsodo have a style of presentation that I've
(19:07):
worked on over the years. Withouta doubt, I've I've crafted a particular
style for the sake of the student'sengagement. Yeah. Okay, So,
if if there's a new teacher whowanted to be more passionate in their teaching,
(19:30):
what what's one piece of advice thatyou would give them. It's hard
to boil it down to this onebut I guess. I guess, like
like Aladdin said to who's the guy, who's the prince? That was Aladdin?
Oh yeah, okay, the genieOkay, who is the prince?
(19:52):
That was? Okay? No,no, what did the genies say to
the prince Aladdin? He said,be yourself? Right, yep, he
did. You just got to beyourself. Don't try to be something you're
not. Allow yourself to be excitedand passionate and vulnerable. Allow that to
(20:18):
happen, and let yourself come through. Picture yourself on a Friday night at
the cag you know, having dinnerwith friends, like the commercials. Yeah,
like the commercials, you know,smiling and having fun. And bring
an aspect of that into your classroom. Maybe don't bring the glass of beer,
(20:41):
but bring the kind of the enjoymentof the moment that you experienced when
you're with friends on the weekend andbring it into your classroom. I like
that. And just be yourself.I like that. Yeah, And I
can I add on a little bitof something that I I've learned from you
over the years. So I teacha little bit at UFE and Trinity Western,
(21:04):
usually one or two classes a year, kind of thing, simple thing.
I find the more I know mysubject area and the more prepared I
am, the more confident I amand what I'm teaching as well. So,
especially for myself being sessional, Idon't always get to repeat the same
course or maybe I haven't taught itfor three years and then they asked me
(21:26):
to teach it again. But ifI know my material well, then that
obviously helps me to speak more confidentlyabout it. But at the same time,
if you don't know something, wehave all these tools that we can
get our students to use now tohelp us, which is pretty cool.
But yeah, well this is fun. Okay, yeah, do you find
(21:52):
it fun? I think it wasfun. We have our doggie snuggling here
with us, and yeah, allright, well there's a little bit about
Astro Stevenson, the voice behind Sciencethree sixty. Do you think we should
do this again sometime? I wouldlove to If you think we should do
this again, maybe maybe reach outto me on Astro Stevenson eleven at gmail
(22:18):
dot com and let me know ifyou want to hear another conversation between myself
and my wife, missus Cheryl Stevenson, and we'll do so. But thanks
for listening cool cool, okay choo,
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