This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker, and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,
educated educators talking education.
Oh, welcome back to Busted Pencils.
It's Monday.
It's the beginning of a week.
Nonetheless, it shall be an exciting day and an exciting week,
I'm sure.
Just how are you doing tonight?
I am doing great.
I got some regulating in over the weekend, went to the Wisconsin State Fair,
had a great time.
How are you doing, Johnny?
I mean, I'm doing good.
It's, you know, I'm back fully into the classroom.
So we're going to talk about that tonight because I can't be one of the only
educated educators out there back to school.
And I think that's on the minds of lots of probably our listeners.
I'm sure you have a family member or you yourself gearing up to get back
into the classroom, either as a student or as a teacher,
and some capacity, maybe as a school leader.
But it's that time of year.
So I mean, I'm ready to kick it off here.
Busted Pencils fully-ledded education talk,
educated educators talking education, just on the boards.
And I'm Dr. Johnny Lupinacci here.
Dr. Tim Slecker is winding up his Midwest tour of in-person interviews
and all kinds of great stories on the ground with teachers and some really great
legislators and policymakers, especially up in Michigan,
doing some really good work around finding a balance between
meeting more teachers, addressing the teacher exodus in schools,
but also in making it just a more transparent process for school accountability.
And we'll get into that when Tim is fully back on,
but you know, he's traveling today.
So it's Dr. Johnny Lupinacci here with producer Jess and you,
listen, you listen, oh, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four,
two, if you want to join in the conversation.
But we've got a rocker of a week coming up.
So I'm going to do a little bit about talking about what's coming up,
but also Jess, I want to just chop it up a little bit about.
So what's it like?
What are we thinking about as educators when we're getting back to it?
Who we at?
At August.
It's coming quick.
And to pack those bags going back to school.
Yeah, literally and figuratively, that's for sure.
Yep.
And now it's that time of year where I don't try and avoid the school supply
section of every store, but I'm actually, you know, I'm grazing through
and I'm looking for you.
Oh, yeah.
Now you can get a little excited about.
Ooh, sticky notes.
20% off.
Okay.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
Speaking of excitement.
Yeah.
You know, I get really excited about and it's important because, you know,
I only got to stay hydrated, but you got to stay, you know, drinking the good stuff.
And that, for me, comes from an Aqua Brewing Company.
Oh, yeah.
Plus, it depends on the sponsor by the Mon Aqua Brewing Company.
Their big time supporters of public education.
And they, man, this always cracks me up, Jess.
They even went as far as to sue the state of Wisconsin to end the voucher system.
I mean, they're, they're not, they don't do anything halfway.
Oh, warriors and defenders of public education of democracy over there.
Mon Aqua Brewing Company is making Wisconsin great again.
One beer at a time.
Check out Mon Aqua Brewing Company.com to see where you can buy their progressive beer.
And I'll tell you what, Jess, I'm, I am a little bit of an almost a lot of,
when it comes to social media, but you know, I, I click on it and I look at it
and I try and stay up with it.
It's a, it's, I'm, I'm owning my, yeah, but I'll tell you what I do love.
I do love to look at the Mon Aqua Brewing Company social media stuff.
Oh, yeah.
Because I love seeing their hope billboards.
I love seeing the selfies folks are taken out there of their group of people themselves.
And their friends attending rallies, and I just love the whole logo
that the Mon Aqua Brewing Company has out there with, with Kamala Harris.
And that home beer.
That's a good beer.
It is, it is, it's good stuff.
So anyways, check them out, Mon Aqua Brewing Company.
We love them, their sponsors for busted pencils, but just back to it.
So we're talking about back to school.
Sure are.
And you know, when I started, we, we talked a little bit about this last week.
And of course, we had our theme, 20 lessons from the 20th century, based on Timothy Snyder's
on tyranny.
There we go.
Just my producer and you listeners, no, Dr. Jonathan Lupinacci struggles with Nancy pronouncing
tyranny.
I have to remember tier, like a tear drop from my eye over that, that extreme authoritarianism
that's possible under tyranny.
Not to say tyranny, that's either a tyrant.
Yes, a tyrant tyranny.
There we go.
That's a little less than today that I struggle with, but I got a great tip from just today.
Remember, tear, like cry, like a tear from your eye over the possibility of losing democracy
to tyranny.
Well, we won't.
Well, I won't.
Because one, we're learning all the time how to resist it, how to defend democracy.
But two, because we have energy to exercise our civic duty and do that kind of work.
So we had the 20 lessons from the 20th century last week themed, you know, believe in the
truth.
We're going to come back to that because I think this is an important thing this week,
focusing on truth, talking a little bit about misinformation versus disinformation, but
also just the shift, the turn in the tide.
I finished my school year working with a lot of teachers and I'm going to be honest with
a lot of anxiety around return to school in the fall with the election coming.
And all of the kind of political rhetoric that was that was stewing and brewing right
around the end of the school year.
And you know, a lot of us educators, we had to do a little bit of like just some self-care
, some check around, okay, let's not start spiraling or letting the avalanche of anxiety pile
up now.
Let's, let's gather information.
Let's build solidarity.
Let's talk to experts who do this all the time and let's plan for the fall.
And it shifted a bit.
I will say there's still lots of planning and there's still some anxiety, but it's shifted
a bit because it's turned from anxiety of, oh, no, what's it going to be like to a little
bit more like, okay, we're starting to see what it's going to be like.
And it's kind of exciting.
It's an exciting moment to be a teacher.
So we're going to talk a little bit about that tonight.
Can you believe that it's only been six weeks since the attempt to disassassination?
No, it feels like, like, like, at some moments, Jess, it feels like two days ago and other
moments, it feels like a year ago.
Yeah, yeah, like it's like a year's worth of news, absolutely.
Yeah, so I can't, and I also can't believe that I think it was, yeah, it was just last
week.
We were 90 days out for the presidential election.
Speaking of that, just since we're given dates and talking elections, Wisconsin's fall
primary election is tomorrow, folks, Tuesday, August 13th, find out what's on your ballot
and where to cast it, you can go to myvote.wi.gov, that's myvote.wi.gov.
The polls close at 8 p.m., right, Jess?
Indeed.
And the media, civic media coverage of the results are immediately following that, right,
with news director Terry Bell starting at that same time.
So boom, polls close, Terry Bell, you got it right here, tune into your favorite civic
media station where results from the contested primaries and the two proposed constitutional
amendments.
Big day tomorrow.
Big, big day.
Big day tomorrow.
There's quite a few contested races around the state that are very, very interesting.
There's going to be a lot of democracy in all the action tomorrow.
Please, please, please get out to vote.
If you did not register to vote yet, you can register and vote on the same day in Wisconsin.
So please do so.
Yep.
And it's good old, like, like, folks, listening, you know, I, I, I, I zoom in, now I'm a
former midwesterner, and now I'm, you never lose your status as midwesterner.
You never lose your status.
Well, it just depends on how long you've been there and it's like, it's your home home.
But, you know, I, I spent more of, I spent birth to well into adulthood, and, and now
I'm displaced, a little bit relocated, not forcibly by choice, over to the Pacific Northwest,
inland Pacific Northwest where I get to, you know, prepare teachers and work as a researcher
in education, something I had been building for for some time when I was a teacher in Detroit.
But nonetheless, what I, I digress a bit from saying, I miss voting in person.
I miss going to the polls here and with, I hear in Washington, it's all by mail, right?
It's all by mail ballot, which also has its, its benefits and it has some cons.
And one of the cons is just the tradition.
I miss going to the, I love the lines.
I love the camaraderie.
I love the energy.
It's an event.
But also, you know, I spent many of my voting years in Michigan before I had a family,
before I, you know, it was, oh, it was always difficult to get off work, you know, to get
to the polls on time to deal with long lines.
So I, I don't want to idealize it in many ways, voting by mail is convenient, but sometimes
I wonder because there's something special about going into the ballot box, about going
in there.
Even even in some of the messiest sort of almost protest like settings that I voted in, right?
You got to go into a room and it was you and the ballot and it was, you know, it was
an honor.
It was a responsibility.
It was a duty.
And nobody could, like, there's lots of, I guess, tangent waste to influence votes, but
you learned early and I hope more folks know this, that's your right, that's your vote.
And so sometimes just I do worry, it's fun to vote where I can, like, involve my kids
and say this, but like to bubble it in and see that.
But we share similar politics, you know, I hope that, you know, they have some, I, you
know, I'll provide it when they're at voting age, but you can create the ceremony in your
home and you can make those rituals.
I do love voting day of my dad always starts badgering me.
He's like, did you vote, you know, did you vote, you know, like, no, I like to vote on
election day.
I like the ceremony of it.
I like going in on election day and waiting in the lines and getting my sticker.
That sticker, right?
The sticker.
I know.
And they do keep putting it on my forehead and sending a selfie to my parents.
We do get a sticker.
It's in your ballot package and you do all kinds of stuff to seal it.
And you, like you said, just yes, you can replicate the ritual in your home and your neighborhood.
But then this is the little bit of the pessimistic side of me.
I start to worry that, oh boy, what if you weren't respectful of other people's privacy
and their right to vote as a household, you had kind of, you know, a little bit more
of a heavy hand as we know the dangers and the ills, I mean, our generation is working
really hard to undo this and I have big hope for future generations, but patriarchy and
sort of, you know, ages in that power dynamic is real.
And so, you know, I do sometimes gasp and think, man, that is something I do miss about
in person voting, obviously pros and cons to all these, but nonetheless, we are promoting
that.
And so it's concept primary election tomorrow.
Get out vote.
Um, if you can, if you need to ride context, somebody get, get out and do it.
Hey, this is busted pencils fully let it education talk here at civic media.
Stay tuned.
We're going to talk more back to school.
We're all being insect in your ears.
We're crow.
We're crow.
We're crow.
We're all over you.
We're so, Jesus, see us through our days on precious and so few.
We know we're probably out of control.
But does this guy know that I'm your blue?
I'm maged one-way, bring me to another, overuse.
I'm maged one-way, crow, I'm maged one-way, crow, I'm maged one-way, yeah.
Music
And we are back.
This is the bus to defend this fully-led education talk.
Educated educators talk and education.
This is Dr. Johnny Lupinacci with you tonight.
It's Monday.
We've got an amazing week.
Just producer and I were just talking about it.
You know, emphasizing, hey, it's a primary tomorrow.
That's an action-packed day.
I'm going to tease a little bit too for folks who are listening.
Intune in tomorrow.
We know you tune in every day, but tune in tomorrow.
Special guest, we got rethinking schools.
Episode with educator extraordinaire, Thai Marshall.
It's going to be on talking transgender justice in schools.
An amazing resource for educators.
I would even say for parents, policymakers, and leaders, but especially teachers.
I know I learned a lot.
It came out just this month.
Already going through it, getting ready for my classroom.
And talking about back to school.
That is definitely one of the resources I'm bringing back to school.
With me this fall in the classroom is as transgender justice in schools.
A new publication from rethinking schools.
Great resource for teachers.
And we're going to have educator extraordinaire on tomorrow.
On the show Thai Marshall.
So stay tuned for that.
But Jess, do we have a phone call?
We sure do.
Oh, let's get that phone line open.
We got early time on the lines.
Thomas.
Hey, Johnny, first off.
Well, you know, I didn't miss class on Friday.
I actually was at a food fighter's concert.
And still the busted pencil.
So let's him know that some people don't take a skip school at all.
So just want to get back there.
Right.
And yeah, I just want to continue to push on the fact of what coach Harris and coach Walts are talking about.
You know, which again, I want to try to steer towards policy.
You know, which is strengthening unions and retiring with dignity, building wealth, reach individual person, paid leave, child care, health care for all.
Tax, taxing the billionaire class, rent control, woman's rights to choose, gun safety, LGBTQ plus rights and inclusion for all.
Taking on the corporations, taking on big farmers, taking on big landlords, bringing jobs back to America, fight for freedom.
John Lewis voting rights act, public education.
I mean, these are things that we need to keep on hammering every single day talking about actual policy because.
Absolutely LA time we love the call man and we couldn't agree with you more.
It is so important to get into the into those into contrasting and and putting energy and attention towards the policies of Kamala Harris and the policies and the record of support for those important things like,
like housing, like medical care, like like retirement, social security.
I mean, all of those technically fall under the broad term social security, you know, but the actual social security program, which is so important to aging and to having, you know, our diverse community supported.
And also while we're talking about that, just supporting diversity in the democracy.
Yeah, and the ways that the policies of Kamala Harris and the policies and track record of Tim Walls support that.
So thanks LA Tom for reminding us of that and my guy, I hope you enjoyed the food fighters concert, love that.
I mean, obviously, if listeners aren't familiar, you know, Dave Grohl had, I'd call him frontman for the for the food fighters, just an epic band and an epic drummer turns frontman, right?
Nirvana's drummer turned frontman of a legacy of a band food fighters.
But I'll tell you what one of my favorite things about Dave Grohl is how outspoken he is a supporter of public education and education.
I mean, his mom's a teacher, he talks about it, you know, this is also like Tom Morello, and there's a whole gang of these folks who just remind us, and I love it because we have whole shows on this and we'll have other shows on it.
But especially as we're talking about back to school, the way that Dave Grohl, right, talks about education is a, is a harsh reminder to everyone, both students, teachers, leaders, all the folks who have.
Who participated stakeholders in education that we've got to remember to separate education from schooling schools do a really good job of sorting out quote unquote the educated, you know, from the uneducated and that's big myth.
What they do often is they send a message to young people that hey, you're a terrible student and that that because you're not a good student really because you're not conforming or you're not fitting to the way schooling is too often done that you're not intelligent, that you're not smart, that you're not, you know, creatively brilliant and all kinds of ways or worth the time to be treated well and to learn to treat others well.
This is a huge failure of school systems around the world, but and and our country is also guilty of this schooling, you know, sorts, kids into types and it unfortunately benefits a few at the cost of making so many people feel like they're failures right or like they don't belong.
In the best case, you end up like someone like Dave Crowe who who's who experiences school as a terrible student, but he knows better he's supported in a different way knows a creative genius, he knows he's a smart guy, you know, when he pushes through it, but it's really it's really disheartening to know that for so many people who experienced school listener, maybe you out there experienced school in a way where you kind of if you didn't fit the mold, you know, you kind of got pushed either out or down or.
The left feeling like I guess i'm just not a smart type or the educated type and and for so many i'll even say as far as to all you if that was your experience that that's on schools that's not on you and that's not saying you don't have responsibility for your education it's just that's how powerful schools can be they can really push people down and out and so that's a good reminder as we're getting ready for back to school.
Because we do have to go back to school, but back to education back to day and day out what we can do as educators are students are as people in that process to make.
Schools more about education right less about compliance and more about engagement less about fitting in and more about belonging.
You shouldn't have to change who you are in order to be successful somewhere, especially like schools should be able to belong not have to fit in to get into that little bit like what does that mean to create a space where people belong and feel welcome rather than where they have to fit in to have a learning space that's based on.
Engagement and recognizing and valuing students not on compliance right and i love that's a lot of time we call tonight one of the things he shared just because he said coach come on coach walls i love that calls coach walls and coach looks good i don't know.
Come less background in terms of coaching i don't know that she's been a formal coach i think she's probably a good one i mean she's got a powerful voice she seems like she's in it you know quite a motivating speaker and you know and she's a good leader so i'm sure she'd make a good coach we know them walls is definitely coach i'm biased i'm coach i always love coaching i've always learned a lot from my coaches so that said i love that because.
Because when you think about coaching when you think about what counselors do when you think about that role versus you know being a cop in a classroom compliance versus engagement right the kinds of ways we engage and we're present.
Where young people are really any age people are vulnerable and learning that's an important role so we're going to get into that listen to stay tuned if you kind of join the conversation join us eight five five seven five two four eight four two this is busted pencils play let it education talk stay with us.
I'm failing.
Let's go.
Oh yeah.
That's the pencil full of the education pocket.
We're out of the cannon tonight.
What a break.
We're in the second half of the show.
We love that you're with us listener.
If you want to join the conversation eight five five seven five two four eight four two just some fired up.
Okay busted pencils play let it education talk the music is fully let it.
We are rocking and rolling here tonight on busted pencils.
We're talking about back to school take that energy pile it up package it put it in your backpack put it in your lunch box.
Putting your pencil case bring it to class with you right but that energy we have and just you asked a question in the chat before the break.
And I got on to a whole tangent about you sure.
Rock and all this stuff.
So if you're in the stream you got the bonus we're going to shift gears a little bit back to back to school back to back to school back to back to school.
That's right back to back to school and you asked a great question.
How do you set up a classroom that supports all your students.
Wow that's a million dollar question actually probably a price this question is going to look different everywhere.
And one of the first things we always talk about in education especially as we're about to head back into the classrooms because for us educators there is a little bit of time.
Before the children where I'll say the students whatever age they are are actually back in our classrooms but it's art we've already begun.
Our transition into the classroom and we're preparing sort of the physical and via learning environment right we're setting up a classroom we're preparing we're thinking through.
And one of the often not talked about aspects of that is the important practice and educators amplify beyond Wednesday teacher join and teacher highly teach this and they they do it and they model really well we'll ask them about they'll talk about it.
But it's how we do sort of an inventory of ourselves.
We're asking ourselves how we're doing what are we thinking about what are the things on our hearts and minds as we're preparing to have our students come into the classroom.
That's a really important self reflective practice that good teachers do and that's what we're doing right now if our students aren't back in the classroom yet really thinking and that's that that's a that's a warm up.
So that question Jesse said like how do you set up a classroom that supports all students.
First you got to be ready for that.
Yeah let's set up yourself first right got to set up yourself first almost like we talked about last.
Before we broke for the half hour we talked about coaches so my coaches and athletes out there you know about this you got a stretch right you got a warm up before you jump into that activity.
It's important to remind especially the players we coach or the athletes or maybe you're a leader are you instruct an exercise group.
You know you got to stretch out you got to make sure you're hydrated you got to make sure that you warmed up before you put your body through the sort of physical activity that does this is very similar.
Really make sure you're getting into the practice you're warming up.
It sounds silly vocalists know about this you got to warm up your vocal cords public speakers know about this teachers we don't often talk about it enough but we're in our classroom starting to hear our teacher voice.
It's summer I haven't I haven't had to use my teacher voice much this summer right I haven't had to say out loud well actually have quite a bit.
Yeah some of us parents and teachers know about this but I haven't had to ask like hey what are we supposed to be doing right now.
Hi I got an idea let's let's talk about and shift and you know change and so we get back into that into our teacher voice and I and I say that just it sounds silly I say that because we all have our different words and phrases we use we all do in the classroom.
And one thing that's universal from for all of us every single person out there if you went to school you experienced an overwhelming majority of being told what to do of being spoken to an authoritative tone and sometimes the degrading ways.
And so we're got we're trying to break those habits and that's hard to do when you're stressed and that's hard to do when you rely on that primary socialization or.
Translate that experience that overwhelmingly all of us had I mean I was mostly yelled at schools I'm not here to just say like what was me or victim that's not that's common for a lot of kids.
But that's what your experience yeah and it's not uncommon and it was actually pretty mild compared to other kids and that's not every teacher but it's often enough.
That if we're not checking ourselves and knowing ourselves and hearing ourselves and rehearsing a bit saying hey welcome to the math party I mean that's what I would say my math class.
Welcome to that party that's my that's my lingo that that's my vibe but I had to practice that and hear myself saying that so that it was authentic so that it rolled off the tongues I said it with confidence but not authority.
Yeah I can model humility you want to hype up up you don't want to scare them.
Yeah and I also want to be regulated for them out there's one thing and I taught teenagers and preteens.
I taught the audience for this but but middle school students and high school students have impeccable radar in authenticity.
Oh yes 100% routines and teens have like impeccable radar graders they will still daggers at me if I try to do anything insincere.
I promise you if I walk into a classroom in a couple of weeks and I say I say if I try and like in a false way adopt their lingo right if I say this is sigma this is.
I'm not going to just be like this to you is is is the fakest old man that ever existed so you got to be you but how do you know who you are in an engaging way this is the time of year we are we're practicing it in our classroom speaking of being you.
There it is just tonight's flying by but you know what that bell beans listener every day here on busted pencils fully let it education talk we do democracy in action we sure do we recognize democracy in action somewhere.
This is what today's democracy in action recognition goes out to goes out to all those young people with impeccable radar.
We got to tap into that teachers we got to foster that because last week we talked about the importance of truth and a or democratic value is truth the government nor citizens should not lie like we shouldn't lie.
Don't be honest practice honesty right and one of the things that we're talking about we're talking about get ready for school is be you be real and practice ways of being that in supportive ways of young people so today's democracy in action goes to all those young folks who can detect and call out in authenticity with with with a finger I mean they feel it.
I mean talk about checking a source they can tell instantly and so this is important because we're talking about as the theme this week you know believe in truth so little recap on 20 lessons from the 20th century Timothy Snyder from his snappy pamphlet or book cover you want to kind of categorize that publication on tyranny the 10th lesson that he shares is believe in truth.
He writes to abandon facts is to abandon freedom if nothing is true that no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so if nothing is true then all is a spectacle the biggest wallet unfortunately too often pays for the most blinding lights.
So be aware of the hype don't believe the hype right and be you be real in order to be you and be real as an educator you got to do some self reflecting in some inventory right and say okay if I'm going to work on a classroom that's a space where all my students will feel like they belong I can kind of prepare for that but that means I'm going to be spending a lot of time figuring out who they are yeah we're going to spend a little time as we prepare in our classroom to share.
How will we come together and learn now as the leader of that space right I'm thinking especially about our theme truth and honesty being myself knowing myself and sharing some of those values that I've learned as a professional educator.
Now that's not me saying I'm going to share my values and my my ethics imposed on them that's saying there are some structures that we know are super helpful to all learners and what I'm going to say just for me those are children's rights like the universal declaration has you know I won't come like a subset it's actually called a convention on the right of the child it's a set of articles within the human rights the universal
declaration of human rights that are based in children's rights and I always review those actually reviewing weekly with myself I check in I reflect on my teaching hey am I honoring children's rights and what we're doing in classes week what we're planning on doing and
actively on what we've done this is super important but I also start every class I teach with learning what those children's rights are learning what our human rights are understanding those so that we can say as we come together to learn in this space.
So the fullest extent of the power I have is your teacher this classroom will honor those rights and together we'll work to apply the best information we could get our hands on and that's including me and I got a lot of privilege and power when it comes to access to information because I'm grown and I'm a teacher.
I also have my beliefs and my views but we together are going to figure out what our individual beliefs and views are based on the best information I can bring together and how we can be the best citizens and learners we can be in our classroom and that can be guided by our children's rights right and we teach what they are that's the basis but then you know we talked about this a little earlier.
That's like a lesson I would do with students as we ease into the week so we're going to create our classroom expectations together in a discussion right we could do a whole show and then in fact I got I got some ideas just we're going to bring some guests and talk about class from expectations as a group very good very good right versus I'm just coming in hot with some rules right that's authoritarian now that said just shockingly because I've talked about.
I thought this for so long when students visit my classroom and say oh you do have rules I said yeah we actually have three rules that I actually have up before we even create our classroom expectations together and we figure it all out and we drop sort of our classroom constitution and how we do that and that's all aligned with our children's rights and our human rights but I do start out of the gate because my job as a teacher is to provide safe welcoming learning.
Environment for everyone we do have three rules right be safe and how we say be safe it's not like be quiet and don't take risks it's how do we make sure that you and everyone in here has physical and emotional safety this is big like rule I will make sure and I ask it hey what's physical safety what I mean by that what I mean like you should feel safe here you should not be getting hurt like falling down getting kicked getting hit
you know dangerous stuff like I might say hey pencils should not be thrown we don't throw things at each other you know yeah so they know this rule we talk about it's a rule safety yeah gotta be safe yep right right the other one everybody participates there we go everybody participates be safe these are two you okay I mean get into the weeds on later we're going to find we're going to set classroom expectations but can you do these things and then I say here's a secret about my classroom and this is my flavor it might not be
here's you don't have to adopt it but I always added to you I said low key by participation I mean as often as we can have fun yeah like not every moment is fun right some things are going to be hard some things are going to be tough but overall it's often as we can to make sure we feel safe we are safe boom and that we're participating it's often as possible fun yeah because that's important to me so if it ever gets not fun you're the only rule I have for you is that you
say hey I'm not feeling like I can participate need a little more fun and and we get into everything else we build together and we build together based on children's rights you know expectations and and you know we can talk about it more those first days when you're doing that when you're building those relationships you're learning who your students are you're really learning and just this is very different than I was taught to be a teacher and if you're listening out there many of us were taught don't crack a smile until at least after you know
Halloween lay down the law start with the rules you know that I was actually told by by elder teachers before you know you're a male too you can get away with this kick a trash can really hard across these are kind of like some of the bad habits of schools we're saying hey undoom break those habits be your best self be ready by knowing yourself we can get to the details and the rest hey this is busted pencils fully let an education talk here on civic media
this is dr. Johnny Lupinachi stay tuned we got an exciting week and we're going to preview some of that week when we come back
we are back here dr. Johnny Lupinachi here with producer Jess listen if you want to turn the conversation give us a call 857524842 we're talking back to school we're talking about building a classroom environment of wealth
of be students feeling welcomed them belonging of engagement not compliance and just ask the great question where do you start and I give my long winded version of start with yourself be well know thyself and we all do this differently so when we get into the specifics of like how we have our classroom set up the voice we use the phrases that we use the themes that we have you know the ways we connect the dots for our students hopefully using current events things
they care about making learning meaningful and relevant to them and their lives we have to learn their lives and some of us we got it we got it a little bit of an idea but I would say don't ever assume we know and just go in with an openness and a readiness right and a confidence and some of that confidence comes by practicing.
So if you're like me in your back in the classroom setting things up putting up posters kind of decorating you know and having conversations like just and I are having about the music that we share not only in the show but with one another as we work and I always have music in my classrooms and that's one way I get to know my students as I ask them hey what are you listening to what gets your pump what helps you focus we do a whole little questionnaire around our favorite places.
The first activity I do just I do in a classroom with all my students is that little questionnaire about what are they listening to with something they watched recently or they're currently watching that they really enjoy it's a podcast that they're into I try and get to learn about them through their interests.
Right and I study those for at least a week like looking at either whether it was no cards or I use Google forms because they're all they all phones and different ways to input that but I also then begin to make a playlist and I say hey you can add to the playlist we have our our focus and study playlist we have our build up energy we have a wine down when we have all kinds of different purposes.
Love that you can add to it now for teachers out there you got to think about you know I'm in college classroom I still have about is it appropriate for everyone and if there's a questionable song.
You know I say hey as a class this is a song I'm not here to censor you're all grown because they are I said you you got it this is part of decision got me but as as a elementary school teacher and and in somewhat in high school although I let them choose the older they caught.
You know you got you got to do some FCC kind of censor and like Josh has to do when I send her the band propaganda that we can use because there's there's good message there so yeah we're preparing those things we're getting to know and I like the very first activity almost do this with all ages I say I want you to think of a place.
That matters so much to who you are a place that has has had had a significant influence on who you are today about the person that's in our room sitting here getting ready to learn together and draw a picture of it and all my classrooms then it starts with crayons and pencils and all kinds of stuff and I give out an extra large size paper paper 11 by 14 because we're going to make art.
To represent the places that matter to us we do that we share we talk about it then we also then the next day have an activity where I say okay I want you to think of a person who has had a significant impact a big influence on who you are today in this classroom like who you think of when I say who's had a big influence on your life can be anybody can be good influence can be a bad influence they they just come to mind.
And right on the back of that big piece of paper we drew about the places we love places that have influenced us the most they they write about the person who's influenced them them the most okay we share those we celebrate it we keep it we get it going the next time we do this activity we do an activity warm up next class like hey let's get into it a stretch out let's warm up okay something not a human and not a place.
That has had a big influence on who you are they say what do you mean I say something that's not human and not a place and I say what can it be a dog sure can it be a tree sure mean technically that could be a place to but you know what I mean like some species other than a human that we're remembering can be anything they say what can it be a sport sure can be anything right and they write about that.
And then one of the things we do is we begin to share that we are learners together but we are also carrying with us the best in the worst of who influenced us the places we come to come from the things that have had a big impact on us and so we are not only individuals but we are collective as a community and so we really talk about what that means to be part of a classroom.
In that way that we are not only ourselves but that ourselves is a unit of measurement that we're here for right but what does it mean to be here and how are we always trying to be the very best.
Of what's influenced us even when some of those influences aren't always positive so that's one of the little nuggets of the very first kinds of lessons I do.
That's so beautiful and that just sets such wonderful groundwork for building that community and helping your students who are going to go on to be teachers to do that all important work of knowing themselves.
Well and and then I can connect the dots with those with those drawings and those in those writings I can connect the dots to like the music they listen to I got a good background and a base to which to get to know my students and to make connections to content and for teachers out there new teachers were always figuring this out early and it's a lot but for veteran teachers I know the math I'm teaching I know the social studies that's not me bragging right I just know the content but I don't always know is the meaningful ways to connect it to the lives of myself.
And getting to know them and being patient about letting them have space and prompts to open up and share what they want I'm not forcing it or letting it fly hey lots exciting stuff this week.
Big show tomorrow rethinking schools educator time Marshall talking with us about transgender justice in schools huge topic awesome work can't wait for that join us we got an exciting week this is busted pencils stay tuned.
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