This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci, educated educators talking
education.
Ah, there it is, Busted Pencils fully-ledded education talk, educated educators talking
education, eight five five seven five two four eight four two, that's the number very
quickly.
If you want to call it is Wednesday night, educators amplified in the house.
Teacher Joanna though, no teacher, Hallie tonight, teacher Joanna and anybody else watching
on the Facebook, the Twitter ex, the YouTube, like Johnny's not there either, yeah, teacher,
Hallie, teacher, Johnny right now.
We've only had one of you for like five episodes in a row.
It's been, you know, it's the way it's summer.
It's the end of summer and it's getting getting close, getting close to back to school and
so we'll be talking a lot about that, but yes, teacher Joanna's in the house, me, Jess,
we're all here.
That's all we, all we ever need.
I mean, come on people.
You can jump in a put in the comments.
We said there are so many ways to participate in the show easily though, give us a call,
jump on.
Hey, you're like, I can't talk to people on the radio.
You don't have to talk to people on the radio.
You're talking to teacher Joanna and Tim and Jess, you know, come on, right, Joanna?
Yeah.
And Tim, this is just reminding me of old times, like how long, how long ago did we start
this whole connection and it did used to be just, you know, it would be you conducting
one interview and so right, we'll just feel nostalgic today and I do, you know, I don't
know if on your iPhone, you get the memories that pop up.
Yes.
I got a memory that popped up today that was of the thunder storm, the thunder snow
storm.
Yes.
Where we were rallying for the budget back in 2019.
I remember that.
Right.
And you were, you know, so right, this is, this would just be another time where it's you
and I doing our thing doing our thing.
The other thing we're always doing to busted pencils is sponsored by the Monaco Brewing
Company.
They sued the state of Wisconsin to end.
It's really crappy voucher system that hurts public schools.
Monaco Brewing Company is making Wisconsin great again.
One beer at a time.
Check out Monaco Brewing Company dot com to see where you combined their progressive beer.
People out there listening to that going, whoa, what was that?
Hey, just think about it.
If you're out there and you're saying, I'd like to have my business or what I do read
on the radio like that.
Guess what?
You too could be a sponsor of busted pencils.
We got no problems.
We love that.
We would love to do more ads talking about that.
And then the other thing too, anybody else who said, you know, you're watching on the
YouTube, you're watching on the Facebook, you're watching on the Twitter ex.
You're also potentially listening on the civic media app.
We mind people every night.
Make sure you have that download that to your phone because as Jess always reminds
us, the sound quality, Jess, right?
Absolutely.
However, right now, if you're in the Madison area, please switch to listening on WAUK.
The Madison line is currently down.
We just got a message about that.
So if they're in the app and they're trying to listen through the WMDX link, it's not
going to come through.
It's not going to come through.
So there you go.
You can use the WAUK, the WAUK link, and that way you can tune into here.
You know, educators amplified teacher Joanne in the house.
Well, teacher Joanne, it has.
It's been a week now.
Oh, and wait a minute.
Good evening, my teacher, friends from Sherry and Horacan.
Got to put that out there.
Good evening, Sherry.
We love it when she lets us know that she's out there.
And she's not late tonight.
We appreciate that.
Especially.
So all right.
How about just a quick check in teacher Joanne?
We've been having lots of conversations, the politics that are going on, lots of politics.
In fact, last night, election night in Wisconsin, a really big, you know, a ballot constitutional
amendment initiative came and was defeated.
And this, when I first read that, it was like, oh, defeated.
Defeated typically gets pointed out as a bad thing on this.
This was like, no, this was a good thing.
What do you know about defeating these two ballot initiatives?
Well, I know there was a really strong get the vote out effort regarding the referendum.
And I think that people are really...
I honestly, I think the project 2025 stuff has like perked people up in terms of paying
more close attention to what is coming forth on ballots.
And so I think it did.
It was rejected pretty handily and I guess, you know, the majority of folks just don't
want to see powers of our governor limited.
Yeah.
I mean, this was essentially saying, like, look, the governor, if you get money from the
feds, we don't want you to have any ability to disperse those monies.
We in the legislature would like to have that responsibility in it.
Yeah.
So super active legislature that does so much more than Gavallin and Gavallout.
There we go, Jess.
So it's like, no, no, no, no, sorry.
We're going to keep that power right exactly where it is and keep it there, you know.
And then coming forward, so that was kind of like the big highlights last night, coming
up though teacher Joanna next week in Chicago, the Democratic National Convention starts
on Monday.
And here's the other thing.
Civic media will be bringing you top notch coverage to an end of your favorite station
for hosts on the ground in Chicago and coverage for each night's keynote speakers.
And I got to say, I am looking forward to hearing from Tim Waltz.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, we got to look back.
It's like, man, we were just so happy the last week.
And I was wondering if teacher Joanna, you're still feeling that kind of like, this is truly
a real unique kind of like this is the real deal of a teacher.
It is.
And there was an article or some information that came out that made me really see it when
they were talking about net worth, and it was saying that like Tim Waltz's net worth
is like $300,000 or something like that.
And that, you know, his biggest, whatever is a heavily mortgaged Cape Cod home that
they sold.
And that was just really related fun.
That was like real deal.
It's like him and his wife are educators.
So yeah, here's, you know, here's where they're at, you know, and then it was just very
relatable about like, yeah, I feel like this is more where Americans are at versus what
many of our politicians are right now.
You know, I think the other candidate has millions, you know, millions in the bank, millions
in assets.
And so that part just felt more relatable.
And then the other part though is some of the attacks are just, you know, like there's
also, I guess, sadly, relatable where I'm like, you know,
we're so used to the teacher attacks were like, oh, yeah, they're going to say this.
And oh, yeah, they're going to say that.
But feeling still really good that his stuff is not, again, it's like as teachers where
it's like, it's not partisan, it is just like, here's good policy, here's good policy
for students, here's good policy for families.
And so yeah, no, I'm still feeling excited.
I'm feeling excited.
I'm still loving it.
And I read a really great blog that kind of did the analysis of Tim Waltz from the standpoint
of saying like, you know, looking at and saying, what does he support?
Because in the past, we talked about this, particularly, you know, Democrats and Republicans
have disappointed educators alike for a long, long time.
So the reality was going, okay, so what does Tim Waltz is this going to be another Democrat
that quotes supports public education?
And it was like, no, they did a full contrast of going like, here's Tim Waltz position
on, you know, high stakes testing.
And guess what?
Nothing there.
It just kind of like makes the idea of saying like, whatever kids need to do to show us
that they know what they know.
We need to accept that.
So number, you know, not coming in with this kind of reform movement of putting this forward
and continue to say like his accomplishments as an educator, the best way to, you know,
to kind of say it's like, okay, he's been a great.
He's been a coach.
He's been a mentor.
He's been there.
But that whole idea, though, too, of bringing in universal breakfast and lunch for all
kids.
I mean, that's the best illustration of going, that's what this dude is about.
Well, that's just like in the blood, I was saying, it's just good policy.
Yeah.
We should meet the full range of students' needs while they're in our care.
And so that's just an example of good policy.
Something else that I was made aware of was his stance on vouchers.
So I was reading this article where it said that like, right, Democrats and his legislators
were like, well, you know, we should at least give the Republicans a bone on this voucher
thing.
So maybe we can make it this way in that way.
And one, that was just really illuminating to me because I have suspected that that is
what may have occurred in the state, you know, here in Wisconsin.
There you go.
And that, right, Tim Walsh was like, no, there's no, there, you know, we don't play with this.
We just need more funding for our public schools.
Yeah.
And he just draws out that kind of saying, like, look, and particularly where he grew up
and where he taught rural Minnesota, guess what, vouchers, there's no choice.
The choice is whether or not to fund fully the local public schools that are the foundation,
the bedrock of democracy, the cornerstones, cornerstones of the communities, or send your
money elsewhere.
And sorry, that isn't really, that's no choice.
So the idea of vouchers, vouchers, no, no, no, no, no, that is code for defunding local
public schools.
Right.
And then being able to take such a clear stance, just understanding that we are in no position
to negotiate away anything because we don't, you know, it's like there's nothing, there's
not enough as it is.
And so that was just, you know, it's something that, again, is very relatable and that I can
understand and understand how it really helps.
Mmm.
Loving the help.
It's busted pencils fully, let it education talk, educated educators talking, education,
Wednesday night educators amplified in the house, teacher Joanna, the numbers 8557524842.
Hey, anything right now, if you want to talk about it, but check this out, teacher Joanna,
it really is back to school.
I got to hear what teacher Joanna's got to say more coming up.
Last bit, pencils fully, let it education talk, educated educators talking, education.
It's educators amplified Wednesday night in the house, teacher Joanna with us, it's
Jess and Tim.
Yeah, Johnny and teacher Halley, they got other responsibilities, the numbers 8557524842.
You want to give us a call, jump in, talk about it, but teacher Joanna, it is officially
back to school, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
I've been back in, but my official day is Friday.
What?
So, what does back to school, so this Friday is your official first day?
Yes.
What does the official first day of back to school look like for teacher Joanna?
Well, mine is a little bit different than it used to be, so my official back to school
will be a day-long department meeting where we will go over all of our goals for the year
and all of our kind of assignments and yeah, it'll be a day-long meeting.
Is this empowering to have an entire day devoted to goals or, you know, well, you know,
I can't really say, I mean, yes and no, because it is the whole like it's going to be dictated
to me, you know, so it is going to be like, here's the game plan and so, but when I think
about when I was a class, you know, like fully, like had my own class, because now it's
like I oversee several classes and when it was like just like singularly me, it was very
different.
It was just kind of like a little bit of pomp and circumstance and kind of like review
of like PowerPoints that the superintendent had put together before for the school board
and they like replay it back to you is like, and here's what we're doing and here's what's
important.
It's usually meetings.
I've had years though where they've switched it and they've let you come in your first
day and have just work time and setting up your classroom.
That was always my favorite because otherwise you really are sitting through these meetings
thinking about everything, you know, I would just bring my notebook and make my list
of all the things that I needed to do, but that was rare, that is rare if you get to go
in or maybe not, callers could let us know, but I remember it was just a few times
that it was like we got work time first and I was like, oh yeah.
Yeah, I was going to say in fact, back to school right now listeners out there call us
with your best back to school encounter, you know, particularly if you're a teacher
to bringing this and, you know, worst back to school, I could say the same thing teacher
Joanna, I remember a couple back to school two days, two days of what they called professional
development, which were two days of the school district either under the superintendent and
the principals put together, you know, they called it professional development, but yeah,
as you said there, I sat along with all of my other teacher colleagues and we mostly
sat through those professional developments with, oh my God, why are we sitting here now sitting
through these people? First of all, most of them typically are people who are paid way too much
money to come in and tell us things we already know, you know, not very inspiring, not very uplifting,
but kind of like you're going, wait, you paid these people to come in here and talk to us all day
when I could be setting up my classroom, you know, and feeling that. So it makes me think about
this as we're going back to school again, what are those memories that people have about that
particularly, you know, sitting there, came from Appleton, Texas and I remember I almost lost
computer privileges for the whole year because I hacked the printers in the school to display a message
that said, feed me babies. I was going to say to school, but oh goodness. So you've been on this
since seventh grade, huh? Well, hey, what would we do without our smartphones to text our friends?
That has been a helpful, that's been a helpful technology in terms of surviving because
there really is a template. It really is kind of like song and dance PowerPoint of like district
goals. And then like you said, Tim, then they bring in some keynote. There might be a couple really
bad YouTube videos too that you have to watch that are supposed to be like inspirational motivational
mega, mega sports references. That was something that was always like, you know, where it's like
really, my history has been that, right, a lot of like really like masculine titles like, and we're
going to go out and kill it this male machoness. We're we're taking everything and we're
breaking stuff and we're taking names. We're going to, you know, we're going to kick you know,
like, wait, what is all this anger and male hostility about release is about test scores?
Well, I was going to say and then you can get it another way because I've gotten the whole like
the school year started out with shaming where it was like, here is what everybody did last year
and these scores stink and this attendance is horrible. And that was those are really hard when
you start the school year with like a talk into like that. Oh man. So yeah, we've seen all the
different flavors and people like our listener in a way might might seem a little naughty, but I
understand. Cam no, keep sending them cam type back in hey, hey, hey, if you don't want them,
I can stop sending them. No, can we love the participation? Yeah, teacher Joanna, though, that's
the other one too. It's it's kind of like that. So I would say, you know, and again, teachers out
there cams participating through the text, you can call us 857524842 that back to school PD. What
did that mean? You know, was it this again, overpaid person who's talking at you when you would
much rather be doing what you should be doing to get your classroom ready? Or is it, you know,
a bunch of male masculine kind of like, we're going to tear this school year down, darn it.
Or teacher Joanna, I'd say the other one of going like, okay, you teachers, here's the disaster
you did last year. All right, we're not going to have that kind of year this year because we're,
you know, and you're sitting there going, it's like, wait, what is the point of this? Is this to
empower? Is this really back to school? Welcome back back to school. Think about that, you know,
as we're coming into what would it mean? And the other part, if you want to participate from the
standpoint of saying, though, what would a great back to school PD look like? What would it be if
you could design it? I have lots and lots of ideas about things we could be doing for sure.
Yeah, and you know, maybe some of that would be hacking in. I always like the idea of the
potential, you know, getting into the superintendents PowerPoint before they put it up there,
you know, kind of hijacking one of their slides with something like that. Yeah,
it'd be a little bit funny to see that. Well, a question I always ask about this and many things
is what would it look like if we were truly centering educators? If we were getting, you know,
PD, if we were having when we gather with the frame, you know, the framing of what would it look
like if educators and educator needs were centered, I think we, it'd look and feel very different.
I'm going to leave it right there. There's the question. Call us with that.
Yeah.
Busted pencils fully. Let it education talk. Educated educators talking. Education 8557524842. It's
Wednesday. Educators amplified in the house. Teach your Joanna and Jess and Tim. Just three of us
tonight said teacher Hallean Johnny, they got things to do and hey, we can get that. I don't know,
maybe they're getting ready back to school stuff, but that's the topic tonight. I think about
back to school, we teach Joanna kind of given this from the standpoint of what this back to school
mean for you, the teacher, the educator, what does that? You know, we did some talking a lot about
going, you know, it's mostly it's been my experience. It's either been, you know, a professional
development with a paid speaker that I really don't need to hear from because I am a professional
teacher. And the fact is that, you know, or there, you know, actually we said three or there's,
you know, this kind of raw raw, let's go get them team. Or there's the oh my, you guys were so
bad last year. And we're going to start this year and let you know how bad you were.
So painful. Joanna. Well, and the divide, as you were saying all that, I think about the divide
between going back to school is that's like the first hurdle. So you think about like, you're
kind of like one, everyone's kind of bombed right that their time is coming to an end. And then
you think like, oh, and my first hurdle is I kind of got to get through that stuff in order to get
to my kids. I think we'd feel different if we had time to work and got right to our kids because
that is the thing. Like everyone will say they'll be like, yeah, not really crazy about the meetings,
but I'm excited. And you know, that is what I'm starting to hear my friends saying, you know,
like, oh, I put this together. I'm looking forward to seeing my kids. I'm looking forward to
having time and setting up my class. And so you kind of live between those two worlds. But
darn it, it's kind of like those emails that those meetings and the rara, whatever is like your
first hurdle to get to the good stuff. And the fact that you framed that as a hurdle says a lot.
I mean, thinking about that, right? You know, you know, I've been in this education business
or endeavor or adventure for over 30 years. Guess what? My first year, I said exactly what you
just said and all the way to this point. So it's not like this isn't known that, look,
if you really, really, really wanted to tap into the educators, the teachers,
the support staff and get them really fired up for back to school, you would think 30 years of
evidence of bad PD shaming or raw, raw, you would say, when is it going to finally go away? And
let's have a back to school about what it means to truly welcome back our children, our students,
the families. What would that look like? Well, sorry, I mean, I can talk about that. But first,
I want to say that it's just really reflective to me again of the system is oriented towards more
the needs or the desires of the administrators and the people who hold power. Because if we were
talking about what you're talking about, it would look different. If we were like, our core work is
making sure that educators are in a place to do the best possible job that they can this year,
it wouldn't look like that. You know, it would look like, yep, we're going to, I don't know,
again, give you time, have you process, ask you what your needs are, offer assistance for what
your needs are in all of that. Now, educators are incredible little beans because they work around
all of this to to still pull it off. You know, so the students and families really have no idea
kind of like the work around that the teachers would do. And I know for myself, some of the things
that I would do to start off a school year so that I felt really good and so that it was really
welcoming and inclusive to my students was first, I would attempt to have, well, not attempt because
I did it. I would have some kind of meaningful connection with the families in advance of everything.
And so I would, I'll start calling around this time or even earlier, you know, I'd call a couple
of families a day and just introduce myself and kind of remind them about when some, you know,
like when registration is and things like that and say, I just wanted to call and say, I'm excited
about the school year, anything in particular going on and offer to meet in advance. Now,
again, this is not this is outside of the contract often. And so, but it's that kind of pre-work
that would really having so some kind of meaningful connection be in advance of things
happening was really helpful to me in terms of how I was going, knowing what I was heading into
and how I would design my groups, my spaces, my places and things like that.
What, what was that? What was that? Just, that's the goal.
That's the surprise. Tim, I know, every day, democracy and action. What do we got, Jess?
For today, our democracy and action, the core democratic value that we are highlighting is patriotism,
having a devotion to our country and the core democratic values. This is, this goes out to teachers
for all of the preparatory work that goes into making a space ready for building a democratic
classroom as teacher Joanna is saying, this is almost exclusively work that teachers aren't paid for.
This is work that teachers do out of love and devotion to this country, to their students
and to the work that they do. That is today's democracy and action.
I love that, man. Teacher Joanna, I see those eyes lighting up on that. Man, Jess really
delivered on that one. Well, it's a great reminder of service, you know, that we work in service.
You work in service and you just, you talked about this in sadly, yeah, these are things that
quote, you're not getting paid for, you're not doing this and you say, you know, taking a system
look at this and say, why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Are we not doing what we know is important?
As you just said, the idea of individually reaching out to families and students to say, you know,
hey, you're coming back to school. I'm going to be your teacher this year and looking forward to
meeting you. Here are some things that you might want to do. I mean, that whole idea of welcoming,
recognizing that and saying, you know, this is what it means to truly set up a classroom. When we say
inclusive, you know, that we're not talking about special education inclusion here. We're saying
right off the bat, inclusive. In other words, as the student, as the family comes to school that day,
they feel like they're part of the classroom. Yeah. And what I was talking about too with this
individual reach out is very different than how things are currently organized, right? Because
most schools have an open house night, which is actually really chaotic. When you have your 30
students coming to bring all of their supplies in one night. So that's a good example of something
to rethink and be like, did you really feel like you made a connection that night? You know what I
mean? Was it really soothing? Because it's actually way more chaotic than what the experience is
probably really going to be like for the student. That's just one example. Like you said, I would have
always preferred to be, and because teachers are usually paid, you know, or it's considered like a
half day of work or something. It's in their calendar normally to do an open house night. And I
would much rather take those hours to be able to do individual contacts. I mean, and now you could
virtually meet your students, right? You could be like, hey, we're going to meet online really
quick to be able to be like, hi, you know, and I could show even the background and, you know,
everything. So that's an example to me of like concept, we could do it better now because I do
think that students really benefit from having a really clear picture of what day one is going to
look like, you know, they're nervous. So when you have a clear picture, that anticipatory set,
I talk about that a lot, right? In education, when you know what to anticipate, we have clear space,
clear place, you know what's going to happen. That's just so worth it. And then when those
kiddies come, they're really important things to do that I prepare for like this time of year,
I'm thinking about and helping other teachers think about like, what are we going to do to build
community day one? You know, like, are we going to go right into determining like shared values and
classroom expectations together? And thinking of the little kind of like icebreaker activities to do
and determining, again, the spaces and places, I put a lot of time into like making sure that things
are clear for the students. So when I was younger, I used to think like, oh yeah, hey, you know,
I'm a high school teacher and I want to be cool. Maybe we, you know, the kids could like sit wherever
they want. Over the years, I found that that's really not good. Like people want and they're nervous
coming in and it really helps to just know like, oh, there's a label with my chair. Okay, I know
exactly where to go. Right. And so I think having that set up for kids right away is something that
like, it makes that stress level. Yeah, that anxiety. I was thinking about that. It's just like the
last thing you're, you're nervous, you're coming in, you're meeting your teacher, you know, and I
said, a lot, a lot of my experience was with fifth graders and it was great, you know, because in
an elementary school, they were going to be the top dogs that year, you know, they're the big fifth
graders. But to see, as you said, they'd come in, you know, back that back to school night is the
way what we talked about. They'd be coming in with their parents. And you know, had that look of like,
oh my god, I'm, you know, I heard about Mr. Slecker. I saw him when when we were in fourth grade.
Now I'm really in his class. And it's a scary Mr. Slecker. He's so sick. Jeez, man, he's more mean
than we thought he, no, except setting up that kind of flow to come in and say, you know, it's like
and I'll say like, hey, Jacob, take it out, you know, there's your seat back there, you know,
go back, take your parents back there, show them some of the things we have. Get that. As you say,
it's, it's comforting to go like, but to have, let them have, yeah, you thought about that going
like giving them the ability to choose sometimes direction really makes a difference in really
reducing the anxiety. The other point here and I see Jess is putting this in there, you know,
what about the physical space classroom design? What do you think about their teacher Joanna?
Well, classroom design, again, that's part of like the preparation. Like, is this going to be,
is it going to flow? Is it not messy? I'm one of like that, you know, if it's like cluttered and,
you know, squeezed in that, that sets a tone. So you spend a lot of time kind of clearing out,
cleaning up, I like to have really dedicated and most teachers do like stations where people,
where the kids know like, this is where we track attendance, this is where we keep lunch,
this is where you can always get up and get any supplies. So it's really important to have that
stuff ready to go clearly marked and you be on the ready with what directions you're going to
provide on how to use those spaces. I also think though things like I'm very big into music
and making sure, oh man, I love having a great Bluetooth speaker because I like to set the
environment with with music. Right. Sometimes scent that's gone back and forth over the years.
Yeah, I like to use like music, scent, and then definitely artwork. I don't know. And I usually
make changes based on what students the year before have talked about. Like, or, you know,
when I sit back and reflect like, what worked well? What didn't work well?
It's always putting those things together like that. You just think it's like, yeah,
this really worked well. This worked only partially, but you know what, I still think it's
good idea of students seem to like it, but we can make arrangements, you know, rearrangements,
revisions. It's always that. Yeah, it's back to school. It's busted pencils,
fully-led education talk, educated educators talking education. It's Wednesday night. It's educators
amplified in the house. Teacher Joanne here, 8557524842. It is, yeah, it's truly back to school.
What does it mean for teachers back to school? What does it mean for students? Families, if you're
out there and you're sitting there going, I didn't even know all of this happens. Hey, we'd love to
hear from you. What have you been your experiences? What are those best back to school nights that you
remember as a parent when you brought your child into? Hey, and even you could share with us
some of the ones you didn't like the numbers 8557524842. It's busted pencils. Man, give us a call.
In a minute.
You need it anyway. You want it.
Dancing and singing. Yes, that's what we always love to do on busted pencils, fully-led
education talk, educated educators talking education. Wednesday night educators amplified. Teacher Joanne
in the house, Tim, Jess, Johnny and Halley. Hey, they had things to do getting ready for back to
school. It's been all over back to school. What does it mean from bad PD? Not good PD getting that
classroom set up and ready to go. And now kind of coming into this and say, Joanna, you know, I'm
going to raise this very simply. What if I was setting up my classroom to be a democratic classroom
what it would look like? I think about that and go back to when I started the whole idea
of democracy and community. That really wasn't the thing that we were doing. It was, you know,
what? Here are the rules in Mr. Slecker's classroom. And in that sense, I was presenting the
dictatorship. Right. Autocratic. Autocratic. It was like, you know, here are the rules.
And in fact, when you break this rule, here is what's going to be consequence one. You break that
rule again. Here's consequence two. You break that rule again. Here's the letter your parents
are going to be getting from me. You know, and think about that and go, man, was that necessary
because boy, that really didn't create a sense of inclusion as we were talking about inclusiveness,
community. And I think about that, you know, too, it's like public education is being the bedrock
of democracy. Boy, were we modeling the role following and man, sometimes role following isn't
necessarily democracy, especially if you don't have any say. I think about maybe that is. And so
as you're bringing in the students, how do they get to see themselves back to school as being
a contributing participant member in the classroom this year and kind of flipping that?
Well, thankfully, I've been able to combine my experience with youth and what I've observed
with systems now that are more informed by neuroscience. And what really works, you know,
so those, when you and I started back in the early 90s, these autocratic measures, I mean,
that is what we were told, but they were uninformed because the information wasn't available then
about, you know, we were just using fear to get kids to comply. And so now we have more
information available in practices, like I said, through experience tried and true. And while
research that we really can, we have more, we are more effective when kids consent. And so setting
up a democratic classroom is finding out what will kid, you know, how can you get kids consent
rather than how do you, um, mandate compliance? Yeah, exert control. Yeah. And so like, I think I
had mentioned earlier, some of that really is just you can hold what's called a value circle with
students where you really sit down and say, how do we want life to be in here? And so what does
that mean? I mean, in me in particular, I work with high school students. So this is very reasonable.
But I have friends who are elementary teachers who do the same things, right? And so I think
having like a value circle and determining together, what, what are we going to live by in here
and be an explicit about what that means? I think that's really inviting.
And then that leads into what's called shared agreements. So based on the values and things that
the kids think are important, you come up with some shared agreements. An example could be like,
people would say that, you know, students always do value like safety in terms of like they want
to feel safe. So that can then turn into a shared agreement that we will always use language that,
you know, is kind instead of, you know, and because kids nowadays too, they really recognize
threat is not necessarily just external. They're very aware of like psychological safety and how
language can be threatening or proximity can feel threatening and things like that. So I think about
developing, identifying your shared values and then creating shared agreements from that.
Yeah, I think about it too. Now, you know, there are some things where we help them. Let me say
back from a, you know, back to truly a demo democracy. Guess what? There are some rules that we all
have to follow and that there are rules. But how do we as a group or a community, a classroom is
a community? Yes. I like the way you said that. How do we come up with our shared values that
we're all going to be contributing to and also participating in dialogue when maybe, you know,
this is the other do students how do they know that they're allowed to to question
policies and procedures? Do they have a voice in saying, I'm not sure this is working for me
or the other students in the class we got together and we thought, you know, teacher Joanna,
maybe we could do it this way and, you know, instead thinking about those things and you say,
you know, setting that up for in a classroom so that students know that they have the ability
to voice concerns and potentially not ever have those concerns. It may not be answered in the way
they want, but the reality is is that they have and feel that they have the ability to say that
their voice does matter. Well, I think a step further from shared agreements then and this happens
is that you do have a community agreement then about how you will address problems when they come
up and you have like a system for doing that like that it's very clear to everybody like this is how
we address problems and this is how we work through them and I think I might have talked about it
before I use balance in the process a lot which is a four part thing where it's like you always
start by getting acquainted then you have some questions that build understanding then you address
real issues and then you develop a plan and so the kids know that that's that's the cycle that's
the sequence that we'll use. So yeah, I think I think that that is newer this whole like sharing
power with students because right how you and I came up that was not a thing. There was no power
sharing at all. Busted pencils, educators amplified in the house, man, two busted pencils,
thanks Monaco Brewing Company for sponsoring busted pencils. They are making Wisconsin
great again one beer at a time. Teacher Joanna, man, thank you so much for busting pencils tonight.
Still stop depleting.