This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,
educated educators talking education.
Yeah, that's what we do.
Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk,
educated educators talking education man,
Saturday, one full hour.
Well, it's going to be a kind of a sad full hour.
We're going to hold back on that, though,
because what we got to do, though, is point out and just
I know it's been tough and waiting.
But OMG Wisconsin Supreme Court.
OMG Tim, I got to tell you in Wisconsin this week.
It is like a collective breath that we have been holding since November.
We're finally letting it out.
I from what I understand too, civic media has been a bit buzzing
with lots of all kinds of things going on.
Oh, yeah.
You know, half president Elon Musk dumping in how much money?
Around $25 million.
And buying up ads on civic media too, folks.
I understand.
Correct.
Well, it's good that maybe Wisconsin let's spin it a little more
hopeful at their canary in the coal mine for what's come.
And at least the great people of Wisconsin said you can't buy us.
Loud and clear by us.
And so hopefully what this tells us is let it be a canary in the coal mine
Wisconsin flying back out of the mine and you're saying,
here we go.
Let's go democracy.
Let's go United States fallen.
Fall in line.
Let let let Wisconsin lead.
You're confusing me on the canary in the coal mine kind of thing
because I'm always when I hear that that's that's kind of the we send
the canary into the coal mine.
And when it doesn't come out, that's usually bad news, right?
I mean, it came back out.
Okay.
Okay.
Good.
And so we're saying, hey, it's good.
It's good to be.
It's like, uh, is that like a phrase and say like let it be foretelling?
Yeah.
Like let it be a little bit important.
Yeah.
Portend.
I think that's that word I remember in like 10th grade on the vocabulary test
that would they this is what they used to do in the 80s.
Because you used to get 10 vocabulary words every week.
And you had to spell them correctly.
Tim, I had to do that too, man.
Okay.
Been hand right out the definition.
Yes.
Okay.
Well, and portend was always that one that came up.
You know, uh, pretend.
I know that one.
You know, so it was it was one of the end.
And then somebody was like, no, it's not pretense.
It's like it's portend.
Like there's no such word as portend.
Mm hmm.
Mm hmm.
When my husband has a word that he doesn't know, he just tells me I'm making it up.
Exactly.
And that's, you know, you're making that up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just, I just trying to type it into to my AI and autocrats to Portland and tells me it's a city and orbit.
Portend Portland.
No.
Yeah.
No.
No, I still, still value high school in 1983.
Any of those words, which were usually nine out of 10 of the words every week were words
where you went, that's not a real word.
Like, wait a minute.
Why are they making us learn these words?
Um, I speak English perfectly fine.
And these words never come up in my needed vocabulary.
Anyway, back to this.
Celebrate Wisconsin all across that.
And you know what?
You know, yes, we love that.
Just Crawford one, but we really love the teacher.
Allie.
Yeah.
Teacher.
Allie.
Yeah.
It's taking on moms for liberty.
No problem there.
Teacher, Hallie, educators, amplified.
So big congrats.
Teacher, Hallie and Wisconsin.
Yes.
You know, hopefully sign of things to come.
I will point out that, you know, there's been even a little bit of talk about the fact that.
Elon might need to get back to tending to his businesses.
I take that as code word for.
You're out.
You're fired.
Johnny's got that look.
I mean, it's our arms up for folks who are, you know, listening and can't see it on the YouTube.
I mean, it's, it's quite the circus over there in DC and.
And one can only hope.
Hey, one can only hope as someone, you know, who goes by a Tesla dealership every day.
You know, I am my commute.
I pass by a Tesla dealership.
And it has been a steady stream of democracy and action out in front of that.
That place peaceful protests, obviously.
I'm no damage to property or anything illegal, but dissent in its best form.
You know, lots of folks out there with posters, signs, flags, all kinds of things.
That, you know, express their disinterest.
In the kind of, you know, purchasing of government seats, you know, the kinds of policies and politics of Elon Musk.
And, and I'd have to, I'd have to think it's doing, it's doing some work because we see Tesla is experiencing some loss as a, as a fact of this.
And so, you know, hopefully this again, I'll stick with this metaphor can air in the coal mine.
Let the people say what they deserve and want and aren't getting wind specifically promised.
You know, and so there's a lot of people who, you know, maybe we didn't agree with how they voted, but they voted.
And now they're stuck in this scenario and at least very least they're being allowed about not being happy with it.
So let's keep that energy going.
And I'm hopeful.
I was going, yeah, you know what? And too, I got a point out, Dr. Joe under Lee.
That's right.
Been on the show multiple times.
No problem there either.
So again, Wisconsin, thank you.
Dr. Joe, under Lee judge Crawford and our favorite teacher, Halley, kicking some butt.
So Wisconsin, loving it.
Okay.
Jess plot can sell producer on air personality with busted pencils guiding, you know, mentor to Tim and Johnny.
This is your last show with us.
This is my last show with you guys.
Last show as producer.
Okay.
As as person we're going to interview a little bit here and usual.
I'm just throwing that there.
Remember, I'm a hopeful guy.
I can imagine my crystal ball.
I mean, just rub my ball head.
There you go.
Can imagine that we find a way to invite Jess back on the show for an update on her educational journey.
Because we're going to talk a little bit about that today.
It's a special one.
One that Tim, I think you and I have talked about.
We're pretty honored to have been witness to some of it.
And so, Jess, we appreciate you.
This show is going to be about Jess's journey a bit her experience at civic media with us to blue collar.
You can say scholars because we have we have the experience in the thing.
But these two knuckleheads here.
My favorite educated educators educated educators talking education.
Okay.
So Jess, I'll just put it out there.
Yes.
Jess is moving on to bigger and better.
Well, I don't know better, but more awesome things.
The interest in really pursuing her passion to become a medical doctor.
And now the reality is is that to make that dream come true.
You got to move on to things that make a little bit of a change.
Yes.
You got to move.
It's definitely a better sweet moment because the past 10 months of busting pencils with the two of you.
And with every single one of our guests who we've had has been absolutely transformative for me.
It's been one of those key central experiences of my life that has absolutely changed me and made me a better person.
You've made me a more educated educator.
You've made me a better teacher.
You made me a better person, guys.
Oh, you're you're talking to the other other other host or something.
No, I'm talking to you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Jess, I was just thinking about it.
So when, you know, 10 months ago, when, you know, you kind of got this, you're going to be coming on.
You're going to, you know, I remember you were sitting in the back kind of watching and learning.
Okay.
I mean, come on.
Be honest.
First thoughts when you're like, I'm going to have these guys.
Or I mean, or you're like, oh, my God, I'm going to have these guys.
Or what, what am I going to do?
Come on.
Give us first impressions.
Okay.
Okay.
First impressions came before I ever met the two of you.
It came because I was thinking about applying for a job and knew that the position that I would be primarily taking up would be producer of busted pencils.
So I downloaded the civic media app and was listening to busted pencils in that six to seven p.m. Monday through Friday slot.
And listening to the two of you talk back and forth, throwing around AI.
It was, I know that's, that's incredibly hard to believe.
But the, the episode that was my first introduction to the two of you was on AI.
And hearing the, the two contrasting and sometimes complementary voices of these two educated educators going back and forth just made me feel like,
I want to get to know these guys.
I think they have some very interesting world views.
And I think I can learn a lot from them.
But I think the biggest takeaway that I had was listening to the bumper music and going, man, that's my jam.
I think I can hang out with these two guys.
I think, I think we will get along.
So those are my first first impressions, but actually meeting the two of you and sitting through my first show as a shadow.
I, it's hard for me to describe the excitement that I felt knowing that this was really going to be a very special experience in my life.
Knowing that this was going to be a chapter where I was going to learn a lot occasionally be challenged by ideas and concepts and techniques.
That were unfamiliar to me.
And I, I was so excited and so ready to get into it that I only shadowed on the board for two days before I said, I'm ready.
Let me take over.
And we, man, ever since then to have been really honored to actually have you.
I mean, you, you really have produced the show in, in a way that has really brought out even, you know, the, the better kind of points of view.
And the way we talk about things, the way we organize it.
Yeah, we're talking about Jess Plotkin, cell producer extraordinaire.
This is her last show with us as producer, Johnny pointed out because yeah, as she's pursuing that dream of becoming a medical doctor, a lot of education in her future.
We're going to want to hear a lot about that because boy, I mean, talk about medical education too.
We, we don't think we've ever had that conversation. So we're going to be looking forward to that.
Having those longer conversations with, you know, Jess is our guest.
It's busted pencils. It's fully letted education talk. It's educated. Educators talking education.
Jess Plotkin, cell, we got some more questions for you though, Jess. We'll me come right back.
We'll feel real, real, real, real, real, real.
But just this kind of little regretful, we're bringing up to another.
We'll wait for our own, we'll grow, we'll grow, we'll grow.
For our own, yeah.
Oh, welcome back.
Let's play letted education talk.
Oh, we got a special one today. Listeners, we are talking with Jess Plotkin, cell.
That's right. Producer Jess.
But as Tim had explained in the last segment, moving on from producer Jess onto you, I like to say it, just like you did Tim.
She's bigger and better things.
She's on her way on the educational journey, the pathway to her career of choice.
And Tim, we've been witness to some of this transition for Jess. Yeah, you've been our esteemed producer.
The last year through so many different iterations and formations of the lovely show, busted pencils.
But Jess, talk to us a little bit about what's coming up next.
And then we're going to dig into like, oh my gosh, the pathway.
Well, I'll tell you that what's coming up immediately next is some more learning and some more training.
As we discussed a couple weeks ago, learning and training not always the same thing.
And for me, it will be in fact a combination of learning and training.
I'm going to become a certified nursing aid.
So this is an entry level position in healthcare assisting nurses primarily in hospital hospice and home care settings to do the
caring work that is required in the medical field.
So this will be about a three week course and then I'll have a statewide exam to take to get my certification.
And then I'll be working in a hospital setting is my goal for a year or so while I apply to medical school.
Awesome. Jess, so let's back up before all of this.
Yeah.
When, tell us a little bit about your educational journey.
Like, so you, your college graduate.
I am.
When did you know that you wanted to be on the pathway?
Like you said, to like being in the care profession, specifically in healthcare, you know, public good working in a hospital.
Well, I think I was about four years old.
Okay.
So my mom has been a registered nurse for over 40 years.
So I was raised in a household with someone who worked in the medical field and showed me.
What the field was all about.
She worked a lot in home care and she worked also.
I mean, she's worked in pretty much every form of nursing that there is.
So I was able to see a really wide spectrum of it.
And it always really called to me.
But the academic side of it also really, really called to me that it's not just the providing of care.
It's the ability to be a lifelong learner and to be a leader amongst those learners.
And as I was sort of growing up and talking to people about what I was really interested in.
They were like, oh, maybe, maybe a career as a physician is in your future.
And then reading up on what does that mean?
What does that entail?
And every single thing that I learned was just like, yeah, I want that.
Yeah, 12 hour days, 15 hour days, bring it on, baby.
If I can keep my nose and books, if I can use that information to work with patients towards living a better healthier life,
man, I want that.
And so going into high school, I already knew that I wanted this as my path.
I wanted to go on the path to medicine.
And then when I was in high school, I got really sick.
I developed a, well, I was probably actually born with it, but a chronic condition that was frankly kind of debilitating.
I missed a lot of school and I missed out on a lot of those adolescent activities.
And I saw a lot of doctors.
And some of those doctors were really, really amazing, really, really excellent,
really helped me to find healthier ways of being.
And some of those doctors really sucked.
Those doctors really didn't listen to me and perpetuated a lot of the suffering that I was experiencing,
wrote it off, told me that I wasn't experiencing the things that I was absolutely freaking experiencing.
And it showed me that there was a desperate need for people who have the interest, the ability to both hold all of the information about what the human body is.
As well as what the human being is, that that is what you need to be a really good physician.
And so I was going to ask that path.
Yeah, so I was going to ask that question too.
Is it, you know, were, were you motivated because of bad doctors, were you motivated because of good doctors?
Both, it sounds like an, because I'll relate that back too to why I became a teacher.
And I will say that it was both, but it was a motivation towards bad teachers say it doesn't have to be this way.
Yeah.
And I can remember as young as I swear kindergarten for a second grade thinking school could be so awesome.
Right, I can do better than that.
Yeah.
And there was this motivation.
And you know, it's like, is it negative motivation or is it positive motivation to make, you know, because you really want to make a deep change because you realize the impact you could have or could have had on you.
Justin kind of relating that sounds like that's what happened with you.
Absolutely.
I had physicians who listened to me.
I had physicians who read my file and knew exactly what medications I tried.
What tests I'd undergone.
What the results of those tests were.
And I had more numerically physicians who didn't do those things.
Doctors who came in and didn't know my name didn't know that I preferred Jess over the name on my file Jessica.
Because it says on my file, my preferred name, but they hadn't read that far.
I had doctors who told me, well, maybe is it possible that you're exaggerating your symptoms.
Maybe what you really need to do is just push through it.
And I remember seeing red in those moments of like, I am doing my absolute best here.
And you're telling me that it's not enough that it's nothing.
And just having this deep sense of I can do better than that.
I can do better than that for myself.
I can do better than that for other people.
And it's something that I want to do.
Hmm.
Hmm.
I love that.
We are talking to, yes, favorite, awesome, most incredible producer, Jess Plotkinsell.
This is her last day producing busted pencils.
We want to point that out because she's going to definitely be a guest in the future.
And she pursues that, you know, that dream of becoming a medical doctor.
There's a lot of learning in her future.
Yes, there is.
A lot of learning.
And we're going to want to talk a lot about that.
It's like, what's going on?
You know, and even that point too, it's like, you know, as you're about to experience a whole set of new professors
and new learning experiences.
What are those ones that are going to kind of continue to motivate you and those other ones?
In fact, I'm thinking about that as we come back, you know, kind of really get into going,
okay, you know, how much of what you've learned on 10 months of busted pencils?
Are you going to be bringing in as you start to judge professors and teachers again on the concept
of these two blue collar scholars and all of the noise they've been making for 10 months?
It's busted pencils.
Yeah, we're going to hit just with those questions when we get right back.
I guess I'm going to get this extra list.
Who wants to make the whole world go in this?
Yeah, come on.
It's busted pencils.
It's the best bumper music on the radio on your downloads.
You know it.
Why?
Because we have the best executive producer ever.
Jess Plot can sell.
Oh, that's a bit technical, but I'm here.
I know you're a certain technical associate.
You're executive, darn it.
I just I just I'll take the promotion.
I just promoted you.
I don't feel promotion right there.
You know, you earned it as you're leaving the rank of executive producer, executive producer,
and all around kick, but just awesome person.
Yeah, we're loving it.
So Jess, you know, yeah, the new chapter you're about to, you know, jump into here.
Talk about though, too.
You know, we said a little bit during the break.
What's it like you make the decision?
Your passion, your dreams are, you know, they're out now and you're like, I'm going to do this.
But there's a process to quote doing this.
Oh, yeah.
And it's been a bit frustrating for you.
Yeah.
So applying to medical schools is hard.
It's time consuming.
It's incredibly expensive.
It's frustrating.
It's hard.
So the way that it works is at the beginning of May, the cycle opens with the primary application
that you fill in through AMCAS is what it's called the American Medical College Association
system.
I don't know.
Don't check me on that last letter.
But it's the centralized portal for all medical schools that are certified in the United
States.
And it's a whole bunch of questions of who are you?
What have you done with your life?
And then it's the big thing that everyone always gets stressed about the personal statement.
You have two thousand characters, make your case.
Who are you?
And why do you want to be a physician?
Why do you want to put yourself through this?
From there, you choose what schools you want that to go out to and you pay for the
nose for each school that it goes out to.
Early June, those applications are released to those schools.
And if you meet their criteria, they send you a secondary application with school-specific
questions and essays, usually at least another five essays that you need to write, yeah.
And then you need to pay another fee.
It could be anywhere from $50 to like $250.
You might have to take additional tests in addition to the MCAT, the medical college admissions
test.
And which I didn't even get to, that's, that's honestly the first part.
Yeah, it's a big old standardized test.
I think for people listening, though, too, is to realize that, you know, all of this,
though, too, you've talked about it costs a lot of it costs, you know, greenbacks.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
And then if you get through secondary applications and they like what you said on that and you
meet their criteria for that, then you interview.
So you either through Zoom or in person, although since the pandemic, a lot of schools have
gone to fully Zoom interviews, you sit down with some people, whether they're faculty
or current students, usually a combination of both, and you interview and they see if
you're a good fit for the school based on their requirements and what they're looking
for on your background.
And then they tell you yes or no.
And I gotta tell you, Tim and Johnny, I've applied two cycles and I've been told no, but
you're going back.
But I'm going back.
Yeah, that's the part, though.
I mean, come on.
You got more money to throw into the process.
No, I made some money for the purpose of doing this.
Yeah.
Especially Johnny.
I was thinking about that.
It's just like, yeah, the cost of just the application process, it wasn't something
I was aware of, dude, it's thousands of dollars.
Oh, oh, yeah.
And all the preparation, I mean, you have to take exams right to qualify.
So you have those, was it the MCAT?
The MCAT.
Yes.
A seven and a half hour long exam, a part of Tim just died that I studied for for about
a year.
And you know, I have a very competitive score.
And it was a hard exam, but you know, much to I think Tim's chagrin, I liked it.
I liked it.
I liked the challenge of it.
I love the material of it.
Yeah, I can relate.
I love studying for and taking the GRE, and I know Jess, we're rare, we're rare in
that contact.
You guys are killing me, man, killing me.
But Tim, I bring that up because I think what Jess has experienced is more common than
maybe, you know, we acknowledge it's a little bit of like shadow work of following your
dreams.
Yeah.
There are no shortcuts.
And it isn't only about your grades and your test scores, you know, the pathway to any
career isn't always the same for everyone.
And I think there are a lot of things like it's part, it's related to some of the larger
things we talk about here, bus defensiles, not only in public education, but in the context
of public common good and a democracy.
You know, public health is a huge component to the strength of any country, right?
And our public health system is in crisis, much like our public education system.
And the two, you know, converge in a number of areas.
But one of those is in medical education.
There just aren't very many opportunities.
We could just boil it down to you, you know, seats and desks in programs.
There just aren't enough programs to provide the amount of medical practitioners at all
levels, whether it's nurses, whether it's doctors, surgeons, you know, all of the different,
you know, related ways that they are, there are many hats that those, you know, domains,
people end up wearing in their career.
But they're just, there's a massive shortage of programs that can teach people qualified
to be in hospitals, to put it bluntly or to be in practice of public health and health
in our, in our country.
So there is, you know, there's a lot of shadow work that folks like Jess, who might be out
there listening or you might know somebody whose dream is to go to med school or to become
a nurse and these programs, you'll hear are highly competitive to get into.
And if you're like, like Jess and I have joked about like, hey, we love being competitive
with our test scores and things, you know, it's, it's not only about those, and not
being accepted into a program doesn't mean that you're not qualified to be in a program.
So this is a, this is a, this is a, I think a really interesting place to dive in Jess.
So in your experience, so, you know, you like you've had some, some denied applications
to med schools, those aren't, those, you know, those aren't losses as much as they're
learning moments.
Absolutely.
But like, tell us a little bit about that pathway.
So, so what are the decisions you've made and what are some of the things that folks
also interested can expect as part of their journey?
Well, I'll tell you that in undergrad, as I told my advisors that I wanted to pursue
a path in medicine, I was given some advice about what courses I needed to take in order
to get through those prerequisites of medical school admission.
And I took those and then I was told, your major doesn't matter.
Get a major in whatever is interesting to you and whatever is fulfilling to you.
It doesn't have to be in biology.
In fact, a lot of medical schools say they've got too many biology majors.
So I have a humanities major.
Oh, yeah, I've got a classical studies major.
I've also got minors in biology and chemistry though.
You do need to have that background.
And then I was told that I needed clinical experience.
And what that means is that you need to have your body in a clinic observing and working.
So I was told this and I was still struggling with chronic health issues while I was in undergrad.
So I really wasn't able to build up any of those clinical experience hours.
I was able to really get my grades exceptional.
I was able to get extra curricular as we would call it essential curricular activities.
I was able to get leadership.
I was able to get a little bit of work experience,
but I wasn't really able to get a lot of that clinical experience.
So in my first round of applications,
I got all the way through to interview with my dream school.
And then from there I was denied.
And when I set up a meeting to talk with the admissions coordinator about it,
they went through my application and they said,
well, you know what, you check all of our boxes except for one clinical experience.
I said, okay, how do I get clinical experience?
I said, well, you got to volunteer, you got a shadow, or you got to work in a clinic.
So whether that's volunteering at your local plan parenthood,
or at a blood clinic, whether that is shadowing physicians or nurses,
or whether that is getting a license yourself as an EMT or a CNA,
you got to get your body in a clinic, you got to get the experience.
So that is what I am working on or working towards right now.
You say, you know, yeah, there's so much that goes into this.
And I think, you know, again, for the listener out there to hear about this journey.
And I think to hear too, just the doggedness, Jess, that you're saying,
you know, that needed to pursue this is to let people know that, you know,
and Johnny pointed out, you know what, no doesn't mean it's over.
Right.
It's a learning opportunity.
It hurts.
Oh, it's pain.
Oh, it's horrible.
And not that I was denied medical school,
but Jess and I were both when you got that, though, I think the last now.
I was also hopefully going for a job that I really wanted.
Yeah.
We're going through it for a week or two.
We both got the nose.
And they were kind of like, you know, I guess it's got to be a learning experience.
You know, whenever that crevice, I wonder though one thing, Johnny,
you were talking about, you know, the need, though too,
for medical professionals, you know, public health and these things.
You know, and then now kind of this is more of the politics of education.
And I wonder about this is how much of the exclusivity and the denial of applicants
is kind of around like created sense of needing to keep it exclusive
and keep people out intentionally from the standpoint of saying,
if we let too many people in that, you know, it might water down our brand.
But the reality here is is saying that we need these people.
Are we saying that these places just don't have the capacity?
Or are they keeping people out to continue to inflate their own kind of institutional self worth?
I'm putting that question out.
I'm going to throw out the Johnny first because Jess has been the recipient.
I just wonder what you think because I know you've, Johnny,
had some professional connections to a med school, right?
Absolutely, you know, there's a great med school here in Eastern Washington
at Washington State University, the Elson Floyd College of Medicine.
And they do amazing work in pharmaceutical sciences and nursing education.
And then, you know, people interested in becoming a doctor and specifically around,
you know, filling the gap of access to rural health
and to having really diverse people in the medical profession.
So it's got a specific, you know, health equity focus.
But yeah, I've been part, you know, part of the professional development and, you know,
the learning that professors and researchers and students in those programs are doing, you know,
addressing some of the things Jess talked about, like the important aspects of,
there is a really, you know, important and sometimes missing social component.
See what it means to be a health practitioner.
What it means to contribute to public health in a, in a way that is equitable and high quality.
So it's been exciting to be part of a newer med school program that has that.
But yeah, and, and funny enough to him too, as well.
My background, you know, my PhD, I'm not that kind of doctor,
but uniquely was born out of a high need for medical educators.
So I was in a PhD program at Eastern Michigan that was shared between nurses and educators,
people who had staked the health and the future of Southeast Michigan,
of Detroit, of the state of Michigan.
And so, you know, the states that we have a shortage of professors,
who are addressing some of these intersecting areas of our community's health.
So yeah, I have a little bit of a background in that.
And we're winding up to him.
So I'm going to ask you to re-ask that question.
And we can jump back in with the listeners when we come back.
Oh, you're the love again.
Ah, yeah, holy crap.
Almost that time.
Yeah, almost time.
I mean, we're going to have to say goodbye to Jess.
Just as producer, just as producer, going to come back.
Okay, just all this talk medical school.
Yeah, man, crazy.
Absolutely.
We'll be cheering you on.
We're going to be doing everything we can.
Listener out there.
Let Jess know send us something.
Send us email 6085578577.
Great.
Well wishes.
One more producer note.
Let's do that a little bit slower to him.
Okay.
Yeah, Jess.
I did that really quickly.
But yeah, the busted pencils, mailbag.
You know, it's always there.
6085578577.
Give Jess a little send off, you know.
A nice one too.
Anybody gives anything mean.
Johnny and I are coming after you.
All right, Jess.
Favorite guest.
Oh goodness.
Oh, okay.
There's a Tim bomb.
There's the Tim bomb.
All right.
And it could be a couple.
Okay.
Well, no one come after me for this.
Educators amplified.
Guys.
Teacher Halle, teacher Joanna.
Every single time that we have had them on.
I have learned something that has been actionable.
That I can take into my classrooms.
That I've been a part-time teacher for five years.
I've been able to take those lessons.
Straight to my seventh grade classroom and implement them.
And it's been amazing.
As well as just using them as for my own regulatory needs.
So definitely teacher Halle, teacher Joanna, super far up on that list.
Hmm.
I can't pick favorites from the rest of them though.
That's like.
It's like picking children.
Interesting highlight.
You know, like, whoa, I didn't.
You know, it's awesome like that.
You know, we.
You're right.
I know.
I know.
I know.
Undesto AI.
Oh.
You know, I've been.
I've been going back.
And.
Realisting to some of the shows that we've done.
And I think that their show was really the one that made me stop and go.
Hey, maybe I can be using AI for something too.
Yeah.
Like, I have been in Johnny's camp for longer than Johnny's been in Johnny's camp at this
point of being skeptical of AI.
And as Johnny has started to use AI, I've been kind of left behind going, what is this?
I'm scared.
And indesto AI.
Just the way that these two women talked about AI and the the uses that it had really changed.
And indesto AI.
Just the way that these two women talked about AI and the the uses that it had really changed
my mind and really helped me to broaden my perspective of what it can be and what I can use
it for.
Yeah.
And then I mean, just.
Yeah.
I think about all the guests we've had.
I mean, definitely a Tim Bond, because I wouldn't know how to answer that question.
I don't know.
Johnny.
You got to prime Jess's memory of what about what a Martin Atkins.
Oh, you know, our favorite drummer.
I know that's one of Johnny's favorites.
Absolutely.
Just an icon in the musical world.
And you know, Tim, that's my origin story through, you know, punk pedagogies and coming in the
pathways with you was talking about that.
So having Martin on has always been great.
And I have to say, Jess, I've enjoyed every show with you.
Yeah.
Every time.
Appreciate your wisdom.
You sharing openly your views, your expertise, your commitment to education and community
and democracy and how quickly you learned all of the technical stuff to support, you know,
us to gibber jabber in here on microphones, but turn it into something not only audible,
but digestible for our listeners, so can't express enough appreciation.
And I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you know, there is there are no good buys.
There's only until next time.
There you go.
And in addition to that, we're not going to, we're not going to be sad about something ending.
We're going to be excited because it happened.
Because it happened.
And what is beginning?
Yeah, you think about that.
Wow.
But Jess, I, you know, I echo everything.
Johnny just said.
And I mean, we, we are going, we're going to miss you.
We are.
I mean, you know, Jess, for the listener out there, I mean, notes, she would do edits.
She would bring the show to the flow back together.
You know, let, you guys are talking too much about things that nobody cares about.
Bring it back.
I mean, as well as save it for the air.
Or that, that's the other material during breaks, just would stop in a go.
Okay.
You need to stop talking and save that for the air.
I mean, that's the kind of professionalism expertise.
And just, you know, kind of a skill set that you brought to busted pencils that made this show better over the last 10 months.
I mean, and, and that is absolutely true right there to just know that you, you've made Johnny and I better.
You've made busted pencils better.
And you know what, throwing it back all the way out there to sage if you're listening.
She made civic media better.
I mean, that's just the truth.
And we are going to miss you.
Jess, I won't give you the last word there.
I'm going to miss the two of you so much.
Oh.
And I'm going to miss this show.
And it's absolutely not goodbye because I'm going to be listening to you every single week.
Three podcast drops and one broadcast a week.
I am going to be your number one fan.
Check your mail bag because you're going to have entries for me.
Oh, oh, love it.
Jess, thanks for busting pencils with us.
My absolute pleasure.
And now for your moment of sin.
To be hopeful and bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty,
but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage and kindness.
Thanks for listening to Busted Pencils today with our beloved now former producer,
Jess Plot can sell and remember to grab great podcast,
chocked full of more fully let it education talk on Apple podcasts, Spotify.
And of course, on the civic media website or at Busted Pencils.com.
Hey, and don't you be late for home room on Monday.
Make sure you catch next week's class and session on Wednesday and find us for hurdles and home runs on Fridays.
And of course, just like today, you can catch Busted Pencils broadcast at 3 p.m. Central time across all the civic media network stations for an hour of your favorite blue collar scholars.
Tim and Johnny and keep Busted Pencils.
Thanks for listening to Busted Pencils.