Oh, Friday already. Oh, God, thank goodness. Thank God. TGIF. Yeah. Busted pencils fully landed. Education talk educated. Educators talk.
Working education. Yes, it is Friday and man, we know what that is. It is producer's choice. Jacob the chairman of the board actually takes over the show puts me in Johnny and the hot seats kind of drives drives him to want to consider drinking again, but you know, I don't want it. What's going on?
No, I'm not actually nervous, but I just want to point out two to people, you know, the the hardcore followers. Yes, if you didn't see it on YouTube Wednesday's classes in session, Jacobs knows was bleeding and he showed us the unartistic way you can take a Kleenex or as my mother-in-law calls them tissue.
And instantly get back to work by just shoving that up in that bleeding nostril. Jacob, what a trooper you are, my friend.
Yeah, Tim, I'm a hardworking guy. You know, I'm dedicated to the show. This is the most important thing in the world to me. And if you want to bring up other incidents, you know, I did split my pants on a home room once we didn't mention it, but if people want to go back, I mean, there are plenty of things we can remember about times Jacob had a small emergency on the show.
You know what, though, your commitment and, you know, effort to making sure that busted pencils always comes first. It was there. Johnny Lupinachi, we miss you. We understand, though, man, you know, all these smokes first week back at it, right?
Yeah, we have fully going on campus classes are happening and we're scrambling around, you know, filling in classes, making my way like you think I was a new college student on campus this week, teaching in different buildings and bustling around and realizing that, you know, wow, I have a 40 minute walk between my class and when I'm supposed to be on busted pencils.
So I'll get this worked out right and trying to figure things out. But yeah, it's been one, you know, week one under the belt and, you know, 14 more weeks of the semester to go.
That's kind of us college semester folks are used to that 15 week or, you know, so that's one week one in the books and it's Friday. Hey, Tim, and I got to say shout out to your mother in law. She's actually correct.
It's tissue unless it's a brand. I know, I know, right? I'm guilty of that all the time too. I always call every kind of tissue a clean.
I call my vacuum cleaner a Hoover. There you go. If it's a Hoover.
I don't follow your specific rules, Johnny. Okay, you can't put me in a box. I use these layman's terms, which are sometimes brand names.
Yeah, next thing you know, you're going to try and take over the Friday show and start.
I call all podcast busted pencils. That's just to me. It's ubiquitous. Yeah, exactly.
Jacob, man, you're so, you know, I'm nervous. Everybody knows that, but I'm going to hand it off to you, my friend.
Thank you, Tim. You know, you don't have to be like Sarah Palin afraid that I'm going to ask you a gotcha question or something.
Yeah, we have fun here, Tim. We're on the same team, except for when you keep calling me out for my nosebleeds.
But I'd like to think we're friends because it's time for.
For two, two, producer, Jacob's choice chairman of the board.
You and I will have two choices.
Chairman of the board, Jacob.
Oh, Jacob chairman of the board.
I've got the board. It's spelled B-O-R-E-D.
We choose to go to the moon.
Life's tough choices in.
You chose one.
Gentlemen, it's time for producers choice because it's a Friday once again.
So we're all excited to be here. Dr. Tim Slecker, Dr. Johnny Lupinachi.
I appreciate you coming on your own show for this one. It's great to have you here.
Thank you, Jacob. Thanks for inviting us.
I wouldn't miss it even if I was trying to make my way across a busy campus in the week one, man.
So that's what we're going to talk about today, actually, Johnny, because you were not able to be here for.
For the that show we do a class in session.
Yeah, great show. Love it.
Producer's choice. I never forget for some reason.
But you were a little late because this is the first week.
Back at school. And that's what we're talking about folks.
We're talking about teachers going back to school. It's that time of year.
Everyone wants to hear about it.
So I'm going to start us off with a fun question.
Dr. Tim Slecker, can you tell us a story about a bad time you had one year going back to school?
Jacob, every year back to school changes my mood, no matter what, into sheer excitement.
You know what?
I kind of not far off from that, though, because I have always been in that position of going like, I can't wait to get back.
And I would even say that as a kid.
I couldn't wait to get back to school like the end of summer was not a dread.
It was not a, you know, it was just like, okay, man, finally get to get back at the hangout.
I really saw the attendance, the social part of the school as being something that I really looked forward to.
The teaching and learning aspects like I did a lot of criticism of that.
We've said that.
So back to school.
Man, it just generates whether I was teaching second grade, fifth grade in the city of Baltimore.
Teaching my, you know, social studies methods class, teaching graduate level courses.
I just, man, no, I do not have a bad back to school moment, Jacob.
Tim, I, you are not this positive, all right.
We've been working together for a while now.
There's something hidden behind those eyes and your positive answers, but I'm going to, I'm not going to got you at this time.
I'm going to let you go because I know you think you fear my questions.
Johnny, come on.
You got to have at least one horror story from head and back to school in your many decades of teaching.
Hit us with one of them.
Come on.
Well, I'll say this much.
Yeah, I'll get you with one.
You know, I hated going back to school as a student like summer.
I did like the thing that things seem talked about in there.
It's hard to find a bad back to school memory because it's the exciting time of year and Tim much like myself.
Like we were back early in football and different things to student and then as a teacher and a coach was saying, but Jacob, the toughest back to school fall for me ever.
Was the very first year I wasn't teaching at a high school anymore or school because I had gone great school and then come back up.
But I was no longer a classroom teacher and I was starting in the fall as a professor.
And this Jacob was like my worst back to school fall ever.
I relocated across the country and with most people are, you know, used to relocations and moves and, you know, I didn't realize there was a big change in culture in terms of what teachers wore to school.
I'm the Pacific Northwest. So, you know, I came in my shirt and tie.
And then on the first day wore a suit because as a teacher, all my years of teaching, you wouldn't have even thought of going to work, not wearing, you know, at least a shirt and a tie.
Maybe not a suit, but a sport jacket or something if it was chillier, but you always had a shirt and tie and dress shoes and dress slacks or pants.
And was I ever like laughed at jokes, poke. Hey, where are you from? What do you think you're the president? Like, like, I'm like, what? What is everybody?
Oh, somebody, oh, somebody moved here from the Midwest or the East Coast, you know, but that whole fall was just my rhythm was off. I had homesickness.
I missed my students in the class where I had new students, their college students, but it's very different.
You know, I missed my colleagues. I missed the like the whole ambiance of back to school fall. So that was my worst back to school, everything.
I mean, we could go on and on. There could be a whole like graphic novel, funny book about all the ways I was making mistakes left and right that for that fall back to school.
Well, I think those transition moments are often where we have those tough memories. You know, it's the first year of high school. It's the first year middle school. It's the first time becoming a professor instead of just a high school or middle school teacher.
It's those moments where we get caught up and all the things we don't know and don't know what to expect. That's when it's hardest.
I'm going to open this up to both of you guys to talk a bit more on that subject. I mean, what is it like when you go from being elementary middle school high school teacher to becoming a professor?
I mean, what's that what is that transition like becoming a professor when you head back to school?
Johnny, I had a actually a different experience and maybe it was because I, you know, I think you're relocation of truly across the country.
I think that was really disruptive in that sense. And so I didn't really have that kind of move. I went from, you know, I say it on the East Coast. I moved from, you know, the Baltimore Washington area up to, you know, upstate New York for my first professor job.
So Nick Corlin and I just was really ready to get at it because I for so long was so wanting, you know, my desire to become a professor came from a real.
I'm not going to use the the H word, but a real concern for my colleagues in the K 12 world and their, their inability to be really awesome teachers. And I thought, you know, hey, I'm going to become a teacher educator.
So when I got that first, you know, assistant professor of teacher education position, you know, I, I was fired up and ready to just like kick it because I was going to, you know, change, change the world.
So that transition for me was was really empowering because I had gone back to school and this might be the difference between I was, you know, I made the decision to leave teaching and go back to school full time.
And, you know, I had those four and a half years of working on my graduate degrees to really kind of get in a headspace of making the transition from K 12 teacher to becoming a pro quo professor.
And I was ready to kind of make that move. I'm not saying I did all the things I thought I was ready to do, but I was excited. I made the move.
And, and it was almost just like I felt when I walked into school on the very first day for my first day of becoming a teacher, a second grade teacher, I was like, I am ready for this gig.
I felt the same way for, for my faculty position at SUNY Cortland.
Johnny, you already kind of touched on your specific experience, making that transition, but I was wondering if you guys could talk about sort of in the broad strokes.
I mean, what differences are there between being say a high school teacher and a professor when you're getting ready to head back to school.
So, there's some big ones man at least I experienced in Tim's right. He touched on it. I had a different pathway. So I had already been teaching teachers and working in teacher education and just had always envisioned most of my career being a classroom teacher, having an evening class or an another day class once the semester and, you know,
really fell in love with teacher education through being a high school teacher. Some of the biggest shifts like this, what that fall I referenced is my worst back to school fall was the first time I didn't have.
And I think I've talked about this here on busted pencils, maybe even a producer's choice episode. I didn't have a whole bunch of young people.
That I was responsible for, but also who I were sort of co-learning with, who I, you know, were checking in with every hour, sometimes 40, some new students, right. There's, you have a different interaction with your student base.
And they're older and they're really looking to you more to teach them. And yes, of course, we break the mold and we don't just go up there and lecture for an hour and we do activities and things.
But there's, it's all the sudden like a giant community that you're in and it doesn't have that same sense of like, hey, it's the however many hundred of us all together. Now, of course, once I adjusted and sort of became more active in my college and in the programs and things, then I, then that sort of felt that came back together.
So one of the biggest difference Jacobs, I think when, you know, high schools, middle school, even elementary schools, there's sort of a set community bound by a bit like one building.
Maybe even if there's a couple buildings, if you're at a big high school, you know, there's maybe the East Wing or something like that or the athletic complex.
But it's pretty tight and you see the same sorts of folks. And so the biggest shift being it scales up very quickly.
The other thing I would say, Tim, you can speak to this because we've had different university experiences.
All the sudden Jacob, there was like less like I was my own boss, even though I have like I owe accountability to the taxpayers and like, yes, I work for my students and yes, I have a department chair.
But there's like, it's sort of like this idea of like everybody's in charge of themselves more than anywhere I've ever worked in my entire life.
So take that for what it's worth better, better or worse someday. I'm like, wow, man, who's in charge here?
And then other days, I'm like, God, it's nice to be kind of have this autonomy. But I think there's a lot less of a time management strictness, which you might think, well, that means you don't have to work as much.
Well, it's like when you don't have a fixed like, hey, school starts at 715, I want everybody in their classroom and then at the school.
And then this is the time you're allowed to leave or whatever, you know, like being a teacher, I always report to a principal or to the building.
Kind of culture of stuff. And so, you know, when you go off into college, it's a lot different.
You have to do certain amount of work, but there isn't any system of like clocking in and there's no way necessarily to know.
I guess I mean, they could take like when I use my key card to scan the building and see how often this guy here.
So I think by and large, you know, professors are working around the clock.
Because there's like, there's no clock in clock out, but those are the two biggest things that come up.
And then Jacob, I just missed, you know, for me, that transition was about missing, how natural it was to be like, hey, we got a football.
Even though they have those things in college, like as a professor, you're not part of the coaching staff.
You know, I had a college as a high school teacher or even middle school and those levels, like you wear many hats.
And as a university professor, all of a sudden, you're like, well, I mean, I'm busy, but I'm wearing only one hat.
I'm a professor. And it feels like I'm missing some of those components, like whether it was coaching or being a club.
Now, now you guys know, no spoiler alert. Like I've worked my way into calling more home and I'm on the hockey coach and I'm the professor.
But this is a rare thing. Most I think probably only high school middle school and elementary teachers bring to the university.
It's like, they're like, hey, I'm used to being a teacher and these other things.
So those folks of us in education tend to be, you know, involved in campus in different ways than maybe some said other professors who might be listening.
It's kind of funny because the students go away to college and suddenly they have more independence and it's more up to them to, you know, manage your own time, get things done on time.
But it's the same for professors when you go from teaching at a lower level to now your professor, a lot more independence, a lot less direct management.
I think that probably contributes to the sort of freer atmosphere on a campus than you might feel in high school.
For me, thinking about what you guys have talked about before.
The big thing is talking about coming back to school and having your room that you can set up how you like it, you know, put things up, decorate.
That's a difference when you go to colleges and it because now you don't have a room.
Sometimes you're in the auditorium. Sometimes hey, go to this room. You're teaching there. We're doing this.
Your rooms are all over the place. What's that like?
I, you know, on that one too, it's kind of interesting because particularly at least as a first and second year faculty.
You know, I was so excited to be a professor that first year that when I got, you know, my teaching schedule and it was like you're, you know, you're in Miller Hall from 9 to 1150 and, you know, you're in the auditorium.
It was, it wasn't a rub at all. It's just like, this is great. I get to go over here.
But as time went on, you start to, in Jacob, you really labeled it really nicely.
You miss the fact of having a set space where you can create also, you know, the classroom environment of a culture around the things that you're teaching.
And particularly when I was, you know, working with future elementary education teachers, right?
You know, I would do lots of artwork, lots of things that I want to hang up in the classroom.
And, you know, I remember one time that, you know, I was, I was assigned to the same room, but it was, quote, a science classroom, you know, real science.
And Johnny, I mean, we, I had my students create these mobiles, you know, the things that hang from the ceilings and put like a, I hung them all up, you know, and I left.
And left department had got in touch with my department head and said, hey, Slicker's got to take.
And here's the part that they really rub me. He's got to, you know, that childish crap that they're doing an elementary education, that really devalues what we do in this science classroom.
Oh man.
I know. I know. So, but, but, um, and, and in fact, though, we actually, though, then getting more senior made a case.
Um, when, when I was at Penn State, um, that the elementary education program, we got our own space so that we could set it up as what it might look like in a real classroom with smart boards and all that, and it was a dedicated space.
So, um, yeah, interesting kind of like tale of going, wow, this is great. I get to teach here. I get to teach there to, oh my god, you know, and then holy crap. Now that I'm going to do really cool things. I got this crazy guy yelling at me to going, you know what?
Oh yeah.
Yeah, we'll fix you. Give us our own space and we got it. So there's a quick story for you.
I think you're right, Jacob. More often than not. It's, it's pretty standard that like you just get just like professors, just like students get a room number where their class is going to be.
You see them kind of moving around campus, trying to figure out, okay, I'm going to be in this room at this time. And like Tim said, with some seniority, you might get some regular spaces to teach in or based on like the kind of class.
If you're like teaching chemistry, you probably have a chem lab, but that doesn't account for like your big lecture or your study breakout rooms. Those are just in classrooms all over campuses and it's a logistical nightmare.
And by and large, a different back to school, then say, setting up your classroom, although Tim, you hit the nail on the head. I've been in a couple of of of situations where we've had like a like a classroom that looks like a classroom because we're teaching, you know, elementary methods or classroom management.
We have a classroom that sort of assigned to, hey, who's teaching that particular course that needs the classroom to look like it's an elementary school.
But yeah, it's a big, it's a big shift. Do you remember going to college? Jacob and seeing like the difference like, wow, nobody really decorated these walls, huh?
It's funny because when you go to a college class, you start to build, you know, you come in as strangers over time. You get to know each other. It's more of a community.
You develop your inside jokes from Jacobs knows was bleeding that one time. And now we all remember that.
But the room is completely sterile every single time. I mean, nothing about it changes. And that is a big difference from high school, middle school, elementary school, where over the course of the year, you know, those projects are up or these things are up and these memories kind of become part of the room.
It is a difference. Absolutely.
My last thing that I want to touch on here, I know, you know, we're back to school. This is probably going to come up in conversations a lot.
So this is not the last time we're going to talk about this part of the year. But the thing that I am thinking about most when I go back to school, whatever grade it is.
First day, we have to get to know each other. And part of that are little games and little tricks that teachers have to try to spur those conversations and get people to start getting to know each other and for them to get to know their students.
So I'm going to start with you, Johnny. What's your favorite or your go to first day activity to try to get people to go from strangers to a class?
Well, I'm going to give you a quick go to one that I do. But I have a few up my, like up my sleeve to try. And I'll let Tim sort of plug this because he is the guy who recommended to me, but I took some classes with AQ, ACUE.
And that like that really helped me rethink about syllabus activities and ways to engage your students on the first day. We call it silly week on our campus.
Like, you know, all the students are like, hey, this is the week we're going to hear about syllabi in every single class.
I'm going to get to know each other because I often assume that students are coming from like four other classes where they just done the same activity, like introduce yourself. Let's hear your name and tell us something funny about you or something someone doesn't know.
So I'm an elementary ed social studies teacher. So it's already set up kind of like elementary room, but I have some stations and you go and you pick up a piece of paper.
Right. And you go and you pick up weapon of choice. I call it kind of like, you know, pile of crayons, whether you want a box of colored pencils, the markers, whether you want pens, how you want to group and sit together and they get in these kind of round tables and start working in the prompt is to draw a picture that describes a place that has.
A place that has had a significant impact or influence on who you are today.
So they get there and I don't that's it. That's all it says, you know, draw a picture that represents or communicates a place that's had a significant impact on who you are today or an influence.
So the prompt is up around the room and they, you know, spend a better time and I say, okay, now share a little bit at your tables.
And then we do some share outs and then, you know, I say write your name on the back and it's part of a three step assignment because we do this as a warm up two more times and add to it.
But it's a fun way to get into geography, talk about social studies, communities, places where we've been, how they're influencing us.
I don't say whether it needs to be a positive or negative thing, but just a little bit different.
And then I kind of have they have those out out there kind of like placemats at their seats for the first couple of class periods because they flip it over and add to it and some writing and things.
But then I get to know that it's like, hey, it's Tim who drew a picture of a baseball field because he played, you know, high school baseball and Renton or what? Yeah, I get to learn a little bit. I think in a fun way about the students about their place.
And and it's a little bit easier for me, the older I get than the name game I used to play.
Like Tim pick your favorite fruit that begins with the first letter of your first name.
And then here's the trick you got to say all the people that went before you.
Wait, wait, wait, stop, stop.
Was that that was mine?
All right, well, I'll pass the mic because you all got mine and you're like, wow, weird class sounds like coloring class.
Mike to Tim, Tim, tell him your favorite.
Well, that was one of the things that I did though. Yeah, the silly name game and you get in a circle. And and this is though from my like I did a lot of work without the wreck and camp counseling and things like that.
And so these are kind of, you know, sitting around the campfire activities.
But yeah, the name game and if anybody's going, oh my God, well, yeah, you said hi, I'm Tim. I like tacos, you know, taco Tim. Okay. And so the next person then would say, well, hi, taco Tim. Nice to meet you.
I'm Jacob. And I like jumping jacks. And then Jacob, you know, and so you go around.
And the unfair part of that game is if you're the last person, because you then have to introduce everybody that's gone before you until you come up.
But it's the idea of taco Tim. It also gives them an ability to hopefully remember their names. And I actually do from a name standpoint, I don't think it's actually a bad kind of game to get people to know each other's names on that.
But then I also incorporate into that some some some kind of trust activities where, you know, it kind of like, hey, get four get I want you to get in groups of five.
Now that you've done the name game and you know each other. And four of you, I want you to stand in one of you, I want you to get it in the middle.
Put your arms across your chest. Stand as tight and stiff as a board. Close your eyes.
And you have to trust these people. And you're going to just lean and let yourself fall backwards.
And your team is going to kind of push you around as a floating object. And then they repeat that and do that. And, you know, so yeah, it's it's a trust game.
It creates, you know, it breaks down because, you know, there are some students as as they're about to quote fall back, they just can't do it in all of a sudden they open their eyes go, oh my God, I can't do it.
And things, but you know what it is. Hey, guess what, these are icebreakers is what we call them Jacob, you know, it's it sets that and Johnny gave a great one that actually has some content involved in it too, but it's really just a break down that kind of like, oh my God, oh my God, and you know puts it puts some people in an uncomfortable position for sure.
But it's through that on comfort that we get to, you know, get to know people.
And if you were like me, Tim, I'd be like, I, I abstain from participating in this have fun. I love y'all Taco Tim. This is jumping Jack Johnny. I am not doing the trust activity, but I trust I'll watch and that'll be enough for me to be trustworthy trusting of you guys.
I tried the trust fall once, actually, that's how these nosebleeds started. They did not catch me and it's been a problem. Yeah, no, I love it, though, I love it. In Tim, you know, I got to ask you, you know, this is why I stopped doing the name game after so many years is because I always felt like you're kind of, well, I'll see what you think, but the last person to do it is supposed to be you start with the person next to you and then it comes and ends with you.
That's why Tim still does that. He doesn't have that you have to repeat after a beat all 26 names that went before you. So and they're brand new to you. So yeah, it was always a great way to learn names, but I got worse and worse of it over the years.
And then I finally gave up and and have, you know, put it to rest in the graveyard of last Tim said icebreakers.
But Tim, I got asked, did you did you do the version where you're the, yeah, because I say it was a great way for me to learn their names.
And for any teacher out there here in this, it's all like Tim will admit this to you. This is a great way. You will start day one by saying, like, hey, we all make mistakes and watch. I'm about to make a bunch.
As I don't remember, like, I'll be like, it's taco. Is it Tim right? And so you kind of break down some, some of those first day, like, it's not okay to make a mistake in this space and be like, that guy just but your 80% of our class names.
You know, so fun, fun stuff first, first day of class kinds of activities.
You know, this was a great one. I think a very good episode. I want to wish you guys both luck heading back for another semester of educated education.
I believe taco Tom and jumboly a gym. I want to say.
Thank you both for coming out. Of course, I'm producer Jacob. And before I wrap this show, I always do one more segment. So we're going to do that because it's customary and obligatory. Let's go.
Guys, starting with him as a person, not as a teacher. What's one of these icebreakers that you hate being put into?
One of the ones that I absolutely hate. And I don't know if you know, again, a camp activity, you get a group of at least five people, you put one, one hand, everybody puts one hand in the middle.
And they hold, they grab another hand and then you put another one, you have to make sure that you absolutely don't grab the same person's hand.
And then it's a big spider web best. And you have to without breaking hands, figure out how to un knot yourselves into a complete circle.
Hate it. The human knot. Yeah, hate it.
Thank you, Tim. And Johnny, same question to you. What's one of these icebreakers that you hate to participate in?
There's no, there's no, I wasn't joking earlier about how I would be the one abstaining in Tim's class. It's any, it's any kind of like quick and immediate trust fall related activity or lift, like a group is going to collaboratively lift.
If I'm going off the ground and hands are going on my body, like, we're way, way outside of the comfort zone. So, you know, human knot, I can handle it. I don't love it.
But anything where I have to like, you know, fall backwards or like lay down or you'll be actually physically vulnerable position.
Ain't happening. It's automatic hate. But together, you guys are unstoppable because Tim is so trusting.
And Johnny, you're able to defeat the human knot. So you're basically a super human when you put yourselves together.
Thanks for coming on again. You're great guests on your own show. But Tim, I think there's time for one last thing.
You know what that time is, Jacob, it's time for a moment of sin.
Patriotism doesn't mean support of government. Patriotism means support of the principles it's supposed to stand for.
Thanks for listening to this special episode, Jacob's producers choice.
And remember, you can grab great podcasts, pack full of more busted pencils content on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and of course on the civic media website or at busted pencils.com.
And, you know, if you're not, if case you don't already know who we say it at the end of every show, you know, don't be late for home room on Monday.
And you can grab next week's class and session, hopefully no nosebleeds on Wednesday. And if you don't already know, like, I mean, there's a lot of information here.
But today with us, pencil busters, because our favorite thing, Saturday's broadcast three p.m. Central time across all the civic media network stations for one hour.
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