Oh, man. It's that day. First of all, it's busted pencils fully let it education
talk, but this is our favorite day of the week. Everybody say, you say that on every
well, this is truly, you know why it's Friday, it's producers choice. Jacob chairman of
the board. Johnny and I, you know, we get to kick back and be guests on our own show.
And Jacob, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm not nervous today. I, it's rare, but I'm, I'm looking
forward to this man. What do you, you know, Jacob, you've been becoming a lot more relaxed
here on the show, Tim. And someday I'm going to take advantage of that by coming out with
some sort of gotcha question. But for today, you're still safe. We're going to have nothing
but fun here on the producer's choice show. But to start things off, Tim, let's go. I'm
going to break the norm. We're doing 60 seconds to start the show. Dr. Tim Slecker got a question
for you. When did you first use the internet?
I'm a 1993 ish. And it probably wasn't truly the internet, but I was, you've got mail.
The precursor to the worldwide web, which again, the worldwide web was an enhancement of
the internet. Remember that too. So Jacob, I don't know if you were going to throw me
a trick question. Somebody's saying, Tim, the worldwide web, what didn't come out until
how could you have used it before then? The internet, it was already there.
I am shocked and appalled that you would think that I would try to catch you or get you
with a trick question. That's not what we do around here, Tim. So you're telling me,
you were using the first early internet back when all you could do was direct message
Al Gore. Hey, you know, well, he, I mean, he did invent the internet. That's what I've heard.
You know, Johnny Lupinacci, same question to you. When did you first use the internet?
I was in college. It was probably, I would say 1996 school year 96 97. And I first used
the internet. Like, I know it had been around. And I think, I think my parents actually had
something called prodigy or something. I remember there was like a dial up like a noise
like thing that happened. I stayed away from that machine. My later years in high school,
you know, in college, I had not a roommate, but a buddy I met in the dorms who played guitar
and was teaching me to play guitar and showed me that you could go on this thing in the computer lab
and look up songs. And they would give you tablets and chord charts for the songs. And that was
my first use of the internet. And then shortly thereafter, right right around the same time,
school year 96 97. I loved traveling even as a high school student. We travel a lot when places.
And you always would go to either AAA or you'd go to a travel agent to kind of make plans or
like book tickets places. And I said, we said, we should go somewhere on our break. Right,
let's all go go on like a trip together. I thought, well, that sounds cool. I'll talk to the
travel agent. The person looked at me like, like, dude, we just go to the computer lab and go on
the internet. And I thought, man, I can get guitar tabs and tickets for flights or buses places
on this thing. Amazing. And it was, you know, download from there became pretty regular institution
shortly thereafter for school assignments and things like that and check in your email and all
that jazz. Dude, if you think getting tickets and finding chord progressions is impressive,
wait till you see what we're going to do with the internet today on the producer's choice show.
Oh,
for choo choo producer, a Jacobs choice chairman of the board.
You and I will have two choices. Chairman of the board, Jacob.
Oh, Jacob chairman of the board. I bet the board is spelled B-O-R-E-D.
We choose to go to the moon. Life comes choices.
You've got mail.
Fellas, thank you so much for joining me here today. Welcome back everybody to the producer's
choice show. I'm your host, producer Jacob. We'd like to talk about a lot of different topics on
this show, but today we're returning to one of our favorites. And that is public education.
To help me do it, I've invited two of the most preeminent educators in the entire world.
Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinachi doctors. Welcome back to your own show.
God, Jacob, thanks for inviting us, man. I always love it.
Now, despite what proponents of the teacher shortage narrative, what have you believed?
There are nearly 100,000 freshly minted teachers graduating from American universities every single
year. And that means that there are nearly 100,000 teachers desperately seeking advice as they take
their first steps into their own classrooms. Like anyone, these young teachers turn to the
internet for help when they need it. So today we're going to take a look at some of the advice
that these young teachers are finding online and see what two educated educators have to say about
it. Specifically, these comments come from the Reddit sub Reddit forum, our slash teaching.
Gentlemen, are you ready to respond to some anonymous internet advice for teachers?
Bring it, bring it, man, bring it. The original poster wrote in to the our slash
teaching forum with this question, I am experiencing extreme anxiety about the upcoming year.
I will be a new teacher and am most worried about orientation night with the parents.
Are there any tips you might be willing to share? Thank you for your help.
Tim, Johnny, is this a fairly common fear for a brand new teacher to have?
Damn, we have right on, man. You know, I've got to talk to parents, dude. Wait, you know,
yeah, no, definitely, I could, I could see that. In fact, I know a lot of my students even before
they quote, knew they had their first job. They're like, what do you do on the first day of school
when you meet the parents? So yeah, it really, really strong. And I like the way the the writer put
that forward, the anxiety there. So be interested to hear the advice, though. Well, glad you said
that, Tim, because here is the first piece of advice they received from the collective wisdom of
the internet. Here's piece of advice number one, keep in the back of your mind. Parents are like
animals. They're probably more afraid of you than you are of them. Smile, say hi, be honest,
but also don't share too much about yourself. Dr. Tim Slecker, I'll let you field this first.
How do you feel about this first piece of advice? Good advice, bad advice.
You know what? I actually, I love the advice. And by saying that to me, it's like, so you
think parents are animals. No, I like the way the advice giver used that to actually address the
anxiety, because pointing it out like that, I think, you know, in a joking, kind of funny way,
a little over the top, you know, kind of a Tim vibe, I would say. I think that's great because
it automatically takes away that anxiety. And really, what the advice is is to acknowledge the truth
of that interaction on that, that quote, orientation first night. Parents are also in some form of
their own anxiety about meeting their child's new teacher for the year. And so I think that
that's, you know, great advice. The other part, not too much personal information.
Who? Absolutely. I wish I would have known that.
Is that coming from a place of experience? Tim, did you have a bad experience or what's going on here?
No, I, you know what? And I would say it's taken me a long time to actually be much more guarded
with, you know, who I am, you know, outside of the classroom in those settings, because
and I'll say I've typically though potentially even aired on too much information
intentionally, because I also think that helps disarm that, that kind of wall of separation
that isn't necessarily healthy itself. And so, um, but I do acknowledge that
uh, having a wall with a little bit of permeability is probably the best advice,
but that there is definitely the need to understand that, uh, keep your personal life
really kind of bound up unless it truly has some explanation of making why you're a teacher or
how you're going to run your classroom. I don't know. I'm waiting, I'm waiting for Johnny to jump in.
Yeah, I mean, I, I'm not a big fan of the internet's advice, although like the sentiment I think is
there, you know, acknowledge the anxiety it's real, they're nervous. And I think, uh, in some
context, most parents, I wouldn't say are nervous, but I would say those parent nights are like
not not to share personal information, but, you know, equate it to like a meet and greet.
It's like a first date, right? So there's a little nervousness on both sides. Parents have been
through a lot more of these than you have new teacher. So, so we're used to the routine. We know
the awkwardness of the thing. We know the, the, the role, what, what be you and share the important
things about your passion and your excitement to educate their kids to get to learn about their
kids. You're excited to make, you know, learn the unique things that each of their kids bring to
the classroom to get to know them. Uh, and thank them for being there because it's the meet and
greet. You're excited to meet with those parents like, Hey, we're in this together. And you can
even say, you've been doing this few more years than I have, right? And you're on the other end.
And together, you know, we're kind of co-working to support this student in the classroom. So
this is just a meet and greet. Uh, any questions you can always come to me, you can always send me
an email, share how you prefer to be communicated with, whether you're an email person or, you know,
you have a classroom text program in your school, whatever it is, you know, share that, that policy.
Just kind of give them a, give them a little orientation to your classroom, to your teaching
and approach it like a meet and greet, right? Just getting to know folks, just starting off the
relationship, sort of like, Hey, I'm new to the neighborhood. Like what day is garbage day? Like
just kind of early, you moved somewhere and you talked to the neighbors, same kind of thing.
You're getting to know one another and you can't go wrong if you share your excitement and passion
and every parent loves to hear that a teacher, especially a new teacher, is excited to learn
about the exciting things and the unique interests and personalities that their kids bring to your
classroom, right? And I always say this, I love to have meet and greet night, be starting on the
right foot. So the first time we talk isn't when your son or daughter, you know, is missing
something or is, you know, in trouble and I'll reach out to you for both good things and the
not so good things. So hope we're working together and on the same page. They love to hear that too.
So yeah, it's always going to be something that brings a little bit of anxiety, but she got this
and I don't think that parents are like animals. So the internet tried to make a cool comparison too.
So Tim was pro parents or animals. Johnny was anti-parents or animals. Tim, give that a, give
that piece of advice or rating. How many stars out of five would you give that piece of advice?
I actually, I'd give that a four. Johnny, how about you? I'm feeling less, maybe? Like two, two,
maybe, like 1.7. Moving on to the second piece of advice, maybe this one will be better. We'll see.
Well, according to Tim, the first one was pretty darn good.
Piece of advice, number two, you control the room. The parents are just your customers. You're the
manager. Don't forget that. Johnny, I'll let you go first on this one. Is this good advice for
teachers? No, you, I mean, I would say I'll give it one star in the fact that you want to make
be organized, be prepared, be you, because no one wants to know, oh my gosh, that teacher has
no plan. So have a plan, right? The classroom is a space that is your space. So I give it one star
because it gets the right idea in terms of it's assuring the parents to know that the teacher is
prepared and that, you know, knows what they want to do and share. So maybe even have a little
agenda or have like a little PowerPoint up on your screen. Like, so what we're going to talk about
in this eight minutes were together, you know, before the little bell rings and you go to your next
class to meet the next teacher, you know, so they get a gist of it. Maybe even have a handout,
right? Especially with your contact info on there, parents like that. But if you communicate
that sort of like you're in charge, you're, you know, I don't know. I've never been a authoritarian
leader of a classroom with kids. I'm certainly not one around parents. So, you know, you can be organized
and not be a dictator of that space. And telling grownups what to do goes about as well as telling
kids what to do. And that's my attempt at sarcasm. It doesn't go over big. Dr. Tim Slecker,
same question to you. Now, Johnny didn't like it. So I assume you're going to love it. But give us
your views on it. Yeah, horrendous. Yeah, oh, my please, don't. Wow, the one thing that might
be setting the year in it off is getting the years started off on truly a horrendous footing.
Um, taking control of the room. Yeah, wait a minute. If your child is going to act like this,
she might as well just tell him to stay on a pleasant fall far from the tree. Does it?
That made me think of that. Oh, my God. No, please, please. Um, I don't think this one needs
a whole lot of elaboration other than to say that, um, the person who offered that advice,
I'm going to say is not going to have a great future in producing, uh, advice books for teachers.
Yeah. How many stars at a five do you give it to him? I actually would, uh, Johnny was,
I think, was gracious. I don't think it deserves a, a starring, um, on this holy cow.
Okay. I just think it would, I just think it would be hilarious to give it a try though. Like,
you're in my house. So Johnny, this is not advice that you give your educators that you're
educated. Oh, no, absolutely not. Let's see how we feel about this third and final piece of advice.
And this is the biggest piece of advice that I found. This person was very thoughtful, had a lot
of different pieces of advice. I'll wrap up into one comment starting here. Do not spend a lot
of money to decorate your room. The empty space is for your students to decorate with their work.
It's okay to say no to extra work. Just say you're focusing on your own classroom and keeping
your head above water as a new teacher piece of advice number three from them. Enjoy the students
and create positive relationships. This will pay off whenever you need to address a situation with
them or their parents down the line. And finally, the school here is a marathon and not a sprint
pace yourself. This is a much bigger, more nuanced piece of advice. Dr Tim Slecker, let's keep
the ball in your court. How do you feel about that? The last part, absolutely. I'm probably
within all of that. Actually, the advice giver only actually needed to point that out because
that is so hard to even know what that means too. I almost wonder if boy, you can't come to
that wisdom until you've actually lived through thinking that you were going to be in your first
year of teaching nominated as the teacher of the year because of the bulletin board changes
that you were doing every two weeks. The rotation of learning centers that you crafted at home by
yourself every night so that the kids could have a new experience. The original lesson planning
that you put forward every day, you try that and you're going to end up like this teacher I know
in 1990 who in his third week of school looked out into the classroom of 29 seven year olds
and all of a sudden the blur came over and they went over to their lead teacher and said,
I got to go home. Now, I'm going to keep confidential who that person was because they revealed
that experience to me. That was me, Jacob. That was me. That was you. I thought it was the
Minnesota. He told you. No, I mean, you know, and I had to learn that just like that because I mean,
my cognitive, emotional, all those things, it's shut down that day because I was literally,
I had no idea what it meant to quote, run a marathon, not at all. And so all the other
vice, I mean, I don't know about leaving the room empty, let the kids take care of that. I'm,
you know, what I actually think having a really nice inviting room as parents and kids walk in,
I actually think that's a good thing, you know, spend some effort to really create, you know,
here it is, right? That's a first impression moment. You know, so it's like, you know, don't show
up to a job interview in your jeans and your muscle shirt, you know, it takes some time by
a suit. You're a teacher, get your room ready, man. You know, get it set up, make it look inviting.
Of course, you don't have to go over the top, but, you know, I understand the, hey, let the kids
decorate, let it be there on, you know, first of all, they'll do a horrible job.
I mean, you don't want your kids decorating your room for a first impression. Okay. I understand
they had let the, no, no, no, they won't do it. So, but man, marathoning, boy, that is,
man, that's, that's, that's gold. So how do you rate that advice, Tim?
Just because of including that one on the end, I would have said a three, but they get the pushing
the four. Okay. So parents are animals and kids suck at decorating is what I've learned from
this advice review session. Dr. Johnny Lupinati, same question to you. What do you think about that
advice? Yeah. I think, well, you, you, you said it well, Jacob, there's a lot of advice packed
into that. And some of it's really good. And I'll echo Tim to any teacher, especially new teachers.
The school year is a marathon, but you will burn out if you, you know, go, go full speed right
from the get go. You have to pace yourself. You have to make sure that you're resting and that,
you're not maxed out by October, September, or even November, right? You got to, you got to go
usually August to June. So, so, so it's a haul. And you'll get used to it. You train for it,
and you'll learn the, the, the ebbs and flows of the school year. I've been in different scenarios
in terms of room decor. I agree with Tim. I think it's important to have a welcoming environment.
That said, if you just got your classroom two days before, you know, it might be, you might be a
higher, you might be near, you might be under resourced. You know, don't sweat the small stuff
because you are what matters. So you can be honest, right? You could say, we just got into our
classrooms less than two days ago. I've been in all my trainings. I'm excited for the school year.
I can't wait for you all to come back, visit the classroom and see it in a few weeks, maybe in a
few months. You'll see student work up via other things. But if you have like most districts,
days dedicated to preparing your room, we get things ready before the kids even come. If you have
that luxury, right, go for it, right? Make it your space, make it's inviting space for kids,
make it something that like as kids get distracted because they will, that they're focused on something,
you know, inspirational or educational. And you don't have to break the bank to do it, right?
Talk to other teachers, right? They'll share some stuff that they're maybe not using in their
room anymore that they have. A veteran teachers are a great resource. Talk to your school librarian.
It's a great conversation point. You know, you can even go and collect some things. Reach out to
some nearby universities. If you're a high school teacher, especially recruiters will give you
materials to say, hey, yeah, we got some local universities and schools nearby. They'll give you
some penance and some different things to put up in your classroom. All kinds of unique ways,
you know, to display things. Get some maps, right? There are a lot of free teacher resources out
there. Start collecting them ahead of time. Kind of have a little box or create like most of us
teachers have of things that hang up in my classroom, right? Have your classroom expectations
clear, right? Have the, you know, usually most teachers listen and know this. You develop
like what the rules and expectations are for your classroom and you have them up and kind of have
the schedule of the day. Those kinds of things have your space ready for the students. It's just like
you'd be having guests over. You prepare to host a party. You know, school is kind of like
hosting a big learning party. So make it fun and inviting. So I think that's important, but that said
the anxiety and stress of being a new teacher, right? If you're going right in and there aren't a lot
of resources, you can make up for it with you. You're the reason the kids are going to be learning,
right? And you'll make that space work. And Jacob, I like the part about showcasing students work.
Yes. So like in Tim does too, but it's not everywhere and all over the place. You might have
able to embroider space like this month where, you know, if I'm teaching geometry, maybe we were
doing Pythagorean's theorem and there were some cool projects that we did with that, you know,
I make sure that stuff's up on the board. Or maybe you're a big fan of like the school sports,
you know, maybe over the years, collect some artifacts for that or advertise school clubs,
different things in your room that are a little bit about you and also give students a point
of connection to other things in the school. And so I give it Jacob about a two and a half out of five
right in the middle because there was some good advice. And there was also some advice I was
sort of like, man, that's just a stuff that's making it more stressful for the new teacher.
So a lot of advice, a little bit of a mixed bag. So some of it Tim liked all of it. Johnny didn't like
very much. And I think that might reflect that Johnny, you're so embedded in actually giving good
advice to teachers all the time in your day-to-day routine. Yeah, oh, yeah, man. And just to validate
the original question like, hey, I'm a new teacher and I'm anxious about that parent night.
Just so you know, you're not alone out there, that's one of the most common things teachers,
new teachers or teachers to be asked me about. What do you do on that first meet with the parents?
What do you recommend? What do you suggest? So you're not alone. That's a common question.
Great topic for producer's choice, Jacob. Yeah. And you know, and don't line up shots.
That that that would be advice for the parents who don't want you don't think it's a good idea.
I listen, Tim, I don't know much about being a teacher, but you do not think expert opinion
should not pour out a bunch of shots for the parents on orientation. Is that not good advice?
Not not good advice. Well, then I'm not even going to read the fourth one.
Anyway, guys, great show today, but there's one last thing that I like to do here. Let's go!
Fellas, we just looked at a lot of advice for this poor teacher starting their first year
who is worried about orientation night. Dr. Tim Slecker, can you give some good advice for that teacher?
You know what? Be who you are. You know, be positive. Talk about the things that excite you.
Maybe even give a little, you know, quick, why did I become a teacher?
We're talking about first year, first time teacher. And also communicate that please, parents,
feel free to reach out because this is a partnership that we're coming into, you know, and just
don't make it so big in the sense that you and put so much anxiety on yourself that you
overdo things in that moment. You know, there's a simplicity to that first night where it's just like,
you know, I'm Mr. Tim Slecker. I'm, you know, really excited this year. It's my first year
teaching. You know, I've got a lot of things planned, but you know, at any time, you know, I'm open
to communications and I'm looking forward to, you know, creating a partnership with all of you
this year so that we can have a great year. There's a simplicity there, right? And so I would say,
you know, keep keep it simple, keep it real and keep it open to the fact that they realize that
this is somebody they are going to start to feel comfortable with, you know, being in touch
within communication. I think that's it. Create that sense of your ability to be of not available at
every moment's time, but that you are that person. And here's the thing, oh my god, then
they're all going to call me, no, they're not. Here's the other part of with that. You'll find out
that those parents, yeah, actually, you're going to find out that there are parents who are going
to be in touch a lot. They're going to be parents who are, you know, okay? And then you're going to
also find time going like, what am I ever going to hear from that one? So open invitation for
partnership will not create a rush of every parent coming at you, but your ability to say and present
genuinely that you are open to working as a partner. That really, you got to communicate that
right away because if they come out of that first with going like, boy, this person's not going to,
you know, it's kind of like a lone wolf who has no interest in, and that'll be hard to recover from.
Good advice, Tim. A little long. So I'm going to give you a four out of five.
Okay. Hold Johnny to 60 seconds this time, man. Johnny, you're super succinct all the time. So
I feel that I can trust you with this 60 second question. What's some good advice from a real
educated educator on this problem? Yeah, I think Tim gave a great and most important advice. Be
you, be yourself. And then something concrete, I'll tell you is that your administrator or a veteran
teacher in the school or maybe just the next, the teacher in the classroom next door will tell you
how long is each group of parents going to be in my room, right? And say it's eight minutes or
12 minutes or 17 minutes. I'll give you the time. Plan something out that's under that time and
practice it, right? Just to be succinct. Like Tim said, keep it simple. But say if I have eight
minutes, I want to go over these things in five minutes and I'll save the last three for, you know,
some questions and conversations or give you some extra time to get to the next classroom,
right? That will go a long way because it will low key showcase your organizational skills
and give them a little sample of what it's like to be in your classroom.
You're calm, you're collected, you're you, you planned ahead and you gave them the information
that they needed. Don't over plan and fill the time with too much space and then people are confused
leaving your room. They have eight handouts. It's all too much. Don't over prepare, prepare just
the right amount. Get the amount of time. Practice it a few times with yourself or with your
with your teacher friend there, you know, and make sure you're ready to go and just keep it simple
and and a meet and greet. That's it. I like that advice, Johnny, but I want to leave you room to
grow because I think if I gave you a perfect score that, you know, where are you going to go? So
four out of five for both of you, both of you did very good jobs. Dr. Tim Slecker, Dr. Johnny
Lupinacci, as always, it's a huge pleasure and honor to have you as guests on your own show.
No, thank you for having us, Jacob. And now Tim, I think there's something left for you to do.
It's time for your moment of zin.
Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy. It is absolutely essential to it.
Hey, there, pencil busters. This is producer Jagan. And thank you for listening to the producer's
choice show. If you enjoyed this show, check out all the busted pencils programs starting out
Monday with home room, Wednesday with class and session. And of course, you can always find us
every Saturday across the civic media network for one hour of your favorite blue collar scholars.
Tim Johnny and Jacob and keep busting pencils.