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Making Math Engaging: How Mary Ryan Brought Experiential Learning to Students | Childcare Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:19
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:21
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:25
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:27
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi, and today's guest is Mary Ryan.
0:31
She just retired as director of early Childhood education at
0:35
Albert Unified School District in Riverside, CA, where she
0:39
oversaw the preschool and transitional kindergarten
0:42
programs for her district. And she has just taken on a new
0:45
role with the educational consulting agency Illuminated
0:48
Collective. We'll also hear how she always
0:51
wanted to be a teacher ever since she was in kindergarten.
0:54
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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1:24
Now back to our guest today, Mary Ryan.
1:27
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
1:30
No problem, I'm excited. So tell me about this earliest
1:34
memory of wanting to be a teacher.
1:38
I remember a few small things about kindergarten, but one of
1:45
them was the teacher had a recorder and she was recording
1:48
our voices for some reason and each of us had to go up and say
1:52
what we wanted to be when we grew up.
1:54
And I remember telling her I will be a teacher.
1:59
And. I also remember one of the
2:00
little girls saying she's going to be a witch.
2:02
I think she was thinking of Halloween, but poor thing,
2:06
everyone burst out laughing. And have you stayed in touch
2:09
with her? What is she doing today?
2:13
The teacher or the little? Girl, the little girl.
2:15
No, we moved away from that area and I didn't really stay in
2:19
touch with anyone. So tell me about this path to
2:23
actually getting to be a teacher, as you were telling me
2:26
before we got on air, about just sort of this collection of weird
2:30
jobs that you always seem to fall into.
2:33
Yeah, not so weird that when I was 10, we moved into an area.
2:40
Our next door neighbor had three children.
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The oldest one was three and the the youngest was just born when
2:47
we moved in and I she started having me go with her places or
2:53
coming over during the afternoon and I would take care of the
2:56
kids. They had rental properties and
3:00
so I would go with her to the rental properties because she
3:03
took all three kids by herself once and the boys painted the
3:07
baby's head blue. She decided she needed help.
3:13
So she, I sometimes I, she'd be waiting for my school bus to get
3:17
home soon, take me with her. So I always kind of worked with
3:22
kids I babysat throughout high school even.
3:26
I did try working at a clothing store like high school girls do,
3:31
and it just didn't work for me. It was not active enough.
3:35
It was not dynamic enough. I think I did get trained and
3:43
then this is one of the weird side jobs.
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I got trained once this summer. I was 17.
3:49
Someone I babysat was a dentist and his dental assistant was
3:53
going on maternity leave. She trained me to do her job.
4:00
So for the summer, I was 17, I did dental impressions, I helped
4:07
fill cavities, I took X-rays. I, I basically did an assisting
4:13
job and then I went off to my senior year of high school and
4:19
once I got done with high school, it was, I was working in
4:23
high school. I started working at a preschool
4:25
and that kind of became the thing.
4:28
By the time I was in, I was 18, I was Co directing the preschool
4:36
and then I started going to the Community College because that
4:41
was right when you started leading actual college credits
4:44
in order to teach preschool. I went to one of my professors
4:50
said, hey, there's a job coming up that I know about and I think
4:54
you'd be really good at it. It's at the domestic violence
4:56
shelter in town. They're looking for someone to
4:59
run the children's program during the afternoon.
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And I said, OK, so I try. I, I interviewed, I got the job.
5:08
I worked from 3:00 to 8:00 so I could still go to College in the
5:12
morning. I did that for several years.
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It turned into a full time job and by the end of the time I was
5:22
the director or the night time supervisor of the of the shelter
5:28
home. So it was battered women and
5:31
their children. I I would go forward to
5:34
midnight. I would oversee what was going
5:37
on in the home but also answer their crisis line.
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So I was doing crisis calls with women who were needing to get
5:43
out of their homes. It was an interesting education.
5:49
It was really hard on me to see the women that went back,
5:52
especially after I had worked with their children and heard
5:56
their children's stories. It was so hard, but I saw a lot
6:01
of good come out of it. I saw women get out.
6:03
I saw women, you know, connect with their kids and the kids
6:07
start to heal. And so that always stayed with
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me. And then of course, by then I
6:14
was finishing. I had finished my BA.
6:16
I got my teaching credential, and then I started teaching
6:21
kindergarten my first year. I've taught kinder up through
6:24
second and then TK came along and I taught TK for a number of
6:29
years. TK is transitional kindergarten
6:32
in California. It means that kids who aren't
6:35
the age appropriate for kinder still get a year of schooling in
6:38
public schools, which is amazing for especially the district I
6:44
work in is lower income a lot. Like like probably 75 to 80%
6:51
lower income kids on free and reduced lunch and needing extra
6:56
support. So it was amazing to be able to
6:59
give those kids a year before kinder.
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So a few things I want to go back to here is we covered a
7:06
whole bunch of ground there. But the, the, the biggest thing
7:10
that I'm sure everybody listening still wants to hear
7:12
more about is this baby's head getting painted blue.
7:16
What was that all about? So the mom I was working for,
7:24
they, as I said, they owned rental properties.
7:27
The boys there, there was a baby girl.
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She was, I think born the day we moved into the home next door.
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She was just an infant. The boys were 18 months and
7:40
three years old and active, very active, you know, as boys are or
7:47
as kids are and just curious. And I think I, I wasn't there
7:54
when it happened. She was painting in a room.
7:57
I think they found the paint and I don't know what, what
8:00
possessed them. You never know with kids.
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You're. Going to decorate our little
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brother. Paint the baby's head.
8:07
That's something I wouldn't put past my own boys.
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Blue Sheen on her head for a while, even after getting the
8:12
paint off. I have two boys who are 8 and
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10, very active. Yeah, I know very well.
8:19
And I've got pictures of my youngest when he was probably
8:23
about four, I would guess. We had these window markers
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right, where you could draw all over the windows, and he just
8:31
loved using those. The problem was we had to take
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them away from him because he would start drawing all over
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himself. He was like, OK, like, as long
8:42
as we can keep him contained and he stays off the carpet and the
8:45
couch and everything. But then he started putting them
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in his mouth. And, you know, he looked like a
8:50
Smurf from the inside out. And so, yeah, we, we had to put
8:53
a stop to that. So yeah, I could see a couple of
8:56
boys with their little baby siblings saying, oh, this looks
9:01
fun. What are we gonna paint?
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We're gonna paint this little kid here.
9:05
Yeah. So she kind.
9:08
Of looked like a Smurf. Yeah, yeah, I could see that.
9:12
And that was back in the day maybe when Smurfs were popular.
9:14
Or was this before Smurfs? Oh, it would have been in the
9:18
70s. OK that might have been pre
9:20
Smurfs. Yeah, those kids are all grown
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and I and my understanding is the baby has kids have grown and
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she's a dentist now. OK.
9:28
All right. So the interesting thing about
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your story of being in kindergarten and not a lot of
9:35
memories from kindergarten, but one that you remember very well
9:38
is, and it's an unusual thing for teacher to have been doing
9:41
voice recordings in class, but she was and asking everybody
9:45
what they want to be. And you remember very firmly, I
9:47
want to be a teacher. I have a niece who's just going
9:51
into college. Her name is Sophia.
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And she has always similar kind of thing.
9:55
She's always wanted to be a teacher.
9:57
She's always wanted to be an educator.
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When she plays, you know, as a little kid, she plays like she's
10:03
a teacher and she sets up a pretend school.
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And then as she got older, she set up courses to teach, like
10:11
the local neighborhood kids. And I think the first year maybe
10:14
she did it for free to get some practice.
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And then she started charging money.
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And she had a nice little side business where she was doing
10:21
this. So I, it seems like, you know,
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you're wired the same way. I see you nodding your head.
10:25
You're like, yeah, yeah. Like that's me, like.
10:28
Sometimes teachers are born. So you started working at the
10:32
preschool and what was it? Within less than a year you were
10:36
the Co director. Yeah.
10:39
How did that? Happen so.
10:41
Fast. I started as an assistant just
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again, I had a lot of experience with kids, so I thought, OK,
10:47
that'll work You didn't have to have college credits then.
10:52
So it was easy for them to bring me in.
10:55
I, the person who owned the preschool, I don't, I, I, I was
11:04
young, so it was hard. It's hard for me to remember my
11:06
exact. She didn't run the preschool.
11:09
Well, it was always, you know, we're trying to figure out what
11:14
to do. We're trying to figure out where
11:16
things are. We're trying to, and at one
11:20
point after hearing, you know, we just don't have money for
11:24
that. We don't.
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But the preschool is full. How could you not have any
11:28
money? I looked she'd show me her books
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and there were people who were like 3 months without paying
11:35
their their payments. And I said, This is why you
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can't live like this, how you can't even feed your family like
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this. How are you doing this in life?
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And, and, and maybe it was that bossiness.
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I just, I said she said, well, OK, then you're going to be the
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one that works on this part and you're going to have to talk to
11:54
the parents. And I said, yeah, they have to
11:57
pay back pay and they have to start paying something or their
12:00
kids can't come anymore. I know it's hard for you.
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I know you love these parents and these kids, but you can't do
12:06
it for free. It's you have a family.
12:09
Was that hard for you as an 18 year old to be calling on these
12:12
parents and saying hey pay up? You know, a little bit, Yeah.
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But I've, I just always had that attitude.
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I think like, this is, this is the way it needs to be.
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If you, you know, you made a contract, you decided you wanted
12:28
to bring your kids here. And we love having them, but we
12:30
can't do this for free. And I think that's kind of the
12:34
way I said, you know, I I appreciate it.
12:36
You know, we love your kids, but we can't do it for free.
12:40
She's got to pay us and she's got to feed her family.
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So. Yeah.
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And so at what point did you decide to transition from that
12:49
into the work at the domestic violence shelter?
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I was 19 when I started there. I don't know how far into it
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was, probably just maybe a few, a few months, six months or so.
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But I was 19. I remember when I moved, when I
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worked there, it was a huge culture shock for me to go into.
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Not that I didn't know that kind of thing existed, I just didn't
13:16
know how prevalent it was and how awful the stories were.
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And, and I one of the things I remember a little girl who was
13:25
eight and a lot of times it happens that battered women are
13:30
isolated by their partners. So she kind of started using the
13:34
8 year old as her sounding board and her like friend to talk to.
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And the 8 year old opened up to me.
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We had to take her to the hospital or the doctor at one
13:45
point because she kept having stomach ache stomach.
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She had ulcers. From hearing, from seeing it all
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and then hearing her mom's side of everything, you know, it, it
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was just an amazing shock to my system of this is how people
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live. And this is.
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And there was a lot of training that went with it.
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They, they did a lot of training with me.
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And you know, this is the cycle of violence.
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And you know, this is the way, you know, some of most of the
14:12
time these women were in abusive families and then the abuse is
14:17
so normal to them that they don't even think about it.
14:21
It just becomes that's their, their relationship that they
14:24
move into. And so knowing all that, but,
14:28
but my biggest thing was the kids, you know, they just, they
14:31
can't. And I would tell mom, you know,
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they can't make this decision. You have to make the decisions
14:37
for them and you have to think about what they're, what you're
14:39
doing to them too. And you got to do, you know, you
14:41
have to think these things through and talking to them
14:46
about, you know, this is what they said.
14:48
This is what's happening. It's so hard.
14:52
I learned how to make restraining orders.
14:55
Oh wow, you got involved with those, huh?
14:58
Yeah. So when I became a teacher, that
15:00
was good. I learned how to, I already knew
15:02
how to do CPS reports. I already knew how to.
15:04
So at school, they'd say, hey, we have to make ACPS report.
15:08
Can you tell us? You know, it was, it was normal
15:13
to me. It was hard.
15:15
I had, I had my son while I was working there and it was hard.
15:21
Once I had him, by then I had finished my BAI was doing my
15:26
student teaching. I was on my way to becoming a
15:28
teacher, but it was really hard. I think the emotion of watching
15:33
these kids have struggled so much and then having my own son
15:36
and, you know, he's just a baby, and I think it just opened up my
15:40
heart in a different way. What were some things that
15:44
helped you cope through that difficult job I.
15:51
Don't know. I think, I think they say
15:55
compartmentalizing. I think compartmentalizing like
15:58
this is my life, this is my work.
16:02
Trying to separate from it. When I wasn't there, when I was
16:06
young, when I first started, you know, in the, in my 20s, I would
16:11
work from 4:00 to midnight. I'd go out clubbing.
16:17
And you know, in the 80s it was clubbing and running around.
16:21
And, you know, that was easy to go and do that and, and I love
16:25
to dance anyway. So I would go and do that and
16:29
forget about it. But then once I had my son, it
16:32
wasn't as easy. You know, I wasn't doing that
16:34
anymore. And I wasn't, I was a new
16:38
teacher. It was harder to to do that kind
16:42
of stuff. I was doing my student teaching
16:44
at that time and trying to get through everything.
16:47
I finally, I just had to walk away and say, you know, I'm I'm
16:51
going to be a teacher, so I'm going to have to quit working.
16:55
It was too hard for me to hear the stories.
16:58
Plus I had some the abuse as a child and, and that all came up
17:06
during that time. So I just had to get out.
17:09
Yeah. Did that, was that an impetus to
17:13
you seeking any additional treatment for some of your own
17:16
experiences? Yeah, I went.
17:19
I started therapy probably right before I got pregnant with my
17:25
son. I started parent therapy, went
17:28
through some sessions and it was good.
17:30
I was very jaded for a while. I got really like, oh,
17:35
everything is so terrible and things are so bad and, and
17:39
that's not really the person I am.
17:41
So I knew I had to go talk to someone and it was great.
17:45
I, it helped a lot. I got through it.
17:48
I went back at one point because I left his, my son's dad.
17:52
And so I went back into therapy and talked about that
17:55
relationship and everything. It was good.
17:59
I I think anyone who even has an inkling maybe I need to talk
18:02
someone should do it. I think that's a great point,
18:05
and I think that's something that everybody needs to hear.
18:08
There's been a stigma around mental health for a long time.
18:13
And I it's getting better, right, that that stigma cloud is
18:17
lifting, but it's still there. And there's a lot of people who
18:21
resist because they think it's a sign of weakness or, you know,
18:26
if, you know, I was playing kickball with my kids a few
18:29
weeks ago and I fell on my shoulder.
18:31
I had no hesitation to go to a doctor and get it scanned, make
18:34
sure that there was nothing broken, right?
18:36
But if there were, you know, a big life change for me, a career
18:41
change, I got fired. I, you know, leaving my spouse,
18:44
There's something going on with my kids that would cause a
18:48
little hesitation like, oh, I wonder, you know, should I just,
18:52
should I just go out clubbing? Should I just try to bury this?
18:54
Should I try to find an escape? And, or should I try to do
18:57
something about it? And so good on you for, you
19:00
know, not once, but at least twice, you know, that you've
19:02
shared with us here that you identified, hey, this, this is
19:05
an area I need some help in. And to hear you talk about it,
19:08
it was it was a huge assistance for you.
19:12
It's important, I think, and, and it is hard, it is scary to
19:17
even talk about it to your family and friends.
19:19
And but it's, it is better now. I know one of my nephews was
19:25
having problems and we talked to him about, you know, you need to
19:28
go talk to someone, honey. And it just kind of normalizes
19:32
it, you know, oh, you're, you're struggling.
19:35
Even my son got married during COVID.
19:39
Even with him, you need to go talk to a marriage counselor
19:42
before you get married. Make sure you go talk to
19:44
someone. You guys need to make sure you
19:46
have a good strong base before you get married.
19:48
That's. Interesting.
19:49
Yeah, I just believe like there are people out there and that's
19:53
their job and so why not utilize them?
19:55
Why not? You know, if you're you need
19:57
help, go talk to someone. And for you, how did you find
20:00
the person that you were comfortable talking with?
20:03
How did I find that person? I think it started while they're
20:07
still working for the shelter and I think one of the people
20:11
there recommended someone. I had Kaiser, No, I don't even
20:18
think I had insurance at the time.
20:21
So she took me on as AI paid a lesser amount, but it was great.
20:28
And she's the one that I went back to the second time,
20:33
luckily. And and and it's hard.
20:36
I think you have to be, you know, you're in a a vulnerable
20:39
spot and if the person's not working out, it's hard to Vince,
20:42
OK, I it's not me. I need to go find someone else.
20:46
It's that part's hard too. Yeah, You know, I've actually,
20:52
I've been to see different counselors and therapists over
20:54
the years and I found them to be incredibly helpful myself.
20:57
And one piece of advice that I like to give to people is to not
21:01
feel bad if you get to a point with a particular therapist
21:04
where it's not working. Either it's not working in the
21:07
beginning or it's you get to a later stage and you're like,
21:11
well, that was helpful. And now I feel like we've we've
21:13
sort of maxed out. You know, I have been in that
21:15
position before where, yeah, this was helpful for a couple of
21:18
months and now I feel like, OK, I'm good.
21:21
And if maybe it's time for me to move on to somebody else who has
21:25
a little bit of a different perspective.
21:26
So don't have that sort of, it's great when you find somebody
21:30
that you have that connection with.
21:31
But if that connection is not there or if it dissipates and
21:34
you're not getting the value anymore, you know, it's
21:36
perfectly within your rights to move on.
21:38
You're not going to hurt their feelings.
21:39
They'll be all right. And it's like that with any
21:42
profession. I think if your doctor's not
21:43
working for you, go find someone else if you know, if you're, I
21:47
think I think people hesitate to do those things, but it has to
21:51
be best for you. Agreed.
21:54
So tell me how you got started then at Albert.
21:56
How? How did this come about?
21:59
I grew up in the district, so it was the district I had grown up
22:03
in. I was placed there.
22:08
I don't know if they did it on purpose or not.
22:11
So when you're doing your teaching courses, the, the
22:14
college places you in a district to do your student teaching and
22:18
it's a year of basically working for free that you go in and, and
22:24
you do different grade levels and for an amount of time and
22:29
work on, you know, doing lessons and things like that.
22:34
And the college placed me in Alvord.
22:36
I don't know if that was the reason, but.
22:40
And then I did some subbing. Once you get your VA, you're
22:45
eligible to substitute teach. So I did some subbing when I
22:48
wasn't doing my student teaching.
22:50
One of my, again, it just fell into my lap.
22:54
One of my best friends growing up, her father was a principal
22:59
at one of the schools. And I subbed there and he said,
23:05
hey, I've got a kindergarten next year.
23:07
Do you want it? And I said, yeah, yes.
23:11
And that was it. I didn't interview.
23:13
I didn't. Yeah.
23:15
Just reputation alone is sort of opening up these doors for you
23:19
as you've moved things. Fell in my lap and I think I'm
23:22
sure part of it was, you know, I was his daughter's good friend
23:24
and and you know, he knew my family and but then the same
23:30
thing once I started working my third year teaching, which is so
23:37
when you're a teacher, you're on basically you're on probation
23:41
for two years. It's not like everyone else that
23:44
you have six months and and that's it.
23:47
You're they can let you go at any time without cause for two
23:51
years. Once you walk into school that
23:55
third year, you're tenured. That doesn't mean they can't let
23:59
you go. They have to have 'cause they
24:01
have to prove their cause. But but for two years, you, they
24:04
can let you go at any time and, and just say, yeah, we're, we're
24:08
going to go another way or we're not going to keep you.
24:13
So my third year they came to me and said, Hey, could you be a
24:18
mentor? Would you be interested in being
24:19
a mentor? I've only been teaching a short
24:22
time and I said, I don't, I don't even know what I'm doing.
24:25
Like I don't know if I have. Any I need a mentor get me one
24:28
of those. Yeah.
24:30
And I did my first two years. You get a mentor teacher
24:33
usually, but I said sure, if you think so.
24:37
And they came and watched me teach and interviewed me and
24:41
said, yeah, we want you to be a mentor.
24:43
And so I was my third year teaching.
24:45
I was mentoring first year teachers on what to do and how
24:49
to do it and how to find help and support and what they needed
24:52
in their classrooms. And I was very lucky that after
24:57
the summer, after my first year of teaching, I was sent to a
25:00
math conference because back then there weren't even
25:03
standards. There were some guidelines, but.
25:08
You mean that there weren't standards?
25:10
It wasn't like today, like here is a list of everything the kids
25:14
need to know by the end of the year.
25:16
This, these are the things you have to absolutely teach.
25:19
There was a list of, you know, in second grade, make sure they
25:23
start doing cursive writing and you know, things like that.
25:27
But not it wasn't a hard fast like people did kind of their
25:33
own thing a lot. But I know I wanted, I needed
25:38
more math in college. You don't.
25:41
They don't. They didn't focus as much.
25:43
I don't know what they do now, but they didn't focus as much on
25:45
math. So they sent me, they paid for
25:48
sending me to a week long math training and I've done that math
25:53
ever since. It's hands on, it's experiential
25:57
and kids get it. Like I, I even, I struggled in
26:02
math as a kid. I when I went through the
26:04
training went, oh, that's why. Oh, OK, that makes sense now.
26:10
Kids, little kids especially, need their hands on things.
26:14
They need to understand it in a concrete way.
26:18
And so that's kind of what I became as a mentor teacher.
26:22
I did math trainings. I trained other teachers in how
26:26
to do hands on math, how to do experiential.
26:30
There's levels of this math program and I taught it up until
26:36
last year. I think I taught a course last
26:38
year it for my district. All right, So you started at
26:41
Albert in 1990 and then was it your third year that you became
26:46
a math teacher? And so since 1993, up until this
26:50
year, 2024, you were, you've been teaching math not only to
26:55
kids, but to other teachers and in this hands on learning.
26:58
And when you say hands on, I'm imagining like, you know,
27:03
Lincoln Logs or building blocks. And we've, we've got two here
27:07
and we, you know, bring 3 here. Now, how many do we have?
27:09
Is that what it is? And games, activities, fun.
27:14
Yeah. You start with the blocks.
27:16
It's not all blocks. And it can be anything this math
27:19
program even taught you, like send out a note to the parents
27:23
and ask for things like buttons and keys that they're not using
27:27
and so that you had containers of all different kinds of
27:32
manipulatives that the kids could choose.
27:36
And it's things like, OK, we're starting with show me 3, tell me
27:40
3, everyone show me three things.
27:43
And, and, and it grew over the years as things changed in
27:48
education. I adopted some extra stuff that
27:51
I didn't get in that program, but it it basically was always
27:58
the same. And I had kids.
28:00
I have a little video clip still on my phone of a little of three
28:04
little girls who are playing a game.
28:06
I taught them for adding, they just turned 5 and they are not
28:13
only adding doing this game, they are able to write the
28:18
equation and they understand what the equation means at 5:00.
28:23
How far can this hands on math go?
28:26
I mean, you're talking about addition, subtraction.
28:29
Are you using it to multiply and divide?
28:31
Are you doing any sort of geometry with it?
28:36
You could. I did geometry.
28:38
I did geometry because with little ones you have to teach
28:41
shapes. So yeah, I did a lot of that
28:44
hands on and look at your shape and tell me how many corners you
28:48
see. Tell me how many faces.
28:49
This is what a face is. This is what we call it in math.
28:52
It's called the face. And I also believe not using
28:58
baby woods. So with kids, I use it.
29:03
They don't know the word. So I just told them the word and
29:07
now they know it. They don't say it always.
29:09
Well, but, you know, there's corners, you know, just like in
29:13
the corner of our classroom, there's a corner on it.
29:15
Can you find the corner? Yeah, it's the pointy part.
29:17
Good. That's called a verdice.
29:20
And if you use it enough, they will call it a verdice.
29:26
It's the same when your child is learning to talk.
29:29
When you have a baby, you, if you, whatever words you use,
29:32
those are the words they're going to use.
29:33
If you use baby words, they're going to talk baby talk.
29:38
I want to talk about TK transitional kindergarten
29:41
because this is a big deal in California now, right?
29:44
And I've been talking with a number of daycare owners who are
29:49
sort of, you know, wringing their hands because this is now
29:53
taking a lot of their students away.
29:57
But at the same time, they sort of understand the reason for it.
30:01
And I think that it's great that so many kids are now getting
30:04
access to school at a younger age, which I'm going to guess
30:09
particularly in the district that you're involved in is super
30:13
beneficial. It's a low income district.
30:15
These are kids who aren't being pulled out of a daycare to come
30:19
to this transitional kindergarten, right?
30:21
These are kids that were not getting any sort of a, a
30:24
structured environment outside the home.
30:27
And so it it's particularly beneficial for them, Is that
30:30
right? Yes.
30:32
And also, I thought, I mean, even if they were in a
30:35
preschool, I think there's a lot to say about preschool and, and
30:40
the new laws say that if a parent wants to choose preschool
30:45
over transitional kindergarten, then that's what you do.
30:49
But they have the parents have to pay for it.
30:51
The state's not. The state won't subsidized it.
30:54
But there are, if you're lower income, there are a lot of
30:58
options for you. Head Start is one for if you're
31:03
they have a very low income threshold so it's harder to get
31:07
in. You have to be really low
31:09
income. State preschool is what I opened
31:11
up for the district. State preschools are funded by
31:14
the state but there is an income limit.
31:17
But it's pretty high. You could have a family of four
31:20
and be making 80,000 a year and qualify.
31:23
So there are options. And if you we do have parents
31:28
that in our preschools that say, you know, I like the the half
31:31
day, I like just half day. So I'd rather stay in the
31:34
preschool because because TK now in my district was full day and.
31:39
What does full day mean? Is that like a nine to two or
31:41
what's that? It's yeah, it's six hours.
31:45
So they're there from probably 8:00 to 2:30 or right around
31:49
there. Yeah.
31:50
And is there any sort of aftercare?
31:51
Available for families that need extra coverage?
31:54
What's that? Is there any sort of aftercare
31:55
available for families that need coverage in later?
31:58
Hours, that became a thing too in the last few years.
32:03
So there's extend. Expanded learning is a big thing
32:07
right now. Expanded learning just means
32:08
after school programs. We had after school programs,
32:12
but they were very limited. Once expanded learning money
32:16
came, they opened up and that's when they said you have to add
32:21
kinder and TK so TK kids can go after school.
32:27
My district, it ended at six, which is perfect for working
32:33
parents. And I know a lot of people say,
32:34
oh, that's horrible, they're only four, but there's a lot of
32:37
four year olds in preschools all day.
32:41
My son, my son, because I was a single parent, I took him in the
32:45
morning, went to work, I came and got him, you know, by 4 or
32:48
so in the afternoon, he was there all day.
32:52
Parents are working and they need a safe place and a good
32:55
place for their kids. So if they're there in TK all
33:00
day and TK evolved once all that happened and once it went full
33:04
day, it was only half day, it became, it's now becoming and
33:09
that was part of my job. More hands on.
33:11
The kids need more play time. They need kids learn through
33:16
play. If you think back even to when
33:19
your children were young, they a lot of what they did, even
33:23
though it seemed silly or whatever, they got meaning out
33:27
of they're born that way. They're born to play and figure
33:32
things out, so we have to, because they're four, we have to
33:35
expand that to give them time to play around, which is, again,
33:41
the reason I liked my math program so much.
33:43
They got to play. Tell me a little bit more about
33:47
your educational style. You're you described sort of the
33:50
hands on with math you're talking about, you know,
33:53
learning through play evolve on like expound on that.
33:59
It's very important for kids with brain development, and I
34:03
won't go into all that background, but their brain
34:06
development is very, it's like programmed to mess around with
34:15
something until they figure out what it does.
34:17
Which again, is probably you were talking about your son with
34:20
the markers. If you remember, when they're
34:25
babies, everything goes in the mouth because the first thing
34:28
they're trained to do is, is it food or not?
34:32
So they're trying to put everything in their mouth to see
34:34
is this food or not. It holds over a little bit as
34:38
they get older and but still things will go in their mouths.
34:42
I know when I use smelling markers in my class, they always
34:45
went up the nose. And so you could always see the
34:47
mark on their nose where they had put it.
34:50
Yeah, they have to find out and that's how they do it.
34:55
They play around with it until they figure out what it does or
34:58
why it does that. Or my style has, and maybe
35:03
because I came from preschool, my style has always been let
35:07
them play around with it as much as possible.
35:09
I'm there to guide that. So I would, I would do whole
35:16
group things where we learned certain things, especially if I
35:19
was teaching a new concept to them, we would sit down and talk
35:24
about it and I would train them on a game they could play for
35:28
that concept and then I'd let them go do that.
35:32
So we did a lot of activity time in my room.
35:37
We did a lot of games and I would walk around to the
35:43
different groups and, and I will say the biggest, most important
35:49
thing I learned was questions and not just what color is that?
35:55
That doesn't get your brain working.
35:58
Why are, why is, why are you doing that?
36:01
What are you learning from that? How did that work?
36:05
How did you figure that out? Those more leading questions
36:10
where kids actually have to talk to you about what they're
36:13
thinking and they have to talk to you about that's the biggest
36:18
brain growth when you taught when you give your kids the
36:21
chance to think, actually think, why did I do that?
36:24
What did happen and have to explain that to you.
36:27
It's huge and I did. I learned that more once TK
36:33
started and and just watching kids.
36:37
I had a kid try to explain magnets to me one time because I
36:41
always started from what is this?
36:43
What do you know about this thing?
36:46
And it I had magnets and they, I, I said, so it you told me it
36:52
sticks to things that when we talk about that as scientists,
36:56
we say attract. So this attracts to that thing.
37:00
But why doesn't it attract to this thing?
37:03
And, and there you could see they're trying to.
37:06
Why doesn't it attract to that thing?
37:08
Hmm. Do you think it attracts to
37:09
everything or just some things? No, just some things.
37:12
OK, that's good. So today, here's your job.
37:16
When you go to the magnets, I want you to walk all around the
37:18
room. I don't care where you go.
37:20
Try a magnet on everything and on your little in your they
37:25
always had a journal with blank paper.
37:27
On your journal, you're going to draw a picture of what it
37:30
attracted to and what it didn't attract to, and then we'll come
37:33
back and report to the group. I love that.
37:36
They were like little scientists, but they learned so
37:38
much more that way. So I'm going to ask a selfish
37:42
question here about asking questions.
37:46
I am a very curious person by nature myself.
37:49
I try to instill that sense of curiosity in my kids.
37:53
And when they were younger, I used to have a little trick that
37:56
I would use to get them to tell me about their day at school.
37:59
Right. Because if I just say, you know,
38:01
how was school today? What did you do?
38:03
I don't know. Nothing.
38:04
Fine. Good.
38:06
So then I would make something up and be like, Oh yeah, I, so I
38:11
heard you guys were, you know, making sculptures today.
38:14
Like, no, we weren't. I'm like, yeah, in art class
38:17
that we didn't have art class. We had gym class today.
38:20
Oh, that's right. It was gym class and you guys
38:22
were playing kickball. We didn't play kickball, we
38:24
played dodgeball. And I got Ben out.
38:27
And so it was like just by me, they love correcting me.
38:31
So if I just made-up something wrong, I would get a little bit
38:34
of information about what they did that day.
38:37
Now they've gotten a little bit older, they're a bit more clever
38:40
and so it doesn't work on them anymore.
38:42
And so I'm at a loss as to how to get my my eight and my 10
38:45
year old to tell me anything about summer camp or their
38:48
school day or aftercare. What?
38:51
What advice do you have for me and all the other parents
38:54
listening? It's hard as they get a little
38:57
older because they don't really want to share and I had two boys
39:02
so I get it. They the thing I tell parents,
39:08
even with little kids, is if you think about yourself on the
39:13
spot, if someone came up to you and say and said, what did you
39:16
do today? Well, I did my show, but you
39:21
don't always think of the details because you put on the
39:23
spot. But if you say, OK, you did art
39:28
today, I think what did you do in art?
39:31
What, what were you working with?
39:33
Were you working with markers? Did you paint?
39:36
What did you do in art? Can you tell me about it?
39:38
I'm really interested to know what you thought about that art
39:44
because now you can have conversations as they get older.
39:47
I'm interested to know what you thought about.
39:52
And they may not answer you, but at least it gives them the idea
39:56
that they're thoughts are important to you.
39:59
And then, when they're ready to answer, they will.
40:03
What I've tried something very similar.
40:05
So thank you for that. And the answers that I get are
40:08
still I don't know, I don't want to talk about it.
40:12
What I've what I've found is the most helpful is if I can get
40:16
them one-on-one in just a quiet space.
40:19
We go on a walk together. We're hanging out in their
40:22
bedroom together and it's just quiet and peaceful.
40:26
And then at some point they just OfferUp.
40:29
But if I'm trying to pull, yeah, a lot of times it's not working
40:34
so. Yeah, I think, I think the
40:37
biggest key is just letting them know.
40:39
I'm really interested to know how you get to work and then
40:42
leave it. My sons, I was going to say the
40:45
same. I had to get up early to go to
40:48
work. And especially once they got to
40:49
be in their teens in high school and stuff, they don't want to
40:52
talk to you. Right, I know it's just going to
40:55
get even worse from here. They don't want to talk to you.
40:58
And I was involved as much as I could be.
41:01
They were both in drama and theater.
41:04
And what I found is amazingly enough, when I was trying I, I
41:10
would go to bed at maybe nine O clock, one of them would appear
41:14
at the door and come sit in bed with me and then start spilling.
41:21
I, I will tell you my experience has been boys are easier to get
41:25
that, to do that than girls. Oh, interesting.
41:28
I don't know why girls will keep it to themselves, but.
41:33
But, yeah, my sons would come and sit in bed.
41:35
I'd be half asleep. OK, I'll wake up for this, like
41:39
and and try to remember that. I have to ask you, how'd you
41:42
feel about that? How what what did you think?
41:44
What could you have done differently?
41:47
All those things. I'm sorry.
41:49
Let me take a change. Yeah.
41:51
No, I think this is this is good.
41:52
I want to hear this. All those things that you wanted
41:56
to ask that you wanted to get out of them.
41:59
For some reason, my son's decided that was when to do it.
42:03
So you have to pick. And like you said, going for a
42:06
walk. Going for a walk is great
42:07
because you can be talking about things that are going on.
42:11
You can be talking about. I think the other thing is
42:16
sharing your vulnerability allows them to be vulnerable to
42:22
you. If you talk about a time, you
42:26
know, I remember at your age this happened, that was really
42:30
hard for me. I remember one of my friends
42:33
getting angry at me. It was really hard for me.
42:37
I didn't really know what to do or how to say or how to manage
42:39
that. And I really didn't have anyone
42:42
to talk to. And I had to kind of figure it
42:44
out myself. If you start talking about
42:47
things like that, a lot of times they'll go, yeah, I know I had
42:50
that. They'll start coming out when
42:54
you become a little vulnerable. They feel like it's OK.
42:58
I really like that approach, especially because there are
43:01
times where I know that something's happened in their
43:03
day because a teacher or another parent has told me.
43:06
And if I ask them directly about it, they sort of freeze up.
43:10
But if I took a more securitis route and was, you know, I just
43:13
happened to share something that happened to me that was similar,
43:17
that might help to tease out the story of what just happened to
43:20
them that day that's on a similar page.
43:22
And there are times that I said things straight out, one of the
43:26
times because my, my son's dad wasn't really, he was around,
43:34
but they, you know, they didn't see, they didn't have that
43:36
relationship. So I kind of bit became the one
43:39
that had to talk to them even about like puberty and all that
43:43
stuff. I used to listen to radio
43:46
station and they had things now and then about teenage topics.
43:52
So when I drove to school in the morning, I would make sure that
43:54
was on and whatever topic. And then I could say, do you
43:59
ever hear this stuff at school? Do you ever does this happen?
44:02
I remember this kind of stuff when I was in school.
44:05
Like, is it still happening in your school?
44:08
I Oh my goodness, found out the myths my son believed about how
44:13
girls can get pregnant. I was like, honey, we've had
44:18
this conversation so many times. I've told you the only way not
44:21
to get pregnant is to not have sex.
44:24
But you know, kids and, and it finally, I, he said, mom,
44:30
there's studies, there's studies that prove this stuff.
44:33
Have you read these studies? No, but I've heard about them.
44:37
From who? And that's when it dawned on
44:41
him. Oh, other kids who are just as
44:46
unknowledgeable as you, it kind, you know, you have to find their
44:51
way and and it's not the same for every kid.
44:54
You have to find the way that works.
44:56
Sometimes as a teacher I would say something and the parent
45:01
would come back and say what did you say yesterday or what did
45:04
you, what were you talking about yesterday?
45:06
Because they were telling me this.
45:08
So sometimes if I brought something up, they would talk
45:11
about it at home and I would tell the parents, hey, if you
45:14
want me to talk about something, let me know.
45:16
That's. Great.
45:17
This was a great side by sidebar.
45:19
Mary, I loved going down this little rabbit hole with you.
45:23
Let's go back to your time at Albert.
45:25
You're you quickly reached the position of director of early
45:29
education, a position that you held until your recent
45:32
retirement. Is that correct?
45:33
Yes, yeah, yes. And so while you're there, are
45:36
you responsible for, you know, helping to recruit teachers,
45:39
hire teachers, manage teachers? Is this all kind of falling
45:42
under your umbrella And all right, So you were there through
45:47
COVID, coming out of COVID like a tight labor market got way
45:51
tighter. What are some creative things
45:54
that you did that you found success with to help recruit and
45:59
retain good people for your team?
46:04
It's not easy and it's funny. I just talked to my old boss
46:07
yesterday about she's got a they're still recruiting for my
46:10
position and she asked about someone, you know, what do you
46:15
think about this person? It's hard to know.
46:20
It really is. You interview people.
46:23
There are certain questions that I want to ask because I want to
46:26
know your answer. One of them is what are you
46:29
going to do in an emergency? So we have a question that, you
46:32
know, what happens if a, if a kid gets hurt and they're
46:36
bleeding, what do you do? And I want you to talk me
46:39
through all that and, and I don't want, oh, I called the
46:42
office. I want to know what do you do?
46:46
So there's things like that that you could find out.
46:49
And as, because I was a teacher, I wanted to hear.
46:52
So what is how do you teach math?
46:56
How are you going to teach a kid to read?
46:58
How are you going to what are you going to do that that
47:00
encourages children to write? I want to know those things, and
47:06
I want to hear the specifics. Not, oh, I have a writing
47:09
center. I want to know what you do.
47:13
Exactly. So it's easy to weed people out
47:16
that way because they don't have an answer.
47:20
Yeah. But even with that, I had to.
47:24
I'm so sorry. I have asthma medicine and when
47:28
I take it, it makes my throat scratchy.
47:31
It should do the opposite. It's supposed to make it less
47:33
scratchy, right? Yeah.
47:36
It's drying you out, That's all right.
47:38
You think, sorry, take a cough drop.
47:48
I had to get rid of two employees while I was in the
47:50
position, one because we found out she had.
47:55
So our preschools in Alvord are created through our Office of
48:00
Education in Riverside, which is amazing and everyone there is
48:05
amazing. So we are responsible to them
48:09
because they we subcontract through them.
48:14
This teacher had worked for them in another district, had come to
48:18
our district, had gone back to her other district and taken
48:21
stuff to bring back to her class.
48:25
And so we had to let her go. It wasn't my stuff.
48:28
She didn't do anything to me, but it was the same the Office
48:32
of Education stuff we had and they both and they interviewed
48:39
well. So you just don't know.
48:43
And, and, and again, just like you had asked, you know, how,
48:46
how did I feel about asking parents to pay their preschool
48:50
bill? I feel like if someone's not
48:54
working, especially because I have such a strong feeling of
48:58
what kids need and they need to go.
49:00
Yeah. And that's, and, and I will tell
49:03
you, I was a union Rep for years as a teacher.
49:08
I still feel that way. I still feel like if you're not
49:10
doing your job well, you need to find a different thing because
49:14
kids only have one year to learn whatever it is you have to teach
49:19
them that year. And if you don't do it, they're
49:23
you're you're messing them up. And that's not right.
49:27
Yeah. So, yeah, you, I just, I was
49:31
very strict about all that. It isn't easy to find good
49:34
teachers. It isn't easy to, you know, find
49:37
a good doctor. It isn't easy to find a good
49:39
dentist. It's the same.
49:40
But if you're not doing the job, then.
49:45
Now, Albert's a public school, right?
49:48
It is, yes. So in a public school setting,
49:51
what, if any involvement did you have in terms of keeping your
49:54
eye on the bottom line there, you know, making sure that, you
49:57
know, revenue was here and expenses were here.
49:59
Is that something that you were involved with?
50:01
I was, I was, I oversaw the preschool budgets.
50:06
So there's a big amount of money.
50:11
It's called universal pre kindergarten money for TK and
50:16
preschool. It was a pretty big budget, but
50:20
there are very strict guidelines to how you can use it with
50:24
anything like that. So anything that's not just a
50:26
regular money, there are pretty strict guidelines.
50:30
So I had to oversee that. I had to oversee the actual
50:32
preschool money that we got for running the preschool.
50:37
There's a there's a lot of what you can and can't do.
50:42
I had to go to my boss, to the Superintendent sometimes and
50:46
say, yeah, we can't spend it that way.
50:49
It's not, it's not in the rules. We have to.
50:53
You can only spend it this way. What were some creative things
50:57
that you were allowed to do within those boundaries to help
51:00
make those numbers work out? Things like I could buy things
51:10
for TK teachers to use in their programs, but if a teacher had a
51:16
TKK combination class, which we try not to ever do, and that
51:22
teacher didn't have stuff, wasn't supposed to be for the K
51:25
teachers. So I would.
51:29
OK, I'm buying it for the TK kids.
51:34
If a kinder kid walks up and starts playing with it, I have
51:37
no control over that, but I'm buying it for your tea cake.
51:41
Yeah. Things like that.
51:44
Hosting, telling I telling teachers the Office of Education
51:50
has a lot of good training. So I would tell teachers, I'll
51:53
go to this training, they give out free stuff, go to this
51:56
training, you'll learn a lot about this and you'll get a gift
51:59
certificate. Go to this train.
52:01
You know, that kind of thing. You have to finagle stuff a lot
52:07
of times. We have a language training
52:11
coming up that we have to get Subs for, and we need 4
52:15
kindergarten teachers in with the TK teachers.
52:18
Can we pay for that? Well, it's a package pay, so
52:22
yeah, we'll pay it. And then if the four
52:25
kindergarten teachers are there, there's not much we can do.
52:27
They're there. It's the TK training and the
52:29
kindergarten teachers are coming in.
52:32
Yeah. Got it.
52:35
Got to make sure you're checking the right boxes.
52:36
And if somebody else happens to walk up into this room in this
52:39
space when that thing's going on, I got to kick them out.
52:44
But so you had a long, storied, happy career at Albert and
52:50
recently made the decision to retire.
52:52
What was behind that? The first thing was that the in
52:59
California as a whole, there's declining enrollment.
53:03
People aren't having as many kids.
53:05
People are leaving the state, our state, California is
53:09
expensive to live in. There's a lot that we offer.
53:13
There's a lot of, it's now a thing where every child gets a
53:18
free breakfast and a free lunch at school if they want.
53:21
That was never before. It makes our state more
53:23
expensive to live in because that comes from your taxes.
53:27
So there's a lot of good to California, but I understand
53:30
it's not a state for everyone. And that's fine.
53:33
But it means that enrollment has been declining statewide.
53:39
There's a ratio of administrators to teachers.
53:44
So my job was going to be changed from certificated just
53:51
means that I have a credential, certificated management to
53:55
classified management who don't have credentials.
53:59
I didn't want to do that and they put out a retirement
54:03
package and I turned 60 and so I took the package.
54:08
The stars all aligned. Things were changing at work.
54:11
There was a retirement package that looked good.
54:14
Why not? Would I have stayed?
54:15
Probably. Even if I went back to the
54:18
classroom, going back into a classroom, it would have been
54:22
would not have been bad for me. It would have been great.
54:24
I would have loved. I love kids, I love teaching.
54:27
So that would have been fine. I would have done that.
54:29
But once they said they had the retirement package, yeah, I'll
54:33
just. And so now how are you spending
54:36
your retirement? You're but how many weeks into
54:38
it? Just two.
54:41
Two weeks into it. So what have you done these last
54:43
two grand weeks? Well, part of it I've had, I've
54:48
gone back into work and talked and, you know, tell told them
54:52
the the hard part about my position at the district was no
54:59
one knew what, no one understood it, No one knew it.
55:03
I would explain to people so they'd know a little bit more,
55:05
but no one knows. No one can actually just go in
55:09
and just do it because they don't know all the regulations.
55:12
They don't know all the extra stuff that has to go into it.
55:17
So they're still contacting me now and then just to say, hey,
55:21
this is coming up. What do I do?
55:23
I got a call from our, we have a family engagement person who's
55:27
amazing. He does events, but he also does
55:31
parent trainings and things like that.
55:33
He called and said what is the difference between Head Start
55:36
and state preschool? Because I have a parent that's
55:38
calling and I need to explain it to them.
55:41
So I explained the difference, which is pretty much what I
55:46
would be doing for districts as a consultant.
55:48
If you're not sure the regulations behind a preschool,
55:53
what you know what how it goes. There are a lot of regulations,
55:58
even down to four year olds get priority over three-year olds in
56:02
a preschool class. I can walk you through all that.
56:06
I can walk you through state funding.
56:09
I can walk you through the different regulations and
56:12
everything. So that's more what I'd be
56:16
doing. And TK is changing minute to
56:20
minute. TK doesn't have state standards
56:24
like Kinder through 12. They have learning foundations
56:29
and they're being changed right now as we speak.
56:32
So, so teachers are kind of like, what am I teaching next
56:35
year? So, so just explaining that not
56:40
only the stand, the foundational skill, but what that looks like
56:44
for a kid, how you would teach that.
56:47
So I asked what you're doing in you this two weeks of your
56:49
retirement and what I heard was I'm working I'm.
56:54
Still working, not much but just a little when they call.
56:58
Mostly I've just been I've started walking each day.
57:03
I'm gearing up for a trip to France in a couple weeks, so.
57:08
That'll be nice. Where are you going?
57:10
Will you be there for the Olympics?
57:12
Is that? I think I will be, but I won't
57:15
be in that area. I won't be in Paris.
57:17
I'll be in southern France, but I didn't even realize until I
57:21
saw the Olympic something about the Olympics and it was about
57:25
the same time, so. Where will you fly into?
57:27
We have to go through Paris and and.
57:29
OK. So maybe you'll avoid some of
57:32
the the lunacy. Yeah, I I'll avoid Paris all
57:35
together. I won't be in there.
57:36
Yeah. And then tell me about the new
57:39
position you recently accepted with Illuminated Collective.
57:42
What's that? It's a very dynamic agency.
57:46
They do a lot of work with schools.
57:50
So for example, if there's a principal that leaves and they
57:54
don't have anyone they can contact eliminated and someone
57:58
can fill in for that person until they get someone.
58:01
The same with a Superintendent. If you have a Superintendent,
58:05
you're still looking for someone.
58:06
They can fill in until you until you find someone.
58:10
But they also have training that they do.
58:14
They do different trainings throughout the year, they do
58:19
health and Wellness training. It's it's all the kind of stuff
58:25
that needs to happen through education.
58:30
So it's very dynamic and I'm not exactly sure how it'll all play
58:34
out. What I what will happen at this
58:37
point, I will probably work with Riverside's Office of Education
58:41
some. But in order to do that as a
58:44
teacher, once you retire, you can't do any teacher related
58:49
education related work for six months.
58:54
What's that about? The way you get around that is.
58:57
The way you get around that is you sign up with a consulting
59:03
agency or you become your own consulting agency.
59:06
And as a consultant, you're not doing the teacher work, you're
59:09
doing consulting. It's a thin line.
59:14
I'm not sure if the state approves or not, but I don't.
59:16
I think they don't really worry about it because they probably
59:19
have bigger things to think about.
59:21
So I will probably go into the Office of Education and do some
59:24
training. I am a there's an assessment, a
59:27
classroom assessment that has to happen for preschool and maybe
59:30
TK. And I'm trained to do it, but
59:34
I'm also trained to train people to do it.
59:37
So what will happen is if I work for the Office of Education,
59:41
they will get a hold of Illuminated, they will make a
59:44
contract with them for my services and I will go in and
59:47
work with them. Sounds like you're well
59:49
positioned for a variety of opportunities that may unfold
59:52
there. Yeah, once I decided I wanted to
59:55
put out as many opportunities as possible and even if it's, you
59:59
know, I go in and do some substitute teaching, I'll.
1:00:03
I love kids. I'll go do that.
1:00:04
You know, I, I, I don't want to work full time, but I want to be
1:00:08
busy. I'm not a person to sit still.
1:00:10
And this will give you more flexibility to sort of choose
1:00:12
your schedule then. Yes, Sir Mary, are there any
1:00:17
specific mentors or books or life experiences that have been
1:00:20
particularly helpful for you in your career trajectory?
1:00:24
Gosh. I don't think there's anyone
1:00:31
specific mentor I can think of as much as just experiences I
1:00:38
had with different people. As I said that when I work with
1:00:41
the Office of Education, I've not had a bad experience with
1:00:44
any of them and they've taught me so much.
1:00:47
When I came into the position, I didn't know how to, I'd open
1:00:51
preschools from scratch and get them licensed through the state
1:00:55
and I had no idea. They walked me through it all.
1:00:59
They helped me work on it all. So just all that help, you know,
1:01:05
people that have come along at the right time and supported me
1:01:08
and answered the right question. And I think that's important.
1:01:13
I think it's important to be open to all that because there's
1:01:16
no way I could have done it myself.
1:01:19
Mary, I just have one more question for you, but before I
1:01:21
ask it, I want to do 2 things. If you're listening today and
1:01:24
you liked today's content, please hit the subscribe, like
1:01:27
or share button on your favorite podcast app.
1:01:29
I also want to let people the best way to get in touch with
1:01:32
you. What would that be?
1:01:37
Probably through illuminated would be the best way.
1:01:41
And they haven't. They have a site online.
1:01:43
They have a website so it's illuminated collective.org I
1:01:50
think. We'll make sure to put that in
1:01:52
the show notes. Yeah, that's probably the best
1:01:55
way. And then if they get a hold of
1:01:58
Alvord and ask, Alvord will get a hold of me.
1:02:02
So last question for you, Mary, we've already talked about a lot
1:02:05
of the changes that have happened or are in the process
1:02:07
of happening. What do you think are the
1:02:09
biggest changes that are yet coming in the education industry
1:02:13
in, say, the next five years? Early childhood is going to be
1:02:18
huge. Just we would there's a specific
1:02:22
special education test and preschool test that not test but
1:02:27
assessment that comes. We just found out TK will not
1:02:30
have to do it for their children, certain children.
1:02:35
So things I think they started TK and then they realized, oh
1:02:39
wow, this is actually something that we have to watch and figure
1:02:42
out. So all these things are
1:02:44
happening right now. I foresee TK going to more of a
1:02:50
preschool atmospheres, which means less kids.
1:02:53
I had a TK class with 25 to 30 kids in it with just me.
1:02:59
They now have 2524 kids. Well, they're 12 to one, so one
1:03:05
teacher for 12 students and if they want the other twelve, they
1:03:09
have an aide. So all of our the outboard
1:03:11
teachers have a teacher and an aide in TK.
1:03:13
So there's only 24 kids. I think it'll go down to 12:50.
1:03:19
That's what the governor has promised and he's working on it.
1:03:22
I don't know when it'll happen, but I think eventually it will.
1:03:25
In preschool it's 8:00 to 1:00 and if you're going to have 4
1:03:28
year olds in a class, it doesn't make sense to have 12 to one in
1:03:32
one class and eight to one in another.
1:03:36
So it'll make it a little more even and it's easier to be hands
1:03:39
on that way. I think all that child
1:03:41
development stuff is going to start becoming bigger, even up
1:03:45
until there's a thing PK3 with brain development more known.
1:03:52
With all the information we have now, kids need hands on and
1:03:58
understanding a different type of way up, up through third
1:04:05
grade, even in the 12th grade. I if you're teaching a new
1:04:09
concept, the way that as a child's brain works, you have to
1:04:13
teach it a different way sometimes.
1:04:16
And all that learning of different learning styles and
1:04:20
everything has really made better teachers.
1:04:23
I think that's going to be big. Terrific, Mary, I want to be the
1:04:27
first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
1:04:30
story with us today. I really appreciate.
1:04:32
It well thanks, you made it really easy.
1:04:34
Terrific, folks. That's a wrap on another episode
1:04:36
of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:04:39
today.