Latest / Parent's Talk with Francine Juhlin / Episode 10: What They Confess to Each Other Is Shocking (1)

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Episode 10: What They Confess to Each Other Is Shocking (1) · Parent's Talk with Francine Juhlin

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to Parents Talk, where we talk about tips
0:04
Speaker 1: and tricks for raising confident kids. Today, I have one
0:12
Speaker 1: of the best guests to help us weed through all
0:17
Speaker 1: the stuff to figure out what we need to be
0:19
Speaker 1: doing to support our kids in school. Janet Walraven is
0:24
Speaker 1: a 35-year retired schoolteacher And she's here to tell us
0:31
Speaker 1: about how we can help our kids be more successful
0:37
Speaker 1: in school and how we can support the teachers in
0:40
Speaker 1: helping them help your kids. So Janet, why don't you
0:45
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about yourself first? Well, I
0:52
Speaker 1: will start with being a teacher. I moved, my dad
0:58
Speaker 1: Build grain elevators and cement plants. We moved all over
1:01
Speaker 1: the United States. I had some excellent teachers, even though
1:06
Speaker 1: I moved an average of every eight months. Once in
1:11
Speaker 1: a while, I would get a teacher that I think, oh, good,
1:14
Speaker 1: we're moving. I love school. I loved learning. And I
1:18
Speaker 1: still love learning. I look back on my fourth grade teacher.
1:23
Speaker 1: I remember what she taught us. My sixth grade teacher, especially.
1:31
Speaker 1: I became an English teacher because from her, I still
1:36
Speaker 1: have my grammar notebook I took notes in in sixth
1:40
Speaker 1: grade and things like that. And just every once in
1:44
Speaker 1: a while when we move somewhere, I would get a
1:47
Speaker 1: teacher who just gave me a grip and said, this
1:51
Speaker 1: is what I want to do. So having moved across
1:56
Speaker 1: all over the United States, I made up my mind.
2:00
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a teacher. And the first seven years,
2:03
Speaker 1: I have to say, was very difficult. I didn't have
2:08
Speaker 1: any particular support from anybody in particular. And I thought,
2:14
Speaker 1: how do I do this? And there were some things
2:16
Speaker 1: that I didn't know, how to handle administration, how to
2:20
Speaker 1: handle parents. What do I do with students who are
2:25
Speaker 1: messing around in class? After... my first seven years, I
2:30
Speaker 1: realized that I really loved doing it, but I made
2:33
Speaker 1: up my mind, I had to learn how to manage.
2:37
Speaker 1: And I always heard people saying, take charge of the
2:42
Speaker 1: class or whatever, but I thought, I wanna know my students.
2:47
Speaker 1: And one of the books I wrote was a student
2:50
Speaker 1: who had been considered special ed for K through seven,
2:56
Speaker 1: and had been shunned, totally marginalized, shunned aside, nobody knew
3:01
Speaker 1: what to do with him. And they thought he was
3:04
Speaker 1: back then the quotation of mental retardation, which that term
3:12
Speaker 1: we don't use anymore, thank you to, I think it
3:14
Speaker 1: was President Reagan. What I found out was this student,
3:22
Speaker 1: I considered him a genius. as I got into a
3:26
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, and I realized that there was something
3:31
Speaker 1: very difficult because he had a book. This is the
3:38
Speaker 1: book I wrote, Liam, the boy who saw the world
3:43
Speaker 1: upside down. He was reading upside down, but he really
3:46
Speaker 1: couldn't read well. And so I thought, I have got
3:51
Speaker 1: to do something with this student. And the only reason
3:54
Speaker 1: he had brought me to my classroom was he had
3:57
Speaker 1: heard something about his parents. And they brought him and said,
4:00
Speaker 1: we just want him to be safe because he's been
4:03
Speaker 1: bullied all his life. He was shunned by teachers. We
4:06
Speaker 1: just want him in a safe environment. And I thought, okay,
4:11
Speaker 1: I can do safe, but I also want to teach.
4:13
Speaker 1: I want him to learn. So that was when I
4:16
Speaker 1: really focused on this particular student. And what I learned
4:20
Speaker 1: from him was it is my job to connect with
4:24
Speaker 1: each individual student. And that's what I found out from him.
4:30
Speaker 1: And I told myself, I want to be that kind
4:33
Speaker 1: of teacher. I want to look at each child and
4:37
Speaker 1: see their potential. And I used to, when I was
4:40
Speaker 1: teaching in high school, I had quite a few teachers
4:44
Speaker 1: who thought I was terribly wrong that, Not everybody is
4:48
Speaker 1: a genius. And I thought, well, that's okay if I
4:51
Speaker 1: think that. I'm going to find out what their particular
4:54
Speaker 1: genius is. And that was my job. And I truly,
4:59
Speaker 1: truly believe that every student has a genius of some kind.
5:04
Speaker 1: And I want to help them find that potential. That
5:08
Speaker 1: is exactly why I wrote my book, Let Your Sparkle Shine.
5:12
Speaker 1: In Let Your Sparkle Shine, Each child has something unique
5:16
Speaker 1: about themselves that they're trying to hide because they just
5:20
Speaker 1: want to fit in. They want to shrink away from
5:24
Speaker 1: being who they are. Like, Sam gets really excited about stuff.
5:31
Speaker 1: She uses big words because she's really smart. And the
5:34
Speaker 1: kids make fun of her about being a nerd. And
5:37
Speaker 1: she wants to hide that. No, you... Let your sparkles shine.
5:42
Speaker 1: So I love that you're looking at each child individually,
5:46
Speaker 1: even as parents. That is so important. I remember growing
5:52
Speaker 1: up and having, and it wasn't my mom, but it
5:54
Speaker 1: was someone else in the family. You should be more
5:56
Speaker 1: like your sister. You know? No, I'm myself. And you
6:02
Speaker 1: have to recognize that each child has their own sparkle,
6:06
Speaker 1: their own brilliance. Thank you. Yes, I love the way
6:10
Speaker 1: you're speaking about that with their sparkle. So you wrote
6:15
Speaker 1: a book to help teachers also. Can you tell us
6:19
Speaker 1: a little bit about that book and how parents can
6:24
Speaker 1: understand more about what teachers are going through? Because quite
6:28
Speaker 1: often parents blame the teachers when it's really not their fault. Well,
6:37
Speaker 1: I did learn a lot about, as time went on,
6:41
Speaker 1: I learned a lot about how to work with parents.
6:47
Speaker 1: And that is very, very important. And one of the things,
6:51
Speaker 1: this is the book, Connect with Classroom Success. And the
6:56
Speaker 1: word connect is what's really important for connecting with the students,
7:02
Speaker 1: connecting with the parents, connecting with administrators, staff. And the
7:07
Speaker 1: other person who's so very important is the custodian. And
7:11
Speaker 1: I wrote a chapter about that. Regarding the parents, what
7:18
Speaker 1: I've tried to teach other teachers, the way I did
7:25
Speaker 1: it was I found out that what I need to
7:28
Speaker 1: do in order to connect with each student, I need
7:30
Speaker 1: to connect with the parents. So from day one, I
7:34
Speaker 1: would start calling two or three parents every evening until
7:38
Speaker 1: I got through all of my students. Well, in high school,
7:40
Speaker 1: I had 135 students because you have different classes. But
7:45
Speaker 1: I just took my time. And no matter what I
7:48
Speaker 1: was calling about, sometimes I called. And I remember one parent,
7:53
Speaker 1: there was a big pause. She said, what is she
7:56
Speaker 1: doing wrong? And I said, she's absolutely doing nothing wrong.
7:59
Speaker 1: She's delightful. I love having her in class. I just
8:02
Speaker 1: wanted to let you know. And if you ever have
8:04
Speaker 1: any questions, give me a call and or we'll make
8:06
Speaker 1: an appointment. But she's a delight. And the parent was
8:10
Speaker 1: just not knowing quite what to say. And another parent said,
8:18
Speaker 1: my student, your student is a senior. And I have
8:21
Speaker 1: never in my life had a phone call or an
8:24
Speaker 1: appointment with her teachers. I thought that's too bad, really
8:29
Speaker 1: too bad. Twelve years. And this was the only time.
8:32
Speaker 1: teacher she'd ever heard from. I did have some students
8:37
Speaker 1: that I would have to call and say, I would
8:40
Speaker 1: like to know what he's feeling like, what he's enjoying,
8:44
Speaker 1: what he's about, what are his hobbies. And I wanted
8:48
Speaker 1: to just get to know them a little bit before
8:52
Speaker 1: I had to make an appointment in order to, if
8:55
Speaker 1: there was any kind of trouble. But I just, I
8:59
Speaker 1: was never a parent or a I was never a
9:03
Speaker 1: teacher who sat a student out in the hallway. I never,
9:06
Speaker 1: I always gave the student a chance. If they weren't
9:10
Speaker 1: doing something correctly in class, no matter whether it was elementary,
9:14
Speaker 1: junior high or high school, which I did all three,
9:16
Speaker 1: I gave that student a chance. There's a challenge here
9:23
Speaker 1: or there's a consequence. And here are two or three points.
9:29
Speaker 1: What are you going to talk about and what are
9:31
Speaker 1: you going to do about it? And it usually, almost
9:35
Speaker 1: 90% of the time, the student would say, I'm sorry,
9:38
Speaker 1: I won't do that again, or they won't mess up
9:40
Speaker 1: in class, or if there was some very certain discipline problem,
9:47
Speaker 1: I would just say, your other opportunity is that I
9:52
Speaker 1: will have an appointment and bring your parents in and
9:54
Speaker 1: we'll talk about it together with you. Well, usually that's a, okay, nevermind.
9:59
Speaker 1: I'll be fine. But sometimes it did work out just
10:04
Speaker 1: fine because I wanted to, I wanted to work with
10:07
Speaker 1: the parents. I just learned over the years how to
10:12
Speaker 1: manage instead of getting upset, getting mad, um, saying anything
10:19
Speaker 1: negative to a student or a parent. I am there
10:24
Speaker 1: to help everybody learn and enjoy. I want people to
10:29
Speaker 1: enjoy learning, and that's the whole point. So in my book,
10:33
Speaker 1: that is the point of my book, is to find
10:36
Speaker 1: joy in learning. The other part of it is to
10:39
Speaker 1: find joy in teaching. And my subtlety of the underline
10:45
Speaker 1: of the book is, If you're not finding joy, go
10:49
Speaker 1: do something else. And I think there are parents and
10:55
Speaker 1: parents who say, something wrong with the teacher. I don't
10:58
Speaker 1: like the teacher. I don't know why they're not being
11:00
Speaker 1: nice to my student. That all needs to come together
11:04
Speaker 1: so we all can have a conversation about it. Once
11:07
Speaker 1: in a while, it doesn't work. I had a parent
11:10
Speaker 1: that I called who was a senior kid who was
11:13
Speaker 1: being truant. And I called him and he said, I'll
11:15
Speaker 1: tell you what. He just turned 18 years old and
11:19
Speaker 1: he is on his own now. So it's up to you.
11:23
Speaker 1: So I thought, well, okay, I won't bother the parent again,
11:26
Speaker 1: but I certainly will connect with that kid and see
11:29
Speaker 1: what I can do to help him. So they're just,
11:34
Speaker 1: I have in the front of the book, there's a
11:37
Speaker 1: lot of table of contents. So when teachers pick up
11:42
Speaker 1: this book, they can just look down the line and say, oh,
11:46
Speaker 1: here's what I need. In the back of the book,
11:50
Speaker 1: I have a few appendices. I have a courtesy contract
11:55
Speaker 1: with students. And I have all kinds of assignments that
12:01
Speaker 1: I explain. So that gives teachers, especially, all kinds of
12:08
Speaker 1: things they can do to help in the class. Whenever
12:11
Speaker 1: my students would come into class, I wanted them to
12:13
Speaker 1: feel at home. And it takes a little bit of
12:16
Speaker 1: time that way. But I show them around the classroom.
12:19
Speaker 1: I tell them what they can use, what they don't
12:23
Speaker 1: need to touch my desk with. But we just want
12:27
Speaker 1: to get along together real well. And it takes a
12:30
Speaker 1: little while. Some students are right on, go, yay. And
12:34
Speaker 1: other kids are going, well, we'll see. And it just
12:37
Speaker 1: takes quite some time sometimes. And that's okay. I told students,
12:44
Speaker 1: one of the students said to me one time, he
12:46
Speaker 1: did something and looked at me like, okay, what are
12:49
Speaker 1: you going to do about that? He said, and I
12:52
Speaker 1: just looked at him, he said, did I make you mad?
12:54
Speaker 1: And I said, you don't make me anything. There's no
12:58
Speaker 1: madness here. Let's talk about it. So he's like, okay.
13:05
Speaker 1: But I just really want to help teachers be comfortable
13:11
Speaker 1: in their own their own teaching, their own learning. And
13:16
Speaker 1: the other big point about that is for critical thinking.
13:20
Speaker 1: And I second grade for a whole year because a teacher,
13:25
Speaker 1: after I retired, a teacher got in a terrible accident
13:28
Speaker 1: and they called me in and asked if I would
13:29
Speaker 1: take over. But even from second grade to 12th grade,
13:34
Speaker 1: I taught critical thinking. And it is just a wonderful
13:39
Speaker 1: feeling to be in a class where I can stand
13:42
Speaker 1: up and start talking about something that I know isn't true.
13:47
Speaker 1: But by then, the students, even second graders up to
13:50
Speaker 1: 12th graders saying, wait a minute, where did you get that?
13:54
Speaker 1: Where's your research from? Why do you think that's true?
13:58
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that they would question back
14:02
Speaker 1: because that's what they're there for. That's what's missing today
14:07
Speaker 1: in society. Yeah, get the sage off the stage. That's
14:12
Speaker 1: not what teachers are supposed to be. So I love
14:17
Speaker 1: my book. And I started out with, for every book
14:22
Speaker 1: that was purchased, I would gift to a teacher. And
14:26
Speaker 1: I want to keep it at a low level of
14:29
Speaker 1: charging for the book if they want to buy it,
14:31
Speaker 1: because some teachers just don't have that kind of money.
14:35
Speaker 1: Every weekend when I was a teacher, I was in
14:39
Speaker 1: dollar store, you know, trying to find pens, pencils, whatever
14:43
Speaker 1: it is I needed, special stickers, whatever. And even when
14:50
Speaker 1: I go in now as a retired person on a weekend,
14:54
Speaker 1: I look and see how many teachers are in there
14:57
Speaker 1: spending their own money on their students. And that's how
15:01
Speaker 1: it goes. My brother did the debate club at a
15:07
Speaker 1: high school in Chicago. And before the big meets, he'd
15:11
Speaker 1: take them to Goodwill or whatever and make sure they
15:14
Speaker 1: had a suit and a jacket and everything to go
15:17
Speaker 1: to these meets. That's wonderful, really. And that's what we
15:24
Speaker 1: are supposed to be about. And I know that nowadays
15:27
Speaker 1: it seems like it's more and more and more and
15:29
Speaker 1: more and more hats that teachers have to wear. And
15:34
Speaker 1: I came to the conclusion myself that... if they're not
15:40
Speaker 1: wearing their hat that from coming from somewhere else, I
15:44
Speaker 1: have to wear that hat. And if I just stack
15:46
Speaker 1: them up, okay, that's fine. That's what learning is all about.
15:52
Speaker 1: I love that you're not only teaching the kids, but
15:55
Speaker 1: you're teaching the teachers too. So now let's give a
16:01
Speaker 1: tip to the parents. How can parents better connect with
16:07
Speaker 1: the teachers and rather than waiting for when there's that
16:11
Speaker 1: discipline problem. Saying when I called and made it, I
16:17
Speaker 1: wanted to hear the parent right at the beginning of
16:20
Speaker 1: the school year. Good or bad, I wanted to be
16:23
Speaker 1: in touch. I wanted them to feel like they could
16:26
Speaker 1: call me. I wanted them to feel like they could
16:28
Speaker 1: come in for an appointment. And it doesn't happen 100%
16:33
Speaker 1: to have everything just joyous. In parent-teacher conferences, sometimes that's
16:40
Speaker 1: very difficult because, like you just said a while ago,
16:44
Speaker 1: a parent will come in and say, well, he's not
16:47
Speaker 1: good at math because I wasn't good at math either. Well,
16:50
Speaker 1: you've got to find some way around that. And it's
16:55
Speaker 1: just a matter of being calm, asking them questions about
17:01
Speaker 1: what do you need, what do I need to do,
17:03
Speaker 1: what suggestions do you have, You would like to see
17:07
Speaker 1: me handling in a different way. I think what I'm
17:11
Speaker 1: hearing right now after having been, I don't, all I
17:16
Speaker 1: can hear now about teaching and parenting is that teachers
17:21
Speaker 1: are having a hard time. And a lot of that,
17:27
Speaker 1: I wonder, whatever happened to good parenting? Is that just
17:31
Speaker 1: gone by the wayside? Or is it just that We
17:35
Speaker 1: have had, the teachers have had so much piled upon
17:39
Speaker 1: them recently in the last, I want to say, six
17:42
Speaker 1: or seven years, where teachers feel there's so much piled
17:47
Speaker 1: up on them, and they get stressed out. They don't
17:51
Speaker 1: know how to handle it. They get angry easily. They
17:54
Speaker 1: want to quit. We have had here in New Mexico,
17:58
Speaker 1: we've had a dearth of 500 teachers every year who
18:00
Speaker 1: have We can't get people to come in. And so
18:06
Speaker 1: many are just bailing. I don't want them to bail.
18:09
Speaker 1: I want them to have help. And I have done
18:13
Speaker 1: that in a couple of schools where I went in
18:16
Speaker 1: as a mentor with the principal who was having a
18:19
Speaker 1: hard time. And I loved doing that because I let
18:24
Speaker 1: them tell me what their problems are. Why are they
18:27
Speaker 1: so stressed out? Why do they want to quit teaching?
18:30
Speaker 1: So we had to find a way to work with
18:33
Speaker 1: them to say, we need to contact every parent. We
18:39
Speaker 1: need to find out what's going on. There may be
18:42
Speaker 1: a family that's having horrendous situations of someone who has cancer,
18:47
Speaker 1: someone who's dying, someone who's going through all kinds of divorce.
18:52
Speaker 1: That's very hard on the kids. And it is up
18:56
Speaker 1: to me as a teacher To have that kind of
18:58
Speaker 1: compassion and patience and want to work with them. This takes,
19:06
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the year, if you really start
19:08
Speaker 1: out by connecting with the parents and finding out what
19:12
Speaker 1: their situations are. Some are doing great. They're just happy.
19:16
Speaker 1: They have great families, good jobs. Their money is fine.
19:23
Speaker 1: Other people are having quite a drill of some kind.
19:28
Speaker 1: So it's up to me as that teacher to understand
19:33
Speaker 1: it and have compassion. If there's nothing I can do
19:37
Speaker 1: about it, that's when I need to take another step
19:40
Speaker 1: and go see a counselor for those parents, a counselor
19:44
Speaker 1: for the students, ask the administrator to join us. And
19:49
Speaker 1: I have to say, I've been through quite a few administrators.
19:56
Speaker 1: There are some that just say, do whatever you think.
20:00
Speaker 1: And there are some that say, yes, I would like
20:02
Speaker 1: to be at that meeting. I want to help you
20:04
Speaker 1: and I want to help them. That's very rare, I
20:06
Speaker 1: have to say. And having said that, administrators have a
20:11
Speaker 1: job of supporting their teachers. But I also know that
20:17
Speaker 1: they are between a rock and a hard place often
20:20
Speaker 1: because they have a superintendents above them. They have a
20:23
Speaker 1: school board above them. They have parents coming in to
20:27
Speaker 1: complain too. And so where does that administrator fit? And
20:33
Speaker 1: that's where I see an administrator has to be a
20:37
Speaker 1: little bit of a politician to keep his job or
20:40
Speaker 1: her job. But at the same time, they need to
20:46
Speaker 1: make sure they are still doing what they are supposed
20:49
Speaker 1: to be doing with the teachers and with the students.
20:52
Speaker 1: Who are the most important in the school? The kids.
20:56
Speaker 1: The kids, the students. And I knew about a principal
21:01
Speaker 1: who got in trouble quite often with school board, the superintendent,
21:06
Speaker 1: And every time he would say to them, the students
21:11
Speaker 1: come first. I have even seen teachers get upset about that.
21:15
Speaker 1: Why aren't we first? That's what we're here for. Why
21:19
Speaker 1: aren't we first? Well, you're second, but the students come first.
21:24
Speaker 1: And I think an administrator needs to deal with that
21:28
Speaker 1: in the right way. So that's what's going to help
21:31
Speaker 1: the parents understand. And you never know what's going on
21:35
Speaker 1: in the house. I have a great, well, it's a
21:38
Speaker 1: sad story about it, but it's a story that really
21:42
Speaker 1: illustrates this point. I was a substitute teacher back in 1993.
21:47
Speaker 1: I was in a first grade classroom and a little
21:52
Speaker 1: boy threw chairs, threw chairs at me. And his mom
21:58
Speaker 1: had to come pick him up and take him out.
22:01
Speaker 1: Several months later, I was tutoring algebra at the college and,
22:06
Speaker 1: you know, we're looking at each other. I know you
22:09
Speaker 1: from somewhere was the mother of the little boy who
22:12
Speaker 1: threw the chairs. She apologized. The reason he was acting
22:17
Speaker 1: out is because his dad just went to jail. You
22:21
Speaker 1: never know what's going on in the home. That's exactly right.
22:28
Speaker 1: And it really, it helps a lot. If you could
22:31
Speaker 1: find out without butting in, if you want to impose
22:36
Speaker 1: on people and what they're thinking, but if you can,
22:40
Speaker 1: in your kind, generous way, see what you can do
22:46
Speaker 1: to help. I had a student in fifth grade, and
22:52
Speaker 1: I could tell the way she was dressed. She was
22:53
Speaker 1: a poor little girl. She had on a big old
22:56
Speaker 1: coat that was very old and full of dirt and
22:59
Speaker 1: holes and whatever. But the kids kind of didn't know
23:06
Speaker 1: how to become a friend to her. And she was
23:09
Speaker 1: a little snippy all the time. And that was probably intimidation,
23:13
Speaker 1: taking over her intimidation. But at Christmas time, so I
23:19
Speaker 1: went to buy her a coat. But I called the
23:23
Speaker 1: mom first. And I said, do you mind if I
23:28
Speaker 1: do that? And I said, I don't want to impose
23:31
Speaker 1: on you. I don't want to embarrass you. She said,
23:35
Speaker 1: I'm way past embarrassment. And she just started crying. And
23:39
Speaker 1: I said, I can go down and get her a
23:42
Speaker 1: nice coat if that's okay. But what I want to
23:44
Speaker 1: do is I want to take it to the librarian
23:45
Speaker 1: and have her say, Santa Claus came and delivered something
23:50
Speaker 1: for you here. You can open the gift. And when
23:53
Speaker 1: she walked into the classroom, she had on this purple
23:56
Speaker 1: coat and she just walked in beaming. She said, look
23:59
Speaker 1: what I just got from Santa Claus. And the other
24:02
Speaker 1: kids are looking at her like, yeah, who believes in that?
24:05
Speaker 1: But I just calmed it down. And I said, well,
24:08
Speaker 1: that's a beautiful color on you. We're so happy for you.
24:11
Speaker 1: And I just looked at all the kids like, don't
24:14
Speaker 1: start anything. And they all looked at me kind of like, oh, okay.
24:19
Speaker 1: When she went, the librarian called her and said, I said,
24:23
Speaker 1: the library needs to see you go on in. While
24:26
Speaker 1: she was gone, I told the kids, I said, She
24:28
Speaker 1: needs some friends and it is up to you and
24:30
Speaker 1: I want you to be friends. So be nice. And
24:33
Speaker 1: they just said, well, okay. So at recess time, she
24:38
Speaker 1: had on her new coat and she buttoned it up
24:40
Speaker 1: and it was cold outside. And a couple of the
24:42
Speaker 1: girls came up and said, come on over, we'll play tetherball.
24:46
Speaker 1: And she said, okay. And it got rolling like that.
24:51
Speaker 1: And it's just, you know, when you're thinking about it,
24:53
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, I'm supposed to be teaching social studies
24:56
Speaker 1: and math and this and that and whatever else. But
24:58
Speaker 1: what's the most important was to connect. I connected with her.
25:03
Speaker 1: She connected with her friends and her mom connected with me. Oh,
25:08
Speaker 1: I love that. This is Sparkle Feathers. He is the
25:13
Speaker 1: camp counselor at Camp Confidence. And he finds the kids
25:17
Speaker 1: like that little girl and teaches lessons to all the
25:21
Speaker 1: other kids. at Camp Confidence. So parents, if you want
25:27
Speaker 1: your kids to get these little tidbits of lessons about
25:30
Speaker 1: being confident and being friends and just being a happy
25:38
Speaker 1: and healthy person, human being, please tune in to the
25:44
Speaker 1: Confidence Club for Kids on YouTube. It's a channel for
25:49
Speaker 1: the kids. you will get positive reinforcement to the lessons
25:54
Speaker 1: you're teaching at home that they're teaching at school. For instance,
25:58
Speaker 1: I heard that they're not teaching how to read analog
26:01
Speaker 1: clocks at school. So I made a video series on
26:05
Speaker 1: how to read an analog clock. Wow. And I'm looking
26:10
Speaker 1: for more ideas for content. So parents, if there is
26:13
Speaker 1: something that you would like your kid to watch a
26:17
Speaker 1: video and learn more about or some kind of a
26:21
Speaker 1: science project, or I'm setting a date to go to
26:26
Speaker 1: a farm and do just a series of videos on
26:30
Speaker 1: playing with the animals. If you could think of anything
26:33
Speaker 1: you like this, and I'm Princess Francie, the other main
26:37
Speaker 1: character in the book. If you want to see Princess
26:39
Speaker 1: Francie do something on the Confidence Club for Kids, just
26:44
Speaker 1: plop a comment in the chat. Let me know what
26:47
Speaker 1: you want, and I'll let you know when it's ready.
26:50
Speaker 1: That is wonderful. I think every student coming in new
26:57
Speaker 1: is shy, doesn't have that kind of confidence usually, or
27:03
Speaker 1: they overdo it and are considered a little bit of
27:06
Speaker 1: a bullying type person, but that can be drawn back
27:09
Speaker 1: in too. And what you were just saying, what's the
27:14
Speaker 1: age level for the books you're talking about? My books
27:19
Speaker 1: were professionally graded out from fourth through eighth. Yes. Perfect. Yeah.
27:28
Speaker 1: You know, that's what I love about, I substituted for
27:31
Speaker 1: a while for kindergartners and they were so able to
27:36
Speaker 1: tell me exactly what I needed to do for the day.
27:39
Speaker 1: It's time for you to sit down now and read
27:41
Speaker 1: to us on the, in the story. And I thought,
27:44
Speaker 1: hooray for, Great kindergartners, grades one, grades two. And then
27:50
Speaker 1: like you were saying, somehow that confidence sort of melts away.
27:54
Speaker 1: And students are worried about friends. They're worried about how
27:59
Speaker 1: their peers will treat them. And that's perfect, the perfect
28:04
Speaker 1: age group, especially when I taught junior high. That's probably
28:09
Speaker 1: my favorite group because that's who they are. And they're
28:14
Speaker 1: so excited about life and they love being in junior
28:17
Speaker 1: high because that school is everything for them. But there
28:21
Speaker 1: has to be a working in there of the students
28:24
Speaker 1: who are straight A students and they're just geniuses and
28:28
Speaker 1: the other kids are kind of at the bottom of
28:30
Speaker 1: the rack. There has to be a way to pull
28:33
Speaker 1: those together and help them understand that. That is quite
28:38
Speaker 1: a help when you have parents who want to to
28:41
Speaker 1: have help with that kind of confidence. And having those books,
28:45
Speaker 1: do you have parents reading those books, even fourth through
28:49
Speaker 1: eighth grade with the students or their students reading those
28:53
Speaker 1: or what? When I go out to fairs and talk
28:57
Speaker 1: to parents, I have seen some parents of five-year-olds get
29:03
Speaker 1: the books so they could read them to them. And
29:06
Speaker 1: then I see others for the middle schoolers which book
29:11
Speaker 1: do you like better, letting them choose which book they like.
29:15
Speaker 1: I've seen parents, oh, she's so shy now. I'd like
29:18
Speaker 1: her to get over it before she goes to school.
29:22
Speaker 1: Let's start reading your books now to build her confidence. Well,
29:26
Speaker 1: that's so important to, oh, I just look at, think
29:30
Speaker 1: about Dolly Parton, how she sends out hundreds and hundreds
29:34
Speaker 1: and hundreds of books for students who don't have them,
29:38
Speaker 1: for kids who don't have them. And that's so important
29:42
Speaker 1: to have those in their hands. And lately I've been
29:46
Speaker 1: seeing a lot more that come across Amazon or come
29:50
Speaker 1: across the Facebook pages, the Facebook books that, that really
29:56
Speaker 1: have a lot to say to help students have that
29:59
Speaker 1: level of confidence so they can care about certain things
30:04
Speaker 1: and really be told or showed in that beautiful book
30:10
Speaker 1: what can touch that little person's soul and realize that
30:15
Speaker 1: I can be that way. I can do that. And
30:19
Speaker 1: those books are so important. That's why I created the
30:23
Speaker 1: Sparkle Feathers Foundation It's brand new. I'm still working out
30:29
Speaker 1: all the foundation paperwork. We're going to start raising money
30:36
Speaker 1: to buy books to give to the kids who can't afford,
30:40
Speaker 1: like Dolly Parton does. But what I learned recently is
30:44
Speaker 1: the Dolly Parton Foundation, they go through one publisher. I
30:49
Speaker 1: have a group of independent authors, independent children's authors. So
30:55
Speaker 1: the Sparkle Feathers Foundation will be similar to the Dolly
30:59
Speaker 1: Parton Foundation, but you're going to find some authors who
31:04
Speaker 1: you're not going to find in the big box stores
31:07
Speaker 1: because we deserve to be in the hands of children too.
31:12
Speaker 1: So how are you going to give those out? How
31:15
Speaker 1: will you send those out to children or find out how?
31:20
Speaker 1: We're still at the beginning stages. This idea popped into
31:24
Speaker 1: my head because last year I was invited by the
31:29
Speaker 1: Orange Park Women's Club to go to a trunk or
31:32
Speaker 1: treat where they were giving out candy to an underserved school.
31:37
Speaker 1: And I was giving out coloring sheets from my books.
31:42
Speaker 1: They were giving out crayons. Wow. I just got this idea.
31:47
Speaker 1: What if next year we had the money to give
31:50
Speaker 1: a book to every child? And that's how this dream
31:55
Speaker 1: came about. So I'm still figuring out the logistics of it,
32:01
Speaker 1: but I want to make sure when we go to
32:04
Speaker 1: that school in October, that we have a book for
32:09
Speaker 1: every child. And I have another group of veterans And
32:14
Speaker 1: we're partnering up together with the children's authors. We just
32:18
Speaker 1: talked about this yesterday for the first time. So it's
32:21
Speaker 1: brand new. And we're having a little summer reading contest
32:26
Speaker 1: for the kids. And the prize will be books. Wonderful.
32:31
Speaker 1: So you'll let all of us know how to come
32:34
Speaker 1: about and help you with that? Absolutely. As soon as
32:37
Speaker 1: I get the details, I will definitely share. Wonderful. Little plug.
32:44
Speaker 1: if you are seeing this and you want more information,
32:49
Speaker 1: the best place to get it is on my Facebook page,
32:53
Speaker 1: Francine Julien on Facebook. Please follow me and then you
32:58
Speaker 1: will get all the most current information when it comes out.
33:03
Speaker 1: I think it's time for you to talk about your
33:06
Speaker 1: children's book for a couple minutes. Well, Hector and Heloise,
33:12
Speaker 1: the reason it's hedgehogs is because my uncle was an artist.
33:18
Speaker 1: He came to me and I wrote this part in
33:20
Speaker 1: the front to say why I wrote this book. He
33:23
Speaker 1: came to me and he said, um, uh, Drew, Aubrey
33:28
Speaker 1: Drew was his favorite artist in Europe when he was
33:32
Speaker 1: becoming a student artist. And you know, Aubrey Drew, he
33:37
Speaker 1: does a lot of pictures of sculptures of animals and
33:40
Speaker 1: pictures of animals. And so my uncle had He did
33:46
Speaker 1: wood carvings and printed wood carvings. He had a picture
33:52
Speaker 1: of Albrecht Durer holding a hedgehog. And he said, what
33:57
Speaker 1: I want you to do is I want you to
34:00
Speaker 1: write a story about hedgehogs. And then I will, he said,
34:05
Speaker 1: then I will do the illustrations for the book. I
34:08
Speaker 1: was so excited, but I felt like, really? Really? I've
34:12
Speaker 1: never done a children's book before, so I didn't really
34:15
Speaker 1: know how to go about that. But when I was
34:19
Speaker 1: working a little bit on the ideas of it, I
34:22
Speaker 1: got a call and my uncle had a heart attack
34:26
Speaker 1: and died. And I thought he was my mentor in
34:31
Speaker 1: any kind of artwork of anything. And he was very
34:34
Speaker 1: supportive of me as a writer. But so I thought
34:40
Speaker 1: I want to honor him by doing this book because
34:44
Speaker 1: that's what he wanted. What he wanted to do was
34:49
Speaker 1: make up the story. He wanted me to make up
34:51
Speaker 1: the story and tell the story. And it has to
34:53
Speaker 1: be something about the Louvre in Paris. But he said,
34:56
Speaker 1: the Louvre is the greatest art museum in the world.
34:59
Speaker 1: We'll start with the Louvre. And then after we finished
35:02
Speaker 1: and we're going to have it translated in English and French.
35:06
Speaker 1: And then we're going to move to the Prado and
35:08
Speaker 1: it'll be in English and Spanish. And that's what he
35:11
Speaker 1: wanted to do with all the art, beautiful art museums
35:14
Speaker 1: in these series of books. I thought, oh my goodness,
35:17
Speaker 1: I don't know if I know how to do that. However,
35:20
Speaker 1: just recently, I have found someone who is translating this
35:24
Speaker 1: book into French. So I'm excited about that. And I
35:29
Speaker 1: want the book in the gift shop of the Louvre.
35:33
Speaker 1: And anywhere else I can put it also. But there
35:36
Speaker 1: are these two little sibling hedgehogs, brother and sister. And
35:41
Speaker 1: they want, well, I can't say. They have a secret.
35:47
Speaker 1: And they are sneaking into the Louvre because they don't
35:50
Speaker 1: know if people want hedgehogs in there. But they snuck
35:54
Speaker 1: in with this package that was wrapped. And they found
35:58
Speaker 1: a way to get inside and find a place where
36:04
Speaker 1: they wanted to put this particular thing. And that's what
36:08
Speaker 1: the story is about. So also in the end is
36:12
Speaker 1: a glossary of mostly of artworks so that there are
36:19
Speaker 1: some words in here that students might like to see
36:23
Speaker 1: because it's a glossary of artwork and other things in
36:26
Speaker 1: the book just to help them with their definitions and
36:28
Speaker 1: their ability to understand that. The other thing is in
36:33
Speaker 1: the back is that I have links because there are
36:36
Speaker 1: all kinds of virtual tours through the Louvre. It has
36:42
Speaker 1: it for children. It has it for adults. It has
36:45
Speaker 1: it for, I did more children than not. But there's
36:51
Speaker 1: also a lot of history about the architecture, the structure,
36:55
Speaker 1: all of that about the Louvre. And then you can
36:57
Speaker 1: actually be in the Louvre looking at all those wonderful
37:01
Speaker 1: art pieces on the wall. And that just hopefully, and
37:06
Speaker 1: this is what Uncle Ken wanted to do, was help
37:09
Speaker 1: them be inspired by wanting to go there. So that's
37:13
Speaker 1: what the book is about. It's quite educational and a
37:16
Speaker 1: lot of fun. And the beautiful illustrations in here are
37:20
Speaker 1: done by my best friend. She has, I don't know
37:25
Speaker 1: if you can see that, wonderful little pictures in there.
37:28
Speaker 1: And she's a watercolorist from the Northwest. So I wrote
37:32
Speaker 1: the story and she did the painting. So it's just
37:35
Speaker 1: been so much fun. So how can people get your book?
37:40
Speaker 1: It's on Amazon. And it's also on KU if they
37:45
Speaker 1: have Kindle or on e-books. So they can do it
37:49
Speaker 1: either way. Although I wanted to do that if people
37:53
Speaker 1: wanted to do that. However, I think kids like holding
37:57
Speaker 1: a book. Yes, kids want to hold a book. It's
38:00
Speaker 1: so important. Yeah. So it's just been a whole lot
38:06
Speaker 1: of fun. Awesome. Thank you so much, Janet. It's been
38:10
Speaker 1: a pleasure talking to you. Well, I'm so glad to
38:15
Speaker 1: meet you. Yes. And that concludes our episode of Parents Talk.
38:21
Speaker 1: Until next time. Well, thank you. And I want to
38:24
Speaker 1: stay in contact with you and your foundation. Absolutely. Okay.
38:29
Speaker 1: Have a wonderful day.