Latest / Live in the Lab Schools / Ep #12: Traditions! How School Traditions Shape and Stick in the Lab Schools

Transcript

Ep #12: Traditions! How School Traditions Shape and Stick in the Lab Schools · Live in the Lab Schools

0:18
Ben Webb: Welcome to the pod.
0:19
Ben Webb: This week we are talking about, like Fiddler on the Roof, the traditions.
0:23
Ben Webb: So we're going to talk a little bit about what runs our buildings, what are some of those things that we hold really close and near and dear to our heart, but also what are some of the things we want to see change?
0:33
Ben Webb: Stick around.
0:34
Ben Webb: My name is Ben Webb.
0:35
Ben Webb: This is Andy Gove.
0:36
Ben Webb: Welcome to Live in the Lab Schools.
0:44
Ben Webb: Mr.
0:45
Ben Webb: Webb.
0:46
Ben Webb: Hello, sir.
0:46
Ben Webb: How are you?
0:47
Ben Webb: I'm well.
0:47
Ben Webb: How are you doing?
0:48
Ben Webb: I'm hanging in there.
0:49
Ben Webb: We're back.
0:50
Ben Webb: We are back.
0:50
Ben Webb: I feel like it's been a little while, but again, record, record, record, have a few things in the bank.
0:55
Andy Goveia: Yes.
0:56
Andy Goveia: We sprinted and then we took a break.
0:58
Andy Goveia: Spring break was it was a really logical break for us.
1:03
Ben Webb: Well, I don't know about you.
1:04
Ben Webb: I'm really bad about taking breaks.
1:05
Ben Webb: Schools which took ISU out, or if you work in different places.
1:08
Andy Goveia: So that'd be you and your wife had the that situation occur.
1:12
Andy Goveia: Yep.
1:12
Andy Goveia: My wife works for State Farm, so she she can take spring break whenever.
1:16
Andy Goveia: Nice.
1:17
Andy Goveia: She had a really dead week last week with no one around because everybody else was on spring break.
1:21
Andy Goveia: And she was gone when everybody else was still actively working.
1:25
Andy Goveia: For those of you that don't work in education, you listen to us, it sounds like that's a foreign concept to us that you just take a break whenever you want.
1:31
Andy Goveia: Let us know what that's like.
1:32
Andy Goveia: Shoot us an email.
1:33
Ben Webb: It's kind of like when you say you're done working at 4 p.m.
1:36
Ben Webb: Yes.
1:37
Andy Goveia: Or I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna leave my laptop at school and not do anything.
1:41
Ben Webb: Never no unheard of.
1:45
Ben Webb: So I have been looking forward to this episode for a little while.
1:49
Ben Webb: We talked about this around Thanksgiving at first, I think.
1:53
Ben Webb: Well, so one of the reasons why we started this podcast was because there are misconceptions.
1:58
Ben Webb: There are some misunderstandings of what we are as a system, uh, as as schools.
2:04
Ben Webb: Um, but I think a lot of people know us for certain things that just happen in our building.
2:10
Ben Webb: Yep.
2:10
Ben Webb: And some of those events, yeah.
2:12
Ben Webb: Like those core memory things that happen throughout the school year.
2:17
Ben Webb: And I think it's different in each building.
2:20
Ben Webb: But I think we are known for those things.
2:23
Ben Webb: Yes.
2:24
Ben Webb: It is like it is that holiday, it is that major capstone event.
2:28
Ben Webb: And for some, it's at the end of their high school career.
2:32
Ben Webb: Yeah.
2:32
Ben Webb: For some, it's in the middle, and for some, it's it happens every year.
2:37
Ben Webb: And eventually we're giving them the reins to then be the ones in charge of it.
2:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:42
Ben Webb: So we are talking today about the traditions that run our school.
2:47
Ben Webb: Uh, but also too, we are a building that has been around for quite some time.
2:52
Ben Webb: And so we've developed some idiosyncrasies and some components of our day-to-day life that I would say distinguish us nicely from other area schools, from any any high school that you might have.
3:10
Ben Webb: And a couple of those, like, you know, things that you think always happen in buildings.
3:14
Ben Webb: So, like, one of the first things that my TCHs realize when they get in the door is we don't have bells.
3:19
Ben Webb: Yeah.
3:20
Ben Webb: And that's like, there's a reason for that.
3:22
Ben Webb: It's not necessarily to the level of a tradition, yeah.
3:25
Ben Webb: But there are those things that when you walk into the building, you're just like, this is different.
3:29
Ben Webb: Yeah.
3:30
Ben Webb: This is different from what I experienced when I was in high school.
3:32
Andy Goveia: Well, and like I think to speak to the whole no Bell thing, way, pre-K building, are not clean cut a four-year-old's day to a 14-year-old's day.
3:40
Andy Goveia: And so that's a complaint our students have too, actually, is like, why don't we just have a bell system?
3:44
Andy Goveia: And I'm like, well, you can't target a bell only hit, or at least I don't think you can, target a bell to hit certain rooms certain days of the week.
3:52
Andy Goveia: And what happens if we're on a block schedule versus not a block schedule?
3:56
Andy Goveia: And we hear a bell in the middle of our block.
3:59
Andy Goveia: You all go, it's time to go.
4:00
Andy Goveia: No, we're on a block.
4:02
Andy Goveia: There's that whole psychology of a bell that comes.
4:05
Andy Goveia: So, like we just neither of us have bells.
4:07
Andy Goveia: Yep.
4:08
Ben Webb: So I think one way I would kind of pitch this to you is first let's kind of go back and forth some things that are unique or different about our buildings compared to maybe another area school.
4:18
Ben Webb: And then after that, I want to talk through like what are some of the major events.
4:22
Ben Webb: Yeah.
4:22
Ben Webb: Those things that kind of cultiv we cultivate towards, we work towards, or even maybe it is the culminating event for certain classes.
4:30
Ben Webb: Yeah.
4:30
Ben Webb: Okay.
4:31
Ben Webb: So I I started with the no bells.
4:34
Ben Webb: So that's one thing that I just it was very odd to me.
4:37
Ben Webb: I mean, when I was in middle school, I remember it being kind of like the airport ding that would go off before you get on the plane.
4:43
Ben Webb: Um, that's one thing I would mention.
4:45
Ben Webb: Yeah.
4:45
Ben Webb: Yours.
4:47
Andy Goveia: No bells is a really good one.
4:49
Andy Goveia: I wanted to take it first.
4:50
Andy Goveia: Oh, it's so good.
4:51
Andy Goveia: Um Metcalf, I think, to editorialize slightly.
4:58
Andy Goveia: We don't have traditions, maybe in the sense that you high does.
5:05
Andy Goveia: I would argue our traditions are the events and things you alluded to.
5:10
Andy Goveia: That I think to speak to your point at the beginning, many define us by those different things that we do.
5:17
Andy Goveia: So traditions, yes and no.
5:20
Andy Goveia: Um, but to maybe speak on the cultural piece, the no bells, because that's kind of what that's more of like the daily culture, right?
5:26
Andy Goveia: Um we all have wildly, as teachers, wildly different lunch schedules.
5:35
Andy Goveia: And I don't mean that to say that like I only get well, this this is actually true how it sometimes works.
5:41
Andy Goveia: There are some teachers that have their prep time, and you guys, I think you high, for those that don't know, UHI runs on a 55-ish minute class system, five minutes in between.
5:49
Andy Goveia: Classes start on the hour.
5:51
Andy Goveia: Yep.
5:52
Andy Goveia: Um, and so when you have an off period, you're getting a 55 UHI is getting a 55 minute lunch prep, whatever you want to call it.
6:01
Andy Goveia: In the middle of the day, it's your lunch slash prep.
6:03
Ben Webb: Something that gets filled by a meeting or a committee or work with our 216 or methods kids, it gets filled with something real fast, but it is technically like a period where I don't have students in my classroom.
6:16
Andy Goveia: Right.
6:16
Andy Goveia: And so for us, that prep time is is again throughout the day.
6:22
Andy Goveia: But for some, they teach 30-minute lunch teach.
6:27
Andy Goveia: And so if you were to go to, I would argue, almost any other institution, an elementary school, those kids are going to have lunch recess.
6:36
Andy Goveia: So for my K4 colleagues, they usually have a lunch recess period that sits at about 50-ish, 55 minutes pretty consistently.
6:44
Andy Goveia: Now, some teachers, I know that's not true, and I don't want anybody coming for me, like after the Hillia episode.
6:50
Andy Goveia: Um, you had that?
6:51
Andy Goveia: Oh, oh, Steph and Plumber.
6:53
Andy Goveia: Yeah.
6:53
Andy Goveia: Got me in the hallway and said, We heard that shout out.
6:55
Andy Goveia: Good.
6:56
Andy Goveia: We know that's right.
6:56
Andy Goveia: You corrected yourself.
6:58
Andy Goveia: So yeah.
6:58
Andy Goveia: Um, so again, not to minimize what anybody does because some people's schedules aren't that uh generous.
7:04
Andy Goveia: Um, but some people teach, teach, lunch, teach.
7:07
Andy Goveia: And some like me have kind of like you guys, lunch and some prep together.
7:13
Andy Goveia: And so in an elementary school setting, it's gonna be pretty much a consistent lunch recess period for almost everyone in the building.
7:20
Andy Goveia: A middle school, it's gonna be great or team based, but you'll have a large number of people that maybe have the same lunch.
7:26
Andy Goveia: Doesn't happen for us in our context.
7:28
Andy Goveia: It's I'm the last lunch, and so I'm a pocket of about six or seven of us that have the same lunch, but then there's five or six people in the 20 minutes before us.
7:35
Andy Goveia: And so because of scheduling, it's kind of seats sits with that.
7:40
Andy Goveia: Um, it's a weird thing for us that not there isn't just a lunch recess block in the middle of the day because of our lunchroom constraints and our physical constraints, it's staggered for students, which then translates into staggered teacher schedules.
7:54
Ben Webb: Well, and on that lunch thing too, like we have we have a little school store on the first floor in our lounge with with some seating, but there's no way we can fit an entire class.
8:06
Ben Webb: Yeah.
8:06
Ben Webb: Yeah.
8:06
Ben Webb: So like you well, a second student body, let alone like one entire class.
8:10
Ben Webb: So like, so yes, it's that 55-minute block, but even within the freshman program classes, it's a 45-minute because we build in that lunch for them.
8:18
Ben Webb: And we can only send three classes down there at a time because three classes plus who's ever on a free period, they might not have any seating and might not be maxed out.
8:27
Ben Webb: So yeah, I would agree with that.
8:29
Andy Goveia: Yeah.
8:30
Andy Goveia: So lunch is one of those interesting things for us.
8:32
Ben Webb: Um I've got another one if you go.
8:36
Andy Goveia: Go, please.
8:37
Andy Goveia: Yeah.
8:37
Andy Goveia: My brain, I'm mine are short and sweet.
8:39
Andy Goveia: I think yours have more of that kind of like cultural in it.
8:42
Andy Goveia: You know what I mean?
8:43
Andy Goveia: There's culture and context to a lot of what I have to say.
8:45
Ben Webb: Open campus.
8:46
Ben Webb: Oh, see.
8:47
Ben Webb: Our UHI students have open campus.
8:48
Ben Webb: So if they have a free, they are free to go about and go get food.
8:53
Ben Webb: They can go across the street to the gas station, get whatever they need, okay.
8:57
Ben Webb: Yep.
8:57
Ben Webb: And for that lunch, do the math of like, okay, all the way down the road to an actual restaurant.
9:03
Ben Webb: Yeah.
9:04
Ben Webb: Or do I have to kind of put it calling in Tony's tacos, right?
9:08
Andy Goveia: Shout out to Tony's.
9:09
Andy Goveia: We apologize for the number of students.
9:10
Andy Goveia: Apologize.
9:11
Andy Goveia: As long as they're well behaved.
9:12
Andy Goveia: If they're not, we're not, then we need to know deeply apologize.
9:15
Andy Goveia: Uh yeah, open campus is such a fascinating thing being an elementary middle school building that that we don't have that.
9:23
Andy Goveia: Um, a 13-year-old, even a 12-year-old going to Starbucks and back if they do and and our students don't have, to be fair, there's no free period in our student schedule.
9:32
Andy Goveia: Um, that whole concept in Locoprentis and having to supervise kids, uh a 13-year-old in my seventh or eighth grade, maybe they have a study hall.
9:42
Andy Goveia: Um, but that study hall is offset with a music class or something else where it's a normal class.
9:53
Andy Goveia: It's not just do whatever you want.
9:54
Andy Goveia: There's it, they're assigned to a teacher.
9:55
Andy Goveia: They go to a space open campus.
9:57
Andy Goveia: Correct me if this has changed since my trip around here decade ish ago.
10:02
Andy Goveia: There's no assignment.
10:03
Andy Goveia: Your free period is a truly a free period, unless there's some restrictions you and I think so, yes.
10:10
Ben Webb: And that is something that I think the kids and the faculty and the administration like they hold very precious.
10:15
Ben Webb: It's always that thing of like, we we res we understand the difficulties of having an open campus.
10:23
Ben Webb: And I think we've seen examples of where, okay, these kids are able to drive.
10:26
Ben Webb: And so what does that look like once you have your driver's license and you can go further off campus and be back on time?
10:32
Ben Webb: Or what happens if, you know, there's, you know, God forbid, an accident or something like that happens, or a train.
10:38
Ben Webb: So like we understand those kind of difficulties, but we also see it as such an important component of being a student here.
10:46
Ben Webb: Yeah.
10:47
Ben Webb: I think the other challenge with it is so that is it's a privilege, not a right.
10:54
Ben Webb: And so there are some examples of kids who lose that privilege because of behaviors of what they do during that time period.
11:03
Ben Webb: There's also examples of where we say to the student, okay, you have a free period, but you really need to work on your assignments.
11:11
Ben Webb: Yeah.
11:11
Ben Webb: We need to assign you to a space so that you can get your work done so that you can remain academically eligible, so that we can keep you from making a mistake on that time.
11:22
Ben Webb: And because I think for some kids, I don't blame them.
11:25
Ben Webb: They might want to spend time in the gym, just shoot some hoops or, you know, spend time with their friends, but the priority here is still school.
11:32
Ben Webb: Yeah.
11:33
Ben Webb: And so there are examples where there's those exceptions to, hey, you've got a free period.
11:37
Ben Webb: There's also a number of kids who load their schedule and don't have that free period.
11:42
Ben Webb: So I think that's one I think is just it's a cultural thing to understand.
11:46
Ben Webb: Yeah.
11:47
Ben Webb: But again, yeah, it's that privilege, not a right.
11:49
Andy Goveia: Yeah.
11:50
Andy Goveia: I think one of the the pieces maybe that's shared between the two buildings in terms of that cultural sense of tradition, maybe, is just the empowerment of students to kind of own their learning and own what that looks like.
12:02
Andy Goveia: So, like for you guys, yeah, open campus, setting student schedules, right?
12:05
Andy Goveia: All of those pieces.
12:07
Andy Goveia: For us, we in their studio electives in seventh and eighth grade implemented, I think starting last year we did this.
12:15
Andy Goveia: Um, instead of like a quarterly rotation where you go class to class to class to class, opted for studio electives.
12:22
Andy Goveia: So students get the menu and say, here's what I want to do.
12:25
Andy Goveia: And so they could load up on two to three art classes or two to three theater classes across their two years in seventh and eighth grade.
12:32
Andy Goveia: Um, because if that is their passion, their thing, they've got that choice and that agency to help build that.
12:38
Andy Goveia: And for students who don't take a music, there is a second, um this year, there's a second elective studio block where, hey, there's a couple different ones offered at this time, only going to be offered at this time because you're not in music, you have this opportunity to further your learning in that way.
12:56
Andy Goveia: And so um, giving voice and agency in some of those choices, I think, is a way we start to build that freedom.
13:03
Andy Goveia: Um I have another thought for later on when we talk about the traditions and things we've maybe butted up against.
13:12
Andy Goveia: We're gonna get to that a little bit later.
13:13
Andy Goveia: Um, that's open, just remind me open key.
13:16
Ben Webb: Define your schools or define our schools.
13:20
Ben Webb: Right.
13:20
Ben Webb: So, like I'm thinking like those cap two one's at the end of a student's high school time and one is at the beginning.
13:29
Ben Webb: But I kind of want to see like what are some of the major things that happen.
13:33
Ben Webb: Do you want to start like Do we just want to go through the school year?
13:35
Andy Goveia: Sure.
13:36
Andy Goveia: Let's do that.
13:36
Andy Goveia: So beginning of the year.
13:38
Andy Goveia: Um, I mean, the big one for us that's kind of developed over the past 10 or so years is we call it Metcalf Move In.
13:45
Andy Goveia: Think of it not like an open house, it's your supply drop-off.
13:49
Andy Goveia: The whole school gets invited in basically during institute days before school starts to come get their locker if they have a locker, meet the teacher really quickly, drop stuff off.
14:00
Andy Goveia: Um, and it that become kind of the all right, well, it's giving parents parent has gone and sitting in the gym.
14:06
Andy Goveia: They're the parents, there's this natural growth of like the kid's gonna do it.
14:11
Andy Goveia: And so, like, I do see it.
14:12
Andy Goveia: I love seeing our seventh, eighth grade parents come through.
14:15
Andy Goveia: Um, but I mean the percentage of parents that are right there drops.
14:19
Andy Goveia: And I think that's a really cool to speak to the the trust and autonomy try to give our students that voice.
14:25
Andy Goveia: That event itself goes from really heavily structured for little people to like when they get to us, we go grab your locker, set your stuff up, we'll see you Monday.
14:35
Andy Goveia: Make sure you feel good about what you're doing.
14:37
Andy Goveia: Like it's just that we've the gradual release.
14:40
Andy Goveia: And so that event, even in and of itself, is just that moment of here we are, we've started the year.
14:47
Ben Webb: And I think the transition is not just for the kids.
14:51
Ben Webb: No.
14:52
Ben Webb: Uh, having having put my daughter into like the open house when we went to meet her teachers and then spend some time like, okay, this this was it was that whole event was to basically tell me that everything's gonna be okay.
15:08
Andy Goveia: Right.
15:09
Andy Goveia: And that's and I give a shot, I just want to give a shout out to all our early-ish elementary pre-K teachers that like they have a mountain of a task when a parent shows up at the beginning of the year to go, I promise you don't know me, but I know what I'm doing.
15:22
Andy Goveia: Yep.
15:23
Andy Goveia: And trust, trust that your kid is gonna be safe, they're gonna be loved, they're gonna be cared for, and they're gonna learn here.
15:28
Andy Goveia: And that is a lot to communicate in a 20 to 25 minute window.
15:31
Andy Goveia: Yep.
15:32
Andy Goveia: So, yeah.
15:33
Andy Goveia: So, what is there anything of your traditions you thought about?
15:36
Andy Goveia: Beginning of the year?
15:37
Ben Webb: Beginning of the year.
15:37
Ben Webb: The thing, the first thing, the first one I would mention is so the freshman program is English, world studies, and biology.
15:44
Ben Webb: And the team of six teachers are working throughout the year.
15:47
Ben Webb: We coordinate our schedules, we coordinate our assessments, our standards, we are team teaching.
15:51
Ben Webb: We're doing a lot together for that orientation and that transition.
15:56
Ben Webb: So we we do a freshman orientation for all of the students going through the freshman program, which kind of culminates in this event called the Greek Olympics.
16:04
Ben Webb: It is a field day.
16:06
Ben Webb: It is uh called the Greek Olympics because it's just at the end of our Greek history unit.
16:11
Ben Webb: We used to teach uh text that would go alongside that.
16:15
Ben Webb: So uh we were talking about a number of years ago, we were doing the Hunger Games.
16:19
Ben Webb: And really, it is a field day.
16:20
Ben Webb: It is kind of a culmination of okay, what have you learned about being a team?
16:24
Ben Webb: What have you learned about being with your peers and kind of working together towards a common goal?
16:31
Ben Webb: There are, you know, gold medals, silver, bronze.
16:34
Ben Webb: They are doing a bunch of different fun activities.
16:36
Ben Webb: It's the one day that even a junior or a senior tries to sneak into the gym and wants to be a freshman again.
16:44
Ben Webb: Yeah.
16:44
Ben Webb: It's just such a fun kind of end of the, I guess, first trimester we would say, because we do it right before Thanksgiving.
16:51
Ben Webb: But it's such a fun day where you really get to see, okay, it's not just about the test.
16:56
Ben Webb: I mean, there are there are curricular connections.
16:58
Ben Webb: We ask them to make connections in terms of when they build their armor and they model their armor.
17:03
Ben Webb: Like, we want to see not just a bunch of cardboard and in there what they made, but we want to see like why did they do it a certain way and how did they work together to build it and put it together and engineer it.
17:14
Ben Webb: And we we there's trivia.
17:16
Ben Webb: There is for there is for brains, there's for brawn.
17:18
Ben Webb: We're doing all of that in one morning, and it's just really cool to see them kind of do that and then celebrate the winners, congratulate all who participated in, and then have a nice meal together.
17:29
Ben Webb: So that's the that's the first one I would mention.
17:32
Andy Goveia: Love that.
17:33
Andy Goveia: We started this year to speak to that, and so like the rest of these events don't necessarily follow the flow of the year for us, it's just kind of they happen.
17:41
Andy Goveia: So, like all of our grades do different things that are like like I don't even know what the phrase to use, like signature experience.
17:49
Andy Goveia: Like almost every grade's got a thing that they do.
17:52
Andy Goveia: Um, and kindergarten this year, shout out to them, started a new one.
17:55
Andy Goveia: They did an outdoor education day for their little kindergartners, worked on eight alongside eighth graders to plan just like an outdoor education day, which was really cool for them to get to pretend they were camping and get that experience.
18:07
Andy Goveia: And I'll talk about after in a second for our building.
18:09
Andy Goveia: Um, first grade for sure always goes to the zoo.
18:13
Andy Goveia: They go to Miller Park Zoo every year as part of their study.
18:16
Andy Goveia: Um, second grade does a lot of really cool uh nature explorations that they do um as well.
18:26
Andy Goveia: Third grade goes to Shad Aquarium as part of their ocean study.
18:30
Andy Goveia: Um, fourth grade every year goes to the starved Rock State Park to hike and explore there.
18:35
Andy Goveia: And then you hit middle school and our after education program starts, and I'll circle back to that in just a second.
18:42
Andy Goveia: Um but all of those things happen at different points in the year.
18:46
Andy Goveia: Um, pre-K, for example, does um in the winter, does a coat drive and hat drive for the giving fence in down in downtown Bloomington.
18:54
Andy Goveia: They have these little people walk around the school and collect these big coats and mittens, and they take them on an ISU minibus and they have the kids go stock that fence on, I think it's on Washington Street.
19:05
Andy Goveia: Um four-year-olds do that.
19:08
Andy Goveia: Um, and then you have traditions like our student council does a food two to three food drives every year to stock different food pantries.
19:14
Andy Goveia: Um, things like that were just the cool things happen.
19:18
Andy Goveia: Um, our building is also defined by I would say three other big things outdoor ed, our musical, and our circus.
19:27
Andy Goveia: Um, when you think about Metcalf and the things that people know about us.
19:31
Andy Goveia: Um outdoor ed formally starts in fifth grade.
19:33
Andy Goveia: Kids go to and stay in cabins.
19:37
Andy Goveia: Uh three days, two nights, do that experience, look at doors to be away from horror but thrive.
19:44
Ben Webb: And I've heard some wonderful stories about like that kind of transformative experience of being on their own.
19:50
Andy Goveia: Yes, also um that and that program just I mean it's a 50-year program.
19:56
Andy Goveia: It's been going on for 50 years.
19:57
Andy Goveia: You talk tradition, that is a Metcalf tradition, outdoor ed.
20:01
Andy Goveia: We're the last people in town still doing it.
20:03
Andy Goveia: 87 cut it a couple years ago.
20:05
Andy Goveia: Um and so But the yeah, the transformative effect of that is just I mean, people come back 10, 15 years later and go, oh my gosh, remember it outdoor ed when you did this.
20:15
Andy Goveia: And one of the one of my former students who's at UhI now, I broke a chair accidentally.
20:21
Andy Goveia: She has that piece of that chair, and she doesn't let me forget that she has a piece of that chair.
20:26
Andy Goveia: Um core memory.
20:28
Andy Goveia: Core memory.
20:29
Andy Goveia: But that's the thing about some of our stuff that though the the traditions are the core memories that get created along the way.
20:34
Andy Goveia: So, like you get to uh our Allied Arts musical production every year.
20:39
Andy Goveia: The musical is one of the big school events everybody goes to usually and sits in on and watches.
20:43
Andy Goveia: And musical season is a season for us.
20:46
Andy Goveia: I know it's kind of the same for you guys with your plays and productions, but like for us, that's that's our big show every year.
20:52
Andy Goveia: And everything kind of blows up for a week while the show is happening, but we all go watch the show, we celebrate those kids.
20:59
Andy Goveia: And this year they added in like a character meet and greet.
21:02
Andy Goveia: So we did Frozen Junior, and so the Friday we did the show on Thursday for the school and on Friday for our youngest kids, pre-K and K got to go meet Olaf and Sven and Anna and Kristoff and Elsa.
21:14
Andy Goveia: And they got to just like Disney World.
21:17
Andy Goveia: My like my kindergarten daughter was like, I got to meet Olaf today, and it was the coolest thing for her.
21:22
Andy Goveia: And so, like that production is a tradition.
21:24
Andy Goveia: Our circus show, we have the junior gammafy circus since 1986.
21:28
Andy Goveia: Saw that on the poster this weekend.
21:31
Andy Goveia: That experience is a tradition we have.
21:33
Andy Goveia: The whole school comes to watch that show on Thursday.
21:36
Andy Goveia: We celebrate this the half the school gets decorated, themed for the show, and we all dive into that shared experience together.
21:45
Andy Goveia: Um, and so in addition to all those class based experiences that are the traditions that are happen in classes, we also have those three big programs defined.
21:54
Andy Goveia: For I think for a lot of people, you ask about Metcalf, they're gonna go, oh gosh, you have that circus.
21:59
Andy Goveia: Oh, you have that mequel.
22:00
Andy Goveia: Oh, you do have to ed.
22:01
Ben Webb: I mean those things that people kind of speaking to like some of the there's some major m milestones that happen along the way.
22:07
Ben Webb: Yeah.
22:07
Ben Webb: You were talking about service, and so that kind of made me think about one of the events that's a tradition that we have is Mr.
22:14
Ben Webb: Uhai.
22:14
Ben Webb: Mr.
22:15
Ben Webb: Uhai.
22:16
Ben Webb: And I think one of the things I would mention about this, it's it's a it's in memory of a student uh in October of 2002, Troy Harry was a student.
22:26
Ben Webb: He was a good student, but kind of a class clown uh individual, very funny, very loved.
22:32
Ben Webb: And he uh died in a car accident.
22:34
Ben Webb: And so after after that, Mr.
22:37
Ben Webb: Yu High was developed to kind of not recognize the most academic of our students, but who is the person who really brings joy to the classroom, to the environment, can lead through example.
22:50
Ben Webb: And that's one of those where it's you know, it's it it's a it's a male beauty pageant.
22:54
Ben Webb: You said it, not me.
22:56
Ben Webb: Um it's more than that, but it's one of those traditions where it's like, okay, I'm you sometimes you're surprised that that still is in existence.
23:04
Ben Webb: Yeah.
23:05
Ben Webb: But Troy would be that kind of person where it's kind of like would push the envelope a little bit and also would kind of, you know, want to, you know, stretch that boundary, but also make you smile, make you laugh.
23:17
Ben Webb: And so it's done as a kind of a memorial to him, um, but as that kind of like living memorial, it is also like for service.
23:25
Ben Webb: And so there's a couple of different organizations besides Senate and U Build who then are doing service in other areas uh from them.
23:34
Ben Webb: And then the other big one, class night.
23:37
Ben Webb: Class night.
23:38
Ben Webb: It is right up class night, and it's as old as the schools, as old as um we've been around.
23:45
Ben Webb: It is the end-of-year concert.
23:47
Ben Webb: It involves videos made by the students.
23:51
Ben Webb: I would I would argue it's kind of like SNL, where it's a bunch of sketch comedies.
23:56
Ben Webb: Yeah, you've got videos in there uh similar to the Between Two Ferns with Zach Galaf and Hackett.
24:02
Ben Webb: Between two halfies, between two halfies, which explains and leaves so many questions.
24:07
Ben Webb: Um, and you've got like you've got your car carpal karaoke, you've got your Hot Ones Buffalo Wig Challenge, you've got the videos that are written and filmed and edited by the students, and then also they they poke fun, they bring in the teachers.
24:22
Andy Goveia: We kind of almost like a year in review, like just for the for the uninitiated or someone listening to this going, what is this?
24:28
Andy Goveia: The senior class basically just does this year in review, taking the major beats of the year and turning it into this celebration of what the school year was.
24:39
Ben Webb: Yeah.
24:40
Ben Webb: And I think what's really cool about it is I, as one of the sponsors for the event, I get to see seniors come in at the beginning of the school year, see them really start to say, okay, this is what we're gonna do, this is what we're gonna, how we're gonna repeat what we did last year.
24:53
Ben Webb: But then I also get to see that transformation from I don't have to just repeat what I saw last year.
24:58
Ben Webb: I don't have to just do what's already been done.
25:00
Ben Webb: I can come up with something new or I can make it my own.
25:03
Ben Webb: And so you really start to see like the personality of the class, and you also start to see how it's celebrating all of the seniors, but also all of the community.
25:17
Ben Webb: So I always pitch to them like they're um they're them.
25:22
Ben Webb: The awards assembly, we're gonna celebrate them, their achievements, and where they're going on after high school.
25:27
Ben Webb: Class night, whether it's you are in a video or you are behind the scenes editing that video, or if you are in the live band who is doing eight different songs of music that you think is gonna rock out and think and get the audience involved, like it is a major event that gets to celebrate your year and your four years in the school, while also, and I think the most important thing is I will always harp on them.
25:55
Ben Webb: Your audience is not just your senior class peers.
25:58
Ben Webb: It's every class in this building, and we invite the incoming eighth grade class.
26:02
Ben Webb: You are welcoming in a group of students who applied to go to the school, received an acceptance letter, and is now coming into this room saying, I want to be a U-High pioneer.
26:14
Ben Webb: And in some cases, the inside jokes never land with them.
26:17
Ben Webb: They're confused as to what things mean.
26:19
Ben Webb: Those eighth graders are deeply confused.
26:22
Ben Webb: But we we bring them in early before class night.
26:25
Ben Webb: We kind of give them a tour of the building, we have a fun night where it's kind of like we literally introduce them to the senators and the other individuals who are leaders of different uh groups, and then they go to class night and they get to feel like they're a part of that piece.
26:38
Ben Webb: And also there's usually a faculty video, there's a faculty band.
26:43
Ben Webb: There is.
26:44
Ben Webb: I believe somebody in this room has been on the faculty band for a number of years.
26:47
Andy Goveia: Listen, this is gonna be allegedly year 14.
26:51
Andy Goveia: Oh man.
26:52
Andy Goveia: Playing with the faculty band this year.
26:54
Andy Goveia: I I lucked out, guys.
26:56
Andy Goveia: Listen, anybody listening, student taught here, and I because I was in the office, I was in the office where the the band coordinator was, I got looped in on all the communication, and they've not taken me off yet.
27:11
Ben Webb: No.
27:12
Ben Webb: We why would we?
27:13
Andy Goveia: Well, I you play.
27:15
Andy Goveia: I'm honored.
27:16
Andy Goveia: I get to pretend to work here for one day a year.
27:19
Ben Webb: And yet my one o'clock class sees you sneak in every so often for recording.
27:24
Andy Goveia: They're like, what's he doing here?
27:26
Andy Goveia: Just the same thing we've done all year, guys.
27:28
Andy Goveia: Um yeah, class night's awesome.
27:32
Andy Goveia: One that's a capital T tradition.
27:34
Andy Goveia: Yes, I think for this building.
27:36
Andy Goveia: Yep.
27:36
Andy Goveia: By far.
27:37
Ben Webb: Without class night, it's very hard to think of anything else that is purely us, yeah, other than like bringing out a lamp of knowledge, which is horribly flammable and dangerous, and then and then doing that process of moving up of the classes, quite literally bringing the senior class out of the seats in the auditorium where they go, putting them up on stage, and and having them do this ceremony where it's like, hey, we've left space for you.
28:04
Ben Webb: Juniors, you may take ours place as seniors.
28:07
Ben Webb: Sophomores, move to the junior section.
28:11
Ben Webb: Freshmen, move to this, and then being able to say to those eighth graders, come down to the freshman section.
28:17
Ben Webb: All right, classes, go enjoy yourself in the lounge, have a nice party, go do a little bit of dance.
28:22
Ben Webb: They don't dance, they just cry and hug each other because they're gonna miss each other.
28:25
Ben Webb: Yeah.
28:25
Ben Webb: But then being able to talk and we that is quintessentially, like with the years missing so much.
28:32
Andy Goveia: Some other questions besides think these are gonna be either the career and other experiences are clubs and extra other extracurriculars do amazing things.
28:42
Andy Goveia: And if you believe, this is where I'll put out a plug to our listening community.
28:46
Andy Goveia: If you think there's something we need to feature next season, when we hit the ground running in August, we need content.
28:53
Andy Goveia: We want, we've done a number of things we thought were good this year.
28:58
Andy Goveia: Um and we appreciate you listening.
29:01
Andy Goveia: But if you think there's something that deserves a 30 to 45 minute conversation about this place, tell us.
29:07
Andy Goveia: We want to know.
29:08
Andy Goveia: We don't want to just give a single narrative of this place because that happens too often.
29:14
Andy Goveia: We want to make sure that we're including as much as we can to be thoughtful and inclusive of traditions and people and things.
29:21
Andy Goveia: So there are great traditions that happen across both of our schools.
29:25
Andy Goveia: I think it's important to note we are two people speaking, and we miss things sometimes.
29:32
Ben Webb: I miss a lot of things.
29:33
Andy Goveia: I do too, especially when it's 80 degrees outside.
29:37
Ben Webb: Um, you did you did do the segue though.
29:40
Andy Goveia: I did do the segue.
29:41
Ben Webb: So we miss things.
29:43
Ben Webb: We miss things.
29:43
Ben Webb: What is a tradition that we have lost, or something that we've lost that you want back?
29:52
Ben Webb: Not gonna say we used to do it better, not to say that it was better back in the day.
29:57
Andy Goveia: But I what is a traditional one tradition that I we did it my first couple years, maybe your first couple years.
30:05
Andy Goveia: I'm already squirming, thinking back that far.
30:07
Andy Goveia: And I I rather liked it.
30:11
Andy Goveia: I know a lot of people did not.
30:14
Andy Goveia: Um, we would get both our buildings together for three to four hours, and we did what you can only call as really socially awkward team building.
30:26
Andy Goveia: I really enjoyed that for a number of reasons.
30:33
Ben Webb: If you need to do any fan mail, please know you can do that on our Buzz Sprout, or you can directly email us uh or send something on Instagram because this is one where I might stand in some fan mail.stu.edu.
30:45
Andy Goveia: Um no, I but here's why I liked not necessarily that.
30:50
Andy Goveia: There was something to be said for we for lack of better language, we are a school system that is two buildings.
30:58
Andy Goveia: It is nice to be reminded that we are not islands, but that our two buildings are a part of us the same system.
31:06
Andy Goveia: So I'm not advocating to go back to socially awkward team building, but I would say I do miss not getting together just for meetings or P D, but having a legitimate moment of, hey, we are the people together that do this work across P12.
31:23
Andy Goveia: Let's spend a just something together, not just sitting and getting or doing active work.
31:30
Andy Goveia: I'm I miss we are the people that make this place work.
31:34
Andy Goveia: Take 10 minutes to have a cup of coffee and chat with each other.
31:37
Andy Goveia: I miss that component.
31:39
Ben Webb: I can agree with you on the component of let's take away those barriers, put down those walls, and let's both come together.
31:48
Ben Webb: All of us as faculty associates, as you know, as people who are employees of this university, let's come together and do that.
31:55
Ben Webb: It's the forced socialization piece.
31:57
Ben Webb: I'm an outrovert, so I'm like, uh, oh boy, I don't want, I don't want to do an awkward team building, but I agree with your premise wholeheartedly.
32:05
Andy Goveia: It's the premise, not the A to B.
32:07
Andy Goveia: Shout out to Dr.
32:07
Andy Goveia: Haney.
32:08
Andy Goveia: She and I did one together, planned one.
32:10
Andy Goveia: My second year, what a what an introduction.
32:12
Andy Goveia: What about you?
32:13
Andy Goveia: Is there something that we've let go that you missed?
32:17
Ben Webb: This is gonna be a little bit of a hot take.
32:19
Ben Webb: So I feel like, and this is not a critique of the people who are in charge of these departments right now.
32:26
Ben Webb: It's just a the nature of how the world has changed.
32:30
Ben Webb: I miss how far we used to be ahead of the curve on technology.
32:37
Ben Webb: I feel like, and I know AI is the the I feel like back in the day, we were we were one of the first schools to really figure out one-to-one device initiatives.
32:47
Ben Webb: And we were the people who people were we were the ones who had visiting schools come in and say, How do you make this work?
32:53
Ben Webb: At both levels.
32:54
Ben Webb: At yeah.
32:55
Ben Webb: And I think part of what has kind of happened in the industry of technology, but also in schools, is now one-to-one is kind of the expectation.
33:03
Ben Webb: It's the norm.
33:04
Ben Webb: Devices either are getting more pricey or we're trying to re figure out how do we do this.
33:10
Ben Webb: And one of the things that I always used to love to do is say, okay, I don't want to know what the next big thing is going to be for next year.
33:17
Ben Webb: I need to know 10 years from now.
33:19
Ben Webb: And I I'm hoping that we can get back on that tradition of being ahead of the curve when it came to when it came to technology.
33:26
Ben Webb: Um, a number of things in COVID learning and a number of things that we kind of did differently and thought differently to plug the Apple um catchphrase.
33:36
Ben Webb: Yes, we will take iPad Pros.
33:38
Ben Webb: But we're starting ocean.
33:39
Ben Webb: But we're starting to see like the we're starting to see, and I think I think specifically at Uhigh, we're starting to see how that next iteration of technological advancement and classroom involvement with technology is gonna be so crucial, we have to be ahead of the curve.
33:59
Ben Webb: It's the same way that we talk about like AI before, about like, okay, well, AI is the buzzword or AI is the thing.
34:07
Ben Webb: But we need to be thinking about how we're preparing our kids and our students and our pre-service teachers for what it's gonna look like down their career or down the line.
34:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:16
Ben Webb: And I'm starting to see that, especially with like one-to-one in terms of like when you mentioned iPads, like there's some amazing things you can do on device right now in a secure environment on that device.
34:27
Ben Webb: Also, who's to say that one size fits all?
34:30
Ben Webb: And we've been testing that.
34:31
Ben Webb: We've been coming up with some kits in our technology department and in our shared governance technology committee.
34:36
Ben Webb: We've been talking through, okay, what does it look like if not everyone has the same device?
34:41
Ben Webb: How do you still make it equitable?
34:43
Ben Webb: Uh, what best prepares them for post-high school?
34:48
Ben Webb: Um, and even kind of like looking to like, is there a way in which this device goes on with them?
34:53
Ben Webb: It's their device, their technology fees really paid for it.
34:56
Ben Webb: And and we've kind of talked through like, okay, what are those functional barriers?
35:00
Ben Webb: Um, what AI can we get them?
35:02
Ben Webb: What kind of technology tools can we get them so that they are then better prepared?
35:06
Ben Webb: And I think about in terms of like, I've got kids right now asking me, how do I use the Adobe Suite?
35:11
Ben Webb: How can I use the most powerful tool for this Photoshop or this video?
35:15
Ben Webb: Yeah.
35:15
Ben Webb: I've got kids asking me, how do I do this not on their school-issued device, but on their phones with Apple Intelligence.
35:21
Ben Webb: I've got some kids who are ready for, you know, switching out of Magic School AI, which I can curate for them, into more of the, all right, well, you've got Claude, you've got Gemini, you've got the official one that the university is gonna have us use, which is Copilot.
35:38
Ben Webb: So you're ready for it.
35:39
Ben Webb: I can now add we were talking about this beforehand, like yeah, I can do the teaching piece.
35:45
Ben Webb: I just need the tools that are then able to make me successful.
35:49
Ben Webb: Yeah.
35:49
Ben Webb: And I think one-to-one, and I think with those kind of technology, like we used to have X.
35:56
Ben Webb: I feel like we've lost a little bit of that now that it's kind of become mainstream, and it's kind of like, okay, how do we then return?
36:03
Ben Webb: Yeah, what's next?
36:03
Andy Goveia: What's next?
36:04
Andy Goveia: Yeah.
36:05
Ben Webb: That's it.
36:06
Ben Webb: Yeah.
36:06
Ben Webb: But what else?
36:09
Ben Webb: What else is something that you either feel like we've we had a handle on, maybe we lost, maybe we went a different direction.
36:17
Ben Webb: Because I think one of the cool things about lab schools is we can experiment, and I I think part of that experimentation is sometimes you find things that don't work.
36:28
Andy Goveia: I think one thing that I think has has changed through the years, and I don't know I don't know the right way to sit on this necessarily is simply what what does the continuum for us look like P12?
36:48
Andy Goveia: Like there's been, and this is simply I think the nature of education today, there's a lot of turnover at a lot of positions in both of our buildings, leadership-wise, teaching-wise, support-wise.
36:59
Andy Goveia: And so anytime there's a change, communication changes.
37:04
Andy Goveia: And like to speak to like my relationship with freshman program, the social studies department, just generically speaking, when I started at Metcalf, the same people who were teaching freshmen were the same people I had been in an office with and had gotten to known.
37:20
Andy Goveia: Well, they weren't in the same office, but I had gotten to know them, and they were still all kind of consistent for a couple of years.
37:26
Andy Goveia: And then as people retire, you get new hires, the people in freshman program changed, and it's no one's fault.
37:32
Andy Goveia: And I'm just using one little tiny example, but that you take just that one departmental example, multiply it across all of our system, different changes in leadership at the top of our system, at the university, provoke, right?
37:45
Andy Goveia: All of those levels we've had, and what you just see is a little disjointedness, just in terms of alignment of what do you do you do alignment bottom up?
37:57
Andy Goveia: What do we expect a kindergartner to be able to do?
37:59
Andy Goveia: Okay, what does the first grader do?
38:00
Andy Goveia: Do we take that then up to a high school graduate versus the other school of thought is here's the graduate.
38:04
Andy Goveia: All right, let's backwards plan.
38:08
Andy Goveia: What does a unified system approach look like post-COVID?
38:13
Andy Goveia: Looking to the future, kind of like what you said, what's next?
38:16
Andy Goveia: How can we not that we've lost it fully, and that's not what I'm saying either, but I think post-COVID it was really easy for Metcalf to be Metcalf, Uh to be UhI.
38:25
Andy Goveia: And we're starting to kind of re-converse what that alignment could look like.
38:33
Ben Webb: I think I have a good, I think I have an example of this.
38:35
Ben Webb: So one of the things that I've noticed, and this is I've been in the freshman program since I was hired.
38:40
Ben Webb: Yeah.
38:40
Ben Webb: So I've I've gotten to You are the old man of the department.
38:43
Ben Webb: I've been the old man since my third year in the freshman program because of because of the gray and because of the you know, just the gruff attitude.
38:50
Ben Webb: Yeah.
38:51
Ben Webb: So the thing that I've noticed, and something that it just kind of an it's not a bad thing.
38:56
Ben Webb: It's just curriculum's gonna change, people are gonna change.
38:58
Ben Webb: Yes.
38:59
Ben Webb: We are a dynamic living system.
39:01
Ben Webb: We're a living laboratory.
39:02
Ben Webb: We're supposed to be.
39:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
39:03
Ben Webb: And so as that change is happening, one of the things that I would but there is a trajectory that most Metcalf students are going to take.
39:10
Andy Goveia: 99% of our kids go to freshman year here.
39:13
Ben Webb: Depending on the people who were involved, you identify and say, okay, we're gonna do what we can to help that, or we need to acknowledge that that is privilege that we need to then maybe not emphasize.
39:24
Ben Webb: Yeah.
39:24
Ben Webb: So if we've got a percentage of students coming from Metcalf into the ninth grade class, a third of your class.
39:30
Ben Webb: A third of my class.
39:31
Ben Webb: Are we going to make sure that that transition is seamless, that we're giving them at eighth grade the tools that are going to help them start the year successfully in ninth grade when that is only one-third of our student body?
39:47
Ben Webb: Who do you orient to?
39:48
Ben Webb: We have feedered districts, we have students coming from some districts almost an hour away, coming in.
39:57
Ben Webb: Is that an advantage to somebody who got into Metcalf and a disadvantage then to somebody who didn't go to Metcalf?
40:06
Ben Webb: And I think that's a those are two realities that we grapple with because do I want a student to have a successful transition from eighth grade into ninth grade?
40:16
Ben Webb: 100%.
40:17
Ben Webb: Absolutely.
40:19
Ben Webb: But I don't want it to be an advantage for one district or one school.
40:24
Ben Webb: Yeah.
40:24
Ben Webb: When if I don't have those developed relationships with their eighth grade teachers in the neighboring schools, and I believe there's I I want to say there's like at least 20.
40:35
Andy Goveia: I want to say different words, 27 potential, if you just go geographically, geographically 27 potential feeder middle schools.
40:43
Andy Goveia: Us just being one of the 27.
40:45
Ben Webb: And I think that so I think that's part of the reality is we want to prepare students for that transition.
40:51
Ben Webb: But regardless if they are already within our system, like we can we can align standards, we can talk, we can work together within our two buildings, but in the end, that is one population of our student body.
41:04
Ben Webb: And we have to make sure that every single kid, when they start in that ninth grade class, it's not like some kids are starting ahead.
41:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:15
Ben Webb: And they get a different starting line than everyone else.
41:18
Ben Webb: So that's something I know personally I've talked in meetings about and I've kind of grappled with how am I making sure that that isn't going to then be an equity issue?
41:30
Andy Goveia: And I think depending on how you look at that transition, and this is where I think we come into our schools come into a little bit of conflict, is we teach these kids for 10 years, potentially.
41:39
Andy Goveia: They are in our there should be a hurdle to stay in the system.
41:43
Andy Goveia: And I an entire episode on in our system, what should that speak to the theme of the episode?
41:47
Andy Goveia: Clear tradition.
41:49
Ben Webb: Student, a peer, a colleague coming in, we don't want to impose on them this is the way the school must be.
41:58
Ben Webb: And so just like how every kid deserves a fresh start coming into ninth grade, I think we also have to recognize that for our new hires.
42:08
Ben Webb: Uh-huh.
42:08
Ben Webb: Several of our teachers have taught in buildings for a number of years, some of which, right out of the internship or student teaching, get to come back to the lab schools, and that might be their first or their second year teaching.
42:19
Ben Webb: And we can't treat them like the newbie.
42:22
Ben Webb: Right.
42:23
Ben Webb: We want them to be a part of this community, but that must then be reflective of who they are.
42:28
Ben Webb: Yeah.
42:33
Andy Goveia: So where we're starting to, I know we're just about out of time for this conversation.
42:39
Andy Goveia: And I I'll start off answering my own question.
42:41
Andy Goveia: Is there any kind of tradition where there's a little bit of friction in fighting for or against some piece of it?
42:47
Andy Goveia: And for us, post-COVID, it's been our eighth-grade graduation presentation, whatever you want to call it.
42:53
Andy Goveia: Um because parents, for us, I know like a UHI graduation and class night, all stool, all school done, all school driven.
43:01
Andy Goveia: Our eighth grade presentation, there's a parent component we work with parents because they drive how large or how small the reception is afterwards.
43:12
Andy Goveia: So we so for those that listen, presented forward, um, where they are recognized as concluding their time in our school.
43:18
Andy Goveia: Some of them have been there for 10 years.
43:20
Andy Goveia: Um, and we send them on their way and say, Great to go, we're gonna miss you.
43:24
Andy Goveia: Good I that event for our kids, especially the ones that have been there for 10 years, even eight or nine years.
43:30
Andy Goveia: It is really great to say, Hey, you've been here, you transition.
43:32
Andy Goveia: We're gonna celebrate a new middle school.
43:34
Andy Goveia: Um, the the fighting how traditional within the confines of there's a bagpipe, right?
43:40
Andy Goveia: Which started 14, 15 years ago with a student who wanted to play bagpipes.
43:44
Andy Goveia: And now we bring a bagpiper into because that created a tradition.
43:48
Andy Goveia: Um, how rigid do you stay to that format of a ceremony?
43:53
Andy Goveia: And then how big should the reception be?
43:55
Andy Goveia: Um, and then there's some that are like, why do we even do it?
43:58
Andy Goveia: There aren't eighth grade high school trades.
44:00
Andy Goveia: Transitions that really happen in a lot of other places, especially in today's culture.
44:04
Andy Goveia: Like this is kind of a byproduct of a different era.
44:07
Andy Goveia: Um but I think when you're in a unique system like ours, where there is a potential for a kid to be with us from four until fourteen, and then from fourteen until they're 19, giving some sort of marked, we recognize your time.
44:20
Andy Goveia: And that's what class night is for you guys.
44:22
Andy Goveia: We recognize your time here, we celebrate you, go on to what's next.
44:28
Andy Goveia: Um so again, it's not fighting necessarily.
44:31
Andy Goveia: It's just there's some healthy friction sometimes over what that transition should or should not look like.
44:39
Andy Goveia: Which actually feeds into the cultural conversation we just had about skills and readiness and what should that it all that transition.
44:45
Andy Goveia: There's I think there's an episode to be done on the eighth to ninth transition, maybe in season two, after maybe so we can get some soul searching going on that conversation.
44:53
Ben Webb: Well, and it'd be good to bring in a couple of those different opinions.
44:56
Ben Webb: You kind of talked about how you you like it.
44:58
Ben Webb: It might be good to also hear like what are the struggles or the reasons for why maybe it needs to change.
45:03
Ben Webb: Yeah.
45:04
Ben Webb: Um I would I would say a similar similar to that.
45:08
Ben Webb: So like sometimes, and I think because we are a building that recognizes we have traditions, I think sometimes we either run into the risk of it happened once, therefore now it's a tradition because we're gonna try and do it a second time.
45:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:25
Ben Webb: We sometimes we're not always the best when it comes to a pilot.
45:28
Ben Webb: Like we might pilot something, but because we did it and it wasn't a train wreck, yeah.
45:33
Ben Webb: Now it's a tradition and something we must redo.
45:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:36
Ben Webb: And or, or even with that, like, okay, so I saw it last year.
45:41
Ben Webb: So now I'm gonna take on that tradition and do it this year.
45:44
Ben Webb: And I think our students are can be guilty of that.
45:46
Ben Webb: I think our teachers are also somewhat guilty of that.
45:49
Ben Webb: Um, so that's that's one I would kind of highlight.
45:52
Ben Webb: I think the other challenge is often with like what was your original question again?
46:00
Andy Goveia: Anything where there's been a tradition where there's some friction, whether you've either not fought necessarily but had to advocate for or maybe advocate a change or adjustment or against.
46:12
Ben Webb: So I think taking what I just said and then applying it more directly to the question, I think sometimes we um we maintain the tradition to the script and to the letter of the law as opposed to even asking why are we doing this?
46:32
Ben Webb: Um I think sometimes we might I see that with class night sometimes, where it's like it's a major event.
46:38
Ben Webb: We want it to be kind of ceremonial, we want it to have like a certain kind of like seriousness to it, but sometimes I think we don't always capture or even transmit why is it so solemn?
46:51
Ben Webb: Why are we trying to do this thing?
46:53
Ben Webb: We kind of almost leave it unspoken.
46:55
Ben Webb: And then I worry that sometimes not everybody might pick up on why that is.
47:00
Ben Webb: Um similarly, I think sometimes with that, if you do something within the tradition, then it kind of gets locked into, well, we can't change it.
47:08
Andy Goveia: Yeah.
47:08
Ben Webb: So, like a couple of years ago, there was a video that had to happen because oh, did it?
47:12
Ben Webb: I I remember when I saw it when I was a freshman or when I saw it when I was a sophomore.
47:16
Ben Webb: And it's like, but that's you know, your lifespan, yeah, you loved it, and your lifespan in this school has been a certain amount of time.
47:24
Ben Webb: Yeah.
47:25
Ben Webb: Some of us, we we remember this from way back when when we went to school here.
47:29
Ben Webb: I think a couple of our teachers who have some a lot, we have some alums.
47:33
Ben Webb: So like I think being able to recognize and then also share with that, like, okay, traditions can change.
47:39
Ben Webb: And I think it's hard for some students to recognize.
47:43
Ben Webb: I think it's like really hard for some of our teachers and some of our um, you know, community members to be like, oh, well that's not how I did it.
47:49
Ben Webb: Yeah.
47:49
Andy Goveia: It's like that doesn't make it less.
47:51
Andy Goveia: Right.
47:53
Andy Goveia: Nostalgia is real sometimes.
47:55
Ben Webb: Oh, it's so real.
47:57
Ben Webb: And it's in and I think the hard part is that it doesn't make it wrong.
48:00
Ben Webb: It just means maybe not this year.
48:02
Ben Webb: Yeah.
48:03
Andy Goveia: And I think that's a really great point, maybe to end off on is that all these traditions we've talked about, whether the cultural pieces, um, some of our wonders about changes and traditions, like we again, to speak to what I said earlier, we are just two people doing this podcast to start conversations, to get our story and our name out there.
48:24
Andy Goveia: And maybe there's a good group of alumni that are like, hey, we'd love to talk about how we look back on this place, parents, and their perspective on how they view our places and what they would hope to see or expect, right?
48:38
Andy Goveia: Or their take on traditions.
48:41
Andy Goveia: Um I think it's good to maybe end on the plug again and go, hey, if you listen to this conversation and go, oh, there's so much more to talk about.
48:49
Andy Goveia: We want to connect, reach out, and let's figure out how to get that conversation out there rather than it be whispers or rather than it just be a complaint or a suggestion box.
49:00
Andy Goveia: Like let's dialogue and show the richness of diversity of thought that exists within not only our buildings, but it within our school communities and area.
49:12
Ben Webb: So there's a few more episodes between now and the end of the school year.
49:16
Ben Webb: Yeah.
49:16
Ben Webb: We've not explicitly said it yet, but we are gonna take the summer off.
49:19
Ben Webb: Yeah, hopefully.
49:20
Ben Webb: So I well, we'll probably be talking about stuff and we'll have PD and stuff like that.
49:24
Ben Webb: But just for listeners to know, we've got a few more episodes, but then Memorial Day, friends.
49:29
Andy Goveia: Once we hit Memorial Day, maybe you get one episode post-Memorial Day, and maybe there's a random summer drop.
49:38
Andy Goveia: But we're coming up on the end.
49:40
Andy Goveia: So again, for next year, if you've got stuff, we are pretty blank slate for next year.
49:45
Andy Goveia: We have two or three things we know we want to do, but two or three episodes is not a 36-week school year.
49:52
Andy Goveia: Yep.
49:52
Ben Webb: So give us some guidance, give us some help, and also know if you community and want to get on the pod.
49:59
Ben Webb: We are sending invites to people.
50:01
Ben Webb: We're trying to fill our calendar with more than just our voices.
50:06
Andy Goveia: I love hearing you talk.
50:07
Andy Goveia: We we have a lovely time and we enjoy this.
50:09
Andy Goveia: That's why we did it together.
50:11
Andy Goveia: My favorite episodes have been the ones where we're talking to other people, and there's some revelation or thing to consider or a new way of considering something because it those are also our best episodes.
50:20
Andy Goveia: We get listener feedback.
50:21
Andy Goveia: I was told our admissions episode was deeply helpful and eye-opening for some people just to hear the conversation.
50:29
Ben Webb: So hopefully this episode is well timed, considering we're coming up on the end of the year.
50:34
Ben Webb: We've had a number of events.
50:36
Ben Webb: Admissions letters are coming out soon.
50:37
Ben Webb: Very true.
50:38
Ben Webb: And I think we're excited to have a new class of people involved and a part of our community.
50:43
Ben Webb: Hopefully, this conversation helps acclimate them and lets them know they get to be a part of contributing to what makes this school a special place.
50:51
Andy Goveia: So hopefully before the end of the year, here's what you're gonna hear from us.
50:55
Andy Goveia: Hopefully, you're gonna get to hear an episode or two from some of our teachers talking about their year, what they've learned, what they've found.
51:02
Andy Goveia: Hopefully, you're gonna get to hear from our new hires this year, a group of them getting together talking about what it was like to be new here.
51:08
Andy Goveia: Hopefully, you'll hear a conversation from the dean again.
51:11
Andy Goveia: Dr.
51:12
Andy Goveia: Zagelder's gonna come back talking about next year for us and what leadership is gonna look like.
51:18
Andy Goveia: And there's a lot of great conversations to come.
51:21
Andy Goveia: We hope you stick around with us.
51:22
Andy Goveia: Have a good week, everyone.
51:30
Andy Goveia: Live in the lab schools is a production of the ISU Laboratory Schools recorded on the campus of Illinois State University.
51:38
Andy Goveia: Connect with us on Facebook or Instagram at Live in the Lab Schools.
51:42
Andy Goveia: We'll see you next time.