Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep 137: Building the Next Generation of Educators: Inside Educators Rising

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Ep 137: Building the Next Generation of Educators: Inside Educators Rising · New Teacher Talk

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Hey there, wonderful educators.
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Welcome to New Teacher Talk,
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your go-to podcast for navigating those first amazing and
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sometimes challenging years in the classroom.
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Whether you're teaching in a bustling city school,
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a suburban district, or a close-knit rural community,
0:20
we're here to tackle the real challenges you face every day
0:23
and explore solutions together.
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You're joining an incredible community of educators just
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like you,
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along with experienced mentors and induction coordinators
0:34
who are all passionate about supporting new teachers.
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We're so glad you're here.
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I'm Dr.
0:41
Anna,
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and I absolutely love working with beginning educators as
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they embark on their teaching journeys.
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As a board-certified early childhood generalist,
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I'm here to share insights and strategies that will help
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you thrive in your classroom.
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Thank you.
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And I'm Dr.
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Beth.
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My teaching adventure is taking me from leading a number of
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high school band programs to preparing future educators and
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mentoring new teachers.
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I also value the chance to be a podcast editor,
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not only for this channel, New Teacher Talk,
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but also for business clients.
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So thank you for joining us today and let's dive in.
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Today,
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our special guests are members of the EdRising Illinois
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organization.
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We welcome Kristi Schweitzer, Maya Manuza,
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and Carson Meisel.
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We are honored to have you here today to share the mission
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of your group.
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Christy, we'll start with you.
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Share a little bit about yourself and your connection to Ed
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Rising, Illinois.
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I'm Christy Schweizer.
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I'm serving in my second year as co-coordinator for
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Educators Rising Illinois after working and serving 20
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years as a teacher and leader in public education at the
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early childhood elementary and higher education level.
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And I first got connected with Educators Rising when it was
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serving more of the collegiate space in Illinois when I was
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in higher education.
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And so now our sole focus is with our high school CTFO that
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we'll get to talk about today.
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And Maya, you've been here before with us,
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so would you catch up with us and tell us about yourself
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and what you've done with Educators Rising?
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Of course.
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Of course, thank you for having me back.
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I am a first year student currently at the University of
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South Florida and I'm studying special education and
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minoring in Spanish.
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I served as the Illinois Educators Rising state president
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last year for one year.
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And then before that,
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I had been just a member of Educators Rising in my high
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schools chapter for four years.
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Thank you, Maya.
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Carson,
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would you tell us a little bit about yourself and how
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you've been connected to Educators Rising this year?
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Yeah, I'd love to.
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Thanks for having me.
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You know, this is my first time on any sort of podcast,
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so we'll see how it goes.
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But I'm Carson Mizell.
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I'm a senior at Normal Community High School in Noma,
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Illinois,
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and I serve this year as the Educators Rising Illinois
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state president.
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With most things regarding teaching,
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I kind of fell into Educators Rising on a whim, you know,
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kind of just on the fly.
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My teacher leader for our Ed Rising chapter last spring was
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sort of just like, hey, you know,
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we're affiliated with the Ed Rising chapter in Illinois.
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I think you'd be a great leader,
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and I think you could do a great job as a president.
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So would you like to, you know,
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run for Ed Rising president?
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And I was like, well, okay, you know,
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I've never really done anything like that before.
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So then, you know, I ran for it, and I met Christy,
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and then I got the position, and here I am.
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Well,
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that's a wonderful serendipitous route you took to leadership.
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But when somebody taps you and sees those qualities within
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you, it's time to say, yes, I'm going to step forward.
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Mmhmm.
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Very well said.
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I also know that our audience may be aware of the fact that
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obviously there are these state and rising chapters,
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but there's also the national group of educators rising.
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So that being said,
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what should our listeners know about Educators Rising?
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I'll start with Maya.
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For sure.
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I would think that the most important thing about ed rising
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for me is always the word community.
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I feel like it really brought me personally closer.
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It's this whole new community of people in the education
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realm because you get to interact with people your age and
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then people who are older than you,
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teachers who have been teaching for 30 years,
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or this is your first year.
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You get to see the administration side of it.
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I think that it's a really cool way to introduce yourself
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to that field and what you're getting yourself into.
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And I think that another thing that people don't really
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know is that it's for everyone.
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It's not just for people who want to be teachers at the
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moment.
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I think it's really just like a leadership club in general
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and I think it helps a lot of people decide that they do
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want to become educators.
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I think it's a great club,
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especially for people who don't know what they want to do
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with their future.
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And it kind of just gives you more of a better idea of
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leadership and the role of teachers and how it all plays
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out.
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And there's so many things behind the scenes that people
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don't know.
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And I think that that's personally my favorite thing is
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seeing people fall more in love or in love with like the
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education field through this club.
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You know what I took from that Maya is the opportunity for
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networking,
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whether it's with peers or first year teachers or more
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accomplished teachers and the opportunity to sort of grow
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from that opportunity to interact with one another.
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And I also heard you say is that there are leadership
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opportunities.
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You know,
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we are always looking for chances to have individuals step
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up, lead, impact other people.
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So very, very powerful.
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Thank you for your response.
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I'm gonna jump over to Carson and have him add to what Maya
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said or go in a completely different direction.
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I'll leave that up to you, Carson.
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What should our listeners know about Educators Rising?
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Similar to kind of what Maya said in the sense of the
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community is that it's for future educators,
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kind of by future educators.
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So it's not just like some other clubs where it's kind of
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like teacher-led and then like the students just
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listening.
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It's a lot of us take the reins and you know help guide
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those who might be interested in education or thinking
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about it and just kind of you know collaborate with them
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and with all the other leaders within educators rising and
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communicate what we'd like to accomplish and you know how
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we can do that.
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What really took from that comment, Carson,
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is that there's some empowerment,
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some ownership that as a member of this group and
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participating in this group,
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you get to be at the table for those conversations.
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You're not being talked at, you're talking with others.
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And you're part of conferences and providing sessions and
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learning from one another.
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It's that ability to really be involved.
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What about you, Christy?
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You've had the longest experience with Educators Rising.
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Might you speak to what our listeners should know about the
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organization?
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I would love to.
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Thank you so much, Dr. Beth.
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So, absolutely, as the student shared,
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it is clearly a student-led, student-focused organization.
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To put it simply, with Educators Rising,
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we often refer to it as the CTSO,
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Career and Technical Student Organization, just like FSA,
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FBLA, FCLA, any of the CTSOs out there.
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It is specifically for our future leaders,
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which all students have that opportunity to be,
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but also for those that are really considering education
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profession.
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And so the importance of that is that it also is absolutely
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an essential component to diversifying our educator
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pipeline, which is absolutely needed and important.
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And the way that we're able to do this is by providing
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these experiences that you just heard about from our
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students to all students.
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Despite what interests they may be getting pushed to do or
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encouraged to do from friends or family.
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And so this is giving them that opportunity in that safe
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and common space.
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And I think this final statistic really does it best in
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that students who participate in Educators Rising are 400%
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more likely to enter the teaching field after high school.
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And that really says everything.
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So as we struggle to fill our educator vacancies,
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we look at very simple and beautiful solutions like
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Educators Rising,
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which truly fits into any Grow Your Own program and really
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is there to elevate support and help these future educators
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really thrive in that space.
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That is impressive.
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400% that number speaks volumes.
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So kudos to Educators Rising.
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And it's because of individuals like Maya and Carson and
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your leadership, Christy,
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that is really making a difference.
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And people are seeing a pathway for themselves.
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They feel supported.
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Once they leave the high school programs,
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they matriculate to college organizations that are
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affiliated with Ed Rising.
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And of course, after they graduate with their degree,
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this is a wonderful professional group to be part of and to
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begin that journey of professional learning and becoming an
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accomplished teacher.
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One of the things that is so helpful about being part of an
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Educators Rising Club is that often you have experiences
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that you can go out and participate in classrooms,
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do some job shadowing, work with students.
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So Carson, I'm going to ask you,
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have you had some opportunities in this past year that have
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been related to teaching?
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Have you been out doing any kind of fieldwork this year?
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So for the past two years in our school's education pathway
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program,
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you can start as early as a freshman in terms of really
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just like the coursework of, you know,
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understanding what would it be like to pursue education and
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kind of just like some child development type ideas.
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Our sophomore year and junior year,
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you have the option to take what's called EYC,
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Educating Young Children.
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And with normal communities high school,
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we have a small preschool.
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If you're in EYC,
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you would go and kind of do some teaching with some
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preschoolers and just like some simple stuff, you know,
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like blocks and alphabets and colors and shapes and all
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that stuff.
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And then your junior or senior year,
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you can take the level one program,
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which is what I took my junior year,
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which is the dual credit course offered through our local
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community college, which is called Intro to Education,
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which is where you really start going into classrooms and
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going into a speech path and going into, you know,
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LBS one type stuff where you would be in classrooms with
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children with a cooperating teacher leader and job
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shadowing or just kind of getting your feet wet and seeing
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what it would be like.
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And then senior year in the level two program,
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which is really where it's a student teaching,
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where you're creating lesson plans,
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you're coming up with the ideas for the students.
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You are really grasping the concept and showing that you
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are interested and that you will pursue education and that
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you are, you know, something to care about.
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And you really are in the sense of a teacher in quotation
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marks.
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And I love that you've had that experience of not just
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delivering another teacher's plan,
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but having those chances to really get to know the students
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that you're working with and designing lessons that are
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specific for them.
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And you get those opportunities to design and then actually
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deliver the lesson.
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So you get to see, you know,
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where did I have made good choices?
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What are some spaces that I maybe need to think about a
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little bit more?
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And it's that idea too, you talked about,
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you plan to be a special education major,
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but you've had opportunity to see a variety of special
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education settings,
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which will really help you make a decision about what you
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might like to specialize in.
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So much of that has already happened for you.
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So when you get to college,
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you're not going to be wondering, well, what do I want?
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What do I need to look at?
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Yeah, 100%.
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Yeah, teaching, I love about it.
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One of the many things I love about it is the fact that you
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can never be the you know,
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the perfect 100% teacher that can do everything 100% right
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all the times, because we're working with humans,
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young humans, you know,
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where his minds are changing and are adapting.
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And the more experience you get, sure,
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the easier it might be.
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And you know, less convoluted,
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and you might have more experience,
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but it's never gonna be perfect.
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There's no not always the right answer,
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because every student's mind is different.
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Every student's needs are different.
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For me, luckily,
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being in that scenario where I have had more experience,
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I'll have a leg up on some of my peers in college.
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You absolutely will.
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Maya, what have been your experiences over this past year?
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Have you had any chances to be in the classroom?
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Yeah,
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so I took an intro to education class the first semester
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and in that class you were required to get 40 observation
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hours.
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So I was able to go to an elementary school near me and I
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was actually placed with a really great teacher.
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I was a music teacher.
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So that was like such a different experience for me.
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I had no idea what I was getting into whatsoever,
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but it ended up being the best thing in the world because
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he would like pull out his guitar and him and the students
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would all sing together.
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It was like a total kumbaya moment like from a movie.
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It was so cute and I loved every minute of it and he's
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actually certified in special education.
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So it wasn't necessarily like he had special ed classes,
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but he was able to like kind of show me what an IEP looks
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like and like tell me like how he sort of manages that in
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the classroom with kids with different abilities and kind
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of different attention spans and everything like that.
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So that was really,
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really cool for me and I'm really glad that I got to do my
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observation hours.
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And at my college specifically,
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they do this thing where it's really cool because they make
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you do observation hours within your first semester if
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you're an education major because so many people get so far
14:37
along in it and then they start their observation hours.
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They start there in classroom time kind of really late in
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their year and they realize that it's not for them.
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So I think that was a really great opportunity for me
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because it solidified my decision in my major and like
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really just made me so excited for the classroom.
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He showed me how to do lesson plans and in my class,
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my final project was making a lesson plan.
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So I kind of got like the behind the scenes and like it was
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really cool just to kind of get the full picture of what
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I'll be doing.
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Educators Rising had really like helped me because I got to
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do so many different experiences and like field trips where
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I got to be like in the classroom and kind of exposed all
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of those things.
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And that's another reason that it really does help aspiring
15:24
educators because you get the chance to see the good and
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the bad before you kind of get really solidified in it in
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college.
15:32
And I think it was really great because I already knew what
15:34
I was getting into.
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I knew the challenges.
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I got to talk to teachers before I entered my career path
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and I thought that it was really cool.
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So I'm really grateful for that.
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And it sounds like the nice part about your experiences as
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a high school student in Educators Rising gave you
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background knowledge that really helped you during your
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observation hours because you knew what questions to ask.
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You were better prepared for what to watch for.
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And it's almost like that whole idea about the offstage and
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the onstage sides of teaching.
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You see the onstage side,
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but you don't always have that understanding about what had
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to happen to prepare for that amount of time of doing in
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the classroom.
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I have some questions for the panel,
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specifically about early career teachers and what they're
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most concerned about and why. Christy,
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would you take this question first?
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From my perspective,
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what I see as a top concern is that support key.
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And so support really is a common entity of concern among
16:51
both free service and early career educators.
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So to dig into that a little further,
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at their different stages in becoming educators and once
17:00
they are employed as such,
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whether they're navigating their major requirements,
17:05
like Maya is currently doing to become an educator and
17:09
she's navigating all those in higher education along with
17:12
the others,
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or it's at the complexity level that they're at of being
17:16
within that classroom as an early career teacher.
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So with all of these,
17:21
the common entity among them all is that they need those
17:24
support systems to really thrive.
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And I feel that that's one of the really special aspects
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of EducatorsRrising is that we provide that support piece
17:34
to be able to help them and really just nurture them as
17:38
they are considering becoming educators at the earliest
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level of middle and high schools.
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In that general kind of sense,
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I think that that support piece and just being able to be
17:48
allowed the space to really grow,
17:50
try things on first size is really important for educators
17:52
at every level.
17:55
Would you speak to, Christy, some more specific examples of how Educators Rising supports early career educators with this concern.
17:55
So from the basic level of within their chapter setting, the Educators Rising program provides a discussion question for students that are on topic so that they're able to really start digging into some of those key elements that are going on, whether it's in society, whether it's in their community, whether it's in their own classroom, to really start to look at and problem solve, which of course is one of those key essential characteristics and abilities that they're gonna need to have as an educator. And so whether it's as simple as providing these discussion questions, providing support through their community by creating monthly projects that they can work on with their teacher leader, their service project, the support of navigating and selecting their major and getting that higher education support and what does licensure testing look like. So at those high school elements and levels, for every Educators Rising participant and student in a chapter, they received that.
19:51
And at that statewide level,
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they're able to have that additional growth opportunity.
19:56
Thanks for sharing that very specific part of EdRising that
20:01
is layers of support,
20:03
everything from back in the local chapters where they're
20:06
having curriculum provided that creates these discussion
20:10
questions where problem solving,
20:14
thinking through the opportunity to be in classrooms,
20:18
to start to interact with young children and begin to think
20:21
about that role as an educator,
20:24
whether that's being a classroom teacher or a school
20:27
psychologist or a social worker.
20:31
There's just so much to EdRising and in our show notes,
20:34
we will be sure to include links to learn more about
20:38
EdRising and see what's happening in your particular
20:42
state.
20:44
Thank you so much, Christy.
20:46
Let me ask Maya,
20:48
what do you see as a big concern for early career teachers
20:52
and why?
20:56
I think that it goes along with what Christy said about
20:58
like finding that support.
21:00
Once you get into teaching,
21:02
you want to stay in one place so that you can really build
21:04
up the better pay you're going to get the better benefits.
21:07
So I think a lot of people like when they're coming just
21:09
right out of college,
21:10
like what I've been talking about with fellow students in
21:13
my major is just finding the district that's for you kind
21:17
of right away so that you kind of don't have to find out
21:19
that it's not for you and then restart all over somewhere
21:22
else.
21:22
I think that's like a really difficult thing,
21:24
especially in the education field because it's a lot harder
21:27
to just move places if you don't like it or if it's not
21:30
providing you with what you need because there's a lot of
21:33
different things that go into it and it's just so much
21:36
easier and so much more beneficial for you and for like the
21:39
students and the whole staff if you just like stay in one
21:43
place and grow in one place.
21:44
So I think that that's one thing that a lot of people
21:46
stress about right after college because they just want to
21:48
find their fit and make it their fit.
21:50
And for me personally, I go to school in Florida,
21:53
but I want to come back to Illinois to teach.
21:55
So kind of like those kind of things I have to worry about
21:58
like reciprocity and like worry about taking more tests and
22:01
because I want to teach in the district that I grew up in.
22:04
So making sure that I have the requirements for that and
22:06
kind of communicating back with like the places near me and
22:09
because I'm building a lot of connections in Florida,
22:11
I'm networking here but I have to start all over in
22:14
Illinois.
22:14
So that's one thing is like finding my district in Illinois
22:18
while I'm making all these connections in Florida.
22:20
But I would say that that's one of like the major like
22:23
things that I hear from kids who are my age is that really
22:27
wondering where we want to teach.
22:29
And I think that that's like a really important thing
22:31
because that's where you build your whole life around is
22:33
that the school that you're placed at or that you find.
22:36
So I think that that's one concern that a lot of new
22:38
teachers have.
22:40
You know, Maya,
22:41
what's so interesting is this issue about finding a good
22:44
fit with the school is really something we've been hearing
22:48
about and it's sort of getting a stronger voice.
22:52
New teachers want to find the school that has that culture
22:57
and support that really resonates with them because,
23:02
as you said,
23:03
you want to find that good fit so you stay there and grow
23:05
your professional career.
23:08
Carson, what about you?
23:09
You know, you're going to be graduating here.
23:11
You're going off to an excellent College of Education at
23:14
Illinois State University.
23:16
What do you feel early career teachers are concerned about
23:19
and why?
23:21
From someone who has a great mentor for my program for
23:27
education, I've been lucky enough,
23:29
she's been willing to share with me kind of like some of
23:31
the this stigmas are about teaching and like what some
23:35
people think regarding like payment and you know benefits
23:37
stuff like that and just how that can defer people away
23:41
from education but she's been willing to share with us like
23:43
her records of you know what she makes yearly and like how
23:46
she's raised her salary every year from you know getting
23:49
her master's to you know doing some like side things like
23:53
you know being a college professor a community college or
23:57
you know doing some tutoring on the side.
24:00
I've been lucky enough to have a mentor who's been willing
24:03
to share with me like what people may say about education
24:06
and why you might not want to pursue it and backing it up
24:10
with evidence and facts of that's not always the case.
24:15
I really appreciate those honest conversations that are
24:18
taking place because there are misconceptions about
24:21
teaching and what it all involves.
24:24
Sounds like your mentor is making a big difference,
24:26
not only in your decision making and in your views about
24:29
becoming a professional educator,
24:31
but I sense this is happening with other people in your
24:34
chapter and in your group.
24:36
That certainly speaks volumes about her mentoring,
24:38
doesn't it?
24:39
Yeah, she's the best.
24:40
That's great.
24:41
Well,
24:41
there's always these concerns and challenges and I think
24:44
putting them on the table helps our listeners understand
24:47
that they connect with what this panel is saying and also
24:51
encouraging them to reach out, find a mentor,
24:55
find that good fit in the school,
24:57
find those layers of support,
24:59
as all three of you have said.
25:02
And it is important to be ready to look at the profession
25:08
from a standpoint, not just what I can give,
25:12
but what can I do to benefit from becoming an educator.
25:19
Often we talk about the giving side of being an educator,
25:23
but we always have to remember that we need to keep our
25:26
buckets filled so that we can give to others and help
25:31
facilitate other people's growth.
25:34
So I'm going to ask one closing question of each of you.
25:38
And I'm going to start with you, Carson,
25:41
because this whole idea of being a successful teacher is a
25:45
little bit farther out for you than it is for Maya or for
25:50
Christy.
25:51
So what is the best advice that you would give on becoming
25:55
a successful teacher?
25:58
I love this question and I get it a lot in terms of you
26:02
know what I think is like the most rewarding or what I
26:04
think could be the best part about being an educator.
26:07
What can you do the best?
26:09
And I think it's the just as simple as building the
26:11
relationships you have with those around you and those in
26:15
your field like administrators and faculty and especially
26:19
the students.
26:20
You get the most out of just you know saying hi to kids and
26:25
seeing their smiles every single day and so just coming in
26:28
every day with putting away anything that might be going on
26:31
in your life and just just like making a difference in kids
26:34
lives just is so much and it's so rewarding.
26:37
It's so really rewarding.
26:40
And building those authentic relationships go a long way in
26:44
helping you manage your classroom.
26:47
It also is a great motivator for students in terms of how
26:52
much they're going to embrace the learning in their
26:55
classroom,
26:56
if they really feel valued and that they know that you are
27:00
there for them,
27:01
that you truly support them and cheer them on.
27:08
I love the idea of it's not just between like my school's
27:12
from 8:30 to 3:30 So it's just not like the idea of all
27:15
right Well, you know,
27:16
you're only my responsibility between the hours 8:30 to
27:18
3:30 But you know are not saying you have to necessarily,
27:20
you know break your back to 10 every sportwork game or
27:23
stuff like that but just going the extra effort as an e
27:25
ducator or administrator to just really invest in these
27:28
kids lives and just remember stuff like small details. Like
27:31
in my placement I remember that one of the kids that I work
27:35
with loves blueberry pancakes And he eats them about every
27:38
other day pretty much and just asking I'm like just having
27:40
today like just small stuff like that.
27:42
And just seeing like the recognition and just the
27:44
consideration of just small details
27:48
And it always goes back to that old chestnut.
27:51
It doesn't matter how much you know,
27:54
but what matters is how much you care.
27:57
And when you show that to students, they buy in,
28:01
they go ahead and they invest themselves into whatever is
28:06
going on in the classroom and in you, too.
28:10
Exactly.
28:12
So Maya,
28:13
what would you say is your best advice on becoming a
28:18
successful educator?
28:21
I would say to really play on your passions.
28:23
I think that the most important thing for educators in
28:26
general is just being passionate about your students and
28:29
what you're teaching and all of that.
28:31
And that's just like a general passion,
28:32
but it's really important for you to like bring your
28:35
personal, like more niche passions into it.
28:38
Like what do you like to do and like,
28:40
what are your like passions that maybe don't necessarily
28:44
have anything to do with education?
28:45
I don't know, I'm very passionate about perspective.
28:49
That's like my whole thing in life is I think that everyone
28:52
should just like look at things from a different
28:53
perspective.
28:54
It's like,
28:55
that's one thing that I know that I want to include in to
28:58
my classroom.
28:59
And I love to bake,
29:01
like just including maybe activities that have like
29:03
chocolate chip cookies on them or just different things
29:06
like that.
29:06
Because when I'm excited about what I'm teaching,
29:09
my students are going to be more excited about what they're
29:11
learning.
29:11
And I think that's such an important thing in the classroom
29:14
is that we all as a community have an excitement about what
29:17
we're learning.
29:18
Because that's when kids stop wanting to go to school is
29:20
when they're no longer excited to go to school.
29:22
And I think that is one thing that really breaks my heart
29:24
is when kids like fight going to school.
29:27
They don't want to go to school.
29:28
School is like for learning and at some learning is so
29:31
important.
29:31
Kids should be excited to do it.
29:33
So if you're excited to do it,
29:34
your students will be excited to do it.
29:36
So it's important to find something that you guys can both
29:38
be passionate about and also letting them bring their
29:41
passions into the classroom.
29:43
You shouldn't be the only one who is able to like express
29:45
yourself and bring your passions in and you should ask them
29:49
what they're passionate about and include those in
29:51
activities.
29:52
Make them excited about learning because that's just such
29:54
an important part.
29:55
It'll be so much easier for you to teach them when they're
29:57
excited.
29:58
And it'll be so,
29:59
so much easier for them to learn from you when you're
30:01
excited.
30:02
So I think it's just like a collective kind of environment
30:05
for growing your passions and growing everything that you
30:09
love in life because you're at school for so much time in
30:13
the day.
30:14
It's really difficult for anything productive to happen if
30:17
you're just focusing on how much,
30:19
how unhappy you are at this place and how much you want to
30:22
go home because then nobody's going to learn,
30:24
nobody's going to teach and nothing's going to get done.
30:27
So I think that if you're able to incorporate your passions
30:30
and your students' passions that everybody can just learn
30:33
to their best ability.
30:36
It really is about embracing your own personal little
30:40
nerdiness and letting students know that, you know,
30:44
I can really jam on, as you talked about baking,
30:49
or you might say I might be a really jamming on stamp
30:53
collecting.
30:55
Everybody brings something to the class that can offer a
31:01
window into who you are as a person and to have those
31:05
opportunities to learn about others and say, well,
31:10
you know, maybe my stamp collecting is a little bit nerdy,
31:13
but you know what?
31:14
My classmate, they think that's kind of fun,
31:17
so they would see me in a different light and to be able to
31:23
bring that personalization to students in the classroom is
31:28
something that I think everybody can embrace and feel that
31:33
they're really part of the group,
31:35
that we all have our own little personal inside jokes among
31:40
us in the classroom.
31:42
You know, somebody can say, oh, well, you know,
31:45
I saw that show that you like last night.
31:48
I watched it too.
31:50
So it's really about sharing ourselves so that others can
31:55
see us and embrace us too.
31:58
Christy,
31:59
you have been in this business the longest of our three
32:03
panelists.
32:04
So what have you seen over your time in education as being
32:10
something important to becoming a successful teacher?
32:15
I'm so proud listening to Maya and Carson because their
32:18
answers were absolutely the top two answers that were on my
32:22
mind too.
32:22
So I will elaborate with kind of a third element, you know,
32:26
to Carson and the, you know,
32:28
building a positive relationship with students and Maya,
32:31
the importance of humanizing yourself as an educator and
32:34
really individualizing the experience and what everyone's
32:38
bringing there into that classroom and take it to the next
32:41
level, which is that social,
32:43
emotional learning and the importance that we really take a
32:47
look at the very base of a student and how they're coming
32:51
into that classroom.
32:52
And so something I would do every morning in every grade
32:55
that I taught was to do a quick check-in.
32:59
So we do a quick check-in in the morning and you're only
33:00
allowed to look at me as the teacher and you hold up your
33:03
hand, fist to five.
33:04
How are we starting our morning off today?
33:06
And then those kids who have a fist still closed,
33:09
those are the first ones I'm gonna find a moment and do a
33:11
quick little check-in because if a child is feeling empty
33:14
inside or had a terrible morning or they're broken,
33:17
it does not matter how fabulous your lesson plan is because
33:20
that child is not going to learn.
33:22
That importance of valuing the children at whichever grade
33:26
they are all the way to teaching adults to really
33:28
understand everyone is coming from a different space and
33:31
respecting that and teaching to their heart and to their
33:34
minds.
33:35
You know,
33:35
I really just appreciate make sure that they're safe and
33:38
making sure that their base is ready to build upon so that
33:42
they can learn in your classroom.
33:45
That is just a beautiful response and what a wonderful way
33:48
to summarize what the three of you said. That really spoke
33:51
to my heart, Christy.
33:53
And I know it probably spoke to those who are listening to
33:56
this episode.
33:58
I'd like to say thank you to our Ed Rising panelists.
34:02
So appreciate each of you and listeners,
34:06
we wanna thank you for joining us today as well.
34:09
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34:12
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34:47
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34:50
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34:53
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34:58
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35:01
so glad you're here with us.