Embracing The Funk: The Transformative Power of a Creative Teacher (National Teacher Leadership Conference Day 2)
The essence of this podcast centers around the inspiring figure known as Mr. Funky Teacher, who exemplifies the transformative power of creativity and passion within the educational landscape. In our discourse, we delve into his unique approach, which is characterized by an unwavering commitment to fostering greatness among both students and educators alike. Through his innovative methodologies, he cultivates an environment that not only makes learning enjoyable but also empowers individuals to embrace their potential. We reflect on the recent National Teacher Leadership Conference, where we encountered a multitude of esteemed educators who share a fervent dedication to impacting the lives of their students positively. Our dialogue emphasizes the critical importance of nurturing supportive relationships within educational settings, as these connections are paramount in facilitating student success and instilling a love for learning.
The essence of this podcast episode revolves around the invigorating experiences of Nicholas Kleve, also known as Mr. Funky Teacher, as he recounts his inaugural day at the prestigious National Teacher Leadership Conference (NTLC) in Orlando, Florida. He vividly narrates the seamless arrival and check-in process, the exhilarating connections established within the Exhibitor Rotunda, and the contemplative moments spent in the Teacher Workroom, all of which contribute to a palpable sense of energy and enthusiasm. Notably, he highlights the impactful addresses delivered by two distinguished keynote speakers who championed the principles of authentic leadership and the profound influence educators can wield, emphasizing the necessity of leading with compassion and purpose in contemporary educational landscapes.
Nicholas also shares the excitement of stepping into the role of presenter at NTLC, delivering his signature breakout session, “How to Be a Funky Teacher,” which encouraged educators to embrace creativity, connection, and their authentic selves in the classroom. In addition, he collaborated with fellow National Civics Catalyst Fellows as part of a team Catalyst presentation, demonstrating the collective power of educator-leaders working together to shape the future of teaching and learning. These opportunities not only amplified his voice but also allowed him to learn alongside a passionate community of teacher-leaders.
As we immerse ourselves in the vibrancy of the NTLC2025, this episode serves as a poignant reminder of the significance of presenting our authentic selves in the educational realm. I invite you to listen, reflect, and engage with purpose as we navigate the dynamic world of educational leadership together.
The inaugural day of the National Teacher Leadership Conference (NTLC) proved to be an exhilarating experience, meticulously captured by Nicholas Kleve, who is affectionately recognized as Mr. Funky Teacher. Nestled within the enchanting confines of the Disney Yacht Club Resort in Orlando, Florida, the day commenced with an effortless check-in process, allowing attendees to transition smoothly into the vibrant atmosphere of the conference. Nicholas expressed his delight in the opportunity to connect with fellow educators in the Exhibitor Rotunda, where the exchange of innovative ideas and collaborative discussions flourished.
Central to the day's events were the keynote presentations by Dr. Natasha Murray and John King, which inspired attendees to reflect upon the essence of authentic leadership in education. Dr. Murray's insights into the challenges faced in underprivileged schools were both illuminating and thought-provoking. Meanwhile, John King's personal journey, marked by resilience in the face of adversity, resonated profoundly with the audience. His emphasis on the significance of educators in shaping the lives of students, particularly those who encounter systemic barriers, served as a poignant reminder of the vital role teachers play in fostering hope and opportunity. Nicholas enthusiastically noted the interactive nature of the session, where audience engagement was encouraged, further enriching the experience.
As the day concluded, Nicholas's reflections encapsulated the essence of the NTLC: a commitment to professional growth, a celebration of individuality as educators, and an unwavering dedication to the mission of transforming lives through education. This episode serves as both a recap and a rallying cry for educators to embrace their unique selves, to lead with heart, and to inspire greatness in every student.
Takeaways:
- The National Teacher Leadership Conference serves as a vital platform for educators to connect and exchange innovative ideas.
- Nicholas Kleve emphasizes the significance of authentic leadership and educator impact in modern educational settings.
- Keynote speakers Dr. Natasha Murray and John King inspire attendees with their powerful messages about leading with heart.
- Reflecting on personal experiences, King illustrates the transformative role teachers play in the lives of their students.
- Nicholas presented “How to Be a Funky Teacher,” a breakout session encouraging educators to lead with creativity, joy, and authenticity.
- As part of the Catalyst group team presentation, Nicholas joined other Civics Catalyst Fellows to share collective strategies for empowering students and strengthening democracy.
- The conference highlights the importance of building strong relationships among educators to foster a collaborative learning environment.
- Nicholas encourages educators to embrace their unique identities and show up as their full, funky selves in their teaching practices.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- beafunkyteacher.com
- National Teacher Leadership Conference
- National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NSTOY)
- Florida Educational Association
- Cultivating Change Makers
- Teach for America
- Equitable Foundation
- Cabot Public Schools
- Association of American Educators
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes, he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach.
Speaker A:You hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best, funkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:You'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with beafunkyteacher.com I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Well, it is day two in the books.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:It is the end of the second day at the National Teacher Leadership Conference here in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker B:The Ignite the Magic Teacher Leadership Conference for the National Network of State Teachers of the Years.
Speaker B:What a day.
Speaker B:I just want to do a little bit of reflecting on the day and all of the powerful and positive experiences that I had.
Speaker B:First off, I just, you know, I woke up early because I got a good night's sleep, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:I did.
Speaker B:I got a good night's sleep, felt good.
Speaker B:Waking up in the morning, had a big presentation that was on my mind.
Speaker B:I actually had two presentations today.
Speaker B:And so I did get up fairly early and got my suit on and went down and actually met up with the sound and video crew to do a sound check.
Speaker B:I'm so glad I did.
Speaker B:Let this be a lesson.
Speaker B:I'm so glad I did because I went in there and I talked to them and I said, hey, I got a 10 o' clock presentation in this room and I just want to make sure I want to check my audio before some other speakers come in and get themselves set up.
Speaker B:And they looked at the list and they said, well, we don't have you on the list.
Speaker B:Kind of put a fear into me.
Speaker B:And actually the organizer of the whole conference was in there too, working on some stuff.
Speaker B:And she says, oh, yeah, he absolutely is presenting.
Speaker B:So the crew after that, the audio and video crew are super friendly, boy talented group of individuals here that they have working on the sound and audio definitely helped make sure that my computer was working and that my videos that I had in my presentation were working and that my slides were working just fine and worked on some sound checks with the mics it just was wonderful.
Speaker B:Top notch professional individuals.
Speaker B:But that was, let that be a lesson.
Speaker B:If you're presenting that, you know, it's important to take some of that time to just do that double check.
Speaker B:If not for just peace of mind, that's important.
Speaker B:But also, you know, if there was a hiccup or a glitch that you're not panicking because I tell you that I just went into my presentation just a lot more comfortable and felt better about it.
Speaker B:So after that I went over and they had a really nice breakfast for us.
Speaker B:In fact.
Speaker B:Oh, they had so much great food.
Speaker B:So much food.
Speaker B:And I just wanted to eat so much, but I didn't because I just, I didn't want that sitting on my stomach.
Speaker B:So I ate just a light breakfast.
Speaker B:A light breakfast, Delicious.
Speaker B:The food here at the Disney Yacht Club Resort just off the chart delicious.
Speaker B:They're feeding us.
Speaker B:I know that's part of, the, kind of, part of the conference, you know, our payment for the conference.
Speaker B:But boy, are they taking care of us with top notch delicious food.
Speaker B:So I know I got food in my mind just talking about it at the end of the day here, I could eat a midnight snack.
Speaker B:Well, then we had a welcoming remarks from the Florida Educational Association.
Speaker B:They actually had a person that was.
Speaker B:His name's Clinton McCracken from once again the Florida Education association really enjoyed listening to him talk.
Speaker B:He talked about a lot of things in the short time that he was up there.
Speaker B:He talked about the importance of rights of others and taking action as educators and the importance of taking action together, working together and making things happen.
Speaker B:He talked about discrimination and just when things are not so good that are happening, to stand up and to take action, to have advocacy.
Speaker B:And so I really appreciated that.
Speaker B:And he talked about, you know, raisin raisin H e double hockey sticks, you know, raisin hack and being decision makers.
Speaker B:And so I appreciated that that was a nice little kickoff here to the day after a delicious breakfast here.
Speaker B:And then, you know, after that we had some just.
Speaker B:I don't know, there were so many great speakers today, but the presentation that I really, really enjoy, I enjoyed them all.
Speaker B:But this one really spoke to me the realms of advocacy igniting the magic of teacher influence across school, community and state.
Speaker B:And they had two really dynamite presenters.
Speaker B: e was Leah Carpenter, she's a: Speaker B:And they had Ashton Barry, who is a fifth grade ELA teacher.
Speaker B:They just were off the chart.
Speaker B:Really powerful speakers.
Speaker B:And I just, I couldn't, I'm Looking back at my notes here, they, they got up and we're talking first about just calling us edu leaders, which I appreciated that.
Speaker B:It's funny, they.
Speaker B:One of them actually shared, I don't, I can't remember which one it was.
Speaker B:Talk.
Speaker B:Talked about a P story where.
Speaker B:Let me talk about, let me tell you, that gets your attention when the speaker gets up and tells you about the time when she accidentally peed on herself when she wasn't paying attention in the bathroom.
Speaker B:And I think that that story was a lesson in, hey, we gotta be paying attention.
Speaker B:You can't just assume that, hey, when you're gonna pee in the bathroom, you gotta look.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And I think the point to that story was, hey, you know, in education we've gotta be paying attention.
Speaker B:We can't just assume things are happening or things are being taken care of for kids.
Speaker B:We gotta be looking and paying attention, making sure that bad things aren't happening and just kinda going blindly because that's where a mess can be made.
Speaker B:And so she kind of made that connection to her peace story, which made me laugh.
Speaker B:You can tell I work with 10 and 11 year olds when I get a good kick out of a good pea story.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You can't go wrong with a pee story when you're presenting in front of fifth graders, sixth graders, really, any kids, or a group of highly decorated and recognized topics educators as well.
Speaker B:So after that peace story, they really leaned into the importance of advocacy and how you can have advocacy, how you can speak up for challenges that we face in education.
Speaker B:One of the things that they made a really great point is a great visual about big ships turn slow.
Speaker B:How true that is.
Speaker B:Big ships turn slow.
Speaker B:And when the ships do turn, a big ship does turn.
Speaker B:It's slow change.
Speaker B:It turns slow and then it's slow change when it does turn.
Speaker B:Just something about that visual.
Speaker B:I wrote that down from the conference.
Speaker B:Big ships turn slow for slow change.
Speaker B:And sometimes we have to know what tree to bark up.
Speaker B:She, one of the speakers talked about too.
Speaker B:We're kind of choose your battles and choose your battles when it comes to communicating and advocating.
Speaker B:You know, there's sometimes when you're getting into educational advocacy, it can, it can get really tricky because there's, I think, a right way and a wrong way to do it and it can get really.
Speaker B:And you can even do it the right way and it can still be ineffective.
Speaker B:I appreciated hearing them talk about culturally responsive pedagogy and advocating for culturally responsive pedagogy where that's supported for educators being culturally responsive in their teaching and actually had communicated to some, some politicians about, through like a one pager and through some like one on one conversation about how, how this might look when, when you're culturally responsive as a teacher and getting, getting educators or getting politicians to really understand what does that actually mean that you can be culturally responsive.
Speaker B:And it's not just this like critical race theory or it's something where we're corrupting the minds of young people.
Speaker B:No, it's not.
Speaker B:And so that's advocacy.
Speaker B:When you're trying to get a politician to understand what culturally responsive pedagogy might look like.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:As teacher leaders, it's important for us to have advocacy.
Speaker B:They had talked, the speakers had talked about.
Speaker B:One of them had talked about Thom Tillis and a mental health grant where he had asked for a bill where I think it was.
Speaker B:One of them met with Thom Tillis in the United States politician a couple weeks ago, talking about needs of teachers and needs of students and talked about a mental health grant.
Speaker B:And that was part of the conversation.
Speaker B:You know, these speakers talked about private conversations where you don't call, you don't necessarily call people out publicly.
Speaker B:And it can be more effective than just blowing up because once you go public, it draws a line in the sand, so to speak, where it can affect a relationship and it affects a person being maybe responsive to you if you blow things up, so to speak, or publicly.
Speaker B:And so we got, as advocates, we have to kind of think about which way is the best approach, you know, and they were really trying to get us to think about, hey, sometimes it's important.
Speaker B:Sometimes you can get more impact by having those private conversations and not giving up on trying to have those conversations and following up with private conversations and just sharing gratitude also maybe through like a handwritten note after you've been able to maybe meet with a politician or meet with a decision maker and that a handwritten note can make such a difference and trying to keep the conversation going after initial conversation, keep it going and let that politician see you as a thought leader, an impactful educator who you can be consulted with and kind of build credibility in the eyes of the politician.
Speaker B:So I appreciated that.
Speaker B:That's one of the things that they were talking about too.
Speaker B:I'm just, I'm kind of thinking about looking at my notes here.
Speaker B:It was really interesting.
Speaker B:They had talked about.
Speaker B:One of them had gotten kind of some pushback from some fellow educators because they thanked a politician for their time, a politician who very much disagrees with them and doesn't align with what they believe when it comes to education or political views.
Speaker B:But they still thank that one of them thanked the politician nonetheless.
Speaker B:And some teachers like, why did you thank them?
Speaker B:And they had talked about how short sighted that is type of thinking.
Speaker B:If we can't thank a person just for their time and that.
Speaker B:And that goes against this relationship building 101.
Speaker B:You know, if we're going to build connections, you know, just because we thank a person for their time doesn't mean we agree or we're giving in.
Speaker B:That is really kind of a backwards thing.
Speaker B:So I actually really appreciated that they had talked about that.
Speaker B:And then, you know, they talked also too about, you know, if you're meeting with, if you're getting students or if you're getting politicians or decision makers in schools.
Speaker B:It actually talked about like a week long thing happening in their state where politicians get into the schools and see what's happening in the schools.
Speaker B:And they had actually talked about it's important sometimes to prepare a gift for the policymakers, maybe a gift that a student has or a group that a class of students have made, one of them had made something where the whole class had contributed to making it so the politician could hang it up in their office.
Speaker B:And that was kind of a cool thing because it kind of helps, especially if it's someone who, you know, you don't necessarily line.
Speaker B:You're still kind of planting that seed of like what we're doing here and why we're doing it.
Speaker B:And it's all about the why is these kids setting these kids up for success and thinking about what is best for them.
Speaker B:So there's so many ways to advocate, to be an advocate.
Speaker B:They talked about op eds, cold phone calls to policymakers, finding partners in education partnership is such a powerful thing.
Speaker B:Presenting at conferences like what they're doing, write legislators, build a brand that build a brand.
Speaker B:And I think by building a brand, I think they're talking about that credibility piece.
Speaker B:Build yourself as a credible brand, as a credible person who's talking about your viewpoints and your belief and what you want to see changed for the good of students.
Speaker B:And that's kind of building your brand, so to speak, in that aspect.
Speaker B:And we, oh, they had mentioned looking at my notes here, they said that teachers have authority and politicians have agency.
Speaker B:Boy, isn't that an interesting thing?
Speaker B:We have authority and we do, we have authority, but politicians have agency.
Speaker B:So just kind of thinking about, you know, that's why it's so important that we work on building those connections and those relationships with politicians and decision makers because of that relationship with them having that agency, us having that authority, it's so cool.
Speaker B:One of the things they talked about was a web of influence.
Speaker B:I really enjoyed the web of influence where kind of even like a spider's web where you showed like there was like different levels of decision makers, more broad, and it kind of narrows down and how all of that is interconnected through like, spiderwebs, so to speak.
Speaker B:It's kind of thinking about it in terms of a web.
Speaker B:And like when you have a spider web, a spider web can be really strong for catching food for a spider.
Speaker B:But if you have a part of it that starts kind of falling apart, the whole thing can fall apart, right?
Speaker B:It just can.
Speaker B:It ends up being a mess really fast.
Speaker B:But as a whole, a spider web is super strong and it's survival.
Speaker B:And so thinking about when we're trying to have influence and connect at different levels, the different levels being, you know, whether it be more locally or more at the state level or national level, or even at the building level, even starting with a principal, you know, so that web influence is pretty important.
Speaker B:They went through talking about different things that they do for the communities, like bike for kids and talk.
Speaker B:Once again, it was when they tried to going back to getting legislated.
Speaker B:There's in schools, like legislators in school week, when those politicians come in, showing them the good, the bad and the ugly and not just making it up a nice photo op for them, that, hey, we want them to see the good and the bad and that'll make it easier for us to advocate too.
Speaker B:You know, I'm looking here at.
Speaker B:They talked about how teacher leaders on taking on advanced teacher roles and how they should be getting paid more and be used as a tool for helping them truly build the workforce, but incentivize them to do that work as those teacher leaders.
Speaker B:And he went through talking about the big ship and small change again.
Speaker B:And that.
Speaker B:And that just is such a super cool, powerful visual.
Speaker B:So those were some of my takeaways from their.
Speaker B:From their speech.
Speaker B:And I took some pictures of their slides and wrote down some more notes here.
Speaker B:But those were the big things that I think will help me in the work that I'm doing here.
Speaker B:For being an advocate, because I think that any teacher leader, I consider myself a teacher leader as every other person at this conference, I think truly considers themselves a teacher leader.
Speaker B:And sometimes we need reminders, Sometimes we need some guidance on, hey, how do we advocate for students and how do we advocate for our fellow educators and our schools and the families and and our communities to make it a system that where students can thrive as they become educated and can be successful?
Speaker B:So great presentation by Leah Carper and Ashton Barry.
Speaker B:Then we had the next presentation session in that same room, which was me.
Speaker B:I was super excited.
Speaker B:I stepped up.
Speaker B:You know, I had my presentation was every educator can be a funky teacher, ignite magic to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:And you know, the areas that I talked about, I had talked about five areas in my presentation.
Speaker B:One was recognize the importance of energy and excitement and bringing in that energy and excitement into a classroom.
Speaker B:I talked about discovering the power of the mind, body connection.
Speaker B:You know, learning is the most powerful when you bring connect the mind and body together.
Speaker B:And talked about total physical response teaching technique and how that should be more of a widespread approach.
Speaker B:Talked about creativity and how creativity is not just a nice to do sometimes thing.
Speaker B:That is something that we have to be incorporating in our classroom on a regular basis and continuing to work on and making it powerful because you know, you're taking information from the short term memory to the long term memory when students learn in a creative way.
Speaker B:I talked about growing leadership traits.
Speaker B:I Talked about my 13 leadership traits, my leadership kit.
Speaker B:I love my leadership kit that I've used for many years.
Speaker B:And I shared it with everyone, the leadership traits that I really focus on in my classroom and talked about the importance of practicing them, making mistakes, growing, modeling them for students.
Speaker B:That was some valuable time to get to do that and to share that leadership traits with them that I think are so important.
Speaker B:And then I talked about building connections.
Speaker B:And how do you build connections with students, parents, families, community members in a way where you experience success?
Speaker B:Well, I Talked about my three Rs.
Speaker B:You approach it with resilience, relationships and reflection.
Speaker B:And having those three things kind of really work in hand in hand to kind of navigate some of the successes and challenges around building those connections.
Speaker B:And I think all three of those Rs are critical and one of them missing it.
Speaker B:The whole building connections can fall apart.
Speaker B:I had a great, great presentation, I think, and I think, I really think from what I looking at, I was kind of going, I had a survey, a written survey that people filled out and really it seemed like for the most part, almost everyone really enjoyed it.
Speaker B:And so I was very pleased, you know, I was very pleased with how the conference, the presentations went.
Speaker B:I think one of the feedback I got on it was that they said there was a few parts on it that it felt a Little rushed.
Speaker B:And I think that was some feedback that my wife gave me, too, when I was practicing.
Speaker B:And there was, you know, I was under a time that I had a certain amount of time that I didn't want to go along on, and I wanted to be respectful of people's time.
Speaker B:So I did feel like I had to rush a few spots or couldn't elaborate as much as I wanted to in a few spots.
Speaker B:And so.
Speaker B:But that's something for me to be mindful of, because I don't.
Speaker B:I want to take that feedback and try to grow from it, because I. I'll tell you, while all these presentations are great, they're not perfect.
Speaker B:There's no perfect person.
Speaker B:So, you know, I'm not here to critique other people's presentations, but me being looking at and reflecting on my own presentation, you know, yeah, there's a few spots I could have maybe slowed down.
Speaker B:And so that was one piece that I'm just kind of thinking of that was in the feedback that I think was valuable.
Speaker B:But other than that, I mean, people really seem to be receptive to those.
Speaker B:Those five areas.
Speaker B:And then I talked about how those five areas truly define and kind of make who I am as a funky teacher.
Speaker B:I talked about getting my nickname as a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Talked about what a funky teacher is.
Speaker B:I talked about what a funky teacher is not, and how these five pieces really tie into that as we work with advanced students all the way down to more emerging students.
Speaker B:So, great, great conversation.
Speaker B:Great experience.
Speaker B:Super enjoyed having an opportunity.
Speaker B:I think I had a nice room of teachers.
Speaker B:I think I had 20, 28 to 35.
Speaker B:I think I had 28 on the app.
Speaker B:There's an app that we're using.
Speaker B:I think I had 28 signed up, but I think I had more than that actually there.
Speaker B:I think I had maybe closer 35 that actually came.
Speaker B:I didn't go around and actually count.
Speaker B:But, yeah, nice turnout.
Speaker B:Very.
Speaker B:It was a positive experience.
Speaker B:And I'm glad I had the opportunity to do a solo presentation here and share about my view of being a funky teacher and how being a funky teacher can truly make a difference in life.
Speaker B:I love being a funky teacher.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker B:And I want others to see how they can be a funky teacher, too.
Speaker B:And that's why I started this podcast, also kind of addressing it.
Speaker B:And I will, in a future episode, I will address that very topic of what is a funky teacher and what is not a funky teacher.
Speaker B:I want to talk about that.
Speaker B:I want to kind of pick that apart and look at that.
Speaker B:Because that's one thing I haven't addressed yet.
Speaker B:And I'll look at that and maybe I'll bring in some aspects of this presentation too in future episodes in a little bit more detail as well.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:And then, so I got done with my presentation.
Speaker B:It went lovely.
Speaker B:And then afterwards we had another presentation directly after mine.
Speaker B:And boy, was that a good, good presentation too.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:It was a woman named Raya Nathrani.
Speaker B:And she.
Speaker B:She really does.
Speaker B:In.
Speaker B:I'm looking here, she does a lot of instructional technology in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Speaker B:Super nice individual, super nice.
Speaker B:Just a human being who is just so kind, so caring, so passionate about incorporating technology into the classroom.
Speaker B:I think she's actually said she's kind of near Guam is where she's at.
Speaker B:And she spent a lot of time talking about AI images in AI, different AI software, like AI Image Maker and like Magic School.
Speaker B:Brisk Suno, I think was.
Speaker B:I'm looking here.
Speaker B:Suno was a very interesting AI maker.
Speaker B:She used it to put some content in where she wanted, you know, to make.
Speaker B:Make some content and may.
Speaker B:And kind of put a story with it and then it produced a story within like 30 seconds for her that she could use it as a teaching tool in her classroom.
Speaker B:And now that was really fascinating to me.
Speaker B:It was interesting.
Speaker B:She talked about this Brisk AI software and I was thinking that that might work nicely for like, developing lesson plan.
Speaker B:Helping with.
Speaker B:Developing some lesson plans to kind of make them more dynamic, some different aspects where they're just not like copy and paste certain things which.
Speaker B:And just kind of really kind of beefing that up and making it more thoughtful and more purposeful and.
Speaker B:And what I'm gonna do, because I was thinking about this lesson plan format that I'm gonna be using this year in Winnebago that I think it'll really help on as I develop those lessons in a matter of.
Speaker B:Already in about a matter of a month going back.
Speaker B:So there are some rubric makers.
Speaker B:Oh, I think Brisk also can be used to create some podcasts based on the content too.
Speaker B:So, you know, she talked about AI, talked about AI, how it can be, how it can be good, but it can also be.
Speaker B:If you just.
Speaker B:And how it can be also misused by students.
Speaker B:And that we can't just assume that kids are not using AI.
Speaker B:We can, but we.
Speaker B:And then begs the bigger question, should students not be allowed to use AI?
Speaker B:And so that was kind of a conversation that she had addressed too.
Speaker B:And you know, I don't.
Speaker B:I think it's kind of it's still early in the game.
Speaker B:I think teachers are still ultimately trying to figure that question out because we don't have necessarily a perfect answer to.
Speaker B:I think we have to be careful and not naive.
Speaker B:I think some teachers are naive thinking, oh, you know, you know, they're, oh, they're just going to get away with it or they're going to use it.
Speaker B:What can I do about it?
Speaker B:And so we don't want to just kind of dismiss and say, oh, just throw our hands up and say, there's nothing I can do.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker B:So sorry.
Speaker B:I'm not going to do anything.
Speaker B:I'm kind of looking at some of my notes here and yeah, she really, this presenter, she really created it.
Speaker B:The name of the presentation was Unlocking the Magic of AI Hogwarts Style.
Speaker B:And she really got into, like I said, the powerful use of specifically AI talked about Gemini, Canva, Google Labs, Magic Studio.
Speaker B:Those were the four big ones that she spent a lot of time talking about.
Speaker B:Magic School.
Speaker B:I think my old school district that I just left is going to bring in Magic School and get all of the students using it and that's something that we'll have to explore in my new school district.
Speaker B:But really teaching students how to use it in a safe and respectful way, I think that's good.
Speaker B:Suna was a very interesting app because of when she created Use it to Create a song.
Speaker B:That, that really kind of caught my attention.
Speaker B:And you know, and here's, here's something to think about too.
Speaker B:They're still coming out, you know, different AI apps.
Speaker B:And that, that's something we have to consider too, is that like, you know, these are what's out right now, but in a month a different one could be out that might be more useful or beneficial.
Speaker B:She talked also about like, you know, sometimes it's not necessarily trying what we ask the AIs matters how we word stuff and how we ask stuff matters in terms of what it'll give us back.
Speaker B:And so kind of being very impeccable with our words, clear with our word, offering that clarity and kind of really thinking.
Speaker B:I mean if you're vague in what you want, it's going to be vague back.
Speaker B:It kind of mirrors what you want and it, and yet it, it's still, I have found, you know, chat GPT can very much frustrate me because it still feels glitchy and so we can't just rely on it.
Speaker B:That it's, it's a perfect, it's perfect and it's flawless because it's not.
Speaker B:It's got a long ways to go, but it's getting smarter every day and, and so it'll be interesting to see where it goes.
Speaker B:Hopefully it doesn't take over the world.
Speaker B:Nah, it's, it's.
Speaker B:I hope not.
Speaker B:I hope not.
Speaker B:I hope it does more good than it does.
Speaker B:I hope it's used for more good than it is used for evil because I know if it's used for evil, it could be doing some pretty harmful stuff.
Speaker B:But we have to face the fact that, hey, you know, students are using AI and so how are we going to teach them how to do it in a responsible way and still challenging students to do higher level thinking, that's the key too.
Speaker B:We still got to have students doing some higher level thinking and thinking about how that looks.
Speaker B:All right, so really, okay, so that was a great presentation that I got to hear.
Speaker B:Then it was lunchtime after that, after that presentation it was lunchtime and it was a delicious lunch.
Speaker B:I actually got to, not only ate lunch, but then I met up with my Civics Catalyst Fellowship team where we kind of talked through final preparation conversation before we presented it in the afternoon.
Speaker B:Now the next session I actually went to then it was around strengthening, strengthening the K12 teacher pipeline innovative ideas and Actionable Strategies Panel presented by Equitable Foundation.
Speaker B:So it's, it's been interesting learning about this Equitable foundation and what they're about here.
Speaker B:The different speakers that were there is very interesting to me.
Speaker B:Oh, the facilitator, Jerrian Karikis, he's head of CASR and Equitable Foundation.
Speaker B:He seems like a very confident and well spoken individual and very committed to advancing education and educational causes.
Speaker B:So I've seen him kind of lead some stuff here the last two days and I was really impressed with what his work of leading this, this panel.
Speaker B:Now the speakers that they had up there were super interesting too.
Speaker B:I've had a chance to talk to a couple of them.
Speaker B:Dr. DeShawn Washington.
Speaker B:I sat next, right next to him at one of the first presentations.
Speaker B:Super friendly individual, super just a nice human being.
Speaker B:And he sat on one side.
Speaker B:On the other side, a person named Kendrick Claxton sat.
Speaker B:Oh by the way, Dr. DeShawn Washington.
Speaker B:Let's see here they have down here, he's the founder and president of Cultivating Change Makers, Kendrick Claxton, vice principal at Central Middle School.
Speaker B:And he sat on the other side of me.
Speaker B:So they were sitting on the east side and I had a chance to meet with them and talk with them and just super, just Decent, down to earth, very confident, strong educators and just very passionate about education.
Speaker B:And then two individuals that were up there also haven't had a chance to talk to too much.
Speaker B:Really A person named Jessica Shaum, inclusive coordinator for Cabot Public Schools.
Speaker B:And yeah, so she's.
Speaker B:She, yeah, she.
Speaker B:Cabot Public Schools and Association of American Educator of Arkansas State Teacher Association.
Speaker B:So yeah, so she's an inclusion coordinator.
Speaker B:And then we had Mariam Tidsdale, who's from Teach for America.
Speaker B:So these four individuals really talked a lot about, hey, how do we get teachers?
Speaker B:How do we get teachers into the pipeline of being teachers?
Speaker B:Because right now we have a teacher shortage that's huge right now is the teacher shortage.
Speaker B:And we've got to address that, that teacher shortage.
Speaker B:And how do we get teachers or how do we get young people involved in wanting to be teachers?
Speaker B:And you know, some of the challenges is like if you have like a first year teacher and a 30 year teacher getting the same pay, you know that's going to be kind of defeating for that 30 year teacher if they're getting paid the same amount as a first year teacher.
Speaker B:Those are types of things that can be disheartening for veteran teachers and new teachers alike.
Speaker B:Really.
Speaker B:Oh, the person involved with Teacher for America talked a lot about great.
Speaker B:About the importance of great teachers.
Speaker B:Training, recruiting, retention matters.
Speaker B:I'm looking here.
Speaker B:Oh yeah.
Speaker B:One of them had said, hey, principals are great, but teacher leaders matter.
Speaker B:And that, you know, you can't just have every teacher leader just go and become a principal because we need great teachers in a classroom.
Speaker B:And I value that too, because as a teacher leader, I've had a lot of different people back home say, hey, hey, when are you gonna become a principal?
Speaker B:It's like, hey, why is that my only option?
Speaker B:No disrespect to principals.
Speaker B:I mean, you know, we need great principals too.
Speaker B:But why does that look like that is an advancement where I have to become a principal to advance in my career.
Speaker B:There's so many ways to advance in my career that doesn't involve becoming an administrator.
Speaker B:And right now becoming an administrator is not in my path.
Speaker B:I don't have an interest in that really.
Speaker B:I mean, I have an interest in being a teacher leader, but not an administrator running a school.
Speaker B:I just don't have a desire or interest in that.
Speaker B:And that shocks some people.
Speaker B:So I appreciated one of the individuals talking about how we need great teacher leaders that aren't just running off become principals and working with alumni educator retention.
Speaker B:So the teacher of America talking about alumni Educator retention.
Speaker B:Hey, how do we.
Speaker B:We're losing teachers, and they're not staying in the game.
Speaker B:Dr. DeShawn Washington talked about being a black man in the education space and how important it is for black males to be educators and to have fellowship with other individuals, Black males, too, where they can kind of navigate and talk about some of the challenges that black men educators face that others may not be able to relate to.
Speaker B:And so.
Speaker B:And just the importance of retaining black men educators.
Speaker B:And part of that is by building a community of educators.
Speaker B:Just kind of looking at my notes here, he talked about career fairs, and he kind of believes that career fairs that happen in schools, that you don't have as many kids that are like, I want to be a teacher.
Speaker B:And that's discerning to him when he kind of talked about that and said, you know, think about it, you know, teacher teaching is hard work, and it's not really a glamorous job, so to speak.
Speaker B:And so there's a lot of teachers that aren't necessarily wanting to.
Speaker B:Now, I have multiple kids this past year that want to be teachers, but it's still.
Speaker B:It's not.
Speaker B:I think.
Speaker B:I think, you know, 20 years ago, when I was teaching, I think it was more so.
Speaker B:I think I would agree with that, you know, because they talked about how teaching is not for the faint of heart, and that some.
Speaker B:That there's many educators who have a hard time of even recommending education to their loved ones or to their family or friends.
Speaker B:Kendrick up there who was talking, talked about it being a calling from God.
Speaker B:And I appreciate, you know, I appreciated him talking about that and how it's important for us to kind of sell education on.
Speaker B:You have a power to make.
Speaker B:Make a difference.
Speaker B:And he actually talked about growing up kind of where he was at and how far he's come as a difference maker and to really encourage young people in planting those seeds for how of a.
Speaker B:How powerful of an opportunity teaching is because they, you know, they shared this statistic.
Speaker B:60% of teachers leave the profession between their first and fifth year, which just kind of is staggering to me because.
Speaker B:And mainly because of stress and burnout.
Speaker B:Also because of toxic energy.
Speaker B:Yeah, toxic energy.
Speaker B:They talked about feeling lack of support in the educational community.
Speaker B:It's not the students necessarily.
Speaker B:It's more of lack of support in the educational community.
Speaker B:And so, you know, just kind of shocking to think about, but yet still things that need to be addressed as educators.
Speaker B:Several of them had talked about it being just the greatest profession in the world.
Speaker B:I agree.
Speaker B:It's the greatest profession in the world.
Speaker B:I love teaching and I just.
Speaker B:I want great teachers to stay in the game of teaching.
Speaker B:We just need them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So they talked about, as I look at my notes here, just, you know, teachers entering the profession, just entering that profession can be expensive.
Speaker B:And so, like, you know, if we want to get teachers more incentivized or people considering teaching going into the profession and to incentivize that, looking for financial rewards, removing some financial barriers to kind of offset the cost and to get more people in the game of teaching, it'll help offset the lower teacher pay as well.
Speaker B:And on this panel, they all talked about the power of the network when it comes to really trying to build up, trying to get teachers to stay.
Speaker B:Get teachers not only to stay in the game, but also to kind of lean towards the career of education.
Speaker B:And one of the ways we can do this, too, is for having younger teachers be successful, is building strong mentor programs that really have.
Speaker B:They have some of the best teachers who are incentivized with pay to really work with some of the newer teachers.
Speaker B:And that those teachers can really help give that guiding.
Speaker B:Be a guiding light to those kids who.
Speaker B:Not those kids, excuse me, to those new teachers who might be struggling.
Speaker B:And they very well might be struggling.
Speaker B:And that they had given kind of an analogy like, you know, with potholes, you can't avoid all potholes.
Speaker B:You're going to hit some potholes going down a street.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And that educators is no different.
Speaker B:You're going to hit potholes.
Speaker B:You can try to avoid them all.
Speaker B:You're going to hit some and it's going to.
Speaker B:They're going to sometimes hurt those potholes.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But one of the ways you can address some of those where teachers, new teachers are getting banged up is through those mentoring ship programs and that they all believed in them strongly.
Speaker B:Oh, teachers telling their narrative.
Speaker B:They talked.
Speaker B:The whole panel talked about how important it is for teachers to tell the narrative, tell their stories and the impact that they're having and so kids can want to teach.
Speaker B:Dr. DeShawn talked about his first year being a struggling teacher and kind of the humiliation he felt when he had to have some people step in to help him.
Speaker B:So I appreciated his vulnerability.
Speaker B:Dr. DeShawn, I really appreciated his vulnerability in sharing that story because I don't know if I'd want that story out about me sharing it.
Speaker B:But, you know, he got vulnerable and he shared it.
Speaker B:I really appreciate that going through here.
Speaker B:Yeah, I guess those are my biggest takeaways.
Speaker B:I super did enjoy that as well, it made me think about.
Speaker B:I work with college students as an adjunct instructor and I want them to stay in the game.
Speaker B:I don't want 60% of them to quit after between the first and fifth year.
Speaker B:I want high quality educators to stay in the game.
Speaker B:And thankfully I have a lot of great former college students who are in the game and staying in the game.
Speaker B:Very few have left.
Speaker B:And they're providing impact and value in that education space.
Speaker B:And boy, that makes me very pleased.
Speaker B:But I can't stop there.
Speaker B:I got to keep pushing and, and even getting my own fifth graders and other younger people involved in wanting to become educators as well.
Speaker B:All right, and so then that takes me to our next presentation, which I was presenting at a group presentation, the, I'm looking here, the Civics Catalyst Fellowship presented at this presentation.
Speaker B:It was a 45 minute presentation.
Speaker B:And one of the main driving forces that kind of helped kind of fund our work was the collaborative for Student Success and kind of partnering with the, the nstoy, the National Network Estate Teacher of the Year.
Speaker B:And we really looked at what we could do here is we ultimately concluded on, hey, building a hub that then like a website hub that then nstory can actually kind of grab onto and build out more and kind of building out that framework.
Speaker B:And what members of nstoy, the National Network of State Teacher of the Year and also like non members who are here also because it's not just NSTOY members.
Speaker B:You don't have to be a State Teacher of the Year or you don't have to be a State Teacher of the Year finalist.
Speaker B:I'm a state teacher.
Speaker B: They're finalists from: Speaker B:You don't have to be one of those to come to a conference like this.
Speaker B:This conference is open for anyone to come, but we spent time talking about kind of the work we've done over the last six to seven months exploring civics in education that, hey, we all teach civics.
Speaker B:Whether we teach a dedicated social studies class or not, we're all civics teachers.
Speaker B:If we're an English teacher, we're a civics teacher.
Speaker B:We're for a math teacher, we're a civics teacher.
Speaker B:And it's important for us to recognize that and it's important to like, how do you begin to address civics in all of our classes?
Speaker B:How do you begin to address civics with students who have disabilities?
Speaker B:A lot to think about there and then.
Speaker B:So we not only.
Speaker B:Okay, so it was fun because we did a fun little game kind of at the beginning of it, getting the Group of participants kind of engaged and interested in the idea of talking about civics.
Speaker B:Then we kind of did like this speed dating setup where we ran different.
Speaker B:We met in different stations.
Speaker B:I met, I actually worked with a woman named Teresa in my group and we talked about the professional learning aspect of this civics hub and some of the stuff that we've built out in there.
Speaker B:She actually did a big interview of a teacher of the year telling a story about how you get through to students.
Speaker B:And just it was a great aspect that fit into the professional learning part of the hub.
Speaker B:Telling the story about, you know, challenges you'll face and how do you get kids excited about social studies and civics Now I went a little bit of a different direction.
Speaker B:I created a resource guide where I address different areas.
Speaker B:Tough conversations.
Speaker B:You know, maybe it's around race or race identity.
Speaker B:Maybe it's around the LGBQT plus community.
Speaker B:Maybe it's around migrant, migrant education or immigration or, you know, maybe there.
Speaker B:There was a, you know, a student who has some mental health issues or there's a lot of aspects that come up around those tough topics that lead to tough conversations.
Speaker B:And what I find is that teachers a lot of times know what they shouldn't say, but they don't always know what they can say.
Speaker B:So that was great to have that opportunity to talk to the teachers about this resource guide that it's kind of like, it kind of streamlines like, it addresses like the civics content aspect of it, but then it also addresses like the social, emotional behind it, kind of connecting those two and addressing like, hey, if a student says this, how might you respond?
Speaker B:Because we don't want to just.
Speaker B:If students bring up a tough topic, we don't want to ignore it because it might be a tough conversation to have.
Speaker B:We need to lean into that.
Speaker B:But what does that look like and how do we do it in a way that's sensitive and respectful and allows students voices to be heard and doesn't do more damage than it does good.
Speaker B:So that's where this part of it, addressing the tough conversations, I think will be valuable to teachers who do choose to use that.
Speaker B:Because, you know, since I've developed it, I'm using it in my classroom too, and how valuable that is.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was a great conversation.
Speaker B:We also had conversations with the participants, engaging them in conversation about what they would like to see for more professional development in the civics hub.
Speaker B:So that was some great conversation we had.
Speaker B:I took a bunch of crazy, furious notes kind of marking down because so that I can give that feedback back to our fellowship team.
Speaker B:All right, and then let's see.
Speaker B:Oh, we, we had a little bit of time off.
Speaker B:We had about an hour there where I walked around to some of the exhibits.
Speaker B:I went to the NEA table.
Speaker B:I'm just kind of thinking about some of the things I went to.
Speaker B:Yeah, I went to the NEA table.
Speaker B:I, I went.
Speaker B:They had a, a table that kind of talked about like digital footprint and like how to be safe on the Internet.
Speaker B:I spend a lot of time talking to them because, you know, that's something I talk so much with students about is being safe on the Internet.
Speaker B:And if you do something that maybe wasn't very smart or if someone might be preying on you as students, gotta empower students to kind of know what to do and how to handle that.
Speaker B:And I was talking about with students about safety Internet even before it's kind of picked up attention it was just kind of like eh, you probably shouldn't talk about that.
Speaker B:Now we can't afford not to talk about it.
Speaker B:With how much there is dangers around the Internet and just the whole online aspect that can be very scary in a lot of respects.
Speaker B:And so I talked to that table.
Speaker B:I, they had a St. Jude table.
Speaker B:There wasn't anybody at the table at that time but St. Jude.
Speaker B:Now it's cool because we've been watching this YouTube TV show with Ryan Trahan, I think it is, and his wife.
Speaker B:They're doing this 50 states in 50 days type of a thing.
Speaker B:And so, and they're raising money for St. Jude.
Speaker B:So it's kind of neat to see a St. Jude table here.
Speaker B:There was another table.
Speaker B:I'm trying to think.
Speaker B:I can't remember what.
Speaker B:There was another table, but I can't remember what it was.
Speaker B:Oh, there was one table that I found interesting is it was around for Equitable.
Speaker B:It was around investing and being smart with your money and thinking about retirement and is your teacher pension going to be enough or is it going to need to be, you know, like a 413B investing in or Roth IRAs.
Speaker B:And so a person who kind of is very knowledgeable at that that was talking about that and I think I'll follow up with, with this individual once I do get settled in my new district and consider having some of those conversations.
Speaker B:So I appreciated the work work that she was.
Speaker B:Sharon, I'm looking here.
Speaker B:That person was Jessica Sanzone.
Speaker B:Kind of her specialty around was an Equitable advisor.
Speaker B:Just kind of looking here.
Speaker B:I think I mentioned I went to The NEA table, looking at they have a grant that you can apply for.
Speaker B:They had looks like a neat fellowship that.
Speaker B:For global learning and bringing back that learning into the classroom, which I thought was kind of exciting and kind of fun to think about.
Speaker B:Yeah, lots.
Speaker B:That was just an hour of kind of walking around at the exhibit.
Speaker B:And then.
Speaker B:Oh, and then right before lunch.
Speaker B:I mean, it was.
Speaker B:It was a rigorous day.
Speaker B:There was this speaker that I went into right before lunch, igniting the magic through lasting networks.
Speaker B:Seven Ps define joy and purpose in teaching and leading.
Speaker B:This fellow was interesting looking up his name.
Speaker B:His name was Sean Nank.
Speaker B:So the areas that he focused on a lot and he talked about was find your purpose, find your personality, find your people, find your pedagogy, find your practice, find your perseverance, find your peace.
Speaker B:And he kind of.
Speaker B:He deep dived on, like, the first four of those and spent a lot of time on those and then kind of addressed a little bit more of a condensed version for the last three.
Speaker B:He talked about, like, sometimes, like, finding your people, like people who got your back.
Speaker B:He talked about, you know, there are some people, some his experience with administration and even other teachers kind of messing with him kind of, and jerking them around a little bit, which is super uncool.
Speaker B:Talked about, like, finding these people.
Speaker B:Talked about, like, building energy with people and connecting with people and just kind of trying to really meet people where they're at and recognize that you gotta find your people and that not everybody are your people, and that's okay.
Speaker B:But, yeah, he spent a lot of time.
Speaker B:He's written some cool books, too, about.
Speaker B:Looks like he had some books that I'd like to check out about storytelling, about empathetic storytelling.
Speaker B:I'd be really interested to check some of those out.
Speaker B:He's.
Speaker B:Yeah, he talked about personalities, like personality traits and how sometimes, you know, those affect who we get along with.
Speaker B:Just gave me a lot of things.
Speaker B:I like all those P's.
Speaker B:You know, the, you know, find your people, find your personality is this, you know, that kind of goes along with, you know, pushing ourselves as veteran teachers to be the best we can and then newer teachers, too.
Speaker B:You know, getting them to push themselves to find what they want to be.
Speaker B:And as educators, we have to reinvent ourselves.
Speaker B:I like those seven Ps because we're constantly trying to work and grow and reinvent ourselves as educators.
Speaker B:And we shouldn't stay stagnant and shouldn't just be like, we're not going to change.
Speaker B:So appreciated that, you know, I was Looking here, you know what I missed?
Speaker B:I kind of went.
Speaker B:For some reason, I went out of order.
Speaker B:I missed one of the.
Speaker B:Talking about one of the presentations I went to.
Speaker B:How did I do that?
Speaker B:So I went to a presentation.
Speaker B:It was on wellness.
Speaker B:Ah, it was good.
Speaker B:Oh, it was so good.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:So the name of it was Recharge and Reconnect the Wellness Lab Experience presented by Equitable Foundation.
Speaker B:And that actually was right before the Civics Catalyst Fellowship presentation that I was part of.
Speaker B:This was the presentation right before that.
Speaker B:And it was super good.
Speaker B:Oh, my goodness, it was super good.
Speaker B:They had so many teachers tied into that.
Speaker B:Kurt Russell, he's a national teacher of the Year.
Speaker B:Natalia Mejia, let's see.
Speaker B:Juliana Urtube, Rebecca Peterson, Michael Kress, Leah Marone, Anissa Thompson, Michelle Faust and Jessica Somme.
Speaker B:All phenomenal, phenomenal messages that they talked about.
Speaker B:It's interesting because they, they actually addressed.
Speaker B:Let me look at my notes here.
Speaker B:Ah, yeah.
Speaker B:So they set the class up.
Speaker B:A lot of the presentation, they set it up in like a lab style type of thing where we broke into some different groups.
Speaker B:But before we did that, each of the speakers kind of did a little bit of talk.
Speaker B:And one of the people said about, we can't advocate.
Speaker B:You can't.
Speaker B:Oh, here's our own advocacy.
Speaker B:You can't heal what you don't allow yourself to feel.
Speaker B:And so, like, if you want to advocate for something for students, it's got to affect you deeply.
Speaker B:And so I think that's kind of what she was getting at, is that you're going to.
Speaker B:Because you're.
Speaker B:When you advocate, truly advocate with the intent to try to change something, you're coming to it with some empathy and compassion.
Speaker B:And so I think that's kind of where she was getting at there.
Speaker B:If not.
Speaker B:Oh, and another person talked about, if we're not strong, we will suffer in silence.
Speaker B:And so don't suffer in silence and kind of lean into collaborative teams.
Speaker B:And that person talked about being proud to say that she's a public school teacher now.
Speaker B:We can't be effective if we aren't, if we aren't well.
Speaker B:And so how important it is to take care of ourselves.
Speaker B:And that kind of led into the whole presentation about if we want to be effective, we got to take care of ourselves.
Speaker B:It was interesting because they kind of addressed.
Speaker B:Look in here.
Speaker B:Kind of the areas that they addressed here is there was three different labs.
Speaker B:So in the body lab, they talked about some exercises that we can do to take care of ourselves, maybe even at like Transition times or in short little.
Speaker B:If we have a few minutes here or a few minutes there, things we can do stretches in the classroom, even with a simple band.
Speaker B:I enjoyed that.
Speaker B:In the mind lab they talked about, like, mental resets that you can do to kind of help with.
Speaker B:To kind of help with some of the mental fog and mental strain that we can get.
Speaker B:And then in a connection lab, they actually talked about when we're collaborating with peers and how important it is to build community in a connective type of a way.
Speaker B:Great information I'm seeing here.
Speaker B:If there's anything else that sticks out in my notes.
Speaker B:Energy and resilience are important.
Speaker B:Oh, being humble and rooted in community that is interesting is like when you feel helpless, big picture.
Speaker B:If you feel helpless in like maybe what's going on in society, kind of lean in to like hyper zoom in on like what you can control or what's good in your life and to try to not maybe be ignorant or ignore what's going on on the outside.
Speaker B:But also we gotta take care of our mental health and kind of zooming in and focusing on the good.
Speaker B:And I appreciate that.
Speaker B:Yeah, a lot of mic, the movement part, the movement lab, the body lab.
Speaker B:Talking a lot about micro movements and making it compound, using body weight mini circuits, raising their heart rate, mobility and strength, and then doing like a front and back type of a thing and like setting up even like little circuits.
Speaker B:In our classroom that he referred.
Speaker B:The person talking about that referred to like Tim Ferriss and kind of like these micro movements and like, almost like.
Speaker B:Almost like hacking our physical health, so to speak.
Speaker B:Ah, that person talked about chair squats and Romanian deadlifts and like bending over and taking care of your joint, having joint health.
Speaker B:And you can't.
Speaker B:Oh, you can use bands when you do Romanian deadlifts and use bands and help with your hamstrings too.
Speaker B:Using open book.
Speaker B:Doing open books with your arms where you're like opening your arms wide and that kind of is like a.
Speaker B:Can help with your spine health and doing, you know, doing eight to 12 reps, doing like a push and pull.
Speaker B:Mobility is so important in getting those exercise circuits in throughout the day, taking care of your health.
Speaker B:Because they had talked about how hard the teaching is on our bodies.
Speaker B:See the two speakers to talk about.
Speaker B:Okay, so when I talked about connecting, it's important to authentically connect and grow connections.
Speaker B:Talked about important to look at what's good going on.
Speaker B:Don't just focus on just the negative.
Speaker B:Try to focus on some good stuff that's happening in our life.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's really enjoyed.
Speaker B:That was kind of a neat way to do that where they focused on like three like the body lab, mind lab and connection lab.
Speaker B:And we kind of broke up when we did our presentation, our fellowship, our civics presentation.
Speaker B:We broke it up into three areas too.
Speaker B:But we didn't call it labs.
Speaker B:We did like, we called it speed dating where they went to different stations for the different aspects.
Speaker B:So kind of the same type of principle.
Speaker B:But I really like this and I think that that's something too in future podcasts that I want to talk about is, you know, taking care of yourself and what that might look like.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:And how important it is.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:All right, so I'm thinking here, I think that pretty much takes us through.
Speaker B:Oh, and we had a great dinner again, a delicious dinner.
Speaker B:And then afterwards we had Ignite the Magic party, Karaoke connection and more where we.
Speaker B:There was some, some dancing, a little bit of dancing music.
Speaker B:They had.
Speaker B:Actually it's super cool because during that like pre karaoke they had their.
Speaker B:They had a group that was in the room talking about math and like kind of the mindset of I'm a math person.
Speaker B:And they actually were giving out shirts like we did some like math games in there kind of while some pre music was going and just once again getting that is kind of.
Speaker B:And I got a shirt, it's super cool.
Speaker B:It says we all, we're all solvers.
Speaker B:And it says I'm.
Speaker B:It says the shirt on the front says I'm not a math person, but not as crossed out and says I'm a math person.
Speaker B:And it was just so that group of people were there kind of talking about, you know, kind of mindset and kind of reframing things to get us to get kids and adults this, you know, because sometimes I've heard adults say, well, I'm not a math person.
Speaker B:Well, everybody's a math person because we have to use it.
Speaker B:It's not necessarily if it's about if it's if math is easy or hard for you.
Speaker B:Everyone's a math person because we use it so much and that's kind of pushing out that type of mindset.
Speaker B:And then they got into oh, and then they got in the karaoke's and we kind of hung out and kind of just, just talked.
Speaker B:I had a, an opportunity kind of transitioning from dinner to the karaoke space to have some really great conversation with some people, some teachers who are at the conference too and just kind of talking about our own teaching experiences.
Speaker B:What we face, what we're doing, how we're providing impact.
Speaker B:So brilliant minds.
Speaker B:I was thinking about today and how much brilliance is at this conference and how much brain power and how much experience.
Speaker B:Oh, it was wonderful.
Speaker B:But I'm exhausted.
Speaker B:I can't tell you how exhausted I'm.
Speaker B:I did actually, when I went back to my room, I had just enough time to throw on my swimsuit and I went out into the.
Speaker B:Into the Disney pool, the yacht resort pool, right before they closed.
Speaker B:I went down a water slide and then I went in Lazy river and then went back to the room and kind of get myself kind of changed out of my wet stuff and then came down here.
Speaker B:I'm sitting in one of the presentation rooms recording this podcast right now, kind of reflecting on the day and kind of debriefing.
Speaker B:I'm a little tired, but I just can't say enough about this wonderful day, wonderful conference.
Speaker B:And I'll do kind of a wrap up after tomorrow.
Speaker B:Tomorrow's a shorter day, but I do want to reflect on it and talk about key takeaways there and key takeaways from this conference.
Speaker B:But what a great two days so far.
Speaker B:I'm exhausted.
Speaker B:I think I'm going to go to bed now.
Speaker B:But it's been great kicking off this podcast too, at this national conference.
Speaker B:What a crazy thing.
Speaker B:Thing for me to take on.
Speaker B:But it's also very meaningful and it matters to me too.
Speaker B:Kind of kicking this thing off here and it might.
Speaker B:And who knows, maybe we'll see you at a future national teacher leadership conference here tied with N Stoy.
Speaker B:So with that being said, y', all, I want to inspire you all to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:You see, that tells me how that says how tired I am because I kind of flubbed my.
Speaker B:Kind of wrapping up at the end there, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:I'm so tired.
Speaker B:No, I'm okay.
Speaker B:But I want to, I want to remind you to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And remember, you can be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye now.
Speaker A:He's Mr.
Speaker A:Bulky Teacher, yeah, he's Mr.
Speaker A:Bulky Teacher, yeah, yeah, yeah.
