Episode 2

Logan and Lila interview their fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Walensky, asking her about why she became a teacher and her favorite subjects to teach. Ms. Walensky loves reading, writing, and science. She also enjoys listening to podcasts about writing and science. Being on the podcast is intimidating but fun for her. Logan and Lila talk about their favorite subjects and activities in school, and they debate whether swings or a parkour wall should be added to the playground. They plan to interview others to get more opinions. Welcome to Club Speaks Up! It's me, Logan, and Lila. Today we will have a special guest, Ms. Walensky. She is one of our fourth grade teachers and we're going to be interviewing her today. And we're just going to ask her a few questions. She's going to ask us a question, and that will be it for today, guys. So, let's get to it. Thank you for listening to Club Speaks Up! Hi, welcome to Club Speaks Up! It's Logan and Lila. Today we will have a special guest, Ms. Walensky. Alright, hello! Logan and Lila, how are you doing today? We're doing good. Alright, so I am another fourth grade teacher at class. So I know Logan and Lila from just seeing you guys around a lot. Yeah. And I don't know, you can get started with the questions. Why did you become a teacher? Wow, okay, so I became a teacher because I love working with kids and I love teaching kids how to, you know, read and write and understand things. And just seeing you guys grow up and becoming like very good people. What is your favorite subject? Okay, so I couldn't decide, so I'm going to give you like three subjects that I love to teach. Okay, I know it sounds like a lot, but those are my favorites. So I love to teach reading and writing, and I also love to teach math. I mean, I love to teach math, but I love, love science. So why is your favorite subject? Why is reading your favorite subject? So why is reading or writing my favorite subject, for example? Well, like, I love books and I love writing. So because I have, like, it gives me so much joy to read books and to write, I like to pass that, like, that enthusiasm to my students. And I also love to see how my students, like, they are very creative when they write their stories and how they see that they can do more than they think they can do at the beginning. So I love to see my students, like, getting out of their comfort zone and improving. Yes, I love that. And I love reading aloud to my students as well. And science because it's fun. It's just fun, right? Okay, what kind of podcast do you listen to? Yes, I love listening to podcasts. I normally do it in the morning when I'm getting ready for school. I listen to one podcast that is about writing. It's called The Fearless Writer. And it's, like, they host this British writer that has written a couple of books on writing. It's a hard-to-know British writer. And I listen to another, it's more like a radio show, but I found it on podcasts as well. It's called Radio Lab and it's about science. So I get all my favorite things in there. How does it feel to be on the podcast? Wow, it's actually pretty intimidating. But it is fun. I think you guys are doing a fantastic job with this and it's very interesting to get to interview people, right? How do you guys feel about that, about interviewing people and working with us? Well, you know, I personally like it because I like seeing what people think. Seeing how people are. They're not like, I guess what I usually know them as. They're like asking people questions, things that I don't usually see them do. For instance, I'm not in their class, so I don't know what you specifically do. That is awesome. So do you see yourself, like, doing this in a few years? Probably. Nice. For me, I like interviewing people because it's fun, but it's also kind of nerve-wracking because it's so nervous if you mess up and you have to restart the whole thing and all of that. But it's actually pretty fun. But that is the learning process, right? You make mistakes and then you go back and fix them and get better. I might do this next year again, too. Yes, that's a lot of fun. Yeah, middle school. I'm so excited, but I'm also very nervous. Are you ready? Are you scared? Yeah, it's a 50-50 chance that we'll be on the same team, which is the worst part. Well, maybe you're going to make new friends, too, so that's good. Alright, I have a question for you. So what is your favorite part of the day? What is your favorite subject of the day that is not research? Honestly, sometimes research is my least favorite, especially when I don't have anything to do. But for subjects, I really like math and writing. And I also really like art. When we go to art, I love art. What do you like to do in art? I really like to paint with thin, thin brushes. And I like to—my favorite part's math and just independently reading, but we don't do that that often as much. So I—really, it's just math. But I also like to do research. It's kind of a break from everything. Yeah, you need to rest a little bit. But for specials, I have to do gymnastics. And I am one of those people, one of those couple girls who will just run around— Have a lot of energy to burn, right? And then I also really like art, which is probably one of my favorites. It just lets your imagination go free and all of that. Yeah, I agree with you. I used to love art when I was in school as well. Yeah, probably my least favorite is honestly gym. A lot of people disagree with that. I don't like it because it's running around, and most of the time, with our class specifically, a lot of kids will just come up crying because it's unfair, people are cheating, something's happening. There's always a problem. There's always a problem. Like, for example, I've seen a couple girls crying because they got hurt, and then a boy didn't apologize or something. But that happens, right? That's how we learn and grow, right? Last year, I had a couple boys in our—I had a boy in our class, in my class, that would cry if they were to lose, lost, or they just lost by themselves on field day, so it was very— But that's okay, too, because you learn from those type of conflicts. You also learn from that, right? So, like, sometimes, a lot of times, I get, like, purposely hurt. Like, one time, I'm not saying their names, but a boy—a girl scored on this boy, and this boy, no joke, stomped on her foot. He was mad. I think that's it for today's podcast. Thank you, Ms. Warren. Thank you so much, guys. This was fun. Yeah. Thanks for coming to Club Misha. I'm Colin. And I'm Lila. Today, we're doing a debate on what we should add in the playground. I think we should add swings. I think we should add, like, a parkour place. Parkour wall. I want to do swings, because I think they'd be really popular, and every single girl has nothing to do on the field, so it'd be amazing. I think that we should, like, add a parkour wall or something, because, like, all the boys love to do parkour, and if you don't know what parkour is, like— Like jumping around and running around. Getting over things fast. Yes. And I want swings only because when on the field, when we go on the field, the boys can play football and do all these sports, but girls don't really like sports, and they can just use swings. And, like, not all my friends really want to play sports. Me and Jack Natchit, we just kind of want to jump around and climb on stuff, but the teachers say that we can't do that, which is bad. I mean, I think that's a very solid idea, but I prefer swings only because I think they'd be very popular, because you could also climb on them, even though you'd probably get in trouble. The normal playground is not that fun. There's nothing really to do. Well, I'm just saying, where would you add these magical parkour walls? Probably way in the back where the soccer field used to be. Oh, yeah. I prefer swings because I feel like you could just add them. And also, you have a rock wall on the playground, so isn't that parkour enough? You can also climb, like, off the canister. No, there's nothing really to vault over or to, like, jump off, like I nailed that. Very true, very fair, but I still prefer swings. Okay, well, we'll have to find out. Yeah, we'll have to find out. We'll interview, hopefully. Yeah, I really want to do that. This is it, or I'll speak up.