Episode 2 - Questions from a non-educator

Elizabeth hosts an educational podcast called Spill It! where she breaks down different aspects of the education world. In this episode, she addresses misconceptions and questions about teaching with the help of guest star Sam, who is not a teacher. They discuss topics such as teachers not being paid over the summer, how teachers choose what to teach (which is mostly determined by curriculum instructors), the importance of building relationships with students, state standards dictating what skills are taught in schools, and the impact of technology on education. Elizabeth also mentions that there are books in the curriculum that are on banned or challenged book lists. Hi all and welcome to Spill It! I'll be your host Elizabeth and I'm here to spill the tea about schools. For those of you that aren't aware, Spill It! is an educational podcast about education. My goal is to make education feel more accessible for everyone. I do this by breaking down different things about the education world, whether it's terminology, questions, or best practices. Last week we covered assessments, what that means, and what types we see in schools. Today we're going to approach teaching a little more casually. Today I'm going to try and clear up some general misconceptions or questions about teaching. We're going to do this through a guest star. Guest star, introduce yourself. Tell us what we should know about you. Hi, my name is Sam. I'm a 28 year old ceramic engineer from Pittsburgh. Hello, hello Sam. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. However, I'd like to know why you chose me as your guest star. Love it. Love that you pointed that out. Let me tell you why. Sam, are you a teacher? No. Have you ever wanted to be a teacher? Definitely not. Are you married to a teacher or raised by a teacher? No. And that is exactly why. My goal was to take someone removed from the teaching side of education and get them to ask some questions. Seem doable? I can do that. All right. In the time that I've known you, you've pointed out or asked a few things about what I do. You bet if we cycle through some of these? Sure thing. I'm ready when you are. All right, let's let them fly. Okay, I'll start with an easy one. How often do you get told it must be nice to have a paid summer off? Wow, we're starting with the pan. I've heard you complain about that one before. Yeah, yes you have. And tell the people why you've heard me complain about that one before, Samantha. Because teachers aren't paid over the summer. Ah, music to my ears. Thank you. Do people really think that? Uh, yeah. I love diving into this one. Let's clarify this here now. Teachers are not paid to work over the summer. They are not paid for what they do not do in June and July. However, teachers can elect to have their paychecks spread over 12 months, but that is only money for the school months that they are choosing to spread out. So you're not paid to vacation? I am not paid to vacation. Thank you so much for clarifying. Okay, that seems pretty kind of dry. Let's move on. Here's a question I've always wondered. How do you choose what to teach? It seems like, especially as an English teacher, you got a ton of books and stories to choose from. How do you decide what to use and what to teach? Killing it here, Sam. Beautiful. Okay, to repeat her question, how do teachers choose what to teach? Simple answer is we don't. Teachers do not, for the most part, choose what is taught in their class. They get to decide how things are taught, but not what to teach. That is decided for us by our curriculum instructors. What's a curriculum instructor? Our curriculum instructors are people who plan what a class is going to cover in a year. It tells what skills a class needs to cover, how long it should take, and occasionally what text they're going to use to do it. Occasionally? Occasionally. The amount of freedom that you have varies from district to district. At my last school, I was told exactly how many days to dedicate toward a set of skills, what stories I was supposed to use to teach it, and what assignments to give along the way. And at this district? I have a lot more freedom at this one. I'm told a time frame to cover the skills and how to assess them at the end. For the most part, I'm allowed to choose what stories or books I will use to teach these skills. An occasional unit has required readings, like our novel study, the novel is chosen, but I get to choose for the most part. Okay, so which one's better? Well, that is a question that's subject to debate. There are certainly benefits to both sides. Even having a preference, I can acknowledge that. A very rigidly structured curriculum assures equality across the grade level. Teachers obviously have very different styles of teaching, and it does cause gaps in the learning. It's not something we're proud of or happy about, it's just a fact of the profession. Some people are going to be more effective at teaching certain skills than others. Each teacher has their own skill, and it's very rare that the teachers who teach the same content at the same grade level are going to have the same specialty. That means you'll have kids from the same grade, at the same school, coming out of a class with varied skill levels within a subject. If every teacher is teaching the exact same thing, this happens on a much smaller scale. Because they're being taught the exact same way. Yes. But that doesn't allow for a lot of individuality. Which is why I tend to prefer a less rigid curriculum. Like I said, teachers have crazy different styles, but that means they have crazy different strengths. There's a lot to be said for letting a teacher teach to their strengths. Teaching is such a personalized profession. We're told over and over to build relationships within our classrooms. Part of that relationship building is showing the kids who we are. That comes out when you teach. It has to. Wait, you're told over and over to build relationships? Constantly. What's the reasoning for that? Well, teaching is an incredibly social act. It's you, in a room, 20 plus kids. You're trying to get them to care about something they are forced by law to come do. Some want to succeed, some don't care one bit. How do you get these 20 plus kids to care, to respect one another, to respect your classroom, to focus on what they need to do? The basics behind it is to build a relationship with them. See them as their own individual people. Let them see that you're a person. Let them see that teachers are people too. Exactly. It's just a mutual respect thing. If they respect you and they know you respect them, they're more inclined to listen. It's not some manipulation tool. It's the same with any real relationship you make. You are nice to one another because you respect one another. The same goes for kids. Sounds like a lot. It is. We rightfully get annoyed with each other. I tell the kids all the time they're allowed to be mad at me some days. I'm an adult who's just trying to do my job and they're kids who are just trying to socially and emotionally develop in life. Some days I get tired of saying the same things over and over and some days they get tired of hearing those same things over and over. Like any relationship in your life, parents, siblings, friends, we have our good days and we have those bad days. But building relationships does work with a good foundation. It stops a lot of bad behaviors at the gate. I guess that makes sense. Also makes sense why you're in the profession. You're social to put it nicely. Are you saying that I never shut up? You never shut up. That is fair. Okay. It honestly sounds exhausting. That's a lot of socializing in the day. It's a lot of caring. It is. Okay, so we got off on a side tangent and you're good at that. We need to circle back. A little back, you mentioned a curriculum instructor. Isn't that what you're going to school for? Yes, ma'am. Okay. How do they decide what skills you learn? It still feels like there's so many things that need to be learned in a school career. Organizing them out seems like a ton of work. Oh, they don't do the organizing. They use state standards. State standards? The state decides what skills are learned in what classes and at what grade levels. Oh, I always assumed it was up to the teachers. Honestly, I think a lot of people think that or they just don't think about who plans it at all, but it's not your teachers. We have state standards that are handed down by the Department of Education. Our curriculum instructor organizes them from there. Okay, that position makes more sense then. Choosing a skill yourself seems like it'd be a ton of pressure. Which is why we like to leave that pressure to the state. Makes sense. Do you ever feel like you're playing it's not my fault with a lot of parents? Like are you constantly having to say, I didn't choose this? Yeah, not really. State standards aren't the sort of thing that parents are going to get upset about. The state standards are truly just a list of skills. They don't provide the text that go with it and it's going to be the text that occasionally get pushed back, not the standard itself. So like the books you choose to read or the curriculum instructor chooses to read? Yes. Have you taught any books that received pushback? Not at the personal level. I've never had a parent come to me to complain personally about something I used in class. However, in every district I've worked in, there are books in the curriculum that are on national banned book lists or challenged book lists. Like? To Kill a Mockingbird, The Giver, The Hate U Give. Oh, I read about half of those when I was in school. Same. Things have changed since we've been in school. Like you would not believe. Okay, we probably have time for one more question. How do you think things have changed the most since we were in school? Oh, technology. A hundred percent, it's the technology. How so? Okay, as you know, I teach middle school. Right. We did not have one-to-one technology in middle school. Right, I didn't even have that in high school. Yeah, and now they have the one-to-one in even some of the elementary schools. And it's messy? I don't know about messy. It's a lot of responsibility. How so? I mean, there's a lot of responsibility involved in teaching kids how to use technology and modeling how to use technology. Modeling it? Oh yeah, we have to show them best practices and show what responsible technology usage looks like. And what does it look like? Not getting on websites that we don't know how our information will be shared. If it requires the terms and agreements, did we read the terms and agreements? Am I leading the kids to a website that's educational but the ads on the side are inappropriate? And that's not even the half of it. And there's a side of technology usage on the teacher end that's even more in-depth. Am I protecting my students' information and am I portraying myself in a professional manner? Is that just making sure not to post inappropriate pictures on your social media for parents to see? I mean, kind of. That is part of it. But it's also making sure I'm not including a student's name when I'm emailing another student's guardian. It's not leaving my school information system up on a computer where anyone else could see their grades, their medical history, their address. It's not letting one kid see another's grades. It's all important. One would hope so, but it's important that my students and their guardians know that this is important. That they know I think it's important. That they know I'm protecting their online information and that I'm teaching kids how to use technology correctly. And that looks like... What makes a strong password? What sort of websites you shouldn't just go ahead and make an account real quick for? Not cyberbullying. Yeah, we spend a lot of time on online etiquette. We've discussed quite a bit how things can come across different when they're typed rather than spoken. Yeah, like I said, a lot of responsibility. It is teaching in the new age. I don't have VU. Thanks. Well, I'm out of questions. Like you said earlier, I never wanted your job. Just a lot of curiosities about who would pick it and why. You are so kind. Well, thanks for coming, Sam. It was fun. Anytime. All right, so I hope you feel like you learned something today. Maybe you had a question like Sam's that I answered or maybe I pointed out a new perspective you hadn't considered. As we wrap up our second episode or as I clean up my spill, I want you to please let me know if there's something you want to share with me. Did I teach you something new? Do you disagree with some of my takes? Let me know. Learning goes both ways and I hope to learn as much from my listeners as they learn from me. Until next week, my friends, boom, boom. Tune in next Sunday for a new episode of Spill It, where Elizabeth will cover the routines and procedures of a normal classroom. Until then.