Know Dumb Questions
Know Dumb Questions
KNOW DUMB QUESTIONS FT Martia Holloway: Unveiling the Realities of Education
Imagine spending your workday in a whirlwind of challenges, from managing a classroom full of students to navigating complex relationships with parents. Now, couple that with the pressures of an ever-evolving education system and minimal support from school administration - that's a typical day for our guest, a seasoned teacher who speaks out unabashedly about the realities of her profession. Join us as she brings her unique perspective to the table, giving voice to the silent struggles teachers go through daily.
Hear from our guest as she paints a vivid picture of the dynamics between teachers, parents, and students, and the profound impact it can have on a school's culture. She shares her own battles with parent communication and classroom management, shining a light on the dire consequences of declining respect within the school environment. Balancing this, she also discusses the triumphs and joy that come from shaping young minds and the unparalleled satisfaction of fostering a love for learning.
This thought-provoking conversation with Martia Holloway doesn't stop there. We delve deeper into the disparities in education, the pressing need for advocacy, and the power teachers hold to promote change. Our guest reveals her personal strategies for connecting with students on a deeper level, maneuvering through the maze of social media influence, and managing the overload of responsibilities. So, sit back and tune into this enlightening discussion that's sure to challenge your perceptions of the education system as we know it. There's a lot to learn, and even more to ponder.
Well, do you make it make sense? It's a real pleasure to talk to you. First of all, are you still teaching?
Speaker 2:Yes, I am still teaching.
Speaker 1:How was work today Work?
Speaker 2:was good. We're still in what you call like the honeymoon phase. Okay, we're still waiting to see, like, the real personalities and things like that.
Speaker 1:What grade do you teach or grades? Do you teach elementary or grade?
Speaker 2:This is my first year teaching 11th and 12th grade English.
Speaker 1:Okay, where do you teach?
Speaker 2:I teach in Virginia, in the city of Hampton, okay.
Speaker 1:So what got you into taking your message to the people? Because we're going to get into the message and I wish I was dope with the like with the Instagram, so I could show some of your messages, people would play with you. But how did you decide to take your feelings to the internet?
Speaker 2:So what happened was the last year I was working in Newport News, so that's the district where the six-year-old shot his teacher. So that was a big thing and we had gone back to work as if nothing had happened.
Speaker 2:And there was a sound on Instagram. It was like a flip-flop sound that everybody was using and, instead of using it the regular way, I had someone recording video of me and I said this is me skipping down the hall, even though I know there is not a plan to protect teachers and students. And I went to sleep and woke up and it was like 200,000 views. So I was like, okay. So I just started talking about all the things that teachers complained about in the teachers lounge basically All the things we complained about amongst ourselves that we have been too scared to say for so long. So that's really how it got started.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like you've become the voice of many teachers?
Speaker 2:Yes, it's based on my comments and my DMs on TikTok, facebook and Instagram. I do because so many people are saying so many teachers are saying thank you for speaking out. We are afraid to speak up. We glad someone is speaking out for us. And then they always ask you know, you're not afraid you're going to get in trouble? So I do think that a lot of the things that I say I'm almost sure because I've taken it from conversations that I've had with other teachers. So I do think I'm the voice of teachers.
Speaker 1:Are you afraid you're going to get in trouble?
Speaker 2:So last year my principal did say just be mindful, people are always watching and make sure I'm doing it after contract hours. This year I was told I could not make videos in my classroom, so I'm going to behind you can see like I have a small business, so I make t-shirts and cups, so that's those are the things. You see behind me, my machine, my heat press. So I'm going to try to turn the wall into like a classroom background. But I don't think it really matters as much as I in my mind I think it does If I'm in the classroom or not.
Speaker 1:How long you been teaching.
Speaker 2:Six years. Okay, yeah, I taught three years in Jacksonville, florida, sixth grade. I was my first year ever, was fresh out of college. I was a long term, I was 22.
Speaker 1:And I would go to college.
Speaker 2:I went to Justice Smith University.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay, okay. Yes, so you're six years into teaching and you are not shy about your opinions about students administration. I'm sorry, I'm. I am a dog grandfather and my fresh, my senior in college, is somewhere and now I have this dog, so he just ran up here, my bad. So you? You talk about parents, you talk about kids, you talk about administration and even some of the politics and education. What is it that you want to understand from the front lines?
Speaker 2:I'm hoping that someone you know, with a bigger platform than mine, who can actually make change, will see these videos and start to actually listen to what teachers have to say and make changes to make education better. I hope that, but people don't. It's almost like talking about religion and politics. You know how they say. Those are conversations that shouldn't happen at the dinner table. I'm starting to feel like education should fall in that category as well. Someone asked me the other day. They said is your video solution driven? I don't feel like I'm at a place yet where I could be in a room to make solutions, but I would like to. I would like to get an education reform. I would like to make it better for teachers.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that in one of your more recent videos that somebody should ask teachers their opinion as to what needs to be done. I watch your videos. I really do, I do I do and I reached out to you because you and I may not see out of on everything it doesn't mean that we don't see, we don't start from. I believe it's the same place. You said that someone should ask y'all what should people ask?
Speaker 2:teachers. They should just listen. It's so many decisions made without us. They change the curriculum. We have no input, we're just forced to teach whatever they put in there the next year. You know they make rules about classroom management but they don't ask us anything about what it's like to actually be in the classroom with kids after COVID. Because, honestly, if you haven't taught since COVID, in my mind you haven't taught.
Speaker 2:That's my, that's my slogan and I just feel like you know, maybe even parent communication we don't have a lot of time where we can call parents. The little bit of time allowed it is so many behavior issues that you don't even have time to make positive calls anymore because there's so much happening. There are no mentors in the schools. You know the curriculum is outdated and we're still trying to teach it to kids who are addicted to social media, who get their information off TikTok, and so I just feel like if they stop for a second and listen and actually let us play a role in the decisions that are being made, then we probably won't be in the places we are. We're forced to pass kids along, but then we're also held to a high standard when it comes to state tax.
Speaker 1:You said that you think dare should come back and I'm going to. I want to talk about that in a second. But I want to talk about that in a second because it's part of a theme that I've seen, and if it's me that's assigning a theme, then you can throw it away. But one of the things that I hear you talk about often is what you title does the lack of respect for teachers in the classroom by parents and children. Can you talk about that?
Speaker 2:So I just feel like you know, kids hear a lot of conversations, see things being said, and then they mimic those things in the classroom. And, to be honest, people have people have minimized the job of being an educator and because of that children start to react that way. Well, my mom said I don't have to listen to you. Or my mom said if I have to use the bathroom, I can walk out of class.
Speaker 1:How crazy is that? Right, right, exactly that ass like you're in the classroom and somebody who is 11, right, they don't have to listen to you.
Speaker 2:You don't have to listen to the teacher, but you want me to be the same person to risk my life if someone comes in that building. That does not make sense to me. But any other time your child does not have to do anything, I say, but when it comes to life or death, then we are supposed, then we are supposed to put our life on the line for kids and I just find a lot of the things that they ask of us to be outrageous. You know, we, we, something that's outrageous.
Speaker 1:Something that's outrageous Okay.
Speaker 2:So we have planning periods. We have planning periods where we are supposed to be able to plan for our I don't know about every school, but high school for the most part you have 90 minute blocks.
Speaker 1:Everybody has. They're usually based upon the length of this period that you so typical periods of, if you have 50, many periods you have a 50. So if we could just we're going to pause cause, then people are not in education and we're going to be back for a second. So that was just so what Ms Holloway is talking about, right, Ms Holloway, right?
Speaker 2:That's what the kids call it. So what, ms?
Speaker 1:Holloway is talking about is during the day, your children's school is split into period. You remember periods some periods of 45 minutes, some periods of 50 minutes, some periods of 90 minutes, whether block schedule, ab schedule, whatever that is Typically in a school, your planning period is the length, meaning the time that you're not supposed to be teaching. Your planning period is typically the length of a period. So if you have 90 minute periods, you should have a 90 minute plan. If you have 50 minute periods, you should have a 50 minute plan.
Speaker 1:Okay so now Ms Holloway is going to tell us about what does and doesn't happen during planning.
Speaker 2:So you're supposed to be able to plan, but I would say three out of the five days you are in meetings where there's IEP meetings, 504 meetings, curriculum meetings, cot meetings. And COT meetings are meetings with everybody on your grade level who teaches the same subject. To make sure it was just like a check-in, you have to call parents. You're trying to use the restroom because, believe it or not, most of us go eight hours without being able to have a restroom break. So we're trying to do everything that we do not get done while we're teaching. But we don't get to have planning periods because they're taken up by so many meetings and other obligations that we have to do.
Speaker 1:How would you suggest then? Because one day, Ms Holloway, you're going to be an administrator.
Speaker 2:I hope so.
Speaker 1:So how would you suggest that parents receive phone calls and that your admin or your grade level? You guys call a CLT and there are other people call a grade level team. So what they're what Ms Holloway is saying is that if you are all teaching the eighth grade, then there's a period within which you meet to discuss the goings-on in the eighth grade. So how would you suggest that such meetings occur or such phone calls occur?
Speaker 2:So, to be honest, when I go to curriculum meet in CLT means everything is always goes on the tangent. So teachers is telling the story about something happened last year with a kid, or we're stuck on one thing, or most of the time we're airing out our grievances. I'm just gonna be honest. We spent 90 minutes debriefing. We are we finally get to say what we couldn't say all day when we were with kids, and so I think it's almost not as productive as they should be. I have had some, I honestly have to say. When I taught in Florida and Duval charter schools, we were taken out of class three hours once a month and that was the best planning and prepping and data meetings I've ever had. But most of these meetings we have can be emails. I'm just gonna be honest. They can be emails.
Speaker 1:Talk about what made the Duval charter schools, and I don't know about trust, but talk about what made the. Let no cuz it one way or another. I support good schools, it doesn't matter. In fact, I was just down in, down in Norfolk talking, so talking to really a hard-working group of folks in the school. So can you talk about what it was about those three hours, because you just said three hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, three hours so like get down to the get down, what mate? And we're gonna geek out. Folks want to talk about education for real, like so y'all gonna?
Speaker 2:have to get caught up.
Speaker 1:This is gonna sound like a staff meeting for a minute, but we're gonna get to some other fun stuff. What made those meetings so some of the best time that you spent?
Speaker 2:Well, for one. They provided the substitutes, so we didn't have. All we had to do was have some kind of subplanned. They provided the subs. They would pull us out of the room. We would get together with our grade level department, our English English, for example. Me. I was English, so I would get together with all the six great English teachers and we would look at they would.
Speaker 2:They had a system where they could take our test on the scan tron, scan it and give us data back so we would know down to the T that a kid missed RL 9.3, for example. Okay, that's the standard. And then we would discuss that standard. Okay, how many? What percentage of your students missed it? What percentage? And then we knew that if more than 35 percent of our students missed it, we needed to go back because it was something we did as the educator that was missed.
Speaker 2:Then we would break down lessons. One teacher would do the lesson plans for the month and then the next month someone else would do them and then the, and so it rotated and I just felt like it was a culture. I felt like we had a culture at do ball charter. But you know we had lost the principal. A new principal had come in and he had a mission, and anybody who was not gonna get on that train he let him go regardless. And of a teacher showed it or not, we are here to change the atmosphere and culture of this school and so either you're gonna get on the train or you're not, and I think that's, ultimately, is what made the difference, because teachers brought into the idea of what he was trying to do you talk about.
Speaker 1:I want to go back to parents because a couple of folks are. I have said that. One sister said that she got hung up on twice today and you know I really do still work in schools. I dress like I just came from work, so forgive me.
Speaker 1:I don't have my. What are you? What are you? I'm not slaying today, but but talk about how you, when you're talking about make, having to make sense, making it make sense how parents talk to grown professional educators you know, when I talk about how parents talk to teachers, I'm almost speaking from what I've seen, because I don't put up with it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm just not it and I have I'm very old school in my teaching. If I call your house, your child has done something drastic there. I'm not calling because they're chewing gum. I'm not calling because they didn't have a Chromebook charger. This is just the air we're in. They're not gonna have pencils, they're not gonna have Chromebook chargers.
Speaker 2:So things like that, I feel like, are my job to handle in the classroom. I have a son. I don't want you calling me saying you couldn't get him to sit down today. I mean, you know I'm at work and so I try to minimize my phone calls. To be honest, I've had times where parents thought we were gonna take it there, but I almost try to get parents to buy in that. The bigger picture is that I'm trying to do is best for your child. We're on the same page, we look alike, we you know, we come from the same background and I'm just trying to make sure they can win and be better than the circus answers they grew up in.
Speaker 2:Now there are parents who come into a building. They curse about having to pick kids up for dress code. They're, you know, telling teachers they're gonna pull up on them at school, meet them at 4 30 when school is over, and I just feel like what kind of message does that senior child? That is where the lack of respect comes from students towards teachers, because parents don't respect teachers. At the end of the day, we're human and if people realize that, I don't know why I feel like people don't realize we're human and they can talk to us anyway and they can treat us anyway and we're supposed, because we're teachers, we're supposed to just let it roll off our back or tell me of a cheek. But Paris are just, you know, I I sent out a welcome letter. I have almost maybe two, 110 students in total. I heard back from three parents three, speak on that.
Speaker 1:I want, I don't want to come off of that. I really don't want to come off of that. Some folks, what was in your welcome letter? What talk? Talk about the thought that went behind the welcome letter. What did you want to convey?
Speaker 2:and let's like talk us through that, because I don't want people to just hear that, like hear why, that's why, that's a thing what you just said so teachers usually says some kind of correspondence to say hello, this is who I am, this is my background in education, this is, these are my degrees, these are my expectations for the year. You know I usually put something in like I have high expectation for your students but I would do everything my power to make sure they reach those high expectations. If you need anything for me, here's my email, here's my phone number, here are the times that I'm available, my planning periods and you know I have open communication. You know, just work with me because I'm doing this best for your child and you know you would think you would get. There are years where I get 10 responses there years where I get 20. There years where I get it none.
Speaker 2:But this year I got three and I have students who I can tell because once you've been teaching for a long time, you can kind of tell who parents don't play and who parents do play. Every now and then you have a kid who you're shocked that their parents are. When you meet their parents, you're shocked that those are their parents, because this child is off the chain, but they come from a strict household. Parents who don't play, parents who value education. So every now and then you'll get that. But there you know, I just remember when I was a kid, just saying you were gonna call my mom was enough. That was enough because it's one. If she had to leave work, if she was a blue collar worker, there was gonna be a problem to. She was gonna embarrass me in front of all my friends and three. I was scared. I had a healthy amount of fear for disappointing my parents, if that makes sense and I don't see that, and so you know, I don't know if the breakdown.
Speaker 2:I hate to blame COVID because I feel like COVID just explore, expose everything that was wrong in education. People really got to see what was really happening, and so I don't want to blame COVID, but I don't know. I don't know where the tide has turned. A lot of parents are my age.
Speaker 2:I'm 36 a lot of parents are 36 with 11th and 12th graders. I couldn't imagine. You know, I don't know. I don't know why parents put so much on teachers. We've raised kids, we are raising kids, trying to teach kids, trying to mentor kids, we're mental health counselors and we're mediators and security guards and substitutes when we don't have substitutes, and so I don't know why parents put. I have to think that maybe they think that's our job, that from the beginning of school to the end of school we are responsible for kids and if we can't control them, then we shouldn't be teachers. That's the only thing I can think.
Speaker 1:I just don't know well, you know, I would say that I think that I've been in this for a little while and I've seen a shift right. I agree with you that COVID didn't create a single well. That's not true. Covid didn't create many of these issues, but it did expose them. Now there are real academic issues that are the direct result of COVID and and the shutdown of the schools nationally, specifically in black, in Latin communities.
Speaker 1:You will spend your entire career trying to uncover how to fix this, because this is, this is bad, but we're seeing. This is bad, this is bad. But I want you also to talk about, because I think you represent the next generation of educators, because there's not a long line of people who want to do this stuff. What are some of the issues that you think? I'm going to say two things. One, I'm not of the belief that all teachers are saints or high, as I believe. I've sat in too many teachers' lounges and heard some really reckless things said about grown people's children. So when that grown, I bet you wouldn't say that in front of her is what I'm thinking. But for those who are committed, authentically committed, what do you think are some of the real challenges that are being faced?
Speaker 1:Those who want to teach, not the ones who want to cover with a reason why, so they can stomp out in the second week of the school talking about. That's why I quit the real ones. What do you think are some of the real things that are standing in the way and that administrators like me, administrators, what do we need to hear from you?
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny you say that, because the first thing is other teachers. It's like a roller coaster ride. Some of us are following the rules, we're enforcing the rules, we're fighting battles in the classroom, we are holding high expectations, we are holding kids accountable, and then you have teachers who say, well, I'm just not going to fight that battle, as long as they come to class and they're quiet and they don't even have to do work. There are some teachers who literally just say as long as they show up and they're quiet, they can wear their head, they can listen to music, they can be on their cell phone. I just don't care.
Speaker 1:What impact does that have on you? Because I really want people to hear what you're saying, because you're in classroom 104 and they're in classroom 105. Child's got a hoodie on. Child's got their headphones on, sleeping or not? Come to your class next period.
Speaker 2:I use my first three weeks legit three weeks of getting to know my kids expectations how to enter the class, how to be a student. What does being prepared for class look like? We model all those things because we assume that kids know when we say be prepared for class. Well, what is being prepared for class now? Because from the last two years, I was able to just turn on, open the Chromebook, have my screen black, be in my pajamas, play my video game, stroll to the top. So what does it look like to be prepared for class after COVID? And I think we miss that. We assume that they know, but kids really need to be taught everything, and so my biggest thing is my kids say a lot. They come in and they're like are we?
Speaker 2:doing work today and I'm like well, what have you been doing all day? If that's the first question you're asking, that means you've done nothing all day. I have to believe that. And or they'll say how much work do we have? Well, you know, we work.
Speaker 2:Bail to bail in this Halloween class, because I don't, I don't have hands. You know they get in trouble and so you know it's a. It's more so for me. I can adjust, I can snap my kids back into reality. Oh, don't play with me. You know how to play, that. You know where you at.
Speaker 2:For me, it's about the kids. It's more so about the kids because they're children and we are expecting them to be able to check. They have seven different teachers, they have to adjust to seven different people and seven different expectations, when really, if we all had school culture, school language, fought every battle, if we had all hands on deck, it would be a lot easier. But because they know, when I go to miss Smith class, I get away with X, y and Z, I can wear my hoodie, I can listen to music, I can have myself on. You know, I can get up without permission, I can go to the bathroom three or four times and be gone for 10 minutes. When I go to miss Halloween class, I can't go to the bathroom and tell she's done teaching till instruction is over.
Speaker 1:You know I'm talking about fighting that battle, though, because I want you to say I really you know again, because we're educators, some of the things that we're saying is between you know, it is a jargon, right what's a battle? That you've heard teachers say so like what's a battle cell phones. Cell phones is the biggest Right.
Speaker 2:They're like I'm not fighting that battle. You see, I schools. You know this may give me in trouble.
Speaker 2:I don't know if my principal's here he knows that I was doing a podcast, but I do was best what works for me and my kids. These kids are addicted to their cell phones. When you take them from just watching, they're almost like zombies. So I I more so do this. You cannot have your cell phone at all when I'm up there instructing, because if you are on your phone then you don't need when I'm giving you and you can teach the class. Okay, that's the first thing. So you can't have it while I'm doing instruction. You can't have the cell phone while you are completing your assignments. But once you have completed everything you need to do for the class, I don't mind. As long as you cannot record anybody and you cannot have air buds in. I need to. You know, know what. You're, at least be able to walk up and see what you're doing on the phone.
Speaker 2:But I don't cold turkey say no cell phone because they are not they. They are born and given technologies. They are born and sending from the iPads. They are giving cell phones at three. You know, I got my first cell phone in 11th grade and it was a flip phone, prepaid, and when I broke it my mom was like oh well, guess you won't have another phone. So I just try to be mindful about the generation we're teaching in, if that makes sense, so I can fight that battle. Oh, and I give my kids a seven minute brain break, which I took from another teacher on tip top, and then, since I've incorporated that, I've been able to say, oh, if you are yourself on right now, then we can skip right over your brain break, because their brain break they're able to relax.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell them what a brain break is.
Speaker 2:I'll let them stop everything we're doing. They can either put their hair down, they can get on their phone, they can talk to their friends, they can stretch. They have seven minutes they can't. Usually I don't let them go anywhere, they stay in the room. But they, you know, they can stretch, they can talk to each other, you know they can work on assignment from another class and they can do make or work.
Speaker 2:It's just a just take a break. We need a moment and then we regroup. And then when I, when I see them on their cell phones when they're not supposed to, I say oh, I know you're not on your cell phone, and I literally say it like this I know you're not on your cell phone and I give you a seven minute brain break because I can take it away. And then everybody puts their cell phone away. Or I can simply yell out I know I don't see cell phones and everybody with a cell phone to put it away, but to to say that they're totally. The only way a teacher can totally eliminate cell phones is for admin to have a consequence when a kid has their cell phone, and nine times out of 10, the consequence is a conversation and then you're put right back in class.
Speaker 1:So that's one of the challenges that I see. I'm going to offer something up. I don't think that a teacher, by her or himself, can turn the cell phone policy around. The principle of the school needs to have the courage to take phones at the beginning of the day. And if the principle does not have the courage and I mean it the way I'm saying it but to have the mother call and talking about what she's going to do when she gets down there as if you saw it off the child's arm or broken the cell phone.
Speaker 1:Any or all of the above, then it does create a challenge for a teacher to to be the lone wolf. Similarly, I see there are, but you know, real folks are really excited and I'm trying to get to some of the comments that they're making, because there are a lot of people who are principals who don't have the courage to run a school and so because that they might be nice people, they might have been teaching for a long time, but they're weak administrators and they create a weak environment and the dissonance that's born out of that environment puts people who take life seriously, who take their job seriously, in a bind. And it provides cover for those people say look, they got a hoodie on. I'm not telling they, they, I'm telling take the hoodie off, knowing damn well that that's out of dress code.
Speaker 2:Right, right.
Speaker 1:And so then the teacher who sees that child down the hall with the hoodie and the hood on, who says something to them, then that child starts talking reckless to that, to that adult, and creates a really difficult situation. So I am, as an administrator, I am someone who can acknowledge that one of the biggest challenges in every school is really the weak head who's scared, who's honestly, openly, visibly scared of somebody coming down there talking reckless to them.
Speaker 1:But, but barring that, let's say you have a courageous leader up front who understands that the rules are the rules are the rules, and you'll be mad at all you want. That's not. Nobody's ever died from being angry, right? How do you get other teachers on board?
Speaker 2:You know? I honestly don't know, because I've had conversations recently where I hear teachers say, as long as I'm not worrying about the hood, and then I'll say, oh no, you can't wear it here in my class, you know, you're just not going to do it. But I also teach my young black men why wearing a hood is such a big deal for them, even when they get in the street. It's not just about the classroom, it's almost life and death for you. I explain that to my kids. I try to relate everything back to the real world and I do think a lot of times there's a disconnect and that's the issue.
Speaker 1:There's a disconnect. Talk about it Because you're speaking in code. I don't need you speaking code, all right, and if we not not just make it make sense, you ain't doing that tonight, you ain't going to do it. You ain't going to do it, not here. No, you ain't.
Speaker 2:So I believe there's a disconnect with I hate to say it, because there are some Caucasian teachers who can hold their own, but there are those who give up so easily and they fit there. They're almost afraid of the environments they're in and it's almost like why would you apply to teach in an area where you almost know what kind of kids you're going to get? And then you're scared to enforce the rules you need to enforce. And so I think that you can't get everybody to buy in, because some teachers are doing what's easy for them. It's hard to enforce rules. It's hard to constantly remind kids of the rules in your classroom. It's unpopular to tell kids they can't wear their hood. It's unpopular to tell girls you need to get a jacket, cover your stomach, those shorts or two. It's unpopular.
Speaker 2:And so I just think that when I do hear teachers, I have a good friend. She is of another race, she struggled all last year and I just could not figure out what it was. But there was a major disconnect and what she thought she was getting into as a first year teacher and what she actually was getting into, if that makes sense. People are scared of black boys and they're more afraid the bigger and taller they are, and I think that also plays a role into why some teachers say I'm just not going to fight that battle, I'm just not going to bother enforcing the rules if admin is not going to back me. But I don't make rules in my classroom that I need admin to enforce if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:I make rules that I can enforce.
Speaker 1:It does, and one of the things I'll push you on and, as you, the longer you spend time in this field, you are hitting the beginning of the sweet spot. I say with all due respect at this stage, you're starting to see things for the second time, which is good, right? You're starting to see some of the things for the second time, right, which is good. I remember we had a teacher years ago. Her name is Miss Ferry. Miss Ferry was 5'1", white, probably 114 pounds. When Miss Ferry said that you do not come in my room with a hat on.
Speaker 1:she meant you do not come in my room with a hat on, and I've seen brothers as big as the ceiling. And what I want to connect to. What I really agree with you on is there are people and I've never talked in, never worked in, have had little experience in suburban white school, so I am not your guy in terms of this.
Speaker 2:So I don't, I don't, and that's cool.
Speaker 1:And they don't need me. They don't need anything that I can offer. Totally fine, they're doing fine. Good luck, godspeed. But for those people who do decide to work in our community, they do have to understand that there's a comfortable mix that you have to have between being clear and compassionate. Right and I think where people fall down is in clarity. It becomes the scared straight in your face. They take it too far.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then in the compassion it becomes. Well, she didn't do her homework because she had to drop her sister's office school. Not really sure what one has to do with the other. Right the homework is still, still do.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And I'm collecting, and I'm grading Right. And if you didn't you're saying Right, I agree. What do you think children's reactions are to teachers who go hard, like push really hard and hold them after school and make them come to school before school or even Saturday? What do you think that they don't like those teachers?
Speaker 2:You know? No, they love it. Let me tell you, as mean as I am, as strict as I am, I get the same amount of. I get more hugs and hate. Miss Hallways oh my God, that's your teacher. I hear it in the hallway all the time, and no, but kids have to know that you care about them more than just what you're teaching them in order for them to buy in to what you're selling.
Speaker 1:Talk about that. No, no, no, no, no. It doesn't make sense, but I need you. I'm asking deconstruct that, because somebody said base mama said she said that a lot of teachers want kids to like them. They really want to be their friends.
Speaker 2:It's just weird, Like no, it's weird.
Speaker 1:Right, that is really weird. It is weird for me. I don't get that. It helped me to make that make sense. It's trying to catch a case.
Speaker 2:You are just way too close.
Speaker 1:No, seriously, listen, I've been at this for a while, yeah, I know what you mean though? So you start to say what children, when children see that about you, like, what is it that you think that they really connect to when you're, when you are the one you're calling yourself, mean I know that they don't think you're mad.
Speaker 2:I know that they understand.
Speaker 1:But they know that when you say it across the room without saying it, they understand that as it can yell Exactly. How do you get the buy-in? It's doing the other stuff. What are the other things you're doing?
Speaker 2:So I talked to my kids about how I grew up, what school was like for me being a first generation college graduate, and just so recently we talked about a hero's journey. We went through the eight steps. That a hero goes through in their journey.
Speaker 2:And we everyone read Beowulf and it wasn't required. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm looking around and I'm like that's not going to connect well. So then I use horror games. I'm thinking, okay, oh my, come on, everybody's seeing horror games. Katniss, everdeen, you know, middle class, low class, this is going to work. And I prepare, and then two kids raise their hands oh yeah, I saw horror games. So I'm like holy crap, but I have to go with it because that's all I have prepared for today.
Speaker 2:So then I said you know what? Stop, I want you to give me a movie or book. A movie you saw, a book that you've read that goes through the hero's journey. And then you write down the steps from the movie, tell me what each step is in the movie. And then, when we were done, I went through my own journey. I said you can be don't look at hero as someone famous. You can be a hero in your own home.
Speaker 2:I told them I'm a first generation college graduate. I had a call. That was my call and to do that for my family. That was my journey. I made hero to them. That's why my niece is a nephew's now. I have a niece graduate who's a teacher to a nephew on a basketball scholarship A niece at Virginia State, you know. So I try to relate everything back to the real world. This is my story. These are the circumstances I came out. I understand what you're saying. I know I've been. It's been times where I didn't have you know. To be honest, I thought I was middle class until I got the conversation.
Speaker 2:Let's just be cool.
Speaker 1:They helped you out with that, so you know I teach.
Speaker 2:the same values my mom instilled in me are the values I instill in my students, and I think that is where the buy-in comes in. I care about who you are and who you become. I care, I do care. I do a thing called. If my teacher only knew and they can tell me one thing they need me to know that affects how they learn, and I found out that I had students who are parents. I have kids who are moved around foster homes. I have kids who are adopted by someone, lived with them for years and then they passed away and they had to be shipped somewhere else. You know just little things like that. I played three sports because I don't want to go home. There's some kids who have nothing to tell me, but my mom don't play.
Speaker 1:I need to pass her class, you know.
Speaker 2:Everybody doesn't have Sometimes.
Speaker 1:It's that simple, Right exactly.
Speaker 2:Some kids have nothing going on, and so that in turn allows me to say, okay, be mindful that she may have a little attitude. In the morning she is raising a kid. Okay, she's up with a kid all night, getting a kid to daycare and then coming to school trying to pass and graduate. That has to be a lie. I can't imagine. It's hard for me now as a grown adult, and so my kids know that everything I do in the classroom, everything I teach them, every rule we have, is because I want them to be productive members of society. I tell them my job is not to send you to college. If I only prepare you for college, I have done a disservice. My job is to prepare you for life, because reality is we all have to face life. We all are not going to go to college. That's not everybody's reality, but one thing we all have in common is that we are going to become adults and have to face life, and that is what I tell my kids the first day of school.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I'm seeing in the comments are the comments. People, really many of whom are saying that they are educators have a lot that's on their heart. I was thinking about this last night. If someone were to do a reality TV show, what would they see?
Speaker 2:Oh man, you know it's funny. I don't know because when kids, you know when the district level comes in to do a district level classroom evaluations, I know for the most part kids. Almost some people say they were out of control. I've never experienced that. For the most part my kids clam up so almost like they don't want to embarrass me or get me in trouble. No, that's you know no, no, no no.
Speaker 1:I'm actually. I offer a friendly amendment. That's not what they're doing. What they're doing is they're holding you down, right, because?
Speaker 2:they understand. This is important.
Speaker 1:That's not what they're doing. They know better and they but. But having been the person who visited those classrooms, they open it, they will blink. Morris code in a minute Right. Oh, now we got homework. Right, we got homework today. We never had homework before. Oh, we can't. Simply, we want to sit. Oh, we got to get a pass from the bathroom now. Okay, okay, y'all should come every day, right.
Speaker 2:And so I think we would almost have to put hidden cameras. I don't even think kids realize how they act because they, it's so normal for them. So when they're walking down the hall some mornings and I hear boys using foul language and you know girls and the things they say to each other, and I'll say hey, hey, what's your mom? Oh, my bad, I didn't even know, I don't even think sometimes they know. And so I think it would be a good idea to put cameras, hidden cameras, and then show students like this is what we see. This is why we are on you. We want better for you. Today one of my students said does my belly button really bother you all that much? I said let me tell you this. It's not about that. It's a time and place for everything and your belly button is for the weekend. It's not for you.
Speaker 1:We're going to stay on this. You and I are going to get some trouble together. We're going to get some trouble together, at least I will, because don't get it? No, I really don't get it. And people can talk about respectability politics and one of the most controversial things I've ever said and I don't think I've said controversial- yeah, you do.
Speaker 1:One of the most controversial things that I've ever said was that your teacher is like your boss and when you go to class you should try to impress them. You get your professors what I was saying and all the comments they came. I wear sweatpants and I got a 4.0. Oh, I come in with a body on and I got a 4.0. Everybody got 4.0. Everybody got 4.0. Everybody got 4.0. Awesome. Talk about how we can have a conversation about what is appropriate to wear as a child.
Speaker 2:You know, the problem is we do have. We do have. I can only speak from my school. I've been in other places but we do have town hall meetings and everybody's so scared to even admit I feel like we all walk on eggshells about what we actually can say to kids. And so now, because we walk on eggshells, we almost say you know, we don't say what needs to be said, what kids need to hear, what they can relate to. We just say this is the dress code and you're going to follow it. But kids want to know why. Now they accept parents, why, and parents answer so I think kids want to know why.
Speaker 2:So when I explain dress code to my students, I explained to them that there is a time and place for everything. The way you dress on the weekends is not the way you come to school. I even tell them the things that I wear to work I don't wear on the weekends, when I'm hanging out and I'm relaxed because it's a different environment. But I don't think we explain we don't go. We, yes, we don't go. I remember my teachers being able to give it to us raw and when I was young. Now, because parents will call the school board and teachers are reprimanded for the little things you know. You can't even. I remember if we relate to class. You weren't, you were not born in that classroom. There was going to be a consequence for you showing up late. There is no consequence for that anymore, because admin does not want to have to explain to a parent while a child was not allowed in class.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to interrupt you because that really is the big thing of a school Teachers, studio staff, lunch staff. If you have security, security admin, that meaning like ops, operation staff they're bricks. Think of them as bricks. The mortar on top of one another are not very strong. They're easy to push over. It's taller. They get the easier out of push over the mortar bricks together. Administration is not in there. Then you can't do things you can. You really can, Right. So if you have, if you have an administrator doesn't want to press to get along with everyone, it's mayhem in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, and you know, I think the biggest thing I've learned from making content is that teachers are free.
Speaker 2:They literally feel like they cannot, that their hands are tied, that their only job and they barely can do that because they tell us what to teach and how to teach. I really do believe that teachers want to do, they want to fight every battle, but they're almost like I'm just not going to do it because who's going to back me? I will be gone before this child is gone. I will be out of a job, you know, and it's hard transitioning from a teacher to other occupations. It's really hard. And so I just believe, from hearing from teachers and the messages and in my comments, the messages they send me about the things they are dealing with, I am almost floored that they are putting up with some of this stuff. But I do believe that there needs to be a conversation that teachers want better, but nobody listens, Nobody seems to care, nobody invites us to the table when they are making these changes, and teachers are definitely afraid of the consequences that will come down on them just for simply trying to teach a kid to be better.
Speaker 1:I just saw someone say this in the comments and it's interesting. They must have read my mind. So what's up with this? Just quitting at the beginning of the school year or any time thing? Talk to me about that.
Speaker 2:I think the first issue is we have a lot of teacher tone over now, and so you get we have a lot of career switchers. We have not. I did not go my bachelor's degrees in communication. I always wanted to be a journalist. I have been writing since the time I was a kid. That did not work out, thank God. My old French teacher had become a principal and she hired me to be a long term sub and I just so happened to just be good at it, honestly, naturally, and so I stuck with it.
Speaker 2:I just think teachers first year teachers for sure no one is being honest with first year teachers, career switchers. You know people who've never taught. You know just they're not honest with exactly what teachers are going to be putting up with. Not only do you have to have classroom management and deal with behavior, you have to deal with parents, you have to do lesson plans, you have to go to IP means, you have to do 504, you have to make phone calls when a child is doesn't show up for school and they're skipping. Even though you have an attendance office and attendance department, the teacher still has to make that call. I just don't think schools, when they hire people, are honest about the workload for one and then exactly what kind of behaviors they're going to see. And so you know, I don't believe that all these people are bad teachers. I just believe they're overwhelmed, they're shocked as to what they've gotten their self into and from what I did a video asking what exactly do y'all learn in your teacher preparation program? Because some of you went to school for this.
Speaker 1:You were taught skills and come out sure, and you come out sure.
Speaker 2:And then I realized that they're not. They said they don't do it. All they really learn is how to write good class lesson links, and that is not. That is one of the last things you need as a teacher.
Speaker 1:Right now most schools I can't speak on a lot of schools we give you all the lessons like straight up.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:We're going to call it. When I started in the profession, you had to write a lesson plan from scratch. Right, you ain't got to do that. Yeah, yeah, and, and, and longer a different conversation. One of my colleagues showed me some AI stuff. That is just next level. Oh my God, not just writing a lesson plan, writing the assessments, writing the do now, writing the closure, giving you questions that the kids asking you what do you want? A multiple choice, a long answer like wow, wow wow.
Speaker 1:So, in terms of the nuts and bolts of teaching what you need from a content perspective, the internet has been a literal boom, like there's nothing but opportunities and if you want to put the work in and you want to do a little research, whatever you're teaching tomorrow, there's somebody who taught it before and you can find some. You can find a video of them doing it and they can actually take you through it and you can just watch their lesson plan if you choose to so chose. But where I see people breaking down is that they just break down. Honestly, to me it's about integrity. Like how do you quit on kids? Nobody's gonna make that make sense to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah that you know I, I do feel like pretty. I do feel like this year is going to be where the line is drawn for me, where it's going to come to make content or be a teacher and, to be honest, I'm going to choose the content. I am doing this for my kids. Kids are passed along. They can't read, they can't write. They're going to the world. They've been passed along. I stand with teachers. I get it.
Speaker 2:It's not an easy job. Everybody thinks they can do it A magic on the school for something, getting a degree, getting a license, and then anybody think they can walk off the street and do it. That has to be frustrating to a certain extent. Quitting on kids at the beginning of the year, quitting on them period. I don't know if when the person does it, I feel like they're so out of it. I don't even think they realize that's what they're doing. If that makes sense and I'm not standing up some teachers just look the lowest thing Well, let me say this I do also believe teachers need to check their cell.
Speaker 2:If you don't have classroom management, If you are not confident in what you're doing when you go in that room, you do not belong in the classroom when teachers and box me and they say I'm struggling, I don't really have advice to give them because it comes natural. They're kids and I think, if you be mindful of that I don't know so I do. I was going to make a video about that soon. When I talk, when I make videos and I dress teachers, they hate it.
Speaker 1:As long as I'm addressing, always oh no, no, no, you get up and you talk about. That's why they say, that's why they stay mad at me, because if I talk about parents showing it behind, fighting in the street, or bleach on each other, like tell them that's right.
Speaker 1:I talk about kids who are acting badly, but the first time I say hey is that they're kids and you are quitting on the kids. You can lie to your friends and you can lie to other people. Everybody's job is hard. Everybody's got a hard job because you got a hard job, but the other people are hard jobs on the way to work.
Speaker 1:And everybody don't get to just quit. And you are breaking the kids hearts. You are, you absolutely are, especially if they had a chance to get to know you. And, quite frankly, if you're not breaking the heart, you probably should. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:You should. You know I want to say this when I saw in the comments someone said teachers are leaving for their sanity. But I don't. I do think that is certain instances you was. Funny to me is if I ever left, it would not be because of the kids, it would be. It would be the politics, the amount of work I have to do.
Speaker 1:I love the kids, so let me offer this as you think about what your next move is, not because you want it, but because I think it's an important part of our conversation In the United States of America. It is been the commitment of this nation to ensure that black children in particular do not gain access to education, and it's not by accident that only 5% of the children who are black who took the ACT in 2022 passed all four had were college ready on all four sections. That's not by accident. That is not by accident and so hard hell knows. I wish sometimes I could wake up in the morning and just be like, oh, like I watch people, you know people who have jobs that are easy. They have jobs that are easy and I'm sure, right, 100% sure it's a hard job. I'm not saying that anyone has to do anything forever, but and everybody has to find out where they fit in, if they do fit in at all, if they do fit in at all but the hardest part is always gonna be the grown people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Don't be for aggravated Like. Really wait, administrator, I'm way to you become administrator. I, my grandmother, say, I'll swiffle God.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like give me an 11th grader, please give me that. Me seventh grade girl walks in mad at the world like honey 7 am. Who are you mad at? Right? Like how do you get mad at 7 am? So I hear you and I totally get it. I know we're coming to the top of this has been a bit I'm a god I, but I'm sure you've got work to do and I got I.
Speaker 2:Actually.
Speaker 1:Give it a. Give it a shot myself. Talk about Next steps for you. Where, where does this Holloway? Or talking to Tia what, what do you have next?
Speaker 2:You know, I, I, for the last four years I have wanted to do educational for, but I have not figured out how to get there. And you know teachers, when I ask that question, teachers are always like, well, you know, school board or politics, but I don't know if they do enough to reform education. So I don't know if that's the seat, if that's the table I want to sit at. Percent, I really I don't know if it's something I should start on my own. I just don't know how to get started. But I would like to have some kind of organization with other teachers where we rally for teachers, we go in and we can actually, you know, go to schools and, from a teacher perspective, see what needs to change and do walk-throughs and Just reform education, make it better for teachers, make it better for kids, you know, change the curriculum so that it's that it is more modern, up to date as far as the, the content.
Speaker 2:I believe in living in your purpose and for years my mouth always got me in trouble, you know, and my mom would say I would cry like I went to college, got a degree and I'm a server. I remember having these conversations with my mom or I'm a substitute or I can't get a job. I want to work for wavy TV 10, but I need 10 years of experience. I remember literally crying, thanking I shouldn't have went to college and my mom said you gotta wait your time. And I would always think like, well, I did everything, this is good. This goes back to my preparing kids for college.
Speaker 2:I did everything they told me I should do as a student to be a successful adult and it still did not work out. That's why I don't push my kids to go to college. I push my kids to be survivors and productive members of society and to be able to handle life when it hits you the hardest. So I do feel like this. Right here is my moment. I it took off. It's gone viral. I've been able to have opportunities. You know, like when I was sending off the flyer, like I'm having an interview with dr C Perry, people, my friends and my sorority Sisters, they were like girl, you made it, you're about to be famous.
Speaker 1:I wish.
Speaker 2:Feel like I'm living in my moment and, for once, when my mom is saying it's true, you went your time and you stay 10 toes down your main humble, and and it's gonna come, and and then two full thing, I almost feel like I am a journalist for teachers and students and education and I also get to use the one thing I write, which is talking and writing and expressing myself, and so I Do find this is my, my moment, my calling, and I do hope that doesn't just Stay on social media, that I can take it a step further if that makes sense. As far as being a teacher, I Don't know if there's a place for people who talk about what's happening and still be allowed to teach. I'm starting to see that there's a fine line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can, you know, hit the time and I knew we were gonna run out, so so Let me say this you and I don't continue to talk. I think that when you find the place where people have the capacity, this people who have the capacity to run their own race, don't worry about who's running in the next lane next to them right. So when there are, there are real challenges, when you put information out on social media and you are still working in the schools I'm familiar with that.
Speaker 1:Yes everybody thinks you're talking about them. My, my HR team like stop Everyone. Everyone thinks you're talking about them completely. And you like hunt, I wasn't even.
Speaker 1:And and not only was I not I usually don't, but glad to see that I've had got I'm rent free in your skull, so I Excited about what's to come for you. If it's alright, I'm gonna reach out to you afterwards not tonight gets a rest but I'd love to talk to you more, because I Don't know that I even agree that it's about reform. I believe it's about redoing. This system is amazingly designed. Anyone who thinks that this is my accident isn't paying attention. It is Intentional on top of intentional on top of intentional. You can't hold down on generation after generation after generation after generation After generation by mistake. Right? We have schools in multiple states and you can see that the entry-level test scores are virtually the same among poor black children, regardless of what state they're in. How's it even possible? I mean, it's not even biologically possible you could have two children in the same house, born of the same parents, and they're not that close in their performance.
Speaker 2:How is this?
Speaker 1:How is a system so effective that it keeps producing that way? So I am so proud of the work you're doing, sis, I really am. You keep shining, keep smiling. We will be in touch very soon, very, very soon, and let me let you get some rest. Is there anything? I want to make sure that any shout out anything that you need to do before we appeal.
Speaker 2:Just you know, I was looking at some of the comments with teachers and just like, just hold on Check, I promise you changes coming.
Speaker 1:It can't how about that?
Speaker 2:It can't say the same, because then we won't have an education system. Changes come in. I believe that they can't stop.
Speaker 1:We're gonna do this again. All right, you take yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I promise you, I actually promise you One thing I don't do is live. So I promise you we will have a conversation very, very soon. You take good care of yourself.
Speaker 2:And I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:My pleasure.