Math Teacher Lounge
Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer)dive deep, with guests, into the math and educational topics you care about. Interact with us on Twitter (@mtlshow) or join our Facebook group (facebook.com/groups/mathteacherlounge) for more content.
Math Teacher Lounge
S4 - 03. LIVE from NCTM with Bethany and Dan
In this episode, co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer are LIVE with more than one hundred Math Teacher Lounge listeners at the recent National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference. Listen in as they answer the pressing question: Who is the best teacher in film or television?
Ladies and gentlemen from Math Teacher Lounge, we have Bethany Lockhart Johnson, and Dan Meyer
Speaker 2:Doesn't go well that the door was locked. Like I could not get in<laugh>. Yeah. Gotcha. All right. We're gonna sit a little bit, Let's get Yeah. Stand
Speaker 3:Up and we think sits
Speaker 2:Good. Yeah. Can, should we stand, stand, stand. Hi. Hello.
Speaker 3:Break a few folks. Yeah, I can hear
Speaker 2:You. Can you hear me? That's, I know you can me, Can you hear me okay? Okay. We're here. Hello. Thank you for like, lining up and coming out and being here. Thank you
Speaker 3:Means so much to me that you would be here for me on my show with Bethany Lahar Johnson, my co-host.
Speaker 2:The hour has just started.
Speaker 3:We're just getting going. Yeah. Uh, if you folks have heard the podcast, you don't know how much gets cut out. And it's like, mostly me just having, you know, anxious nerves and saying something silly and then we cut it out and we can't do that here today. So it should be real fun for all of us, I think. Yeah.
Speaker 4:It's not true. It's mostly dancing. Uh, Bethany, can you stop talking Bethany? Cause it's mostly
Speaker 3:It's my turn. It's my turn. Bethany<laugh>. I haven't been heard for a while.
Speaker 4:Dan. We're at an in person conference, in
Speaker 3:Person. Big conference. I would say. I'd say a big conference. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And have you been to the Amplify booth?
Speaker 3:I have, uh, have these people. There's Alaw machine with a socks. Treat socks.
Speaker 4:Yeah. You're saving me socks, right? Yeah. What you're saying,<laugh>. I mean, it's exciting. How has your conference been so far?
Speaker 3:So far it's been, it's been a blast. I feel fed. I feel like the community's been awesome. Um, yeah. How are you feeling about it?
Speaker 4:Okay, Let's talk about me for just a second. Yeah. Talk about you. Okay. Last night, Dan was the very first night that I was away from my toddler.
Speaker 3:Big commitment being here. Thank you.
Speaker 4:I got super emotional walking back to the hotel after dinner, and then I got in my room,<laugh>, I put on pajamas and I turned on music. I slept so good.
Speaker 3:Yeah.<laugh>. Give it up for no kids.<laugh>. Hey,
Speaker 4:I love you so much. But I slept all the way through the night. Oh, by the way, I ordered room service in the morning, just
Speaker 3:On, on Amplify that.
Speaker 4:Bill's coming. I mean, But it's been a great conference and I'm so delighted to be here in person and to get to like, share energy and hopefully that's all we're sharing today. Y'all got your, your tests, right? Yep. Um, sharing energy and community today, because, you know, it's like, we know it's been hard hardness hard. Yeah. Years hard. Yep. And to be in person, I know conferences reinvigorate me and I go back into my educational spaces, like feeling revitalized with new connections and new ideas to try. So yeah, I've been excited to be here. And thank you all for being here. Yep.
Speaker 3:I, I don't care if I get six different strains of Covid here. I'm just thrilled to be here.<laugh>. Um, I don't know if you've had the same feeling though, Bethany, you folks. I, I still, I'm a little bit confused to some degree about like, what we're doing. I just wanna be really transparent. This is, I my sarcastic voice by being sincere here. Um, just like, it kind of feels like we're in, in a little bit of a time capsule. Like we all gotten a time capsule in 2019 and, you know, you open it back up and it's like, okay, so we're still, you know, talking about x, y, or Z protocol for establishing, you know, classroom routines or whatever. And I'm like, okay. Like, I love that in 2019. But I do admit, I'm still trying to figure out a little bit like, what are we doing now? What's our relationship to the world out there? Things are very different. Um, I have had some great sessions that I've enjoyed. I'm also like, still waiting for a session to draw a little blood. Do you know what I mean? Like a session? Like there's been sessions? No. Okay. You've been in these sessions where it's like, oh, ow. Like, and you look down and there's like, and there's blood there. It's like some, like, I thought I knew what we're up to. Like, I thought I knew what teaching was and how we relate to the world. I dunno. Uh, some, like in any Danny Danny Martin session in 2019, Take a Knee was one where I was like, Oh, okay. Like, I'm not as ha I think I am here, Like I'm part of a system. That kind of thing for me draws blood. And I haven't been in one of those yet. Been some great sessions. I'm a little hopeful that today we like, draw a little blood and think about like, what we're doing. Here is my hope here. If that's a, Okay, so Bethany's gonna moderate that impulse and she'll be the, the fun one, and I'll be the, the, the blood drawing one.
Speaker 4:No, I, I don't that metaphor that it doesn't speak to me personally. Sure. But what I will say is, I get what you're saying about really wanting to be in that room where there's like this synergy happening. No promises about that today other than
Speaker 3:I promise
Speaker 4:Go on. Other than I get what you're saying. I'll find my own metaphor that does not involve bloodshed. But
Speaker 3:Sure. There's a lot of ways we we could go about this today. And the one that I'm excited about is, you know, we could like, you know, read some, analyze some results from students and talk about what, when into that look at classroom video. Lots of possibilities. But here's what we're up to today. Hope you're into it. Which is, um, we are here in the heart of, of, uh, in the entertainment industry. You know, uh, Tinsel town, um, the Big Apple, Uh, no. Uh, come on. What do you got here? Um,
Speaker 4:It was daytime at night. Like the lights were so
Speaker 3:Bright day. The City of Lights. Yeah. There was
Speaker 4:A, a movie premier outside my hotel room, which would, I was not invited to, unfortunately. Yeah. But so what are we doing
Speaker 3:Today? So here's what we're doing is that, um, we are gonna settle once and for all a question you have not asked yourself yet, perhaps, but will want to know the answer to in a moment, which is who is the best teacher in all of film or television. Okay. Um, we're gonna do that. It'll be fun. But I hope that in debating this a little bit with a, a special guess we'll bring up in a moment that we will under, we, we'll start to un uncover some truths about what makes good teaching, How that's different from teaching as we see it in movies and tv. Why middle class America wants teachers to look a certain way on movies and tv. What all that means. Um, and it'll be awesome, I think. I'm hopeful it'll be awesome. So what we did here is we've invited eight people. Eight folks. You, you people may have, may have known you've been in their sessions today in this conference, perhaps asked them, Who's your f Like, we might have our favorites, but we wanted to democratize it a bit. So ask some cool people who you folks like, who are very smart and thoughtful about teaching. Who's your favorite teacher?
Speaker 4:A few of whom are in this room. Thank you for your submission.
Speaker 3:Thank so much. Yeah. We'll see what happens here.<laugh>, uh,
Speaker 4:As they shrink
Speaker 3:It, Yeah. Might draw some blood that I don't mean to right now. We'll see. Okay.
Speaker 4:Metaphor, What
Speaker 3:Is Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I'm still going with it.<laugh>. Um, so, and you, you folks will be a huge part of this, uh, the, the part of this really. Um, so what will happen is, I'll, I'll share with you our, our first nominees. A few of us will make a case for our favorites, or least favorites as the case may be sometimes. And then by applause, by acclimation, you folks will decide who wins in advances to the next round. Start with eight, move to four. You folks know math, You know where this goes. Okay. No,
Speaker 4:Keep going.
Speaker 3:Keep going. Two, then one. Yeah. Got it. Then a half of it. No,
Speaker 4:He had to school me on the making of brackets. Got
Speaker 3:It. Yeah. How bracket work? So we
Speaker 4:Got it. March Madness. What?
Speaker 3:Yeah, in order to, to do this, right, we had to bring up, uh, these are all, all the folks that will, you'll see are also former math teacher, lounge guests, or like, just fan favorites. Um, and we're also bringing up a former math teacher, lounge guest to help us, uh, decide this and debate this in a respectful manner. New
Speaker 4:Dad,
Speaker 3:New dad. You
Speaker 4:See where my brain's still the top? I
Speaker 3:Miss him. Friend from San Diego. Uh, really cool teacher,
Speaker 4:Incredible teacher
Speaker 3:Works at, uh, Desmos and Amplify. And I just want you to welcome up your friend in mine. Chris. No, Chris.
Speaker 4:No,
Speaker 3:Up Chris, Go buddy. Yeah, Yeah. We didn't talk about it, but did you want to do like the kind of the cornball stuff too?
Speaker 5:Wow. Would I
Speaker 3:Love go out
Speaker 4:And then the, the door could be locked and then you have to wait and like, just,
Speaker 5:Yeah, I'll skip that part, but
Speaker 4:Hi. Welcome. You're here. We're here in person.
Speaker 5:Very glad to be here. Thank you all for having me. Tell me who you are. My name is Chris. No, I live in San Diego. I'm a new dad. Uh, three month old. Just had, Yeah, she's actually here at the conference with us in the hotel room. And I promise you she is not by herself. She is with, Come on. I was like, Hey, just gimme one hour. I'll be right back. I have to do very important work. Um, but yeah, I think I got invited here because, uh, I have opinions and I'm willing to draw some blood.
Speaker 3:There we go. Two outta three. We're good on the metaphor now.
Speaker 4:We're so glad you're here. We, I mean, we, if you haven't listened to the episode where Chris and Molly and some other public math folks share their ideas and ideas of how to take math out into the world, please listen, because we had a blast.
Speaker 3:Blast. Inspiring work. Really inspiring work. Very cool. Cool. Okay. Right ons. Okay.
Speaker 4:Let's do this. Let's
Speaker 3:Get let start here. Yeah. So, yeah. And we might ask you who your favorite teacher is, who's, who's missing from our list of eight? We might have forgotten some people. Anyway. All right. So here's our first two. Uh, our first two are nominated, Uh, by way of, let's see, um, Mandy Janssen is a professor, University of Delaware. He's got some awesome talks here this week, A Shadow Con Talk last night. Um, she'll be nominating one. And also, um, Lonnie Horn is a professor at Vanderbilt, also extremely cool. Um, uh, prolific author and speaker, just all around. Great human friend of teachers everywhere. And she'll nominate another in this bracket, which is, um, the comedy, the Northeastern comedy bracket, Northeastern comedy bracket, uh, comedy work out that way. Yeah. Here it is. Uh, here is, uh, Tina Fay In Mean Girls.
Speaker 6:Okay. Uh, everybody close your eyes. Alright. I want you to raise your hand if you have ever had a girl say something bad about you behind your back. Open your eyes. Now close your eyes again. And this time I want you to raise your hand if you have ever said anything about a friend behind her back. Open up. It's been some Girl on Girl Crime. Here
Speaker 7:I am nominating Sharon Norbury from Mean Girls as the best movie math teacher. She is an awesome teacher who is always there for her kids. She, she always sees the best in them. Um, she shows that she can forgive even some pretty bad behavior, um, be if ki she sees that kids are trying, She's a strong feminist who makes sure that smart girls don't dumb themselves down. Just to impress boys.
Speaker 6:Katie, I know that having a boyfriend may seem like the most important thing in the world right now, but you don't have to dumb yourself down to get guys to like you.
Speaker 7:She's also super hard working. She works three jobs. She's always there for the kids. She plays piano in the talent show and takes them to Math League competitions. And she's also socially aware. And, um, when things go really badly among the girls, she does some pretty creative things to try to get them to be kinder to each other.
Speaker 3:Okay. Helen
Speaker 6:Kay? Yep.
Speaker 3:All right. Give for settle down. Settle down. Settle down. Piano too. Beths already trying to buy Ace here. All right. Chill out on. Hold on. So next one is, uh, Mandy Janssen with, uh, Jack Black from School of Rock, Uhoh Uhoh. Guys,
Speaker 8:What was your name? Katie. Katie. What was that thing you were playing today? The big thing,
Speaker 9:Chillo.
Speaker 8:Okay. This is a bass guitar and it's the exact same thing, but instead of playing like this, you tip it on the side. Hello. You've got a Bates<laugh>. Try it on.
Speaker 9:And I'm nominating for best teacher in a film Jack Black as Dewey Finn playing Mr. Ned Schley in the film School of Rock. So why this portrayal? First of all, playing a long term sub. Those are so hard to find right now. Really hard. And then he teaches using class projects. That's brilliant. Integrated learning. And then love this. He gives students roles and tasks that are differentiated and align to the specific strengths that each student has.
Speaker 8:I, I can also play clarinet, you know, I'll find something for you when we get back from lunch. I'll assign the rest of you, Kill their positions.
Speaker 9:And the film culminates in a performance of a collaborative song that they all wrote and performed together. And the student's experience that collaboration and teamwork and creating something beautiful is much more important than winning first place. And finally, one of the songs that the character sings in the film is Math is a Wonderful Thing. Can't Beat that.
Speaker 3:All right. Alright. That's tough. That's tough. All. So here's the deal. What we have right now is just a quick minute with, uh, So Bethany, you ranked, we all ranked our own faves here outta the list of eight. And Bethany put, um, Jack Black in School of Rock a bit higher than Tina Faye and, uh, Mean Girls.
Speaker 4:And Chris, there's the piano part
Speaker 3:Though. And Chris, vice versa here. So, uh, Bethany, would you start us off and just make a quick case here for, uh, for Jack Black versus Tina Faye?
Speaker 4:I mean, Okay, so here's what I'm thinking. There's been rumor that maybe they're putting less than credentialed people into classrooms to fill teaching gaps. I mean, just, just rumor. And so here's this guy who is a rocker. He is not a substitute. He has no teaching training. And yet he goes in there and it turns out that he has the ability to see students potential and to recognize their unique abilities. And like Mandy said, he really tapped into, like, he saw them and said, No, you more is possible for you than what you think is possible. And there's like real subie when you walk in, you can even be like, happy there's a sub, but I was usually really nervous. Right? And he goes in and he makes that classroom into a home.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 5:Wow. Wow.
Speaker 3:Chris, speak on it. Tina Fae needs you. Chris,
Speaker 5:Tina Faye. Here we go. I'm gonna, I'm gonna argue here that when was that movie made? Tia is
Speaker 3:For terrific. I is for
Speaker 5:Interesting ago. And, uh, I'm gonna argue that Tina Faye was very progressive for her time. Okay, let's talk about social emotional learning. Hello. Love that. Right? Stand up if, I mean, she's getting people to talk about their emotions and there's a curriculum, but let's just pause because that's not what's really happening in the classroom right now. So social emotional learning, I think she's, she's got that lot. And then number two, I, you know, if you remember the Plot of Mean Girls a little bit, she gets her name written in that burn book. Like she sees what they say about her restorative justice. Let's go whom
Speaker 3:Amongst us. Yes.
Speaker 5:You write, you write Mr. No In the Burn book. Well, your, your great book is gonna look like a burn book. Okay.<laugh>. Tina Faye, Tina Faye. She was like, No, you know, know what? I'm actually gonna spend more time with you. You're gonna become a math athlete. Wow. And Lindsay Lohan discovered, uh, she, she drops the most iconic line in all of math education. The limit does not exist. Thank you, Tina Fay for that, for that gift. Bless.
Speaker 3:Bless you. Tina. Fay. Wow. Oh,
Speaker 4:Man. Wow.
Speaker 3:Let's see what those, let's see what the people say here. I do wanna just add one quick thing about, I, it's interesting to me how often in these movies just kind of go a little bit, zoom up just a minute. How often it's a teacher who has no training as a teacher. I am like, I am kind of curious why it is. Like, those are the movies that get hot to get made. Why? It is that, again, these are all kind of a mirror of the taste of the movie going public. You know what I'm saying? Like, these, these are not movie. I wanna believe they are made for me and for us as teachers, but they are not, there's not enough of us to justify, you know, Jack Black's, you know, m and m budget or whatever he's got going on in his trailer or whatever that needs to be for everybody in middle class America. So what is it about middle class America that wants to see teaching as something that anybody could do? Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Cause like, you know, just, just run up there in your van and make
Speaker 4:It magic. Magic magically manifests.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Manifest. Yeah. That's just interesting to me. I just toss that out there. Some red meat. Uh, let's, uh, let's see what the people say here. All right, So, uh, okay, so you're ready. Let's, uh, let's get the bracket going here. The question is, uh, Tina Fay versus Jack Black. You had a moment here. Just let if whisper to someone real fast who you, who you're going for here real quick. Uh, what are you thinking here?<laugh>. All right. Crowd buzzing. Crowd buzzing. Would you folks crowd? All right. Alright. Bring it back. Go ahead and make some noise for Tina Fey. Okay. Okay. Make some noise for Jack Black judges. Say, Tina. Faye. Tina Faye moves on. All right. All right. Stunned. I'm stunned. Okay. I'm speechless. Okay,
Speaker 4:Tina. Faye moves on.
Speaker 3:This is exceeded my expectations in terms of having some bum, but also getting deep, getting deep and real about teaching. I'm, I'm into this right here. Yeah. What's up? That's
Speaker 4:The goal. That's the goal. Okay. You wanted blood? Oh, this next match up might just be where that blood comes for. Okay. Stretch. Warm up. Dan Meyer. Okay. Who's up next?
Speaker 3:We've got the, uh, the animated slash animatronic, uh, round here in the southeast and repping the two contestants here. Uh, who do we have? We have, uh, Alison hints, uh, professor author outta Washington as one of the two, uh, nominators. And the other nominator is, uh, is, uh, one of my heroes of, uh, the, we'll find out very wrong about this nomination. Uh, Jenna Li who's in the crowd, and I'm trying not to make eye contact here. Uh,<laugh> and here are the two, Uh, there are two nominations, A couple minutes each, and then we'll chat about it. And one of us will probably die, but, uh, we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 10:A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away mtl, we began learning from the Jedi Master of Teaching with the Socratic and experiential approach with unparalleled mindfulness, compassion, and humility. The best teacher in TV and film Yoda is Yoda lives the values we share as teachers and learners. He humbly comes alongside us as we construct new knowledge.
Speaker 11:You must unlearn what you have learned.
Speaker 10:Yoda allows us to struggle and sees mistakes as critical to learning.
Speaker 11:The greatest teacher failure is
Speaker 10:Yoda values curiosity, and reminds us of the beauty and joy of teachers learning from children.
Speaker 11:Truly wonderful. The mind of a child is
Speaker 10:Mtl. Join the resistance declaring the best teacher in TV film. Yo.
Speaker 3:Give me that for Alison, hence. All right, Alison. And get ready to have
Speaker 10:That on hand too, just, which
Speaker 3:Is kind of perfect. Just to be clear, the helmet is not a part of a do background. You evaluate the quality of the nomination based on the costumes of the nominator. That is real humble. That's acceptable. All right, The next, uh, nominator here. This one is, uh, is from Jenna la Math coach all around stellar human. Here we go. This is Miss Frizzle
Speaker 12:Single fire class. Our rotten field trip has only just begun,
Speaker 13:And I think that the best teacher from TV or movies is Miss Valerie Frizzle from the Magic School Bus. First and foremost, Miss Frizzle believes in her students. She encourages them to take an active role in their learning, and also to advocate for change in their local community. For example, there's an episode where there is a lag who's been a cut down a rotting log that would benefit the local ecosystem. And the students figure out a way to convince him to leave the log so that all of the animals and the plant life can benefit. Um, she orchestrates really challenging situations for these students, and she allows them the space to ask questions and engage in problem solving and puzzle their way out of these really, really difficult scenarios. Ms. Frizzle has unmatched pedagogy. She's bold, she's innovative, and she's a major proponent of experiential learning. So these students are heading straight into a storm to learn about weather systems. These students are heading into the human body to learn about digestion and disease. They literally get baked into a cake to learn about some chemistry and reactions.
Speaker 14:What's happening? Why
Speaker 15:Is it suddenly getting so
Speaker 14:Hot? Maybe it's because the floor is on fire.
Speaker 13:This pedagogy is all led by her outstanding catch phrase, which is, take
Speaker 16:Chances, make mistakes
Speaker 13:From her pedagogy to the classroom community that she creates. Miss Frizzle is an inspiration, and that is why I think that she is the best teacher from TV or film.
Speaker 3:Right on. Give it up for Jenna.
Speaker 5:Give
Speaker 3:It up for Jenna. All right. I'm gonna take first Pats at this. Chris knows my argument already, so I'm gonna take this here. I see some of you are feeling how I'm feeling on this one. Okay, so I don't have tons to say in favor of Yoda. I think it was all true what Allison said. I think the costume was banging. It was awesome. So there's all that, but I just, I have more to say against Ms. Frizzled than for Yoda. No, no, no. Wait
Speaker 5:A second. Let it, let's let it happen. Bethany, I've come prepared.
Speaker 3:I may have made a misstep here, I realize. So here's, I think, I think Jenna is all correct. I think those clips spoke for themselves. I think that, um, what they add up to, to me is not great teacher, but more someone who should be locked up or the very<laugh> at the, at the very minimum, someone who should be kept away from children<laugh>. Do not let that woman around children. I mean, check it out. Look, I don't wanna throw it on credentials. I've been to grad school though. I know how this works. All right. When your brain is stressed, you get all these, all, all the cortisol happens. You're working, memory shrinks up. You cannot learn when you're stressed. And those kids, like whatever lesson Ms. Frizz Foster is teaching by sending them into an oven, I repeat an oven<laugh>, like, they're not gonna learn anything cuz their brains are freaking out with, uh, with stress and fear. Okay, So what's happening? That's, Yeah. What's happening? Am I on fire? Well, I'm not, I'm learning lots though. Sure is magical. It's like, no, get that woman out of a classroom. That's my, that's my my my my opening and closing argument, right? There's all it is, right?
Speaker 5:All right. All right. All right. Chris. Chris, no. May I've got, I've got lots to say. First off, I think Dan was in charge of the editing of those video clips. So let's let that be, You know what? The records send<laugh>. Uh, where's a lie though? Where's a lie? And, you know, second, I, I think, um, I, this, this is the guy up here saying, I, I wanna see blood, you know, And then he has a teacher who literally takes the students into a blood cell and, and you get a little scared. You, you get a little worried for the students, you know? Uh, so I just don't, I don't get it, Dan, this or that. Okay? I, I think Miss Frizzle. So I actually went to a project based learning school. I taught at a project based learning school. And, and the best thing about it is like you learning. It doesn't just stay in this box of math lesson or writing lesson, history lesson. And I think, uh, with Ms. Frizzle, like you, you can't help but learn things because you are getting baked in a cake. Yeah, it is a little scary. And I imagine there's cortisol and, and things happening, but guess what? Probably the next episode, they go into their own brains and explore what's happening. That kind of thing. You know,
Speaker 3:The kids that survived, just be clear.<laugh>. Yeah. Okay. What,
Speaker 5:What I want Nora, uh, my three month old to be, uh, babysat by Ms. Rel. Maybe not, but, but what I have to say about Yoda is Yoda maybe wins the best tutor award. Give it up for Yoda. Best Tutor Award. Oh, yeah, That ratio's looking really nice. I could teach the heck outta Luke Skywalker. Okay. But 20 little Luke Skywalkers running around. I'm not sure. Okay,
Speaker 3:Luke, Luke did survive the training, though, so that's awfully nice to say about it. All right, Great words from Chris here. I'm, I'm still not convinced. We'll see how you're convinced here. Would you wish for someone what you're, where you're leaning here? Uh, Frizzle or Yoda?
Speaker 17:I try. I tried.
Speaker 3:All right. That's enough of that. Let's hear it folks. Give it up for Yoda. Give it
Speaker 5:Up next. Next. All right.
Speaker 3:All, all all. Alright. Uh, giving out for Ms. Fri. I dunno, It's pretty close. Call a tie. Maybe Yoda, Yoda by nose. All right. All right. Let's, And frizz, Let me see who's it. Let's get the, uh, the people advancing here. Um, I, I'll keep on moving here as
Speaker 5:You're doing that. Um, Dan ranked mis friel last in his personal ranking. And I, and I ranked Mr. Frizzle very high, so we knew this one would be spicy,
Speaker 4:<laugh> spicy. It was, Are you having a good time so far? So while we love, while we love seeing these images and we love seeing these video clips at the core, what are these things about how teachers are portrayed and how accurate is that to our real lives? I mean, besides the cake part, right? That my chemistry class did often feel like I was on fire. I was so stressed in it. Um, we're ready? Yep.
Speaker 3:Great. We're ready. Uh, we're up here. So the next, uh, next two noes are coming to you folks from, uh, Tracy Zer, uh, uh, who is the, um, the editor of my book, forthcoming in 2027 at the earliest and 2032 at the latest. Um, and also, uh, you're very on, Uh, Zach Champagne from Florida here in the room. Hey, Zach. Uh, Zach, let's see who the, the nominations are. I'm gonna skip past that, then we're out. So well for me, uh, here it is. This is a Marshall Kane from the TV show community. Yeah.
Speaker 18:You two complete your case to the class and let them decide your grades.
Speaker 19:Professor, thank you.
Speaker 18:It's not a favor, Mr. Wingham
Speaker 20:Man's gotta have a coat. Awesome.
Speaker 21:This is a pitch for an underdog. This teacher didn't stand on desks or encourages students to follow their musical passions. In fact, this teacher was seen only in a few episodes of my favorite TV show of all time. Community, Community has set at Greendale Community College in Colorado. And in season three, we get to meet Dr. Marshall Kane, a biology professor, whose story is an inspiration to anyone who just takes the time to look and listen. Dr. Marshall Kane slowly earned his PhD while in prison, serving a sentence of 25 to life. In his classroom. He inspires students to love biology. Question why Lego has become so complicated and randomly pairs his students for group projects to ensure no one feels left out. His greatest performance comes when a group of students believe their yam project was intentionally sabotaged. Dr. Kane took this as an opportunity for some transdisciplinary real world learning. So yes, at community college, he felt that at a middle school mock trial was the best way to determine who killed the ya. So let's all pick the underdog and vote for Dr. Marshall Kane. After all man's gotta have a code.
Speaker 20:Oh,
Speaker 3:Thank you Zach. I have a code. Uh, next up is Tracy Zegar nominating, uh, an unusual nomination, not a single person, but an ensemble performance. Uh, a bunch of people from a movie, um, called Searching for Bobby Fisher. Here we go.
Speaker 20:What's that Swinging in attack? What'd you learn that taught me? Forget it. Play like you used to from the gut. What? Your paws rolling on the queen side.
Speaker 22:Hey, Math Teacher Lounge. This is Tracy Zegar. I'm excited to share my nominee for the best, uh, movie teacher. Um, but I have to admit that when I first got the email, I thought, Uhoh, who am I gonna nominate? Because most movies about teachers are highly problematic. They usually have like a saviorism thing, usually white saviors. Um, and I just felt like I couldn't suggest any of those. So rather than nominate a movie about a single teacher, I wanted to nominate a movie that taught me something about teaching. And that movie is a deep cut. It's searching for Bobby Fisher. It's a movie about a chess prodigy. Um, and what I love about it is that all of the different adults in the movie are in teacher roles in some way. And the student, Josh, the chess player, um, is a fully realized character, not an empty pale who pulls from the strengths of each one of those adults while also dealing with their flaws and humanity. And there's just beautiful synergy in the way he gets the best out of everybody, um, but also has to overcome some of the barriers that they put in front of him. So I feel like it's a much more authentic and humbling, but also inspiring movie about the power of teaching. Um, so if you haven't ever seen it, check it out. And I can't wait to see who the other nominees are. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3:Right on. Thank you, Tracy. Wherever you are. We'll move a little quicker here. Um, I'm curious, Beth, you, uh, you put Marshall Kane pretty high. I put, uh, Bobby Fisher pretty high. What do you have to say about Marshall Kane for us here?
Speaker 4:Well, I just wanna say two things. One is that, like Zach said, he has this code of cont conduct that he brings in. And he stays true to it. No matter what happens. If you saw him in in community, you know that he held himself up to such high esteem, but not just himself, his students as well. And he took accountability when he felt he had done wrong, even though, well, that's controversy. But first, oh, the other thing, rest in peace. Michael K. Williams, Oh my gosh, the actor who plays Marshall K. And the, the thing that I wanna say most of all about it is that he brings his whole self to the classroom. He was in prison for decades. He brings his whole self and says, This is who I was. This is who I am today. And this is how we can work together as a community.
Speaker 3:That's big. I love, uh, your comments about code of conduct too. It makes me wish that, uh, Miss Frizzle had a code of conduct. Also, I
Speaker 4:Knew that was coming back two
Speaker 3:Slides ago, that was two slides ago. Can't let it go. Um, so yeah, I love what you said there. I have no, I have no strong beef here either way. Uh, Bobby Fisher's a movie I have loved dearly and can't be objective about it. I love that the kid in that movie, more than any other movie here on the kid, teaches the adults so much, uh, through his innocence and how he challenges them and how they're treating him. Dig all that so much. Um, we'll, not, we'll not begrudge anyone any vote either way here. I do begrudge many of you your vote in previous rounds. So let's just, let's hear. We're not gonna ask you folks at all to Chi Chat. We're gonna move on this one. So would you folks, uh, make some noise here for Marshall Kane and community? Okay. Okay. And would you, uh, make some noise here for Bobby Fisher, the Kid and Bobby Fisher Ensemble? Marshall Kane. Marshall Kane takes it. All right. Good job. Marshall Kane. All right. Zach's, Zach's, Zach's feeling good. Moving on the, the final four here, Zach? Right on. Okay. Our last, uh, the, the, um, the Northwest Division here is also the, the large urban district division here. We have a couple different teachers in sets of large urban schools. Um, they're nominated, uh, they're advanced by a couple people here. One is, uh, past president of nctm, Robert Barry. And another is, uh, fun win, uh, Southern California Phenom. Great teacher and friend of lots of us. Um, let's see who they nominated here. Uh, first, uh, from, from Robert Berry. Uh, the, um, let's see, who is he here? Janine Teg from Abbott Elementary.
Speaker 23:Hey, you know what, I'm probably probably gonna be Kenny's second grade teacher. Why don't you just let him get a head start with me today.
Speaker 24:That'd be
Speaker 23:Great. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Hey, Kenny, would you like to be in my group today? Uh, not really. That's the spirit.
Speaker 24:My coordination is gonna be Quinta Brunson, the, uh, Emmy Award winning Quinta Brunson from Avi Elementary. Janine Tes the character. She exemplifies care not only from an affect way, but she also exemplifies care in the things that she does for her students. While the, the, the scenes in the show are entertaining, they do represent the challenges that teachers experience when they're trying to meet the needs of her students. So she goes to the, to goes all out for her students and finding resources. She accesses other people to get resources for her students, but the care shows up in the way that she is mindful of their needs. And so, for me, when I think about teachers and teaching, sometimes we can talk about pedagogy, but sometimes we also can talk about those kind of intangibles that makes a teacher a great teacher. It is apparent from her students that she cares about them, she supports them, and she goes all out 100% for her students. Jeanine Tes Quinta Brunson is, I think is my choice of the best teacher on television because of the realism and the representation that she brings to this character of what teaching is about.
Speaker 3:Right on. Right on. Okay. Okay. Next up, we've got, um, uh, fun. Win is nominating Aaron Grill from Freedom Writers. Here we go.
Speaker 25:Look,
Speaker 26:You can either sit in your seats reading those workbooks, or you can play a game. Either way, you're in here till the bell ring. Okay? This is called the Line Game. I'm gonna ask you a question. If that question applies to you, you step onto the line and then step back away for the next question. Easy, right? I
Speaker 25:Have another,
Speaker 26:The first question. How many of you have the new Snoop Dog album? Okay, back away. Next question. How many of you have seen Boys in the Hood?
Speaker 27:We all learn about Miss G and her 150 students in the movie Freedom Writers starring Hillary Swank, all great teachers share a common set of traits. They care deeply about their students, have high expectations of them, and always believing wholeheartedly that they will succeed. Great teachers go above and beyond, not because they extraordinary. As Anne grew, well, would always refer to herself as an ordinary teacher. But because extraordinary things happen to people when we believe in them, give them hope, help them write their own story with a different ending. So what stood out for me with Miss G is the scope of her reach, the ever expanding sphere of her humanity. The red tape she had placed on the classroom floor for the line game shows just how much we all have in common. Despite our differences, her students didn't just learn from her, they learned from one another. If you like to be part of this expanding sphere to give voice and hope, please check out Freedom Writers foundation org.
Speaker 3:Okay. This right here is a tough one for us. Thank you, Fawn. Uh, we put collectively ranked, that's our, that's our number one seed and number eight seed, which I, I, i, hazing to say does not have to do with, um, with Aaron Gu, a person, but the portrayal and the movie. So we don't have like a whole lot of, uh, there's not a lot of defense we have to offer here of our, of our eight seed. Um, and I heard like a kind of a, a, you know, a little bit of a murmur over the crowd, uh, on Aaron Goel. So I'm more interested than having a defense back and forth. I'd be curious what you Bethany think about what, like, what both movies have to say about like, what teaching is, especially teaching urban schools with black and brown kids and lower class kids, for instance. They both have, I think, like very different things to say about them. Do you have thoughts about that?
Speaker 4:Well, it's interesting because there is some overlap in the sense that the arguments that both FA and Robert Barry put out, they both care deeply about their students, right? That, that we're not gonna argue that they care deeply. And something that I would say about, um, Miss Teg is there's something about the way that she sees not only her classroom, her students, but she sees all of the students in the school as her students. And her idea of resource generation is really helping the teachers to generate resources from their community themselves, and to also realize that the students see themselves reflected in the teachers. And I think that, you know, again, this is not about the real person, but the movie portrayal, and we often see kind of this for Freedom writers, we often see this like, Great last Hope whisked in and her personal sacrifices are what makes these students these brown and black students transformation possible. Yeah. Because of her sacrifices, including her marriage, including, yeah. You know, three jobs. And it's just portrayed in a way that I think really celebrates her sacrifices rather than what the students have already brought to, they already come into the room bringing so much as they are already without her, her intervention.
Speaker 3:I love the portrayal of the, the teacher as part of a community of teachers versus in so many of these movies, it's the teacher as the only person who gets it, you know, oftentimes coming from outside of the world of teaching and everyone's against them and wants'em just a fall in line and, and do the thing we always do, and they're the outlier. But in Abbott Elementary, it's like we all rise and we fall together. And teachers are investing in each other's success, especially with Gregory the long term sub. We're all rooting for his, you know, his flourishing. Um, I love that. And yeah. Um, that's big time.
Speaker 5:Uh, yeah, I, I think one interesting thing is that Freedom Writers, when it came out, I re I think it was like a commercial success, I
Speaker 4:Think a lot of big time Yeah.
Speaker 5:Was probably influenced a lot of people to like, try teaching out. So I, I do wonder what it says about us, right? Yeah. Like that we want teaching to fit this narrative, and we wanna be those people who could go into a classroom and y'all listen to Snoop Dog, you know, and just have that question hit, you know,<laugh>. Um, but, and you know, I, I've taught in a large urban school district, and I've, I've been that person and I've, uh, seen other people like try and be that person. And I, and I think like, you know, step stepping away from it a little bit, just, it's a reflection of what people want out of teaching and what they think, uh, better education looks like. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Thiss idea. Like, so I'm, I'm a middle class person, let's say. And like, there's this idea, like, I know what I would do if I was going into a circumstances of impoverishment, Like I have
Speaker 4:How they really need
Speaker 3:Me to give'em some, some of the real, real talk and like tell'em the, you know, pull their pants up or whatever, Listen to Snoop Dog, that kind of thing. And that will be the key. Um, and that's not how it is in like, you know, in Jack Black in School of Rock or Tina Fay school, which are, you know, the coded is largely like upper class or largely white schools. And in those movies, it's interesting, like how it's about students discovering themselves oftentimes, and the, the, the central figures are often students, you know, and the students need to like, uh, reject an oppressive parent figure or something and find themselves, but not in, in, you know, in freedom writers. It's like you need to become more like the middle class teachers who are coming in here to, to give you this wisdom. I just interesting, I I do find it, I I Pet Pee of Mind is when movies portray teachers as only successful, if you ha, if you endure, for instance, the failure of your marriage, or even in, uh, stand and deliver, for instance, like Escalante, they depict him having a heart attack. And I like the job oughta be easier.<laugh>
Speaker 4:Truth, that's the barometer for how much complex ought,
Speaker 3:Like no heart attacks and no divorces related to the job, that kind of thing. Um, I do love how in Abbot when one staying in will vote and ab will win is like how, like the, the, the, there, there is a lot of degradation in Abbot, but it's not a divorce or, or a heart attack. It's the petty indignities of asking a student, Do you wanna hang with me? And a student says, Nah, not really.<laugh>. And that just spoke to me like how it's not, not cinematic, but teaching is like, successful teaching is like a collection of developing an immunity to students saying, You're not hot<laugh>. You know? And so I love that. I do wish that there was more depiction of like, students in Abbott Elementary. It's a lot of adult stuff, whatever. Um, give it up for Abbott, if you would please. Let's just get this done here. All right. That's plenty. That's plenty. Not gonna ask folks about, uh, Freedom Writers. Okay, let's move on to, um, Alright, let's hear it for Freedom Writers. Yeah. Okay, cool. We go, Yep. Twist.
Speaker 4:Okay, let's see our final four. Cut and paste. Real time. Real time. Where's
Speaker 17:Dolo? Umbridge?
Speaker 3:Oh,
Speaker 4:Hey, did you hear that? He said, Where's Dolo? Umbr?
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 4:Okay. See, we missed so many. We
Speaker 3:Could. So coming up here, we've got Tina in the Eastern Conference, Tina Faye, and Miss Frizzle. Y'all know how I feel about that one. Let's just get this one done. Okay. Uh, let's give it up for Tina. Faye, let's hear it. Okay. All yes. All right. Let's give it up for Menace to Children everywhere. The terror, uh, the Miss Frizzle. One more, one more time. T Faye. Let's hear it one more time for Ms. Frizzle. Let's hear it
Speaker 4:All right. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 3:It took them, it took them one round, but they made the right call in the end,<laugh>, all it took was 10 minutes of constant mis frizzle, bashing,<laugh>, all persevere. Problem solving. That's my game. Yes. All right. So, uh, do Ivy of you want to influence the audience one way or the
Speaker 4:Other? That's not how I play Dan. Oh,
Speaker 3:Okay. Yeah, you're, Yeah, that's true. That's true. You're good. Um, on Abbott versus Marshall Kane, Should we have it all right? All give it up For Abbott Elementary bad and for Marshall Kane. Okay. Okay. I hear Zach and five other people. All right, cool.<laugh> Right on. All right. We got our, we got our finals,
Speaker 4:We did it. We made it to two
Speaker 3:Type
Speaker 4:Stuff. Yeah. We left out a lot of people. Right. And I, I, you know, honestly, I kind of wish we could pull like everyone, I, I mean, think you put it on Twitter, right? Like, who would you pick? But I would say we had a pretty solid eight there. I'm excited to see who, who Look at the little crown he put you guys. Come on.
Speaker 3:I worked hard for you, For you<laugh>. Yeah. I liked that. It was a, it was a good bunch that had a lot of different kinds of qualities and lack of qualities in some cases. Um, and it allowed us that like, kind of, I shouldn't, I should knock her while she's down. She is down. It's true.<laugh>. Um, and I, I appreciate the conversation we've had, what they have revealed overall about teaching and, and what the world wants teaching to be versus what it actually is or actually should be. I've that. Um, so let's, uh, let's, let's settle this here. Um, give it up if you would, for Abbott Elementary and give it up for Tina Fay and Mean girls.
Speaker 17:Wow.
Speaker 3:That was close. I almost give that to Tina Faye. Yeah. Yeah, we did. I don't know. That was a, that was a bracket buster for me right there. Yeah. I lost money in the office. Pull off that right there. Maybe let's just find out one more time here. One more time. Time. Last time time to summon up all your conviction on one of the other here. Nothing. Nothing. I no half measures right now. Alright. Give
Speaker 4:Me award winning Quinta. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You saw Robert Barry on that, right? He was like, hes like, Oh, I got one more card to play. Emmy Award-winning. That's admissible. That's admissible. We'll take that. All right. So, uh, give it up for Abid Elementary one last time.
Speaker 17:Okay.
Speaker 3:All right. All right. And give it up for Tina Fe and Mean Girls
Speaker 4:Drummer, please. Best
Speaker 3:Teacher is Tina Fey and Mean girls. Yeah. Not at that pick.
Speaker 4:I love it. And I think too, we, I think we're gonna have a little bit of a more reflective lens than we thought we did when we see depictions of teachers in film and television and, you know, we'll, hopefully we'll see some new tropes come in, right? Yep.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. Every dollar we spend on movies with like lousy teachers is just encourage these people to make more lousy teacher movies, you know? Yeah. Um, awesome. Thank you for being here for a live taping of our, our
Speaker 4:Podcast
Speaker 3:Math teacher Loungey
Speaker 4:Hot
Speaker 3:Room. Appreciate that. Yeah, it's been fun for us to have you here. Um, super important, super important final remark. Uh, uh, Bethany loves Oprah and Oprah occasionally in, in the show. She coming? Is she here? Not here. Not here. Calm down. Calm down. Um, but we do have it in Oprah fashion, not something.
Speaker 4:Oh. Oh, okay. Oh, that's, that's okay. This is yours. Sorry. I got, had really excited for a second as if the play amplify playing cards. The Amplify t-shirts being chucked at you at high speed. I did try to get a t-shirt cannon, and that was quickly ruled out.<laugh>. Um, they didn't know about my rocket arm, right? Um,
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got a Cannon<laugh>.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Oh, that's a compliment. Oh, is that a compliment? Thank you, Dan. Thank you. Look under your seat because we have five winners. We wanna thank you for being here in person. We wanna thank the folks who are listening. We wanna thank Amplify. Oh my God. Somebody just pulled off the chair tag. You get to take that chair home with you.
Speaker 3:Does anybody have a prize? Okay,
Speaker 4:Stand up. If you stand up, if you,
Speaker 3:Yes, I
Speaker 4:Is. Uh, stand up. Stand up. If you have one
Speaker 3:Set of classroom dry erase boards. Uh, right here. Congratulations.
Speaker 4:And for you who pulled off the chair tag, I don't know. We gotta we gotta find something for you. Put
Speaker 3:That in your backpack.
Speaker 4:Thank you again for being here. Thank you. Amplify. Thank you, Desmos. Yes. Thank you. Dan Meyer.
Speaker 3:Thank you folks. Chris, thank you buddy.
Speaker 4:Chris, Chris. Know everybody.
Speaker 3:We will be, we will be at, uh, Beth and will be at the booth. Uh, do you wanna chit chat and hang out, uh, sign some stuff. Whatever you now have Bethany sign you, she'll do that. Um, come on down to the Amplify booth and we'll have
Speaker 4:Someone, We'll talk to you more about Miss Frizzle
Speaker 3:Fun and price. I will share with my, my real thoughts about Miss Frizzle down there. I'd love to see you. Thanks for being our folks.
Speaker 4:Thanks for listening. Bye.
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