ChangED
ChangED is an educator based podcast for Pennsylvania teachers to learn more about the PA STEELS Standards and science in general. It is hosted by Andrew Kuhn and Patrice Semicek.
ChangED
Reflections from NSTA Philly: Building Connections That Last
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The NSTA Philadelphia conference has wrapped up, but the connections and inspiration continue to ripple through the science education community. In this reflective conversation with outgoing NSTA President Dr. Alicia Conerly, we unpack what makes these professional gatherings truly transformative beyond the sessions and presentations.
Whether you attended the Philadelphia conference or are considering your first NSTA event in November, this conversation reminds us that the heart of science education lies in authentic human connection – something worth traveling across oceans, or even to the Mall of America, to experience firsthand!
Want to learn more about ChangED? Check out our website at: learn.mciu.org/changed
Welcome back everyone to the NSDA podcast. We have successfully completed the Philadelphia conference, so I am one of your hosts. Andrew Kuhn, host of the Change Ed podcast and education consultant from the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit here in Pennsylvania, and here with me is Patrice Semechik, a co-host of Change Ed, because I'm not allowed to be the host apparently. No, you're host, you're host, oh, today.
Speaker 2:And I'm also out of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:We have one of our favorite humans.
Speaker 1:Who helped us kick it all off?
Speaker 2:Master networker. Yes, and now we're queen of all things science.
Speaker 1:We are wrapping a bow up on this experience, not to end the relationship or experiences, but here we are saying, celebrating, I should say, our time together in Philadelphia. Miss Alicia, welcome back to the show, thank you so much, so glad.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much, so glad to be back with you all and in person and it was virtual.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, we were in boxes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so now your time as the president of NSDA. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you, how does that work? Is it over? Now officially that the conference is over. Do you have some more time?
Speaker 2:Oh no, Did it just start, it's over May 31st.
Speaker 3:Oh, we go from June 1st to May 31st. It is actually a three-year cycle to where we're president-elect once we're voted in, then president, and so next year I'll be retiring president. Oh, okay, starting June 1st to May 31st and then after that I will become a past president of NSDA.
Speaker 2:Okay, wow, they're never letting you go.
Speaker 3:Well, apparently I was told that several times today and I'm like whatever you need me to do, just give me some time to breathe after this, I just need like a week.
Speaker 1:Kind of sounds like church work. You volunteer once you're there for life.
Speaker 3:My husband was a pastor for nine years.
Speaker 1:I don't know how you.
Speaker 3:I was speaking in your love language. There you go.
Speaker 1:Knowing that you've gone through so many conferences, I would love to hear from you what were some of the highlights for you from this conference, what really stuck out to you or something that you enjoyed. And in fairness to all of our listeners, who I don't know how they could have not seen you here, but just in case you are always bringing the energy and it's an authentic energy of like let's do this right. We get one life.
Speaker 2:Let's go the nourisher yeah.
Speaker 3:I imagine there could be a lot of things, but I'm curious to something in particular, or some things in particular stood out to you, one of the things that stuck out to me. There were numerous things, but one of the things was this lady who is in her 80s, actually from the UK, and she came up to me in the hub that's where the staff and the board try to stay for a little while while we can. That's where the staff and the board try to stay for a little while while we can. And she was like I just so enjoyed you. She said this may be one of my last conferences because I'm getting old and the traveling over you know the water and all of that. She said, but I just had to, I just had to see you. She said the same thing about my energy. She said you just, you just pop your energy and that's different and I've enjoyed seeing you be different. And I said, well, I can only be myself.
Speaker 3:Even when those don't like me, I can only be myself. So that really stuck out to me, because sometimes in leadership roles you are not well received and when people say it's lonely at the top, it can be. But I'm thankful for my support system, my husband, my three boys, god. They just keep me grounded and say hey, at the end of the day we still love you, even if they don't love or like you. So seeing that 80 plus year old lady walk up to me, I'm like how do you know I am? And she said I just wanted to see you. And so we took a selfie, Nice. And she said I just wanted to see you. And so we took a selfie, nice. And she said send it to me. So whenever I get settled I am emailing her our selfie. So she said so I can keep in my memory. So yeah, so that stuck out to me.
Speaker 3:And then I had a little girl about five or six. Her mother was a Shell awardee and they were at the dinner and I told my husband, I heard her, she told her little girl, she said that's the president of the NSTA and the little baby. She said it is. And so we took a picture yesterday, I know, and it was really amazing because the mom is she's a minority, she's actually, I think, she's of Asian descent. The mom is she's a minority, she's actually, I think, she's of Asian descent, and so I knew what that meant to them, and so it was just like, oh, so awesome, so awesome, so yeah. So those things they stick with me and say, hey, this is why you are doing this yeah, yeah, even one of those makes it worth it.
Speaker 2:But to have multiple, yeah, it's crazy and it goes along with the message that for me, one of the cool things was, first of all, the key. The keynotes were awesome.
Speaker 2:But, Daryl's message about leaning into that 1% that makes you different. Yeah, speaks to your message of I'm just going to be me, right, and I'm going to be happy with who I am, and I'm going to get there and it's going to be amazing. And so it's crazy to see how full circle those kinds of things come and how impactful you can be just by being you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't get here overnight either, true? No, I was gonna say what you got, andrew Cause.
Speaker 2:You know we can go, he doesn't have to be here, I'll raise my hand.
Speaker 1:Well, the way that resonates for me is that I'm still amazed at just the strength of how NGSS was designed and to be local, and really it's those small connections and those small partnerships that mean so much. Yes, because, as yourself, you were in front of 6,000 people and talking and doing all these incredible things and you're like, let me tell you about a couple of people that I really connected with. That was the part that was magic for me. I think it's true for us as educators as well. You know, we'll have seas of kids that we can see over our career, but there are a couple that stand out and you're like that. That person changed me. I don't know if I did anything for them, but they changed me, right, right. And so I think that just the strength of this organization is those relationships, but also NSTA is modeling what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:It's going to look different, because it's a conference and it's not a classroom, but the way it is being modeled, and even listening to people who are working locally but everywhere, who are making themselves vulnerable, and like here's what's working for me. This might work for you, it might not, but here's how it sparked for me and I think that those nuggets that so many people got to walk away with and we had the privilege of being able to present, and we had people come up and talk to us afterwards and like they were stretching us, which is exactly what this is all about it's not a one way street and to be able to like get into that great dialogue and discourse and we're trying to sense making. We're like we're doing it all right, here we're making you can see all three dimensions happening in this space. Right, it was definitely very, very powerful.
Speaker 2:I'm glad, extremely rewarding. We heard from a lot of people that it went beyond the information. So you can go to all these sessions and there were so many sessions yes, that's amazing. There were so many to pick from but you can go to those sessions. But what all the people we talked to were saying, it was about the person I met, this really cool person at the table next to me, and they're going through the exact same thing and now we're like buddies because we're going through this and we're going to be each other's accountability buddies later on and how we're going to try this mindset or this thing. So I don't know if we can stress enough that, yeah, it's about the information, but it's really about coming to a place where you can find your people. Yes, and find people that are going to last more than just the four days you're here or five days that you're here, correct?
Speaker 3:And that experience actually happened to me at an NSEA conference, long before I even became a member of the board, and we have been buddies ever since and we call each other the lunch buddy every since, and we call each other the lunch buddy. And families have never met, met, but we know everything about you, know our families, and so, oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 3:And so she said oh wait, you're here, yep, yep, and so we're lunch buddies and and that's the thing, and I often even tell my teachers I said I had to get out of Mississippi in order to find my people.
Speaker 3:Not anything against all the networking and relationships I've built within Mississippi. But going back to what you said, andrew, people in Mississippi didn't stretch me like it was when I came to the national conference. Teaching in Title I in a rural school in Mississippi isn't necessarily the same in Pennsylvania, correct? So there are things that I may have, that you may not, or you may have that I may not, but because we've had a conversation and I now have a person in Title I, rural in Pennsylvania, then it's like you understand. So how are we going to work on this together, because it can be so draining and when you don't have the support system, because I can talk to everyone in my school district and we all have the same problem right, right and probably the same solutions, because you've been exposed to the same solutions but when I, when I go out amongst individuals like this is like, hey, yeah, elementary, yes, it's always hard to to embark upon science and elementary, and here are the reasons why, and things of that nature.
Speaker 3:So it is so important that, even when those who are supposed to invest in you don't invest in yourself, I've had to pay for conferences myself, I've had to find grants for myself because, at the end of the day, just because there may be an indirect or direct barrier, there's always a way of escape. So therefore, yeah, if it's for me to be be there, I would definitely will so, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:the other thing that stuck out to me is is how eager people are to actually help. Right, like you just start the conversation and they're like I'm really intrigued by that right, right, that scientific mindset of like let's, let's go down this rabbit hole. I'd love to talk to you about it. Or you said I have a resource that can help you. So I love that by stepping out of your comfort zone, you actually can find your people, you can find that space where you're more in a comfort zone, and then you look forward to it. Right, and fortunately, nsda happens more than once a year, so we can go off to Minnesota.
Speaker 3:right there you go. That's where we're headed to next Minneapolis, Minnesota. So yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have you seen the Mall of America? I have not. Have you, nope? Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:It is unbelievable Bigger than King of Prussia. It's actually the largest mall in America. King of Prussia is number two. It's really two malls in one People pretend like it's one. Right, but it is. King Press is the largest mall east of the Mississippi. Okay, that's how they get away with saying they're the largest Right In this town at this spot. Yeah, so that's a reason. The Mall of America is incredible and they have like a theme park Inside of it, so there's like a roller coaster inside.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, this is what we're doing.
Speaker 1:They have like a Lego statue that is literally three stories tall. It's incredible. The one thing that I want all of our listeners to know is that even if you weren't able to come, there is room for you. There is and this is something that resonated really a lot with us through the podcasting we talked to Julie Luft, who I think is the retired, retiring- Retiring. Retiring. Retiring the ing is important. She was saying you belong right that you belong here as a listener. You attended, you enjoyed yourself. It was a great experience.
Speaker 3:Please share this podcast with someone who didn't come.
Speaker 1:So they can hear a glimpse of what it was like. We wanted to make sure to take time to really capture that energy, because it's even a week from now. We'll all be rested, we feel great, but it's like let's go. I want people to know and to be at the largest mall of America.
Speaker 3:And then also, I know we are in troubling times right now, especially as science practitioners and educators do not get weary in doing this work. It was already hectic, and even more now. You feel the pressure, like I had to speak on a panel here and one of the educators in the room she says in 94 days I won't have a job. And so the network of people. We began to ask her what are your skills, what are you going to eat All of this and all of that? And she wasn't the only story. Yeah, yeah, that was like that this week. And so that goes back to the networking. That goes back to getting these different cars, sharing your information and following up.
Speaker 3:I tell people follow up, be tenacious, right, following up. I tell people follow up, be tenacious, right With that. If they already see, right now it's going to be a challenge to get to the largest mall in America, to Minneapolis for the conference. Go ahead and start planning. Yeah, fill out for awards, because a lot of these awards will afford you the opportunity to come and just begin to prepare instead of waiting until November to prepare. And so that's what I want and need for the listeners to understand, because I tell people. We always have to fight from a place of victory, even though this is feeling like we're being defeated on every hand. No, if we fight from a place of victory, then we can start to minimize the defeatist attitude or the defeatist look. So that's always my thing.
Speaker 2:I'm going to steal that. Well, I'm going to quote you. There you go, give me your copyright.
Speaker 1:We're all farmers, so start planting seeds. Yes, right, plant them early, don't wait, don't wait.
Speaker 2:See, we're all farmers, we are, we are. We got to plant seeds. That was a good connection there, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Yeah, well, I can't stop that. That's great. Look at these, all these pearls of wisdom.
Speaker 2:Yes, it just makes what you say better.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, yes, I agree. So again, thank you. Thank you, thank you having us here. This is a tremendous conference. We look forward to the next and the next and the next, and you know, long live the NSDA.
Speaker 3:Long live NSDA. And I'm so very proud of you all. I'm proud of starting the initial conversation hey, this is what we're doing, this is it. And I'm like, okay, let's see. And then NSDA staff being receptive of that, because unless you have all pieces in place, things that need to get done won't get done. And so we were just all in the right place at the right time for the right opportunities and I'm just I'm just so very proud of you all and it's bringing something fresh and new. I just want to say those are my people. Well, you're definitely one of our people, so you're not getting rid of us anytime soon, thank you alright, listener, this is it from Philadelphia, but not it for our journey together.
Speaker 1:We look forward to connecting with you and check in, tune in on NSDA, keep up to date, keeping the conversations going.
Speaker 2:That's the biggest piece. We don't want to stop in between.
Speaker 1:Don't stop to stop in between. Don't stop. More to come, more to come.