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
With Great Power: Celebrating Two Years of ChangED
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The Change Ed journey has taken us to every continent on the planet, evolving from three Pennsylvania educators discussing science education into a global conversation reaching listeners worldwide. Season Two has been transformative, with download numbers growing exponentially and educators launching their own podcasts or revolutionizing professional development in their districts by offering continuing education credits for episode listening and reflection. A true highlight was partnering with the National Science Teaching Association as their official conference podcast, interviewing keynote speakers and connecting with science educators nationwide.
As we look toward Season Three, we're excited to feature more practitioners sharing real implementation stories, explore interdisciplinary connections while maintaining our science focus, and continue growing our authentic approach with the ambitious goal of reaching 20,000 downloads and expanding to every country worldwide. We're immensely grateful to our listeners and supportive organizations who recognize the value in this work. As educators wielding tremendous influence in shaping young minds, we invite you to join us for Season Three as we continue our mission to change education for the better – because together, we're making a difference in classrooms around the world.
Want to send us a show idea or just say hi? Email us at: thechangedpodcast@gmail.com!
Season Two Wrap-up Introduction
Speaker 1Welcome back to Change. Ed Changed Changed your favorite podcast to listen to in the summer when you have nothing else going on, or as one of our guests when they're doing the worst humanly possible project Shoveling manure they're listening Just change it. Put on Change Ed. Wow, I'm your host. Andrew Kuhn, project consultant from Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.
Speaker 3Here with me is Patrice Semicek, project consultant out of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.
Speaker 2And Tony Marabito. We're going to go with podcaster today.
Speaker 1Ooh Wow, that sounds fun.
Speaker 2Tell me about that job you just listen to Andrew and continue to listen to.
Speaker 3Andrew Occasionally interject once in a while.
Speaker 2Make a comment Tell Patrice how smart she is compared to yourself, and then continue to Wait a minute.
Speaker 3Was that disingenuous?
Speaker 2Tony, never, never, never, never. Now I'm concerned. No, never.
Speaker 3Now I'm concerned Interestingly enough for this episode I was basing my whole identity off of how smart you thought.
Speaker 2I was. That is how I was more demoralizing myself.
Speaker 3No, don't demoralize. You're very smart, Tony I appreciate that you have a nice beard, too soon.
Speaker 1Interestingly enough, tony, you queued up this session, which this is our very last episode before we start season three Wait what?
Speaker 3Wow? I thought we were doing All right.
Speaker 2I did just do the wrap up. I said we listen to Andrew, and then we listen to Patrice, and then I throw in a comment and we're good there you go.
Speaker 1This is the fastest episode we've ever recorded Three minutes.
Speaker 3Season two and the shock is it was more Tony and me talking than Andrew. So the shock is it was more Tony and me talking than Andrew. So now that'll change. Yeah, we'll have a five minute tirade on 18 analogies.
Speaker 1I got to tell you.
Speaker 3He's just plowing through everything.
Speaker 2I don't care what you guys are saying at this point, by the third season he's just given up, these talking mouths are here, I'm going to run a show.
Speaker 3You're just going to keep talking.
Speaker 1Yeah, season two has been really interesting. Crazy, it's been crazy. First of all, it validated that we were actually podcasting and, as Tony said that we were podcasters, it wasn't just three friends getting together and talking. Yeah, we started to bring on guests and the caliber of our guests continued to expand.
Speaker 3Guests, and people who were actually listeners became guests, which I think is crazy.
Speaker 2We met some amazing people, for sure.
Speaker 1And have both years. I just what was amazing was that the reach of this podcast is now starting to take on its own life. So we're not just pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing ourselves. Now we're having people contact us and say, hey, we'd love to be on your podcast or, you know, we've been listening to you, we want to be part of this, and so that part is super validating. But also it's been amazing to watch the algorithms and see what's happening with the podcast. Who's listening and why are they listening? And is it just because we dropped a new podcast and episode that day that it spikes, or is it? We've had people that have actually been binge listening to our podcast and we can watch them?
Speaker 1God bless them, go through and hit all of those.
Speaker 3What are they doing that? They need that much of us.
Speaker 1So one of the things that I really really like is that there are achievements that you can earn on Buzzsprout.
Speaker 2And for those out there, what is Buzzsprout?
Speaker 1earn on Buzzsprout. And for those out there, what is Buzzsprout? Buzzsprout is our host site where we host and all of our podcasts sit. So if you're going to listen to our podcast on the web, you're going to go to Buzzsprout. One of the ones I loved is that the episode is published. So your first episode you put out, you get a sticker. You get a little trophy After five, another one 10, 25, a sticker. He had a little trophy After five, another one Ten, 25, 50, 75, and 100. Those achievements make sense, right? The next accomplishment 250 100 to 250.
Speaker 3That's going to take forever.
Speaker 1That's a couple of years. Right there We've hit all the achievements we can hit, Although with Andrew it feels like 300.
Speaker 2How come that?
Speaker 1one's not highlighted. Aren't we on to the next one then for our downloads?
Speaker 3I love when tony times him and his little singers.
Speaker 1They make me happy kind of a similar and he keeps going growth 10, 25, 50 I'll mix it 75, 100, then the next one was 100 to 250 again, and then 500, 750 000, 2.5 000, 5 000 and the next one is 7.5 000. It just keeps it, it grows 7.5 000 yeah, so 7 500 yeah, thank you mansplain yeah, that doesn't feel good so what I'm trying to say is that like I figured, I know what 7.5 thousand is.
Speaker 2Aren't you the gifted liaison for the whole state?
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean, here's the thing Math's not my jam, even though, like, I, did a lot of training on it. But, like bro, I don't know wow.
Speaker 1What I'm trying to say is that when we started, some of these numbers have felt daunting and like we'll never get to that spot. And now, with the way things are happening and growing the numbers you know we get numbers on it on a daily basis that we didn't get for a whole month when we first started and now it's happening.
Speaker 3We're getting five people a day.
Reflecting on Podcast Growth
Speaker 1Right, the three of us and whoever we share it with, but the growth is just, it's outrageous. And our locations. So if you go to locations tab and then you click on all episodes, you can see that we have been on every single continent in the world, mainly North America, but we have a strong the next strongest showing is actually from Europe, and then Asia, Africa, Oceania we have some downloads and even in South America we have a download. So what's so amazing to me is that we are big in the Netherlands.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's gotta be your family.
Speaker 1Yeah, what's amazing to me is that we are we're just three regular people who live in Pennsylvania and believe in the work that we're doing, and we want to be able to share it out, and somehow this, these conversations, are making it to all parts of the globe and they're it's something that's being shared with everyone. So, tony, I want to know from you what was your biggest takeaway or surprise shock thing that happened within us. Podcasting in season two.
Speaker 2So recency bias. But when we spoke to Whitehall High School that started the podcast. Those are guys I've known forever and because of our podcast they were like, oh, this is a good idea, let's just make this for our own district. And then that turned into from a regular conversation to we're going to give teachers act 48 hours for listening and reflecting on what we're saying. And now it's grown and they have their whole first school year worth of content which has helped them bridge their relationships with teachers in the classroom. So just maybe a little bit of inspiration from us. Maybe no inspiration at all, but the fact that they were able to come on and talk about it and kind of change some of the PD structure in their district, I thought that was awesome.
Speaker 3That is awesome.
Speaker 1What about you, Patrice?
Speaker 3A few things. I think it was very cool to meet someone who, a few people actually. We interviewed Sean, we interviewed Scott, we interviewed a few people who actually listen to the podcast to hear them talk about us, us like they know us, like we know them. But like do you know what I mean? Like it was very cool to be like, oh, you actually get the reference of this, this or this. Like it was just, it was kind of surreal to your point, like we've been doing this for two years and people are actually listening. Like you know, people are listening, but not really. So it's kind of kind of cool to meet people who actually got references or would say to us hey, I really like this episode with so and so, because you talked about this. Like it validates that what we're doing is actually doing something other than us just having fun I can't believe nsta's whole experience was really cool.
Speaker 2I can't believe they sent a limo for you with two pizzas.
Speaker 3That wasn't well, that's because he needed his head to fit in a car and the suite that you got was.
Speaker 2It was incredible, so shout out nsta yeah, well, that was.
Speaker 1That was actually my biggest surprise is that, and for our listeners, who a lot of them wouldn't know, because it's something that just kind of happened specifically for the national science teaching.
Global Reach and Achievements
Speaker 1Association Conference. We partnered with NSTA this year and we were the podcast for their conference. So we had this opportunity to record with them before, help them promote their conference. And then we actually recorded during the conference and met a lot of people. We were able to sit down with the both of the keynote speakers and get to know them more and learn more about them and learn about their story and really stretch ourselves. So what's so fascinating to me is that we are stretching our own profession. We are learning more about our craft and what we do, and we just have the opportunity to have a microphone in front of us and we record it and we share it out. So there's the secret formula is that we love what we do and we love legit, love learning, and that we are sharing that with other people. And I think others are drawn to that and they want to be part of it, and so we even had this opportunity to partner with this conference that is focused solely on what we are.
Speaker 1Our mission is for the podcast and what we're doing.
Speaker 1So that was really amazing for me, and I think one of the other things that stuck with me for sure was the marketing part of what we're doing and when I say that what we name each episode actually really does matter. And it matters because you know people will look at it and say, ah, I don't, I don't, I don't know if that's it or I don't know if that's for me or if it's interesting. And really I think the way that we have a conversation and the way that we record our podcasts, we try to make it relevant for anyone who's listening. We want to capture that audience, we want to make sure it's for you. But the name matters because you could be turned off to be like, yeah, that's not for me. You know, and think about you. Talking about the Whitehall one, I actually probably would have named that differently. Now, looking back, I think we said from one thing to another and I would almost say like revolutionizing professional learning through podcasts, and I think that would have been like just a different invitation into that. That conversation.
Surprising Season Two Highlights
Speaker 3It's interesting, yeah, to your point. Like the other thing too, when you're thinking about this is, coming up with a name is sometimes difficult, because we've talked about 19 things and how do you summarize what we're talking about in seven words? And then the same thing with, like the show notes, like it's just crazy to think that actually takes more time than I think I anticipated originally to figure that out.
Speaker 2Podcasting has become so popular in our backyard here in our catchment at IU21, that we've added podcast items to our lending library because they've been asked for so many times. So we added some thanks to Keith Royer and his relationship building with Focusrite, and we have some Vocasters in there now and, yeah, I'm excited for season three.
Speaker 3Like we're building a studio at our IU. Oh, that's awesome which, yeah, anyone can come and use. But, like that's to your point, like it's becoming such a thing that like and also we've had a few teachers say to us we've listened to your podcast, we want to do it with our kids. Can you come and talk to us about how to do it?
Speaker 1it's pretty fun, kind of crazy yeah, again, I feel like I knew we had become podcasters. When people start contacting us to say what kind of equipment are you using? How can I get started, what do I need to do, that that to me is like okay, we've actually made it to a spot where we're a known entity enough that someone would trust us to come ask us those questions. Looking ahead at season three which that in and of itself is crazy Time marches on, whether or not we're prepared, and then this is kind of like a marker for us of you know, time and each each year that goes by. What are things that you're anticipating or curious about for season three, or things that you've thought about that we should try that maybe we haven't tried before.
Speaker 2For me kind of like a two pronged question here. If we can continue down the Steeles path, I'd love to get teachers in here to talk about what it looks like in their classroom, what works for them, what doesn't work for them, so we can help other teachers continue to make this transition into Steeles.
Speaker 2That being said, I also want to continue to have teachers admin on the show and promote or talk about some of the awesome things that are going on at their schools. I don't think we get enough publicity public, positive publicity in our school systems. So having them come on and talk about all these amazing things and opportunities that they give kids, I think that would be a nice spotlight for some of the not so great stuff that's said in the media.
Looking Ahead to Season Three
Speaker 3I would agree, I think, to your point, tony, the idea of we've talked a lot about theory and a lot about the standards and a lot about, like, what could and should happen. But I think the idea of boots on the ground coming in and talking about I tried this strategy and it did this, or I did this or I did that, like I think that would be massive for us. I think, too, some of the things that I would like to see is we talk a lot about, specifically, science, and I don't mind staying in the realm of science, but good teaching is good teaching, and so I would actually really like to start seeing us have some conversations around like what does writing look like in the science classroom? What does ELA look like, and how can we tie social studies? And not that we want to like navigate, I don't want to navigate out of the science world, I want to bring other worlds in. If that makes sense, andrew, what about you?
Speaker 1I want to see us continue to explore who we are as podcasters, but also be true to our audience, and we've actually started to do that in season two I'd say halfway through season two, maybe even two, three, fourths of the way through season two, we started to keep in some of our funny banter that we would have kept out before, and we, you know, we keep our episodes shorter. We want to try to get into 15 minutes and they started to push almost into 30 minutes, but a lot of that banter is who we are and we were keeping that out. So I'd like to be able to keep some of that in and I think that at least I'll. I'll speak from my experience.
Speaker 1That's what makes doing this fun. Is that we can. We enjoy being together. We can harass each other in all fun and and what's what's the word I say Like I'm giving you a hard time, but it's all in good fun. Oh, good fun. That's from a long ago. We can rise to each other, but it's all in good fun, and I'd like to be able to keep that but push the envelope so that we continue to empower educators as they listen to this, or whoever. You don't have to just be an educator to listen to this because, as as you said, patrice, while we're focused on science, good teaching is good teaching, and I think that's why we chose the name Change Ed, because we wanted to help be part of changing education and empowering educators for whatever the future might hold. It's so exciting. This is the most exciting job on the planet. To be able to be an educator and be part of that is to quote Spider-Man with great power comes great responsibility.
Speaker 2We have. That might've been the best thing you've said on this whole podcast in two seasons.
Speaker 3What To quote? Spider-man, oh yeah.
Speaker 2Love Spider-Man.
Speaker 1Yeah, oh, god help me, but there's a tremendous amount of power that comes with the positions that we hold, because we influence minds, and so there's a great deal of responsibility and for us to continue growing and challenging and expanding and empowering each other. I think there's, no, no greater thing that we can do wow, pretty good that I think we close on that one. Mic drop you want me to push it over, so you get the sound.
Speaker 3Do what?
Speaker 1Push my mic over so you hear the mic drop.
Speaker 2Probably not. Probably not great for equipment.
Speaker 3No, that's how we're ending it. There's no greater responsibility. Boom. We're so thankful that you listened to Change Ed.
Speaker 2Thank you for being amazing Subscribe like and fan mail us Was that your closing thought.
Speaker 1We would be remiss if we didn't also say thank you to the people who have made this possible, and that's our listeners, because if they stop listening, if we don't have people listening, then we're just talking to talk.
Speaker 2And no one wants to hear. Andrew, just talk to talk. I was gonna say you probably would just have a podcast on your own he would just record himself, just to have it recorded.
Speaker 3I think, too, we also have to thank our supervisors and the ius that we work for like this is actually time consuming and I don't know if anyone realizes just how time consuming it is to record something and and edit it and put it out. So the fact that they believe enough in the three of us to give us time to be able to sit and do this, and in the power of what we're doing, so supportive that they actually hop on our podcast. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3If they didn't believe in it, they wouldn't want to be a part of it and promote it and push it and, like we're very lucky to work in an organization, both of us, that empowers us to be able to do something like this, cause it is out of the box in a little bit of a way.
Speaker 1Yeah, this is hard. It's hard in a lot of ways to measure the success of the podcast and the platform that we all traditionally work in, because butts in seats, then I can tell how many people you're reaching. But on this we're looking at downloads. And if we have downloads in South America, what does that look like for our county that we are serving? How is that beneficial? So, to your point, a big shout out to both Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit for their forward thinking and their outside of the box thinking and support. That's continued, not just go ahead and get it started. We're now looking at a third season, so that's tremendous.
Speaker 2I also like to pose a goal of. As of today, I believe we have 7,472 downloads.
Speaker 3We're going to double it at least.
Speaker 2I would love to double it. Yeah, I think that's a good goal by this time next year, june 13th of.
Speaker 3I think that's low Tony. Let's shoot for 20.
Speaker 220. 20, it is 20K. Yeah, they've got to have a sticker for that.
Speaker 1Do they have a sticker. I don't know. Wait, is that 20.0K?
Speaker 3Because my little female math brain can't figure that out. He didn't like that one. His face tells me your beard doesn't hide your face anymore.
Speaker 2There's no hiding anymore.
Speaker 3Disdain for when I talk about my femaleness. Nothing.
Speaker 1All right, wow, what do we need to wrap this up, wow.
Speaker 2Like and subscribe your normal ending.
Speaker 3Send it. Send us some love notes on spotify. I think you can send us love notes through busspot too, maybe yeah, any fan mail.
Speaker 2If you want to be on the pod, let us know.
Speaker 3We'd love to get some teacher input just when you're filling it out, you got. If you want to be on the podcast, you gotta give us your information, because it doesn't ask for any of that.
Closing Thoughts and Appreciation
Speaker 1We don't see where it came from, or anything good point, because we had somebody who was writing us as if they were interacting with us and they're like I'd love some more. Can you tell me a little bit more about this? Unless we're recording the podcast, we can't because we don't have any way of contacting you unless you share that.
Speaker 3Maybe we should elevate our communication, our way of communicating.
Speaker 2I like that.
Speaker 3Maybe that could be a goal too.
Speaker 2I wonder if there's a.
Speaker 3We have like forms we could easily put out there. We just need to figure out where to host it and how to keep it.
Speaker 2I wonder if our podcast, if Buzzsprout, gives us an email.
Speaker 1Ooh, what Carbon Lehigh wants to host all that.
Speaker 3Oh, you want to host all that Sure.
Speaker 2MaribytoA at CLIUorg.
Speaker 1Well. Again, thank you for listening and your support and making Change Ed, what it is today and what it will become changed in season three. Be sure to like, follow, subscribe and share with every person you have in your phone contact list.
Speaker 3Oh, should we try to shoot for every country, not just continent?