Balancing Act: A Division I Athlete's Journey to Becoming a Teacher

Student teaching is a rite of passage for most aspiring teachers, but for Wichita State University high jumper Matte Swartz, it looked a little different.

Swartz completed her student teaching alongside Olivia Sumner at Creative Minds, Wichita Public Schools' microschool located inside Learning Lab. She joins Lydia and Kristin to discuss her unconventional student teaching placement at Creative Minds, Wichita Public Schools' microschool inside Learning Lab. She reflects on balancing college athletics with teacher preparation, growing up with two educator parents and how her own non-traditional learning experiences shaped her philosophy of education.

In this episode of Let's Get Personal, Swartz looks back on her educational journey, from kindergarten through graduate school, and shares why she's excited to become an educator.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Hi, I'm Livia and I'm Kristen. Through our work at Learning Lab, which talk, we get a front-road speak to innovation and personalized kindergarten through 12th grade learning. On this podcast, we share stories of how educators and parents are helping kids discover their passions so you can do the same for a child you love.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

Time to dive in.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Let's get personal. Hi everyone, and welcome to Let's Get Personal, Real Talk about reimagining education. Today we have Maddie Swartz from Wichita Public Schools. She's a para for them and currently an education major and master student at Wichita State University. That all sounds very formal. Maddie's been around Learning Labs since day one because you were a pair of four creative minds that year. My student talked about. You were student teaching. Okay, you were student teaching. So she's been with us from the beginning. So welcome, Maddie.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_04 0:59

She also was a lead teacher for our summer program this year. So she's done a number of things around here. She has not been a stranger.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Not been a stranger. It's almost been like if we were just talking before we pressed record, but it's almost been like a family affair now because your mom was part of Ed Collab, your dad was here touring the other day. So we love the Swartz family. Um and especially having you in the space.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yes, we love, we love Learning Lab.

SPEAKER_04 1:24

Hey, thanks. We love you guys so much. Yeah. Um let's start at the beginning. So you grew up not very far from here. So where'd you grow up and what was your school experience like?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Um, I grew up an hour south of here, Anthony, Kansas, and it was a combined school. So we shared, we went to school at Chaparral, which was a 3A, so kind of a smaller school, but still a school, a decent size. And I had a pretty good um school experience. Both of my parents are in education, like my entire life. My nana's been in education. So I've always tried really hard in school and enjoyed it, but not the kind who I enjoyed school because of sports, I'd say. But yeah, I grew up an hour south of here. Pretty small school, did all the sports.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

What was the size of your graduating class?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

We for a three A 36. We were the smallest school to graduate from Shop Rail. So normally they have around 60 or 50. Oh, okay. But yeah, ours was 36. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

I just need like context. Like, okay, how big is a 3A school? Okay, got it, got it.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

How did you feel about the opportunities in a small rural district like that?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

It was very like family. So we were all pretty close. Everybody knew everybody. Um it was your typical small town school. I was still involved in a lot. I got to do an internship my senior year and go spend two weeks in each grade. And so that was pretty fun. Yeah. Um, my mom, she started a project-based learning classroom, and that opened up a lot of opportunities for me just to be able to kind of do project-based. And I did that through seventh grade until my senior year, so quite a bit. Wow. So your mom was your teacher? Yes. So she was like the way they designed it was a little bit different because you kind of it was middle school through high school instead of like Creative Minds Elementary. Yeah. Um, so they kind of had to have a high school teacher in the classroom at all times in something. So it was that was fun. But yeah, she helped me design a lot of my projects.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

What were you interested in? Like what kinds of projects did you do?

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Oh, so I did so many different projects. I did a lot of fashion, I would do a lot of baking, slime. I was made. I did slime. I was like doing slime and project-based learning. But my favorite ended up being a trash project. So all of Sedgwick County's trash goes to Harper County, which is where I'm from. And I ended up doing some recycle project. It was one of my standards. And I toured it. And that was just like the way that I got to go be in the community. And I had never been to the trash, I'd never gone and seen it. And it was so much. And I learned a lot from that. And that was probably my favorite, just getting to go out into the community.

SPEAKER_04 4:11

The exposure of that.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Did you what conclusions did you draw from that project? Um, so they're gonna in the 10. I can't remember the timeline because I think maybe I was a sophomore or a freshman in high school. But in a couple of years, once they've reached their like capacity for how much trash they can hold, they'll be able to like collect the gas and everything from that trash and power homes if they want to build on top of it.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Really?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And I thought that was so cool.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

That is like very fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

And I don't remember exactly like the science behind it. I mean, whenever I was doing my project, I did, but my biggest takeaway was just like, oh my gosh, they're gonna be able to collect this.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Yeah. Well, because I feel like I feel like you hear that as a negative. Yeah. Um, with like trash facilities, right? Is it's like, well, what puts off all this gas? That's fascinating. Yeah, that they can't.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Which it was like, hey, like people need to slow down on how much trash is. We're gonna reach our capacity faster than we need to. Yeah. So that was also interesting to see like which ways can we recycle and all those little details.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

I'm fascinated that you have such a long history with project-based learning.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah. It I think that's what led me into wanting to be a teacher because I already knew about the standards. I feel like a lot of students don't know about the standards behind teaching. Yeah. They are just, you know, showing up and doing the curriculum. But getting to see the standards. We used, I can't remember the exact curriculum or like the the tool that we used, but we were able to see kind of a pie chart of all of our standards and through the year we would get to see it fill up.

SPEAKER_04 5:43

And that's kind of effective.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

I like I liked I liked as a student getting to see the why. Like, okay, this is like a state law. Like, I have to learn these. This isn't just teachers trying to teach me something, like you know, there's a reason like today.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah. Well, and but to the point of project-based learning, it's like, yes, I have to learn this, but what is a way I can learn it that's meaningful to me? So, like, yes, the state requirement is this, but how can I make this meaningful? Yes. And that's fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Yeah. It was it was fun to get to think about what I wanted to learn and then kind of make the standard fit.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Mash it together. Yeah. That's my favorite. I don't know if we talked about it. I ran a project-based learning pilot in like high school. And it was chaos and like a total cluster in so many ways. But I that's what I loved, like sitting down with my students and being like, okay, like here's here's what you have. Like, what are you interested in? So my kids did doing market day, uh, where they get to create a product to sell at lunch. We talked about a lot of chemistry. Like, that's how we brought in their chemistry standards. And um, it was really dependent. It was just really fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

I like thinking about like tricking kids to learn, tricking them into it. Yeah. What do you like?

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Well, if you're having fun, it doesn't feel hard. It doesn't feel like learning. Yeah. So that whole time you were in school, you were also an athlete. So you're a pretty amazing athlete, as far as I understand. Um, so what ta talk about all the sports you played as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Um, I was big into volleyball, basketball, and then track. I high jump. So basketball is like my favorite sport growing up. I just I always try I just liked basketball a lot. I was probably better at volleyball, but like I would get really mad at it. We'd be I'd get really mad. But and then high jump was just my favorite because it was pretty easy. I didn't I don't love treatment.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

Lydia and I are sitting over here at five foot and how tall are you?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

I'm six foot. Maybe six one. I think I grew an inch in college.

SPEAKER_04 7:42

That was crazy. Yeah, you look tall. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Um I see pictures and I see somebody tall, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm taller than them.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

It works for you for thank you. Um and so how did it come about that you're a collegiate athlete? Because I feel like that's a big deal.

unknown 7:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

Division one. Yes. And did you think you would go to Wichita State or how did it go down?

SPEAKER_00 8:04

I I liked Wichita State. It was kind of cool to get to like do state track there.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Um, I really liked Wichita State, but I wish I would have done maybe the recruiting process different because the recruiting process is so much fun. I actually talked to North.

SPEAKER_04 8:18

Is it fun, Kristen? Absolutely not. My my daughter just committed. She just committed.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Okay, that's stressful though. Committing is str stressful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Like she's I just felt like it was really a long process. But go ahead, I'm interested in your best.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

It is a long process. I didn't realize how important like reaching out to coaches were. So it was kind of easy to reach out to um my coach now, Coach Bolt. Um, because he's close and he's just such a friendly guy. But North Dakota State reached out to me and I got to fly out there and I got to go to all these colleges. But I really liked Wichita State because of the family feel. Um, yeah, my I picked um Wichita State because of my coach. He's just really nice and just supported me all along the way.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

It's nice that you have the perspective to look back four years and like you still are pleased with the decision that you made as an 18-year-old. I feel like that's big.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

And that's not true. I'd be curious about like how how true is that for every college.

SPEAKER_04 9:15

Because you see, like the transfer portal is like hopping. It is hopping. Yeah, it is, it is hopping. Um, so how like how successful have you been as a as a high jumper?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

So freshman year was a little bit, it was good for freshman year. I placed at conference and it was fun. Sophomore year, the sophomore slump hit me. I will say sophomore slump hit me. I ended up just like letting high jump kind of take over. Like I was planning everything out two weeks in advance by the 30 minutes, like meal, sleep, like everything. Like high jump really took over.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

I didn't really This might be a silly question, but you only high jump. Yeah, it's not you were doing multiple. No, yeah. Okay, track.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

High jump's my only event. Okay. Which is like practice is so much fun as just a high jumper. But I'm just putting that out there. High jump's not. Um yeah, so it was a little bit rough. And then that led me into my junior year, and I was coming off of an injury. I had really bad shin splints, and they kind of became, or I couldn't walk, had to wear a boot, had to go through a couple procedures for that. And so I ended up redshirting, which ended up being a big blessing because I was able to student teach. Um, and I didn't make that decision until maybe November that I was gonna redshirt, close to December. And I was actually emailing like professors and stuff, being like, I have to change my major. Like, I can't, because they were wanting me, I it wasn't gonna be possible to do um track and be a teacher.

SPEAKER_04 10:46

It's actually like really upsetting.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah, it was really, I was like, I kind of had to make the decision where it was like, I can get a degree at any point, but I can't high jump at any point. So I'm just gonna try to pick a major that aligns with high jump. And but then I got injured, and it was also kind of like I wasn't liking the placement I was at at the time as much. It wasn't very project-based learning. It was kind of really traditional, and I was getting points deducted because maybe I'd let the class talk too much. They do like um levels. Yeah. I so I was not having that much fun. I I kept seeing students get like really defeated, and I did not like that. I felt like I couldn't do anything other than like go up there and like say, hey, it'll be okay. Um, so I actually reached out to Diane Smokorowski. Nice Smoke, and she, I was like, Can you help me find somebody? And how did you know her?

SPEAKER_04 11:39

So Diane Smokarowski is in the tech department at 259. I don't know what her title is, but it's like do cool stuff. Yeah, yeah, right. She creates magic. Digital citizenship has also been pretty key in um implementing creative minds here. We love her. Big fan.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Um okay, so you reach out to Smoke.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

And I know her, I've always known her. Yeah. I don't, I I think I've always known her my entire life. Like my mom and her work together both met um Renwick. Oh. And so that's kind of the connection. And so she helped me find and get um connected with creative minds. And Olivia was like, yes, let's have her. And I was like, thank you so much. Like they we kind of had to go through a process to get the university to let me because that's what I wondered.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Cause they don't always we've seen that with online schools where they don't want someone to student teach uh like a non-traditional.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Yeah, yeah. So they kind of had to be like, I don't know about it. Yeah, I don't know, is this gonna be possible? And it was the first year for creative minds.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

So there was still a lot of like stuff to work out. Yeah. And so I got to do it. I was red shirting, I was pretty much not at practice at all. Um, but it worked out. I got my degree. I ended up having an amazing connection. And I learned so much from Olivia. I got to take away a lot. So I'm very grateful for that.

SPEAKER_04 13:10

Would you because like Rob was here actually last week and he didn't say much about Olivia? Would you just share a little bit about what Olivia's like as a teacher?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

She if Olivia, by the way, is like our lead teacher for Creative Minds. So she was the first person to kind of founding educator of it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Um her brain just works in amazing ways. I don't like her brain's just amazing. I don't even know what else to put it. She just her connection with kids, just to be able to like look at a kid and all of them just love her. Like they look forward to going to school.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

They also, what's cool is she has that perfect balance of like the relational side, but they also respect her enough to listen to her loving. You know? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

That's one of the things that I loved watching from her because like they might say no and she's like, Oh, sorry, but we're gonna do it. And they're like, Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Just for them to like respect her and listen to her that much. And like, I don't know, she comes up with amazing projects, she's has such a great relationship with all of her kids and knows how to get them to learn. Like, she's really good at tricking them into learning too.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

So that's kind of what well, I just always think there has to be so much planing going on for the creative minds model, and she makes it look like it's an easy lift. But I just feel like if you brought in like random traditional teacher A, that it would be like really challenging.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah, like she's she deals with so many standards. There's so many standards that go into creative minds, and to be able to get them all connected to each student is impressive.

SPEAKER_04 14:42

And the reason there are so many standards is because Creative Minds is basically like a one-room schoolhouse for kindergarten through sixth grade, and so she has to meet the state requirement of having first grade seniors, second grade seniors, third grade seniors.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Including like all of like PE music, like it's not just your girlfriend.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Well, she doesn't have specials teachers helping her do those things. And so um, I actually think it was a huge blessing for Olivia as well to have you because it was the second semester that she was ever doing this, and you were wonderful to have.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

Yeah. Well, and I was just thinking about like, yes. Like we see it all the time, and I'm sure you do too. Like there, it is truly a mindset to look at doing learning differently. And if your mind can't be shifted or wiggled into that way of understanding that like, I mean, it's and it's okay. It doesn't have to be for everyone. It's kind of like your language of of teaching, like what's your but to have Olivia be wired like that and then to have you as a partner, I think, yeah, had to have been. I mean, we watched it work really well, but I've just like, okay, well, the alternative could have been she could have had somebody who didn't get it and just made it harder because they didn't get it. Yeah that you were there to to be that partner.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

So yeah, it was fun. It was fun. I got to kind of see because I went back and taught at a traditional school last year. Did you? So yeah, that's right. Cause I had I had gotten my bachelor's degree and I started, I got a call from Ann Dale, the middle school elementary principal, who was my counselor, not my counselor, but she set me up with internships and she was just a good family friend. And she was like, Yeah, we have three hours in the morning for middle school technology. We need a teacher. Yeah. And so I was like, okay, I'll do it. So I taught middle school for three hours um in the morning. I had 63 students last year, and I would drive over there and teach technology. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

I had I guess I didn't realize that you were like the classroom teacher in the situation. It was like kind of confusing for some. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

It was kind of like, oh, your student teaching. I was like, no, like I'm grading, like, I don't have another teacher in here with me. Um that was fun though. Yeah. It was a different experience, a different age group, learning them, but technology was fun to teach. I bet. Yeah. But I had to, there would be teachers that would come in and be like, why are they not all sitting in their seat, sitting in rows? And I was like, That's not really what I do. Yeah, I was like, it was the balance of sticking up for students and saying, listen, like my classroom's gonna be a little chaotic. Just because it's different than yours doesn't mean they're not learning. That's right. So that's right.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Design isn't bad. It's just different.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

That was kind of hard to stick up for like it was kind of like they were trying to, I was trying to maintain to my morals of like, okay, project-based learning is good. Chaos is okay. It's okay. You're still learning.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

That's right. That's right. Well, that's really cool. Talk about maybe just to give to to wrap up well this thought. I don't think that everybody understands what requirements student teaching has, like what that is as an experience. Because again, we run into it as a friction point with some of our founders. Talk about like what does that look like? What are the requirements? What makes that different than being a classroom?

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Well, I mean, it's obviously so demanding that you weren't gonna be able to do track that semester. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

And my sister is an elementary school principal now, but I remember her student teaching, and it was like the I just remember her being her being like, No, I'm doing all the work of a teacher and not getting paid to be a teacher. Yeah. So is that similar? Like, has that changed at all? I guess I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Um, yeah, it's pretty similar. Wichita State does it a little bit different, where you kind of you have four semesters of student teaching. But the last semester is your main one where you're there all days out of the week, full time, and you're kind of teaching all by yourself. These three, you're just there for one day out of the week. And you get to kind of have different ages throughout all of that process. But then your final semester is like the most important one. That's where you're there 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. You're going to all the meetings, any IEPs, anything. You're there for all of it. And you start off watching. That's like the first two weeks, and then the next two weeks you're gradually taking over. And then you have something called like your TLC. It's your capstone, your license, your capstone, and you have to do a project. Or I did a project. I guess you just have to do shocking. I guess you don't have to do a project, but you have to do a lesson, and it's like you have to capture everything, you teach this one lesson in one subject, and that's what you turn into the state, kind of to get graded on by the state to get your license. And then you do after that week of teaching a unit, you'll do two weeks of teaching everything. And you are the you are the teacher. The other teacher can sit there. You there's a different, a couple of different model ways to do it. Um, the other teachers are allowed to help if you, as like the head teacher, allows it, I guess. But Olivia and I did it just by sharing kind of we just partner taught kind of the whole time, just to especially for creative minds. It was just easier to let kids have more one-on-one and break it down. Yeah. Um, and I think other teachers do that too. And then you slowly give the reins back to the head teacher, and then that's kind of student teaching.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Okay. Okay. What did you think of your experience?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

It was so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

Could you have done it if you were high jumping?

SPEAKER_00 20:07

No, I couldn't have done it if I was high jumping, just because it was in the spring, and that is whenever season is, and we travel a lot.

unknown 20:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:15

So did it just so happen that you had all the requirements met to do it junior year? Because isn't it unusual to do it junior year?

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yeah. I because in um high school, I came in with 26 or 30 credits, something like that. A lot. I had a lot of college credits, so I kind of came in as a sophomore or like a second semester, kind of like a sophomore. Okay. So you just were getting through it. I was getting, I was taking summer classes and just taking a lot of classes.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

So what your senior year were you what were you doing like in school? What classes did you have to take?

SPEAKER_00 20:46

For so for college? Yeah. Yes. So I started my master's. Oh, okay. So you went ahead and started.

SPEAKER_04 20:53

So it's not, I just wondered, I've heard of programs where they like tack on an extra year and you get your master's. Is that kind of how it works?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Or you, for me, that's not how it ended up working out. I I just applied for the master's program and started that, which last year. I started it last year. Um, and I did all online. It's a learning and instructional design. So still a master's in education. But yeah, it's just it's a 30 credit program. I am set to graduate this fall, but I actually have to find a way to lengthen that out. Because to be um on the track team in a collegiate athlete, you have to be a full-time student. And so for an undergrad, that's 12 credit hours. And for a graduate, it's nine credit hours. And if you're not enrolled in that many hours, then you're ineligible. And right now I only have nine credit hours left of my master's. And so I I need I need two semesters. So I really need 18 credit hours to be full time. Yeah. Um, so I'm gonna try to get a certificate or something. Just get into some, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Learn something. Yeah, learn something. So this will be your fourth year competing track, but your fifth year in college. Yes. And how do you feel about your track career so far?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yes. So the last year was it's all kind of stayed pretty consistent. I've jumped 5'8 every single year except for sophomore year.

SPEAKER_04 22:19

Okay. We don't five eighty over your head. Um we don't know if that's good. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

I don't know anything about our um conference, which is the American conference. Um, that placed me sixth indoor. And then I think I got eighth or seventh outdoor. That's kind of what I've placed throughout my college career.

SPEAKER_04 22:48

Which I feel like that's good, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah. It was, I mean, scoring, there's not too many people on the WSU team that score. So just to get points, that's pretty much what I was happy about. I also just came off of surgery. I had meniscus surgery in August. Yeah. So I was high jumping during indoor, like right at my sixth month. And it I had only ran like five times before that. Sure. So I was like, I'll take it. Yeah. I'll take it this year.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

So do you have goals for this year?

SPEAKER_00 23:15

This year? I want a PR so bad. I just want to get better. Probably get better. But uh not too many goals. Just enjoy the last year.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

The first place person on the conference, how high did they jump?

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Six outdoor was six two, indoor was maybe six one. So six foot. Six foot's kind of the that's crazy. The mark for high jump and I think it's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

I think it's amazing. I'm like, but like, how do you do physically?

SPEAKER_04 23:41

I'm like, how do you do that? How do you think you want to come to your meet?

SPEAKER_00 23:46

You should. You should come to a meet.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

What do you think? Um so I'm interested because I do have a student athlete. And what do you think about heading into college? Because I think you know, quite a few kids compete at a high school level. What do you think? How did it change your college experience and what did it do for you as a college student?

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Well, it gave me some of my like lifetime best friends. Like I still hang out with my freshman year training group. Like we hung out on Tuesday. So it gave me some of my best friends. Um, but it makes you balance in a different way, I'd say. Just you have different guidelines that you have to follow by. Like, we're not supposed to do any other extracurricular like activities. Like we can't play volleyball, we can't go skiing.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

So on, you know, you get to watch other physical activities and do students in it or something, couldn't you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Like you can do that. You can do that as long as it doesn't interrupt with high jump time.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

Yeah, not risking your physical abilities. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah, so we can't do that, which kind of stinks because we all like we're athletes, we love doing extracurricular activities like that. Um, also, just it was hard watching friends go to like football games on weekends or like you see all your friends hanging out and you're in a hotel room getting sleep. Yeah, yeah. That that is hard. Just you kind of have to pick a balance. I mean, I still hang out with friends all the time, but then having to pick, okay, I have to go to bed tonight. I have to, you know, I have to pick sports over hanging out with you right now, and that's kind of hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Yeah. So prioritizing with the goal in mind to say, okay, if this is who I want to be as an athlete, it means I need to do X, Y, Z.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

And I found it harder as I got older because when you're younger, you have all your friends there with you. At least I did. I had a lot of older friends. Um, and then with the transfer portal opening, it just friends would enter the portal, friends would get injured, friends would graduate. And then being like the fifth year senior now, like I feel really old on the team.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

You're so biased.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Like, you know, I feel really old. All my friends have graduated or transferred, or they're just they're not on the team anymore. And so whenever I'm looking at like the rooming list, I'm like, oh my gosh, who am I gonna room with? Like, uh-huh. So that's become really hard. Because freshman year, it's like we traveled to Florida, we got to go to Florida all together. And so it was fun because we're with all of our friends, and then sophomore year comes, it's like, okay, the friends are dwindling now. And then so that became hard, just yeah, not having as many friends on the team just because you got older.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

I we I feel like we talk about a lot that like sports gives or a lot of activity too, but sports is the one, at least that I connect with it the most, and you guys do too. Like it gives you that quick loop of failure and like getting better. And like and we've talked about it lately of like maybe that loop of quick failure and like trying again is what helps build confidence. Like, how do you feel like being an athlete shaped your like the way you saw yourself or your values, or like how did it impact you in that way? The skills that it built for you.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Yeah, so I definitely like always was like, okay, I'm an athlete. That's how I defined myself for a little bit. Um, because it's fun to win.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

It's fun to like we'd love to win.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Winning's fun to win. And being like an athlete, like that's fun, a division one athlete. I'd say sophomore year was kind of hard because I kind of had to not associate myself with being an athlete because it was I wasn't winning and I wasn't PRing and I wasn't doing as good as I wanted to.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

You just think that was burnout?

SPEAKER_00 27:30

I don't know if it was. I think it was it was my first time just being a high jumper and not being a basketball player, a volleyball player. And high jump is just so technical and it takes so much focus and detail. And the repetition just started to wear down my body, and I was getting injuries. I'd never been injured before. Um, so that was hard to deal with injury. And stepping away from it though ended up helping me balance it and find kind of happiness and success in other areas, like teaching and like hanging out with friends and just like you are a human, not just a high jumper.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

And so then I would say coming back last year is where I really started to kind of find confidence in my success just because I was injured again and had surgery. And I think coming back from the surgery really helped me because there was no expectation. It was just like, I'm just grateful to be back on the year. You're just gonna try your best.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

You have gratitude and you're gonna try your best. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

I'm just grateful to be able to still high jump. And with that became it became less stressful, and I started performing better. And I still had the balance of, okay, I can go hang out with friends tonight and then still be a high jumper. Um, because I haven't, I haven't PR'd since my senior year in high school. I match that PR all the time. I get my form has changed, different details change, but I just being able to come back to it has been where I felt more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:06

What do you want to say about your coach? I mean, I feel like I think coaches, you know, I was a high school journalism teacher, and that's different than being a coach, but I spent all of this time at night at the school with my kids, and I had a very special relationship with the students. In fact, my my one of my first newspaper editors was here this morning. So I feel like those relationships have lasted. Um, but coaches get get to see you at your best at your worst.

SPEAKER_03 29:34

I mean, what kind of and a coach matters, yeah. Yeah, to your point of influence. Like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

I had a lot of good coaches just growing up, even in high school. I'd say one of my most influential coaching duos almost um was in basketball. My freshman through my senior year, and he was like a his name was Coach Regier. We called him Coach Reggie, and then Coach Gerber. Um he was a really hard coach. Like we would get yelled at. We'd get yelled at a lot, but it was so much. I thought it was so much fun. I think the rest of my teammates also thought it was a lot of fun. Cause I mean, we would just get screamed at on the court, but then they parents never got to see the locker room after where the relationship was getting built back up, or we would talk while we were eating. Like we had just a really, really close relationship just as a team, and we were able to take his coaching critics while getting yelled at, listen to him, and then still have that great relationship. Um I think that was like people were like, Oh, you guys are girls, you don't need to get yelled at. And I was like, No, we can take it. Like, yeah, we can take coaching in any form. Um, and then yeah, my coach in college, Coach Rain Bolt, Coach Bolt, he has been the head coach for WSU for a really long time, like 26 years or something like that. Uh-huh. Yeah. So he is just very positive. He is the most positive guy I've ever met. And never once has he ever just said anything mean or to like he's always believed in me and he's always said you're gonna jump six foot. And he's al he's like he's just always supported me in whatever I needed, and he's always looked at me first as a human rather than somebody that's scoring points. Yeah, that's been really important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

I feel like I I mean you kind of mentioned it with Olivia, or what came to mind when you were talking about Olivia as a teacher and like how she interacts with her kids, kind of feels the same way with like you're talking maybe about some of your coaches. It's really about what I'm hearing is like the expectations matter, and the way that you support a kid towards the expectation can be, I can be yelled at, but if you're firm and consistent with your expectations, I know what to expect. And you can do that in a way that still feels respectful to the athlete or the kid, like Olivia being like, Yeah, that's great that you don't want to do that, we're still gonna do that because like that's what the expectation is. That I think makes a big difference with coaches, is like, are you always and and teachers, anybody who's in a role of like coaching a kid, if you're always wavering on like, okay, well, today my expectation is this and then tomorrow it's this and it's not consistent, it's really hard for kids to read the room because that's what they're trying, that's what you're trying to do is read this person who's trying to help you be better. Um, but it sounds like you have coaches that, yes, they're they're consistently firm in their expectations of like you're a human first. Um, they just may have different styles of how they present it, but maybe you've never, maybe with those, you feel like that's at least consistent between the two of them. They have been all pretty consistent.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

Just even my coach, whenever Coach Rainbow, it was sophomore year or something, and he was like, Do you want me to yell at you? I'll yell at you. I've never really cussed before, but I'll yell at you if you need me to. And I was like, I thought about it for a second, you know, I was like, hey, I used to be yelled at. I was like, no, don't yell at me.

SPEAKER_03 32:58

It does matter. I mean, like, people need different things. I feel like we interviewed somebody who was talking about the similar sort of thing, but I had a soccer coach growing up, I'll never forget it. Like, pull me to the sign lines and just like scream to like while the game's going on, like, won't pull me out, but just is screaming at me. And there's a difference between like yelling with encouragement versus like yelling with like disrespect. Like, are you trying, are you trying to hurt my feelings? Are you trying to make me feel bad? If you're I don't there's just different intent. And so I see coaches do that. Yeah. When I was in college, I worked at the recreation center on campus and we would host um youth basketball tournaments and gymnastics tournaments for kids. And there were I saw great coaches and I saw really terrible coaches of like little kids, and you're like, oh my gosh, you're just screaming to be me. Like you're just yelling to be me. Like you're not yelling to encourage them.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

Some really interesting approaches to coaching. I mean, Violet has had so many different approaches on gymnastics. I probably one of my favorite ones of her coaches, she's like, she doesn't smile. Oh she's just not a jolly person and she's very quiet. But when she does like give a compliment or like encouragement, then you're like, Yes, it means something. Jessica cares about me.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

It means something. That's right. That's right. That's funny. Did you always want to be a teacher? I know you sound like you grew up in a family of teachers. I did.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

But do you feel like there was like a Yeah, there was definitely a key moment. I did not always want to be a teacher. I even like thinking about it growing up, I'd teach my like we'd have teacher days like in the sun. Like, I'm gonna teach my siblings because I have three younger siblings.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

But not until probably my junior year, senior year of high school. Until then, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not gonna do it. You guys do. I mean, I am not gonna be a teacher.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

You had a front row seat.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

I had a front row seat. Like my dad was uh still is a superintendent going on 16 years now or something. And so I got to see a part of education that a lot of kids don't see. Yeah. And yeah, I did not like it. I was like, what no part? I was like, I am not going into this. But then there'd be topics that I would just get really passionate about education. And then my parents would be like, Are you sure? Like, they're really passionate about this right now. And then junior year, we would do all those career fair things or like write down what you want to be, let's narrow down the list. I'm like, gosh dang it, why is this teacher one on here? Get this off of my paper. And it's like it just matched everything I wanted to be. It was still in the professional world, it had kids, I was learning, it was flexible. Um, so I was like, hey, I'm gonna do internship. I'm gonna do an internship my senior year and just see before I decide.

SPEAKER_04 35:50

What did you learn from watching all the different grade levels?

SPEAKER_03 35:52

I think that's fascinating. Yeah, a really good way to do it.

SPEAKER_04 35:54

Yeah, especially at that age, like before you're in college for it, you know?

SPEAKER_00 35:58

It was fun. It was, I thought that I wanted to be like a kindergarten teacher because I did a lot of um daycare. I worked in daycare a lot in high school and I still love daycare, but it is a lot different being a daycare provider than a teacher. And so I thought I wanted kindergarten. And then I got in there and I was like, I am not doing kindergarten. This is kind of tiring. Um, but I don't have as much flexibility. And then just going through all the grades, I was like, I really like fifth grade. Oh no, I I really like sixth grade. So I really learned that I liked the older grades because I had more flexibility with projects, being able to do projects. They had, they just they got to choose it a little bit more than a younger um grade, just because younger kids just they can't organize it as well, which is yeah, they're still fun. Yeah. But I learned that I liked the olders because of the flexibility I had with projects. So that's kind of what I learned from that experience. It was fun. But I'd say my big key was my senior year, there was a bill that was about to be passed in Kansas, and they were limiting what teachers could teach, and they were you had to uh create lesson plans, all your lesson plans a year in advance. Oh, yeah. I remember that bill. I I can't remember the exact name of the bill, but I went to Topeka and I spoke.

SPEAKER_04 37:21

Good for you. Good for you, Maddie. Look at you, little activist.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

I was so scared. Terrified. And I thought, because they there were so many people that tried to go and speak at it, and they only picked like 10 of them.

SPEAKER_04 37:36

Was it the state school board or was it the legislature?

SPEAKER_00 37:40

It was a state school board. It was the um budget board for the state. Yeah. Okay. And I went and spoke, and I thought I I still like freak out thinking about it. Because I was like, I thought I did a terrible job. I went and sat down on I started crying. I was like, oh my gosh. I was one of the few they picked to like represent this and like I did terrible. And they only called two people back up for questions. And of course they called me up for questions. And I, it was just a really good experience. And I learned that I was really passionate about education and protecting, protecting it. Because I was like, if you have to do lesson plans in advance, how are you supposed to do projects?

SPEAKER_02 38:19

I can't even.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

How are we supposed to do projects? Well, and it's all my my thought on it is too, like when you are trying to do like a progressive curriculum, if your kids fly through something, yeah, or say stumble on something, like it is a disservice to kids to not have that flexibility. That's why curriculum schedules and when you have to teach the same lesson as the girl next door. Oh my gosh, that just emperates me.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

How are you supposed to be adaptive to your own student? It takes the into you can't individualize it.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

I don't know. I I think they're trying to solve a problem, which is ineffective teaching. And I will say, I I worked in a building and it was not one of the ones I talk about a lot. Okay. Just to be clear. But there were so many ineffective teachers in this building that I thought like the hope for the future was like terrible. But but you can tackle the problem of an ineffective teacher and not punish the teachers who are doing a good job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Right, right. Well, and I think what I think what I remember with that bill too was I remember it being a lot about parents' concern of like what was being taught, right? And the lack of transp they felt like there was a lack of transparency. And I would I remember being like, well, that's it's not planning the lesson plans in advance, it's your parent relationships. Yes, and communication. Yes, it's how why, why are we feeling why do the parents feel like they don't know what's being done?

SPEAKER_04 39:44

Well, I do love like putting the resources and your plans online, but I just don't think there should be like a timeline around it. Like Mike's whole year is online, and it might not be Tuesday that he gets to this, but I this is bad for me to admit.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

I made a Google folder, Google Drive folder when I was teaching. And I told my AP that that's where I would put my lesson plans. I had six preps.

SPEAKER_04 40:08

I just also like you didn't teach for that long. Like if you had taught for five years, you'll be able to collect. But I changed it every year. I changed everything. That was me. Like I would suddenly be like, okay, tomorrow we're doing a research project. I know.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Well, but I but I made like this this was malicious of me. I manipulative of me. I'm malicious too. Um, I did it that way because I knew she wouldn't like save the link and like wouldn't go and like check them because I made it slightly inconvenient for her.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

But like that, I was like, I I'm gonna put these here because this is where I need them to be. Like if I make one, this is where it will be. I tried my best. I just want it to be known for it. I mean, I think that I hate lesson plans. Especially if lesson plans too. It's really hard to be that far. I think planning with intention is really important. Yes. But like the level of like granularity that they want you to get on a lesson plan, I'm like, this is not always valuable to do this depth. But if but I it doesn't matter. We don't have to, we could have a whole episode about lesson.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Yeah, we could. I mean, last year though, I was like, okay, I need to teach something that my students are really gonna engage in. Cause I didn't have a lesson plan because I had to turn it down just so I could make it to practice in time. So I would be on AI, talking to AI, and be like, this is what I need, I'm driving. This is what I need to plan. And I was like, what am I going to do to where they're engaged? And I just saw data center signs popping up everywhere. They're trying to put a data center in Andale.

SPEAKER_03 41:37

Yeah. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

And all my students were coming to me asking. And I was like, oh, I don't know that much about data centers. I mean, so we just did a project on it. Love it. And we learned about data centers. But did you so good?

SPEAKER_04 41:49

Can I ask your opinion? Do you think we should put a data center in a in a small town?

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Um if I lived near Andale, I would not want it by me. I wouldn't want it by me. It's loud. It and it does depend on what type of data center, who the data centers by. Like that all depends because they they all use different resources. They all act in different ways. And so that's really important. And there's kind of a little bit of a misconception that I learned with my students. I was learning at the same time they were. I was just trying to do research at home. So maybe I could answer a little bit more questions when they had them. But we learned that they were trying to create an energy center to then power all these hyperscale data centers. Okay. And that's kind of what it started as. It definitely got the title as data center, which it would have become. And one of my sixth graders ended up going to the town board, I think, something like that. And she spoke against it. We had to kind of shut it down because in the classroom, because it was becoming a little too political. Yes, it was a little it became pretty passionate in the classroom, but they learned a lot. And they were able to pick their yes. I was like, okay, we made it to a good stopping point. You guys are able, I gave you the information. Now you have your own opinions. Pick your, you can have your own opinions, you can have a side, but we're gonna leave it at that.

SPEAKER_04 43:06

Yeah, so what is your ideal like age level to work with now?

SPEAKER_00 43:10

I don't know. I guess yeah, because this summer I was back to being with like littles.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

Maddie had a best friend for all four weeks, a small child very small best friend, and you were such a champ for helping our small friends.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

Yes. I mean, I love the littles. They're so they're so sweet and innocent, and just a little high five goes a long way for them. So I I don't know. Yeah. I really don't know.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

Do you think about like, are you interested in being a superintendent? Like, what's your ultimate goal someday?

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Yeah, no, I don't I don't want to be in the administrative side. I want to be with project based learning and I want to somehow just make it so available for all schools. And I want it to become kind of like a norm. Yeah. I mean, you can. Pick whether you want traditional, if project based is your way of learning, if if you want online, just like make it more available. I just it's hard to do because everybody kind of has their own idea of project-based learning. I'd say I'd say some.

SPEAKER_04 44:14

I feel like if you were not being thoughtful and strategic about project-based learning, that it would be almost like a failure. Yeah. So I think like part of that is training educators on how to properly implement project-based learning.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

And that I would either want to be a part of that, helping train educators to be better at project-based learning, or a project-based learning teacher, or just in somehow a part of just making it more available for students.

SPEAKER_04 44:48

And can you just like summarize why you believe in it so much? Because I think it is so interesting that you did it, and then you're in creative minds, and I'm sure you've had other like personal experience partaking in it.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

But yeah, it's just it's so much fun. It's just fun. And you get to learn about what you want while still meeting those um standards. And you can learn at whatever pace you need. And I think it takes the stress away from school. Because I think school can be a stressful thing, whether it's test taking or writing essays, which is still important. That's all still important. And there's ways to, you know, write a paper in a project if you want, incorporate it in. Um, but I think it's just important because there's so many real-world connections with project-based learning. Yeah. And yeah, you can I mean you some people I've seen people create businesses just by doing a simple project in school. Um, so I just think it's really important.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

When I when I hear you talking and when I think about that question too, um, there's that gold sta uh gold standard of PBO. Do you know what I'm talking about? And I so that's what I think about when I think about like why it's so great, is because there's like six different criteria, right? But like one is it has to be a meaningful, authentic question, like driving, like like we can't just be a you know how we were talking with Rob about um like some levels of thinking have just one correct answer. And then there's a this higher level of thinking or problem solving that has multiple like a range. Yeah, a good project-based learning driving question has a range of outcomes. So then you get variety, and they that's where you get freedom for a kid to bring in what they care about. And then that I know there's more, but the one I also think about is um it has to have like a public presentation, like it has to be shared with people that are not that are beyond your classroom and ideally are also not just your parents. Yeah. Because your parents are gonna be like, great job, baby. Yeah. Um, but like, how can you share this with the community and like and get community feedback and like have them see it in some way? And I think that's really magical for kids' brains to have.

SPEAKER_04 46:52

Yeah, you know, taught high school journalism. Uh-huh. And I actually haven't talked about it that much on the podcast, but um, I feel like project-based learning was not super popular during the time that I was teaching. I taught from 2005 to 2014 or 15 or something. It had been longer than that because I taught for 11 or 12 years. But anyway, I taught for but she didn't teach math. But anyway, um, I always told my kids on the first day of school that this was like the best class they were gonna take in high school, and I believed it. And I think it was every day was project-based learning. And I loved about my newspaper class that kids came up with what they were gonna talk about. So you involved that student choice. They had to involve the community to do the project, and then people saw it every time. And I have so many amazing stories about things they covered that made a difference to the school. One of my favorite ones is like one of my favorite editors when she was a sophomore, she was really young. She came in and she wanted to do like um it's called public journalism. She wanted to make a difference with her story, and we didn't have a recycling program at our school. And it was a pretty big school as the end of her high school. Okay. And um, so she wrote articles, she followed a bottle that someone threw away at school all the way to the landfill. Um, yeah, so she did like what it is. She wrote and she did all the factual research, she figured out why we didn't have one, and then she wrote an editorial to go with it. And then we got a recycling program. Look at that overnight because that's awesome. Yeah, yeah. And so I think of those examples of like this has been happening. And I don't think it's just journalism. Like it's it happens in good classrooms everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 48:39

And I think it's easier for CTE. I think CTE teachers have done this more just like naturally, maybe over time, because that's just kind of thus the basic.

SPEAKER_04 48:49

Well, I think about like that um class that I did a blog on that geometry and construction class, which is CTE. They would use use construction to teach geometry. So they their geometry credit was like their shop credit to then they would build like shed. Yes. Um, I love it. Like naturally fitting in those standards to projects that are kind of more. And so I feel like I was listening, Lydia and I did um five myths about innovative education for our a podcast that actually came out yesterday. Oh, I say coming out soon. I haven't publicized so yet, but it is up. But anyway, um, I felt like I when I was listening to myself, I was just being like snarky about education. Cause I think I just hear the same stuff, like the same questions about like why is it, why, how is this valid? Blah, blah, blah. This doesn't look like what I did. Are you sure they're learning? Yeah. Yeah. And I was being sassy. And you just get to the point where you're like, this works. It doesn't have to be that complicated, right? It's, I don't mean it. It's not about any education professional that's in it doing it the old, the traditional way. It's a system that isn't effectively serving kids. Yeah. I think it's cool that your K-12 experience doesn't sound super traditional, even though you were going to a small rural public school and that inspired you to want to do that for other kids. What a good story. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

Well, and I mean you could tie that through to like, we have a teacher shortage right now. Yeah. Well, why do we have a teacher shortage? Well, who wants to be a teacher? If you had a miserable school experience, and then you have these levels of expectations that are not realistic. If teaching is not fun, then why would you want to do something that you know is not gonna be fun?

SPEAKER_00 50:52

And there's so many more rules with teaching that you more expectations that you have to hit. There'd be times where I just feel like, okay, guys, we're just gonna go outside and do school today just to make it fun.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

We're just it's all that I can do.

SPEAKER_00 51:04

Learning is so important, but it's not so deep that it needs to be miserable. Yeah. If you're not gonna learn if you're not having if it's a terrible philosophy.

SPEAKER_04 51:13

I mean, it is true. And then there are people that would see you outside and be like, why are they awesome? They're always outside. They're always outside.

SPEAKER_00 51:21

I was like, if we get 10 minutes of meaningful learning, that is way more than having them sit down for 45 minutes and totally zone out and not be engaged. So I'm like, I would way rather them be engaged for 10 minutes and have meaningful learning and then we go outside and have fun than then not have any meaningful learning at all.

SPEAKER_03 51:44

So let's tie that through then to what is your wish or hope for any future teachers? Like, so you went to school to be a teacher. Yeah. Kristen and I did not go to school to be a teacher, so we did not have this experience that you had. Oh, yeah, yeah. Which I would tell you about on a different podcast. Um But like when you think about those pre-service teachers that teaching colleges, like what would do you wish what's done differently? I mean, I don't know. Talk about like what your wish for that is.

SPEAKER_00 52:15

I also had a great teacher in college. Her name's Robin. And she is very, very big on relationships. Just maintain a good relationship with your students in your classroom will follow. Um, I think stick to that no matter what happens. I if once you get into the field, it's a lot easier to not be patient with kids and tell them to sit down and be quiet. It's a lot easier than to take the time to build the relationship. Um, just make sure that you stick to that relationship, is what I'd say, and just have fun because the kids will follow. Yeah. Um, I mean, still maintain your expectations, but try not to listen to the other teachers that are saying don't the teachers don't listen to the ones that aren't having fun.

SPEAKER_03 53:03

Yeah, it's true.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

Um, yeah. I mean, and it happens. There's days where the patience is hard to find, and you just want to be like, just sit down and just we're just gonna be quiet today. And I mean, there were moments where I did do that with my middle schoolers where it's like, okay, we might be reaching the line of disrespectful enough. I mean to understand the balance. And yeah. So I think it's still okay to kind of still have that's still okay to have that balance. It's still okay to. I mean, I made them transcribe a podcast. They hated it. And I used AI so they couldn't find the podcast anywhere. Um, but it was still typing and it was still technology, and then the next day they were ready to learn. So it was kind of like, okay. Yeah. But still maintaining the fun and the relationships. That's what I would tell any students going into it. Yeah. Just anybody going into education, it's it's okay if your room's a little chaotic. It's okay if they're a little bit too loud.

SPEAKER_03 53:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:59

Just learn your students. Just learn your students and meet them where they are. Don't expect them to meet you where you are.

SPEAKER_03 54:06

Yeah. Yeah. That's that's really good. Do you one more question for me? And then I have my final question. Um and whatever questions Greg wants to ask me. Um what do you feel like your teaching education prepared you for the classroom?

SPEAKER_00 54:24

This is an I would say that's not what really prepared me for the classroom. I mean, if you count like student teaching because it's a part of school preparing you for the classroom, yes. Yeah. Being put in that um situation prepared me. But I mean, Olivia's really the one that prepared me. My parents are really the ones that prepared me. Yeah. Even my own students really prepared me. So yeah. Yeah. I know what is behind education. I know the laws because of school. I know.

SPEAKER_04 54:56

There's some context that I feel like really helps. And what it helps with is navigating the system, right? And so it's kind of a hard question because I'm like, I don't know if I think my teacher education prepared me for teaching at Creative Minds, or at Oh yeah, for sure not. Or at Con Lab School, or you know, a non-traditional school that's out of the system. Because maybe it would have helps with some things because you still have IEPs. I mean, yeah. That's really what I remember is like, how do you teach all these standards? How do you follow the law when it comes to special education students? Yes and and things like that are really important when you're in the system. But if you're not in the system, I'd say, yeah. I would say it's a yes and it could depend.

SPEAKER_00 55:46

I would say school really taught me to make sure it taught me how to not get a school district in a lawsuit. Yeah, they're that's what it taught me. It taught me how to, you know, avoid a lawsuit for the school. So it's it's really designed by the administration because they're the ones that don't want to have any of these like attorneys. Yeah, they don't want to have those problems. But as far as how to be innovative in the classroom, it didn't teach me how to teach in a creative mind. Yeah. Because there's so many factors that go into that one. But that would be one thing that I would love to see in the future for you know, pre-service teachers.

SPEAKER_04 56:23

I'm sure out there are some really cool, like I still remember my methods class, methods of teaching English. Um, and I just happen to have like a really awesome professor that taught a very non-traditional approach. Okay. Which then kind of got me in trouble in my first job because they wanted me to diagram census.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

And I was like, Oh, we talked about this the other day.

SPEAKER_04 56:43

And I was like, no, thank you. I will not be doing that. But I'm gonna be doing Socratic seminars and I'm gonna be doing like multi-genre reflective papers and all this cool stuff that my cool teacher taught me, and they the old lady teachers in my department would like tell me I was doing it wrong.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

I will say, as far as using more innovative tools, we were taught those. We were like kind of like, okay, guys, don't we? There's so many other things than paper homework. Avoid that. So we were taught, you know, different innovative ways to use tools and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

We had some like good professors that were, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:18

The question I like to ask everybody on the podcast is um when you think about like your maybe just like your teeth, your t approach to teaching. What are your non-negotiables? Like what are the things that you won't compromise on, pills you'll die on negotiation.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

I would not accept a teaching job if I will follow a curriculum, but if I'm not allowed to implement my own projects, that would be a non-negotiable if I had to follow each whatever the curriculum said, just word by letter by the letter. Letter by the letter, I'd it I wouldn't be able to do that. Um other type of relationships things, that would just be my main one. Yeah. Yeah. I had you need the flexibility. I need the flexibility to be able to teach individualized to uh my students. And that would I there were a couple school districts because in the Wichita State um program you have career days, kind of job fair days where a bunch of different school districts come in and there's tables everywhere and you go interview with all of them, which was really interesting to get to hear. It would be interesting, yeah, different school districts and the way that they um do with the way that they work. And some of them were like, Well, you have to follow it, like verbatim, like to the letter. And I was like, Would I be able to implement? Would I be able to do this? Some of them would say no, and some of them were like, Yes, like that's what we want. We want more project-based learning. So that was interesting, just to be able to kind of go through that process and be like, this is I won't, I I am a very project-based learning person. I'll meet the student if the student really likes doing online things or online learning. Like, I will find a program that works with them. But yeah, it was mostly just about curriculum.

SPEAKER_03 59:03

That's really which I understand.

SPEAKER_00 59:05

I mean, I understand that school districts purchase curriculum, so they want you to use it. Yeah. And I would follow it, but I need to be able to individualize. I got some wiggle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:17

Well, and it sounds like you, I mean, you mentioned it, you value personalizing the learning. So if there's something, if you're so restricted that you can't look at the kid in front of you and be like, okay, what does this friend need? Um, and you can't do anything about it, that sounds like it would be a big conflict for you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, those are all my questions, Kristen.

SPEAKER_04 59:37

Anything else from I'm just so excited to see what you do next. You're gonna have a lot of people. Yeah, you're gonna be that's exciting. And we didn't even say that, but she she's gonna be the paraprof one of the paraprofessionals for Creative Minds Learning Lab this year. So Creative Minds is expanding, doubling in size, going to another elementary school in the district as well. But Maddie gets to be here, yeah, which was a very happy email because I was kind of mad when I got the email. At first, there was an error that said you're gonna be at the other location.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:07

And I thought, well, this isn't like good for that for us.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:11

So we're glad you're gonna be here and let us know how we can support you, but also excited to see how your track season goes and excited to see what your first job when you graduate. I know, I'm excited. That's gonna be great. I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:23

All right, well, thanks, Maddie.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

Thanks, thanks for having me, guys.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:26

Of course,