Ep #16: TLC - More like a Teacher Lounge Reset with UHigh Faculty

We sit down with three faculty members for a teacher lounge chat as May winds down, reflecting on how this year shaped us and what we want to carry into summer. We talk candidly about growth, solidarity, burnout, and the student moments that remind us why we do the work. 
• one-word reflections on the year and how AI pressures real classroom change 
• trying new projects, scrapping old favorites, and learning in public 
• the student moments that stay with us long after finals week 
• what we would fix next time, including attention, workload, and saying no 
• the unseen parts of teaching, from guilt to constant hat-switching 
• why we keep coming back, including the lab school ripple effect 

Connect with us on Facebook or Instagram at Live in the Lab Schools.

Transcript

Welcome And Teacher Introductions

Ben Webb 0:08

Welcome to the podcast. This week we are talking to three UhI faculty in our teacher lounge chat as we are wrapping up the month of May and getting ready for summer vacation. We're so close, but it's a great conversation, which hopefully will be inspiring, but also really close to celebratory for the end of the year. Welcome to the pod. So this week we're hearing from a couple of our accomplished favorite teachers in the building. And so if I can just quickly have you guys go around the room, who are you? What do you teach? Why are you here? Uh so can I start off here? Also, how long have you been here? Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Emily Telford. I teach biology. This year it is anatomy and environmental science and advanced biology. This is my ninth year here. So next year is year 10. Woohoo. Um, and then why am I here? Because this is the best school, in my opinion, that uh I've ever taught at, and I'm never leaving ever.

Ben Webb 1:15

I love it. Who is you?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I'm Meg Flanagan. I teach English. I teach oral calm to sophomores, English language origins to anyone who wants to take it, except for freshmen. And anyone who wants to take it. Honestly, I tell people you can take it if you're a sophomore, and they're like, oh, but I can't, because I just don't have room. Um, and dual credit English through Heartland Community College to our some of our seniors who want to get that college credit. And this is my fifth year, the end of my fifth year here. And I'm here because um there we have a we have a trend in at least the English department where if you interned here, you will eventually end up back here.

Ben Webb 1:57

So go off into the world and then come back with your new knowledge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Okay.

Ben Webb 2:03

I like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

I'm Lauren Corales. I teach chemistry. This is my fourth year, and so this is like my tenure year. So it feels very like special to be like at the end of this year. Like now it's for real. Like they have they can't get rid of me.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah, if you're not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

I'm not going anywhere. And I too am staying here forever because I'm here because this is like the place to be, and I feel like um I can just be like my weird creative self here, and I like that. Like it's like embrace to be like, let's try this and see if it works. Yeah. I like that about I like the innovation part. Yeah.

One Word For The Year

Ben Webb 2:38

So, okay, the first question I have for all of us is looking back on the school year, what's one word that you would describe the school you're in and kind of why?

SPEAKER_02 2:49

I can go first. I would say growth a little bit forced because of technology. Um, obviously, AI is here, so growth to accommodate for changes in technology. But there were also some projects that I let go of this year and I replaced with things that I I think worked, I hope worked, um, that I really enjoyed. So I forced myself to grow in that way. Um, I did a book study in my anatomy class, which was weird. The kids were like, Why are we reading in anatomy? Um, but I based on their products, I think they got what I wanted them to get out of it.

unknown 3:28

Yeah.

Ben Webb 3:29

Well, letting go of projects that you have, that's not easy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

I hate to spend so much time and you're invested in it, and yeah. But I think it was well worth it.

unknown 3:39

Okay.

Ben Webb 3:40

Lauren, what would you say? One word and why?

SPEAKER_03 3:42

I would say galvanizing for a number of reasons. It's a chemistry word. So I like chemistry science. I feel like as a group of teachers, we really came together and talked about like real issues, like including the AI one where it's like, okay, how are we gonna collectively approach some of this stuff and solve it? And not like everything pertaining to our school, but like the areas where yes, we need we need to grow, we know what we need to do, and like we're working in a um like cross-the-school culture, cross-cultural kind of a way. So I feel like I got um the chance to like work in new groups of faculty, like that I don't ordinarily interact with on a day-to-day basis. So for me, it was really like grouping up and like that was exciting, that unity was exciting. Um, we're also unionizing as a faculty, so that is a big piece too of coming together for like the collective good. And then with regard to like classroom stuff, I also feel like it was a galvanizing year in terms of like the way that the students and I took innovative ideas and like tried to make them into projects. Like, hey, why don't we try to use this commercial product to try and do a different kind of a lab? Like, we auditioned a lot of new labs and experiments and activities, and the students were really a part of like what worked, what didn't work, that conversation. And, you know, I mean, frankly, some of them were like, oh, okay, this didn't work. Like I bought this at Hobby Lobby the night before, and of course it's not the chemical that we need, you know, because I would have, I should have ordered it from somewhere. So anyway, I feel like that was another way that there was just like a lot of um unity and movement and solidarity and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

And just building off of that, my word is solidarity. Yeah. From this year. From a lot of like, yes, a lot of it is coming about from union work in our very first union ever in the 167 years that this school has existed. Um, but also I think from that, me personally, I'm a I've I've been here for five years. This is my 14th year teaching, but um I've been here for five years, and I still there are still people that I don't interact with a ton just because in our departments we don't have a lot, I don't even see my department members. Um, we don't have a shared free. Um, so I definitely don't get to see my non-department member colleagues very frequently. And so, like a lot of little things have happened that have been solidifying. So we have a teacher's lounge, which we did not really have before. We had a room that was designated teacher's lounge, but no one used it for that.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

And not big enough.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

And it was not big enough to really, and the space didn't really work. And so we have a teacher's lounge now. Um, and I find myself using it more, and I find other people. I I love finding somebody in there. I love going in and being like, oh, it's you, who I never get to see. Yes. Um, and also like we've been doing UGRO groups, which if you're not part of the lab school, if you're part of any school, it's the it's the PLC or the PLN, the uh learning network or the learning group. And um, I'm in a I'm in the um culturally responsive teaching uh UGRO group, and it's very small, but we've been doing a lot of work with um the it was it's oh I'm not gonna remember what it's called. It's it's called the IDI. It's like the intercultural development initiative something. And it's basically like a a test to see like how culturally responsive are you actually? And so like there's a level where you think you are, and then there's a level where you're at.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

And then Ooh, I want to take this test.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I haven't taken it yet. We've had to get some, like we we've uh submitted a grant for it. But like I'm doing that with a world language teacher and a history teacher and another world language teacher, and I don't see them ever outside of this Yugro group, but it is solidifying and like across curriculums and across it, it just this year has been the year that I've seen the most like it most evidence that we are all here for the same reasons.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

We are activated, yeah, we are galvanized. That's why I I agree entirely. Like it does feel like culturally we're shifting and it feels more cross-the-school kind of collaboration. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what's kind of nice is healing. Yes, we're really coming together.

Ben Webb 8:13

Well, and what's really nice about it is sometimes you have like the end of the year where it's just like I need to be done. This the word that you've all kind of shared is really not just about this year, but how we then carry that into the next year.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

We have to be thinking about the. I mean, I don't know about you guys. I'm definitely always thinking about well, not always, but around this time of year. I'm like, all right, I'm done. I'm good. I'm good with whatever that was. Let's look at what what's gonna happen in the world.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

I'm always thinking about the next year. I'm like, next year when I do this, I'm going to be better.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Yeah. It is. So when this year, even though this year ends, like there is that bittersweet, the next year is coming, and I have to be prepared for it in order to do my job well.

Ben Webb 8:53

Well, and think

Student Moments That Stick

Ben Webb 8:54

okay, so thinking back to this last year, okay, what's one student moment that you are gonna carry in your memory long term going into the future? Because sometimes at the end of the year, yeah, you're just like etch a sketch. I don't want to forget about that. But I think like if you had to pick one student moment, of course, being you know cognizant of you know, you want to respect their privacy and don't embarrass them too much, because some of our kids actually listen to this podcast. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Um what's one of them won't listen to me in the classroom? Why do they want to listen to me?

SPEAKER_03 9:22

We should be making podcasts, that's what it is. Yeah, that's it.

Ben Webb 9:25

Go on the internet, be on the internet, be use the velvety tones, and there you go. Okay, then they start listening to instructions. So, what's one student moment from this year?

SPEAKER_02 9:36

I'll go.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah, go for it.

Ben Webb 9:39

You're taking turns, you're being polite.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

So, again, in my anatomy class, uh, we read Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green. And I was really anxious about it because one, I have never had my students read a book. So I partnered with our awesome instructional coach, shout out Shannon Maney, um, who kind of talked me off a ledge at points and gave me the confirmation that I needed to go forward with this project. Um and the whole time I'm like, oh, I don't know if I'm doing this right. Like, I'm not really sure the correct pedagogy to teach a book. Um, but she helped me along with that. And um there so we did a mix of reading in class and and out of class, and I opted to play the the audio version because just hearing John Green read it is the best. Um and I remember like I was having a day where I was like, I don't know if my kids this is like really clicking with my kids. Like when I read this, I was like, okay, this is this is impactful, and I think everybody should know about this. Um and there was a a chapter in that book called Marco Polo, which is uh it's especially um it brings up the need for awareness and advocacy for uh people living with tuberculosis. And we ended the day on that chapter, and then like inside I was just like looking around like is anybody else as impacted by this chapter? And it was the last class of the day, so everybody just kind of like got up and left. And I was like, okay, we'll continue this tomorrow, maybe we'll we'll spark a good discussion. And I had one student kind of stay back, and he was just like, Wow. And we kind of like had a moment together, and we kind of cried a little bit together. And he was like basically, in a way, he was thanking me for for introducing this project, and um, yeah, I'm not gonna say that.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Oh my god, that's so good.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

So it was like confirmation that yes, I'm doing what I should be doing. Are all students getting what I want them to get out of this text? Probably not.

Ben Webb 11:42

But the two English teachers right here are beaming. We're so happy to hear from these.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Yes, but the those moments like that are like this is why I'm doing this job. Um, because I'm having an impact and I know the student is gonna take the themes that I want from this book, what I wanted them to get out of this book and move forward and apply it to what he wants to do in the future.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

He's gonna remember that forever. As an adult, he's gonna be like, my science teacher did this weird thing and had us read a book, and it was so good. Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

It was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Um, I had um, I have him read books all the time. That doesn't matter. Um, I had mine, mine uh is my student moment is um I'm very I'm very vulnerable and open with my students. I'm I have um an anxiety disorder and I teach oral comms, so I try to like make that very apparent to them. And uh I'm very open with talking about like how I'm feeling and what I'm nervous about. And I uh I made an assignment and and someone said um some a student said something along the lines of you did it, this is you did a good job. And I kind of like stopped in my tracks, and I'm very dramatic. I stopped in my tracks and I put my hand on my chest. I said, That's all I ever want to hear. All I ever want to hear is you are doing a good job. And a student took that literally, and she handed me a note later in the hour that had on one side it did have a picture of a flying squirrel. And I said, What's with the squirrel? She's like, you know, you're like a squirrel, but flying because it's cooler. And I said, How am I like a squirrel? She's like, you know, you're kind of like, and she she did like kind of like a like a skittery like thriller hands uh to the left and right, and I said, That's accurate. And then she was like, You gotta flip it over, though. And I flipped it over and it just said, You're doing a good job.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

And it was such a little thing. And if you are a student listening, holy cow, that's the easiest thing you could do for a teacher. And if you do that once a week for all of your teachers, one favorite student, two, that is gonna help their mental health so much. Yeah, because it's not little to us, it's big to us. It's not, it's huge. And like, and it's hard because in this job, we we you can know you're doing a good job and still not be sure that you are doing a good job because your audience is like neutral faced the whole time, and you're like, Are you getting it? And then sometimes you rate assignments and you're like, was the assignment the problem, or did I not instruct correctly, or is there is there a completely different variable that I don't know about that's going on at home or with the kid or whatever? Um, so yeah, no, that was huge. And I and then and then for my birthday, the same student drew me an owl because I'm wise. And I just put them, I I see them every day. I see them every day because I put them up in my in my little office space.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

So those are your power animals.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

They really are a flying squirrel and an owl.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

It's like your patronus, a little Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yeah, but I don't know which one's gonna come out. We are millennial.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

Appreciate you guys calling me millennial because I don't think I am, but if you are you've got the millennial aura. Thanks. Well, you know, it's that youthful vibe that I have.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Very youthful.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

Um, well, so mine is kind of um not a classroom moment. I do feel like there's been like a lot of exciting classroom moments just because I tried this year to anchor every uh unit in dual credit chemistry to like a phenomenon that had to do with environmental concern or consumer concerns, um, safety concerns, things like that. And to show them that there are different sides to like industry and like this the STEM fields and things like that. So it was pretty exciting. And we had a lot of like cool moments of like the light bulb type moment where they're like, oh wow, you know, I didn't realize that, whatever. Um but the the moment that I am thinking about, I have a little board in my room. I it's called the um Chem Alumni Wall of Fame, and I put the seniors who give me their picture, I put their picture up there, and a lot of them will be like their invitation. So I've I had one student as a sophomore and um struggled in chem, had some difficulties with the class and also with like just self-management, I would say. Um, and then you know, watching them grow from sophomore year to senior year, it's like they become so much more mature. Anyway, this this student and I, you know, see each other in the hall and kind of do that like half wave whatever, but they came up to me on ACT day, and I can't even recall what I said to them, and they just gave me this big hug, and it was like they had tears in their eyes, and then they gave me an invitation to their um graduation party, and then they got to be on the wall of fame, the Kem Wall of Fame, and I was just like, that is amazing because somewhere in there we must have had like a moment of connection, and it just persists, and you don't even see that necessarily in the day-to-day, but it's there, you know? Yeah, and so like two years on, you can still be like helping them to grow. So that was cool for me.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

But sometimes we don't realize how impactful we are until later. Yeah, like the senior um notes that we get. Sometimes I'll get one from a student. I'm like, oh, I didn't think this student even liked me. And they wrote like the sweetest thing about something I did. Um yeah, it's really important to hear to keep us going. It's good motivation. Agree.

Ben Webb 17:32

We need it. It's not just caffeine. We also need the affirmation.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

I I do this for a paycheck, but I would really appreciate the affirmation also. Yes.

What We Would Do Differently

Ben Webb 17:41

All right, so that's the happy fuzzy lovey dovey. If you could here's another one. So if you had to go back and fix one thing from this year, you did one thing from this last year, you could go back in time and correct or change, what would that be?

SPEAKER_02 18:05

I'm gonna say steel Meg's idea about the phones in the shoe containers. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

I gotta say, phone the phone zone. It got me an award for most the most teacher most dedicated to discipline last year. Um I love this. And it was a great, I was happy to accept such an award. Yes. It's been great.

Ben Webb 18:27

It's really a compliment.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

I it truly, they they thought it'd be like, we'll get her. I appreciated it. Yeah. I'm trying to think of something. I mean, I would change a lot of things. I would I don't know. I would change like my attention. I had a really hard time this year. I don't know what I would do exactly, but I wish that I could have changed like how much attention I gave things. I never once had a balance between how much attention I was paying to any of my classes. Like my oral comm would be, it was like if if my classroom was, if if my classes were like pots on a stove, I was constantly rotating to front burner and back burner. Never once were they all on the front burner, which is maybe a good thing. Maybe I'm I'm realizing that like burnout would be all of them on the front burner.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

But there's only so many burners and there's only one stove. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

I have so many more pots than burners, but like my my poor dual credit class, there's only 11 of them. They were, I was on autopilot for that class for a while because um I I had took on an extra class for a colleague who's um a family, a very close family member past, and she was out helping that process along with her family. And so uh all of the English department teachers took on one of her classes. And just having that one extra class, even though it was a class I was already teaching, was so was a lot more than I expected. I wouldn't change, I would still do it. I would do it in a heartbeat because that's what you do. Um, but I don't know how to, I would change how much attention I gave to things. I don't know how though.

Ben Webb 20:11

And that's like you'd add like four more hours in the time.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

I would add four more hours in the day, but I would probably waste those two. Get a time turner, like you can't keep making Harry Potter references. We can though. This episode brought to you by No, we can't no money can go to that person.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

I know, I know, I get it. Um, I then there was one. Would do stuff different, of course. That's like part of the thing. With I think people don't really know how much I do that, where like I'm just like reliving every single day and every single class period and being like, I should have done that, or I forgot to do this, or you know what would be better if I blah blah blah. So there's a lot of those things. But I think ultimately, I think I just took on too many things this year. I mean, kind of similar vein to what you were saying. I just found myself feeling rather than being present to like really enjoy and embrace those things, I was feeling a relief that they were over. And I know that to me is like signature burnout moment.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Were you feeling pressured? Like, I don't know where the pressure was coming from, but I was feeling pressured to say yes to more things. I truly don't know where the pressure was coming from. Probably my own internal. I'm always there.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

I don't know how to say no. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, I want to, but I can't. Then I'm like Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Then I'm like so overwhelmed. Yeah. So anyway, relief that something that you took on is over is probably not like the best way to go about things. So next year I'm not doing as many things. You know famous last words.

Ben Webb 21:56

And we're gonna bookmark this moment for later in the next year. And we're like, hey, so remember when you said you were gonna say no to some things?

SPEAKER_01 22:02

That's so good. I was actually thinking about that the other day because I my husband also is a full-time teacher and a union president, and we have an eight-year-old, and we don't live in town. And like lots of things like keep us from require us to spend less time in our jobs or more time in our jobs. And he was just at an award, he accepted an award um last night, which meant he had to go to a banquet, which meant I was we could have gone too, but it was like I don't really want to go um to that. So we stayed home and I had been I'd been gone on a long trip, so I hung out with my kiddo. But like I was reflecting, I was like, man, it's it this happens every year. We're both teachers, a lot of stuff happened. We got prom this weekend, graduations coming up. I'm I'm an English teacher in a high school and it's May. I have a ton of stuff to grade. English, any teacher in high school uh in May. And I'm like, what can I do next year to ensure that this process is smoother? And I'm gonna have to plan that. I have to start planning that now, coming back to what we were talking about earlier. Like, I have to, I'm all I have to be thinking about next year now so that next year doesn't kill me. Yes. Like, and I'm only like 60% joking. No, I know.

Ben Webb 23:11

I know we're not even there yet, and we're already thinking about okay, what am I gonna do for out of self-preservation? What am I gonna do differently for next year? And yeah, the curse of being a good teacher.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Yeah, the exhaustion is real.

Ben Webb 23:23

Yep.

The Hidden Weight Of June

Ben Webb 23:24

Okay. Speaking of exhaustion, not to prime the next question, but here's here's what it says What's the one thing nobody outside of the school realizes teachers deal with, especially by June?

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Yeah, just the same conversation, how many hats we wear.

Ben Webb 23:42

Um We're not a huge school, but we still have to do all the things that a school does.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

The committee work, the union work, coaching, sponsoring clubs, and that's just within school. Some of us are also students over at ISU. Some of us um teach classes at ISU. Um and then outside of school, parents, caretakers, just constantly throughout the day, just changing like what hat we're wearing is it's so exhausting.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

It is. I was talking to my sister who is not a teacher, she just had her her very first baby, and I I the trip I was on to was to help her kind of like um to visit and and meet the baby and and all that, like she's gonna remember. But um uh uh I was talking to her about all the things that I do, and she was like, wow, teaching is a single person's job. And I was like, Ow, yeah, but but doesn't it feel that way sometimes? And I and I like uh you know, there's that that mythical work-life balance that someone made up when it's baloney because you can't like in order to be a good a be in order to be 100% at anything, you have to be zero percent at something else, right? And so we we try to balance that and try to put all the pots on the burners, and there are only so many burners, and my family burner has a pot on it, but so does my teaching burner, but also so does my coaching burner, and then also so does my committee work burner, and also so does like and there's no I think I think that to answer the question directly is no one people are unaware of the guilt that happens when we can't do 100% of all of the things, um, which comes from, I don't know where exactly I couldn't pinpoint it. It comes from, I think a good teacher, the guilt comes from internally, because we are very hard on ourselves and we see ourselves as a certain level of of proficient and excellent. Um, but then also there's there are these um these societal mores that like teachers are superheroes, and it's like, well, dog, superheroes don't get paid. Superheroes are very lonely. Superheroes, like, there's a dark side to being a superhero, and that is definitely what we experience in the May, June era.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

Yeah, I feel like um I guess this is kind of a similar conversation, but I feel like it's hard to look back on the year and see those like missed opportunities, and also to know like you don't get that year back again, you know? Um, and so you just keep going and it feeds the whole like reflection, what am I gonna do next year conversation in my mind that's like starting now, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:34

You have to hold both of those in your head.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

Yeah, and it's and for me, it's just like I don't know, there's like a little bit of a feeling of you mentioned the kind of I guess um conversation around teachers and like what you hear about teachers, like they don't get paid enough and you know they have to they're overworked and and I just feel like I don't want to wrestle with all of those big giant issues. I just about you. Yes, I just want to look back on an academic year one time and be like, I did everything I set out to do, right? Instead, I'm always like, oh, if I could have just gotten to that one thing. And so that sticks in my mind. And I don't think people really realize that because when you have a job that is nine to five and year round, you're not on that cycle. And you're not like in that mindset of like, you know, I mean, if you work in accounting, you're not like next fiscal year, I'm gonna, you know what I mean? Like it's different.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

But us, it is it, it, God, you're so right. The cycle we are on that school year cycle, but like a traditional nine to five is there, it yes, it never ends. There's no summer break, but it's also like you have a a more recent chance or a more uh a more frequent chance to start again.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Yes. And every every day is a new start, right? Like that's not the case for us. We've spent an entire year like building relationships and building uh like enacting ideas and and then evaluating that from all different, like all different ways of thinking about the word evaluate, but at the end of the day, then it it like winds down and then it winds up again. I don't think people realize that that's unique to teaching. And that there's like a there's like an undercurrent of like regret in that for me. God, you're so right. Yeah, and I carry it around.

Ben Webb 28:39

Guilt, regret. We're really selling this profession.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, because I want to be positive, but I don't think people really know about that. Yeah.

unknown 28:48

Yeah.

Ben Webb 28:48

My my best least favorite memory is a student saw me once in the grocery store and just the aha moment and it's the look on their face of just like, what are you doing here? Like you're a person. I'm buying milk. Otherwise, the cereal's gonna stay crunchy.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Like you don't just sleep in your classroom.

Ben Webb 29:06

And and for some kids, it they get all the way to high school, and then they realize, oh, yeah, you're a person too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

I think another thing that kids don't realize, and our I uh, you know, we teach in the lab schools, we have clinical students. I think clinical students also don't realize this. I don't go back into my English office and then open the big book O lesson plans. Like it doesn't already exist. I made it up.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Like I made it up because I'm a professional and I have the schooling and the experience and all that. But students are always like like when I like my example earlier when I made something and they were like, this is good. I have also had students be like, You made this? I'm like, Yeah, I I made that. Oh, that's really good. Thanks. I I know what I want you to do. Like for example, I um just uh a thing I did, I I needed, I needed my dual credit students to have examples of like multimodal messages. And I had a ton, but they were like scattered everywhere. They were in my phone, they were in my drive, they were in wherever. And I needed to like to package it so that it was easy for them to access them and reflect on them. And it took me two hours. I was I was at my sister's in Alabama on Sunday before three days of being gone, a substitute taking over for me. I spent two hours putting together this like interactive slideshow where there was like a video or a link to something with questions, but I had to like track it all down. I had to download that from from Instagram because that's where I found it, because it's that's a genuine message. And so, like the time it took me to put it together, and then guess what? The videos were not accessible to the students.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Oh my gosh. I've had that happen too. I made a whole video, yes, and it had no sound. Of course, and I was getting, I was, I don't know where I was, maybe like at a conference or something, becoming a better professional. I'm getting these emails, and it's like, Mrs. Carrollis, um, we're trying to watch a video, but it has no sound. And I'm like, there's nothing I can do.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Troubleshoot, solve the problem, put captions on. But but like, and I and I'm really proud of the thing I made. And it's it worked out. There were other things in there that they could access. But I was like, it took me two hours to make that. Yeah. I sacrificed being with my sister and her new baby so that I could make sure that my students' day was smooth. That happens a lot.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

I will say of any school I've worked at, I think the the teachers here have the highest expectations for themselves. And like if if time wasn't a constraint, like we would just let's make this a little bit better. Let's refine this a little bit. But we just gotta be like, okay, this is unfortunately this is good enough and this will work.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

Um alongside that too, there's like a real sense of imposter syndrome, too, that I think we all internally suffer from. Like, do we belong here? Are we like meeting the bar? I know I'm constantly asking myself, like, is this the best it could be? What could I do to like make it better?

SPEAKER_01 32:11

You know, there are teachers who have been here longer than I've been here, and they still will look at other teachers and be like, oh, they did so much better than I did. It's like, what are you why? Why are you comparing? And I'm and then I do the same thing. So I get it.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

Yeah, yeah.

Ben Webb 32:25

We're all guilty of it.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

There's teachers who've been here longer than I've been alive, and they're no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Because you're so young.

SPEAKER_03 32:33

It's because I'm only in my 20s. You're such a you're baby.

Ben Webb 32:37

All right, millennial. Um last question, then lightning round.

Why We Keep Coming Back

Ben Webb 32:42

All right. After everything this year, what keeps you coming back? I assume all three of you are gonna be back next year.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Yeah, as far as I know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

I'm coming. I haven't gotten a letter yet.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

I'm coming back and I'm tenured. That's like I just yeah, I just got that letter in my mailbox. Yay! So congrats.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Um I'm I'm coming back to help make things better, to continue to make things better. That's like it's easy, not easy, but like a, you know, you could if things are frustrating, you could jump shit. But in this job, there's like there's a there's definitely a grass is greener mentality that I've fallen prey to. Um, I have quit a job at one school to go to another school where I thought it was better and twasn't. Um and and uh I I want to I want to come back and be part of positive change big time.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

Yeah. Yeah, that's why I do what I do also. I just feel like we're all making our way in the world and we all have to do a little part to make it better. And this is like the part that I just ended up really enjoying, and also I feel like it's my little way of making impact. So I just keep coming back to do that.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Yeah, coming back for my students. I I really enjoy my students, they keep me young, uh, they're hilarious, they give me gray hair.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Look at this in the visual medium that works out.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

But also, I think we're unique at the lab school because we have such a ripple effect, because we have an enormous amount of clinical students that are eventually gonna go out into the real world, that we have such a positive influence on them, and then those teachers will go out and teach in the real world, and it's good to know like we have had an effect on an entire generation of educators.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Well said.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

And we need people to be positive about education, and I think that's part of like the unique part of being in the lab schools, like it's a spot to really talk about like education as the great leveler, the great equalizer. Like, I still believe in that, you know, even if it's being dismantled, you know, even if people are negative about teacher training or teacher pay or the condition of schools or whether or not our like tax levy is fair, whatever. Like at the end of the day, this is like how you make the world a better place. So I think it's good for people to have a window into that who are considering the profession.

Fast Five Lightning Round

Ben Webb 35:20

All right. Lightning round. So this is the fast five. As fast as you can, answer these five questions. We'll just go one at a time. Uh and this only happens the first time you're on the podcast. So if you guys come back for another episode, this is a good one.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

What if I have different what if I have different answers?

Ben Webb 35:34

That's an Andy question because this is his. So I'm not sure. I'm trying to be Mr. Govey in this.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Really, I've my heart rate just jumped. I know.

Ben Webb 35:41

You're gonna be great. Uh, first question Who is the person that most led you into education?

SPEAKER_02 35:48

That would be my seventh-grade geography teacher, Mrs. Herod. Um, I was like, in when I was in college, I was like, I don't know if I want to go into teaching or if I want to go the biology route. And she actually popped into, I was working at the coffee house when I was in between, and I was talking to her about what I was doing, and she was like, Oh, you'd be such a good teacher. I'm like, really? And just never considered that before.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

So she was my personal sixth grade science teacher, Miss Bulk Elder. She was amazing. I made a volcano in her class, and my dad and I spent like three days building it out of paper mache around the kitchen table. And that was like the coolest, most fun project I'd ever done in school. And I loved school before, but that's when I knew, like, oh, I want to be like her.

unknown 36:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

My seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Motsky, uh told me to when students are when my classmates were not very kind to me, she said that I should back them into a corner and use words longer than they are tall. Nice. Oh, I love that. Yeah.

Ben Webb 36:50

I like it. What's your go-to caffeine to get through the day?

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Uh I have a very noticeable Alani addiction. I like just plain coffee.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Uh coffee, but I don't want to taste the coffee. So creamer has to be part of it.

Ben Webb 37:06

Training wheels. Okay. I respect that.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

I've been on training wheels for a long time.

Ben Webb 37:11

Favorite subject when you were a student.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Other than science? The obvious choice is biology. I loved biology, everything about it. Um I I enjoyed Spanish. I I like learning a new language because it's, you know, something that you will, without a doubt, use in the future.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

I liked English, but for the reading part, not for the writing part.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

That's really fair. Um banned.

Ben Webb 37:35

Band, okay. Um, what are you currently reading, watching, or listening to right now?

SPEAKER_02 37:44

Oh my gosh, it's a long list for a lightning round.

Ben Webb 37:47

It's a fast five. It's supposed to be a lightning round.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

Fast five. I'm currently watching season 50 of Survivor and loving it. I love a good competition reality show.

SPEAKER_04 37:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

I'm reading a space opera called Worship. I don't know. It's a three-book series. I forget who writes it, and I honestly don't remember the actual title of the series. Um, but I'm also listening to Pod Save America.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

I'm reading slash listening to an audiobook written by Andrew Robinson, who played Garrick on the Star Trek series Deep Space Nine.

unknown 38:19

Okay.

Ben Webb 38:20

And the last one, your favorite thing about being a part of the lab schools.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

I'm gonna say my department. Can I say my department? I love my science department. Sorry. The science department, in my opinion, is the greatest department here. We can argue. But I just I I I love them. I love each one of them. They give me motivation to come to school. They're so supportive. Um, we just get along so well.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

It is a dream team. Science department, 100%. Like my colleagues make it an amazing place to work.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

I I mean, it is it is maybe cliche, but the English department, I this is my favorite department. I really like that I can have a like a grown-up conversation about literature and writing and and language with the people that I work with. And I it's one thing anytime I'm like, what if I taught somewhere else? Or what if I didn't teach anymore? Then I'd be like, well, then I wouldn't be able to have this conversation. Yes.

Ben Webb 39:15

Very good.

Where To Find The Show

unknown 39:16

All right.

Ben Webb 39:16

Thanks, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

Live in the lab schools is a production of the ISU Laboratory Schools recorded on the campus of Illinois State University. Connect with us on Facebook or Instagram at Live in the Lab Schools. We'll see you next time.