Empowering Minds, Embracing Technology: The Evolution of Education

Jeremy 

Sure. Actually after high school I initially wanted to go to college for business and it was that summer after high school. When I thought I knew what I wanted to do I ended up going to work at a summer camp in Northern Wisconsin y m c a summer camp and it was after a summer of working with kids teaching them things like archery how to sail, I took them on some canoe trips. After all of that, it kind of changed my mind and I was hooked on working with young people and so after that summer I decided that I would switch to elementary middle education and I ended up working at the summer camp for five summers and along the line. That’s where I went to school to be a teacher.

And it’s kind of I’m sorry it’s just kind of 1 thing I always like to say too is I’m really thankful for those that time at the camp not just because it helped me pick what I wanted to do for my career but also those five summers working with young people in a camp setting.

It helped me learn more about working with young people, help me with my classroom management all sorts of things. So, I’m very grateful for that experience I think I learn more there when it comes to that type of thing than I did in college.

Husena

That’s amazing. You know it’s funny I think I’ve mentioned to you, I’ve also been in education for quite a few years now and many times when I meet new people who have been in the field as well such as yourself and I ask them what made you pursue education many of us have just kind of stumbled into it and then ended up liking it there which is amazing and you know that was your story as well. Thank you for sharing that? I also understand you’ve been teaching in Wisconsin for quite some time is that right?.

Jeremy 

Yes, my whole career I’ve been teaching at the same school in Northern Wisconsin.

Husena

Nice, so you know could you give us a glimpse into what might be some of the unique dynamics of your local community’s educational landscape. Maybe some challenges you might have encountered or how they’ve influenced your teaching methods.

Jeremy

Sure. First where I live it is beautiful. It’s a small town and we are surrounded by trees woods and lakes so there really are great opportunities for us. We take our students out on adventures. Cross country skiing, snowshoeing, canoeing, hiking all sorts of things. So, the natural, the natural space is really unique to our area and it gives our students a unique experience. A lot of the challenges that we face I think are pretty similar to challenges that a lot of schools are facing in the country right now one that’s over the last couple of years is really become prominent is just being able to find teachers and paraprofessionals. There aren’t as many people who are sending in applications for open positions. I can recall when I applied there were a couple hundred applications and for jobs and recently at my school for some open positions. There have only been like 2 or 3 so the pool to draw from,it’s really diminished and this has been tough, especially as we lose some of the veteran teachers, a lot of their wisdom and their kind of ability to mentor younger teachers. It’s kind of creating a one call. It’s like kind of like a perfect storm. It just is a really big challenge to try to staff every spot that needs an adult there. Other thing, we were just in our curriculum a few days of curriculum development and we also were we took a mental health training and that’s very much connected to what’s an increasing challenge as well is a lot of our students need mental health support along with some of their family members and to connect the kids that need that support, it takes a lot of time and there’s a waiting list in our community since we’re in a smaller location. There aren’t too many options to choose from. And so that’s become an increasing need as well.

Husena

Wow! Thank you for sharing. I know that there’s been a shortage of teaching stuff in general but to hear you know, especially considering that you know you’re a smaller community and the strain must be a lot more, I’m assuming this also increases your workload just as an individual teacher.

Jeremy 

Yeah. I know at my school they’ve done a really nice job of doing everything they can to support us. But even just not having, there’s a lot of turnover since the applicant pool isn’t great.

A lot of the teachers that may think that they want to teach at our school, it might not be a good fit for them and so it’s kind of turned in in some areas a constant effort to try to bring new teachers up to speed.

And that can take a toll because it’s one, you know anyone in education knows, it’s enough just to maintain and do what you need to do in your own classroom for your students. But you know we work on teaching teams and we try to support each other and when there’s a lot of new people that can take its toll. It’s a little extra effort.

Husena

Yeah, I mean obviously teaching as it is a demanding profession. It’s a lot more demanding than people actually understand. So you know, I know that you are facing challenges just in the profession of teaching but just there are also challenges in your classroom that I’m sure you’re facing and if you don’t mind just sharing, maybe some instances of, maybe where you might have turned some of these obstacles into opportunities for growth or how these experiences have contributed to your teaching philosophy.

Jeremy

Yes, I think overall in my twenty some years of teaching that the student needs have become greater, and it is more challenging to manage a classroom.

And so, as a result of that over the course of my career I’ve had to do a lot of reflecting and even some you know some learning on my own end to try to adapt and make things more manageable and so I’ve had to change a lot to make things work. Couple books that I’ve read really impacted me and one specifically is called teaching with love and logic and reading yes reading that book really kind of helped shift my perspective a bit and that was very helpful. Another one is kind of a book I think even older than that. But it’s called Choice Theory in the classroom and that one really clicked with me and then just kind of through professional reading and trial and error, I definitely have had to become better at listening and just understand that more patience is required.

And so as things have become more challenging, it’s just kind of necessity to change and adapt and so even though it takes work I think that ultimately it’s put me in a better place now of course than I was fifteen or so years ago, I just also I was so lucky when I was first hired that I was placed on a teaching team with 2 wonderful teachers and in many ways they were kind of like a school mom and. They did so much to help mentor me and teach me the things I can do to make my life easier to become a better teacher. So, I felt very supported and then recently within the last couple years they’ve both retired and so them retiring or any veteran teacher retiring poses some challenges for a school building but it’s also been also kind of a catalyst for me to become at least try to become more of a leader to help out my teaching teammates to find ways to kind of get us to work together for you know the betterment of our student outcomes, so that’s actually was tougher than I thought it would be but it’s forcing me to grow I’ve got no choice.

Husena

I love how you explained it. You work as a community right? All of you in your school or just teachers in general like it’s It’s never. It’s not really a competition like it might be in some other professions. But rather it’s you supporting each other keeping your students best interests in mind and that’s really what I love the most about teaching and you know that was really great for me to hear that how you were supported even in your career and I’m glad to hear that you’re looking into becoming more of a leader in that aspect as well. That must be an exciting change for you and talking about changes and adapting which is something that you touched on, I just want to veer into the topic of technology which is you know, really what we want to discuss in today’s episode and you know just as an experienced educator you  must have witnessed the evolution of educational trends and practices firsthand and with more and more technology being incorporated in the field of education it’s clear that the landscape is rapidly changing. So, what maybe specifically in subjects like science and social studies, how do you envision technology’s role evolving in the classroom.

Jeremy

Sure. Some of the things that I’ve appreciated technology for kind of in order of when I first tried to use it first would be with blended learning and using a learning management system to put together a lesson where there were different stations. A station rotation model where students can be in groups and still be collaborative but also kind of working in different spaces and different things at different times but being kind of guided using technology which has allowed me to work with smaller groups of students either to do some reteaching or just some shorter sessions of direct instruction when I looked think about technology and looked to the future. I would envision that to become even more and more opportunities for that probably some systems that will streamline it and maybe even things that are for purchase that will take some of that front end workout for the teachers because I know even now to plan something like that, to plan all of those stations and get them kind of running smoothly, it does take a lot of prep ahead of time. Another area that I think technology is starting to take off is its ability to personalize instruction and also offer immediate feedback. I’ve really liked using tools. Some of my favorites are – a site called Quizzes and a site called quizlet. Places where students can practice retrieval and then they get immediate feedback and then also they’ll even get some instructions on what to study based upon what it is that they aren’t grasping just yet and I also have seen a few other programs in our school that get to know the students and then are able to offer up what they need at kind of just the right level and so I think that personalization of education is where another place where technology will really evolve. I’m kind of excited to see where that goes and then.

Husena

Yeah, I was just going to say I agree with you there. There is a lot of excitement over what is possible and you know just referring back to the challenges that you mentioned earlier just you know with somebody being Shortsta, the thing that’s lacking the most for all teachers, I think at all times is time itself. Not having enough time and technology in the classroom is I think sometimes helpful in helping a teacher save time sometimes it may not.

I’m not sure. There are always 2 sides to a coin but I definitely think that with the way technology is going there is a lot of potential for time to be saved for teachers in the classroom if we use technology in the right way. What are your thoughts on that.

Jeremy 

I am hopeful for that as well. I kind of got a question mark because I don’t know enough about artificial intelligence other than a little tinkering and some research on my own. But I think there’s some promise in that. Being able to do some of the streamlining of administrative tasks, able to maybe even look at student writing which is very time consuming and I’d love a day to see them like you would submit something and then it could be read by something that’s got the artificial intelligence. And then right away the students could get 2 or 3 things that they could do just to work on or improve their writing. I think english language arts teachers would really like something like that and even lesson planning and brainstorming of ideas. I’m hopeful that those will be areas that AI will really kind of take off.

Husena

Yeah, and things we didn’t know were possible fifteen years ago are possible now. So you never know and it’s just a better of there are a lot of repetitive tasks that teachers complete for their students. If those can be automated through AI, I think there is a lot of potential there. But time will tell. I’m sure you know I just wanted to also talk about an interesting aspect of your profile which was crew teaching. How have you used this approach to enhance student engagement and their overall learning experience. Are there strategies you found particularly effective in building a sense of community and sorry a small caveat here for our listeners who are not in education, if you don’t mind also just briefly explaining what crew teaching is.

Jeremy 

Well sure. First the idea of crew most people would know it is kind of similar to being a homeroom or an advisory and the term crew is not my idea. It comes from an organization called El Education which is they have a model for schools and a big part of what they teach is evolve or is a round crew. So, crew is, it’s a homeroom and I have a crew every year and those are the students that I get to know the best and the point of crew and number one I would say is to do all sorts of different things to try to build relationships with students. So, it’s not necessarily an academic class a regular crew, a day of crew. They would come to me and each day we would have some sort of reading or quote then we greet each other in a variety of ways. We have group initiatives, all sorts of different ones that we choose from and then at the end of each crew, we do some sort of debrief, try to take what we did in crew and apply it maybe to the school day or to school or life in general and then I teach Eighth grade. So, one of the coolest things is after we’ve done that for a while eventually my students since they’re so experienced with it, they end up leading crew themselves. So yes, it’s one of the best parts about school. It’s often a lot of fun and we also focus on character development and we call them our habits of scholarship.

Husena

That’s amazing I love that.

Jeremy 

Things like grit and curiosity and craftsmanship and then it’s also a time to be reflective. We get ready for our student led conferences and crew. But I think Crew is one of the main drivers that’s made our school a pretty cool place to work.

Husena

That’s so good to hear you know? When you mentioned about it’s not just academic, it’s also about building that relationship with your students. I think sometimes it’s not very clear to others about how important it is to know your student. It is only when you know your student you will know the best way to teach them if you don’t know your student.. It’s very difficult to find ways to have them understand what you’re trying to teach them because you really need to pull into their knowledge outside of the classroom for them to have a better learning experience. These are my thoughts anyway and I think yeah and I think crew teaching does help you understand your student better and make it easier for you to relate to them in your teaching as well if I can say that and any of you agree?

Jeremy 

I agree. I think that it provides a space to get to know each other in kind of a different way and so it’s not something where there’s not a grade. It’s necessarily for crew. It’s more of a level playing field. And we participate as teachers, we participate in the discussions and I think that really helps throughout the rest of the rest of the day.

Husena

Yes, yes, and you know, while we’re talking about enhancing the learning journey for your students, I just want to bring us back to integrating technology into your classroom. I’m sure my listeners are also excited to learn about is how you might have integrated technology into your teaching methods to elevate that learning journey for students. If you have some examples, I know you mentioned a couple of tools but some examples of how you might use those tools.

Jeremy 

Sure I’ll start with some things that seem really simple but have had a big impact over the years. One is just finding an online place to like post my lesson plans and activities from the school day. That’s not just for me to see but the students can also access and their parents as well. A learning management system has really helped be an organizational hub for all that we do in the day and we just happen to use Google classroom but I know there are a lot of really good ones out there. In Science which is what I teach most of during the day, one of the things that comes to mind are these cool, they’re called Phet Simulations P H E T and these are online simulations and I think they come from the university of Colorado but there are these free simulations where I can do online investigations with my students and where they can see how gravity works or they can look at how energy transfers. While they’re playing around with this energy skate park, they can also look at sound waves and light waves and it allows them to play with things that would be tough to play with in a hands-on way some of them in the lab. So, simulations like that have been really helpful and helping students understand the concepts in science. And then one of my favorites would be all the different formative assessment tools that are available I know I mentioned before the quizzes and quiz let I also appreciate one called Lookett and another one called gimkit and then a couple times a year, I also use, I think it’s just called flip now. But I think it used to be called flipgrid where students can record themselves and video of themselves. And that’s been a really really good one. And just recently within the last year or so, I’ve been using quizzes to do something that’s learning about edu protocols and one of the ones that I tried this past year that I really liked was called the fast and the curious and that one is a great way to use retrieval practice and also to help you pinpoint where students are struggling and then reteach those concepts. I found that to be a really good use. So those are some of the areas that I use quite a bit.

Husena

These are all really great. You know what really caught my attention was when you were talking about the simulations especially in science. I was just listening and reflecting back to my school days and I was thinking that would have been so helpful if it was there at that time as well. You know I’m just thinking there are many different types of learners correct, there are those who learn well just by reading, they’re those who need more visual eats, some who learn better if they have it in their hands and just personally I feel like I could have like. But in Science Biology for example, was something that I could envision visualize even physics was because that’s part of like the real world but chemistry because it was so me to envision it. But I’m thinking if we had simulations back when I was in school maybe I would have done better in chemistry. That’s what was going through my mind as he was speaking.

Jeremy

That’s one of the reasons I love it is we can look at how the some of the simulations will show you how the atoms behave when energy or pressure is added or taken away things that are hard, to like show them in class they can see in the simulation. So, I completely agree with you.

Husena

That’s amazing and you know at this point what I can really tell is you know, especially from all the effort that you’ve put into understanding your students or using these tools to understand how they’re doing in class your dedication to teaching and your passion for Education. They’re very evident. How does your personal teaching philosophy guide your strategies and interactions within the classroom.

Jeremy

Well, I think, I guess, at the foundation I’ve come to believe that kids and people seem to learn best by doing and if you’re learning something or a new skill, that’s a good start. But when you actually find ways to use it or do something with it then I think that learning really sticks. Or when you can see the application of things and so I believe that that’s really important. Try to find ways to get students to do something with what they’re learning. I also see a need for students to practice both their independent and their collaborative skills that they’re able to work with teams to solve a problem or get a job done or complete a project but also.

But they can be independent and find things out on their own have strategies that they can apply which also puts them in a position to actually be a useful member of a team and so I think it’s best to practice both of those, for that balance in Education. Because I think that’s very few things in life very few careers will you do in isolation. I’m sure there are a few but you have to be able to work with others and be able to be independent and even self-driven a bit. I think school is a great place to track practice that I see a need for kids to be encouraged and to be reminded that they can be curious when they’re younger, it seems. That’s so much easier for them.

Husena

Definitely.

Jeremy

And then by the time they get to me in eighth grade it seems like they’re much more reserved and so I think it’s important to try to keep that curious spirit alive. And to couple it with creativity, think for anyone adults as well and sometimes I worry that school isn’t the best place to keep that alive. And as I get older one of the things, I’m more mindful of is just kind of like what is the school day like or what is the class period like for my students. I become antsy when I’m in meetings that last too long, and I think a lot about my students and I’ve really been looking into the benefits of incorporating brain breaks and being more mindful of after a certain amount of time finding some interesting ways to break things up to get a little movement. I think that’s an important thing that previously I did not do a great job of but I see that that has a positive effect when I try it.

Husena

You know I feel like that’s important even after school I think I should be taking brain breaks more just in general. But it’s good to show your students how they should be doing it. School is about preparing them for the real world at the end of the day right? S0, you know I really love that now just coming back to technology, I know that incorporating technology can sometimes be a balance between traditional teaching methods and modern tools and finding the right balance is sometimes key. So, how do you ensure that your students receive a comprehensive education that combines the best of both worlds right.

Jeremy

This is an interesting one because I’ve been all over the place with this initially started out and it was all paper and pencil and books etc. And then as technology was introduced then I went all the way to the other side and I thought well a paperless classroom is the way to go and then I think now I’ve come to realize that it’s that balance of all of those things that’s kind of the sweet spot and so for me, it comes down to when I plan my lessons, want to be mindful to make sure that I am incorporating a variety of ways that I am helping kids to learn of ways for them to practice what they’re learning and then even a variety of assessments. So try to use. We have a traditional paper Science Book, we have an online version we can use. I think direct instruction is important and I think it’s important for kids to practice their listening and learn how to listen from someone who’s speaking with them using video to learn. Adults and kids were really good consumers of information and we can watch video but watching it is not the same as necessarily like learning something from it and so how can we be engaged with things that are online like video, even online text and then I think also discussion, class discussion is something to not let go to the side because we talk about skills for life. I think it’s needed for people to learn how to listen to each other and then to be able to express their viewpoints in a way that is productive, and I think school is a great place to practice that as well.

Husena

A hundred percent. I definitely agree with all your points and I love how you said you tried both ways like obviously when you started with spending paper and then you decide to go entirely paperless. But yes, having a balance of both the traditional methods and having technology to aid you in your teaching is so important. Videos, I agree with that sometimes they can just be watched passively so there needs to be some kind of interaction thereafter. That interaction can come in the form of technology as well or it can come in the form of a discussion in the classroom like you said and both are equally as important for a student to experience. So, I love that you shared your thoughts on that that way. Now we’re coming close to wrapping up and I just wanted to ask if you know you could share any memorable success stories that perhaps highlights the positive impact education has had on your students’ lives.

Jeremy

Sure one thing I have noticed it’s kind of come from actually since I was teaching a small school. I’ll get to have both of my kids in my class and so recently I had my oldest daughter in my class and watching, seeing her go through the school building and watching how all of the teachers have helped her learn what she needed to learn and move on to the next step of the education and then having that insight of having your own child in your class and then from here on in I can start to think about you know now I know what it’s like I think about all of these kids and their parents and it’s just this unique perspective that I wouldn’t have had from that and hearing them talk about what they liked in school, what they didn’t like. But I think a really big success is kind of just being in a school where I have that unique perspective and I’m able to kind of see it really close up through my own kids. It’s made me feel really good about teaching in the school I do. Another positive thing, one of my favorite things is watching kids is they develop their confidence and as they acquire new skills, learn new things and I have a great position in the eighth grade is I’m the last stop before my students go to high school. And so at the end of every year, my eighth graders do an end of the year portfolio passage presentation and it’s very reflective. They talk about their strengths and challenges. They talk about goals for the future and all of the things I think that we’ve done in the eighth grade. When I say we’ve like the teachers that end of the year passage would consider one of the bigger successes and then I guess the final one would be living in a small town when I’m out just doing regular day-to-day stuff. I get the kind of the privilege to see former students all the time and so I actually get to hear about their successes, I get to hear about what they’re doing with their lives. I’m old enough now where I have the children of my former students and so seeing how education has impacted people up into Adulthood is a really cool perspective. So, I feel very connected to my community. I really appreciate my community and you know it’s kind of a cool thing to have being have worked here for all of these years I’m really thankful for that.

Husena

I really really love that. I have been teaching like I told you for a while as well and when my former students come to me and tell me what they’ve been up to it, it just feels so good. The fact that you’re surrounded by that, I can imagine that’s even more amazing, and you can see like you said you can see their growth and you know it must be a good feeling I’m sure all right? So, Jeremy thank you so so much for sharing your wisdom and experiences with us today. It’s been an enlightening conversation and you know I love how we spoke about the building that relationship with your students, being mindful of traditional methods, the importance of using traditional methods in the classroom as well as incorporating technology. All of these points were really well put. So thank you again for joining us.

Jeremy

Thank you, thank you for having me. This is a great experience.

Husena

Remember listeners, the future of learning is being shaped today. So, each small step we take in embracing change contributes to brighter educational landscape for generations to come. Feel free to share your thoughts on this episode and keep the conversation going and you can use the Hashtag of #MagicEducatorInsights. Don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast and stay connected with us on social media. Keep learning keep growing until next time.