Could You Tell If Your Students Were High?

Voicemail: [00:00:00] So the principal said, so are you telling me there's nothing in this brownie? Yes. That's what I'm telling you. So if I ate this whole brownie right now, there's no problems. Yes. There's no problems. The principal then proceeded to eat the entire giant brownie

Theme: I

Andrea: Have you ever wondered what I would say if my mother and my administrators weren't watching Every single thing I do on social media? Well, that's exactly what my standup show is, and I'm gonna be coming to a town near you super soon. You can get tickets@educatorandrea.com slash tickets. Hey, teacher besties.

Welcome to How to Survive the Classroom. I just had the most incredible weekend, so I don't know if I shared with you guys about this last year, but I failed. So miserably because last year my husband turned 40, and that's a big birthday, right? Like that's a milestone [00:01:00] birthday. People usually go all out.

But last summer I graduated with my doctorate. My husband graduated from Yale. We had a huge party for him, and all of that happened in May. And then in June we went to Jamaica to celebrate all of that. Um, and then his birthday's in July. And um, I didn't do anything. To celebrate. And I'm usually so good about that.

You know, like I have done things like had his old Marine Corps buddies surprise him at an event. I had his brother once surprise us. Like, I took Steven, my husband to um, Vegas, and I surprised him with his brother. And those were not big birthdays, it was just like, like small birthdays and all of that.

And then on his 40th, I just dropped the ball. Life was so crazy. Things were very, very stressful. And I. Really dropped the ball. So this year I had some making up to do, which is what I did this weekend. Um, I took my husband to Nashville and we went to the Grand Ole Opry. So my husband grew up in southern Indiana.

[00:02:00] Like I, I obviously grew up in San Diego. Um, and so country music and southern culture and all of that was never something I grew up with. Um, but my husband always talked about the Grand Ole Opry because. That is like one of the key locations for country music. It's like, like Dolly performed there and like all like, that was like one of her home bases for a very long time.

And like there's all of these huge, huge names still to this day, um, of country music artists that become a. A member of the Gran Ole Opry and the Gran Ole Opry is like almost like a variety show. And it's still on the radio and it's still, and some of you guys are like, Andrew, you're getting this all wrong because you're big fans of country music.

So I'm sorry if that's the case. I'm talking to the people now who won't know the difference. So, um, it's like a variety show and they, they feature a couple of artists. Um. And it's a big, big deal when it is your first time performing at the Opry. And right now they're also doing a hundred year celebration for like having, [00:03:00] having hit a hundred years of having the Gran Opry.

It used to be at the Ryman Theater and Nashville and now it's at a different location. But, um, I really wanna take my husband, he is a huge fan of country music. Always has been bigger fan of like nineties country than the modern stuff. But, um. So I surprised him. I got a babysitter for the kids and we went down to Nashville.

We stayed at the Gran Opry. It's, it's like convention center and resort, um, which was gorgeous by the way. It's a Gaylord resort and it has like a covered dome area inside with an a river that goes through the inside of this convention center. Um. It's on the higher price point, especially, 'cause we went 4th of July, 4th of July weekend.

Um, but I had credit card points, so I was like, it's basically free. 'cause they, they still charge you for like the resort fees, even if you credit card points. Um, but we, we stayed there for two nights and it was absolutely gorgeous. The people there were so kind. Actually everywhere we [00:04:00] went, the people in Nashville were so, so kind.

Um. So the, the goal, the main thing was like going to the Grand Ole Opry and going to the show, which was incredible. But before we did that, um, I, I wanted him to do whatever it was that he wanted to do while we were in Nashville. 'cause it was a very quick trip. We arrived Friday night, we stayed there all day Saturday, stayed the night there Saturday night, and then came back on Sunday.

So again, like. Almost just 24 hours of time in the city, and it was off of also 4th of July weekend. And so we didn't really wanna go downtown because 4th of July weekend in Nashville. Guys, there were like 350,000 people downtown. And I was like, eh, I don't hate myself enough. So, um, we got into town and just went to the hotel 'cause we didn't get home, get, get there till like midnight.

And then on Saturday we went to the Nashville Barrel Company, which is a whiskey distillery. And it was really fun. I did not try any whiskey because I don't like hard liquor, but they did have wines. And so I tried a [00:05:00] few wines when we were there. Um. And my husband actually tried some rums because they also made rums.

So we went to a whiskey distillery and had no whiskey, um, because I was like, what, what are we trying to prove? Like let's try the stuff we actually like. Um, and then from there we Ubered over to Party Foul, which is a chicken place that does, um, the like Nashville Hot Chicken. Okay. So immediately we hit two big things off the list and then my husband.

Wanted to go to Bass Pro Shop because it's his birthday weekend. And so I just, we, we were there for probably two hours and he got a bunch of stuff because he is gonna be going on a fishing trip soon. Um, and it was magical. But guys going to the Gran Ole Opry, like you show up and outside, they have like this, like open space.

There's a concert going on where they have a performer that's out there singing. And then you get in and we had paid for the, the somewhat nicer tickets. So you get to go inside into like the side area and they have like drinks and they had some of the [00:06:00] performers come out and chat with us. Um, and then we went into the theater itself.

And um, the performances were incredible. That is the thing about Nashville is that. It, it really is stunning how many people have such incredible talent. Like every single singer that you hear, you're like, you must be famous, right? Because you're incredible. Um, and then you find out and like, no, I've just been playing at this bar for 12 years.

And it's like, what? Um, and we actually saw kind of somebody have their big moment at the Grand Ole Opry. There was a performer there who had been performing. In Nashville since 2008 and he stepped into, um, the, the circle, that's what they call it, um, for the very first time that night. And it was so powerful.

And I was like crying. I'm like, I've never seen this guy before. And seeing him step into the circle was like, so beautiful. And it was. Credible, incredible music and so fun. Um, and then towards the end [00:07:00] there was actually like a little shout out for, for Steven for his birthday. So I do wanna make sure that I say thank you to the Schmidt relations PR team because they helped orchestrate a special thank you.

Happy birthday, or a special happy birthday for my husband Steven. So thank you so much. To the Schmidt relations PR team at Gran Ole Opry. 'cause that was so, so cool. And I got a video, you're like, you're not supposed to take videos in there. I didn't get a video of the show guys. I just got a video of my husband reacting to it.

Um, and it was just, it made the night that much more special and magical. Um, and it was just. It was so fun, fun. So if you guys haven't been to the Gran Ole Opry, highly recommend. It's really fun if you do it during the, the like hundred year anniversary. They also have like a bunch of little historical tidbits kinda sprinkled throughout as well.

So go check it out. Alright. I just did a lot of talking, so why don't we jump in to you guys talking because we have some absolutely incredible fan questions that have been [00:08:00] sent into us today. And make sure you stick around for the very end because we also have a guest today. We have Phil Janki who comes on at the very end, and we're gonna talk about, um, how.

He does his thing with his speaking and teaching and all that stuff. It's very, very fun. So make sure you stick around for that. But right now we are going to jump in to our very first message sent into us for today. 

Voicemail: During Class a mouse ran into my classroom through the crack in the door. I tried to stay calm and just ask my senior English students, let's pick our book bags up and calmly.

Let's do little. Go back to his Heidi hole in the corner of the classroom. One of my senior girls reached down, picked up the mouse, and began to pet it. She held it in her hands and calmly asked me, can I keep it? I, I made her take it outside. [00:09:00] 

Andrea: That's such a classic moment is when you have like wildlife suddenly enter your classroom.

Um, I feel like a mouse is a pretty common one. I'm very curious as to what insane animals and creatures have come into your classrooms. Um, so if you have something, make sure that you guys comment on the YouTube video or on social media. Send me a message and tell me what is the craziest critter that has made it into your classroom.

Um, I thankfully have. Only had mice. Um, but I definitely have had mice and cockroaches. There was one school where there were a lot of cockroaches. I think the most annoying critter though, to get in your classroom is actually ants. I don't know about you guys, but there is nothing that's gonna ruin my day quite like finding out that my classroom has ants, because, especially in San Diego, it, it, it tended to happen the most there and I don't know why, but I, it didn't matter what you left out, it didn't matter how tightly wrapped or any of that, if you left.

Anything that was edible [00:10:00] anywhere in your classroom, within an hour, it would be. Covered in ants. It was infuriating. And for those of you guys who don't like, haven't been to San Diego or Southern California, like the ants in California are substantially smaller than the ants in other parts of the country.

At least for, for what I experienced in Indiana now and what I experienced in Virginia, there were like big fat ants that would like, I, I feel like maybe, I don't know, I, we need an ant. Expert, an ontologist to weigh in on this, on why it seems like the teeny tiny ants just seem to be so much more effective at taking over everything.

Because I've not dealt with that, knock on wood in Indiana yet, where like the ants are just everywhere and they're disgusting. I remember when I was, um, a kid, my mom would go to the dollar store and she would get this, um, chalk. And we don't know the proper name of it. We called it Chinese chalk because there was [00:11:00] Chinese writing on the side of it.

Um, and it probably had a million toxins in it, but it was the only thing. And you just draw a line of chalk, almost like, like a witches circle, and it was the only thing that would keep the ants out. Um, and I also dealt with mice in California and I. It couldn't possibly be that my car was full of goldfish crackers and french fries.

I cannot imagine that that had anything to do with it. But there was one time, if you guys have been following me long enough on social media, you know that there was one time that there was a really bad smell in my car, and I went to go and check out what was going on in. The glove compartment and I opened it and a lot of material fell out, like little pieces of paper and like kinda what looked like dryer lint and like pieces of grass.

Kinda like a clump of it, like kind of fell out. And what was inside of that was a bunch of tiny. Baby mice, like little pinkies, you know, like when they're still pink 'cause they're [00:12:00] so tiny. Um, and so what I was, I was smelling, it actually wasn't mice, it was rats. It was like little baby rats. So I was smelling rat placenta in my vehicle.

Um, which I don't recommend. It's not the smell, it's not the smell that you know you want in your vehicle. Um, and. Unfortunately, it did happen more than once where there was a rat's nest in my car. Um, and you would find, you would just all of a sudden find all of these rat droppings is how you knew it was happening.

Because we lived in an area of San Diego that was slightly more rural. We weren't like downtown anywhere, um, and San Diego, like it's, it's built on a desert. And so we're like just, you know, we moved into the rats neighborhood and they decided to make a nest. Labor center in my glove box. Um, and so my dad did a lot of work trying to like, keep the rats outta my car, but, um, thankfully in my new car, it, it has not been an issue since we moved to Indiana.

But [00:13:00] see, it could be worse. It could be worse than a student picking up a mouse. Um, you could have had a rat delivery center in your classroom. So, you know, we, we count our blessings. As they come. Um, all right, let's go ahead and listen to the second voice memo that was sent in this week. 

Voicemail: Okay, so this is my best teacher, friend school.

We started teaching together, not my school, but the best, best, best teacher story ever. We are both middle school teachers, grade seven and eight, and in Canada we do end of year grad trips or end of year grad celebrations for grade eights and her end of year grad eight. Grade eight celebration was going to, um, like a boat cruise of Lake Ontario.

We're in Toronto and they were on the boat cruise. The teachers, the principal, everyone. And some of the kids were acting little but weird, and they noticed that they were eating brownies. And so the teachers suspected that one of the girls had bought. Brought pot brownies onto the boat. [00:14:00] So the principal took her aside and was talking to her and was interrogating her alone, which was probably not a good thing.

And she kept saying, what's in brownies? What's going on? And the girl just was insisting. She likes to bake for her friends. There's nothing in the brownies. Most people already ate them and looked, they're all fine. And so the principal said, so are you telling me there's nothing in this brownie? Yes.

That's what I'm telling you. So if I ate this whole brownie right now, there's no problems. Yes, there's no problems. The principal then proceeded to eat the entire giant brownie, which of course was laced with pot. And got so, so, so high, they had to drag her off of the bus. When the kids went back to the parents, the parents wanted to talk to the principal, see how things went.

And it was horrific. Um, it resulted in the school board. Telling her or suggesting to her that she retires, quote unquote, the day [00:15:00] after graduation. And that was it. 

Andrea: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That principle got in trouble. How in the world is that on the principle for trying the brownie that she literally was told.

Did not have drugs in it. Like I think, I feel like I would've done the same thing. Maybe question mark. I don't know. I, I generally, I know some people that won't eat any treats that a student brings them ever. Um, I was never that person because I don't have self-control, and so I would. Always eat the snacks that people brought me.

Um, and when I was in California in particular, I loved it because I had, um, a student that would bring me lumpia, which um, if you have never been blessed enough to have someone bring you lumpia, it is like a little egg roll. It's a Filipino egg roll is the best way I can describe it, but a little tinier.

Um, and they're delicious. And I had a student who would bring them to me all the time. Fantastic. [00:16:00] Um, and I, so yeah, I, I always eat stuff that students bring me. Um, I, I wish I had more details about why that principal got punished for it. I mean, I understand obviously coming back from a field trip high is not ideal.

Um, she probably should not have had like. She probably should have like, okay. I, let me, let me, let me just talk this out with, uh, with you guys. Um, I'm guessing the proper protocol would be to confiscate the brownies and then test them later. Although, I don't know if there exists a test for, like, I'm not a cop.

Like how do you test for weed in brownies? I'm assuming there's some kind of test for it. I know there's like urinalysis that she also could have done is like, okay. Anyone who had the brownies, like when you get back, we're gonna. I guess test you, um, instead of just eating the brownies. But I don't, I don't know.

What do you guys think? Do you think that she should have gotten fired for accidentally [00:17:00] consuming pop brownies after her, after the student swore that she just liked to bake? Like, that's not on her. Um, I'm, I'm wondering if, because she did have such an obvious suspicion and was doing like an interrogation that people are like, sorry, you, you knew for sure that they were pop brownies and you ate a whole brownie.

That shows a lack of judgment. I'm sure that had to be what it was, where they were just like, girl, whatcha doing, whatcha doing? But I, I have a little empathy for that administrator because that sounds like the stupid thing that I would do where I'm like, oh, she told me it had no pod in it and everyone's just being a silly goose day.

It's a field trip day. It's silly goose day because I feel like. That is something I would do where I'm like, I'm very, I, I fear, I am very naive with stuff like that sometimes where it's not until much later where I realize and put two and two together where I'm like, that kid was like really tired all the time after lunch and a student be like, yeah, they were high every day.

You didn't notice their [00:18:00] pupils were like gigantic and they were always eating snacks and, and I'm like, no, no, I did not. I just thought that's. I just thought they liked snacks. Like I am pretty naive with that stuff. I, I always would act like I was very in the know with my students. I would be like, obviously I know when you guys are high, obviously.

Um, but I never did. It was pretty much just very occasionally if somebody was so. Like Debilitatingly High that it was unavoidable to notice, then I would notice and I would report, but most of the time I'm just like, so-and-so's being a silly goose. And then I would find out years later, they're like, yeah, that kid was high all the time.

I'm like, oh, dang it. Um, I, I also know that depending on your school, like some schools, you can't do anything. Even if they are high, you just kind of have to be like, oh, okay, well, sorry about it. And some schools you have to immediately report. Probably depends on like the legality of weed and where your district [00:19:00] is and all of that.

But most of the time I was oblivious and most of the time the kids weren't super obvious about it anyways. 'cause they would just be either sleeping or snacking, which what's new. Um, I feel like that's kind of always what they're doing anyways. Um, alright, so I like, I like I teased earlier, we do have a guest today, um, and it is so, so fun getting to chat with him.

I actually went on his podcast, um, I dunno, maybe last year at some point, um, to talk to him and his cos speaker. So I'm very, very excited for you guys to hear the conversation I had with Phil. And hear about all of the incredible things that he does as a speaker and as an educator. Um, so you will definitely wanna hang around for that and, um, we'll be back right after this.

Welcome back guys. I'm very, very excited because today I have a guest. In the resource section of the podcast, I have Phil Janis Zuki, who, um, don't, now there is going to [00:20:00] be a spelling test at the end, so if you guys can't spell that, unfortunately you are gonna be kicked out. Um, but I am so excited to have him here today.

He is a speaker and a teacher, and a creator, and he doing so many things for teachers. Phil, thank you so much for coming. 

Phil: Hey, thank you so much, Andrew. It's an honor and a pleasure. You're a big deal and I'm not. So being here feels really great. 

Andrea: I'm, I'm really, really definitely not a big deal, but I, okay.

I wanna hear, first of all, this is the second time we've done a podcast together, but this is the first time you've been on my podcast because I got to go on your podcast. Do you wanna share a little bit about what that is? 

Phil: Yeah. Um, myself and my cos speaker, Matt, we're youth speakers, but we'd love to create three minute q and a quick.

Hot hitting question. Podcast. That's it. And, uh, we bugged Andrea, she was nice enough to jump on and answer some of our random and sincere questions. And we just love having the opportunity to introduce great people to the people we know. It's all [00:21:00] about networking and just growing and finding the right people.

For, you know, who you wanna learn from. So that's what we love to do. Yeah. We call it M Andp and under three. 

Andrea: Yeah. And it, it was truly like so quick and so easy because usually when you get brought on a podcast, it's gonna be like an hour of recording sometimes, and that you're prepping and all that. I think we were like from start to finish, done in 20 minutes, um, which pretty much never happens.

And that would be like on the higher side, it was probably closer to 15, so it was great. You guys should definitely check it out. And you said it's m and p and under three is what it's called, right. 

Phil: That's correct. Thank you. 

Andrea: Amazing. And so you, you said you and your cos speaker, both youth speakers. Did you, can you share a little bit about how you got into that and what you teach and all that good stuff?

Phil: Yeah, for sure. So we accidentally got into the world of motivational speaking in 2013. My cos speaker, Matt is a school counselor at the school I work at, and we were both chaperoning a leadership retreat. They were short on funds and said, Hey, we've got three days of great stuff, but [00:22:00] we've got this hour opening and no money.

Does anyone have anything positive or not dangerous to talk about for an hour? Matt and I being egotistical, males raised our hand and said, we could probably think of something we didn't really know each other that well. And they said, perfect. You two figure it out. We took it really seriously. We wanted to pour into the audience.

And ended up really enjoying it and decided maybe this is a message we could talk to other schools about. And it accidentally caught fire. And now for the last, I don't know, 12, 13 years, we've been going across the nation, pumping up youth. So yeah, part of the time when I'm speaking, I'm speaking to youth with my best Bud Matt, and we're grateful for that journey.

It's very lucky. 

Andrea: That's so cool. So now what, what did you teach and what did Matt teach when you guys kind of started this whole journey? 

Phil: Yeah, I've always taught chem in physics in high school and he, uh, was a special ed teacher that was in the self-contained room for quite a few years and then moved into school counseling.

So he's [00:23:00] had, uh, quite a few different unique positions, uh, in our school, and definitely a perspective that I don't have, you know, with me just being a science teacher to him. So it's really nice to see. We love connecting with teens and helping them build self-confidence so. The fact that we're able to do this and man, uh, you know, get paid for it too, is.

It's, uh, kind of mind blowing sometimes to think about. We're very lucky. 

Andrea: Yeah, that's incredible. So, um, when you're going into these schools, like what is the main thing that you're trying to address? Like, because obviously, um, I've seen a few speakers come into usually high schools 'cause that's where I, I taught, right.

Um, where we would have like a high school speaker come in and sometimes it was incredible and sometimes it just was a complete flop. So I would, I would love to hear like, what are the needs that you're addressing when you come in to speak to the youth? 

Phil: Yeah, we walk in high energy, always. We have it super interactive, but our main goal is to cultivate confidence.

We truly believe that if we can help [00:24:00] students get out of their shell, uh, introvert or extrovert, we don't care. But like for students to be able to know a little bit more of who they are and build up that muscle of confidence, students start to realize all the opportunities that are in front of them. A lot of times kids walk through the halls of a high school and they just.

Do that. They just walk through it and do what they're told, but they don't really open up their eyes to all the potential, all the adults they can learn from and just get life advice from all the clubs, activities that are potentially there that may be shaping them in ways and skills that they could never plan for.

But it's just adding to their experiences so that when they do reach an age where they wanna find a career or get a job. They're gonna have all these experiences to build off of. But in order to do that, it takes confidence to actually try. Yeah. So a lot of times we like to say, embrace the awkward, like, you know, suck it up, get out there and try something new.

And the way we love to do that is not boring. We don't [00:25:00] lecture the students. We get them into incredibly awkward, uncomfortable situations in front of their peers that. To some would be like, I would never do that. That seems humiliating. But by the time they do it and go through it and we're all laughing, you know, kids are crying 'cause they're laughing so hard.

But really what it is, is it's, you know, it's big energy. Afterwards, they're like, Hey, I did that. I owned it. You were sitting there on the couch judging me, but who is up there doing it? And what it does, it empowers them. Like, listen, if you can do this in front of 900 judgmental teens, you can do just about anything.

Yeah. And, uh, we talk about all these teachers right now in here that are cringing. So many of them would never dare to step out of their comfort zone to do that, and that's not a knock on them. But most people aren't afraid to reach their full potential by taking risks. So yeah, we love doing in a comedy driven way so that, you know, they can really start to see, yeah, I guess if I do put myself out there [00:26:00] a little more, who knows what could happen in a good way.

Andrea: Yeah. So I would love to hear an example of like, what's one of the things that you have the kids do that tends to be like, embarrassing or weird or something like that. Mm-hmm. 

Phil: One of our favorite ones is Sweet Thing. Sweet thing is a CPR dummy with a curly perm wig in sunglasses and sweet thing is sitting in the corner and we have three different guests, uh, participants who volunteer not knowing what they're gonna do.

We give them an approach song where they have to walk up to sweet thing, like you're at a dance. You then have to give sweet thing, compliments on what you think of sweet thing. And then you have to ask sweet thing to dance and we set it up so that like the wig falls off, sometimes the mannequin's head falls off.

It's really awkward. Um, but we give approach music. So like, uh, you know, though, they don't really know the reference, but Andrea, we laugh like, we'll play like color me bads intro to I wanna Sex you up. So it's like, [00:27:00] ooh. And you know, they're like walking. So all the adults are like 

Andrea: loving. 

Phil: Yes. Yeah. So it really is more for the adults like to humiliate.

They think like, oh, you're humiliating my student. This is great. But really what it shows is a lot of students that sometimes are really shy, but when, and there's like no turning back. Like they get into it and then they're like, Hey girl, yeah, I, I like that curly hair, you know? And then they'd like drop a weird pickup line.

But anyways. By the end of it, people who started feeling ordinary, like leave legendary, and it's like addicting to them. They realize, wow, I would've never done that. But now that I did, like I can see the high I get from personal growth, like getting out there. Yeah. So even though sometimes people think we're like really immature.

By the end of it, everyone seems to really get it and buy in. Like this isn't about Matt and I, this is about you. What are you gonna do to step up to your life and actually take some risks and growth so that you can get to a place where [00:28:00] you wanna be? And even if it's not right now, the right place, like.

You gotta put yourself out there. And that's hard to tell someone to do. You know, just, Hey, just put yourself out there. Right? But when you start to see your peers doing it and surviving, it can be really empowering. And even a good reminder for the educators in the room that are like, what am I doing here?

Like, why don't I change my class up? So I enjoy it more. Why don't I take more risks? We're hoping that it reaches both of them. 

Andrea: Yeah, hundred percent. So, um. I, I also am wondering, 'cause I, you know, I taught from about 2013 through 2023 in the high school classroom. Um, and we obviously saw a lot of changes in the kids after the pandemic.

So how has what you do changed and how have the kids changed in your perspective? Um, from before the pandemic to now after the pandemic. 

Phil: I think that already, like in 2013, I think we saw a drop in attention spans and how. At least in the Midwest, like [00:29:00] it's in the Chicagoland area. It's not easy to impress a young adult.

I feel like they've seen it all. They've seen dead bodies on YouTube. They've seen, you know, I mean they've seen everything from the funniest to even as a science teacher. Doing demos used to be exciting. Like I would, you know, blow up a Pringles can and they'd be like, oh, that's great. And now it's like you blow up the Pringles can and they're like, oh, that was cute.

They're like, have you seen this one? And it's like the guy blew his house up doing the same thing. Oh gosh. So, you know, it's like, it's like we can't really compare anymore. So. We have to get over our egos as teachers that we aren't the best thing they've ever seen. 'cause we aren't, I mean because we aren't, they can see, yeah, see everything and anything.

Yeah. We're just ordinary people. Mm-hmm. So the way I think that we've dealt with that, not only me in the classroom for 20 years, but also. In the, the world of giving assemblies and presentations is, it's the elements of surprise for us. It's the improv. It's always captured their [00:30:00] attention because it's their peers in an uncomfortable unknown situation.

So for us, our game plan has not changed. And luckily, I mean, just luckily our style caters to that attention span. They're like, oh, this could be good. This could.

The way we connect with students is changing and it's no longer like, let me excite you with some type of wow. Uh, they've, they've seen it all already. It's just a matter, I think, of human connection. Yeah. If we can be vulnerable and show that people are valuable, I think that that's the way we'll always be able to connect with students.

And then, you know, like I lean into my dad jokes and my corny, awful humor that makes them cringe. Yeah. And I think, uh, I think in the end they know that I'm there for them though. 

Andrea: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it is, it is so fascinating because when I was going through my teacher prep program, so much of the emphasis was on getting kids Chromebooks and resources that are [00:31:00] digital and being like, everyone should be one-to-one.

We wanna make sure we have a computer for every kid. Um, you know, it's not equitable if kids don't have devices and all of that. And it has so changed, and I'm delighted it's changing by the way too. Moving off of the computers because I think you're so right that like the thing that makes a teacher powerful is not the resource they can create for the kid to do on their computer.

It's that human connection piece where, I mean, I've, I've told this story many times where the teacher who made me want to become a teacher, um, it wasn't because of an assignment she gave me, you know, like it was, because when I kind of like half-assed this assignment and she, I got a B minus and I was psyched about it and she was like.

If you're psyched about a B minus when you're an A student, you're embarrassing yourself. Like, do better. And I, I think that that was one of the things, and even me teaching college now when things are challenging and kids are now a. Pushing themselves to the point where like they might fail. It is so [00:32:00] hard for them to get over that initial hump that we're dealing with with these.

Um, and I feel, I feel like that's, that's pretty common anyways. But I do feel like I've seen an increase of that since the pandemic because we did, at least where I was teaching in California, there was so much empathy and so much desire. Um. Through the best of intentions to help support kids through really challenging situations.

But what we accidentally did was like, oh, hey, like that assignment's really hard, and I know life's really hard right now. So actually you don't have to get it in by this date. Um, if you just get it to me at all, if you, if your name's on the paper and you know what, you, you don't need a zero, we'll give you a 50%.

You know, like all of these things that we did trying to help kids. I think the unintended message we gave them was, Hey, you can't do this, so don't try, um, because it's not, it's not gonna happen. And so I feel like that that practice of doing stuff and failing is so important. And I love that you do it in a way that is like very silly and self-deprecating and all of that.[00:33:00] 

Um, has it, has there ever been. A time where you guys tried to do it, like you tried to do your normal thing and like a kid ran off crying or it like really, really tanked and you had to move on to something different. 

Phil: Yeah. So every once in a while we get a student, you know, fight, flight or freeze, and they'll freeze.

Theme: It's just deer and they 

Phil: and that. Yeah. Yes. And. Luckily with our experience in the classroom and with humans, and I mean, Matt's background too, and being in like special education, like he has an even bigger heart than me in reading a situation. But we tell them that we understand you're uncomfortable and you're frozen right now, but no matter what.

We're gonna get you to do this eventually in some way. There's no way out you raised your hand that's so much scarier, Uhhuh, and you said, and you made a deal in front of all these humans, and there's no way we're gonna let you walk away from that deal for you [00:34:00] by the end to accomplish it. So we'll get the crowd to cheer for 'em.

Sometimes that helps. A lot of times it makes it worse. I was gonna say, well. And then sometimes, uh, it's really cool in the moment in the silence because Matt and I are not afraid of the awkward silence, but everyone else is. So we'll get quiet and awkward and yes, I get, if I hear that, and uh, eventually what happens is sometimes a hero in the crowd will literally stand up and walk next to them and say, I will do this with you.

Out of the blue. No. Isn't it incredible now? And it's just, I get tingles thinking about it occasionally and sometimes that awkwardness of, man, this is bombing, you know, like Matt, and I'll give each other looks like, here we go. You're like, this is going poorly, I guess ones suck. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean that's, that's the risk we run, the way we run and I think that's what makes it organic.

Vulnerable is like, yeah, this could blow up guys and I'm okay with it. But are you, so a kid will come up and grab their hand and be like, we're gonna [00:35:00] do this together. Like we do something called barnyard blind date, where if you are gonna date this random animal, you have to talk in that animal voice like a platypus.

And it's like no one knows what that sounds like, but that's the point. And they're like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Like you do anything, your heart tells you what a platypus sounds like. That's And they like That's right. Refuse to do it. But a person will come up and they're, they'll whisper in their ear, this is the sound I'm gonna make.

And we count to three and they do it together. Or sometimes Matt, or I'll be like, I'll do it with you. But in the end, there's never been in 12, 13 years where we haven't had every person who's volunteered to do it. We, that's awesome. Say no, there's, I said, this isn't high school. You can't get, you can't get a, you know, a later date on this.

Mm-hmm. This is now you agreed to it. You've gotta do it, but we're gonna do it with you if you need to. We're gonna walk through it. Love that. And I think by the end, even though they are uncomfortable and usually not happy with us, right, it is empowering hours later, I think they'll realize why we did that.

So [00:36:00] we pull through. 

Andrea: That is so cool. So for the teachers who, um, are not lucky enough to have you come speak at their schools yet, but they really love this idea, do you have any ideas of how you could take this strategy into a classroom? Maybe as like an icebreaker or a community builder or something like that?

Do you have any recommended like activities or things that they could do? 

Phil: Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I love to do, besides youth speaking, I speak solo to adults, specifically adult givers like teachers. And the one thing I'm always pushing them to do is to lean into their personal gifts. So Andrea, you obviously have the gift of like sarcasm, which lands well with high schoolers, right?

Um, for me, like I like to cook and bake and I love music, but the reason I'm telling you that is. If you lean into your gifts in a way that also is an icebreaker for the class, it can be incredibly powerful because you are exhibiting something you're super comfortable with, but also inviting them into that.

So for me, maybe it [00:37:00] would be like, since I love music and I have like Amazon Unlimited on my laptop for my classroom, like I would play songs and we would do like finish the lyric, or I've had a. Fellow teacher, his name's Chris Quack. He does, is it a bop or a flop on Wednesdays where he brings an old song back and asks them to vote?

Like, is this a bop or is this a total flop? Like it'll never come back. But again, because he loves like corny, cheesy old school, like, you know, nsync boy band pop, early 2000 stuff. Like, it's funny because he loves it and they know it, and then they love the. It's like, it's fun to like poke at your teacher, like, this is terrible.

You should be ashamed that you like this. Or they connect and you're like, you know what? All right, Britney Spears toxic is actually, it's a bop. I would, I would get down to this one, you know, so again, leading with your gifts in a way that can do an icebreaker is great. And we all know if like you like, well, I don't know how to do that with the things I love.

And hit [00:38:00] up chat. GPT. Like what's a creative way? 10 creative ways I could do something that relates to poetry and involve my students. And obviously chat's not gonna give you the best answer, but it's gonna give you enough foundation to like make it your own. And when you do that, I think it really shows the students, your human side, because it's something you love, but it also creates a moment where they could like be in your shoes and enjoy it with you.

Andrea: Yeah, I agree. And I also think that, that it's really powerful, like you said, to go into the things that you do genuinely enjoy. Because I remember, um, when I was out on maternity leave, I had a high school class that the, the long-term sub I had was a previous elementary school teacher, and she was teaching my ninth and 10th.

And 11th grade classes. Um, and she had them, right? And so I was like, this is gonna go really rough, like all of that. But by the end of it, because she was doing what she loved and what she thought was fun, the kids were so into it. She had all of these high [00:39:00] schoolers doing Go Noodle dances. By the time I came back, so much so that when I came back from maternity leave, they were like, we have to show you the dance.

And they got up and did a Go Noodle dance, which is like a children's activity dance. And if I were to do that. It would flop because it's not me, it's not genuine to like my vibe. And I would feel like this is dumb. You know, like I couldn't pull it off. Mm-hmm. But because she was just so genuine and being herself, the kids were like, yeah, let's do a go, like a go noodle dance.

Like, why not? Which I also think could be a really fun way of like kind of building that rapport and all of that with kids. So, um, we are gonna wrap up here, but before we do, I would love to hear how people could. Follow you, get ahold of you hear about anything that you've got coming up soon. Yeah. 

Phil: Thank you so much.

So yeah, my name's Phil Janki. Like you said, I'm a speaker, teacher, creator that loves to pour into not only solo, I give keynotes to educators, but also Matt and I as MMP presentations. We love pouring into youth [00:40:00] through high energy, really weird and awkward assemblies. But if you just reach out to me, I'm Phil Zuki for my handle.

Everywhere you go, uh, if you jump on my email list, I'd love to give like one email a month all about positive psychology and how we can live happier. I think we all know that. Yeah, there's gonna be pedagogy always up the wazoo, but if we can't show up to the classroom like happy with ourselves and our own lives, then we're gonna really suck at our jobs.

That's just the way it is. I remember a student told me, I think you're one of my only teachers that loves their job. And I told, I told her, first of all, thank you. That's a great compliment. But also that's really sad to hear. Yeah. Um, but when you do things you love and you build in that good stuff that you love, kids know it.

And yeah, it's not going noodle dances for me and you, but for someone that is so. Keeping in touch with me just that way, reach out. I love to network to and grow. And one last thing is that I run an online teacher educator membership. We're called the Positive Growth Lounge. [00:41:00] We meet virtually twice a month on Wednesday nights, and we just pour into each other.

I have guest speakers about once a month, and it's all about nothing. Like how do we teach? It's all about how do we take care of ourselves so that we can show up to the jobs that we signed up for, that we love. 

Andrea: I love that. Well, again, Phil, thank you guys, or thank you so much for, for coming guys, please go check him out.

Um, he puts out awesome stuff and the, the podcast and his cos speaker are both just awesome people. So make sure you go and follow him and check him out. I. 

Phil: Thank you so much, Andrea. 

Andrea: Yeah. All right guys, we will be right back.

Welcome back, teacher Besties. I hope you enjoyed my chat with Phil. Um, I really do. I think that the idea of introducing and encouraging students. To fail and to find opportunities to put themselves out of their comfort zones is so, so powerful. Um, I would love to hear from you if you've had the opportunity to have Phil [00:42:00] at your school and seen his shows, because I, that sounds so entertaining to me, um, to see students kind of being pushed into, um, a scenario that makes them really uncom, un uncomfy, uncomfy.

Um, because I, I can imagine, like, I can just, I could picture the kids that would volunteer. For something like that and how it could just feel so uncomfortable at certain parts and I just, ooh, I would love to hear about it. It sounds like such a blast. Um, if you have thoughts about what we've talked about today, you can hit us up on Instagram or TikTok.

TikTok. Guys talking is really hard for me right now. I'm so sorry. Or TikTok. Um, at Educator Andrea, or you can email us andrea@humancontent.com, or you can contact the entire Human Content Podcast family at Human Content Pods. Um, and please do go on and leave us a five star review. That is how people discover us and can come over and learn all about teaching.

And here are the insane [00:43:00] stories of what we deal with on a day-to-day basis. Um, and thank you to those of you who have already left, left reviews. I appreciate you so very much. Um, and if you wanna check out the full video episodes, they're up every single week on YouTube. Thank you so much for listening.

I'm your host, Andrea Forche. Our executive producers are Andrea Forche, Aaron Corny, Rob Goldman, and Shahnti Brooke. Our editor is Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Portizo. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi. Our recording location is Indiana State by College of Education. To learn more about our How to Survive the Classrooms Discipline Program dis.

Claimer and ethics policy and submission verification and licensing terms. You can go to podcast or andrea.com. How to Survive the Classroom is a human content production.

Thank you so much for watching. Want more of how to Survive the classroom? You can watch more episodes right now. Just click on that little box over there. If you see it and if you haven't yet, please subscribe. [00:44:00] Okay, bye.