New Teacher Survival Guide

Andrea: [00:00:00] If the Federal Department of Education was gonna shut down, why are they still making stupid rules without any kind of, like, research or backup or anything? Like, I thought you guys were going away. Instead, they decided, I guess, they're gonna stick around, but they're gonna do stuff worse, and it's pissing me all the way off

Theme: To survive the climb 

Andrea: Hey, teacher besties. I am so excited to share with you that my book, They Never Taught Us That, is available right now. It is everything an experienced or first-year teacher needs to manage the chaos of a modern classroom, including some anecdotes to make you feel a little bit better, because if there is a way that you can screw up, I've probably done it.

It also has advice on how to build trust with families, how to manage grading and lesson plans and IEPs, and everything else that they never went over in your teacher prep program. They Never Taught Us That is available everywhere 

Gerry: [00:01:00] right now

Andrea: Hey, teacher besties. Welcome to How to Survive the Classroom. I'm Andrea Forkham. 

Gerry: I'm Gerry Patoka. 

Andrea: And in the background is my husband. If you guys can hear him, he is, uh, doing a meeting right now. And this is just what it's like podcasting from home sometimes, is that we're both down hiding from our children.

Gerry: I'm laughing because one of these days, I wanna jump you on the intro, and when you go to say it, I wanna beat you- 

Andrea: You're gonna... You can 

Gerry: try ... and just say it myself. I almost did it. I, I took the breath in to speak. Yeah. I was like, "I don't have it by heart yet," but I was like, "Ah, now I gotta do my homework," 'cause I'm gonna jump you one day.

I'ma get it. 

Andrea: It's just seven sentences, or seven words. I don't even 

Gerry: think it's that much. Yeah. But I'll kinda just be waiting until I feel prompted to say my name, and I wanted to hit you with a, "Hey, teacher besties," and then be like, "Ah." 

Andrea: I mean, do it next time. That's the goal. You can, you can try. You can try.

Um, I... Guys, guys, I need help. I need assistance. I decided it was gonna be this great idea this year that [00:02:00] I was not going to have to pay for childcare this summer, 'cause it gets expensive. We got two kids. If we went into the summer camps, all that, we're talking like hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars.

Definitely hundreds per week, definitely thousands over the course of the summer depending on what camps we did, which means I'm home with my kids, my own children I'm responsible for. And I think we just need to shout out all those teachers that are finally getting to summer break, and then have to take care of their own offspring.

Like, they're free of the ones they're paid to take care of, and then it's just, it's downhill from there because, I don't know, like, they're just relentless. They're inevitable. They're everywhere around my house, and I swear they can sense when I'm feeling overstimulated because they get closer and louder.

And I just... I don't know. I don't remember being like this when I was a kid. I had a stay-at-home mom. She was home with us all summer too, and I just... And your mom was a stay-at-home mom too, right, Gerry? 

Gerry: Yeah, for a little while. Yeah. 

Andrea: So what, what did you do over summer? [00:03:00] Do you remember your parents, like, having a schedule of things for you to do?

Like, what was... What were you up to? 

Gerry: I remember, like- There, there was some different times. Like I, I, I f- I don't remember doing much. Yeah. Like just chilling at the house. Like maybe run errands or something. Besides that, I'd just be like on the GameCube or something. I remember my dad went through like a phase for a while where he would just sign us up for camps.

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: And we only really did it two, maybe three times, and one of them was like a basketball camp, and I did not like as a kid doing sports with other kids 'cause I was a fat kid. I wasn't good. I, I just, I, I was, I was weird socially. I didn't wanna do it. He would sign us up for this ba- basketball camp, and we had to be there from 8:00 to noon every day.

I'm like, "Why the hell you do this?" And, and then one time he- Silence is why he did it ... one time he, uh, he made us pick a camp and 'cause he signed my brother up for that basketball [00:04:00] camp again. I was like, "Dad, don't wanna do that again." He's like, "Okay, well you have to pick a camp." Yeah. And he gave me a list of camps, and I picked this camp about the Holocaust 'cause I, I was into social studies.

And I was like, "Yeah, I already know some stuff about the Holocaust. I'll go do that." And, and, and I, at the time I didn't know that was weird, right? Like I, I just went to this, and we watched, I think we watched like Schindler's List and we, like we just learned about the Holocaust. 

Andrea: All right. So I just, I need to unpack this a little bit.

All right? This is a week-long camp you got sent to during summer. 

Gerry: Yeah. 

Andrea: Okay, so it's summer, it's beautiful out. Your brother wants to go to basketball camp, and your dad was like, "Here's a list." What were the other options that you chose the Holocaust? 

Gerry: I think it was like other subjects in school. Like I, I, like 

Andrea: Were you in summer school?

You 

Gerry: didn't know it? I don't remember why the Holocaust, I don't, I don't know why the Holocaust was, like, the one. 

Andrea: Uh-huh. 

Gerry: But I remember thinking, like, I guess we had just been learning about in [00:05:00] school, and I was, I thought it was, like, interesting to learn about. I liked social studies. And after, like, the Great Depre- bef- like, anything before, like, the Great Depression, I'm kinda checked out on.

I can't even kinda relate to that. It's like the world doesn't feel so far away when you start getting to, like, World War II and stuff. So it's like, okay, I can be engaged with that a little bit, 'cause they had cars, they had stuff that we see, just it looked different. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: And it was, like, math club and stuff.

I remember, I, I remember there being something math. It just seemed like other subjects, and I guess the Holocaust was the one that it was like, okay, that's a subject I would like to know more about, and that's a social studies thing. I was like, I'll just go do that. And it was an, like, I don't remember much about it.

I remember being in the library at middle school. And we would just go in there, and they got, they gave us a book. Uh-huh. And it was, like, people's, like, s- survivor stories from the Holocaust. And we had that book, and we would look at stories. We'd just talk about different things [00:06:00] that happened during it, and then I think it was, I w- I wanna say it was Schindler's List that we watched.

Andrea: That sounds, yeah, 

Gerry: probably. Like, the last day, day and a half at the camp. 

Andrea: That is a wild way to spend a week of your summer. Like, what? Because, like, I, I've been to, um, s- like, several Holocaust museums, and the heaviness that you leave with is so, like, it just, like, weighs on you. I can't imagine doing it, like, for more than, like, a few hours at a time.

I just feel like it would be so, so depressing. Do you remember it bumming you out, or were you just, like, interesting, like, interested in, like, the history of it? 

Gerry: It was just, like, the history of it. Like, I just thought it was inter- like, interesting, and I think that's because I had to have been, like, middle school age.

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Like, may- like, somewhere between fifth and eighth grade, and we probably, that's, we probably started learning about it in sixth or seventh grade. 

Andrea: Yeah. That, that 

Gerry: tracks. So I remember that being just this whole thing we learned about, and we [00:07:00] focused on it so much. 

Andrea: Mm-hmm. 

Gerry: Like, there was so much, like, curriculum on the Holocaust And that's what, like, I was just like, "Yeah, I, we talked about this in class.

I, I thought it was interesting. We'll, we'll go do it." 

Andrea: So I, the other day, j- what? You- 

Gerry: This doesn't feel good to, to talk ab- Like, not only is it weird, but it's also like, hey, how weird is it that middle school me was like, "Oh, I'm gonna go this"? That's how bad at w- I was at sports- But the- ... as I was a kid, is that I was like, "I don't wanna go play basketball with these other kids.

I'm gonna go watch this thing about this world tragedy." About 

Andrea: genocide, yeah. About, 

Gerry: yeah, that's- Yeah, and by the time I did- ... that's crazy ... like, I, I couldn't feel the weight of it. I was just like, "Oh, this is something we talked about in school. I like history. I like social studies. I'm gonna go to this and learn about it."

And it's like talking about it now, 'cause I coach basketball now. It's like y'all should've just put that camp. Yeah. 

Andrea: What? Right. Probably. Well, I mean, and it's, it's good hi- like, we should learn that history and stuff, but to choose that and to offer it [00:08:00] as, like, an enrichment summer program, 'cause usually the, what they try and do with those summer programs is like, "Let's make it the most, like, exciting, fun, adventure stuff you could possibly do."

And they were like, "Let's talk about one of the greatest mass killings in, in history. Let's just dive right in with a bunch of middle 

Gerry: schoolers." Yeah, it's not like I was, like, clicking my heels excited- 

Andrea: Right ... 

Gerry: for, for this. It was just like I picked the thing on there that didn't sound like, like it was gonna be torture.

Like, I didn't wanna go do math. Yeah. I was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go do this history one." Like, it's not like there was a generic history one. So you, it's like that's the only event I remember there being as an option. I was like, "I'm gonna go do the history one 'cause that's all it really is." 

Andrea: It is, it is really interesting because I like, I feel like over the past, especially like during the pandemic and beyond, there's been a big discussion over how much time we should spend talking about specific things in history, and how do we talk [00:09:00] about it and explain it and acknowledge the existence of these people, places, things that happened, um, and walk the line because...

So the, what made me think of this is there's a place in Indiana called Conner Prairie, and it is a massive s- so it's kind of, those of you who have ever been to Colonial Williamsburg, it's kind of a setup like that. They have historical actors. They have... So you can go to like the carpenter, and they are making furniture and different things in the way that they would have in like the early 1800s.

Um, and you walk around and you see all this stuff. And I went to the house where the Conners actually lived, and then one of the first things you learn about the guy who this whole place is named after is that he was one of the people who helped with the translations with the Native Americans there.

And his, and he was married to a Native woman, and [00:10:00] his, what he helped, the peace treaty he helped broker and translate, deported, I don't, well, you can't even say deported. I don't, like, it, I don't even know the right word for it. Moved all of the indigenous people off of their land, kicked them off of their own land, and m- made it so it was illegal to be a Native American on the pr- like, the surrounding areas.

Yeah. And because his wife was one of these people, she also had to go And she and her six children that she had with him up and left. And that's like one of the first things I learned once I walk in. I was like, "And we're just here like celebrating this guy?" And I'm talking to the woman who's, you know, the historical, like she's like a docent there, and she's like, "You know, it's not that we are celebrating these people.

It's that we are acknowledging the story and trying to tell the full truth of these people's [00:11:00] lives." And I thought that was really interesting because, you know, I, I lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia for a while where, uh, they have, um, there are spots there, there are like memorials in some spots, statues in others, markers of like places where slave auction blocks were and, um, places where there's like Civil War generals where there's statues.

And for a while everyone was like pulling them down. And I, I do wonder sometimes like how do we walk the path of like we don't wanna forget these things happened. We wanna make sure kids know because if we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. And so I don't know, I just kept thinking about when I was at Conner Prairie because I'm like, okay, this is kind of a cool place.

You get to see how they lived in the early 1800s. Um, and fun fact, Indiana, it was never legal for, um, people in Indiana to own slaves. Maybe I'm really like completely oblivious to this, but I always thought pre Civil War that there was slavery all across the country. I didn't realize that- I thought the 

Gerry: same thing.

I [00:12:00] thought it was like a national thing. 

Andrea: No. So w- the whole thing about it being states' rights is that there were some states that allowed it and some states that didn't, and Indiana was- Oh ... one of the ones that never allowed it. And so even on Conner Prairie where they, he booted his wife and his six children He, he would've never had a s- he would've never had slaves, which I thought was really- Andrew.

Gerry: I, I ain't gonna lie, I didn't know we had Indiana back then. 

Andrea: It, back then? Oh, yeah. Well, so- I 

Gerry: didn't know we got over there yet. I thought it was just this side. I thought it was the East Coast. That 

Andrea: was all we had. I don't 

Gerry: wanna s- 

Andrea: In the 1800s? 

Gerry: Yeah. 

Andrea: I, I don't wanna speak super confidently on this because I am not great, obviously, at history, nor at geography.

Um, I don't think that the borders of Indiana are what they are today during that era, um, because all of this was going on, like, like, it was right before the Trail of Tears, I think, with, um, Andrew Jackson and [00:13:00] all that. So there was, like, just a lot of upheaval and a lot of really horrible things happening.

And yet, we have this place where you can go and do summer camps and, and go learn about this family. And you can go and pretend to be, like, a little, like, pioneer kid. And I'm like, "Uh, yeah, but how do we feel about that?" Like- 

Gerry: We got Indiana- I don't know ... in 1816. 

Andrea: Okay, there you go. You know, and Steve- I 

Gerry: Googled when did we get Indiana.

So here's how bad I am. I'm sitting here thinking, I'm sitting here talking about how I, I went to this camp about World War II and the Holocaust and talking about, yeah, it's 'cause I liked history, but I ain't gonna lie, when we fought the Civil War, I thought it was still only 13 colonies. I thought that's who was beefing 

Andrea: Was the 

Gerry: colony I didn't know we had picked up some more of them.

Yeah. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Yeah, I kinda don't know what's going on. We prob- probably need to go to some more of them camps on some different, like, can we get some geography in there? Yeah. I still like, like, I rem- we talked about it, just [00:14:00] found, I found out where Alaska was like a few months ago. Um, still a little shaky on Hawaii.

Andrea: Yeah. There's been there's been a lot of learning on this podcast already. 

Gerry: Yeah. 

Andrea: Although I honestly, I could, like s- Steven, uh, needs to come on and probably explain that and medical stuff to us because Steven's very knowledgeable in Civil War history. I should be better because I did live in Virginia for like eight years and lived on a battlefield.

Like the, the house we had at one point, there was just like Spotsylvania Battlefield kind of went right there. Um- You ever 

Gerry: been to Gettysburg? 

Andrea: I have, yes. 

Gerry: Gettysburg, pretty cool. 

Andrea: Okay, I have a question for you because- Okay ... in Gettysburg, when I was there, there was one of the docents who had known a direct descendant of a Civil War soldier.

So like the, this, this really old guy who used to go and do the historical walking [00:15:00] tours and stuff, his father had fought in the Civil War, right? And so this guy was telling us- Uh-huh ... about his, like the firsthand experience of what it was like having a parent who had been in, um, the Civil War. And so that made it feel like very recent to me.

But I was thinking about this because one of the things you can do if you go to Gettysburg is you can go on a ghost tour. 

Gerry: Okay. 

Andrea: How, how long does it have to be from the event for people to start being okay with there being ghost tours? Like, at what, at what era would you be like, "Whoa, that's really insensitive.

What are we doing here?" Like, w- what era would give you, like, a little bit of the ick? I 

Gerry: kinda feel like we're done. Like, I feel like if we don't already do ghost tours about, we shouldn't start. 

Andrea: Interesting. So, like, you can't... No new ghost tours then, is what you're saying. 

Gerry: Yeah, nah, like, like, I mean, you can't do that.

Like, using the Holocaust for example, you can't do that. 

Andrea: I was [00:16:00] thinking about this because I was like, wow, how weird would it be to be the guy who's the tour guide, and you see people doing ghost tours of people you maybe knew. Like, that's wild, and they do it at, like, houses where people have been murdered.

They do it in, like, tragic locations. This... 'Cause one of the spots they would take you to is, like, a Civil War hospital, right? And so I'm like, w- at what, how many years? I think probably once the direct descendants are no longer. 

Gerry: I, I think that we should start doing ghost tours for random stuff now of people who knew the people.

Being like, "Yeah, y'all hear that door creaking? That's Ricky. He would eat anything for 20 bucks." Like, I think that would be sick. 

Andrea: That would actually be really funny though. 

Gerry: And if it's like- Like, we one time saw this guy- Let me tell you ... stick a jalapeno in his nose. Like, like, brr, you know? Like, I think that'd be hilarious.

Andrea: I just want, I wanna go on record right now. If I have an untimely death, Gerry, I want you to be [00:17:00] the docent for my ghost tour, and I want you to just make stuff up. Build lore around who I was and the way I would haunt people, because I love the thought that, like, people would have a little, a little razzle dazzle.

You know? Yeah, 

Gerry: I'd be like- Like, don't make it boring. Be like- I'd be, I'd be, I'd be like, "You see that little corner over there? Andrea used to do back flips in that corner then throw shit at you when she landed." Like, stuff like that. She 

Andrea: did. You never knew. You never knew what she was gonna do. I love the idea of that.

I feel like maybe also if there's, like, some kind of blessing associated. I, I don't know. I, I think I'm also thinking along morbid lines 'cause I just came back from New Orleans, and that place just talks about death all the time, and there's a lot of ghost tours, and there's a lot of, like- crazy history and all of that.

And some of it's not that old. Like, a lot of it is, but not all of it. And so that just made me, it made- What are 

Gerry: the ghost tours for in New Orleans? 

Andrea: So if you've ever seen American Horror Story, they touch on [00:18:00] a lot of this. Um, but there was a woman who was a serial killer, she and her husband, and, um, they- Okay.

Like, both 

Gerry: of them were serial killers, or she was a serial killer and she just told her husband, "Well, I'm with her"? 

Andrea: They, they think both because they don't think it's possible she could have done it alone. Um- Okay ... but basically she would take enslaved people either that worked in her home or from other places and lock them in her attic and she would do all sorts of, like, horrible things to them and would, like, take their blood for beauty treatments and stuff.

Theme: Yeah, I mean- 

Andrea: Um, and just did some of the- ... 

Theme: that's not 

Andrea: cool ... yeah, some of the gnarliest stuff. So that's part of it. There also were sep- several other spaces down there where, like, there was, um, a doctor who was known as, like, the town abortionist and he had a f- fatality rate for the mother of somewhere around, like, 70 to 80%.

And they say the reason it was so high was because he was just... Most of the women who [00:19:00] came were either enslaved people or they were, um, or they were prostitutes. And so he would just do experiments on them because he knew he could get away with kinda doing whatever he wanted. Um, so it's, it's the darkest of dark stuff.

That one 

Gerry: feels like that one shouldn't be a ghost story. 

Andrea: Right? Exactly. And I asked- 

Gerry: That one feel... Like, for some reason, the serial killer one, I don't know, clocks a little 

Andrea: differently. You're like, fucking with that, but... 

Gerry: Like, I feel like that one clocks differently, but then the one of the experiments lab one's sad.

Like- 

Andrea: Yeah, there, there's so many that are like that, and it just, it made it awful. And I, I found out what happened to that doctor, unfortunately, with both of those cases. So the doctor, um, who would experiment on people, he eventually died of, like, dysentery. So he didn't die a horrible, horrible death. I don't think he ever got caught, um, which super bummed me out.

But then also the woman who was, like, a serial killer, she got discovered because one of the people, like, was chained to an oven in [00:20:00] her house, and they started- Oh ... a fire, and when the house burned, they went and discovered that she was there and, um, then discovered everything else, and she and her husband fled to New York, changed their names, fled to Europe, and we don't know what happened to them after that.

Oh, okay. Super bummed me out. So just thought I'd share. Do you think people 

Gerry: with, like, fam- Like, do they talk about real ghosts, like ghosts of real people or, like, talk about real people who passed, or they kind of, like, take those names out of it and just talk about the perpetrators? 'Cause I'm wondering if the people's...

If, like, if somebody got got by that doctor or got got by that serial killer, are the people who got got, is, is, are they getting money for this? Like, is their family- 

Andrea: I mean, their family's not getting money because most of those people, we never got their names. Um, but I can tell you some of the ghosts that they attribute around New Orleans, they do have names for.

Um, for example, at the big, [00:21:00] um, cathedral that's in downtown New Orleans, there is a priest that they name, and I can't remember his name, that they say actually walks back and forth in this very specific hallway because- Oh, 

Gerry: wow ... 

Andrea: he refused to ring the bell because- Oh

I can't remember. It was a holiday of some kind. He refused to ring the bell when somebody said, "Hey, there's a fire next door." And it was one of the, like, biggest fi- like, it burned down, like, 80% of New Orleans. Um, and then he ends up dying, like, a few years later, and so they say that, like, he walks that hallway.

So some of the people they have names for, but yeah. 

Gerry: In the town I'm from, they had this chicken plant fire because they, they were making, like, chicken nuggets and stuff in there, and apparently, like, people kept stealing chicken nuggets to, like, feed their families. They weren't getting paid much money.

Andrea: Okay. 

Gerry: So the, like, the owner or manager or whatever, he left one night and, like, I guess was mad they were stealing, and he locked the door. And they locked him [00:22:00] in, and the place caught on fire. Everybody died. 

Andrea: Oh my gosh. When was that? 

Gerry: A while ago. I wasn't alive yet. I don't remember. I, I... Maybe '88? 

Andrea: Mm. That's crazy.

Gerry: I can't remember, though. If anybody from my hometown heard this, I probably got some of that wrong. And you can- But I think that's it ... argue with your mama. I don't know. There, there's probably a memorial down there. We can go get the real story. I- that's why I remember being told what happened. Now, for some reason, '88 is what clicks in my head.

Like, it wasn't a super long ago thing. 

Andrea: Yeah, let's 

Gerry: calm down. But it was like, I w- I 

Andrea: wasn't around We're calling it a s- super long time ago, 'cause I was born in '87. But, um- 

Gerry: Yeah, like I said, a super, like, like long as hell. Like, a long time, like, like a long time ago. Like- 

Andrea: Um, I think that's fascinating. I think we need to have a ghost episode, uh, when it's, it comes to, to fall, and we'll, we'll talk about the- I think hell nah.

Gerry: Mm-mm. No, 

Andrea: I don't like that. It'd be fun. I mean, we're not- Nah ... gonna do, like, a seance or anything, but, um, okay. Let's take- 

Gerry: Like, we 

Andrea: gotta 

Gerry: have a ghost on? N- 

Andrea: yeah, that's what we're gonna do, Gerry. Come on. Get your head in the game. All right, [00:23:00] guys, we are gonna take a quick break, and then I've got some fan questions for us, so we will be right back.

Gerry: 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 stand-up show is, and I'm gonna be coming to a town near you super soon. You can get tickets at educatorandrea.com/tickets

Andrea: Welcome back, teacher besties. Okay, so I know quite a few future teachers that are about to get into the classroom for the first time. Um, and so I had a couple of them ask some questions about going into the classroom for the first time. So the first thing that they asked was, "What are some pe- some things that people told you you would need but were overrated?"

So things that when you first started teaching, people were like, "Oh, you have to get fill in the blank."[00:24:00] 

Gerry: I have sticky notes galore. Mm. Like, I don't use sticky notes for nothing. I kind of just if I have the right pass one, I pick up the closest thing to me. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Um, I quit with hall passes 'cause they always go missing or getting torn up. At one point I tried to use a football helmet. I was like, "Nah, one of these kids gonna bang the other one in the head.

I ain't doing that." Yeah. But like, I'll just kind of be like, "Just go pick that up. They're not gonna question you if you're carrying something." Um, I've never, like, used a basket or anything for them to turn in. Like- 

Andrea: Like, no crates, 

Gerry: nothing 

Andrea: like that? "Can I put 

Gerry: your paper in that basket?" "No. I'm gonna go put it on the desk of it.

I'll grab it later." 

Andrea: Wow. Yeah. I, I would, I definitely had to have, like, a whole system for turning stuff in. That way, especially I like having the physical papers turned in, so that way I have a physical manifestation of how behind grading I am. Um, man, I think that highlighters, I thought I would need so many highlighters.

No. I had so many. Uh, teachers really don't use it that often. Uh, [00:25:00] like, basically for kids to borrow if you're annotating something and you're having your students do that and you need to have some for them to borrow, I guess. But, like, rarely did I ever- 

Gerry: Yeah. 

Andrea: What about the opposite? Is there anything that you're like, people definitely need?

Gerry: It's not so much an item, but trying to find a system for when kids ask to go to the bathroom. 

Andrea: Yeah. '

Gerry: Cause I hate being interrupted, like, be in the middle of something, they hold the hand up, ask to go to the bathroom. I'm like, "No, don't ask me- Yeah ... when I'm in the middle of talking." I mean, I've thought about should I do a Google form where I can go check, but then I think that, like, makes it, well, a bunch of them be like, "It's a Google form, I'ma go get to it first," and it's gonna be the same names in order.

Um, I have, like, a sign-out sheet, it's like you gotta sign out and take a pass. Um, I think, like, that's a system that I wasn't prepared, like, for what to do, but I got so aggravated with the bathroom stuff that I, like, came up with something. Like, nah, I, [00:26:00] I gotta have a system for going to the bathroom. 

Andrea: Yeah.

I'd agree with that, especially because, in some schools, I don't know, I remember there were, like, two or three different times when I, at different, and I think these were at different schools, where they would have some kind of system that they're like, "Hey, guys, this is gonna be the new thing. Kids are gonna, like, scan in and scan out to go to the bathroom."

That's stupid. And it, it, it never worked. It never once worked. And they were all like, "Oh, it's gonna be great. We're not gonna have to worry about it. It's gonna be, like, on their..." I think it was, like, on their student ID, but then of course kids never had their student ID. Um, and it just, yeah, it was a complete waste of district money, and honestly, for what?

Like, it's not that hard to either write down something really quick or have them sign out or something like that. I, 

Gerry: I know some teachers use, like, a Google Form on, like, a extra laptop. 

Andrea: Mm. Just 

Gerry: like sitting in the 

Andrea: corner? And I was like... 

Gerry: Yeah, and I was like, "Nah, I ain't doing all that. Nah." 

Andrea: Yeah. "

Gerry: They can sign this notebook" 

Andrea: I think, I [00:27:00] think along those lines though, I think teaching kids routines of things that you think should go without saying is important.

So like, if kids come in on day one and are acting absolutely out of hand, make them go back out and practice coming in well, because they will hate it, they'll be annoyed by it, but the reality is, is like sometimes they do need to be taught. Like, we don't come in and start, you know, acting cool. I've done that before.

Yeah. I mean, some- sometimes you have to, because if they don't know how to behave, you gotta do it. When- And I think when, when you're like a first-year teacher, you're like nervous about doing stuff like that. You're like, "Oh, that's kinda dumb," and it's like, yeah, that's the point. Piss them off. Piss them off enough to be like, "Guys, come on, let's just do this and move on."

Gerry: Sometimes when they don't close the door when they go in or out, I'll, when they come back, I'll be like, "All right, open the door." They'll open it, I'll be like, "Now close it. Now open it again. Now close it. Now open it again." [00:28:00] "Now close it." And I'll go lo- however long you think I do that for, I do it a little longer.

Like, we'll kill about 10 minutes. And we do it... I'll be like, I'll be like, and I'll be like, "Go sit down. Don't leave my door open again." 

Andrea: And I bet 

Gerry: they won't. I don't like the noise in the hallway. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: They, they do not. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: I got some kids, like I, I clocked it today. I was like, man, if I had a little more energy- 

Andrea: Yeah

Gerry: ooh, I'd have them open that door 70 times. Oh, I'm fed up. I hate it, especially my room's right by the cafeteria. 

Andrea: Mm, so 

Gerry: it's always loud. They come down the... I'm like, "I don't wanna hear all that." Yeah. Like, like it get on my nerve. And some of y'all be coming by my room yelling. I'm like, "Let one of my kids yell, yell in the hallway, I'll be out there yelling too."

Andrea: Yeah. Uh, okay, so the, the other question they had was what are some things you wish you knew before you c- became a teacher? 

Gerry: That we ain't really know what we were doing. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Like, the teachers, like, like, some days you show up, you're like, "Ooh, I don't got nothing." And you just kinda- Yeah ... figuring it out.

Like, I'd be guessing most of the time. I'd be like, [00:29:00] "I don't know." Like, there's some time a kid ask me a question, I'll just answer them. I'd be like, "I don't know if that was right or not." Like, I do that- Yeah ... now. Mm-hmm. My daily, I told you that story about the chicken plant. I don't know if that's what happened.

I know something happened. Plant burned down. I told you a story. It happened. There's something. We can Google it. I might be wrong. If I'm wrong, I'll be like, "Yeah, whatever. I remembered it different." But, like, yeah, I'll just tell, talk. I'll be like- Yeah ... "I don't know what's going on." I remember, like, my first day, I was this teacher's assistant, and I remember thinking, "Oh, y'all don't know what you're doing."

Like, y'all are- Yeah ... we, we all are kind of just out here. Like, I, I was there for, like, a week and I felt like I'd been there for, like, like, five years. Yeah. I was like, "Yeah, I got this down. This is easy." 

Andrea: Yeah. I, I think that is one of those things that, like, before you actually start teaching, you really think everybody else is, like, fully prepared, has it all together, knows exactly what they're gonna do.

And, like, to some extent, I feel like you do get into a routine where you're not scrambling as much, but there are still gonna be days. Yeah. And I think that that's the thing that you don't realize is, like, [00:30:00] there's gonna be days where you're just showing up and you're like, "Oh, I thought I had made copies of that.

I don't have that. We definitely can't do that activity without those copies. I don't have time to go get them right now, so let's pivot and we're gonna... You know what, guys? How about we have a goal-setting day today? You're welcome. Have a seat. Let's get to work." Like, 'cause you can't let them know that, that we, uh, don't know, 'cause that doesn't help.

Gerry: Oh, mine is always, "Hey, guys, we're gonna watch Shark Tank. Answer these questions to go with it." And we're chilling. Or it's like, "Guys, I'm missing so many assignments." They have many assignments missing some of the time. Like, and that's the thing. Some of the classes there is, some of them there's not, and they don't know which is which.

They don't know who's missing what. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: I'll be like, "Yeah, guys, do catch-up work." 

Andrea: Yeah. Um, okay, I actually today do in fact have a hill that I'm gonna die on. Shocker. Um, I, well, it's, okay, it's less of a hill I'm gonna die on. It's more of a query, a question, if you will. Um- [00:31:00] 

Gerry: I thought 

Andrea: a 

Gerry: query was like a little river.

Andrea: I, I don't know what he thinks. I don't know. I don't think... A quarry? Are you thinking of quarry? 

Gerry: That one. 

Andrea: Okay. 

Gerry: I thought that's what... I'm thinking a quarry, like it's, that's where they keep some rocks and water. Like, it's like a little pond. Yeah. 

Andrea: Correct. Yeah. 

Gerry: Like you ever been to like a buffet or something?

It's, they got it right in the front. It's like, look at that little quarry with the fish in it. 

Andrea: Aquarium 

Gerry: No, a quarry, like, like a little pond 

Andrea: I- a quarry is big, I think 

Gerry: I don't know what I'm talking about Dude Do your little helping. 

Theme: I, 

Gerry: I, I ain't gonna lie, I lost the grip on what I was talking about, like- Great

several sentences ago. I was like, "I gotta, I gotta get out of this." And I, I- Great ... I'm thinking I'm just gonna take the L here. Dude, 

Andrea: love that for us. Okay. 

Gerry: My 

Andrea: bad. All right. Um, so my, my query, my question is, um, hey, so if the Federal Department of Education was gonna shut down, why are [00:32:00] they still making stupid rules without any kind of, like, research or backup or anything?

Like, I thought you guys were going away. Instead, they decided, I guess, they're gonna stick around, but they're gonna do stuff worse, and it's pissing me all the way off. Because every si- and, like, I, because of my algorithm, got fed, like, this little, little Instagram thing from, from McMahon, and that she was saying how she's gonna, you know, they're gonna try and fix higher ed and all of this stuff.

And I'm like, "I don't, how could..." I, I can't, I thought, like, if you're gonna go away and give it back to the States, what are you doing? Why are you still here? Why are... Like, it's been how many years? What are we doing? All right. So, okay. I saw your hand. Yes, Gerry. 

Gerry: I, I don't know nothing about none of that. I- I, I, I stay in my little bubble.

But I've heard this McMahon. Correct. And I assume she's in the government, she's the president or something. Listen- 

Andrea: Yes. Yes, 

Gerry: Gerry ... is that the same WWE McMahon? 

Andrea: It sure is. [00:33:00] So- All right. ... yeah, she is it. She is- 

Gerry: Okay. I, uh, all right. Yeah. I- 

Andrea: So it's Linda, it's his wife 

Gerry: We should let the WWE run things for a while.

Andrea: Well, that's basically what we've been doing. Didn't you hear that they- 

Gerry: President Stone Cold Steve Austin. 

Andrea: Okay. Well, you know, d- first of all, I think Steve Austin actually is running for something. And- He might be ... second of all, you know that they're building an MMA, like, stadium on the f- like, one of the lawns at the White House.

Are you aware of this? 

Gerry: Yeah. A- and that's, that's, that's their business. I 

Andrea: can't. I- 

Gerry: I 

Andrea: can't ... 

Gerry: I, I, I, I, I won't speak on nothing going- I don't know what's going on. I just be seeing stuff in the news, I'll be like, "Is that real?" I'll be like, "All right. Okay." I- 

Andrea: I- 

Gerry: Look, listen, I got, I got my figures. 

Andrea: I know. 

Gerry: You do.

And this is what my world is- You just were working- ... is I care 

Andrea: about these little guys ... trying to find a way to talk about your Spider-Man figurines that you got I, 

Gerry: if I had been more intentional, I'm thinking about trying to turn it so you can see these- 

Andrea: You should ... 

Gerry: while I'm doing the podcast. I need to [00:34:00] figure it out, because it's a corner shelf.

If I w- wanna turn my desk crooked, but I might could just, like, sit like this, but I got all this light coming in. Oh- Yeah ... this is kinda cute. Yeah, I like this. There you 

Andrea: go. Yeah. I 

Gerry: wa- yeah What's 

Andrea: up, ladies? 

Gerry: Gang, gang. Yeah. We doing this. Yeah, but listen, look, I don't know what, what, what McMahon or none of them is doing.

Uh-huh. I don't know who they fighting at the White House I mean, I, I don't know what they, kind of education they got going on. I just know I show up to work 

Andrea: Uh-huh 

Gerry: I go by, little Spider-Man, I spotted that Daredevil right there. I don't know if y'all can see us. It's, uh- 

Andrea: Yeah ... 

Gerry: it's cool. I wa- I was happy about that.

Andrea: Um- It's good, yeah Yeah, and, 

Gerry: um- Yeah, no, 

Andrea: it, it makes me feel some type of way because some of the things they're doing, Gerry, let me educate you. Some of the things they're doing is, uh, cutting funding and, um, uh, like being very specific about their grants and the language around who gets money and who doesn't in the university system.

Um, and obviously since I work in the university sy- system within the [00:35:00] Department of Education, um, I'm seeing all the different ways, which I've talked about on here before, that they're like really whittling down how much training you need to be- become a teacher, um, and all of that. So it's just, I'm just, I can't with one more freaking Instagram post from the Department of Education that they said they were dismantling, but instead they've decided they're gonna put all these mandates out, which is crazy 'cause I'm like, "Hey, why are you guys putting mandates out?

Because you said You weren't gonna do that anymore as a federal government. You were gonna give it back to the states. So what's going on? But that's neither here nor there I don't really, 

Gerry: I don't really know nothing about what's going on. So you- I know they gotta get rid of this edTPA. I don't know why I'm doing this.

Andrea: I- Yeah, can you- I don't know ... I need you to update the people. How's your edTPA going? When, 

Gerry: it's going. I'm still kind of figuring it out, but it's gonna be done by next Thursday. It's got- I 

Andrea: love it ... 

Gerry: I've been teaching the lessons this week and recording them, and I think - Uh-huh ... they're going okay. And I think that's even part of it, is even if they don't go okay, recognize what didn't go, [00:36:00] g- go okay and plan for next time.

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Like, I, I, like, I don't know that anybody's ever failed. I've never taught anybody who's failed. 

Andrea: I've known some. 

Gerry: Don't, don't tell me that. Nuh-uh. Sorry. I like to think that, that this is just a gimme. I 

Andrea: want you to have an appropriate level of fear, Gerry. Some people do fail the edTPA. Um, most don't. 

Gerry: I mean, I know it's not a layup.

Andrea: Right. Most 

Gerry: don't. But also, I got game, baby. 

Andrea: Y- uh-huh. 

Gerry: It don't need to be a layup. I got- Yeah ... I'm shifty. 

Andrea: That's- 

Gerry: I got moves. 

Andrea: You're gonna Patoka it. We've discussed this. 

Gerry: I'm gonna Patoka it. But- I love it ... yeah, yeah, nah, it's just me and my figures against the world, for real, and that's what, that's what, you know, my life is, I think.

And, um, I forgot where I... Oh yeah, we gotta get rid of it, 'cause I'm, I'm like, next year, assuming things work out, I'm gonna be in my fifth year. When, I don't know when you become a veteran teacher, but I feel like I got battle scars. Like, I think I've been here- Yeah ... for a minute. I was like- I think- ... I was a, a teacher assistant for most of a school year before that.

This is my fifth year in [00:37:00] education. I'll be starting my sixth year in education, and it'll be my first year with a teaching license. How, why do I need to do- That's crazy ... an edTPA to prove to y'all I can do my job? 

Andrea: Yeah. I would say year seven is when you become a veteran teacher. Is, is my opinion. That's when I really felt like, what are you gonna do?

Like, nothing. There's nothing you've got. Like, I've seen it. I've seen it. I'm not upset about it. It is what it is. Like, you do kinda like ru- because years, like, one through three, you're just figuring out what you're doing, trying to figure out what you like, what you don't like, how you wanna run things, and then you really kinda get into a rhythm, like, three through five.

I think seven, seven is really where it hits. Although COVID years, learning how to teach during the pandemic might give you some, like, dog years of experience. So I think that that maybe counts for more. 

Gerry: Yeah, but my first, like three years I did three different things 

Andrea: Even, even more so, 

Gerry: honestly I was special education teacher assistant, I taught PE, and I taught CTE.

I'm [00:38:00] like, "Yeah, I'm a dog." 

Andrea: Yeah 

Gerry: Like 

Andrea: Yeah. I think that, I think that counts as more. You get bonus years in there. And then soon- Yeah, so- ... you're gonna also be fully licensed. 

Gerry: Huh. 

Andrea: W- Go team 

Gerry: We'll see how this edTPA goes. Team. Now apparently I know people fail it. And, but that's the thing is in North Carolina you have to take it to become a teacher.

Mm-hmm. And, and we, we got some folks running around here that I'm like, "How? You did it? Okay." Like- 

Andrea: That is, yeah. 

Gerry: Yeah, I'm like, "

Andrea: If you could do it- Nothing, nothing builds more confidence in being able to do something than meeting an idiot who did that thing. 

Gerry: Yeah. I'm, I'm like, I'm like, "Yo, hold on, y'all are dumb."

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Like, some of y'all are stupid. Team. And y'all did it? I can do that. Like- 

Andrea: It's perfect. I love that. 

Gerry: I- I kinda just figure I, I, I'm a Patoca. I, I'm a- Yeah ... I'm gonna lock in this weekend. I'm a do it. Um, I've already got the videos. Um, yeah. I think- Yeah ... I think we're good. 

Andrea: I love 

Gerry: it. If anybody on here, uh, they ain't gonna hear it.

By the time we hear [00:39:00] this we're gonna know my fate. I was about to say- Yeah ... if anybody on here listens to this and is a grader for it or knows anything about it, DM me. 

Andrea: That's 

Gerry: right. But this, by, b- like next week's episode, my, no, next, oh, next week I, is the day it's due, next Thursday. 

Andrea: Yeah. So it better be done before we start recording, otherwise you'll just be like crying.

Gerry: Other- It'll be great ... otherwi- otherwise it might be, it might be you talking, talking to, it might be you and your children- 

Andrea: That's 

Gerry: right ... on here. I'm gonna be like, "Look, I need y'all." 

Andrea: Pre-school. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well I think 

Gerry: that's- I'ma get it. I'ma lock in 

Andrea: I love it. I think that's a perfect place, uh, to leave it this week.

So, uh, guys, thank you so much. If you have thoughts about what we talked about today, like what were some things that people told you you would need but you actually thought was super overrated, or advice that you wish you had before you became a teacher, um, then let us know. You can email me, andrea@human-content.com or you can contact the whole Human Content Podcast family on Instagram and TikTok at humancontentpods.[00:40:00] 

Um, you can get those full video episodes. They're up every week on YouTube at Educator Andrea. Thank you so much for listening. I'm your host, Andrea Forkham. And I'm 

Gerry: Gerry Patoca. 

Andrea: And our executive producers are Andrea Forkham, Aron Korney, Rob Goldman, and Shahnti Brooke. Our editor is Andrew Sims, our engineer is Jason Portizo, our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi.

To learn more about How to Survive the Classroom's program disclaimer and ethics policy and submission, verification, and licensing terms you can go to podcasterandrea.com. How to Survive the Classroom is a Human Content production. 

Theme: How to Survive the Class-

Andrea: 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. You see it? And if you haven't yet, please subscribe. Okay, [00:41:00] bye.