Quality of Life vs The Teaching Crisis with Miss Molly Dugan

Molly: [00:00:00] They're like, well, are you like in therapy for it? Oh my God. He just seemed like the type that would need it. It was like literally pointing. It was like pointing and laughing at me, and I'm already like, I'm gonna die alone. And then you have this group of like 28th graders being like, you're gonna die alone.

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Intro & Meet Molly Dugan

Andrea: Hey, teacher besties and welcome to How to Survive the Classroom. I am Andrea for, 

Gerry: I'm Jerry Patoka. 

Andrea: And today we have a very special guest, miss Dugan herself. Molly Dugan is here today. 

Molly: Hi. 

Andrea: Hi. I am so delighted to have you here. I just, uh, I feel like I'm glowing 'cause it's been like almost a year since I've gotten to hang out with you.

Molly: It honestly is so weird to think about because. I was like, oh yeah, like I just saw her like a few weeks ago. I was telling someone that I was coming on this podcast. I was like, okay, so I'm going on a podcast today. Like it's gonna be really cool. And I was like, oh yeah, this like teacher that I met like a couple months ago and I was like, that was literally almost a year ago.

So it has been a long time coming. I'm so glad 

Andrea: to be 

Molly: here. 

Andrea: Yeah, I, it's, uh, I was also explaining to my kids that I was gonna be coming in and doing a podcast. And for the first time ever, my son actually asked me what a podcast is. And let me tell you how stupid it feels to explain to a 5-year-old. So it's me talking to other [00:02:00] people talking, and then that talking goes out.

Other people listened to it and he looked at me and he is like, that sounds so dumb. And I was like, well, yeah. The way I described it didn't make it sound great. I'm gonna be honest. But 

Molly: you're like, it is kind of dumb, but people like it, so I do it. 

Andrea: People love it. So, um, for those of you guys who do not know or have not had the gift of coming across Ms.

Dugan on Instagram or TikTok, um, Molly's also a teacher. So what do you teach Molly? 

Molly: High School English. 

Andrea: Heck yeah. The best. 

Molly: Oh 

Andrea: yeah, the best subject that you could possibly teach. And how long have you been teaching? This is my seventh year. Okay. Amazing. Seven years strong. So you're like, yeah, like the, the prime of teaching where you're no longer a new teacher and people stop asking you when you're gonna leave teaching?

Or have they, or have they like stopped asking you? 

Molly: I think they just say like, are you okay? Like, ooh, high school, like you [00:03:00] okay? And I'm like, oh yeah. Like I survived. So I taught middle school for five years, and after that I'm like, oh yeah, I'm fine. Like if you can do middle school. You're fine, you're good.

Honestly, I beat the statistic after getting outta high school. I was like, I'll be in this for life if I can be like, I'm good now. Yeah. Got 

Andrea: outta my 

Molly: system. 

Andrea: Yeah. Jerry's in that same boat. Jerry's over in that middle school life too. I 

Gerry: am. 

Andrea: It's brutal. What, 

Molly: wait, like what grade level? 

Gerry: Uh, all three of 'em.

Sixth, seventh, eighth. 

Andrea: Okay. Now, now you should be getting paid as three different teachers. Now get him to explain what he teaches. Let's see if we've, we've gotten it to a condensed, concise answer. Jerry, what do you teach? 

Gerry: You tell her 

Andrea: pop quiz. I think, I think this is 

Molly: like when you have a friend in business and they're like, what does your friend do?

And you're like, they send emails. 

Andrea: I, it's very confusing to me, honestly. Okay, so Jerry, I think what you teach is like be beginning [00:04:00] business. Classes is one of 'em. 

Gerry: Sure. 

Andrea: This is the problem is for the first 10 times I had the conversation with Jerry about what classes he taught. He was like, uh, we'd be out, we'd be out here.

Gerry: We are teaching. We really, we really do. We be, we'd be inside, outside. We'd be out here. We'd be out here just doing things and like, there's so much knowledge to be soaked up and we just, in my room, we got 43 minutes. We soaking it up. Jerry, do you know 

Molly: what you teach? 

Gerry: Yeah, sometimes and we got a little, like we, we got like little brain sponges and we're just soaking it all up 

Andrea: and that's teaching for you.

What did you teach the students today, like on this day? What was like your main lesson plan objective. You're dancing. That's my talking 

Molly: vibes. You're not party. That means vibes. That means it's almost been break. It was 

Gerry: vibes today. I was 

Molly: out out 

Gerry: today. 

Molly: Get caught up on your missing work. That's it. Was that kind of a day?

Andrea: Oh my get 

Gerry: this. I was out [00:05:00] all morning. I ain't get there till like 11 something. I had to go. I had to go get that. Go get that. Uh. That Glip one. Go get that. Go get that diet deal. Oh 

Andrea: yeah, yeah. That GLP one, 

Gerry: you go there some up with it. Yeah. Yeah. 

Andrea: Because you're just, you're a health king. Now we know 

Gerry: it. I'm going to be unstoppable by July.

I, I'm be able to jump and, and stuff. Almost said that word. We don't say bad words. On the 

Andrea: podcast, guess we, I do sometimes, 'cause I teach college and so I'm allowed to use bad words. Um, I will, I do have to tell you guys and Molly, since you have now dipped your toe into the comedy world as well, 'cause you did some stuff with the unteachable, right?

Did you open for them? 

Molly: If you can count it as that? No, they invited me up for their q and a and i, I, it was terrifying. So I guess you could say I have a little, but I don't know that that counts. I had nothing prepared. 

Andrea: Okay. I will tell you, even when you do have something prepared, comedy is so weird because it's so situationally based, and I, yesterday I was asked to go and speak at iu, [00:06:00] which is like, guys, I don't know if you've ever been on Indiana University's campus before.

Like I work at ISU, which is very small, like 7,000 students total IU has like 70,000 students and. I went on to campus because this business class, business marketing class wanted to have me guests speak to them about, um, influencer marketing. So I was talking to a bunch of business students who are going to be working from the businesses side with influencers.

And so they were like asking me questions and like, you know, what it was like and what companies I liked working with, all that stuff. Right. And then. She says like, yeah, and Andrea also does comedy. Andrea, why don't you do a joke for us? And I, no, 

Molly: she, 

Andrea: Uhuh wanted to leap out of the window. I was like, oh, we don't, nobody wants that.

Like, this is not, yeah. Like, Hey, you know what, just do funny stuff, little clown dance. And I'm like, please [00:07:00] don't do this to me. Please. I beg of you because like if you, that feels like. It's, it's a setup for failure because it's, it's like it, oh God. It would be like if some, if you were at a dinner party and someone was like, teach something now.

And suddenly you don't know what you teach. You don't know what, where you've been. Jerry started dancing when I asked what he taught today. So I like, I was like, um, and I tried to like do one of, and she was like, it'll be funny. Don't worry, we'll laugh. And I'm like, great. And it's. 11 in the morning. I'm staring at 35 college seniors who are all business majors.

They've never been in education, they don't know who I am, most of them. Other than that, they did like a little Google right before class. I was like, this is actually torture. And like I got some laughs but like not as many laughs as when I was telling funny stories in other parts of my presentation and I was like, this was terrible.

Kill me now. It was horrible. 

Molly: You know, shame on her for ruining your vibe. Like you [00:08:00] know how to add the charm in your talk and she just like. No, 

Andrea: come on. It was, it was insane. Honestly, I, every time someone says that, I'm like, you know how if you had a friend and that friend was a proctologist, you wouldn't just ask them to do their job for you for free out of the context of their normal confines of where you would see the, because that would be crazy, right?

Comedy is very similar to that. You don't just start doing it willy nilly. Yes, Jerry, I'm terrified about why you had to raise your hand for that. 

Gerry: What's a proctologist? 

Andrea: Okay, 

Gerry: that's not the dinosaurs right

Molly: in my head. Wait, doesn't this like relate to Jerry? Shouldn't Jerry know what this is based on who he is as a human? Wait, 

Gerry: wait. Yo. 

Molly: I am right. 

Andrea: Yes, you 

Molly: are Jerry. Molly. Let's just context clues. 

Andrea: Okay. So I said it was an inappropriate pro. Like proc tall, pro Pro, pro 

Molly: tall. Proc, proc talk. [00:09:00] What? What part? It's a body part.

Andrea: It's a body part that you have. And she and I are never gonna see a proctologist. They won't. You should 

Molly: check it for cancer, man. 

Andrea: Yeah. And it's, it's a turn your head and cough, I think as well. Sometimes. 

Gerry: I thought that was Oh wait, hold, wait my butt. I thought it was a urologist. Yeah, I thought a urologist did the, no, did the, did the, did the nether regions what were talking, talking about proctologist first they got a separate doctor.

Andrea: So first 

Molly: they did the dinosaurs and they, do you? 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Wow. 

Andrea: So paleontologists are for doctor or for, for, for dinosaurs. That's why. Yeah. Paleontologists. That's a, that's for the dinosaurs 

Gerry: gang game. 

Andrea: Just exactly. Um, a proctologist is, does the prostate, which is, it's part of your anatomy. And they can only check it by like, by ch, by sticking some fingers up there and, and feeling around.

Why do you, 

Gerry: I, I have more I wanna say, but No, but [00:10:00] Rob, but Rob's gonna clip it. I don't want this online. 

Andrea: We don't have to have it. Clip Rob, Rob will respect the 

Gerry: confines 

Andrea: of 

Gerry: only 

Andrea: men 

Gerry: have prostates. 

Andrea: Yeah. Oh my god. So you don't teach help? You know 

Gerry: I asked, started 

Andrea: you asking 

Gerry: questions, pastor. I thought, 

Andrea: Roby, Mike lip it.

Gerry: Yeah. 

Andrea: I 

Gerry: thought your prostate was your butthole and I thought all of us had this. 

Andrea: That's an anus. 

Gerry: I thought, I thought we was just giving it different names, like how we called the toilet the loose sometimes or the john. I thought we was calling the ball. The, the, the prostate. 

Andrea: Were you thinking rectum?

Because we all have rectums. Is 

Gerry: that 

Andrea: the word? 

Gerry: Is that outta 

Andrea: the ball? A rectum That is the but hole. I think it's like up in there. Yeah. It's a, I think it's a little bit further in Think it's, but the prostate is, is a different, I think it's inside 

Molly: of your butt hole 

Andrea: for you is like, well you've got I think anus, rectum and then the prostate is like, it's like up under it.

Like school in your 

Molly: s type, like up in you. Yeah. 

Andrea: Was this like a [00:11:00] great opportunity for No, we don't 

Molly: have for learning 

Andrea: today. Don't have that. 

Gerry: I gotta go back to school, man. 

Molly: Yeah. 

Gerry: I up 

Andrea: that ladies. 

Gerry: Oh, 

Molly: wait, what 

Andrea: do you what? What do you teach again, Jerry? 

Molly: Vibe. Not health, not health. I, when I taught middle school, I had, I had to teach a class of all eighth grade boys.

It was, and it was only eight. So they, I, I, last minute got told I'm teaching like reading intervention. And I was like, but okay. Um, and it was only boys and somehow, I mean, they were just off the wall and one of them was like talking about how their brother's girlfriend was like on birth control. And then they're like, well, what is birth control?

I feel like I should maybe explain this to you. Good. I'm glad. It's like, maybe, maybe you guys need to know this. So I'm explaining how it affects hormones and they did ask, I thought only boys had hormones, and I was like, how? I don't actually understand how you came to that. 

Gerry: I see how you come to that conclusion.

I knew I, I knew everybody had [00:12:00] them. 

Andrea: Right. 

Gerry: But I can see where it comes from. 

Andrea: How can you explain the, because 

Gerry: for me, also, no, it's only something that, no pause. It's only something that happens in my brain. You it. Oh, it clicks in my brain. It might click in some of these other and some of these other, uh, negligent brains, but 

Andrea: Okay.

Gerry: My brain, it clicked. Um, 

Andrea: okay. 

Gerry: I taught PE and health at one point. 

Andrea: Oh my gosh. 

Gerry: Grant, we didn't do, we, we skipped the unit on buttholes, but, 

Andrea: and hormones. 

Gerry: We might have done that, 

Andrea: we might have skimmed over it. Okay. So, um, the boy hormones come from the prostate in part, and so that's why it's like an important part of your body.

And that's also why like when men get prostate cancer, they then have to have like hormone replacement therapy. 

Gerry: I didn't know they had to have that. 

Andrea: Yes. What 

Gerry: they wrote books about this. 

Molly: Jerry, you should go get a checkup. 

Andrea: Man. [00:13:00] 

Gerry: I went and got my blood work done recently. I got a GLP ones. I know what those are.

I love that for you. 

Andrea: I just pro 

Molly: we just want your prostate to be okay. 

Andrea: Yeah. Just concerned. 

Gerry: I'm, I'm not old. 

Andrea: I know know. No, I know you're young. Spring chicken, but also 

Gerry: she is. Mommy might not know how old I am. That's think I'm 

Molly: don't, don't do. 

Gerry: Yes. Why do you wanna 

Molly: hurt yourself? 

Gerry: Yes, it's fine. 

Molly: I definitely think you're in your twenties.

Gerry: Ah, yeah. See? Fine. See, 

Molly: am I right? See? Yeah, 

Gerry: yeah, 

Molly: yeah. But I, you could be, you could be anywhere there. You got the mustache, like a wise, wise elder, 20-year-old, but you got the energy of a young spring chicken, 20-year-old, so I, oh, I don't know. You said, you also said that you taught a couple different subjects, so you've been in the game for a while.

I think you're at least 25. You gotta be like, maybe, what are you, 27? 

Gerry: 27. 

Andrea: That was amazing. 

Molly: A 

Andrea: that was 

Molly: amazing. 

Andrea: I'm very, very impressed. Well, I've actually 

Molly: never gotten that [00:14:00] right before, so 

Andrea: Yeah. Context clues 

Molly: were 

Andrea: king. 

Molly: I actually, I'm, I'm really proud of myself. Yeah. I'm in grad school. That, 

Andrea: that's great.

Yeah. Not to brag. Um, I think is also really nice of How did you describe his mustache? 

Molly: Like, oh, a wise elder, 20-year-old. Mm. 

Andrea: Yeah. Instead of what, how I would describe it. It's just like scumbag mustache. Like 

Gerry: it's not scumbag. Mu, I got a compliment on this mustache yesterday. Mean 

Molly: that's Do you girls, it's sick that people, people are loving the mustache right now.

It is, now it's, it's thick. It's a good one. Yeah. 

Gerry: It's a good st. 

Molly: Okay. Is it a newer look for you? 

Gerry: No, 

Andrea: I've never, no. His face has always been like that since I met him. 

Gerry: I had be, I was, I, I was, uh. I had a beard. I think I had a beard when I saw you the first time. And it kept growing it by the time I saw you the second time.

But for the most of the last like two or three years, I've had a mustache. 

Andrea: Wow. 

Gerry: I'm gonna come here one day, all babied up. Y'all ain't gonna know who I am. 

Andrea: I know. Um, I would love to know where the compliments coming from. [00:15:00] Females or males about your 

Gerry: mustache. It, it was a female, it was a coworker. Okay. And she was like, oh yeah, the mustache looks really good.

And I'm like, yeah, I've been trying to tell y'all. This. 

Andrea: I just know that men love mustaches. I think more than women do like, not like, like not even just gay men, but I think like heterosexual men, like grow. He mustaches For other men, 

Gerry: we game recognizes game. 

Andrea: I I think that's exactly what it's, we 

Gerry: mustaches when we see one.

You know why I started doing it? 

Andrea: Why 

Gerry: it was a self confidence thing. 'cause my self confidence wasn't good. And I was like, if I can step outside with one of these bad boys. 

Molly: That's 

Gerry: true. I'm good. 

Molly: Yeah. And 

Gerry: now No, 

Molly: no, Jerry, that's why I knew you were in your later twenties because a young 20-year-old doesn't have the confidence to do the mustache yet.

That's true. No. Yeah. 

Gerry: And I pass self-confidence. I'm on to arrogance, baby. I'm up here. I'm a narcissist. I I got problems, 

Andrea: Jerry. Okay. Wait. Have your students ever made any comments about your facial hair? 

Gerry: They'll like, Mr. Patto, you [00:16:00] have a mustache? I'm like, yeah, pay for a minute. Like, 

Andrea: they just, they just acknowledge it, the existence of it.

Gerry: Yeah, because sometimes, I mean, they've seen the beard and then they'll see the beard go away, and sometimes this gets scruffy and it goes away and they'll notice the slight changes. I've shaved, I've like weigh a little bit to cut my hair before, and I come in with my head clean shaved and they're all like, oh, Mr.

Proto, you have a mustache. I'm like, yeah, that's not why I changed. 

Andrea: Yeah, I had one time that I came back from Christmas break and I had gotten bangs and they told me that I ruined Christmas for them because they didn't like the bangs. So 

Gerry: that's on you big do 

Andrea: I know, I did. It wasn't a good look for me.

And that's fine. I can accept that. And I, you know, sometimes the bullying, it was beneficial for me because I was like, you're right, you're right. I also had like, I don't know. Molly, if you've had any of this, because every comment I ever see on your page is just worshiping you. But I got bullied into like fixing some stuff about myself.

Wait, because like [00:17:00] if you, so I only know this because, and it happened in very small stages and from very kind people. So really wasn't bullying, but it was like I was very much doing like the very millennial. Makeup of like very heavy, dark eyeliner when I first started on top and bottom and all of that.

And I had someone message me and they were like, Hey, girly, um, love your content. You're so funny. Listen, I say this with so much love, you're aging yourself by doing your eye makeup like that. If you just lightened it up, I think you would really like, your eyes would pop more and it would really show your beauty so much better.

And I was like, well, first of all, that's such a nice way of telling me that I'm doing my makeup wrong. I didn't ask, but I will accept that. And I did start changing and like it did help, like there were lots of little baby steps along the way, but you're the comments you get Molly. On the internet, how?

How do you survive? [00:18:00] Because I get annoyed because I'm like, oh, wanting to find like funny comments. And every single time, 90% of the comments are Molly or Miss Dugan is a blank, batty, fill in the blank, whatever you're doing. If you're baking bread, you're a sourdough, batty. If you are existing in any context traveling, you're a traveling batty.

Like how? How do you deal with. All of that. 

Social Media, Comments & Being a Girl's Girl

Molly: Well, okay. Actually, the batty comments have grown on me because at first I was like, Ooh, I feel weird. Like, ah, do I need to do something about this? Like my students see this. But now it kind of feels like a little inside joke with all of us, you know? Yeah. It's like.

Like, it's just a, who can come up with the most creative, like whatever. Yeah. So those, I'm kind of like, all right, where's the best one? Like, I'm almost looking for those of like, which one was the best, you know? 

Andrea: Yeah. Yeah. 

Molly: And sometimes I'll throw it a, like, I don't usually like those ones, but I'll like throw it a like, like, yeah, that's my favorite one.

Um, but most of them I'm just like. [00:19:00] I don't even know how to comment 

Andrea: on 

this, 

Andrea: Andrea, 

Molly: I'm sorry. I know. Here's the problem. It's like sometimes I'm like, you all are missing the joke of the video. Like you're, it's, I hate that my joke isn't landing. I Thanks for the view, but you're missing the point of my humor.

Yeah, and like. You're appreciating? 

Andrea: Yes. I think that's why I get annoyed because you'll put out such funny content and such solid stuff and I go in to make a comment and I'm like, why aren't you guys responding to the hilarious things? She said like, yes, she's a bad, we know like we have eyes. We can see her, which is.

My favorite thing on the internet is when people come into my comments and say some stuff about like, oh, like Tmu brand, miss Dugan, or Copying Miss Dugan, or, 'cause people love to try and pit women against women, and I'm like. You can't out fan girl me for Ms. Dugan. Like I love her. Like she is amazing and wonderful and we create similar [00:20:00] content because we're both high school English teachers for I was for a very long time.

I'm like, yeah, there's gonna be some similarities. And like it just always cracks me up because they're trying so hard to be like, ah, got 'em. And then one or both of us will be in the comments being like. You didn't actually like, 

Molly: Hey, good try. Well, first of all, I wanna say like I, you are just like the biggest hype woman ever and like the epitome of like a girl's girl because like, it just is showing like, oh, I don't know what you think you're trying to do here.

But like two things can be true at once. There can be two attractive, funny girls on the internet and you don't have to rank 'em. Like, I don't understand why as a society we feel the need to do that. And then to put it out there, my favorite is to look at the people that are commenting that. 'cause I'm like, it's golden.

You're gonna sit here and judge. Like, what? Anyway, um, but also, I just like you, you have a, I, I don't know, I just, you're [00:21:00] such like a hype woman because I'm like, how are people on here saying this to me? 'cause if anything I'm like. You're comparing me to Andrea, like, what a compliment. Like, oh my God. I just like hate it.

I'm like, you're so hot. You're so funny. And I just, I hate that the internet does that, and I love that you call them out every time. Like it just. If anything, it's like you guys are idiots. Like, okay. Yeah. 

Good 

Andrea: track. Exactly. And I'm, I'm so glad we did make the time because it is really hard for people who don't know when you finally do get to meet the people that you've been friends with online, in person and like we did, and when we hung out in Kansas City, like it's really hard to be like, no, let's, let's stop what we're doing and film content in a public place.

It number one, feels so embarrassing. 'cause I don't wanna be on influencer's gun wild. That's like tough. 

Molly: My nightmare. 

Andrea: Nightmare, right? Like I never wanna be an influencer's gone wild. Do you know what that is, Jerry? You just made a face, do you know? It's not Girls Gone Wild. Okay. No, 

Gerry: I 

Andrea: idea. Lemme just clarify.

Gerry: I'm thinking like people of Walmart. 

Andrea: Okay. No, it's not [00:22:00] like that. Oh, basic. There's an Instagram page that is just people filming influencers in public spaces. Being very like cringey and awkward and making it it weird. Influencer. Influencer in like a shared common space and making it weird. And I never wanna be like, they got 

Molly: their tripod.

Like the whole ordeal. Yeah, like 

Andrea: doing full dances or doing like re a lot of times it's like some girl on a beach that's like twerking next to like a nice family building, a sandcastle or something. And we were not in any danger of that. We were just eating ribs. But, um, I, I love that we have that footage so that I can share it occasionally so that people and people lose their mind.

So when I'm back in Kansas City, we've gotta do some, some content because it's what the people want. Gotta give 'em what they want. 

Molly: Yeah, I'm ready for it. I'm so excited for you to come back. But that's my biggest fear too. And I even like will go on a trip, I'm like, am I supposed to be filming content right now?

And I would imagine that you are pretty similar too. And like [00:23:00] before, so before I started on social media. I was not much of a poster. Mm-hmm. Like on my personal Instagram, I wasn't like documenting every part of my day. I was never like the little kid that was like making YouTubes or whatever. Yeah. I just never was.

So it still feels like pretty silly to be like doing like stuff online and especially in. The wild. Yeah. So it is my, and even like my sisters will be like, oh, she's gonna make a video while we're here. I'm like, I have to like, stop. 

Andrea: You're like, don't make a weirder, I, I already hate myself. Just let me do this.

Molly: No, literally. 

Andrea: Oh my gosh. I'm 

Molly: like, just so you guys know, I'm not doing this willingly. 

Andrea: Oh. But a little bit. Gosh. So now some of the content that you share, um, is like student burns and stuff like that. Can you think of either a, like student burn that happened like recently or was a particularly like a volatile one that a student lobbied at you?

Teaching Horror Stories & Going Numb

Molly: Oh my gosh, I don't even know. It's like kind of just, I feel like I'm so [00:24:00] numb to it. Like, do you guys feel that way? Like they say stuff and you're like. Three years ago, I would've thought that was a big deal. And now I'm like, okay, get, get your work done. Um, I will say probably the, the worst, the one of the worst situations I was ever in was, um, it was like my second year of teaching, second or third year, and I taught seventh and eighth grade, I think it was eighth graders.

The Great Breakup Disaster (Student Burns)

Molly: They somehow found out that at the time I had a boyfriend. And I did get like brutally dumped, like just dumped. And uh, so me, you know, I'm in like my young twenties and I'm like trying to hold back tears every day, all day. Like, oh my God, I'm gonna die alone and all that. And they somehow, I think they asked about like, so you gonna see your boyfriend this weekend?

And I was like thinking in my head, ah. I can kind of tell these kids about how relationships don't [00:25:00] always work out and it'll be such a good, you know, mentor moment. No, I said, uh, well, we're no longer together. And I'm not kidding. Like, it was like out of a movie, 15 minutes of just like, oh, what did you do to make and dump you?

Like, what'd you do wrong? And I was like, oh, like my gosh. He just moving away and it just didn't really we're out there like, Uhhuh. Did you cry? I was like, I shed a tear too. They're like, yeah, you seem like the type of person that would, 

Andrea: oh, 

Molly: and then that's when I have one of, in one of my videos it says like, are you in therapy?

'cause you seem like the type that came. They're like, well, are you like in therapy for it? Oh my God, you just seem like the type that would need it. It was like literally pointing, it was like pointing and laughing at me and I'm already like, I'm gonna die alone. And then you have this group of like 28th graders being like, you're gonna die alone.

And I was like. This isn't real right now. It was so bad. It was literally out of a movie and I think that is [00:26:00] why I'm numb today. 

Andrea: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Um, I feel like that's a perfect transition for us to take a very quick break and then we'll be right back.

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? 

Molly: 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. 

Andrea: Welcome back, teacher besties.

Um, so we were talking about. Going numb in general as, as we get bullied by our students. I also think that weirdly, one of the things I miss about being a K 12 teacher is the ability, um, as the teacher to escape whatever's going on in your life. The second that bell rings, like I have had like times in my life where I was like going through really stressful stuff personally, but because of the way my brain [00:27:00] compartmentalizes, I.

If I was up in front of the classroom dealing with student silliness and all of that, like I felt like that was all, that was like in my world during that time. And I didn't have to really think about any of the other stuff until like bell rang at the end of the day. 'cause there was just too much going on.

Like I couldn't possibly spare any room in my brain. So I will say there is a little bit of that where it's like, well, at least. At least you can. You're dead inside. Um, but you're busy so you don't feel it as much, you know? 

Molly: Oh, yeah. It's like, let me just actually stay so busy. I am forced to not think about it.

I think about that a lot. I'm like, am I coping well or am I just like. Making myself numb. I'm like, it doesn't really matter either way, we're getting through. 

Andrea: Yeah. As long as, as long as we're still here and making it. Um, Jerry, you teach, um, mental health classes, right? So did you wanna chime in with 

Gerry: No, I'd be mad, bro.

I'd be angry. [00:28:00] 

Andrea: No, it seems like you're like a, like a good, solid, authoritative presence in your classroom, though. 

Gerry: I have it crashing out. 

Andrea: Did you crash out this week? 

Gerry: I crashed out on Friday and to the point that I thought I was gonna do somebody cover my class so I could leave the room, like I almost, what happened?

I almost, uh, they were real. I was out Thursday and 'cause I thought I was sick, so I stayed on Thursday and I came back and found out like. Uh, just a bunch of stuff that happened with a sub from one of my classes, and I spazzed like I almost broke my standing desk. I almost spiked a water. I like, I I don't handle anger.

Well, I, I had one of my bosses come in just like be in the room lot while I do this. 

Andrea: You're like, I need a witness. 

Gerry: And she's like in there kind of like talking real nice and I storm in and I slammed the door and just start yelling. I ain't say hello. I just crashed out and then [00:29:00] it was quiet. 

Andrea: Yeah, I mean, I've had that before where I was like so embarrassed because there is nothing worse than coming back and like really thinking that like your class was gonna handle it, or at least not be awful and getting like a scathing subnote after you've been out.

Coming into that class, like 

Gerry: three pages. 

Andrea: Oh my gosh. Sounds like they deserved it, honestly. 

Gerry: Oh yeah. No, my blood pressure went up. I was yelling. Yeah, 

Molly: you wanna know what sucks about that too is then it like just creates more work for you. 'cause now you gotta like figure out the disciplinary action. You probably got to email home, make phone calls.

You're like, you just added 20 things to my to-do list as well as my embarrassment. Yeah, that's what makes me mad. I'm like, I don't even care what you do. Just don't give me more work. 

Andrea: Right, right, exactly. Because then also, you know that they didn't actually do anything that you left for them to do and they were acting a fool.

Oh, that makes me so mad. [00:30:00] I actually ended up making this template that was like a review sheet that my subs could fill out, where it would be like, rate each class on a scale of like one to five of like how well they did and like had a couple of spots for them to write down names of students that were really helpful.

Um, and so it was like a little rubric for them to grade each class. Because I didn't want, like, 'cause especially when I was teaching freshmen, I had five periods, so I didn't want the first period to get in trouble because she was like, everyone was terrible today. Um, and that somewhat worked. But the problem is, is like once you get to sixth period, I had, in my sixth period class, I had 40 freshmen and their me's worn off.

How many? 40, actually 43. Is that legal? 

Gerry: 40 is, 

Andrea: well, 43 freshman in my sixth period English class. Yeah. 

Gerry: How big was this room? 

Andrea: It was pretty big. I actually had a desk and a chair for everybody. Um, this was when I was teaching in California and the class sizes, that was not that rare [00:31:00] for 43, that district 43, um, that was the most I ever had in one class.

So I would say it was usually between 35 and 38 at that school. Um, and I had five classes a day, so I would teach between like 175 to 200 kids every single day. And by the time sixth period came around, they were all unmedicated and either super tired from lunch or super spun up from lunch. And yeah, those sub notes were not great at all because I, it would be a lot of times the kids like would move out of their assigned seats and so the seating chart didn't help with identifying names.

And when you got 40 kids, like that's a lot like, that's a lot of kids to manage. 

Gerry: I moved to Indiana too. 

Andrea: Yeah. Yeah. I 

Molly: like don't think I would've been able to keep teaching. 

Andrea: It so weirdly, teaching at that school was a bunch easier than teaching at the small private school where my class sizes were between 13 and 25 because [00:32:00] I had a team of other teachers who taught the same thing at the public school.

So all my prep was shared versus at the small private school, I was the only one teaching all five of the different subjects I taught. So I taught English nine, English 10, English 11, English 11 honors at English 11. That's great. Great. 

Molly: Yeah, no, gimme the big classes. You're right. Yeah. I would much rather classroom manage than, um.

Andrea: Yeah. Than not, 

Molly: yeah. 

Andrea: To do 25 different lesson plans every single week. Um, yeah, it was, yeah, no, it, it was crazy. Like, and, and the thing is, is like, because I worked with such a good team, it was more manageable, but it was so hard learning names because I had 200 students every single day that I saw. Um, if they all came and then.

You know, it's, it's one of those things you'll have like a really sweet, quiet kid who's always doing what they're supposed to, so you never have to yell at them. And then I'm like, I don't know your name. I know it's been three weeks. I'm so sorry. Unfortunately because I'm 

Molly: too busy taking care of the kid that's screaming.

Andrea: Yes. Like I'm unfortunately the bigger douche bag you were in school. I am way more likely to [00:33:00] know your name if you were a nightmare for me. I'm so sorry. Like if I did, did you 

Gerry: Al, did you always learn all their name? 

Andrea: I'd like to say yes. I think so. I think so by the end of the year it was, but it was really, really, really hard.

And I told them ahead of time, right before the semester ended, and I'm like, I don't want you to take this personally. I only have so much room in my brain for names. The second you leave this class, I will always remember your face. I'll remember stories about you. Please do not expect me to know your name.

I'm like, I'm really sorry, but there are so few student names. 'cause I know there are those teachers out there, right, that are like, I know every name of every student I've ever taught and I taught for 30 years. It couldn't be me, could not be me. I'm like, I, there's a couple, there's a couple of students' names, especially from my first year that I remember that stick out.

But like it gets real blurry after that first year or two. 'cause it's like, I, I don't know, man. Like, especially if you were a good kid [00:34:00] that did your work didn't cause any problems. I never had to yell at you. Yeah, sorry. And I like, I, I've gotten so much hate online for that too, where people would be like, how dare you?

I'm like, introverted kids need love too. And I'm like, I loved them. I just don't. Remember them. 

Molly: Hate the system, not the teacher. That's right. Like that's that nothing makes me more mad when people are like, teachers, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, are you not looking at this system that's making that dang near impossible for them?

Like, what? Let's put our, let's not, what's it called when people like misplace their, well, that's what it, they're mising their hate. 

Andrea: Yeah. No. Exactly. And did Jerry, did you remember, did you 

Gerry: know the word? I thought you about say misplace in kids. I was about to say, hey, I might not know what a prostate is, but I ain't never lose one.

Andrea: And that's a 

Gerry: good right there. 

Andrea: Don't kid. That's right. You never, you've never lost a kid. 

Gerry: Nah. Oh. 

Andrea: How many field trips have you led, Jerry? 

Gerry: I don't go, we don't go on field trips. 

Andrea: Oh, Molly, do 

Gerry: you guys get to [00:35:00] do? Well, I can't. I just don't go like we're going on one to, uh. Um, outta state and they asked me, I was like, is it free?

And they're like, no. I like, no 

Andrea: wait. They were gonna make you pay? 

Gerry: I think I didn't really ask that many questions. I wasn't trying to go, I told them that if I went, I was gonna leave and do comedy at night. 

Andrea: Oh yeah, I bet they didn't love that. And they said, well, 

Molly: you don't have to go. 

Andrea: Yeah. They're like, you mean during the time we want you chaperoning and making sure kids aren't screwing around?

Gerry: No, like they, whoa. They'll be in, they'll be in bed by then. Like, Aw, 

Andrea: they, if they locked in room, you really haven't ever chaperoned a trip before, have you? That's like the key time you need to be sitting in the hall on a folding chair because they're gonna try and play pranks on each other. They're actually, when I, so my school did a Europe trip for our senior trip, so we went to nine different countries in 18 days.

Oh, Europe. We did. Yeah. It was, it was a private school. Um, and we, [00:36:00] so it was like this incredible trip and I will never forget, there was this one guy in my class who did something called the Reverse Spider-Man to people. So what he would do is, oh, look at that Spider-Man on your shirt. 

Molly: It was 

Andrea: Jerry 

Molly: Little, did you know who was Jerry?

Andrea: He would, um, go up to people's doors. He would. He would be like Winnie the pooing it right with just like a long T-shirt and no underwear on. He'd go up to people's doors and he would do a handstand. He'd turn and then he would knock with his foot and then people would open the door and just there it was.

There it was. And so that's why chaperones need private school, not be that. That's why, uh, chaperones need to be. They need to be there at night. You can't, can't just, well, 

Gerry: that what I'm not doing 

Andrea: that. 

Gerry: I'm gonna your say I'm gonna stay at school and when it comes time for the eighth grade to come to me, I'm gonna be like, no kids.[00:37:00] 

I'm being there chilling. I'm gonna be watching Spider-Man on my laptop. 

Andrea: I mean, makes sense. Where's your, the trip to 

Gerry: DC 

Andrea: Okay. Yeah, we, we did 

Molly: DC in eighth 

Andrea: grade as well. 

Gerry: I'm in the house. 

Molly: Oh, I couldn't tell. That's not what she meant. State. 

Gerry: I know what she meant, but I thought it was funny. 

Molly: It's 

Gerry: good. I say it's for me.

Molly: Got me. Oh my gosh. 

Gerry: I'm in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Molly: Okay. I don't know anything about 

Andrea: North Carolina. I 

Molly: don't even know where neither is Jerry. Honestly. You don know where the prostate is. I don't know where the states are. I don't know. 

Andrea: Are you geographically challenged? 

Molly: Yes. 

Andrea: Same 

Molly: like my kids. They like blocked everything on their computers.

So they started playing like a states quiz game. Like that was a new game that they found. They had me do it and I got like a 15%. They were like, oh, I'm smarter than Ms. Duke. And I was like, yeah, what this, so I, I don't, I literally don't know. [00:38:00] Don't ask. I don't know. 

Andrea: Yeah, it's, it's pretty bleak when you find out your students are smarter than you.

I've had that happen a few times, especially when I taught AP Lang. Oh yeah. That was brutal. Like those kids were out and they knew it, like they were so much smarter than me. It was actually a little embarrassing. 

Molly: And also AP is none of my business. Like I don't, that is none of my business. I'm sorry, that's not for me.

Gerry: I took AP class. 

Andrea: No you didn't. Jerry, did you? I did. I 

Molly: took 

Andrea: ap. 

Molly: I've never taken an honors class again. Yeah. I'm not kidding. 

Andrea: Oh my gosh. Jerry, wait, 

Molly: Jerry, I took AP 

Gerry: classes, uh, government and European history. 

Andrea: Okay, so you teach civics. 

Gerry: No, I, no, I took those, I didn't do them. I know. I'm 

Andrea: still trying to figure out what you teach throughout this.

I'm just, I 

Gerry: told you 

Andrea: lobbying. I know, but I forget because I, you, I get bored. 'cause you talk 

Gerry: for so long. Teach and then I get distracted. I teach, I teach hold, let, let me get in one breath. I teach it exploring personal character and careers. I teach introduction to office productivity and I teach career exploration marketing.

Andrea: See Molly at 

Molly: a [00:39:00] middle school, 

Gerry: you're, 

Andrea: those sound like college courses were made up this school. 

Gerry: Like, what, 700 kids? It is a small school. 

Andrea: That's crazy. I feel that's why I, I forget, I already, now, if you were to be like, Andrea, I will give you a million dollars. If you tell me what Jerry teaches, 

Gerry: why you think I'll be trying to tell you, I'm shaving time off my life trying to explain.

And then people are like, what's that? I'm like, I figure Google it. Figure it out. 

Molly: Also, Jerry, I feel like that's a really big middle school. Am I crazy for thinking that that's not 

Gerry: that big? Uh, it's not big. We're one of the smallest, smallest ones in the county. 

Andrea: Yeah. That's not too big. It 

Gerry: used to be like 1500 

Andrea: mm 

Molly: mm 

Andrea: mm 

Molly: That's big to, for middle school.

That's big. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Molly: I was thinking you were gonna be at like a, like a school when you said you taught like all three grades. Well, it's your, you, those are electives, right? So it's like, I can imagine that you teach all three grades, but when you said that, I was like, is this like a tiny little school where it's like you teach [00:40:00] half the subjects, you know, but no.

Massive school. 

Andrea: No, it's a big one. Also, speaking of you taking AP classes, um, my mother talked to me again today, Jerry, I 

Gerry: don't even wanna hear it. Keep it to yourself. 

Andrea: My mom is, um, obsessed with Jerry. She said that, um, every time she listens to an episode with you, she sees more and more that you are just a man of character and that, um, she thinks that you are incredibly bright and that if you ever come to San Diego, you can stay at her house.

Gerry: Don't tell me. Yeah, I'm gonna San Diego. I got a place to was stay. Mom 

Andrea: will tell him that he's gonna show up. He'll he will show up and she's like, good. I would love it. I think you know, Jerry, he's just such a good guy. He's, he's silly, but I think he would just, 

Gerry: I'm, I'll be out there. 

Andrea: I know your mom's gonna be cookies house too.

I know. Yeah, she will. She actually will. I think it sounds 

Molly: like you need to have your mom on. 

Andrea: I would love that. We'll have to bring my mom on. 

Gerry: Let's do an episode where we get both our moms. 

Andrea: That would be really fun. A Mother's Day episode. [00:41:00] Wait, mother's Day is coming up, right? They, I think, yeah, it's May 

Molly: girl.

I don't 

Andrea: know, coming up. Okay. Well, do you have Mother's Days in 

Molly: like 

Andrea: Irish uncle to bring on? I don't. I got nothing. No. 

Gerry: My uncle's American. 

Andrea: Great. 

Gerry: Yeah. No. 

Andrea: Well, we can, we can bring on our mom's for Mother's Day. That would be very fun. That would be fun. And our dad's for Father's Day. Yeah, that would be great.

Um, okay, before we wrap this up, we always do the hill that we're gonna die on. Um, Jerry almost never has a hill, even though he's always mad about something. Maybe it should be about those fricking punk kids that were annoying when you were out for a day. 

Gerry: Yeah, I don't really have a hill to die on with that.

It's just like, yeah, I'm mad about it. They knew what to do and they didn't do it like, I don't know what. What I could set up to die on that hill. I'm mad at that. I got pay outta pocket for GLP once. I've been kind of mad about that all day. 'cause I [00:42:00] had to take the very, I, I took the pill and I took the lowest dosage and I'm just like, yeah, it starts working.

I'll, I'll find the money to up it, but I couldn't afford the shots. And I'm like, yo, y'all just gonna let me die because I'm fat. Alright. That's the problem. I'm way too healthy for someone my size. 

Andrea: I'm sorry. 

Gerry: I'm mean, I'm killing it. I'm like, bro, I gotta stop. I gotta get malfunction. 

Andrea: You gotta malfunction, you gotta get your pancreas messed up, and then you can get those GLP ones for free.

What's 

Gerry: the, oh. That's the diabetes thing I pumped in. Is that against one? Yeah. 

Andrea: That's the diabetes. Yes. Yes. Oh, that was good. Yeah, it's there. We we're learning so many health facts. Was your redemption arc right there? Yeah. I'm a genius. I love to see it. You, 

Gerry: Molly. Oh, know that I had to learn where Alaska was.

What else did I learn while we now I knew where Alaska, we never even talked about why. I learned what pap smear is. We're gonna have to save that for next week. That was a problem. I found that on the internet. I ain't know it was like that. I was thinking of like when they put the petroleum jelly on your stomach when you get an ultrasound and I seen something I phe on TikTok.

I was like, hold on, is it that bad? And I Googled it and I was like, bro, I was [00:43:00] at work. I almost had to take stress the day off. 

Molly: Oh, and it gets worse. Yeah. 

Gerry: Pretty much covered it. A who? 

Molly: Go look up a coloscopy. 

Gerry: Is that, do they like go in the men's The men's, 

Molly: no. 

Gerry: Uh uh. Who? 

Molly: It's like a, it's like a pap smear, but they take a chunk of your uterus.

Andrea: Yeah. Not, they, not pain mes usually. Yeah. Nah, 

Molly: no meds. They start just, they just start, they just raw dog. It just, 

Andrea: yeah. 

Molly: Take a chunk. 

Andrea: It's like, a's like's like 

Molly: alligator with a little 

Andrea: Yeah. They just on the bottom of your cervix. It's great. It's great being a woman. Yeah. 

Gerry: I'm good. I'm good on that. And 

Andrea: um, okay.

I have my hill that I'm gonna die on. And it is that 

The Teacher Retention Crisis (Hill to Die On)

Andrea: the way to solve the teacher crisis is not to make it easier to become a teacher, it's that it needs to be more manageable to stay a teacher. Because in Indiana and a lot of other places, they're just trying to do more things to make it easier to become a teacher.

Meanwhile, still teach treating all of the current teachers like absolute garbage and not paying them and not helping with [00:44:00] student loans and all of that. Like how about we keep. Good teachers in the classroom and that way we don't have to pay to bring all these new ones in and lower the standards for our educators.

Um, we just need to make it a better place to work as a system 

Molly: that is literally I'll die on that hill with you. I've thought about this so much. And it's because I switched school district and literally the only main change in my day was that I went from teaching six classes to five. And so we get a plan period, and then we have a supervision hour.

And if you don't have to like, so like I'm a building sub and if I don't have to sub that day, it's another plan. So most days I get extra time. It has changed my career. Like yeah, changed. I almost, I really almost quit teaching at year five 'cause I was like. What am I doing? Like I cannot do this, and that little change, I'm like, and I know not all school districts can do that, but I'm like, there's so many little things that they can do.

Andrea: That 

Molly: are, that would honestly make a significant to [00:45:00] teachers 

Andrea: ca simply capping the number of preps in the first three years of teaching. So you're not teaching like four preps, five preps like that would make such a massive difference in those first few years when you're just trying to figure it out and build up your curriculum and stuff.

It just, it's outrageous. No 

Molly: teacher wants to quit. They like, they quit 'cause they're like, I love this so much. I just. Like my quality of life is so bad that I can't keep doing it. And I'm like, surely there's like little adjustments. And then my other thing is I think people in like corporate America are like, from what I hear with my friends, love my friends if they're hearing this right now, but a lot of them are like, Ugh, can you believe that they're making a school in the office two days a week?

And I'm like, teachers aren't even asking. We're literally asking like. Hey, can you keep my class size under 40? Yeah. And I might be able to stay in the profession. I might be a little to like, I don't know, have enough energy to have a conversation when I get home. [00:46:00] It's like we don't ask for much, you know?

Yeah. We're not dramatic. We're not asking for $50,000 raises here. It's just why are we not trying to keep teachers in the classroom? I don't understand why that's not 

Andrea: Exactly, exactly. It's good hill. Thank you. Thank you. I was very proud of that and I wrote it down because sometimes I have the hill in my brain, but I can't get it out of my mouth and it stumbles and then it confuses Jerry.

It's a whole thing. It's a real problem for us. 

Gerry: That's all. Something new every year. 

Andrea: See, that's not right. Like what year is this for you, Jerry? 

Gerry: Year four and I was a a teacher's assistant before that. 

Andrea: That's 

Molly: crazy. Something new each year is diabolical. 

Gerry: It. It's been mostly like a new class within this area that RA teach a new class or two.

But like my first, very first year as a classroom teacher, I taught PE and health and then went and started doing the business stuff. So this is my third year, the business stuff. Hey, 

Molly: question. Why did you leave PE in Health? 'cause that's my, that's my dream man. No. [00:47:00] 

Andrea: Yeah, that is supposed to be the, the easiest kind of daily thing is if you're teaching PE and health.

'cause you're not having to grade much of anything except on the health one's not, it's not easy. You're just playing 

Gerry: ball. Now, pe PE it's a little bit easier to, to grade like in pe but health is, health. Health is kind of adjacent to what I would be grading now, but like, like it's also. When you're doing reproductive health and safety, it's like, oh, you have to be careful.

Talking about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. It's like sensitive stuff. And it's mostly the, if you can handle like a huge room full of kids at the highest energy level, they're gonna be at all day. Then it's fairly easy. I don't wanna go back and do it. I, I would go do it again. I don't wanna do it again.

I like what I'm doing now 'cause I'd be, we've vibes pe I was crashing out a lot more often. 

Molly: It's overstimulating it sounds like. Yeah. 

Gerry: Yes. And I [00:48:00] also had a co-teacher, so it was two, it was like two of us. In there for like 80 or 90 kids and it was like, okay, we're vibing and if something goes crazy, we can handle it.

But me being by myself with like 45 kids, I'm like, no. 'cause then they're also doing all this running around something. It's like, no, I like it to be quiet. I like you to be still. If we're gonna do something chaotic, I I, I, I need to prepare for, I couldn't do it. Every day they be fighting in PE I be, I don't wanna break up a fight.

Molly: Yeah, 

Gerry: I've never seen a fight. It's 

Molly: almost just like theory, like your nerves are on NMP. Mm-hmm. Like, it can go wrong at any minute. 

Gerry: They don't fight around me. 

Andrea: I bet they don't. 'cause they, they probably feel like they know what's up. You're gonna 

Gerry: pick them up. 

Andrea: You hand me up to 

Gerry: you. I'm like, no. Like you ever see us might pick up a baby cat.

You'll be like, no, no fighting. And you like shake 'em till they stop. You just pick 'em up and hold 'em there until they're done being man, you, uh, go back. 

Andrea: Molly could do that probably with most of her students too. Molly's super tall. How tall are you? Tall, tall. Tall. [00:49:00] Are you 

Molly: How tall? What kind of energy do I give?

Gerry: Five nine. 

Andrea: Keep 

Gerry: going. Five 11. 

Molly: Yeah. Six two. I'm like six foot. I'm six foot. 

Gerry: Okay. Yeah, 

Molly: but I'm wearing some heels today, some boots. 

Yeah. 

Molly: You know, I was towering over some kids. 

Andrea: I love it. It's a good little power 

Molly: trip. 

Andrea: Yeah. Yeah. I love that you, you, because for me, I'm five six, so that also threw people when we did our video together and they're like.

Andrea, how short are you? And I was like, it's not, I am an average height person. I'm hot like 

Gerry: five two. No, you, no, you give off taller vibes. 

Andrea: I, I, I feel like I do, and I feel like I'm taller. And then I, I was standing next to Molly and I was like, I don't, I'm no longer feeling tall. You're tiny. Tiny. I had to climb on top of a metal hog for our photo, so I didn't seem too short.

That's 

Molly: like my favorite picture ever. I love that picture. Well, you know what's weird is I don't feel tall, and then I look at pictures and I'm like, God dang. Like, that's a tall girl. Like, I didn't know. I was like that, like between me and [00:50:00] the person next to me, I'm like. Ooh, that's a lot. It's kind of crazy.

Andrea: I love it. We do have to wrap up, but I do wanna acknowledge the fact that I made the massive mistake of somebody responded to one of my story posts and asked me, um, if they could like apply for a date with Ms. Dugan and I made up a list of requirements for this and I said they needed to send me their credit score and a picture of their bathroom and the names and contact information of two female relatives.

Molly, the amount of boys bathrooms I have now seen in my dms. I stand by those as good litmus tests for, 

Molly: no, those are amazing 

Andrea: quality men. Like, because I, and like one guy, the original guy who sent it actually seems like a great candidate and like, and some of them sent me like their credit score printout from like.

The credit agency when they bought their recent [00:51:00] houses. Um, some sent me their moms, like, if anybody said I had, I have no female relatives, like I am so sorry, I don't believe you. Um, 'cause there were a couple of those and I'm like, doubt it. Or they're like, oh, I don't talk to them anymore. And I was like, I heard what I needed to hear.

Um, but yeah, just seeing what. Their bathroom looks like. It tells me kind of a little bit about their socioeconomic level, how much they clean, how much they decorate their own, their own space, or maybe they're living with like a bunch of people. Um, it was very interesting. So, um, if you ever are in need, I have a Rolodex of boys' bathrooms for you to choose from.

Molly: That's so funny. I also think those are incredible qualifications for Thank you. Submitting an application. Um, and I will let you know. 

Andrea: Okay. 

Molly: Maybe when you're in Kansas City we can roll through the, uh, the options. 

Andrea: Oh my gosh. People would lose their minds. It was so funny 'cause I responded in jest and I thought it would be taken in jest and then the guy messaged me immediately.

It was like, if you're serious, [00:52:00] I will send those. And I was like, I mean, I guess Sure, go ahead and send them. He sent them and then just like in my request folder, so people who have never DMed me before, ever, it's just, it's like photos sent, photos sent, photos sent, and it's all like. Bathrooms. 

Molly: That's so funny.

Also respect. It's 

Andrea: so 

Molly: funny. Respect the dedication, I guess. 'cause like, 

Andrea: I mean, I wouldn't do that, but, right. 

Molly: Respect, I guess. 

Andrea: I, I love it. I love it. So, yeah. Um, 

Outro & Upcoming Events

Andrea: well, Molly, thank you so much for coming on. This was super fun. This was so great. Thanks for 

Molly: having me guys. 

Andrea: Yes. I feel so honor. This was, this was amazing.

Um, all right, let's see here. Okay, before we go, do you have like, um, any events coming up and where can people find you on the internet? 

Molly: Okay. You can find me on TikTok and Instagram at at ms dot Dugan. One. Which is like a ridiculous handle. I don't know. Everything was taken. Um, and then you can find me on YouTube, which I like need to get better at using.

I [00:53:00] think it's just at Miss Dugan, I should know that, but it's just plain at Miss Dugan. Um, and honestly, I don't have any events coming up like I'm a busy girl, but I will be coming to check out your show when you're here in April. 

Andrea: Yes. We're so excited for, so for those of you guys who don't know, teacher's Lounge is gonna be in Kansas City and Nixon, Missouri at the end of April.

And so, um, yeah, I'm very, very excited and, um. Molly, can we say that you're doing five minutes? Are we allowed to say that? I 

Molly: was, I was gonna leave that up to you. 

Andrea: Yeah. Molly's gonna do five minutes on stage, so if you wanna see her, uh, go up and do some jokes. So she will also be there. And are you gonna stick around for the meet and greet and say hi to people?

Theme: I mean, I guess I hope 

Andrea: you should. 

Theme: Sure. 

Andrea: You totally should. I don't know. 

Molly: This is very much been like a say something funny like what you experienced. 

Andrea: She's gonna 

Molly: say some jokes. I 

Andrea: got a up 

Molly: my sleeve. 

Andrea: Do funny stuff. Well, ev the great news is, is at a comedy club, everyone is drinking and expecting jokes, unlike in a class at [00:54:00] IU at 11 o'clock in the morning.

So, you know, yeah. A better, much better setup for you for that one. Um, and then Jerry, what do you have coming up? Where can people find you? 

Gerry: I am on Instagram and TikTok at comedy by gp, and I will be at, uh, peak of the Vine in Apex, North Carolina, doing standup comedy. April 25th, I'll be at Zinc House in Durham, North Carolina, doing standup comedy.

Uh, am I saying April? They're March. I don't know. They're all March. These are in March, March, March, March, March 26th through 28th. I'll be part of the Raleigh Comedy Festival. On April 23rd and 24th, I'll be in Columbus, Ohio, uh, with Joe Dombrowski opening for him at the Columbus Funny Ball. 

Andrea: Nice. Love to see it.

Um, and I am gonna be, like I said, Kansas City, Nixon, Missouri. Um, I'm gonna be in New Orleans very soon as well. All of my dates and everything are on educator andrea.com/tickets. Um, and if you have thoughts about what we chatted about [00:55:00] today, you can contact me, andrea@humancontent.com, or you can contact the whole Human Content Podcast family on Instagram and TikTok at Human Content Pods.

And thank you so much for those of you who have left awesome comments and feedback and reviews. Um, we really, really appreciate it. And if you wanna catch the full video episodes, they're up every week on YouTube at educator. Andrea, thank you so much for listening. I am your host Andrea, for 

Gerry: I'm Jerry pka.

Andrea: And today we had Molly Dugan. This. All right. I love the gap. We're gonna keep that cut. I think the gap, the silence before you said your name, like you couldn't figure it out, was maybe the best thing I've ever heard. Um, 

Molly: it's pretty on brand with me. 

Andrea: I, it was perfect. Um, and her executive producers are Andrea Ham, Aron Korney, Rob Goldman, Ashanti Brook.

Our editor is Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Portizo. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi. To learn more about how to survive classrooms, program disclaimer [00:56:00] and ethics policy and submission verification and licensing terms, you can go to podcaster 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, you see it, and if you haven't yet, please subscribe. Okay, bye.