Shrek Is Still Haunting Me

HSC.EP.047 Final

Andrea: [00:00:00] I think it's so funny that the kid looked at her like she was crazy. Like, I can itch my balls out here, lady. Like why would I have to go to the bathroom to deal with that?

Hey, teacher besties. Welcome to How to Survive the Classroom. I hope you guys are having the best week right now. Um, I've had a very stormy week when I am recording this. We just had the. Wildest storm front come through, and I like you guys know, I'm from California originally, and people who don't grow up in California think that like the earthquakes are so scary, but if you grow up with it, it's kinda one of those you're like, well, it's rare.

It barely happens. I only actually remember like one or two earthquakes growing up that I could actually feel. And because it's one of those things you like, you just kind of get used to it, that it never really phased me. The thing that is a struggle in Southern [00:01:00] California where I grew up is the fires like that truly, I think it is, is an equivalent to dealing with the storms in the Midwest.

Is that like. Every couple of years, depending on where you live, everything burns down and at the very least, you're probably going to get evacuated at some point if you live in Southern California long enough. Um, I remember when I was in high school, I actually, like school got canceled. We would have like bad air quality days instead of snow days because there was so much ash and soot in the air.

And so that is like my. Comfort with natural disasters is like, that's my comfort zone because fires generally you can see them like, you know they're coming. You can move all of that and. Tornadoes, which is what the biggest warning was last night. It is like you, like you don't know, like they tell you big weather's coming and it might be a tornado or it might not.

And yesterday we had a tornado warning, which means that the like little scanner things have actually, they'd either seen it [00:02:00] or that the scanners are saying like one is like the funnel cloud is coming down in our area. And so a tornado did.

Which is terrifying. My kids and I, um, were home without my husband for like most of the night. And again, I'm from Southern California and my sweet baby kids who are like also most of their lives in Southern California, so they don't like we, I had to be the adult and the calm one, and my daughter was like, this makes my stomach hurt.

I'm like, I know it's okay. Everything's. Fine, everything is fine. And it was thankfully, um, we didn't get the worst of it. Um, we actually didn't even get any hail or anything like that, and no trees went down in our neighborhood, but it was really terrifying. So I hope wherever you are, you are safe from scary weather right now because spring in the Midwest is a whole different vibe from what I am used to.

Um. Earlier this week, I got one [00:03:00] of those emails that as a teacher we always absolutely love to get. So my very first year teaching, I've told you guys that I taught a journalism class and I taught English 12. So it was a very big like gear shift between those two classes. 'cause my English 12 class was like.

A lot of seniors who had failed the previous years state testing. So they were like rough and tumble type of kids like, and then I had my journalism class, which was anything from freshmen all the way up to seniors. And that class was a wild card, not because of the kids, but because of me, because that is the class where I would perpetually get myself in to.

All kinds of chicanery because I didn't know what I was doing and they gave me no curriculum. They basically were like, Hey, we'd love to have a journalism class, wanna teach it? And I was like, yeah, I wanted to be a journalist for five minutes. Let lemme add 'em. And one of the kids that I taught when I was in there, um, I.

Absolutely adored his name, uh, was Yoshua, and actually he eventually got [00:04:00] into my journalism class, but the beginning of this was that he was just somebody who hung out with some of my students. So I would see him before school, after school at lunch, and he was like this tiny little freshman boy who was very in to up magic.

And like he would do these card tricks and truly some of the most impressive card tricks I've ever seen. And like I'm not, I'm not just like trying to gas him up. I was amazed. And maybe I am easy to amaze. That's entirely possible, but I really enjoy seeing people who are really good at sleight of hand type of magic.

I think it's really cool. I don't need to know how they did it. I just like to wonder, right? Like I think it's really cool when people can do that and also.

So this student who I absolutely adore and have not spoken to in probably a decade, he reached out to me. Um, and a a little bit more context to this is that one of the things he did to me, to [00:05:00] harass me and to see me squirm, is he convinced me once to play a movie. On my projector screen that was very popular at the time on YouTube called Shrek is Love.

Shrek is Life. And that is a horrible, horrible YouTube clip. It is like ho honestly, like I'm telling you not to look it up because I genuinely don't, don't think you should. Um, and I projected it on the screen and there is like a sexual thing that happens between Shrek and a young boy. Like it's, when I say it's bad.

And it was very upsetting and I yelled at him and I was so mad at him on. Have Shrek, like part of his magic trick and part of messing with me is he would hide Shrek all over my classroom. And I actually really like the movie Shrek. Like I grew up loving it. I was in like eighth grade when I think it came out and was obsessed with it for a really long time.

So I used to really love Shrek. But this kid used Shrek to bully me incessantly for like [00:06:00] the entire year, right? And he, I would like pull down my, my projector screen and he would've taped like a giant Shrek head. End of my time at that school, he actually made a paper mache Shrek head and hung it in my classroom.

So when I opened my door on my last day of school, at that school, there was a Shrek head hanging there. Um, so I like that kid, right. Just trolled me forever. I haven't talked to him in a very long time. Um, about like, so this would've been like 2014, right? I left that school in 2017, so it was about three years of being.

With Shrek things. Um, and then this week I got this video from the student and I did get permission. I asked him if I could share the, the full video, um, with you guys. So here's the video that I got sent this week. 

Clip: So I saw a movie the other day that reminded me of a magic trick I learned a while ago, and um, I just wanted to share that with you [00:07:00] today.

So all we're gonna do is we're just gonna stop at any one of these cards. Say that one right there. Alright. And would you look at that? It's the Queen of hearts. Queen of hearts. She's called that 'cause she's looking for love. And we're gonna try and help her find love today. All right, so just ripple. You could tell me to stop at any time.

I would stop. We would look at the cards. Could have told me to stop anywhere. Could have been that guy. Could have been this card, but we stopped right here. And now at first glance, it might look. Like the king and the queen would be a good match. You know, they're both royalty. You know, he's, he's a little bit shorter than she was.

And, you know, they, they just don't really match. She's looking for love and he's more in it for the material relationship. So, uh, it's, it, it could work, they could make it work, but it, it just doesn't feel right right [00:08:00] now. So there's an old saying, if you love something, let it go. If it comes back to it's truly yours.

So we're gonna let him go somewhere in the middle of the deck, like so, and then we're just gonna check the top card and see. He came back. So maybe it is truly meant to be, but at the end of the day, she's, she's just not feeling that spark. 'cause she, she will, she has a strong will to find love, even though it feels so far, far away.

But somebody once told me where there's a will, there's a way. So if she wills hard enough, then maybe just maybe her true love will reveal himself. Because as you know, Shrek is love and Shrek is life. 

Andrea: So if you, if you don't watch this on YouTube, I highly recommend you watch it because you will see his sleigh of hand is actually pretty impressive even after 10 years.

But. At the very end. So he has a normal deck of cards with a normal, like all of [00:09:00] that. Um, and then at the very end, the King card turns into a card with Shrek on it. And it's so bad because as I was watching this video, right, I was like, the first thing I thought when I saw him, I was like, so help me if you ua.

Fricking shreks me again, this kid, right, who by the way now is in his mid twenties. I don't know if you guys heard in the background, his child, he's a father. He's married to one of my other former students, like.

Spent the time to do this. And then I, I didn't even notice the first time I listened to it, but he talked about how the, the first king that the queen was with was too short, like Lord, perhaps. Um, and then the, the great reveal left Shrek at the end. But it was so funny because as I was watching it, I was watching with my husband, I was like, do you remember the kid who used to struck me?

He sent me a video. And he is like, oh no. I was like, okay. But like the video was so long that I was like, okay, well no, I'm safe. He's not gonna sh me again. I think, I think we're okay. And then the reveal at the very end, I. I died. [00:10:00] So I had to share that with you guys because I shared a little teeny bit of it, um, on social media.

But the context of it is so funny. The fact that he like has his kids squawking in the background just cracks me up. So I wanted to share that with you guys this week, um, because there's nothing better than when we have former students reach out like that. Like I. Absolutely love it because it just shows that there's an impression, right?

Like that they have fond memories of the shenanigans of like working with us and all of that. Um, and when I talked to him, he said that he's actually is getting back into magic a little bit and he's wanting to maybe do some like parties and stuff like that. So I told him if he has an Instagram or anything like that, that I would definitely link it for him.

Um, but now it is time. For us to jump in to the submissions and I cannot wait to hear what you guys sent to me this week. So let's listen to the first one. 

Voicemail: Alright, real quick. Uh, my first year teaching, I had a sophomore girl, [00:11:00] um, started to stand up to give him presentation and as soon as she stood up in front of everybody, she stopped breathing and yes.

Basically, she got to the point where her eyes started poking out of her head and she just wasn't breathing at all, and within 45 minutes to minutes, she just sat down, quit breathing, and within two minutes after me going from questioning to yelling to, oh man, we got a problem. Called the principal, called the nurse, and then within two minutes she started gasping for giant gulps of air, and nurse came in, was able to calm her down after about five minutes of this just giant gulps of air and getting her to calm down.

And then her parents showed up and. Me being a brand new teacher and trying to understand what happened within this six minute block, which felt like an [00:12:00] eternity of this sophomore girl who just got in front of the class and completely mentally shut down, where she just had her eyes poke out of her head and not blinking, gasping, and gulping for air in front of everyone.

And her parents told me that, oh yeah, she has anxiety so bad that she will just, you know, quit breathing. Um, yeah, that was awesome. And then that led into really ridiculously loud screaming, screaming fights about confidentiality and about, uh, you know, various laws, you know, in terms of, uh, students. And, hey, maybe you should let your teachers know that, like they'll quit breathing and not put them in front of other students.

Andrea: Oh. My gosh. So I'm trying to think of how I would handle that. Number one, I would think that it was an allergic reaction. I think that would be my first thing is I would be like, who's got an EpiPen? And that probably would not have been the right thing to do in that circumstance. I [00:13:00] cannot even imagine, number one, I'm really shocked that that wasn't in an IEP or a 5 0 4, because anxiety is one of the things that we have as like.

A, um, like a listed disability that we should be able to accommodate for. And usually, especially if it's something that's severe, parents like, let us know ahead of time that that's the case. So that is absolutely terrifying. I'm trying to think if I've ever had a student who. Exhibited that kind of anxiety.

And I don't think I did, but I don't think my students would've been scared enough of me to refuse to go up. Like I've had students refuse to perform. Like I for sure have had students, especially early on in my career at some of the schools that really wanted lots of presentations. Like that was a big emphasis for us.

And I had students that were like, I'm not gonna do that part. And I'm like, okay, but it's required. And they're like, yeah, I won't, I won't be doing that. And you can't make them, like, there's nothing you can do. If a student says like, Hey, I'm actually not gonna stand up in front of everybody. [00:14:00] Um, you can, you can say Please do.

You can give them some sort of grade consequence, but like ultimately we can't make them do anything. And I did get to the point where I was just like, not gonna fight a battle that they really, really, really did.

That's, that's fine. Then, um, and this actually raises a really fascinating question, is that like, should we be pushing students to speak in. Of classes because there's been, like, I know in a lot of states and in the common core even, there are definitely some like grading things that say like they need to have experience presenting information in front of crowds.

And I think that's really interesting because public speaking is one of like the greatest fears that people have, right? Like that is like up there with like. Heights and sharks and stuff. And so it is fascinating to me that like we're like, nah, that's not [00:15:00] real. Let's just make people stand up in front of people and present.

Like that is something that has kind of been going on for a very long time. I remember doing presentations over and over again. I remember. In college, I took a speech and communications class and all of that, but in college it's like your choice a little bit, but in high school and before that it's not.

And so I do wonder about that like it. Do you guys think that that is something we should be encouraging students to do? Because on the one hand, I do think that there is great value in teaching kids how to articulate their thoughts in a way that is persuasive in a way that is going to help them.

Empower them really, because the better communicator you are, the more power you're gonna have, especially in social and professional situations. But at the same time, like it's not that. In many, many people's lives that you're gonna stand up in front of 30 people and have to speak. So I don't know. I would love to hear [00:16:00] your guys' take on that.

Like should we be asking kids to stand up in front of their peers and perform in that way, or should we have some sort of other. Alternate option for them, because for the most part, what I would do is if there was like an IEP or a 5 0 4, that's usually what the, the way that I differentiated it is I would tell kids like, okay, you don't have to present in front of everyone, but you can present like, just to me, uh, like at break time or something, which was fine when it was only a few kids who were, were struggling with anxiety, but the numbers of kids struggling with anxiety has continued to go up, and so that might not be as feasible because you can't do.

12 kids in a class, that would take up so much time, especially if like the presentation's, three minutes or whatever, like what are some other alternatives? I mean, we could do video, but again, that's also uncomfortable, um, for a lot of kids. I remember right after we came back from Covid, I tried to do a lot of, um, what are they called?

It, [00:17:00] there's like a video. Oh my gosh, this is gonna bug me now. I'm gonna have to look it up. There's like a video platform where you video yourself responding to something and post it. And when we first came back from Covid, like none of the kids would participate in that or they would like. Have the camera face down or faced at the wall because they were so fearful of having their faces recorded.

Which is fascinating because we are in such like a cyber world where so many kids are fine with being videotaped, but they, I think they've also seen the ugly side of that, where that video is then used against them in some kind of nefarious or bullying way. Um. So I don't know. I don't know if like maybe there's a technological option that we can look into or if we should tell kids to suck it up because we should have to be able to do hard things.

But I think maybe that there does need to be a little bit of a difference between the kids who just are a little uncomfortable and kids who have. A condition that makes them stop breathing like [00:18:00] that is absolutely wild to me. Um, and I think he handled it the best way he could have. Like, I don't know what else I would've done other than probably do an EpiPen, which I'm not sure adrenaline is the option that I should have gone with with that one.

So, um, and the imagining like. Having parents scream about that as if, you know, you were supposed to like intuitively know that that was gonna happen is pretty wild. So yeah, I would love to hear your guys' thoughts on that, um, on whether or not we should actually be, you know, pushing our kids to, to perform in that way when most of us as adults don't really have to.

Um, all right, let's listen to the second voice memo sent in for this week. 

Voicemail: So, when I. K through eight pe. It was during one of my third grade classes and we were playing kickball and I was pitcher. I was rolling the ball for my classes and suddenly I had one of the boys behind me announce very loudly that his balls itched.[00:19:00] 

And I turned around, started laughing and looked to him and asked if he needed to go to the bathroom, you know, to. Help with his announcement and he looked at me like it was the craziest question and said, no, and I said, well, maybe we should not announce that out loud. He said, oh, oh, okay. I'm so sorry. And one of the stories I don't think I'll ever forget because I needed that laugh at that moment as well.

Andrea: It's so, so fascinating, the things that kids are willing to just. Say, because they don't realize what's like socially acceptable at that point. And I think it's so funny that the kid looked at her like she was crazy. Like, I can itch my balls out here, lady. Like why would I have to go to the bathroom to deal with that?

And being the parent of a boy, I so much more appreciate now some of the conversations I would overhear as a student and as a teacher because it's just such a different way [00:20:00] of. At the world, like my son, the way he describes things and the way that he goes through life, like a wrecking ball is stressing out my older daughter, um, a lot, but is incredibly entertaining for me.

And there's been a lot of moments like that where he comes home and is like, hmm. I have something to tell you. I know for me, like just having a boy in general has completely changed the way that I see my former students and think about some of the conversations that I would overhear because it is just a completely different way of going through the world.

My son will. I, it's so hard to describe. He will defiantly scooter, and I didn't know that was possible before, but we got him a little scooter to Christmases ago, and sometimes I tell him to do something and he just looks at me dead in the eyes and says, no. And then he'll get on his scooter and he'll scooter with like one little leg kicked up in the most [00:21:00] defiant way.

And I'm like, how sir? Like that? That's not actually, you can't do that. And he's, but he's gone. He has been. He has. All the way away. Um, so it's an adventure and I, I hear you and bless elementary teachers, especially PE teachers. I'm sure you guys, the smells you must be exposed to, I can, can only imagine. It sounds absolutely terrifying.

Um, so thank you, you wonderful elementary teachers for, for doing what you do. Um, alright. We are going to take a very quick break and then we will be right back because I have a very cool resource. I'm very excited to talk to.

All right guys, and we are back. Okay, so this resource is something that I think is so, so cool. When you have something that's really complicated and you have learners that prefer to listen, and this is like because and, and I That sounds weird, right? [00:22:00] There are literally some students who like. The auditory learning is, is not something that is effective for them.

And so I've used this in my college class and I asked my students what they thought and I had some that were like, loved it. Others that were. Hmm, pass, right? So it is called Notebook lm. It's put out by Google. It's another AI software. But essentially what you do is you take a document and you plug it in, and it can be either like something you upload or it can be something like a link to a website.

You can type in a bunch of instructions and it will create a podcast conversation. About that document. And so the way that I used it is I had this very long, very boring document that talked about teacher expectations in the state of Indiana that I was using with my students. And I assigned it as I like basically, Hey guys, listen to this podcast and then I want you to write [00:23:00] some reflections on, um, like a journal entry kind of a thing.

And so it basically created a 10 minute conversation over this document that was like 20 pages long. And it condensed it down to something that was very accessible. And so my students who really were into podcasts loved it because it basically, it cre, it like auto-create two people talking about whatever the topic is and it doesn't sound robotic, which is a little haunting and weird like it does feel.

Like, like we're dancing with the devil a little bit with some of this technology, but it, it creates this conversation between what sounds like two podcast hosts and is very much a back and forth. And it will create the conversation and as it's going through it, you can give it feedback. So, for example, it was discussing, I, I wanted it to talk about two different topics and I felt like it was.

Going too far into one. And so then I told it like, focus more on this topic. And so automatically it changed [00:24:00] it so that the speaker was like, actually, I think we should talk a little bit more about blah, blah, blah. And it was so cool and such a good resource that took me like two minutes. Right? And so that could be used in a bunch of different ways.

It also creates a transcript, which is incredibly helpful. So you could give that to your students that are less. Like auditory and you could say, Hey, here's the transcript, here's the audio. Totally up to you, which one you wanna use, how you wanna like consume this information. But that's part of that universal design for learning stuff we're always trying to do.

Where we are going in and we're finding different resources and options. I. You know, I'm, I'm sure that there's actually probably an additional resource you could find where you could plug that in and it would create some sort of visuals for you as well. Um, but it saved me a ton of time because obviously I could have gone through and done a lecture and done all of that stuff.

Um. But if you're gonna assign any kind of at work, at home type work, like, and, and I say it that way 'cause I don't, I don't usually assign homework or didn't assign homework when I taught high [00:25:00] school. Um, just 'cause I had so many students who worked and I wanted to make sure that they weren't falling behind, but.

I have the, you know, in college, the expectation is they have a lot of work outside. And so I'm trying to diversify the way that they're getting that information. And it's really, really hard to be like, Hey, read this 20 page super dry document that I would never wanna read. And so this does give us like, I.

An extra option. Um, and the version I was using was free. I don't know if that's like a limited time thing, but it does seem like it's something that is being rolled out and might be a really good resource for you, especially if you have students that are working on stuff and you could even use it and be like, Hey, students, like create a podcast.

About this historical figure and then analyze it, you know, so you could use it as a starting point, even as an assignment instead of just as a resource for you to give to your students. So lots of really good stuff there, I think would be, it would be incredibly, incredibly helpful in the classroom. Um, okay.

A couple other things I wanna make sure I point out. I have a [00:26:00] couple of live shows coming up, so when this comes out. I will be in Kansas City very soon after that. So there are actually two dates. One has not been announced as I am recording this. Um, so I'm gonna be in Topeka, Kansas on May 25th, and I'm going to be in Kansas City, Missouri.

Theme: I 

Andrea: think I get very confused. I know there was that whole like thing for a while where like, like, didn't people make fun of Trump because of like the Kansas City thing. But then I honestly don't know. Like I know there's two Kansas cities and one's in Missouri and oh. It happened. Those of you guys who are not watching the YouTube are missing out because my little square thing just fell down behind me.

I don't know if we were taking bets on how long it would take for that to happen live, but we, we did it episode two. Um, yeah, I don't know actually. I know it's at the Funny Bone in Kansas City, but if you were to like nail me to the wall right now and be like, Andrea, is that gonna be in Kansas or. I guess we'll find out.

I don't [00:27:00] know. I'm gonna type in Funny Bone Kansas City, and then I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna perform, oh, it's Kansas City, Missouri. My producer says, okay, great. So if you wanna go. That's where I'm gonna be, not in Kansas, but I am going to Topeka, Kansas the next day. Um, and I'm gonna be performing with some very funny comedians.

Uh, there's a guy named like, I actually can't remember his real last name, but his tag on Instagram is formerly Fat Steven, which I think is really funny. Um, and he's local, Kansas, uh, Kansas City comedian, and then in San Diego, my hometown, I'm gonna be performing. Mic drop in San Diego on June 6th. June 7th.

June 7th because I'm flying in June 6th. Um, and I'm very excited about that. All my teacher friends are gonna be there. One of my friends I haven't seen in forever that I used to work with when I was a lifeguard and have not seen in 20 years. She's coming with a bunch of teacher friends, so I cannot wait.

I hope you guys are able to make that, um. Also, if you have something that went crazy in your classroom, I wanna hear about it. Whether it's you [00:28:00] asking students to go up and speak and they start, stop, like they spontaneously stop breathing, um, or have you know. Hygiene, itching issues. I wanna hear about it.

Um, if you go to podcaster andrea.com, there is like a button at the top that says leave. I think it says leave a voicemail, leave a message. You're gonna tap that. And then it's gonna say, okay, great record. So I cannot wait to hear about all of the crazy things that you guys have going on in your classrooms because people think I'm making it up.

Like every single time I do a video that is taken straight most of the time from people have like submitted stuff, I have like changed names. Sometimes I change a grade or like change it from being a boy student to a girl student just to protect privacy and stuff. But like people think I'm lying and I'm like, have you never been in a classroom?

Because clearly they haven't. If they think that I have to make up. Anything for the stuff that we do. Um, so yeah, please make sure that you submit those. I cannot wait to hear what you guys have to say. And [00:29:00] then have you guys read Crescent City? Crescent City is like a romantic book and that's what we're doing.

We're finishing. By the time you listen to this, you'll have to catch up with us because we are reading that right now and it is so good. And Denver Ri and I are breaking it down in the Paton only episodes. So if you want access to that, you can join our Patreon. Which is so, so fun. And it get, we get like little behind the scenes stuff and we are very honest with the books we love and don't love.

'cause we have read some that we don't love. Um, and we also have a live once a month. So you definitely do not, do not. I was like, do not, do not wanna miss out on that. Um, if you have thoughts about what we talked about today or you have anything else that you wanna tell me or a resource that you think is amazing that you want me to share at the end of the episode, you can email us, andrea@humancontent.com.

You can visit us. Visit us as if I'm like a royal we. You can visit me on Instagram and TikTok at Educator Andrea, or you can kick it with [00:30:00] us. This is the US part. This is the Royal We, which is the Human Content Podcast family on Instagram and TikTok at Human Content Pods, which is also where you can see all the other super cool things that the Human Content Podcast crew is doing and all the other amazing podcasts they have out there.

Um. Including we are Fine, which is a fairly new one with Lauren Woolley and her husband and they are amazing and I love them so much. So make sure you guys check that out as well. Alright, so I need you guys to do a little homework for me and I'm gonna need you to go over on to wherever you are listening to this podcast and leave some reviews.

Okay. 'cause that's how we end up in the rankings and end up having people find us. I would really, really love it and appreciate it so much. If you would leave review, let us know what you are loving about this new season, um, and subscribe if you haven't subscribed. Like, what are you, what are you, what are you doing if you haven't subscribed yet?

Because then you're gonna miss all the new episodes and that would be like really, really embarrassing for you. Um, and we do have our full video episodes up on YouTube, [00:31:00] which again, you're missing out. You missed the moment. And I'm sure it's gonna happen again, and you don't wanna miss it next time when the giant square behind my head falls down.

'cause this time it didn't hit me. Maybe it will next time. Who's to say? Not me. Um, thank you so much for listening. I'm your host, Andrea Forche. Our executive producers are Andrea Forche, Aaron Corny, Rob Goldman, and Shahnti Brooke. Our editor is Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Portizo. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi.

Our recording location is Indiana State by College of Education. To learn more about our How to Survive the Classrooms program disclaimer and ethics policy at 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 [00:32:00] there, you see it, and if you haven't yet, please subscribe. Okay, bye.