When Your Recess Turns Into a Protest Rally

Andrea: [00:00:00] I love the fact that we don't actually know if they were doing like an allusion to a swear. Like yes, okay. It was. The initials of a student, but also I remember being a kid, even like I, you probably wouldn't even know what BS stood for, but you know, it's something bad and so like there's a bunch of kids on one team and you're gonna be chanting BS every single time

Theme: I the classroom. 

Andrea: Hey, teacher besties, I am. So excited to share with you that my book, they never Taught us, that is available for pre-order right now. It is everything in experience first year teachers need to manage the chaos of the modern classroom, including some anecdotes to make you feel a little bit better because if there's a way you can screw up, I have probably done it.

It also has advice on how to build trust with families, how to manage grading and lesson plans, and I. Everything in between that they never went over in your [00:01:00] teacher prep program, they never taught us. That is available everywhere right now for pre-order.

Hey, teacher besties. Welcome to How to Survive the Classroom. I am. Kind of dying today. I know, I, I feel like I say that a lot at the beginning of the episodes, but here's, here's why this time, this is one of those where you fool around and then you, you promptly find out. So I had gone to the dentist recently and you know how like when you go to the dentist, sometimes they have like that mirror so you can see what they're doing.

And as they were cleaning my teeth, I was like, look at the stains on my teeth. 'cause I'm a coffee girly. I love coffee all day. Every day. And my vanity got to me, it's like when you're at a hairstylist place and you're just staring at your face and you're like, how long has my face been that gross? It was like that, but teeth.

And so as I was sitting there, I was like, you know what? I've never gotten my teeth professionally whitened. Um, I think it would be great. To go ahead and do that. And so, and I like this dentist. I've [00:02:00] been there, you know, a few times now. Their service is always really good. They've never pushed anything crazy on me.

And so I was like, Hey, I think I'm gonna get my teeth whitened. And they were like, okay, great. They do Phillips Zoom whitening, just you can't see. But I'm doing that like two fingers to my eye and two fingers at them because Philip Zoom whitening. I have beef with you, so I show up. All right. I show up and I'm like, here we go.

Let's do this thing. I even brought a heating pad for my jaw 'cause I have really bad TMJ and my tip, when my TMJ acts up, it like my, like they call it slipping a disc or capsule. There's like a little thing in your jaw that'll like slip out, right? So I was ready for the jaw pain. My jaw was fine. There was no pain.

During the procedure, they put gel to cover your gums, all of that. No pain until like the very end where I was like, Ooh, now I'm feeling a little nerve pain. Let's stop. And because of that, I thought I was going to be fine, my friends, the way that I nearly died, I [00:03:00] walk out, it's 30 degrees outside. The temperature is so low, the cold air hits my teeth.

I immediately had to stop because my full body got covered in chills because it was like. Immediate raw nerve ending pain. Like I, I thighs. The pain I was in yesterday was outrageous. I went to Lowe's to get some stuff and there were several times I had to stop and I look at my arm, all of my hair is standing on end because my nerve pain, like it was just shooting pain, but never the same spot.

So it's not like you could be like, well, let me just like keep my mouth closed and make sure it stays warm and tidy on that. No, no, it was terrible. Um, if you are watching this on YouTube, you can at least see their way. Um, not worth it. My vanity got to me again, guys. Uh, it's not happening again. I'm, I cannot believe, I ha I guys.

I'm so stunned with how painful it was. Um, and the funny thing [00:04:00] is, is I had been listening to, uh, my buddy Gasper Rendazzo's podcast and his, uh, the guy who does his podcast with his Joe Dombrowski, amazing comedians, right? And he said, this should have been. This should have warned me. Joe Dombrowski said he got his teeth whitened once and he will never do it again because the pain was so bad.

And I was like, well, he's a boy and boys can't handle pain. And um, wow. I ate those words. I ate those words hard and immediately I posted online about how painful it was. The amount of people that have messaged me and said, I got that done once, never again. And they say, when you get this, there will be quote, minor discomfort.

That 90% of people, it's very manageable. This was not manageable. I could not function last night. I could not function. And it's much, much better today. Obviously I'm able to speak, like I can kind of feel some sensitivity when I'm speaking, but not like yesterday I was unwell, [00:05:00] so unwell. So, um, I posted about it and actually like fully dissuaded some people from getting Zoom whitening.

So Philip Zoom whitening fight me because. You, what you do is horrible. And then there's no pain management afterwards because they just are like, well, it's really like highly, you know, like up to the individual on whether or not it hurts and they say it doesn't damage your enamel because it just dries out your teeth.

And then as the nerve endings, like wake back up, that's the pain. Oh my gosh. I've had, I've, I've given birth to a child without a working epidural and the peaks and valleys of that were. Were n on, they, they were close to the nerve pain that I was having yesterday. Um, I was sweating. It was crazy. So highly don't recommend that.

Um, don't, do not, don't recommend it. Don't go there. Also, I did it right after we finished the semester because Lord knows if I had done it when I was still in class, you know, those [00:06:00] students would've had something to say. I'll never forget when I got my hair cut and I got bangs like. Blunt across the, for, I don't know who I thought I was.

You know how when you see somebody with bangs and you're like, I could be that girl. And I did that. I was like, I'm gonna be a bangs girly. I'm gonna do it because I look at this forehead, it's so big, I'm just gonna like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get some in there. And guys, the way my students looked at me, like I destroyed everything that was good in this world.

One kid told me that I ruined Christmas. It was like January 8th. And he's like, yeah, but I know that you got it done before Christmas and now in retrospect that Christmas is ruined now. And I was like, I just, I just got bangs, man. I just got bangs. And he's like, yeah, I don't, it's not for me. So yeah, thanks.

And I was like, okay, great. Like, so because of the reckonings I've received by any physical changes, uh, with my students, I did wait. Also, I can't imagine if I had had to like teach. On the same day that this, this tooth situation was happening, I would've, I would've died. [00:07:00] So, um, yeah, just a friendly reminder that right before break, right at break is the time to make any kind of physical changes.

So your students maybe don't remember as much what you look like before everyone left for break. 'cause they'll let you know. I fear they will let you know how they feel about whatever physical changes it is that you have. Thrust upon them with your vanity. Um, alright, so we have one voice memo to get to today and then we have a very, very exciting announcement that I'm gonna be sharing with you.

So let's go ahead and listen to the first, well, first and only voicemail we're gonna listen to today. 

Voicemail: So today at recess, me and the guidance counselor sitting outside watching both classes of second grade, my teaching partner had gone inside for a moment. And you know, regularly, almost every single day there's a game of soccer going on on the blacktop.

And so today, her usual game of soccer and the guidance counselor and I [00:08:00] hear chanting coming from across the blacktop and we see a group of girls chanting and they run over to us and we start asking questions. They're like, what are, what we were hearing was odd? And we asked, we, so we asked them, okay, what, what are you guys chanting?

So yeah, we're ch, we're chanting td, you know, initials for a student. And then they were also saying we're also chanting BS more initials for students. So recess goes on and as my class is leaving the playground, I just am leaving it to the tune of these children chanting B-S-B-S-B-S. 

Andrea: Oh. I love the fact that we don't actually know if they were.

Doing like an allusion to a swear, like yes. Okay. It was the initials of a student. But also I remember being a kid, even like I, you probably wouldn't even know what BS stood for, but you know, it's something bad and so like there's a bunch of kids on one [00:09:00] team and you're gonna be chanting BS every single time.

Like, ugh. It is, it is amazing. It reminds me actually of how I had so many students that with my last name. Everyone would acknowledge that for F-O-R-C-U-M was rough. Like that's a rough name to go into teaching with. But because I taught high school, and I think, I legitimately think it would've been different if I had taught middle school and I was faced with like 12 year olds every single day, um, I, I think most of them were just like, Hey, that's a rough name.

Wouldn't really have directly. Like they didn't really directly say anything like making fun of it though. Um, which is ironic because the first five minutes of my standup set that I do is talking about my name because it is a wild name to teach with. Um, but it is so interesting because kids are like [00:10:00] in the first ones usually to notice stuff like that.

But it's almost like if it's too easy like a name, like for, um, that's. They're like, what? Where's the challenge? Um, I actually had a teacher that worked at my school whose last name was Bader, B-A-E-D-E-R, I think. Um, and so his name was Mr. Bader. I'm gonna just let that linger for a second. Just Mr. Bader.

Yep. And unfortunately for all of us, and honestly for the English language, um, he was not the kind of teacher that you could like jokey joke with. And so you couldn't even really do much with it because it was like, well, you can't make fun of Mr. Bader. He is like this older guy, really hardworking, doesn't seem to have like a sense of humor that he uses wi and he is around his students.

And so you couldn't even be like Mr. Bader, you know, like. Ah, it's a real shame, honestly. [00:11:00] It's a real shame and it, it is so strange because the, it, it almost is like, if we had been able to, it would've been this sign of a affection that we had this great relationship with him. So I'm not sure what it says that my students never really seemed to make much of my last name.

Um, my husband, on the other hand, when he was in school, his teachers would do a lot with his name. They'll be like, spoon him, knife on fork him. So stupid. He got like, imagine like, 'cause my, my husband who is, maybe I'll have him on one day so you guys can really fully get an appreciation, um, is like the, the most small town, good old boy of all time and um, like, just like very hardworking, like.

Worked his own way through college, like did, did all of the things right. And so he was in a very small town and he decided this'll be, this'll serve as our second voice [00:12:00] memo. He decided that, um, he and his buddy, they really wanted to get into the basketball game because although he was a football player, the basketball games in Indiana are where everyone goes.

Like, those are the big games, those are the big nights, all of that. So he and his buddy. Who was also notorious for getting into all kinds of shenanigans. He and his buddy get together and they decide that they are going to create like black market ticket for this. For this game. So they go in, they like take a friend's all season Sports Pass, which apparently was like this laminated card that you could buy from like the booster club to get into all the different sports throughout the year.

And so they took it and they made photocopies of it and like whited out the name and, and wrote in their own names and then cut it out and then laminated it again. And I have no idea how. Cleanly this job was done knowing my husband and his artistic. [00:13:00] Abilities. Um, I'm gonna say it was probably slapped together pretty haphazardly, 20 minutes before the game started.

Um, because it actually isn't a bad hustle. Like if you could figure out the right way and maybe make sure like the edges are like properly curved and tapered, maybe he could have actually gotten away with it. Um, sadly for him though, he didn't. And so like he got sent in to, um. He got. So first of all, he goes in, they try and give him the passes to get into the basketball game and they're like, spoon him, knife and fork him.

These are fake like immediately, right? They're like, this is not, this is not real. And he is like, what? That's crazy. And remember, this is small town. Everyone knows him. Everyone knows his mama. Everyone knows his brother. Everyone knows his sister. Like everybody knows each other. And so he then gets kicked out of the game and they tell him that because this is a moral integrity issue, whatever next [00:14:00] sport season he has, he will have to sit out the first three games.

Well, I think he was like a junior at this point, and BA football was his life. And so that is when he decided he was gonna take up track and field and do some shot put for a while. So he signed up to do spring sports so that he wouldn't have to sit out any of his football games and all of that. And I just, I know those kids in class.

Like I can just so imagine that conversation of like, since when do you do shot put and like, oh, well, you know, like stuff happens. I kind of, I kind of, I, I did do a little bit of black market copying and laminating. Um, my biggest thing is like, how, who did he get access to? A lamination machine because those things are guarded strongly.

I mean, even getting copies these days, I feel like is really strongly guarded by the office staff. So I wanna know, like, who was it that you had access to? I'm gonna have to ask him that tonight. When he gets, when he gets home, because I am [00:15:00] made of questions. Honestly, the more I think about it, the funnier it is.

Um, and I'll tell you guys one more story about, um, his time at this very small school. In rural southern Indiana. Uh, he had this teacher whose name was Mr. Stansberry, and I know this teacher's name because my husband has talked so much about him over the years, and Mr. Stansberry was his high school English teacher and his high school English teacher would have the most incredibly specific quizzes for reading afterwards.

So much so that I now know the answer to one of the quiz questions from when they read. Um. Oh gosh, it's the one with pip. Great expectations. Um, there was a question that my husband had to answer that was, um, so, you know, teachers out there, this, this, sometimes it's your quizzes that they remember most.

Um, he asked the question, what bar did Pip's uncle stop at [00:16:00] on his way home? And the answer is The three Jolly Bargeman. Which I only know because my husband remembers because it is such a, like, he's like, why would anyone need to know something so specific? And like, now I know it because this random question pissed my husband off so much.

But he also loved this teacher, um, who I don't, he, I think he just recently retired. He stayed at that same school his whole career. I got to meet him a few years ago. Um. Because one of the things they would do for the final is that if you came dressed as Ms. Havisham for the final, you automatically got a C.

And so my husband said, whenever it was finals week, you would see like these giant football players in old wedding dresses barreling down the hallway because they all wanted to pass Mr. Stansberry's final. And if you, you could go in there, write your name on the paper, Mr. Stansberry would look and be like, yeah, you are in fact dressed.

Like, like Ms. Havisham and you would, you would automatically get a [00:17:00] C. And so there are little things like that, which I think really speaks to the power of being a very chaotic presence in your student's life. Sometimes. Like don't let them get too comfortable. Like have you like maybe do that, be like, Hey.

You know what for, for your final, if you come dressed as this, although I'm such an English teacher, I'd be like, you have to come dressed as it. And then I wanna see a one page writeup of why you made the style choices you did. And they have to have like citations. 'cause that's how I am. But I do feel like there is something to that, right?

Like because, and you don't have to do it every day. I think that's the thing that so many teachers struggle with is you're like, if I don't do something like that every single unit, every single day, then I'm a boring teacher. No teacher's doing that every day. We do not have the energy to do that every single day.

Instead, you find one thing. Ev like once a month, be an agent of chaos in your class. That was always my goal and I didn't hit it all the time, but I do feel like because of some of the things that I did, I was a very memorable teacher because of that one thing we did that [00:18:00] one time, you know? Um, 'cause not every kid's gonna like the chaos thing that you do every single time, but, so that's, that's your guys' homework this week is to, uh, try and find a way to be chaotic for your students, especially because now it's like, it's like late January.

You're in the doldrums waiting for spring break, which is so far away. So like do something that makes you happy and makes you laugh and you think is fun in your classroom. Because I think that that is so important, and I feel like January is the time that we really have to dig in and find that because we're like, we know our kids really well at this point.

Everyone's kind of like in that rhythm. So now is the time to like bring up some chaos. You know, I've talked a lot about my Lord of the Flies activity I've done. There's a lot of other things you can do that can just like bring some food, some, some music, some drinks, something that, that makes it a little bit more fun.

Um, and on the same note of something that is a little bit more fun, I'm gonna talk about a resource. Then my big announcement is gonna come at the end of the [00:19:00] episode. So stay tuned, but we will be right back and I will share a really fun resource with you. Have you ever wondered what I would say if my mother and my administrators weren't watching every single thing I do on social media?

Well, that's exactly what my standup show is, and I'm gonna be coming to a town near you super soon. You can get tickets@educatorandrea.com slash tickets. Welcome back, teacher Besties. All right guys. So, um, there is a website called generation genius.com okay. Generation genius.com. And it's got DIY activities, discussion questions, teacher guides, reading material, vocab, lesson plans, all of the good things that we like to see.

Um. And it is also been like reviewed by lots and lots of schools. It also, um, you know, has a lot of research-based practices, which I think are incredibly important for us to find things that are going to be not only. Fun, but also going to be based in good learning [00:20:00] science. So check that out. Generation genius.com.

It's for ages. It's science and math for K through eight. Um, something else that I think I'm trying to do as a parent is like for Christmas this year, one of the things I really wanted to do was to find. Things that would spark my kids' creativity. So we don't do tablets, we don't do phones for my kids. Um, we watch tv, but that's it.

They don't, they don't like play video games, right. Unless we're doing, um, there's that one matchy, uh, word game. I, I think it's like word. It's not wordle. Is it? Wordle? I don't know. Where you have to like find words in like five letters. I'll do that with my kids sometimes. But that's pretty much it. Like we really don't do video games.

For the kids in our house. And so what I've been really focusing on is finding like all the fun games that I used to play as a kid, like we got, um, trouble. The other day, my kids are savages at that game. If you haven't played an old timey [00:21:00] board game, old timey, like nineties, like nineties board game with your kids, it's so fun.

It's so reflective of their personalities as well. Like the way that they just, my son just like savagely destroyed my, my daughter at it like, and cackled. And she immediately was sad because it hurt her feelings. Not because she lost, but because it hurt her feelings that he did that, you know? So, um. I think that there's just so many different options out there for us that are not video game related.

And I did get tempted this year, this is the first year I got tempted, I almost bought a video game console that would have like physical activity activities. Um, and we're like, you know what? Like, let's, let's not, let's keep put, like, let's push it off a little bit longer. Um, because I feel like that is one of those Pandora boxes where I don't want to start my kids on video games.

Um. Like kind of ever, but like, not yet. You know, they're five and seven. Um, and so we're really working on finding stuff like that. So things like science and math, things that I can encourage them to do. [00:22:00] Um, I'm really trying to find activities that I also enjoy to do with my kids. So one of the things, and we'll see how it goes, but I have always been very intimidated by chess, like the game of chess.

I think that is. The most frustrating game to play when you have not learned how to play it. And I've only ever attempted to play it with people who know how to play very well. And so I just feel stupid the whole time. I feel stupid. And so what I'm gonna do is we bought a new chessboard. Um, and it's like just like a kid's magnetic chessboard thing.

It's not like a fancy one or anything like that, but I'm gonna teach my daughter to play as I learn to play because she's a very much like a Lego and puzzle girl. So I think that that might be something, maybe if I teach my 7-year-old to play, I'll get enough confidence to get okay at it. Um. In the month before she starts beating me because she'll be able to beat me very quickly.

She can already puzzle better than I can. So I just wanted to encourage you guys that if you haven't looked in to doing stuff like that, like there is something just really sweet and [00:23:00] fun and memorable about doing stuff like that, um, as a family. So, uh, alright, now let's go on to the hill. I will die on, and of course this is largely inspired by my recent experience.

Now I will say, guys, the dentist I currently go to is great. I like my dentist. They're great. They could have maybe warned me a little bit more about the pain, but I, like, I did this to myself, whitening my teeth, the pain thereafter, like this was a fuller around and find out situation for me. However, I, the hill I'm gonna die on is that dentists need to be supervised more aggressively.

To ensure they are not scamming people. The amount of people I know personally who have been told they have a cavity, then they go to a different dentist and either they have no cavity or the cavity's in a completely different area of their mouth makes me think that they are very, um, scammy and [00:24:00] dishonest, and dental care is largely.

Like not covered, like nothing. Nothing that they're like, Ooh, you have a X, Y, Z going on in your mouth. That's the second that your dental insurance basically does nothing. Right? Like my dental insurance will cover me for a PPO dentist for a cleaning twice a year. That is all they cover. If you see a premier dentist on accident, which also happened to me recently, um, they're gonna charge you like.

X amount for that. And if you have a cavity, oh, that's coming right out of pocket. It's the biggest scam ever. And the fact that I know so many people who have gotten like insane dental work done for exorbitant prices, it just, we, we need more. We, we need an adult, all right? We need an adult. We need a litigious adult that is going to be like.

Come on, man. Like that's not really a cavity. I feel like it's one of those things too, where it's like I, I think there's just a [00:25:00] lot more gray area. The dentists make it sound like there is, right, because when I went to this dentist, they were like, Hey. You have a spot on an old filling that's starting to wear out a little bit at some point we're probably gonna have to look at that.

I had that experience three separate times at the same dentist where they're like, oh, let's check this little area. It's still fine. We don't need to do anything. And then they did like, Hey, we don't need to like fully replace it. Let's just do a little sandblaster thing and then seal it and you'll be good.

It's 40 bucks and I'm like, oh my gosh. Amazing. I've been to so many dentists that were like, Ooh, you're gonna, actually, we're gonna have to remove that whole thing. I had a root canal a few years ago. I'm pretty sure I didn't need that root canal. Like in retrospect, I probably got scammed. So if you're a dentist, um, then I hope you're a good one, and I hope that you're an honest one who has integrity because it seems like.

That's not the case for many, many dentists that I have interacted with. Um, also, if you're a dentist who has [00:26:00] worked with scammy dentists, I want you to tell me about it. Can you like send me a little message and be like, yeah dude, it is such a scam. Here's how they do it. Because now I've just also kind of want the tea.

I just kind of wanna know, and I don't have any dentist friends, but now I kind of want to so that they can tell me about all of the dental secrets that happen in those offices. Or maybe I don't, 'cause it's just gonna piss me off. But, um, okay guys, it is time for a really big announcement. Are you ready?

Are you excited? Are you hyped? I hope you are. Um, so as you can see, if you're watching this on YouTube, I am in a different location. Um, I have moved my studio down into the basement of my home. Um, so that way I can make it a little bit easier for me to access. I, you know, just juggling. Teaching comedy, momming, all the things.

Um, I just wanted to really have the opportunity to make sure that I can be able to do this. And just like when we were talking about in the classroom, we need to make sure that what we're doing is like filling our cup, making [00:27:00] us happy. And if it's not, you gotta adjust. You gotta make things, mix things up.

One of the things that I think would make this podcast better and more fun is bringing in a second person to hang out with me each week. Um, and you guys have already met him. So, uh, starting next week, we are going to have a co-host on here. Jerry Patoka is going to come on, um, as my co-host, and I am so excited.

You guys, if you do not follow him yet, please do go onto Instagram or TikTok, follow him. He talks about teacher stuff. He is genuinely so funny. And also I think what's gonna make it so fun to hang out with him is that he and I are so different like. He is just like a good old boy from North Carolina and teaching whatever it is that he says he teaches and it's, it's gonna be really fun.

I hope you guys are excited. Um, you know, it'd be really fun for us also to bring in some other guests occasionally. So if we had a guest way back when that you really enjoyed and you'd [00:28:00] like to see them come back, um, let us know. I recently saw an update, I don't know if you guys remember the episode I did with Sailing Songbird.

Um, the guy who's sailing across the ocean and now he's sailing across again and he's got someone with him. Um, and so I think it would be really fun to get him back in 'cause he's a former teacher from Seattle and he's just has so many adventures since we last talked to him. Um, and so I think it would be really, really great to get an update with him.

And there's lots of other folks. That we've had on here, um, that I'd be really excited to talk to again. Um, so just let us know. Send, send us a dm, send us an email, all that good stuff. And, um, we will make sure to try and get them in the lineup because now it's gonna be a little easier to schedule 'cause, um, in my basement.

When I record, so very exciting. Um, all right, so if you have any thoughts or questions about what we talked about today, you can contact me at Educator Andrea or andrea@humancontent.com, or you can contact the whole Human Content Podcast [00:29:00] family at Human Content pods, and thank you so much. Those of you guys who have left reviews, I really appreciate it.

Um, and if you wanna catch the video episodes, they're up every single week on YouTube at Educator. Andrea, thank you so much for listening. I'm your host, Andrea Forche. Our executive producers are Andrea Forche, Aron Korney, Rob Goldman and Shanti Brook. Our editor is Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Portizo.

Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi, and our recording location is now my basement, but the show is still sponsored. In part by Indiana State by College of Education to learn more about our how to survive the classrooms program, disclaimer 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. [00:30:00] Just click on that little box over there, you see it, and if you haven't yet, please subscribe. Okay, bye.