Becoming the Teacher I Needed: Jere Chang (@mrschanggifted) on Burnout & Boundaries

00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:04.047
We are incredibly proud to partner with Teachers Insurance Plan to help us bring

00:00:04.047 --> 00:00:06.280
you season four of the Balancing Act.

00:00:06.739 --> 00:00:11.007
For us, it's a natural fit to team up with an auto insurance provider that was

00:00:11.007 --> 00:00:13.118
founded exclusively for educators.

00:00:13.635 --> 00:00:14.949
If you're a New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

00:00:29.877 --> 00:00:33.738
You're listening to The Balancing Act Podcast with Jamie, Wonko, and Joe Vitale.

00:00:35.996 --> 00:00:39.252
Well, hello, my sun-kissed friend. What's going on? We are officially recording.

00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:44.339
We are. Hello, Mr. Vitale. How are you? I am good. I'm hanging in there.

00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:49.910
Welcome, one and all, to The Balancing Act Podcast. I'm Jamie Wonko,

00:00:50.195 --> 00:00:55.019
and here with excellent Mr. Joseph Vitale. Oh, very nice. Excellent.

00:00:56.379 --> 00:00:59.539
Or we like, is that Bill and Ted? Excellent! Is that what that was?

00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:06.639
Uh party time excellent yeah back in the day um no yeah i don't know i've got

00:01:06.639 --> 00:01:10.524
too many 80s and 90s references on my brain uh today so um,

00:01:11.685 --> 00:01:14.529
today we have something really fun i know you're excited about this and you

00:01:14.529 --> 00:01:17.060
have to tell me why why are you so excited about today's episode

00:01:17.478 --> 00:01:22.489
so i gotta throw it to you first i am excited to talk to you mr vitality but

00:01:22.489 --> 00:01:27.369
when we have a guest on stop it It is, you know, a thrill a minute, right?

00:01:27.369 --> 00:01:34.423
But not all guests have the same energy.

00:01:35.479 --> 00:01:38.419
Not all of them necessarily bring...

00:01:40.309 --> 00:01:51.617
My heart to a fervent, rapid beat in the same way that today's guest can do. I don't often get...

00:01:52.198 --> 00:01:57.242
I mean, I'm a pretty excitable person, but I don't fangirl very often about lots of people.

00:01:57.532 --> 00:02:06.083
And I am going to try to control myself today because I am fangirling big time over our guest.

00:02:06.635 --> 00:02:09.502
Well, we are going to have...

00:02:10.147 --> 00:02:13.743
Um, Jerry Chang at Miss Chang gifted, um, who's going to be on our show.

00:02:13.743 --> 00:02:14.912
We're going to bring her in shortly.

00:02:15.313 --> 00:02:18.853
Um, but it's funny cause like, I think back to when I met her,

00:02:18.853 --> 00:02:23.093
which was at our creator day, which we've talked about, um, down in Washington

00:02:23.093 --> 00:02:26.476
DC where, you know, yes, Jamie was away, but I got an opportunity to go.

00:02:26.946 --> 00:02:31.653
Um, and I remember we walked inside and it was a bajillion degrees and I was,

00:02:31.653 --> 00:02:33.651
you know, dressed nice for the day.

00:02:34.191 --> 00:02:39.423
Um, and I saw her sitting on a bench and I just said, and this is kind of unlike

00:02:39.423 --> 00:02:42.843
me cause normally i'm like i don't want to like approach somebody i went up

00:02:42.843 --> 00:02:45.335
to her and i was like well i guess you're here for the same thing that i am

00:02:45.631 --> 00:02:47.419
knowing that she would have no idea who i am,

00:02:48.293 --> 00:02:51.613
um and got to you know talk with her for about 20 minutes while we were just

00:02:51.613 --> 00:02:53.456
sitting on a bench watching people pass by um,

00:02:54.533 --> 00:02:58.183
and i'm really excited for you to get a chance to to experience the same energy

00:02:58.183 --> 00:03:01.483
that i did firsthand so it's really going to be a very fun conversation that

00:03:01.483 --> 00:03:05.455
day you texted me and I said.

00:03:07.593 --> 00:03:13.583
And I said obviously you're in Washington I'm in Florida and I remember sitting

00:03:13.583 --> 00:03:19.085
and I texted you and said oh my god is Miss Chang there?

00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:23.353
And you were like I had literally just taken a picture with her,

00:03:24.693 --> 00:03:28.243
to have it for social media for later and I sent it to you I'm like yeah she

00:03:28.243 --> 00:03:32.873
kind of is and she was sitting right next to me so yeah really cool So,

00:03:33.473 --> 00:03:34.773
I mean, now that we've blabbered enough.

00:03:34.773 --> 00:03:37.453
We're ready for Ms. Chang. Yes. I do.

00:03:37.813 --> 00:03:40.689
And we might as well let her in, shall we? All right.

00:03:43.865 --> 00:03:48.609
Well, hey, friend. Good to see you again. Hi, Jerry Chang, at Miss Chang Gifted

00:03:48.609 --> 00:03:51.214
on all the socials. It's really great to have you on our show.

00:03:51.882 --> 00:03:55.139
Hey, y'all. Thanks for having me. Hi. It's so nice to meet you.

00:03:55.139 --> 00:04:00.549
When we were recording our introduction today, I had told Joe when he was in

00:04:00.549 --> 00:04:02.593
Washington, I was on vacation with my family.

00:04:02.964 --> 00:04:07.962
And I said, if Miss Chang is there, I am going to freak out.

00:04:08.299 --> 00:04:11.989
And he was like, guess who I just met? But I was, oh my gosh,

00:04:11.989 --> 00:04:13.779
I was, I try not to be too jealous.

00:04:13.779 --> 00:04:17.919
You know, it's not a great emotion, but oh man. So now I'm, I'm so excited that

00:04:17.919 --> 00:04:24.789
I get to meet you, even if it's this way. But we were hard knobbing on cap on the Capitol. Yeah.

00:04:25.876 --> 00:04:28.049
I just kept saying to myself, why am I here?

00:04:30.669 --> 00:04:35.219
I mean, I did get a, you know, I was glad they initiated the conversation.

00:04:35.219 --> 00:04:39.615
I feel like it's a step in the right direction that politicians want to talk to educators.

00:04:40.067 --> 00:04:43.639
I do feel like I didn't really post a lot of my content because there was nothing

00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:48.809
really said that was beyond like, I don't say performative, but just kind of

00:04:48.809 --> 00:04:51.609
like kind of scratching the surface. I agree.

00:04:52.149 --> 00:04:55.609
But it's a start. It's a start. They want to talk to real people.

00:04:55.609 --> 00:04:59.897
I'm open to that, you know, to see kind of what we think and feel.

00:05:00.216 --> 00:05:03.829
And if the conversations continue, you know, then I'll be more inclined to like

00:05:03.829 --> 00:05:05.348
post stuff and share stuff.

00:05:05.563 --> 00:05:10.319
Yeah, I think that's great. And just as an aside from that, we did talk to a

00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:13.162
few people through, you know, Wellesley, who we met down there.

00:05:13.949 --> 00:05:18.499
And next month we have Senator Andy Kim from New Jersey. He recorded an episode

00:05:18.499 --> 00:05:19.449
with us. He's going to be on.

00:05:20.609 --> 00:05:24.159
So those conversations are happening, which is awesome. And,

00:05:24.159 --> 00:05:27.009
you know, it's it's we're really looking forward to our listeners getting a

00:05:27.009 --> 00:05:30.199
chance to hear that conversation. Yeah, Elizabeth Warren was in Georgia.

00:05:30.662 --> 00:05:34.249
Yep. I had a decline because I was in school.

00:05:36.525 --> 00:05:38.766
Yeah, it's well known, but.

00:05:39.498 --> 00:05:42.483
You want to talk to real people and guess what real people are doing?

00:05:42.483 --> 00:05:46.667
Working. Yeah. No, it's exciting. And it's funny too.

00:05:47.154 --> 00:05:51.503
Of all the things, you know, that I look for online, you know,

00:05:51.503 --> 00:05:55.643
and I have very, you know, I've very follow people that I follow.

00:05:55.643 --> 00:06:01.313
But what I enjoy most about a real influencer is someone who is still in the classroom.

00:06:01.713 --> 00:06:05.903
So in the teacher space, you know, I tend to be a little bit snobbish when someone

00:06:05.903 --> 00:06:08.505
tells me, I used to teach.

00:06:08.731 --> 00:06:11.433
And the reasons that they don't anymore. So for me, you know,

00:06:11.433 --> 00:06:14.273
with you especially, I love like that you are still like Joe and I,

00:06:14.273 --> 00:06:17.303
like you're in it day to day and you're still, you know, doing the work.

00:06:17.956 --> 00:06:22.593
And just like us, you're also balancing a family. And yeah, you know,

00:06:22.593 --> 00:06:26.483
so that's a, it's a lot. It's a lot and you're doing it well.

00:06:26.483 --> 00:06:28.701
So we might as well jump into our first segment.

00:06:29.164 --> 00:06:33.803
So, hey, everybody on this call, Jamie, Jerry, what's new with you?

00:06:33.803 --> 00:06:37.153
We want to hear what's new with everybody in your worlds and what are some of

00:06:37.153 --> 00:06:39.993
the things that you're working on? Uh, and Ms. Chang, I know you have some really

00:06:39.993 --> 00:06:44.361
cool stuff to, to talk about. So, uh, why don't you jump right into it and start us off?

00:06:44.953 --> 00:06:49.603
Okay. Uh, well, I wrote a book and it came out in May. So about four or five

00:06:49.603 --> 00:06:52.732
months ago, I don't know when y'all are going to air this, but yeah.

00:06:53.144 --> 00:06:57.123
And so that's really new to me. Just trying to like promote the book,

00:06:57.123 --> 00:07:00.615
get it in the hands of people who want to read the book.

00:07:01.023 --> 00:07:05.083
Um, school I'm four weeks into school. So I'm back doing that.

00:07:05.083 --> 00:07:08.429
I got some talks lined up and I'm going to New York, Houston.

00:07:09.131 --> 00:07:13.159
Somewhere else. California, Milwaukee. So I'm doing some talks.

00:07:13.159 --> 00:07:16.689
I have to be careful. I'm not careful, strategic with the talks that I do throughout

00:07:16.689 --> 00:07:19.348
the school year because I can only miss like so many days.

00:07:19.830 --> 00:07:24.334
So I have some talks lined up. Family's good. My kids are in fifth and seventh grade.

00:07:24.845 --> 00:07:28.089
And just kind of right now, I'm just kind of in cruise control at the beginning

00:07:28.089 --> 00:07:31.739
of the school year, if that makes sense. Can you tell us a little bit about

00:07:31.739 --> 00:07:33.899
your teaching background?

00:07:34.599 --> 00:07:37.185
What do you teach or what have you taught and for how long?

00:07:38.059 --> 00:07:42.129
I actually started out working in university administration.

00:07:42.129 --> 00:07:45.759
I was an administrator. I kind of went backwards. I was an administrator for like eight years.

00:07:46.108 --> 00:07:49.463
I have a master's in college student affairs administration.

00:07:49.939 --> 00:07:54.867
And then I got another master's in linguistics and then another one in English slash TESOL.

00:07:55.349 --> 00:08:00.319
And that was my first teaching gig was teaching high school English ESOL to.

00:08:02.139 --> 00:08:03.372
English as a second language.

00:08:04.045 --> 00:08:11.893
And I hated it my first year quit I did I hate it and that's that's what all this stuff is in my book

00:08:12.317 --> 00:08:16.189
you know people just assume because I'm a like positive teacher now and I enjoy

00:08:16.189 --> 00:08:19.097
it that I've always been that way it's not true,

00:08:19.957 --> 00:08:25.094
and so I changed schools and I hated the second school even worse,

00:08:25.562 --> 00:08:29.411
and the only reason I stayed at that school for two years is because my mom

00:08:29.852 --> 00:08:35.564
told me it would be better on my resume to stick it out for two years or nobody would hire me.

00:08:35.848 --> 00:08:40.029
And during those two years, I became strategic and I found my school where I

00:08:40.029 --> 00:08:41.671
am now, which is an elementary school,

00:08:42.546 --> 00:08:45.658
And I started there as a first grade teacher. I've been there 20 years.

00:08:45.902 --> 00:08:49.225
Then a second grade teacher. And now I do gifted education. I've been in gifted

00:08:49.225 --> 00:08:54.034
education solely for about like 10, 15 years. I forget. It all just kind of,

00:08:54.725 --> 00:08:56.295
blends. After a while. Yeah.

00:08:58.040 --> 00:09:03.395
I'd love to hear more about your book and the journey and putting that together and why you decided.

00:09:04.553 --> 00:09:08.155
I think it's all downstairs. I don't think I have one up here. Okay.

00:09:08.755 --> 00:09:12.053
I have to be careful where I podcast because kids are all over the house.

00:09:12.297 --> 00:09:13.986
It's called The Comfort.

00:09:14.845 --> 00:09:17.985
I'm literally sitting in front of my closet.

00:09:17.985 --> 00:09:21.205
No, we have to lock our basement door because my dogs will literally run down

00:09:21.205 --> 00:09:24.605
here and our door doesn't close anymore because they have literally learned

00:09:24.605 --> 00:09:28.205
how to break it down. Our dog was barking earlier. I was texting my wife,

00:09:28.205 --> 00:09:30.335
can you tell Taco to stop barking?

00:09:34.121 --> 00:09:39.471
Oh yeah something anyway it's called becoming the teacher i needed because i

00:09:39.471 --> 00:09:44.141
did not like school i grew up with a disability i grew up you know discovering

00:09:44.141 --> 00:09:48.015
that i was you know lgbtqia lesbian in high school i just,

00:09:48.775 --> 00:09:53.646
didn't quite i was in a you know small conservative town didn't quite fit in didn't like school,

00:09:54.540 --> 00:09:59.291
and then i ended up becoming a teacher which was really strange and then like

00:09:59.291 --> 00:10:01.825
i said earlier, I didn't like teaching at all.

00:10:02.365 --> 00:10:06.191
And the fact that I started social media like, I don't know,

00:10:06.191 --> 00:10:11.871
six, five or six years ago and started becoming kind of like the role model

00:10:11.871 --> 00:10:15.261
teacher for a lot of teachers caught me off guard.

00:10:15.801 --> 00:10:19.341
It was not intentional. It just kind of happened. And then, you know,

00:10:19.341 --> 00:10:22.471
in full transparency, publishers started reaching out to me.

00:10:22.471 --> 00:10:26.381
And I know why they did it, because I'm a built-in marketing scheme.

00:10:26.381 --> 00:10:29.481
You know, you got four million followers on social media. They're like,

00:10:29.481 --> 00:10:31.969
oh, I bet people will buy this book because this lady wrote it.

00:10:33.385 --> 00:10:35.481
The first time they reached out to me, I was like, absolutely not.

00:10:35.481 --> 00:10:38.461
I'm not writing a book until I started going and giving keynotes.

00:10:38.461 --> 00:10:41.691
And then I realized the impact that I was making like in real life,

00:10:41.691 --> 00:10:44.031
not just beyond like little TikTok-y stuff.

00:10:44.031 --> 00:10:48.741
I was like, wow, like teachers are kind of looking up to me for guidance and

00:10:48.741 --> 00:10:53.281
support. And so then I decided to write this book just so teachers could see

00:10:53.281 --> 00:10:56.640
themselves. Like the first half is almost autobiographical.

00:10:57.383 --> 00:11:01.181
And the second half is strategies, how to survive teaching, tips,

00:11:01.181 --> 00:11:04.321
strategies, what you can do in your classroom that may help you and just kind

00:11:04.321 --> 00:11:08.122
of survive teaching year after year, day after day.

00:11:09.509 --> 00:11:12.677
Yeah, that's one of the things I wanted to ask you about, because I did see

00:11:13.077 --> 00:11:16.497
through some of your posts on social media that through your keynote speaking,

00:11:16.497 --> 00:11:18.536
you talk about teacher well-being,

00:11:19.577 --> 00:11:23.467
and teacher retention on, I assume that's the main theme of the talks that you

00:11:23.467 --> 00:11:26.418
do when you go around to different states and stuff.

00:11:26.923 --> 00:11:31.607
Four. That's my most popular talk, teacher retention, climate and culture,

00:11:31.607 --> 00:11:34.608
things like that. I do one called Becoming the Teacher I Needed.

00:11:34.986 --> 00:11:39.038
And it's basically about advocating for every single child, regardless of,

00:11:39.496 --> 00:11:44.047
you know, immigration status, regardless of how they pray, regardless of how they vote.

00:11:44.047 --> 00:11:47.667
A lot of people assume, and probably assume correctly, that I'm liberal-minded.

00:11:47.667 --> 00:11:50.601
I mean, I'm married to a black woman. I'm gay. I live in Atlanta.

00:11:50.752 --> 00:11:54.907
So the assumptions are correct. But what people don't realize is I'm rooting

00:11:54.907 --> 00:11:57.917
for all the kids. I don't care who you vote for. I am rooting for you.

00:11:58.277 --> 00:12:01.236
If your beliefs are different from mine, I'm rooting for you.

00:12:02.057 --> 00:12:07.637
So I do talk about that. And I do one on creative thinking as the gifted education teacher.

00:12:07.997 --> 00:12:12.957
I feel like schools are becoming so staunchly focused on data and test scores

00:12:12.957 --> 00:12:14.483
and targets and things like that.

00:12:15.005 --> 00:12:18.637
I'm not saying data doesn't belong in schools, but I feel like we're losing

00:12:18.637 --> 00:12:22.492
sense of critical and creative thinking. So I'll have a whole talk on that.

00:12:23.218 --> 00:12:24.989
Was that my four? Did I get all four of them?

00:12:25.771 --> 00:12:28.953
Yeah, I think that's all of them. I think so. That's the main story that I do, yeah.

00:12:29.237 --> 00:12:33.760
What are some of the things that you talk about in regards to teacher well-being and retention?

00:12:33.956 --> 00:12:38.450
I do a lot of storytelling. But one of the main things, I have a whole shirt

00:12:38.596 --> 00:12:39.977
that I say, find your people.

00:12:40.691 --> 00:12:44.656
This was not meant to do a lot. And now be careful when I say find your people.

00:12:44.974 --> 00:12:50.078
Don't hang out too much in the teacher's lounge because that can just suck the goodness out of you.

00:12:50.641 --> 00:12:54.975
Find the people who understand teaching, understand what it's like to be an

00:12:54.975 --> 00:12:58.445
educator. Those people could be at your church. They could be online.

00:12:58.445 --> 00:13:00.776
They could be in your neighborhood. They could be in your school.

00:13:01.211 --> 00:13:04.107
But just find the people who understand what you're going through.

00:13:04.938 --> 00:13:09.803
And just taking care of yourself. Like, don't make all your doctor's appointments during spring break.

00:13:10.401 --> 00:13:14.761
Yeah, make one or two. You know, I get it. Because writing lesson plans, say no.

00:13:15.381 --> 00:13:20.825
It is okay. Hey, if we get evaluated on like a four, one, two,

00:13:20.825 --> 00:13:23.744
three, four, four is perfect, one is terrible.

00:13:23.988 --> 00:13:26.195
I can tell you, I already know what I'm going to get. I haven't,

00:13:26.195 --> 00:13:30.420
I'm going to get threes because they don't want to give me fours because that says I'm perfect.

00:13:30.647 --> 00:13:34.705
And that doesn't give them any kind of improvement. They're not going to give

00:13:34.705 --> 00:13:38.199
me ones and twos because then they got to put me on a needs improvement plan.

00:13:39.058 --> 00:13:43.220
I get threes. They're probably sprinkling a couple of fours to make me feel good about myself.

00:13:43.690 --> 00:13:48.705
I used to work so hard to get these fours. I wanted to be a four,

00:13:48.705 --> 00:13:50.540
and I was running myself ragged.

00:13:51.156 --> 00:13:56.095
And finally, I got a four. I mean, I was just like beating myself to the ground.

00:13:56.495 --> 00:13:58.476
And guess what? I got out of it. Nothing.

00:14:00.433 --> 00:14:04.184
As a three teacher by leadership, I was just as good to the kids.

00:14:04.184 --> 00:14:08.014
The kids still liked me the same, but I just wasn't saying yes to every single

00:14:08.014 --> 00:14:11.422
thing. Trying to prove. It's the proving that I was a good teacher.

00:14:12.078 --> 00:14:15.464
I was, I'm the same teacher as a three and a four. I just didn't spend as much

00:14:15.464 --> 00:14:19.844
time proving that I was a good teacher to get that four. So now I'm the world's

00:14:19.844 --> 00:14:22.340
okayest teacher. I am a solid three.

00:14:22.456 --> 00:14:26.454
I want that. We should, you should be making that shirt. World's okayest teacher. I made one.

00:14:26.734 --> 00:14:28.789
It says world's okayest teacher.

00:14:29.143 --> 00:14:32.074
I, I'll tell you, I wear an extra large and I look good and light blue. I'll take it.

00:14:34.434 --> 00:14:37.234
I have a merch store. I should officially add that to my merch.

00:14:37.614 --> 00:14:38.878
I'd be the first one to buy it.

00:14:39.308 --> 00:14:43.364
Yeah, it's so hard for so long to be, to prove that I was a good teacher.

00:14:43.364 --> 00:14:47.388
And finally I just quit trying to prove it and just focus on the kids and be a good teacher.

00:14:47.632 --> 00:14:50.814
There was only one time I got an end of the year evaluation.

00:14:50.814 --> 00:14:54.314
There's like one section that's like communicating with parents and families.

00:14:54.314 --> 00:14:57.984
And I think I got like, I got a, I got a three in this one area.

00:14:57.984 --> 00:15:01.124
And I had created, and this was before we had to do all these things.

00:15:01.124 --> 00:15:04.354
I created a website. I was putting up instructional videos. I was like one of

00:15:04.354 --> 00:15:08.914
the leading people in regards to like Google classroom and reaching out to parents

00:15:08.914 --> 00:15:11.854
and creating a blog and sending an email all the time.

00:15:11.854 --> 00:15:14.764
I went into the principal and I was like, no, I was like this.

00:15:14.764 --> 00:15:18.066
I was like, I was like, this is the only area I, I, and it was,

00:15:18.183 --> 00:15:20.452
this is year, you know, 28 for me.

00:15:20.911 --> 00:15:25.924
I have never questioned an observation ever, but that time I went in and said,

00:15:25.924 --> 00:15:27.854
this has to be a four for this reason.

00:15:28.382 --> 00:15:31.114
And they're like, I guess it was overlooked. But I think you're right.

00:15:31.114 --> 00:15:34.599
It's just a matter of checking boxes for certain people.

00:15:36.137 --> 00:15:40.604
I get it. As an administrator, I'm not judging them.

00:15:40.604 --> 00:15:45.304
I know that they have a rubric that they have to follow from the district.

00:15:45.304 --> 00:15:48.054
They have to come to the classroom and they have to observe me. I get it.

00:15:48.054 --> 00:15:52.484
And if they give all the teachers force, somebody's above them saying,

00:15:52.484 --> 00:15:55.484
OK, really, are all these teachers force? So they're feeling the pressure,

00:15:55.484 --> 00:16:00.344
too. So when I say this, it's not a slight to administration because I know

00:16:00.344 --> 00:16:02.086
they're feeling the same pressures that we are.

00:16:03.594 --> 00:16:07.253
It's your school district. That's my other talk. I do a whole talk,

00:16:07.253 --> 00:16:10.303
I'm sorry, for superintendents and principals. Oh. Yeah.

00:16:12.323 --> 00:16:15.795
And what's that one called? You did mention that before, yeah.

00:16:16.387 --> 00:16:19.266
Right. It's called The Culture You Build is the Difference You Make.

00:16:20.483 --> 00:16:26.233
It's actually, I really enjoy giving that talk because I love administrators.

00:16:26.233 --> 00:16:30.283
Because if you haven't seen an administrator go to bat for you with a parent

00:16:30.283 --> 00:16:31.567
that you've had to pass off.

00:16:33.314 --> 00:16:36.774
Like there's a reason i'm not an administrator so like i'm

00:16:37.128 --> 00:16:40.483
with them we're dealing with the same kind of stuff that's my fourth talk i

00:16:40.483 --> 00:16:44.123
knew i didn't mention one of them i'm sorry i cut you off i got it no i was

00:16:44.123 --> 00:16:50.253
i was gonna ask you is your school district a part of a union or are you where are you from,

00:16:50.963 --> 00:16:53.863
we're new jersey we're from new jersey yeah,

00:16:54.803 --> 00:17:00.203
we're not allowed to have unions in georgia yeah i remember hearing that from you and from uh uh,

00:17:01.083 --> 00:17:04.223
one of the other creators that was there who's also down actually it was a few

00:17:04.223 --> 00:17:06.023
people from atlanta that were there um,

00:17:06.883 --> 00:17:10.273
because like i'll totally touch your pearls when we say it like people i'll

00:17:10.273 --> 00:17:14.453
complain about like duty and like the northerners are like touch your union

00:17:14.453 --> 00:17:16.815
i'm like we're not allowed to have them they're like oh

00:17:17.186 --> 00:17:22.482
that's scandalous like i don't even know what that would be like having a union rep Yeah.

00:17:22.482 --> 00:17:25.563
My sister moved to South Carolina for a bit and they didn't have.

00:17:26.323 --> 00:17:30.103
And and so there were some of the differences of just, you know,

00:17:30.103 --> 00:17:32.273
things that we are not used to, like minute.

00:17:32.273 --> 00:17:34.693
I mean, we are down to like minute to minute and things like that.

00:17:34.693 --> 00:17:41.050
But so do you feel like their relationship with your administrator that you have now is,

00:17:42.303 --> 00:17:46.443
at all influenced by the fact that you're not part of a union or so there's

00:17:46.443 --> 00:17:48.289
not as much of a division between you?

00:17:49.707 --> 00:17:53.153
You know, ours have a harder time, I think, with certain things because people

00:17:53.153 --> 00:17:56.668
will run to the union, like, for any little thing.

00:17:57.810 --> 00:18:02.283
I will definitely not say that there's not a division between educators and

00:18:02.283 --> 00:18:05.322
administrators in non-union states.

00:18:06.293 --> 00:18:11.533
Okay. Maybe the little rat race and the red tape that we have to run through

00:18:11.533 --> 00:18:17.697
is different, but there is definitely a staunch, like, there's definitely a division. Yeah. Yeah.

00:18:18.376 --> 00:18:23.363
So do you have an HR? Like, how does that work? Yeah, but the HR person is like,

00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:25.360
are you dressed appropriately?

00:18:25.953 --> 00:18:30.133
HR is more like looking out like, you know, are we in compliance? Are we taking off?

00:18:31.153 --> 00:18:33.138
We're allowed like so many days a year.

00:18:34.753 --> 00:18:39.913
But if we take those days, we're kind of like judged poorly on our evaluation.

00:18:40.513 --> 00:18:42.270
And so we're always getting fussed at.

00:18:43.291 --> 00:18:46.734
It seems like there's not really anybody advocating for the teachers.

00:18:47.866 --> 00:18:52.583
And that's where I think our unions come in, in regards to advocating for us,

00:18:52.583 --> 00:18:56.013
in regards to things like, I'm a big believer that the next thing,

00:18:56.013 --> 00:18:58.233
the next battle we're going to be fighting is class size.

00:18:58.233 --> 00:19:02.103
Like, many of us are fighting it now, but the amount of kids that we have in

00:19:02.103 --> 00:19:06.613
our classes, if we're, you know, going to be watering down union influence,

00:19:06.613 --> 00:19:07.712
and that's going to become.

00:19:10.693 --> 00:19:14.753
A point of emphasis for our current administration and what they're going to be working towards.

00:19:15.084 --> 00:19:18.933
That's going to have effect on a female-dominated profession.

00:19:20.373 --> 00:19:26.015
For one, which is a whole other conversation. But it's a challenge,

00:19:26.913 --> 00:19:28.633
and it's something that we're going to have to face head on.

00:19:29.453 --> 00:19:33.163
Yeah. We deal with that, too. Yeah, class size. I mean, the only thing that

00:19:33.163 --> 00:19:39.263
we can rely on are elected board members and district-level people who put these

00:19:39.263 --> 00:19:41.514
policies into place and things like that.

00:19:42.808 --> 00:19:49.118
Um, so we also, you know, because our, our show is primarily about balance and balancing life.

00:19:49.257 --> 00:19:52.583
Um, you know, one of the things we really would love to talk to you about is

00:19:52.844 --> 00:19:57.127
we do our, our, our system checkup segment where we talk about different systems

00:19:57.127 --> 00:20:01.097
and, um, things that people have in place that work for you.

00:20:01.097 --> 00:20:03.322
And as a busy mom with, uh,

00:20:04.344 --> 00:20:08.551
Two kids, two kids and like we're, we're, we're all on the struggle bus,

00:20:08.551 --> 00:20:11.322
right. In various different ways on our journey.

00:20:12.311 --> 00:20:17.141
What are some things that you do that work for you in your family, in your household?

00:20:17.141 --> 00:20:20.841
Because you also have the added of, you know, being an author and a social media

00:20:20.841 --> 00:20:27.051
personality and, and you know, on, you know, doing keynote speaking and, and traveling.

00:20:27.051 --> 00:20:31.171
So there has to be a system that works for you in regards to balancing that

00:20:31.171 --> 00:20:32.225
hectic, crazy schedule.

00:20:32.550 --> 00:20:35.501
Yeah. Yeah, the best thing is having like a husband or wife for me,

00:20:35.501 --> 00:20:39.679
a wife who is a really good partner, you know, like teamwork.

00:20:40.904 --> 00:20:45.261
When I have a lot of stuff going on, I had to make two videos last week and

00:20:45.261 --> 00:20:46.970
she was like, OK, cool. I got the kids.

00:20:47.318 --> 00:20:50.561
But then when I don't have a lot of work going on, then I'll pick up some of

00:20:50.561 --> 00:20:53.591
the slack. So just having, you know, and I know that's not realistic for everybody

00:20:53.591 --> 00:20:57.371
because there's a lot of people who are not partnered up. But people ask me

00:20:57.371 --> 00:21:02.178
that, how do you manage all this? That is the number one answer for me in my personal life.

00:21:03.071 --> 00:21:06.941
Another thing I do is I set boundaries. And one of those things for me was I

00:21:06.941 --> 00:21:10.816
deleted my school email off my phone. Hell yeah.

00:21:11.356 --> 00:21:15.881
Yeah. I did that a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah, I did that. So like nine times

00:21:15.881 --> 00:21:18.384
out of 10, it would just be one little quick email.

00:21:18.686 --> 00:21:21.711
But that one time that it's not where it's a parent who's mad at me,

00:21:21.711 --> 00:21:25.665
it would just ruin my night. It ruins dinner with my kids. It's just playing over in my head.

00:21:25.949 --> 00:21:30.011
And that includes the apps too. We use the Remind app. All that stuff is not

00:21:30.011 --> 00:21:32.020
on my phone. Now I have it on my computer.

00:21:32.381 --> 00:21:36.951
You know if there's something I want to address and I intentionally choose so

00:21:36.951 --> 00:21:39.074
that's another thing I do that's a little thing,

00:21:39.723 --> 00:21:44.141
I'm not doing when a doctor says hey when do you want to make an appointment

00:21:44.141 --> 00:21:48.425
like sometimes I'm like oh I don't want to miss that class because you know I was sick,

00:21:48.931 --> 00:21:52.801
that day last week I'll try to be intentional to not miss a lot of instructional

00:21:52.801 --> 00:21:58.967
time but sometimes I'm like you know what we have an extended day we're in school from 7 45 to 4.

00:22:00.173 --> 00:22:03.708
And so by the time in Atlanta, by the time you even get to the doctor,

00:22:03.946 --> 00:22:07.067
because it takes an hour to get five minutes in Atlanta, and we don't have a

00:22:07.067 --> 00:22:09.496
good public transportation like y'all have up there.

00:22:10.158 --> 00:22:16.775
But, you know, you have to take time. And so I don't schedule every single appointment

00:22:16.886 --> 00:22:20.322
during spring break. I enjoy my breaks. We have a fall break coming up.

00:22:20.607 --> 00:22:22.488
I'm going to enjoy my fall break.

00:22:23.254 --> 00:22:29.096
Yeah, as you should. So what, 745 to four, how, what happened?

00:22:29.096 --> 00:22:33.696
That's a lot of, it's JV's, JV's flabbergasted right now.

00:22:36.367 --> 00:22:40.112
Yeah. So we have two, our kids go to two enrichments every day.

00:22:40.570 --> 00:22:45.574
Okay. Yeah. And, in the ideal world, I would get that prep period,

00:22:45.777 --> 00:22:47.652
but they just eat those up with meetings.

00:22:47.780 --> 00:22:50.508
You know, like I, my whole, I had 30 minutes today of prep.

00:22:50.688 --> 00:22:54.136
Then I was in a meeting tomorrow. We I mean, they eat away a lot.

00:22:54.136 --> 00:22:56.726
That's where I feel like unions would be really helpful because it's like they

00:22:56.726 --> 00:23:01.467
just chip away at them. And then I have lunch duty, and it just gets really

00:23:01.844 --> 00:23:03.481
tough to get the work done.

00:23:04.120 --> 00:23:07.272
But saying no, I used to run a chess club.

00:23:07.701 --> 00:23:11.312
I would do a K-2 chess club and then a 3-5 chess club.

00:23:11.602 --> 00:23:15.886
And the more they started adding morning duty, okay, that's an hour and a half

00:23:15.886 --> 00:23:18.666
a week. Then they added afternoon duty, okay, that's another hour and a half

00:23:18.666 --> 00:23:20.751
a week. Then they added lunch duty, that's another hour.

00:23:21.175 --> 00:23:24.156
Finally i just quit doing the chess club and when somebody came up there like

00:23:24.156 --> 00:23:27.286
why aren't you doing the chess club anymore it was so cute you know checkmate

00:23:27.286 --> 00:23:32.257
and i was like because something's got to give yeah i gotta teach i gotta have my lessons ready

00:23:32.674 --> 00:23:37.486
and so i'm not gonna do this extra stuff you brought that up before about like

00:23:37.486 --> 00:23:41.086
setting boundaries and like talking to new teachers about doing that and jamie

00:23:41.086 --> 00:23:44.192
and i have talked often on some episodes of our show like we feel,

00:23:44.795 --> 00:23:49.396
that we, the three of us, were of the generation and cut from the cloth of,

00:23:49.396 --> 00:23:50.846
you just said yes to things.

00:23:50.846 --> 00:23:56.006
Because when you were asked to do, you were trying to keep your job or make

00:23:56.006 --> 00:24:00.376
sure your foot was in the door for whatever extra position there was.

00:24:00.376 --> 00:24:03.376
So if you were asked to do something, you just did it, whether it was for pay

00:24:03.376 --> 00:24:05.477
or for a volunteer role. I feel...

00:24:06.174 --> 00:24:10.899
That today's teachers when they come in they and we we met with a uh you know

00:24:10.899 --> 00:24:14.846
a small sample of teachers at at a local college down here um.

00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:18.519
And one of the first things they said in regards to you know protecting their

00:24:18.519 --> 00:24:21.599
mental health was setting boundaries and saying no it's like it's like they've

00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:28.199
almost been taught it good at this point which i think is great but it took us yeah 20,

00:24:29.016 --> 00:24:30.879
ish years to learn all that.

00:24:32.151 --> 00:24:36.719
And i have a headache i'll just text and say i'm not coming to work today i

00:24:36.719 --> 00:24:41.299
mean i don't do that a lot you know but it's just like i'm not i don't feel well,

00:24:42.107 --> 00:24:45.709
i'm not i'm not gonna like go to a spa day every friday i'm gonna do a good

00:24:45.709 --> 00:24:49.375
job and work hard the kids deserve that they deserve the best version of me,

00:24:49.845 --> 00:24:54.686
but but i also deserve that yes yeah yeah as does your family,

00:24:55.173 --> 00:24:58.650
and yeah and you just can't be spread too thin yeah,

00:25:00.112 --> 00:25:03.397
Wow, I'm still thinking about the 745 to 4 o'clock.

00:25:04.024 --> 00:25:07.990
You know, it's crazy. This is so I was I was so funny. Ironically,

00:25:07.990 --> 00:25:10.550
I was looking at I hope I don't know who's going to watch this video.

00:25:10.550 --> 00:25:12.848
But anyway, I was looking at our handbook.

00:25:13.800 --> 00:25:16.810
I've been there 20 years. I've never really read the handbook.

00:25:16.810 --> 00:25:19.843
But somehow the other day, I ended up in the handbook, our employee handbook.

00:25:20.313 --> 00:25:23.064
And we were 12 and a half days a year.

00:25:23.686 --> 00:25:27.890
I have like 800 hours that I have built up through my tenure there.

00:25:27.890 --> 00:25:32.329
So that speaks for itself. I have not abused my time off.

00:25:34.535 --> 00:25:37.560
And like I said, I get 12 and a half days a year.

00:25:38.134 --> 00:25:41.878
And then there's this paragraph and it was like, and I don't want to misquote it.

00:25:42.279 --> 00:25:46.920
If you, so we get bonuses, Christmas bonuses or whatever.

00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:50.230
And there's this whole formula they use. And there's a system that evaluates

00:25:50.230 --> 00:25:55.620
us. It's like, if you take either six or more than six, somewhere the number

00:25:55.620 --> 00:25:57.672
six is in there. I don't know if it's six or seven.

00:25:57.828 --> 00:26:00.046
Oh, God, did I just do that? Anyway.

00:26:00.742 --> 00:26:05.729
I'll do the hand thing. Right, right. But if you take those days, you're dinged.

00:26:06.158 --> 00:26:10.470
Like, you don't get written up, but it's going to affect your professionalism

00:26:10.470 --> 00:26:13.438
in this evaluation. And I was like, so wait a minute.

00:26:13.792 --> 00:26:15.731
We're given 12 and a half days.

00:26:16.433 --> 00:26:19.520
And this is, I get the flu. These are like, I don't know. And I was like,

00:26:19.520 --> 00:26:24.740
wow, but if I use these days, I'm going to be judged poorly because I used them.

00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:28.008
That kind of floored me. And then there was a thing that said,

00:26:28.345 --> 00:26:36.220
please don't schedule any trips or non-essential appointments during the school hours.

00:26:38.180 --> 00:26:42.480
I know. It's crazy. For example, like Botox. Okay.

00:26:42.921 --> 00:26:47.080
I may or may not have gotten some injectable in my 50s.

00:26:48.459 --> 00:26:52.002
Well, they're only open until five o'clock. And I like, oh, like Friday,

00:26:52.002 --> 00:26:54.282
I'm getting like a chemical pill. I do all this stuff, right?

00:26:54.982 --> 00:26:57.722
When you're in your fifties, that's what you do. Yeah, Jane,

00:26:57.722 --> 00:26:59.882
when you get there, eventually. Come on, baby.

00:27:02.562 --> 00:27:06.912
Yeah. Just like age gracefully. I'm like, I am with chemical pills and Botox.

00:27:10.924 --> 00:27:14.792
I do not. I'm like Dolly Parton. Oh, did y'all hear about Dolly Parton? Oh, yeah, we did.

00:27:14.792 --> 00:27:17.892
We're recording this. We're recording this right when we just heard. I know.

00:27:17.892 --> 00:27:23.502
What what many people yeah and what do you know how much money i spade pay to

00:27:23.502 --> 00:27:26.655
look this cheap you know yeah i'm not as rich as dolly

00:27:27.056 --> 00:27:33.862
but i can i do it i can afford she did a lot for childhood reading and and growing

00:27:33.862 --> 00:27:37.722
up in rural kentucky and the amount of books that she put in children's hands.

00:27:39.182 --> 00:27:43.152
It's something that she yeah yeah it's something that she never really beat

00:27:43.152 --> 00:27:46.492
her chest about and championed because she just wanted it to be out there but

00:27:46.492 --> 00:27:50.872
man how many kids she got to read and read books and put books in the hands

00:27:50.872 --> 00:27:53.822
of kids was just amazing so so sad,

00:27:54.742 --> 00:27:57.332
going back to where i was so like that kind of appointment or like you want

00:27:57.332 --> 00:27:59.794
to get a mani-pedi you know or whatever.

00:28:01.089 --> 00:28:07.712
You're not it says that you get we're given five personal days a year but please

00:28:07.712 --> 00:28:12.298
don't schedule any appointments during school hours well when you don't get out until four,

00:28:13.082 --> 00:28:18.138
and you know it's hard to do that yeah and i'm like do we have the days or not

00:28:18.301 --> 00:28:21.987
you know yeah right you said so is it 12 plus five,

00:28:23.020 --> 00:28:28.860
no no it is 12 hold on we get we get 12.5,

00:28:29.899 --> 00:28:37.393
in that bucket of 12.5 five of those can be personal, like no questions asked.

00:28:38.154 --> 00:28:41.631
But they can't be on a critical day. And a critical day...

00:28:42.792 --> 00:28:47.273
Is any day before a holiday. So you know how Labor Day is coming up?

00:28:48.340 --> 00:28:52.671
Now that I kind of get, because there would be no teachers there on Friday. I get that.

00:28:52.932 --> 00:28:57.553
But critical days are like, now the whole, there's a whole bunch of critical days.

00:28:58.238 --> 00:29:04.322
And so it's wise. You also said something about you have 800 hours.

00:29:04.641 --> 00:29:08.650
Okay. I have, so. So, but you were talking about days and hours.

00:29:08.650 --> 00:29:12.420
So I got a little confused there. Well, do the math. Oh, yeah. Okay.

00:29:13.020 --> 00:29:16.553
Yeah, so whatever 800 divided by 8 is, that's how many days I have.

00:29:16.860 --> 00:29:22.323
But I've been there 20 years, so I have built up a whole bunch of hours, you know.

00:29:22.555 --> 00:29:26.177
And what happens to them when you retire?

00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:31.780
I am starting to dabble, think about retirement and running the numbers.

00:29:31.780 --> 00:29:37.364
I can do one of two things. So we can retire at 30 years or if we're 60.

00:29:38.031 --> 00:29:42.540
And so either you can retire, let's say that's three months.

00:29:42.540 --> 00:29:47.858
I can retire three months early, or all that time gets rolled into my pension.

00:29:48.897 --> 00:29:51.710
Does that make sense? That is interesting. So instead of retiring,

00:29:51.710 --> 00:29:56.554
let's say I retire that exactly 30 years, I would retire at like 30 years point,

00:29:56.821 --> 00:30:00.849
three months, and I'll earn that money back. Yeah.

00:30:01.453 --> 00:30:04.878
Fair. But if you don't retire from the district, if you just leave,

00:30:05.435 --> 00:30:10.050
let's say I no longer wanted to work at my school, and I go to a different school,

00:30:10.050 --> 00:30:11.304
I lose all those hours. Yeah.

00:30:13.057 --> 00:30:20.267
Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Just for an example, we work 8.05 to 3.05. Yeah.

00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:24.566
And we have an hour prep every single day of the week. Shut up.

00:30:25.086 --> 00:30:29.909
And every other day, we have two hours. Shut up. Shut the door. No.

00:30:30.356 --> 00:30:33.836
That's what we- What about lunch? No. And a lunch. And a lunch.

00:30:33.926 --> 00:30:35.926
How long is lunch? 35 minutes?

00:30:36.386 --> 00:30:39.865
30? 30 minutes? 30 minutes. Yeah. 30 minutes. You can just suck it.

00:30:41.757 --> 00:30:46.076
I'm gonna play this episode back for joe in a couple of months when he gets

00:30:46.076 --> 00:30:52.266
the like yeah and i'm gonna be like think of miss chang and stuff yeah what me yeah.

00:30:54.915 --> 00:31:01.136
You me i'm both of us but yeah finding top tier positions or hiring great talent

00:31:01.136 --> 00:31:05.166
across new jersey shouldn't mean sifting through massive national job sites

00:31:05.486 --> 00:31:09.526
exactly hundreds of school districts throughout New Jersey advertise vacancies

00:31:09.526 --> 00:31:13.886
on njschooljobs.com, making it the absolute go-to hub for public,

00:31:13.886 --> 00:31:15.671
charter, and private school openings.

00:31:16.020 --> 00:31:19.776
From certified classroom teachers and counselors to school administrators and

00:31:19.776 --> 00:31:23.049
paraprofessionals, everything is in one centralized spot.

00:31:23.467 --> 00:31:29.830
Stop scrolling generic boards. Head over to njschooljobs.com today and see what's open near you.

00:31:30.242 --> 00:31:32.982
Head to njschooljobs.com.

00:31:35.296 --> 00:31:39.835
Yeah, you, me, both of us. Exactly. My whole team at work.

00:31:40.288 --> 00:31:44.582
Yeah, Jamie, a lot of times, just because the fact that she's certified,

00:31:45.242 --> 00:31:49.632
language arts as well, if we have a teacher that goes out on maternity leave

00:31:49.632 --> 00:31:52.852
or somebody's out for a while and it's an English teacher, she gets tapped,

00:31:52.852 --> 00:31:56.122
if available, to cover an English class.

00:31:56.122 --> 00:32:01.476
And she'll pick up a class during that time, which she will get paid for. Handsomely.

00:32:02.109 --> 00:32:07.211
Handsomely. You know what's crazy? They wanted us to teach summer school.

00:32:07.844 --> 00:32:11.812
Okay, so they send out, hey, teach summer school. And the rate that they were

00:32:11.812 --> 00:32:14.439
going to pay for summer school is less.

00:32:15.164 --> 00:32:17.962
It's a flat rate. I think I'm going to say it was like $30 something.

00:32:17.962 --> 00:32:21.332
I'm just going to say it was like $40. I think it was like $30.

00:32:21.332 --> 00:32:25.451
It was less because I've been teaching for so long than my hourly rate.

00:32:26.809 --> 00:32:27.796
Isn't it wild? Yeah.

00:32:28.793 --> 00:32:35.782
I was like, summer school, you should be paying more, at least my hourly rate that I make now. Yeah.

00:32:38.039 --> 00:32:40.872
Absolutely. I did not teach summer school. No, I, I, I, a couple of years ago,

00:32:40.872 --> 00:32:43.822
I used to teach like in a summer program, but I, a couple of years ago,

00:32:43.822 --> 00:32:46.702
I decided, you know, I need to, if I'm going to do something in the summer,

00:32:46.702 --> 00:32:51.082
it's like writing curriculum or working on. I give keynotes. Yeah.

00:32:51.588 --> 00:32:55.632
Yeah, we did stuff in district, but I can't, not that I can't work with kids,

00:32:55.632 --> 00:33:01.225
but I just choose not to because I need to be away from that because it's high energy, as we know.

00:33:01.747 --> 00:33:05.322
So, yeah. And is your wife a teacher also? Sorry, Jane, go ahead.

00:33:06.350 --> 00:33:11.157
No. No, okay. She's a corporate. She's a corporate baddie.

00:33:11.302 --> 00:33:15.476
Got it. Okay. Yeah, she works from home. Really good job.

00:33:15.962 --> 00:33:21.484
Um it is it's wild the juxtaposition of how,

00:33:22.430 --> 00:33:27.792
she's treated in her job and respected and like so many times when she's trying

00:33:27.792 --> 00:33:29.402
to like when i'm frustrated,

00:33:30.157 --> 00:33:32.862
she's trying to be a good spouse you know she's like you know trying to pet

00:33:32.862 --> 00:33:37.222
me up and i'm like you just can't relate you know i was like you have no idea,

00:33:37.702 --> 00:33:43.832
like and she's like you're right but you know yeah so she's a corporate She's super, super smart.

00:33:43.832 --> 00:33:48.453
She's an engineer, but she would be an awful teacher.

00:33:50.342 --> 00:33:53.462
She's one of those people who's so smart, but if you don't understand it,

00:33:53.462 --> 00:33:57.812
she kind of thinks you're, it's not that you're stupid, but she's just like,

00:33:57.812 --> 00:34:00.832
why don't you get this? I just told you how to do this calculus problem.

00:34:00.832 --> 00:34:02.785
Why don't you know how to do it now? I just explained it.

00:34:04.406 --> 00:34:04.602
Yeah.

00:34:06.906 --> 00:34:11.690
I'd be in a lot of trouble with her because calculus is not my speed, anything math related.

00:34:12.625 --> 00:34:14.876
Well, my son was doing fifth grade math homework. I was like,

00:34:14.876 --> 00:34:16.976
can you help him? She's like, aren't you a teacher? I was like,

00:34:16.976 --> 00:34:20.990
yeah, but we've tapped out of my math abilities. Yeah, we got to a point.

00:34:21.617 --> 00:34:25.086
You know, you also were talking about like doctors and appointments and stuff

00:34:25.086 --> 00:34:27.416
like that. And, you know, you have children.

00:34:27.781 --> 00:34:30.706
So you also have your children that have needs at certain times.

00:34:30.706 --> 00:34:35.656
Like, I always go back to my, my, and Jane, you were there, my kids were there.

00:34:35.656 --> 00:34:38.886
And, and, and Jerry, I don't know if yours are, but like the orthodontist,

00:34:38.886 --> 00:34:43.865
like the orthodontist closes at like three 30 or four o'clock.

00:34:44.365 --> 00:34:48.086
Like just stay open till seven one day a week and i know everyone would want

00:34:48.086 --> 00:34:53.546
those appointments my wife does all that because she can just block off some time yeah.

00:34:54.226 --> 00:34:57.726
Meetings because she has deliverables either these deliverables get done or

00:34:57.726 --> 00:35:01.460
they don't she's a very efficient worker very good worker so she's able to,

00:35:01.954 --> 00:35:05.856
you know block off two hours here and then get the work done later whereas we

00:35:05.856 --> 00:35:09.646
can't do that at school so i'm very fortunate in that realm,

00:35:10.150 --> 00:35:15.076
yeah and i also i some Some people that work in our field, I also feel don't

00:35:15.076 --> 00:35:19.676
under my wife also primarily works from home and don't understand like the needs

00:35:19.676 --> 00:35:20.776
of someone that works from home.

00:35:20.776 --> 00:35:23.196
It's like just because they're working from home doesn't like,

00:35:23.196 --> 00:35:26.326
you know, there were times where I was like stuck and I'm like,

00:35:26.326 --> 00:35:31.066
hey, I got to go home at this time for a half an hour to like talk to a guy

00:35:31.066 --> 00:35:33.409
about a problem I'm having with my air conditioning unit.

00:35:33.554 --> 00:35:36.406
And it's like, well, doesn't your wife work from home? I'm like, well, wait a minute.

00:35:36.786 --> 00:35:41.106
No, like I have to be there because I like she's still working like she's on

00:35:41.106 --> 00:35:44.375
calls. She's on meetings and things that have to be done.

00:35:44.659 --> 00:35:50.052
So people don't understand that world might look at that two different ways.

00:35:50.470 --> 00:35:53.706
Like she was, she was like, Oh, I have a busy day. Can you take him to this

00:35:53.706 --> 00:35:56.618
appointment? And we sort, and I'm like, yeah, we'll work it out. Mm-hmm.

00:35:57.547 --> 00:36:02.168
So, we have a segment that is a 90s throwback. I'm excited for this one.

00:36:02.354 --> 00:36:07.491
Yes. We'll have a good 90s throwback. And it's called You're So Fly. Which you are.

00:36:08.362 --> 00:36:09.776
Oh, my God. I was in college in,

00:36:11.793 --> 00:36:15.016
the 90s. And so was I. And that's why this is perfect. And we're all so happy

00:36:15.016 --> 00:36:16.350
that there were no cell phones.

00:36:16.826 --> 00:36:20.106
Yeah. Thank goodness. There were no videos. I say that all. Thank goodness there

00:36:20.106 --> 00:36:22.256
were no cell phones back then.

00:36:22.556 --> 00:36:25.533
So, we're just going to ask you some questions because you're so fly.

00:36:25.811 --> 00:36:35.272
So the first question is, what's one thing you wish that you said yes to more often? Oh.

00:36:39.905 --> 00:36:45.266
Ice cream. Oh, wow. That is the way to our, I mean, that is our love language

00:36:45.266 --> 00:36:47.504
here at the Balancing Act podcast is ice cream.

00:36:47.626 --> 00:36:50.486
What is your go-to ice cream? Would you have one? Are you a trier?

00:36:50.486 --> 00:36:53.953
Jo is a trier who tries all the things. I get the same order. I'm basic.

00:36:54.139 --> 00:36:56.060
Cookies and cream. Good for you.

00:36:57.030 --> 00:37:00.948
I'm so busy. No sprinkles, no topping. Nope, nope, nope.

00:37:01.964 --> 00:37:06.156
Joey's, Joe has a son named Joey, who is also a cookies and cream. Yes.

00:37:06.896 --> 00:37:12.206
My son has also figured out the way to, see, he'll go in and he'll try all sorts

00:37:12.206 --> 00:37:14.396
of different flavors. Like, they'll give you the little spoon.

00:37:14.396 --> 00:37:16.041
He'll be like, oh, can I try that? Can I try that?

00:37:16.471 --> 00:37:20.076
But he always gets cookies and cream anyway. It's like he just wants to try all the flavors.

00:37:21.544 --> 00:37:27.011
Smart kid, man. Smart kid. Yeah. All right. I got one for you. Okay.

00:37:27.969 --> 00:37:31.586
What is something that you are confident?

00:37:32.427 --> 00:37:36.253
Irrationally. Irrationally confident that you could be a professional at?

00:37:38.440 --> 00:37:38.664
Like.

00:37:41.285 --> 00:37:44.344
Like, what do you think you could be a pro at outside of this job?

00:37:44.344 --> 00:37:48.286
I think I'm so funny that I'm like, I could totally be a comedian.

00:37:48.431 --> 00:37:53.334
But I know that the art of being a really good comedian is like not easy.

00:37:53.334 --> 00:37:57.301
But I'm just like totally confident that I could just be a great comedian.

00:37:58.978 --> 00:38:02.944
I think so. I mean, you crack me up all the time. So I think you're already doing it.

00:38:04.444 --> 00:38:08.934
But I know the reality of that life is not as easy as it seems.

00:38:08.934 --> 00:38:12.814
Making somebody laugh in the living room is different than getting on stage

00:38:12.814 --> 00:38:15.302
and writing the material and delivering it. But yeah.

00:38:15.691 --> 00:38:20.264
Yeah. And some of the teachers in this space are now going on those little comedy

00:38:20.264 --> 00:38:22.404
tours and stuff like that. Yeah.

00:38:23.300 --> 00:38:28.104
Which is a little scary. I don't know. I'm too tired. So I could never stay

00:38:28.104 --> 00:38:31.444
up late enough for what I would imagine would be a success. That's a comedy

00:38:31.444 --> 00:38:34.388
show at like two o'clock on a Tuesday.

00:38:34.893 --> 00:38:38.484
Yeah. Or like dinner at five and in bed at seven. So, yeah, there's,

00:38:38.484 --> 00:38:39.644
there's been a couple of those.

00:38:39.964 --> 00:38:42.944
I think they had a couple in New Jersey this summer where they did like these,

00:38:42.944 --> 00:38:47.224
like, like, you know, like yacht rock parties, but they would start them at

00:38:47.224 --> 00:38:49.899
like, at like five and they're over at eight.

00:38:50.026 --> 00:38:54.254
And I'm like, yes, that's perfect. Exactly. Yeah. I went to,

00:38:54.254 --> 00:38:58.334
I went to a concert in August and the main, you know, the main band wasn't going

00:38:58.334 --> 00:39:01.491
on until eight o'clock. And I was like, oh, my God, this is going to be so long.

00:39:02.464 --> 00:39:09.258
She got kids to see Lady Gaga in May or April, and she didn't come out until 930.

00:39:09.432 --> 00:39:13.334
And no judgment to Lady Gaga. I'm sure she's going to see this podcast.

00:39:13.334 --> 00:39:14.764
Yes, she is. Absolutely.

00:39:15.464 --> 00:39:19.995
Yeah. Because when she comes out, it's a whole big ordeal.

00:39:20.896 --> 00:39:24.924
Oh, my God. I was so tired. I was just sitting down like, Lady Gaga, you got to stop singing.

00:39:25.444 --> 00:39:28.354
Can you just please play Bad Romance and not make it? And, of course,

00:39:28.354 --> 00:39:31.722
that was the encore. That was the one song my son really wanted to hear.

00:39:32.222 --> 00:39:34.404
And I was just like, oh, I was so tired.

00:39:36.638 --> 00:39:41.585
And I was like, I think my concert days are done. Too late. Yeah, I think so.

00:39:43.022 --> 00:39:47.242
I think I'm getting there. And I definitely can't do like stand in the pit concert.

00:39:47.562 --> 00:39:49.742
God, no. Like standing room only. No.

00:39:50.842 --> 00:39:54.912
No. I need a seat. I need a chair. I need a place where I can put my drink.

00:39:55.232 --> 00:39:59.062
Except if you're going to be in a chair at a concert, it's sort of like if you're

00:39:59.062 --> 00:40:02.081
in a pool, you have to be willing to get splashed.

00:40:02.187 --> 00:40:04.342
Right? Like don't get in the water if you don't want to get wet.

00:40:04.342 --> 00:40:08.252
If you're at a concert and you have a chair and someone in front of you chooses

00:40:08.252 --> 00:40:11.752
not to sit in the chair, you have to be okay with it.

00:40:11.967 --> 00:40:15.932
I agree. I was in your boat the whole time. Just don't sing to me.

00:40:15.932 --> 00:40:19.082
I just needed to, like, you stand for three hours. You got to take a break every

00:40:19.082 --> 00:40:21.582
once in a while. Sit down during the slow songs.

00:40:22.062 --> 00:40:26.647
The Indigo Girls did a free concert in Decatur. It's a neighborhood adjacent to us.

00:40:27.059 --> 00:40:30.882
And I told my wife, I was like, I just want to be in the back.

00:40:30.882 --> 00:40:32.980
And she's like, no, we're going to kind of go up front and stand.

00:40:33.218 --> 00:40:37.612
And so finally, halfway through the show, I literally sat on the ground and

00:40:37.612 --> 00:40:38.977
I'm just sitting there on the ground.

00:40:39.422 --> 00:40:42.642
I listen to the girls and there's just everybody standing all around me and

00:40:42.642 --> 00:40:45.914
I'm literally on the grass living my best life. Nice.

00:40:47.272 --> 00:40:50.906
All right, here, I have another one. If we opened your refrigerator right now,

00:40:51.335 --> 00:40:53.350
what would we find way too much of?

00:40:55.173 --> 00:40:57.710
Can y'all hear the piano in the background? That sounds great.

00:40:57.710 --> 00:41:00.860
Soothing music. We love it. Sorry, his music teacher just got here.

00:41:00.860 --> 00:41:04.720
He plays the part two, but it's piano right now. That's adorable. I love all things music.

00:41:05.200 --> 00:41:09.006
We love it. You don't need too much of my sodas. I love.

00:41:09.209 --> 00:41:12.950
I'm trying to drink soda in moderation, but I like Coke and Cherry Coke and

00:41:12.950 --> 00:41:15.734
Dr. Pepper and all that stuff. But yeah.

00:41:16.192 --> 00:41:21.560
Yes. If I drink a Diet Coke, Jamie calls it a dessert soda, which I don't know

00:41:21.560 --> 00:41:22.400
where she gets that from.

00:41:23.020 --> 00:41:25.961
It's a treat. I don't know. it's a treat to me the soda um do you think that this.

00:41:30.001 --> 00:41:37.620
Do you think that there is something about our jobs that um people have um misconceptions

00:41:37.620 --> 00:41:39.260
about so what would you say is one oh it's,

00:41:40.020 --> 00:41:44.700
so cliche like the whole summer's off you know i'm just like bite me when people

00:41:44.700 --> 00:41:49.814
are like oh it must be so nice to have summers off i'm like stop it you know because,

00:41:50.708 --> 00:41:54.430
very few educators completely stop in the summer.

00:41:54.430 --> 00:41:58.330
Some are preparing for the upcoming year, whether it's curriculum,

00:41:59.260 --> 00:42:03.430
working summer school, working, driving an Uber to make ends meet.

00:42:03.430 --> 00:42:08.380
But I mean, like me, I give keynotes all summer. I work hard. I practice my keynotes.

00:42:09.394 --> 00:42:12.743
I work throughout the summer. It's not structured.

00:42:13.958 --> 00:42:17.519
Like the school day, that's probably to me the biggest misconception.

00:42:17.519 --> 00:42:21.579
And also with elementary school teachers, people think that we're just kind

00:42:21.579 --> 00:42:24.823
of like glorified babysitters. Yeah.

00:42:25.044 --> 00:42:29.450
And it's like this one school district had a virtual day on Monday.

00:42:30.216 --> 00:42:33.729
And I get it. It can be difficult for parents, but everybody's like, what about the parents?

00:42:33.729 --> 00:42:37.469
What about the parents? And I'm like, and I do want to advocate for the parents

00:42:37.469 --> 00:42:40.979
because if you're not used to having child care, how you can get child care?

00:42:40.979 --> 00:42:45.565
But I'm like, school is not a babysitting service. Like, that's not what we are. It's school.

00:42:46.157 --> 00:42:50.569
And that's kind of like, to me, a big misconception of like elementary school

00:42:50.569 --> 00:42:53.274
that we're just kind of like babysitting these kids and goofing off.

00:42:53.877 --> 00:42:57.949
Yeah. And and I joke with friends of mine that are elementary school teachers

00:42:57.949 --> 00:42:59.159
and I'll be like, oh, what are you doing?

00:42:59.479 --> 00:43:03.199
What craft are you doing today? And but I also know, like, I have a good friend

00:43:03.199 --> 00:43:09.742
of mine who was an elementary school teacher for a while and now came to our middle school to work.

00:43:10.619 --> 00:43:14.343
And he's like this is a completely different world like he he didn't know like

00:43:14.541 --> 00:43:17.499
you know we talked about the preps and the stuff that we have but like when

00:43:17.499 --> 00:43:20.779
you come from an elementary background like there there's,

00:43:21.359 --> 00:43:26.299
so much less time and i feel no one works harder than an elementary school teacher no one yeah,

00:43:26.976 --> 00:43:31.869
yeah great for sure to to do it right of course oh and then teachers like teachers

00:43:31.869 --> 00:43:37.552
are awful like when we talk and it's just us and we're not being publicized on a podcast like.

00:43:39.639 --> 00:43:45.169
Nasty, cussing, like, inappropriate. A lot of people see me online,

00:43:45.169 --> 00:43:49.551
they're like, oh, Miss Chang, you're just so, like, innocent and sweet. And I'm like, yeah, I am.

00:43:52.394 --> 00:43:56.289
We'll just leave it at that. Yeah. Oh, that's great.

00:43:58.299 --> 00:44:01.704
I'm sure the Southern charm comes out every once in a while.

00:44:01.704 --> 00:44:03.074
Yeah, of course. Absolutely.

00:44:03.574 --> 00:44:07.000
We cannot thank you enough for joining us, Ms. Chang.

00:44:07.209 --> 00:44:11.504
Yeah, we really. This is a real goal and dream of mine. I can't believe.

00:44:11.504 --> 00:44:16.420
I still can't believe that we're here. And I appreciate you so much, Joe. I appreciate you.

00:44:17.064 --> 00:44:20.014
Same. You know, you get to meet people. Yeah.

00:44:20.634 --> 00:44:24.144
And Jerry, real quick. I mean, you get to meet people sometimes and you hope

00:44:24.144 --> 00:44:27.444
that they live up to expectations. But just sitting and talking to you for 20

00:44:27.444 --> 00:44:32.954
minutes while we were trying to stop sweating while we were in Washington, D.C., I just.

00:44:37.294 --> 00:44:42.454
Got a sense of how genuine and original and honest you are. And that just shines

00:44:42.454 --> 00:44:45.614
through in the way that you talk to other people. And everybody that came up

00:44:45.614 --> 00:44:50.734
to you, you were engaging and kind and just willing to have a conversation.

00:44:51.514 --> 00:44:57.164
It was just great to be in your presence for a day and walk around the Capitol

00:44:57.164 --> 00:44:58.494
building figuring out, why are we here?

00:45:00.034 --> 00:45:04.834
I did get a free hot dog, free M&Ms, and a free Coke. We did. Yeah, we did do that.

00:45:05.594 --> 00:45:12.901
Special tax dollars right there, America. Buying teachers M&Ms, hot dogs, and Cokes.

00:45:16.123 --> 00:45:20.034
They were also passing out shots. Did you go to the Taste of Michigan thing?

00:45:20.034 --> 00:45:23.084
I did. they had the little taste of Michigan thing and there was like a little,

00:45:23.084 --> 00:45:24.668
there was a cider beer thing.

00:45:25.068 --> 00:45:29.214
There were also shots of like vodka. I was like, are you passing out shots of vodka?

00:45:29.214 --> 00:45:31.824
She's like, yeah. I was like, no, it's like three o'clock. I don't want to do

00:45:31.824 --> 00:45:35.094
shots of vodka in the capital. Yeah, it was like cherry vodka,

00:45:35.534 --> 00:45:41.024
I think it was because Michigan is the like cherry capital of the world,

00:45:41.024 --> 00:45:43.319
which I did not know. Of the United States.

00:45:44.786 --> 00:45:48.574
So thank you very much, Ms. Chang for being willing to join us once again.

00:45:48.574 --> 00:45:52.863
We will see everybody next time on the Dallas GAC podcast. Bye.