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Welcome back to Teaching the Unteachables where we dive into teaching and learning

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methodologies for professionals like you. This episode brought to you by

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Refrigeration Training Services, teaching aids for HVACR instructors.

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Learn more at HVACteaching.com.

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Alright everyone thank you for joining us on Did You Know the ESCO HVAC

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podcast. Today we're spending time with Dick Wirz. Mr. Wirz, how are you sir?

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Fine thank you. Thanks for having me Clifton. President of Refrigeration

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Training Services LLC as well as author of Commercial Refrigeration and Air

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Conditioning Technicians, a book that is really originally designed for

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refrigeration technicians that we can both relate on, but it's more about

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helping air conditioning technicians understand that they really are

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refrigeration technicians even if they didn't think about themselves as being

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that. That's correct. So we both have a very common perspective and you have so

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much more experience with this and I think it's a great opportunity to shed

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light in because not only have you been a technician as well as an author and a

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business owner, but you're also an educator for you know 15 years at the

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Northern Virginia Community College, correct? That's correct, yes. So you've got

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a lot of experience in making that transition. I think it's very important

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for us to discuss that transition because a lot of people don't know if

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they can be a good educator. They might be a very good technician, but will they

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be a good educator? Because I know myself, I never looked at myself as an educator.

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Honestly, I thought that I was going to be a commercial refrigeration technician

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the rest of my life. I enjoyed it. It was a good career, good money, a good travel.

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It actually took a recruiter contacting me saying, you know what, I think you're a

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educator and you don't realize it. And I was like, what does that mean to be an

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educator? And I think you have a lot of input that can help people who have

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wondered that same question. I'm a great technician, but would I be a good teacher?

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So where do we begin? Well, like I tell my students the first night, it's not a

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matter of whether you will be an HVAC teacher or not. It's just when. As soon as

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you start helping an apprentice understand HVAC or refrigeration,

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whatever you're working, you are now a teacher. Now let's say that you have

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quite a bit of experience and somebody asks you to become a teacher. And the

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first thought in your mind is, do I know it well enough and how can I tell it?

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I think if you look back at what were difficulties for you and understanding

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it, that's your start to helping others understand that. I personally, when I

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started, I had already been in the industry for 35, 40 years and I thought I

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knew it all. And within the first couple of classes, I realized, darn, they're

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asking me questions I never even thought about. And so I went back to night

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schools, trade schools, manufacturer schools and so forth for two years. Then

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came back in and started teaching properly. That's how I got there. So the

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answer to the question, does a good technician make a good teacher? Yes and

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no. Yes, they have the knowledge. No, they need to refine it and understand what

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the students needs are and take care of those needs. The worst thing that we can

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do is stand up there and pretend that we know it all. And I, one time in my early

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career, I said something that was BS and I kicked myself in the butt after class

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and I said to myself, I'm never gonna do that again. And from then on, it was, if I

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didn't know the answer, I said, I don't know that answer. I'll find out. I'll get

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back to you. And I got back to every one of my students and even in my

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evaluations, the students said, you are the first instructor who ever said, I'll

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get back to you and did. And I think that's so important that we learn right

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along with our students. So I take the information that I learned with every

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class and I keep building on it and building on building on. And I think

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that's what makes great instructors. I do too. You know, when I when I did make

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that transition out of the field into the classroom, that was back in 2018. And

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that I kind of struggled my first year, honestly. You know, like my first day of

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class. Now I was working for a local distributor that had a, you know, a

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variety of HVAC training classes. A lot of the content was ESCO Institute

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content and I had these good resources but then I was expected to create new

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resources, to create new trainings. And it was really difficult, like learning how

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to build curriculum. So I was advised to go to this conference for HVAC

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educators on the National HVACR Education Conference. And that was in 2019.

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And when I got there, I realized that there are many people with the exact same

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struggle. They come out of the field. They they're good at what they do. They're

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really good at fixing things. But the classroom is a whole different

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environment. And finding the resources and finding books like the Commercial

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technician that really is not just about

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being a refrigeration technician or an air conditioning technician. It's about

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understanding the principles and being able to communicate them better. And it's

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those kind of resources that changes us from just being a technician that can

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explain the things that we've learned to someone who can explain the things that

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we learned to someone so that they understand them. And boy that's a

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threshold to get past. Well it is. And depending on the class that you're

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teaching. Are you teaching a night class at a community college? Are you teaching

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a seminar at a distributor? It all depends on what and who you're teaching.

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So when you're asked to teach, first off you have to figure out, okay who am I

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teaching and at what level are they and what is it that I want to teach them? Now

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in college setting that would be easy. You start out with the basics.

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Refrigeration 101, whatever it is, you work your way up. But keep in mind I

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thought I was a little different in that I was very visual. And people talking to

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me would not get through as much as if they showed me a picture or showed me a

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valve and things like that. Most of our technicians are very visual people.

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They're hands-on people. So that's the way we need to teach them. Our classroom

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has got to be full of items that we can pick up, give them, let them handle. If

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you've got a lab program that's fantastic. But even in the lecture

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program it's got to be visual. And you have to pace it and make sure that

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everybody's right along with you. Now I found out early that when I was writing

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on the blackboard or the whiteboard I was usually saying the same thing,

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drawing the same thing. And eventually we came up with powerpoints that work, that

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were animated and so forth. And that way I could turn around and I could be

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talking to the students while they were watching this animation. And I could see

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in their eyes whether they were getting it or whether they weren't. And the ones

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who were not getting it, I would ask them, what is it that you're having problems

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with here? Now not only would I answer his question, but that was my way as an

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instructor making sure next time I taught that particular class that I

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covered that. It's very progressive isn't it, becoming an educator? Oh my gosh

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yes. And every evening after class I took five minutes to write down what worked

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and what didn't work. I did find something that was really neat as far as

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I never had a problem with students coming in late. I told them in the

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Washington DC area you have a lot of traffic and everybody knows that. And I

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don't want you to be here at five o'clock when we're supposed to start. I

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want you here at 445. Sure. And at five o'clock I give a ten question multiple

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choice quiz on what we had in the class before. Oh great idea. And if you are here

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on time you've got ten minutes to take that. And if you're not here then you

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have to take it at the break, you know, if you come in late. And then I take off

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one grade. Oh there you go. And I had no problem in 15 years with attendance and

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the other instructors are like how do you do it? Yeah. I told them it seems easy but

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also I was preparing them for class. I was getting their mind going. Yeah.

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They're coming in from working all day long. They're tired. They've had traffic

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to go through and I'm giving them something to get their mind engaged and

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everything engaged so that we can start learning. Well and it's repetition. You

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know one of the most important things in life is a repetition is having some type

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of a sequence that we get used to. And so if you're starting that class out

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every time with a consistency then it becomes part of their routine and then

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it just gets embedded as a requirement for their daily tasks because they now

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understand it as a requirement and not as an optional item. I absolutely love

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that idea. Especially utilizing the timing. Sure you're going to be late but

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understand that when you're going to be late you're not going to do as well as

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you would if you were here. You're still going to do it but you're going to have

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some consequences for that. I mean that's just a life lesson in general

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that is a something that we do a lot of. You know we're not just educators. We're

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also like life coaches and mentors for young minds and that's a fantastic way

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to start a classroom. Well also I tell them on the first night of class that I'm

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not here to fail them. Yeah. I'm here then to teach them about

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refrigeration or whatever electrical that I'm teaching and I'm going to do

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everything I can to make sure that they succeed. So I give those quizzes and we

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have homework so I'll make sure they're keeping up with it and I make them

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accountable for what they're doing. Now we did have five hour classes. Half were

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lecture and half were lab and I did give a break every 50 minutes in class which

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was very important and even sometimes when I realized that it was a subject

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that people were having trouble with or just boring or whatever I would have a

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break quicker. Let's have a 10-minute break and let's get our act together or

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let's go down to the lab and go over this now. So keeping them engaged those

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evening classes are tough on everybody and we have to realize that. Yeah even

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ourselves because many of us that become specially adjunct educators you're still

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working full-time jobs and then coming to class just like your students. So

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everyone is having a long day at that point and so that consistency and

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understanding what the time schedule is going to be and knowing that it is

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flexible depending on the curriculum but having a sequence for us to continue at

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every class becomes very necessary for having a quality instruction. Right and

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the the PowerPoints that I use most of them are animated and so forth. I had

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gave out handouts for them so they could follow along and make notes on it and so

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each of my handout what took slick slides and there was enough space on

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there that they could jot down the notes and so forth. Just about all of their

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quizzes came from those notes. So in other words it's easy to get an A on a

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quiz just look at what we did last week on the handouts that I gave you.

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Make it easy, make it understanding and also if you have a chapter in a book

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pick out the important things that you want them to understand. You don't

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necessarily have to go through the whole chapter piece by piece. That's boring.

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Right I kind of ran on that same philosophy is I would take a chapter and

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typically we would see even in our bigger books you know if we would take

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a chapter we're typically going to find five or six key points within that

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chapter and they're almost all designed that way so that we have main items that

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we're going to be covering and if you go back and typically even looking through

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you know our summaries of each chapters we can see what a lot of those are. So

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keeping that consistency on those primary points of each chapter giving

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them a resource for restudying because a lot of times they're going to be doing

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their studying at home like they get a little bit of a break in the evening or

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during the day at lunch they might want to regroup on the the topics that were

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important out of that particular chapter. So I'm the same way I

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think it's very important to stress the the key topics of each chapter and then

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build the assessments based off from those key topics as well. Yeah and I think

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instructors have to be a little bit like actors. We have to you know make it

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interesting and fun and you don't have to be a jokester but there are some

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things that are funny about what has happened but I want to stress the point

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that don't give a whole bunch of examples of what you did when you were a

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technician. Some people blow that up to maybe a little bit of chest pounding

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others are being very I don't know they they're allowing others to know what

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mistakes they've made but only those mistakes that are key to something that

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these students might possibly do that could hurt them. Yeah absolutely the

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safety aspects. So we have to watch the the story time but we do have to make it

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interesting and keep it moving keep it moving. Okay as far as being enthusiastic

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I remember that I was very passionate in my first class every semester. I wanted

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to show them how exciting this this topic can be this and this education and

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what it can do for them and I'm one of these instructors who walks the class

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and if I notice somebody dozing a little bit I put my hand on the shoulder

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whatever but I enjoy that interaction and on one first night I'm going on and

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on and I took a breath and one student in the back of room said preach it

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brother preach it and the class just cracked up. I cracked up and I said yeah

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I'm here preaching the gospel of Revejuration and that's the way I look

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at it. I'm trying to show them and tell them how exciting this can be and what

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what a fantastic opportunity it can be and I think if we get off on that kind

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of footing from the very first night I think the rest of the semester or the

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rest of the training is just gonna be beautiful. Yeah I completely agree. My

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wife likes to say that I am very dramatic I just like to say that I'm

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very passionate with my education. Whatever works. Exactly and I'm the same way if we

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can keep that interaction alive in the classroom it just helps bring the

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atmosphere into a place of paying attention it's almost like going to a

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movie like go into a theater go into a play when we have actual physical

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interaction as well as the audible interaction we just seem to connect much

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better. I like to I like to watch Ty Braneman in class because he gets very

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animated and he does a lot of hands-on demonstrations and I think that's

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important to do for all of us as educators is to be interactive. We don't

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have to be a jokester but boy we can absolutely have fun and bring that

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message across the line when we're passionate about what we're doing and we

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don't have to go too deep you're right we can very easily overextend ourselves

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into the conversation and show ourselves a little bit too much in the

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perspective versus showing the actual demonstration. It's easy for us to

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build ourselves up as technicians when we're educators when in actuality we want

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to simplify it down to be able to get the message across and those hands-on

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demonstrations those interactions those very simple hey I have broken one of

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these in the field before. Have you got an idea of how I can do that and hand

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an apart over to a student and allow them to interact with the conversation?

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I think it's very very important. Yes it is and one last thing that I was

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thinking about is helping them to understand why they are learning either a

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specific course or a specific thing about it. For instance you know why are

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we under trying to understand superheat, subcooling, these types of things how are

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they important to us because if we just teach them all these fancy concepts and

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don't relate them to how they're going to be using them later on I think we

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miss the boat. Yeah I do too. Good representation is part of the key of

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teaching the technician because you're right we're all very much visual

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learners. Right for sure. Mr. Wurz I really appreciate this conversation and

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I look forward to many other topics and for our audience I highly encourage you

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to think about some of the items that you struggle with. As a technician

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becoming an educator we have a variety of things that we're going to have to

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learn new skill sets right it's a new tool for our tool bag. That's all it is

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it's just a different type of tool. So think about some of those topics that

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you would like covered better. It could be how do I build a PowerPoint

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presentation? How do I do a hands-on demonstration that's related to the

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topic as well as the presentation? How do I make this conversation more

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interactive? How do I discipline students? There are so many things we could talk

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about. So in the comments leave us some ideas and Mr. Wurz and I will come back

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and we'll do some follow-up conversations. Sound like a good idea?

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Sounds great. Mr. Wurz I appreciate you so much for joining us today I look

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forward to some future conversations as we try to help encourage technicians to

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become those educators that they never really thought that they were but in all

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actuality they have been doing for a long time so we thank you very much for

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joining us today. Thanks for having me I appreciate it.